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Hulk 181 Marvel Value Stamp Question
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13 posts in this topic

I bought a 600 or so Bronze comic collection with a slabbed Hulk 181 1.5 that was missing the MVS last week from a guy.  He told me that pretty much all the comics with MVSs he had clipped the MVS as a kid.  And as I went thru them I saw that was true.

In buying the collection he casually mentioned that he had still had the Marvel Value Stamp Book filled with all the original stamps that he had clipped. It was in his garage somewhere.

We agreed on a price and I bought the collection, and we agreed that when he found the MVS book he would send it to me.

He found it today and it has about 95 or 96 of the original stamps including the Shanna 54 stamp from the Hulk 181.

Here's my question:

If it was your Hulk 181 would you try to restore it to the comic since it's the exact one that went with it?  Or maybe put it in a tiny baseball card mylar and keep it with the slabbed comic, or just leave it in the MVS booklet?  After all, it's only a 1.5 comic.

 

FullSizeRender.jpeg

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With a bit of maturity and hindsight, it infuriates me that Marvel was encouraging kids to ruin books.  It's one thing to include ads from third parties that have "coupons," maybe one in 10000 books is missing one.  I've never had a book with one of those missing.  But the MVS program was a bad way to get kids to buy more books.

It's not the only example where Marvel got kids to wreck their own product.  My copy of ASM 46 has the following panel - you know a lot of them were wrecked with this kind of thing.

 

 

ASM 46 - writing.JPG

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15 minutes ago, MattTheDuck said:

With a bit of maturity and hindsight, it infuriates me that Marvel was encouraging kids to ruin books.  It's one thing to include ads from third parties that have "coupons," maybe one in 10000 books is missing one.  I've never had a book with one of those missing.  But the MVS program was a bad way to get kids to buy more books.

It's not the only example where Marvel got kids to wreck their own product.  My copy of ASM 46 has the following panel - you know a lot of them were wrecked with this kind of thing.

 

 

ASM 46 - writing.JPG

Never saw that before. Stuff like that and all the MVSs shows that even through the mid-70s, Marvel never considered their comics as valuable "collectibles". 

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Sure but these things cost 15 cents. No one knew at the time they would be so valuable today. Which is why they are. I think clipped coupons, writing inside etc is a relic of the simpler times of comic collecting and adds an almost charming “coolness” factor to the book. That being said, I would probably go with keeping the coupon in a baseball card sleeve with the comic and not trying to restore it. 

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16 minutes ago, spracknetch23 said:

Sure but these things cost 15 cents. No one knew at the time they would be so valuable today. Which is why they are. I think clipped coupons, writing inside etc is a relic of the simpler times of comic collecting and adds an almost charming “coolness” factor to the book. That being said, I would probably go with keeping the coupon in a baseball card sleeve with the comic and not trying to restore it. 

I agree. Quite a few of my OO comics from the early 70s had my name written in them, doodles, filled in puzzles, etc. They were all HEAVILY read, used, rolled up, dog-eared, and well-loved. I especially remember using silly putty to "lift" images off the pages and then stretch them. Good times. 

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6 hours ago, gadzukes said:

I bought a 600 or so Bronze comic collection with a slabbed Hulk 181 1.5 that was missing the MVS last week from a guy.  He told me that pretty much all the comics with MVSs he had clipped the MVS as a kid.  And as I went thru them I saw that was true.

In buying the collection he casually mentioned that he had still had the Marvel Value Stamp Book filled with all the original stamps that he had clipped. It was in his garage somewhere.

We agreed on a price and I bought the collection, and we agreed that when he found the MVS book he would send it to me.

He found it today and it has about 95 or 96 of the original stamps including the Shanna 54 stamp from the Hulk 181.

Here's my question:

If it was your Hulk 181 would you try to restore it to the comic since it's the exact one that went with it?  Or maybe put it in a tiny baseball card mylar and keep it with the slabbed comic, or just leave it in the MVS booklet?  After all, it's only a 1.5 comic.

 

FullSizeRender.jpeg

My MVS has 96 of 100 filled, Anyone could complete it quite easily from low grade stock, so completion at this point is not really an issue. I would leave it alone. Sounds like you picked up a nice collection. (thumbsu

Edited by divad
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I would probably leave that one alone to. 

I think of it like, that book was treated exactly how it was built to be treated. Loved, red, clipped and never thrown out. 

Keep the MVS with the book and enjoy a nice looking 1.5. 

 

I also think from a value standpoint, rejoining them won't help. A blue 1.5 is likely worth more than a purple, green or conserved 4.0. 

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On 7/10/2021 at 2:42 PM, jcjames said:

Sidebar: Ironic how cutting out and collecting the Marvel "Value" Stamps have decimated the "value" of the comics now. 

 

 I see it the opposite way. Removing the stamp lessens the books value by 80%, showing just how valuable the stamp is. 

In it's original, unaltered state, the Shanna stamp is worth thousands.

Think what Amazing Spider-Man 129 would sell for had it been a few months later and had an MVS in it. 

Back in the 80s, I had a similar situation. I bought a collection that had many books with the stamps cut out, but they were kept in a loose envelope. I put the stamps in a baseball card protector and matched them with the books. As I recall,the only money books were Hulk 181 and Doctor Strange #1.  I remember asking $50 for the Hulk and eventually selling it for $35.  The guy I sold it to scotch taped the stamp in and was asking $100 but I don't know if it ever sold.

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