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Modern Spec & Bust Adventure
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44 posts in this topic

Busts… a lot of image stuff. 
I went heavy on the Sex Criminals, East of West, Black Science, Descender, Wytches, Saga, Wicked + Divine, Fatale, Rat Queens… etc etc train. 
Basically anything 2013-2016, image, Indy, and went heavy. It’s all garbage basically. 
Still like Saga, and not to knock any of the reads above, all good stuff… but spec wise, a waste of money

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On 7/2/2022 at 6:31 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

I also went pretty hard on Stray Dogs, including a #1 9.8 for $175. Oh well, at least they're pretty to look at.

Stray Dogs was pushed heavily to me from a few folks I know. I opted to pass on it. I hope it pans out for ya. 

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On 7/2/2022 at 5:34 PM, KB81 said:

Stray Dogs was pushed heavily to me from a few folks I know. I opted to pass on it. I hope it pans out for ya. 

Thanks, me too! Aside from the 9.8, I didn't do too terribly bad on the rest - I have a couple of sets of the Cover B 1-5 fist prints and a set of the Cover A 1-5 first prints raw, but I'm only into those for about $150 total for 15 books, so it's not an awful beat luckily.

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On 7/2/2022 at 5:22 PM, D2 said:

Busts… a lot of image stuff. 
I went heavy on the Sex Criminals, East of West, Black Science, Descender, Wytches, Saga, Wicked + Divine, Fatale, Rat Queens… etc etc train. 
Basically anything 2013-2016, image, Indy, and went heavy. It’s all garbage basically. 
Still like Saga, and not to knock any of the reads above, all good stuff… but spec wise, a waste of money

East of West should have a chance some day.  If optioned and down appropriately, it could be killer. But that's a lot of what ifs. 

Black Science was a personal fav.   Really loved that book.  

People tried to make Rat Queens something.  It was for a couple months.  For me, I'm glad I skipped it.

I could not get into Sex Criminals or Descender.  I tried for awhile, but dumped them. 

But I agree, they are books that likely don't have a spec future. 

Patrick

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On 6/30/2022 at 11:11 PM, Troy Division said:

My biggest spec is Revival #1 from Image Comics.
Fun fact: it turns 10 years old in two weeks...
Beyond the 30+ raw copies of #1 sitting in a short box AND the 4 CGC 9.8 SS of the sketch cover...
I also purchased the original art for the first 5 covers (plus a variant cover).

Second place would be Manifest Destiny #1.

revival.jpg

Manifest Destiny 1.jpg

I thought Manifest Destiny had a real shot at being a spec book.

It ended up being a pretty shallow story.   They clearly hadn't thought very far ahead and every arc was just another "creature". 

Patrick

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On 7/5/2022 at 9:17 PM, followtheleader said:

I thought Manifest Destiny had a real shot at being a spec book.

It ended up being a pretty shallow story.   They clearly hadn't thought very far ahead and every arc was just another "creature". 

Patrick

At the time when I purchased these #1s I felt it would do well on AMC...especially since it was on Kirkman's Image imprint Skybound...
Now I don't feel this show, unless they have decedents of the tribes referenced in Lewis & Clark's travels actively providing feedback, will go over well.

The drama will most likely follow the 'white savior' and 'savage warrior indigenous person' tropes.
Both of which won't really fly in today's media landscape.
Heck, check out the cover / synopsis of MD #4 for proof.
"Surrounded by buffalotaur and fighting for survival, what Lewis and Clark need most is a monster killer. And her name is Sacagawea." 

manifest-destiny-4_f57cf01359.jpg

Edited by Troy Division
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On 7/5/2022 at 7:31 PM, PunisherPunisherPunisher said:

Blades daughter 1st appearance, she will be in the new Blade movie

Avengers Forever 6

Black Panther 5 2nd print

Death Dealer series by Frank Frazetta

Eight Billion Genies 

Grim

 

 

 

EBG you may yet win out with it optioned to Amazon.  I passed on it in favor of Grim. 

But I am don't go heavy into anything to say I am spec heavy.  I have maybe 6 of the Spidey/Venom FCBD 2020.

On 7/2/2022 at 5:31 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

I also went pretty hard on Stray Dogs, including a #1 9.8 for $175. Oh well, at least they're pretty to look at.

Stray Dogs was a great mini, Dog Days was awesome too but it hit the variant burnout pretty much head on.  I know I bought too many of those covers but I liked every single one I purchased, so (shrug)

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I can't even begin to tell you how many busts I have. I'm sure my batting average is like a pitcher going up against Shoei Ohtani. 

So far my biggest win was Aphra. I mostly collect action figures, a lot of Star Wars. Back in 2017, somehow I heard there was going to be a new character in the Vader series. I wasn't even collecting comics at the time as I focused on toys. I probably didn't collect comics for 20 years up to that point. I went around to all the stores in my area and bought everything I could. Ended up with 40 cover A and 3 variants (I live in a small area). Haven't sold any yet, as I still beleive this book has a lot of room to grow. 

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On 7/7/2022 at 3:07 PM, Lpgk said:

I can't even begin to tell you how many busts I have. I'm sure my batting average is like a pitcher going up against Shoei Ohtani. 

So far my biggest win was Aphra. I mostly collect action figures, a lot of Star Wars. Back in 2017, somehow I heard there was going to be a new character in the Vader series. I wasn't even collecting comics at the time as I focused on toys. I probably didn't collect comics for 20 years up to that point. I went around to all the stores in my area and bought everything I could. Ended up with 40 cover A and 3 variants (I live in a small area). Haven't sold any yet, as I still beleive this book has a lot of room to grow. 

This is awesome. I hope you make a killing! 

Did you grade them all? 

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On 7/7/2022 at 11:09 AM, KB81 said:

This is awesome. I hope you make a killing! 

Did you grade them all? 

Hit 9 of 10 (9.8) for the first batch. I'll slowly trickle the rest out to CGC at some point.

Edited by Lpgk
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I have a stack of Howling Commandoes of SHIELD #1. It's the first appearance of a character called Glyph, for which Marvel registered a trademark and a series on Hulu was rumored. It's been a few years now and the other series that was rumored at the time (Hellstorm) has now come and gone, and the character has barely any comic appearances, so chances are future demand won't be there.

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Another is House of Slaughter #1

I have well over 40 9.8 slabs, mostly variants. 
It was my 1st go-round at pressing and sending to CGC = man, it hurts to see these recent sale prices. 
Maybe when SIKTC gets beyond the "optioned" phase things will heat up for HoS. Can't wait to sell these, lol 

Edited by KB81
typo
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On 7/7/2022 at 4:03 PM, KB81 said:

Another is House of Slaughter #1

I have well over 40 9.8 slabs, mostly variants. 
It was my 1st go-round at pressing and sending to CGC = man, it hurts to see these recent sale prices. 
Maybe when SIKTC gets beyond the "optioned" phase things will heat up for HoS. Can't wait to sell these, lol 

Midtown had number 1’s signed by Tynion for cover price for a long time, I ordered a couple. I thought the story was decent, I don’t know why it’s not catching on?

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On 7/7/2022 at 3:12 PM, BrooksR said:

Midtown had number 1’s signed by Tynion for cover price for a long time, I ordered a couple. I thought the story was decent, I don’t know why it’s not catching on?

I think the main obstacle is that book had a huge print run: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/house-of-slaughter-1-gets-almost-half-a-million-orders/

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Yeah the print run was massive. They milked the 1st SIKTC spin-off. 
 

I feel that this will prob only get a bump in FMV if SIKTC turns into The Walking Dead type of show when it hits.  

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On 7/5/2022 at 9:15 PM, followtheleader said:

East of West should have a chance some day.  If optioned and down appropriately, it could be killer. But that's a lot of what ifs. 

Black Science was a personal fav.   Really loved that book.  

People tried to make Rat Queens something.  It was for a couple months.  For me, I'm glad I skipped it.

I could not get into Sex Criminals or Descender.  I tried for awhile, but dumped them. 

But I agree, they are books that likely don't have a spec future. 

Patrick

Yeah I think a lot of these books operated better as an idea. Like I can see how Chip, or Matt, pitched the idea for Sex Criminals, and it did have a strong first few issues, but then they clearly lost direction. 
 

Even East of West for me really fell off. Not many of these books really stuck the landing 

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On 7/2/2022 at 2:22 PM, D2 said:

I went heavy on the Sex Criminals, East of West, Black Science, Descender, Wytches, Saga, Wicked + Divine, Fatale, Rat Queens… etc etc train. 
Basically anything 2013-2016, image, Indy, and went heavy. It’s all garbage basically. 
Still like Saga, and not to knock any of the reads above, all good stuff… but spec wise, a waste of money

Saga wasn’t a spec failure.  It may have slowed, but there was plenty of time where early issues sold very well.

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