Is USM particularly hot or valued right now?

[THE_BEYONDER]

"My local comic shop stopped me at the register when I tried to buy 2 copies of #38, Venom/Spidey cover. He said he's only selling one copy per buyer to keep the availability spread out since it's hard to keep in stock."

 

Go back in about a month or so, and ask him if he has any CGC'd copies of USM #38. When he says "yes", ask him "how many?"

 

 

[Smokinghawk]

My shop doesn't have ANY books CGC'd, although the owner himself does (he has an ASM #1 in 9.2, but it's purple because of "cleaning and pressing").

 

Ultimate Spidey kinda has me nervous right now. Any title since 2000 that's going up in value this much makes me curious, but I've been burned so many times on books that start "hot" and then turn into "Web of Spider Man."

 

I can't decide if I should grab up a White Variant NOW because it'll soar, or pass on it because it'll plunge.

 

In the mean time, I suppose it couldn't hurt me to snag doubles of the Venom covers. An extra $2.99 for a gamble isn't bad.

 

[Aman619]

Look them over carefully on the stands. If there is the slightest crease, smudge, blunt or ripped corner or any flaw you can see with the naked eye...just put it back and move on. That book isnt even worth another 2.99 in anything lower than 9.8 condition...especially going forward.

 

Even if you were willing to wait 30 years...how do you know THIS Venom will be the one that is valuable?

[blowout]

I can't decide if I should grab up a White Variant NOW because it'll soar, or pass on it because it'll plunge.

 

I think you have long since missed the gravy train on that book. It has certainly peaked and as soon as Bendis leaves USM the book has only one place to go value wise.

 

If you like USM, keep buying it, it is an entertaining read. But as speculation fodder it cannot sustain current price levels over time IMHO.

[murph0]

I think the funny part is how it's supposedly the rarer edition, yet there's just about as many auctions for the white cover as there are for the red one.

 

Brian

[Foolkiller]

Can't see the ultimate spidey having a lot of staying power in the collectible market... the white cover is rare ( so will it become new 30 cent price variant?) but I think there's two problems with Ultimate Spidey.... 1) it's reprinted to death 2) I can't see there being continuous high demand. Other than that, how rare really are issues 1-6... I flip the modern books I read right away... and use them to buy silver/bronze. Ultimate spidey is a good read, but I buy the trades... To me it's a great profit on a book I spent $2.25 on to get $98 return... and I can a nice piece of silver for it.

[blowout]

the white cover is rare

 

Check the CGC census. The white cover #1 is by no means rare.

[Foolkiller]

i did... the white cover is proportionally rare to the number of red covers released. Just because there's a number of them that have been cgc'd doesn't mean that there are large number ungraded and the books is available in quantity. The white cover was supposedly only given out based on the number of copies ordered. Rare is probably the wrong word... it had a low print run that, at one time, had a high demand. If young people now look back on ultimate spider man and try and acquire it, this may eventually become a "rare" book because there will be fewer books that far out strip demand (although with them all cgc'd, I guess finding a 9.6 is no big deal).

[Aman619]

do you have a print run figure for the book. I argued in the Batman 608 thread that 200 was indeed rare enough to matter in the long run. But it sounds like there are a thousand white covers around. Is that the case?

[Foolkiller]

probably... i think 200 is a rare number for the batman 608 book too... although I've gotta say that i can't get into either discussion about rarity because I have no interest in either book.... I don't know the exact count for the white cover books, but I think the census has almost 500 already graded... 1000 is probably a safe bet, there might even be more.

[Aman619]

well if there are north of 1000 copies (and if I remember right, I bought both versions in a bag w/o board on the day it came out, there were probably 1 tenth of the regular version printed or something like that...a sort of rarer second cover. This wasnt a publisher giveaway after the sales success of the earlier 'original' issue took off, like the Batman.

[blowout]

I think there were at least 5000 copies of the White cover printed. Thats not official so don't quote me, Darth is the guy to ask.

[Smokinghawk]

My problem with the collectability of USM is that there are so many versions of the early issues, with different covers, printings, giveaway editions, variant dealer copies, Wizard half-number issue, etc. It's hard to know just what's what at a glance, unless you have the covers AND the various designations memorized while you Ebay (since some sellers aren't plain, hoping to snag you on a reprint copy or something).

 

[vic6string]

I think the point about all the versions is right on the money. In a way, that is one of the things that has killed the sportscard market. When the hottest new rookie comes out, you used to just buy one card (Topps) then it became 3, then 5, now there are literally dozens of rookie cards for each player. You go out and plop down the money for the hottest one, and a month later they come out with another version and the one you have is worthless. No one wants the #1 issue anymore...it isn't good enough. They need the Black and White sketch cover autographed extra pages dynamic wizard edition that only comes 1 for every 17,000 ordered of the regular #1. And then a month later, they find out there is the special cgc certified signature series that they only printed 9 copies of. It is getting ridiculous.

[THE_BEYONDER]

"It is getting ridiculous."

 

getting?

[Darthdiesel]

I think there were around 5000 copies

 

Supposedly, this was a 1 in 4 cover, then I've heard 1 for 100 retailer incentive; I don't know how many they eventually stopped with after the initial ordering for the first 2 months. I know that they were plentiful for certain dealers. Some were unloading them in dutch auctions on ebay at $5 a pop. Remember that this series and its very idea was so unwelcome that some comic shops barely ordered any, while certain online retailers received tons of this book. I don't have exact numbers on the white variant. There are many out there slabbed and unslabbed, however, most of the unslabbed, unless coming from a better known dealer are in VF or worse shape; otherwise if it had the hope of getting a 9.2, it would have already been slabbed. always look around the staple areas - biggest place for spinal defects on this book; check the spinal corners; check for the white fleck on Spidey's foot prevalent on many of these issues, check for impressions to the areas immediatley right of the spine where the staples are

[joe_collector]

>>Supposedly, this was a 1 in 4 cover, then I've heard 1 for 100 retailer incentive

 

This is a very common book, and I think you're right on both counts, depending on who you are and where/how much you ordered. I remember seeing a ton of White USM's at a local comic shop at $20 and the owner stated that he received a ton with his order, along the lines of 1 in 5 or 6.

 

I've heard from others that for every case, there would be a few issues in there, while others got a lot more USM White issues per case. I remember Wizard stating that USM White was a "one per case" premium, which is totally untrue and likely written to fuel the fanboy speculation.

 

Either way, there's no chance in Hades that only 5K were printed, as early on in the USM run, some EBay dealers seemed to be selling that many alone.

[blowout]

Either way, there's no chance in Hades that only 5K were printed, as early on in the USM run, some EBay dealers seemed to be selling that many alone.

 

Like I said 5K was speculation on my part (I must have read it somewhere) and a reaction to someone else saying there were only 1K or so.

Judging by the huge numbers on the census and the amount of eBay sales my estimate was conservative. For the record, I think the book is relatively common as far as varinats go.

[COI]

I believe it was a 1 in 4. When USM #1 first came out, I had ordered 50 copies for myself, and with the bundle I got 10 White covers.

 

Unfortunetly, I jumped the gun and blew all 10 out at $50 a piece, thinking the hype wouldn't last.

[blowout]

I believe it was a 1 in 4.

 

How many copies are we talking then? What was the print run for the red version?