Star Wars Comic No. 1 Hoard 0

[Dr Chaos]

I have 100 Star Wars No. 1 Comics

They're all at CGC at this time for slabbing.

Anyone have any advice or comments regarding the liquidation of this hoard ?

Obviously I'm looking to capitalize on the release of the new movie coming out in December. But I dont know how to go about it without overwhelming the market with one hundred issues in fresh mint condition. Or am I overthinking it and the marketplace is big enough to absorb all of them without effecting the prices ?

What do you guys think ?

The first rule of the Star Wars comic hoard is you do not talk about the Star Wars comic hoard.

[CKB]

Between you me and the wall.. I think submitting 100 similar books to any grading company at one time is not too wise an idea.. I doubt he would get 10 9.8's backs... And thats wishful thinking

Just my 2 cents

 

Well, they should be pre-screen invoices. Then you could send in 100, get 10 9.8s back, send in 90, get 9-10 9.8s back...etc. But I wouldn't want the wall to give out any bad advice... :-)

 

I think sending in the 20 best at a high tier was a great move, sending in the other 80 slow-track, not so much.

 

If it was me trying to plan a course of action from this point forward, which would mostly be correcting the big mistakes that have been made already....the first thing I would do is contact the mods and try to have this thread completely pulled, poofed, pulverized, poo-poo'd, disappeared, forgotten, lost. Because there was no bigger mistake than making it in the first place.

 

 

 

[lou_fine]

Just a guess, but I have a feeling that none of his books is going grade above 9.0.

One owner for 38 years who never read them seems like they should be in high grade.

 

If they were bought and distributed the way most newsstand copies were distributed at the time, actually, several of them would NOT be in high grade because of the way they would have been bound.

 

Nobody else has doubts about the story though? Bought for 24 cents each, sold three weeks afterwards (before the movie came out if this is true) for $3, etc.

 

 

Well, based upon an earlier post from the original poster as seen below, it clearly states that the books came from a comic distributor as opposed to a general newsstand distributor:

 

I ordered 500 through a comic book distributor, and i got a break on the price because of the qty. I paid 24 cents each.

 

Yes, general newsstand distributors would normally bound their shipments with wire, but comic book distributors would normally send out their comic books in 100-count boxes.

 

Would the 24 cents price received for a 30 cents retail comic book not be more than what a comic distributor would normally receive anyways, as this amount appears to be more in line with what a general newsstand distributor would receive.

 

I would not be at all surprised if a good portion of them slabs out above 9.0; although I certainly don't think that sending in 100 copies at one time is conducive for you to receive any type of break when it comes to CGC grading. In fact, I somehow feel that CGC would be rather incentivized to keep the census count down on the number of uber HG copies of this book.

Edited July 12, 2015 by lou_fine

[Jaydogrules]

Star Wars 1 was a massively hoarded book since Day One, and every hobbyist knows that. Anyone paying more than $700-800 for a 9.8 copy needs to have their head examined.

 

 

This.

 

Are the two of you sure about this?

 

I remember the Star Wars comic book did not catch on until issue #3 was out or around the time the movie debuted. I remember Star Wars #1 were already going for $10 or more at the time.

 

If there was any hoarding done, it was probably not done by the collectors of the day. Sure, there were more copies available in the marketplace afterwards, but these were most likely from unsold initial returns sitting in the distributor's warehouses which were now being actively hunted down.

 

 

This was probably one of the first "off the shelf" books to go up in price like that so quickly and was most likely one of the first books to start the subsequent hoarding that would become commonplace with Modern books.

 

Anybody remember Dazzler #1, now that was a really hoarded book.

 

Yes we're sure.

 

Star Wars 1 is not a "rare" book.

 

It was bought and stored in hoards as the movie was an immediate success. As many like to say on these boards, "it is as common as dirt".

 

-J

 

[Mike's Rack]

Star Wars 1 was a massively hoarded book since Day One, and every hobbyist knows that. Anyone paying more than $700-800 for a 9.8 copy needs to have their head examined.

 

 

This.

 

Are the two of you sure about this?

 

I remember the Star Wars comic book did not catch on until issue #3 was out or around the time the movie debuted. I remember Star Wars #1 were already going for $10 or more at the time.

 

If there was any hoarding done, it was probably not done by the collectors of the day. Sure, there were more copies available in the marketplace afterwards, but these were most likely from unsold initial returns sitting in the distributor's warehouses which were now being actively hunted down.

 

 

This was probably one of the first "off the shelf" books to go up in price like that so quickly and was most likely one of the first books to start the subsequent hoarding that would become commonplace with Modern books.

 

Anybody remember Dazzler #1, now that was a really hoarded book.

 

Yes we're sure.

 

Star Wars 1 is not a "rare" book.

 

It was bought and stored in hoards as the movie was an immediate success. As many like to say on these boards, "it is as common as dirt".

 

-J

I wasn't around back then and I have no beef I this argument but it seems odd to me that it would have been heavily speculated on since the book came out several months before the movie and the movie was not expected to be a huge hit. The book is not rare by any means but it was reprinted countless times, which make me suspect the first printing was not exceptionally huge. I would expect the print run to be similar to Logan's Run and Battlestar Galactica.

[Designer Toast]

[Real Elijah Snow]

It would be pretty cool to see a pic of whatever ones you have that haven't been subbed. Hoard pics are always fun.

[joe_collector]

[i wasn't around back then and I have no beef I this argument but it seems odd to me that it would have been heavily speculated on since the book came out several months before the movie and the movie was not expected to be a huge hit.

 

Although initially Star Wars was not considered to be a major release, but once the previews and pre-release response came in, they knew it was a "crowd pleaser" but had no idea it would break every box office record imaginable.

 

Star Wars was much like a previous Lucas film, American Graffiti, whereby the studio didn't feel it was a major release (they were even thinking of shelving it and selling it back to FFC), but once the preview audiences saw it, the film exploded and the studio heads started singing a different tune. Then it was released theatrically and made bank.

 

I knew about Star Wars well before its release, Marvel knew about Star Wars (Stan saw the movie and highly praised/promoted it on BB), and it was hyped before the comic book came out. Although I only bought 1 copy of SW 1-4, some of my friends bought a pile, just like PPSSM 1, MM 1, Nova 1, etc. This book is out there in mass quantities - just look at how many 35-cent variants of SW #1 are available compared to any other issue, and that should tell you something about the print run.

[joe_collector]

BTW. it's commonly stated that Star Wars #1 comic came out "several months" before the movie, but I don't remember it that way, and at least for me, it was very close. I think the Star Wars #1 hit the shelves slightly before the movie, but I don't believe it was "several months" as I remember waiting for issues 2-4 to come out, and I had already seen the movie.

 

Star Wars #1 has a cover date of July 1977, which if you back-dated it the usual 2 months, would make the shelf date May 1977, the same time as the Star Wars movie release. That's about how I remember it.

[Mike's Rack]

[i wasn't around back then and I have no beef I this argument but it seems odd to me that it would have been heavily speculated on since the book came out several months before the movie and the movie was not expected to be a huge hit.

 

Although initially Star Wars was not considered to be a major release, but once the previews and pre-release response came in, they knew it was a "crowd pleaser" but had no idea it would break every box office record imaginable.

 

Star Wars was much like a previous Lucas film, American Graffiti, whereby the studio didn't feel it was a major release (they were even thinking of shelving it and selling it back to FFC), but once the preview audiences saw it, the film exploded and the studio heads started singing a different tune. Then it was released theatrically and made bank.

 

I knew about Star Wars well before its release, Marvel knew about Star Wars (Stan saw the movie and highly praised/promoted it on BB), and it was hyped before the comic book came out. Although I only bought 1 copy of SW 1-4, some of my friends bought a pile, just like PPSSM 1, MM 1, Nova 1, etc. This book is out there in mass quantities - just look at how many 35-cent variants of SW #1 are available compared to any other issue, and that should tell you something about the print run.

Thanks for the info Joe, the relative amount of the .35 variant would seem to be a good indicator of the print run.

[CatskillMike]

What I remember, back when the book hit the stands(whenever that was exactly I don't remember), the original prints went fast around where I lived, and I believe we knew about the movie already. About a week later we tried to get ,ore copies off the stands, and they were all gone. Then shortly thereafter the reprints came out and we pounced on those, not aware at the time they were indeed, reprints. I was only about 14 years old.

 

At least that's how my fuzzy brain remembers it.

[FlyingDonut]

BTW. it's commonly stated that Star Wars #1 comic came out "several months" before the movie, but I don't remember it that way, and at least for me, it was very close. I think the Star Wars #1 hit the shelves slightly before the movie, but I don't believe it was "several months" as I remember waiting for issues 2-4 to come out, and I had already seen the movie.

 

Star Wars #1 has a cover date of July 1977, which if you back-dated it the usual 2 months, would make the shelf date May 1977, the same time as the Star Wars movie release. That's about how I remember it.

 

Release date for Star Wars 1 was Friday, April 15, 1977. Two and a half weeks.

[lou_fine]

Star Wars 1 was a massively hoarded book since Day One, and every hobbyist knows that. Anyone paying more than $700-800 for a 9.8 copy needs to have their head examined.

 

 

This.

 

Are the two of you sure about this?

 

I remember the Star Wars comic book did not catch on until issue #3 was out or around the time the movie debuted. I remember Star Wars #1 were already going for $10 or more at the time.

 

If there was any hoarding done, it was probably not done by the collectors of the day. Sure, there were more copies available in the marketplace afterwards, but these were most likely from unsold initial returns sitting in the distributor's warehouses which were now being actively hunted down.

 

 

This was probably one of the first "off the shelf" books to go up in price like that so quickly and was most likely one of the first books to start the subsequent hoarding that would become commonplace with Modern books.

 

Anybody remember Dazzler #1, now that was a really hoarded book.

 

Yes we're sure.

 

Star Wars 1 is not a "rare" book.

 

It was bought and stored in hoards as the movie was an immediate success. As many like to say on these boards, "it is as common as dirt".

 

-J

 

Jay;

 

In my earlier response, nowhere at all did I say or even implied that SW 1 was "rare". In fact, nothing published by Marvel would even come close to being rare as the definition of rare in this hobby is less than 20 copies in existence.

 

What I am questioning is your timeline as you seem to imply that SW 1 was being hoarded by the collectors since the movie was a success. You do realize that SW 1 was on sale almost 2 months before the release of the movie. In fact, even SW 2 was on sale for almost a month before the movie's release. So, if the movie's success was the driving force for collectors to hoard the Star Wars books, this could not be pre-emptively" done until SW 3 which hit the shelves about 2 weeks after the release of the movie.

 

It would have been pretty hard for collectors to go back and hoard something 2 months after it had already been released, with copies already sold to initial customers, and unsold copies either retained as back issues by the comic shops or returned to the distributors by the stores.

 

I clearly remember the comic shops stating that they would attempt to place a reorder with their distributors after the movie had come out, but could not guarantee if they were going to be successful at acquiring any copies. Looks like some of them were successful or smart enough to pull it off their back stock because a few of the stores did have them for sale after the movie, but at something like $10 a pop.

 

So yes, definitely a book that is "as common as dirt" just like any other Marvel book, but certainly no mass pre-emptive hoarding by the collectors of the day from what I could see.

[rjrjr]

[i wasn't around back then and I have no beef I this argument but it seems odd to me that it would have been heavily speculated on since the book came out several months before the movie and the movie was not expected to be a huge hit.

 

Although initially Star Wars was not considered to be a major release, but once the previews and pre-release response came in, they knew it was a "crowd pleaser" but had no idea it would break every box office record imaginable.

 

Star Wars was much like a previous Lucas film, American Graffiti, whereby the studio didn't feel it was a major release (they were even thinking of shelving it and selling it back to FFC), but once the preview audiences saw it, the film exploded and the studio heads started singing a different tune. Then it was released theatrically and made bank.

 

I knew about Star Wars well before its release, Marvel knew about Star Wars (Stan saw the movie and highly praised/promoted it on BB), and it was hyped before the comic book came out. Although I only bought 1 copy of SW 1-4, some of my friends bought a pile, just like PPSSM 1, MM 1, Nova 1, etc. This book is out there in mass quantities - just look at how many 35-cent variants of SW #1 are available compared to any other issue, and that should tell you something about the print run.

Thanks for the info Joe, the relative amount of the .35 variant would seem to be a good indicator of the print run.

 

I always thought the number of $0.35 variants for Star Wars #1 being relatively higher than the other $0.35 variants had more to do with them being known about and broken out in the Overstreet long before the other $0.35 variants. So there was more time for them to be saved from the ravages of time.

Edited July 12, 2015 by rjrjr

[rjrjr]

BTW. it's commonly stated that Star Wars #1 comic came out "several months" before the movie, but I don't remember it that way, and at least for me, it was very close. I think the Star Wars #1 hit the shelves slightly before the movie, but I don't believe it was "several months" as I remember waiting for issues 2-4 to come out, and I had already seen the movie.

 

Star Wars #1 has a cover date of July 1977, which if you back-dated it the usual 2 months, would make the shelf date May 1977, the same time as the Star Wars movie release. That's about how I remember it.

 

Release date for Star Wars 1 was Friday, April 15, 1977. Two and a half weeks.

 

 

From the Charles Lippencott blog, the plans were to have Star Wars #1 and 2 released before the movie and Star Wars #3 was on the stands the same week the movie came out:

 

"Our deal with Marvel was that two issues had to be out by the time the film opened on May 25, 1977, with the third issue coming out the week the film opened."

 

http://therealcharleslippincott.blogspot.com/2015/04/marvel-star-wars-comics-part-4.html

 

Due to the peculiarities of the newsstand distribution process, I can believe issue #1 and #2 had come out by the time the movie was out.

[rjrjr]

Star Wars 1 was a massively hoarded book since Day One, and every hobbyist knows that. Anyone paying more than $700-800 for a 9.8 copy needs to have their head examined.

 

 

This.

 

Are the two of you sure about this?

 

I remember the Star Wars comic book did not catch on until issue #3 was out or around the time the movie debuted. I remember Star Wars #1 were already going for $10 or more at the time.

 

If there was any hoarding done, it was probably not done by the collectors of the day. Sure, there were more copies available in the marketplace afterwards, but these were most likely from unsold initial returns sitting in the distributor's warehouses which were now being actively hunted down.

 

 

This was probably one of the first "off the shelf" books to go up in price like that so quickly and was most likely one of the first books to start the subsequent hoarding that would become commonplace with Modern books.

 

Anybody remember Dazzler #1, now that was a really hoarded book.

 

Yes we're sure.

 

Star Wars 1 is not a "rare" book.

 

It was bought and stored in hoards as the movie was an immediate success. As many like to say on these boards, "it is as common as dirt".

 

-J

 

Jay;

 

In my earlier response, nowhere at all did I say or even implied that SW 1 was "rare". In fact, nothing published by Marvel would even come close to being rare as the definition of rare in this hobby is less than 20 copies in existence.

 

What I am questioning is your timeline as you seem to imply that SW 1 was being hoarded by the collectors since the movie was a success. You do realize that SW 1 was on sale almost 2 months before the release of the movie. In fact, even SW 2 was on sale for almost a month before the movie's release. So, if the movie's success was the driving force for collectors to hoard the Star Wars books, this could not be pre-emptively" done until SW 3 which hit the shelves about 2 weeks after the release of the movie.

 

It would have been pretty hard for collectors to go back and hoard something 2 months after it had already been released, with copies already sold to initial customers, and unsold copies either retained as back issues by the comic shops or returned to the distributors by the stores.

 

I clearly remember the comic shops stating that they would attempt to place a reorder with their distributors after the movie had come out, but could not guarantee if they were going to be successful at acquiring any copies. Looks like some of them were successful or smart enough to pull it off their back stock because a few of the stores did have them for sale after the movie, but at something like $10 a pop.

 

So yes, definitely a book that is "as common as dirt" just like any other Marvel book, but certainly no mass pre-emptive hoarding by the collectors of the day from what I could see.

 

I believe you are correct about this. Star Wars #1 was NOT printed in the same numbers as an Amazing Spider-Man issue, Marvel's top seller at the time, but it also wasn't printed with just 100,000 issues as I've heard some say. 250,000 - 300,000 copies seems like a good estimate for the 1st print run.

 

Why everyone thinks this comic is so numerous is because of all the reprints (it went back to print 4 times) and because it was a comic that was valued immediately, so many, many copies were saved in nice condition.

 

Honestly, there are many Marvel comics from this era that are easily found in high grade. I'm guessing the collector mentality of saving comics in nice condition happened several years before Star Wars #1 came out and Star Wars was just one of those comics that benefited from the practice.

Edited July 12, 2015 by rjrjr

[lou_fine]

BTW. it's commonly stated that Star Wars #1 comic came out "several months" before the movie, but I don't remember it that way, and at least for me, it was very close. I think the Star Wars #1 hit the shelves slightly before the movie, but I don't believe it was "several months" as I remember waiting for issues 2-4 to come out, and I had already seen the movie.

 

Star Wars #1 has a cover date of July 1977, which if you back-dated it the usual 2 months, would make the shelf date May 1977, the same time as the Star Wars movie release. That's about how I remember it.

 

Release date for Star Wars 1 was Friday, April 15, 1977. Two and a half weeks.

 

Actually, if you check Google, it is relatively easy to find out the shipped dates and on-sale dates for the Star Wars comic book, which are as follows:

 

1) Star Wars #1 had a shipped date of March 8th and an on-sale date of April 12th;

 

2) Star Wars #2 had a shipped date of April 12th and an on-sale date of May 10th; while

 

3) Star Wars #3 had a shipped date of May 10th and an on-sale date of June 7th.

 

Since the Star Wars movie was not released until May 25th, this means that the first 2 issues were already out on the newsstand well prior to the movie's release. With a shipped date of May 10th for SW 3, this means that comic shops probably did not increase their initial orders for the Star Wars comic book due to the popularity of the movie until issue #4.

Edited July 12, 2015 by lou_fine

[kav]

BTW. it's commonly stated that Star Wars #1 comic came out "several months" before the movie, but I don't remember it that way, and at least for me, it was very close. I think the Star Wars #1 hit the shelves slightly before the movie, but I don't believe it was "several months" as I remember waiting for issues 2-4 to come out, and I had already seen the movie.

 

Star Wars #1 has a cover date of July 1977, which if you back-dated it the usual 2 months, would make the shelf date May 1977, the same time as the Star Wars movie release. That's about how I remember it.

 

Release date for Star Wars 1 was Friday, April 15, 1977. Two and a half weeks.

 

Actually, if you check Google, it is relatively easy to find out the shipped dates and on-sale dates for the Star Wars comic book, which are as follows:

 

1) Star Wars #1 had a shipped date of March 8th and an on-sale date of April 12th;

 

2) Star Wars #2 had a shipped date of April 12th and an on-sale date of May 10th; while

 

3) Star Wars #3 had a shipped date of May 10th and an on-sale date of June 7th.

 

Since the Star Wars movie was not released until May 25th, this means that the first 2 issues were already out on the newsstand well prior to the movie's release. With a shipped date of May 10th for SW 3, this means that comic shops probably did not increase their initial orders for the Star Wars comic book due to the popularity of the movie until issue #4.

 

Yep I clearly remember having read the first 2 issues when I went to the premiere so knew much of the plot although it as way differents seeing the movie.

[lou_fine]

Why everyone thinks this comic is so numerous is because of all the reprints (it went back to print 4 times) and because it was a comic that was valued immediately, so many, many copies were saved in nice condition.

 

 

+1

 

Exactly right!

 

Like JC, I only kept one copy of the initial print run for the first 6 issues of the run. Unfortunately for me, I kept them in a closet with an adjacent wall which had a bathroom tub on the other side. Never got around to recaulking the tub and as a result, ended up with some water damage on these issues.

 

Should had listened to my wife who had nagged me for years to recaulk the tub.

 

[spidermanbeyond]

Thanks for the link. Great read.