Marvel Masterworks 2 2

[Aman619]

Can anyone point me to a site that can help me identify which printings I have, and, rough values for them?  I bought the first 27 when they came out, most with the gold foil and the fake marble bkground.  Are these the limited edition copies?  What did the regular versions look like?  And, what changed after the first few rhat reprinted the earliest comics were released?  I seem to recall there were many reprinting, but maybe not too the 2000s?

thanx. And I’m not great doing searches here even after all theses years so forgive me taking the easier route and asking.  I saw a link to a website and forum for Masterworks, but didn’t really see a simple issue by issue listing that gave me the whole picture.  

[godzilla43]

No they are not. The limited editions are books that came later. They also have that fake marble dust jacket. I would say 25-40$ per book for your books.
Example on limited edition there is a Uncanny X-men vol.27 with issues 111-120 and a limited edition  with issues 111-121.

 

[pemart1966]

On 6/3/2022 at 2:08 AM, Aman619 said:

Can anyone point me to a site that can help me identify which printings I have, and, rough values for them?  I bought the first 27 when they came out, most with the gold foil and the fake marble bkground.  Are these the limited edition copies?  What did the regular versions look like?  And, what changed after the first few rhat reprinted the earliest comics were released?  I seem to recall there were many reprinting, but maybe not too the 2000s?

thanx. And I’m not great doing searches here even after all theses years so forgive me taking the easier route and asking.  I saw a link to a website and forum for Masterworks, but didn’t really see a simple issue by issue listing that gave me the whole picture.  

This may help you.  http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/library.html

[Aman619]

Thanx.  That was the site I mentioned.  Looking closer I see some lusts I missed before.. thanx

[Aman619]

On 6/3/2022 at 6:37 AM, godzilla43 said:

No they are not. The limited editions are books that came later. They also have that fake marble dust jacket. I would say 25-40$ per book for your books.
Example on limited edition there is a Uncanny X-men vol.27 with issues 111-120 and a limited edition  with issues 111-121.

 

What are the gold foil covers called?  Variants or limited editions?  They came out same time as the regular versions, that didn’t gave foil.  Aren’t these foil covers the limited editions of 500 or so?

[F For Fake]

On 6/3/2022 at 7:51 PM, Aman619 said:

What are the gold foil covers called?  Variants or limited editions?  They came out same time as the regular versions, that didn’t gave foil.  Aren’t these foil covers the limited editions of 500 or so?

The original line of MMW all came with the marble/foil trade dress, and the volume # on the spine corresponded to the order it was released in the MMW line.

These volumes were eventually reprinted with a plain black and silver trade dress, and the volume # to represent each individual title. So, X-Men 1,2,3 etc

Eventually Marvel restarted the MMW line, and that’s when the limited edition variant covers began. So each volume was printed with the black/silver design and volume number for that series, as well as a limited variant cover for the direct market that replicated the marble/foil design and continued the volume numbering from the original MMW line. So, for example, Sub-Mariner v1 and MMW 32 are the same book with different jackets.

The original run of MMW had large print runs and are fairly easy to find cheap. The big $$$ comes with later era releases from that initial run, and OOP releases from the modern era.

I’m not able to navigate well on this phone to go more in depth, but I’d recommend the Marvelmasterworks.com forums, as well as the Wikipedia on MMW as a start. Good luck!

Edited June 4, 2022 by F For Fake

[F For Fake]

Oh and as for the limitations, it varies from book to book based on orders. Many are in the 600-700 range, some more popular titles closer to 900. There may be a few that are 500, but not many, I’d wager.

[Aman619]

thank you!  exactly what I was hoping to understand. Which MMW volume was the first after restarting (with the limited Edition editions?  Meaning how many were published consecutively before Marvel stopped, and which volume did they start up again with?

 

 

[F For Fake]

On 6/4/2022 at 1:31 PM, Aman619 said:

thank you!  exactly what I was hoping to understand. Which MMW volume was the first after restarting (with the limited Edition editions?  Meaning how many were published consecutively before Marvel stopped, and which volume did they start up again with?

 

 

The first run was 27 volumes, ending around 1994 f?). Then at some point later in the 90’s they issued four more volumes, and also reprinted some of the initial 27. The line relaunched in 2002 with the aforementioned Sub-Mariner 1/32, and the 31 preceding volumes were reprinted with the silver/black trade dress. Volume 33 Spider-Man began the new monthly run of MMW that we’ve enjoyed until today, with each volume getting the now standard silver/black dress (or gold dress for the golden age stuff, and I think red for the Atlas titles?) along with the marble/foil variant covers, which were limited edition and continued the original numbering.

At least I think that’s all correct! I made the switch to Omnis a long time ago, and only pick up the occasional MMW these days (Howard the Duck, Dazzler, horror titles like Tomb of Dracula) etc

[Aman619]

Again, much thanx for excellent explanation. I didn’t think the volumes I bought in 80s managed to increase in value.  But seeing big sales for “limited edition foil covers” did sound like what I bought. Makes sense that the truly limited later editions gave value, and the low print run other volumes.   There’s so many economical reprints to choose from now too. 

[bronze_rules]

Haven't been hunting in some time, but, I've seen some of the early gold foil variants fetch and arm and a leg. Example. Daredevil 2 MM vol 29. https://www.ebay.com/itm/394059676018?hash=item5bbfc97972:g:HGEAAOSwOa1iQ02T

I've seen unopened for 500+

edit. yeah not much in the value in the first 27. I bought 1 to 15 for like $65 once on ebay. Some crazy expensive titles in bronze era. I'm guessing they will drop now that the omnis are covering those areas.

Edited June 5, 2022 by bronze_rules

[jjonahjameson11]

On 6/4/2022 at 10:30 PM, bronze_rules said:

Haven't been hunting in some time, but, I've seen some of the early gold foil variants fetch and arm and a leg. Example. Daredevil 2 MM vol 29. https://www.ebay.com/itm/394059676018?hash=item5bbfc97972:g:HGEAAOSwOa1iQ02T

I've seen unopened for 500+

edit. yeah not much in the value in the first 27. I bought 1 to 15 for like $65 once on ebay. Some crazy expensive titles in bronze era. I'm guessing they will drop now that the omnis are covering those areas.

Yes, I'm not surprised at the DD result.  When Marvel re-launched the Masterworks series, it caught many people off-guard.  And those who collected the 1st 27 variant volumes wanted to add the more recent volumes to their collections.  Hence, volumes 28-32 generally command the highest prices due to their low print runs.

As mentioned previously in this thread, Marvel later re-issued some volumes as limited runs, with #of copies as low as 480 (has anyone seen lower print run on the limited volumes?) to approximately 520 copies per.

Never one to miss an opportunity to milk the out of anything, Marvel went back to the well on several volumes as reprinted them as second printings.  They look the same as the 1st printings, but on the back cover, near the price, they are denoted by Roman numerals II so just make certain to check for second printings before spending your money.

[F For Fake]

On 6/8/2022 at 8:03 AM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Yes, I'm not surprised at the DD result.  When Marvel re-launched the Masterworks series, it caught many people off-guard.  And those who collected the 1st 27 variant volumes wanted to add the more recent volumes to their collections.  Hence, volumes 28-32 generally command the highest prices due to their low print runs.

As mentioned previously in this thread, Marvel later re-issued some volumes as limited runs, with #of copies as low as 480 (has anyone seen lower print run on the limited volumes?) to approximately 520 copies per.

Never one to miss an opportunity to milk the out of anything, Marvel went back to the well on several volumes as reprinted them as second printings.  They look the same as the 1st printings, but on the back cover, near the price, they are denoted by Roman numerals II so just make certain to check for second printings before spending your money.

Thanks for confirming/clarifying, and also the note on the roman numerals, as that was new to me! With the early MMW run I only picked up X-Men related material, which I eventually sold once the Omnis started hitting. The only one I still have is my original MMW 11 uncanny X-men, which I got for my 12th birthday. I ended up eventually having Claremont and Cockrum sign it. That's one I'll never let go of.

As for the print run on the limited volumes, no, I can't think of any that were lower. They seem to mostly hover in the 600-700 range. Dazzler v2 /302 at 597 is the lowest I've seen in many years.

[jjonahjameson11]

While I don’t have all of the volumes, I took a quick look at the print runs for 28 (FF) and 30 (JIM/Thor) and they are incredibly low at 440 and 480, respectively 

[Cat]

There were also the short-lived yellow editions. Anyone else remember those? I've got an X-Men volume I got dirt-cheap that was in the yellow coloured design. That somehow managed to be totally hideous, yet have a certain comicy charm to it. 

[jjonahjameson11]

On 6/8/2022 at 12:31 PM, Cat said:

There were also the short-lived yellow editions. Anyone else remember those? I've got an X-Men volume I got dirt-cheap that was in the yellow coloured design. That somehow managed to be totally hideous, yet have a certain comicy charm to it. 

Between the 1st 27 issues and the re-launch variants beginning again with issue 28, Marvel sold some of those badly designed masterworks you mentioned.  I believe there was one volume each of avengers, Spidey, dd, Xmen and FF (I may be forgetting one).  Each book had a different colour cover, with some more ‘ambitious’ than others.  Thankfully, it was short-lived

[MAR1979]

1st (only?) foil [re]printing of #16

 

 

[F For Fake]

I posted this over in the HC thread in CG, but thought it was germane to this thread as well.

Wow, Omar broke some big news yesterday: Marvel is going to reprint their Marvel Masterworks line, starting in 2023. They've announced the first 8 volumes, which are in the same order as the original 8 volumes. These will be new remasters, so it should be the best presentation of the material to date. 

What's VERY interesting to me is that they are apparently going to issue each book in both the now standard black/silver dress, as well as re-issue the "variant" covers (which originally were the only covers, before the line was rebooted, but I digress.)

Anyway, this will presumably affect values on original printings. Now, to be fair, the first 27 volumes are very common and not expensive, so even if they're releasing a volume each month (which looks to be the case) it's still going to be at least a couple of years before they start getting into the volumes which currently enjoy a high resale value. 

It's also not clear just how far they're going to continue the line, though common sense would dictate that they'll keep releasing new ones as long as they're selling well.

SO...yeah. Great news if you ever wanted to get in on the ground floor of this 30+ year reprint exercise, but if you're someone who is holding onto those harder to find volumes due to their value, you've got some food for thought. Personally, I'm looking forward to plugging in some big gaps in my collection, and am giving some thought to selling off some omnis in favor of the Masterworks, which are nicer books, and much easier to read.

[WernerVonDoom]

I did quite of a bit of research on these back in the day:

Gold Foil First Prints #1 to #27

Gold Foil Second Prints #1 to #8

Gold Foil Third Prints #1 to #4

Gold Foil Fourth Prints #1 to #3

Gold Foil Fifth Print #1

Gold Foil Limited Edition #1 to Current

ComicCraft #1-#4, #18, #19, #29-#32

Re-Masterworks Silver # on Black #1, #3-#6, #33

Re-Masterworks Black # on Silver #1 to Current

UK Slipcase #1

This was many years ago, so there are probably even more reprints out there now.  If anyone is interested, I also did descriptions of how to tell each print apart - I'd have to dig through my files though. 

Edited July 13, 2022 by WernerVonDoom

[jjonahjameson11]

On 7/12/2022 at 12:24 AM, WernerVonDoom said:

I did quite of a bit of research on these back in the day:

Gold Foil First Prints #1 to #27

Gold Foil Second Prints #1 to #8

Gold Foil Third Prints #1 to #4

Gold Foil Fourth Prints #1 to #3

Gold Foil Fifth Print #1

Gold Foil Limited Edition #1 to Current

ComicCraft #1-#4, #18, #19, #29-#32

Re-Masterworks Silver # on Black #1, #3-#6, #33

Re-Masterworks Black # on Silver #1 to Current

UK Slipcase #1

This wany many years ago, so there are probably even more reprints out there now.  If anyone is interested, I also did descriptions of how to tell each print apart - I'd have to dig through my files though. 

Thanks for the additional information regarding the printings.  I wasn't aware of the 3rd-5th printings.  Are there any distinguishing markings on the covers to identify 3rd, 4th, and 5th printings?