Longest running title with an absence of $5 books

[Brother J]

Saw Cerebus mentioned several times, the original post asked to name runs of books you wouldn't pay $5 a piece for. If someone wants to sell me decent condition copies of Cerebus #2-20 for $5 a book or less, I'm buying!

[SquareChaos]

Saw Cerebus mentioned several times, the original post asked to name runs of books you wouldn't pay $5 a piece for. If someone wants to sell me decent condition copies of Cerebus #2-20 for $5 a book or less, I'm buying!

 

If you read through you'll see OP changed the title. It's a bit confusing now. Originally it was "longest run with no keys".

[lou_fine]

I came up with pretty much any Legion of Superheroes title since 1980 (#259). There are basically 35+ years of Legion books that I would be hard pressed to buy out of anything more than $1 box.

 

Oh, come on, that's not nice!

 

I used to love the early Legion books from the 60's. I believe the run from #259 through to #313 must be one of the only consecutive runs which I have in my collection.

 

Now that I think about it, I also believe I have the Marvel Knights Daredevil run from issue #1 right through to issue #100.

[EwanUK]

When selling collections, I find there's always buyers for longish consecutive runs - and for reasonable $2-$4 per comic - including things like Legion or the modern JL titles - and certainly titles like Hulk or Wonder Woman

 

The only two titles (of reasonable quality) I've had long runs are but not a sniff on ebay were

 

Dreadstar

Savage Dragon

 

Early 1990s Image & Malibu comics are the most valueless, best just to give them away I find

[Gatsby77]

What I'm getting from this thread is that there's roughly 200 books out there of drek for every key. Yippee!

 

This is why I prefer GA where everything is either key or so wildly over the top that people want it anyway.

 

More like 2000:1

 

This - I remember a statistic a few years back where someone noted you could fit every major Marvel/DC comic since 1980 worth $10 or more in a long box.

 

Also in the early 1990s I think it was Keith Contario who noted in an overstreet Update that if you had bought every issue of Incredible Hulk # 105 to present (about 370 or so) at cover price, you'd have lost money.

 

And that's counting that Hulk 181 was then a $300 book.

[AJD]

Are any of the last 500+ issues of Four Color Comics worth anything?

 

They're even 50+ years old!

 

There are plenty I'd pay more than $5 for after #850. Three Peanuts books, Barks ducks of several different titles, Twilight Zone, John Wayne movie titles... And some of the later ones are tough books to find for the completist. But, yeah, there's a lot of pretty ordinary books in that run too.

[1950's war comics]

Sgt Fury, if not mentioned already, has no keys worth mentioning after #1.....

e

 

I would count 5 (first Baron Strucker) as well.

 

Baron who ? ?

[lou_fine]

What I'm getting from this thread is that there's roughly 200 books out there of drek for every key. Yippee!

 

This is why I prefer GA where everything is either key or so wildly over the top that people want it anyway.

 

More like 2000:1

 

This - I remember a statistic a few years back where someone noted you could fit every major Marvel/DC comic since 1980 worth $10 or more in a long box.

 

Also in the early 1990s I think it was Keith Contario who noted in an overstreet Update that if you had bought every issue of Incredible Hulk # 105 to present (about 370 or so) at cover price, you'd have lost money.

 

And that's counting that Hulk 181 was then a $300 book.

 

Yes, if you are talking about MA books, I would say that the 2000:1 ratio might even be low at that.

 

The point to remember, however, is that MA comic books is really only a consumable that is brought for your enjoyment and any increase in value should be considered as an unexpected bonus.

 

Although vintage books can also be brought for enjoyment purposes (depending upon condition), you should also factor in the investment angle and be much more selective due to the higher price point for the book. You cannot afford to buy just anything when it comes to the pricier vintage books. Cherry picking and luck is critical here when building your collection.

[lou_fine]

Saw Cerebus mentioned several times, the original post asked to name runs of books you wouldn't pay $5 a piece for. If someone wants to sell me decent condition copies of Cerebus #2-20 for $5 a book or less, I'm buying!

 

I would most definitely not include Cerebus in this conversation here. Okay, maybe for the last 275 issues of this title, but definitely not for the first 25 issues or so.

 

I was able to luck into a pretty well Mint run of Cerebus 1 - 12 from a local comic shop owner that was closing down his business about 25 years ago. Beautiful copies as they were from his personal collection which he had cherry picked when they came into his store.

 

Unfortunately, issue #1 had the usual spine ticks, albeit less than other copies I've seen on the internet. This seems to be a production issue with this particular book, so I am not sure how much of a factor this comes into play in terms of CGC grading. Hopefully, less of an impact as compared to other normal books with small spine ticks.

[Hey Kids, Comics!]

I came up with pretty much any Legion of Superheroes title since 1980 (#259). There are basically 35+ years of Legion books that I would be hard pressed to buy out of anything more than $1 box.

 

Oh, come on, that's not nice!

 

I used to love the early Legion books from the 60's. I believe the run from #259 through to #313 must be one of the only consecutive runs which I have in my collection.

 

Now that I think about it, I also believe I have the Marvel Knights Daredevil run from issue #1 right through to issue #100.

 

The problem with Legion fans (much like those who like Westerns) is that they are GENERALLY older, have been collecting forever, and have most of the issues that they want. There don't seem to be any new readers/collectors of Legion titles and this is why they're REALLY hard to sell for me unless they're in $1 boxes.

[Hey Kids, Comics!]

What I'm getting from this thread is that there's roughly 200 books out there of drek for every key. Yippee!

 

This is why I prefer GA where everything is either key or so wildly over the top that people want it anyway.

 

More like 2000:1

 

Also in the early 1990s I think it was Keith Contario who noted in an overstreet Update that if you had bought every issue of Incredible Hulk # 105 to present (about 370 or so) at cover price, you'd have lost money.

 

And that's counting that Hulk 181 was then a $300 book.

 

I'm not a math major, but this makes zero sense. 105-370 would only 265 issues. Even at $1 each, you could sell the 181 at $300 and make money. Obviously, the majority of these cover prices were well under $1 each!

[lou_fine]

What I'm getting from this thread is that there's roughly 200 books out there of drek for every key. Yippee!

 

This is why I prefer GA where everything is either key or so wildly over the top that people want it anyway.

 

More like 2000:1

 

Also in the early 1990s I think it was Keith Contario who noted in an overstreet Update that if you had bought every issue of Incredible Hulk # 105 to present (about 370 or so) at cover price, you'd have lost money.

 

And that's counting that Hulk 181 was then a $300 book.

 

I'm not a math major, but this makes zero sense. 105-370 would only 265 issues. Even at $1 each, you could sell the 181 at $300 and make money. Obviously, the majority of these cover prices were well under $1 each!

 

Well, if you think back to the 90's, these common mid-run non-key Marvel books would certainly not be going for $1 a pop. More likely, a dealer might offer $1 for 10 of them if you were lucky, so that he could try to sell them out of his 25 cents quarter boxes.

[Gatsby77]

(He may have been factoring in inflation as well. I don't have the article or exact wording at hand.)

[Lazyboy]

What I'm getting from this thread is that there's roughly 200 books out there of drek for every key. Yippee!

 

Because we've found a couple of titles with worthless 200+ issue runs and some more with ~100 or ~50? Not that that has anything to do with keys, just simple economics.

 

This is why I prefer GA where everything is either key or so wildly over the top that people want it anyway.

 

You must have gone to the Jaydog School of Posting Ridiculous wildly_fanciful_statement.

 

The only reason most GA books have any current value is due to extreme issues on the supply side and many of the issues that have real demand aren't even keys.

[Lazyboy]

(He may have been factoring in inflation as well. I don't have the article or exact wording at hand.)

 

Now I'm interested to find out exactly what was written.

 

The entire Hulk run (regular series, not including Annuals) has a total cover price under $300. Even if you added the total cover price of TTA, you would just barely top $300.

[Lazyboy]

What I'm getting from this thread is that there's roughly 200 books out there of drek for every key. Yippee!

 

This is why I prefer GA where everything is either key or so wildly over the top that people want it anyway.

 

More like 2000:1

 

Also in the early 1990s I think it was Keith Contario who noted in an overstreet Update that if you had bought every issue of Incredible Hulk # 105 to present (about 370 or so) at cover price, you'd have lost money.

 

And that's counting that Hulk 181 was then a $300 book.

 

I'm not a math major, but this makes zero sense. 105-370 would only 265 issues. Even at $1 each, you could sell the 181 at $300 and make money. Obviously, the majority of these cover prices were well under $1 each!

 

Well, if you think back to the 90's, these common mid-run non-key Marvel books would certainly not be going for $1 a pop. More likely, a dealer might offer $1 for 10 of them if you were lucky, so that he could try to sell them out of his 25 cents quarter boxes.

 

No, at $1 cover/purchase price each, which was the highest regular cover price (345 was $1.50) until issue 390.

 

But you're right, a dealer back then might offer $50 for the run, 181 included.

[Brother J]

Saw Cerebus mentioned several times, the original post asked to name runs of books you wouldn't pay $5 a piece for. If someone wants to sell me decent condition copies of Cerebus #2-20 for $5 a book or less, I'm buying!

 

If you read through you'll see OP changed the title. It's a bit confusing now. Originally it was "longest run with no keys".

 

I did read through the thread, but didn't know the original post had been changed. I think the early issues of Cerebus have plenty of key books to Cerebus collectors just because of the some of the key characters throughout the 300 issue run being introduced, they are just not key books to the general comic collecting community.

 

 

[dupont2005]

Saw Cerebus mentioned several times, the original post asked to name runs of books you wouldn't pay $5 a piece for. If someone wants to sell me decent condition copies of Cerebus #2-20 for $5 a book or less, I'm buying!

 

If you read through you'll see OP changed the title. It's a bit confusing now. Originally it was "longest run with no keys".

 

I did read through the thread, but didn't know the original post had been changed. I think the early issues of Cerebus have plenty of key books to Cerebus collectors just because of the some of the key characters throughout the 300 issue run being introduced, they are just not key books to the general comic collecting community.

 

I'm hard pressed to think of any series that doesn't involve superheroes where first appearances of characters makes a comic a key.

 

Walking Dead being the only exception. Which is also why I think people paying top dollar for Michonne first appearances are going to regret it 60 or so issues after she's dead and forgotten.

[Ken Aldred]

My suggestion of Cerebus did answer the OP's question, though. And, I could just as well have posted Love and Rockets, or Nexus. Not wrong, just a bit lateral, rather than a corporate, mainstream super-hero choice.

[Martin Sinescu]

Saw Cerebus mentioned several times, the original post asked to name runs of books you wouldn't pay $5 a piece for. If someone wants to sell me decent condition copies of Cerebus #2-20 for $5 a book or less, I'm buying!

 

If you read through you'll see OP changed the title. It's a bit confusing now. Originally it was "longest run with no keys".

 

I did read through the thread, but didn't know the original post had been changed. I think the early issues of Cerebus have plenty of key books to Cerebus collectors just because of the some of the key characters throughout the 300 issue run being introduced, they are just not key books to the general comic collecting community.

 

 

This was my experience when I was trying to build a Cerebus run back in the late 80's. Lots of key appearances and moments over the course of that first 100 or so issues that I was looking for. LCS's had limited backstock and books I found at shows were expensive, especially the first 50. It's likely the market isn't now what it once was for that title, but I would think those first 8-10 years would still be over $5 each.