So what's the buzz on Valiant?

[Warlord]

While browsing ebay I see that there's a CGC 9.4 copy of Predator Vs Magnus listed. Zipped over to ValiantComics.com and found that the last raw NM price listed is from 11/05 for $104.... was wondering what this will go for as it's currently mid-$30s with a starting bid. Also there's a raw copy up, looks kinda worn, probably FN+ or a very weak VF that is mid-$40s with days to go after multiple bids.

 

There's a reserve on the CGC 9.4 being sold by Comix Empire - anyone want to speculate on what it might be? $100? $150? $200?

 

I think there's a 9.8 in the census now. I never sold my 9.6 after several attempts on ebay failed to find a buyer with very deep pockets, so I never felt the need to part with it for lower amounts!

 

Then I checked out the Solar hardcover edition Alpha and Omega and find there's one of those going for $45 with less than a day to go. Last ValiantComics.com price from 12/05 was just over $51.

 

So, what's the buzz on these HTF Valiants - is interest picking up? Didn't the Valiant IP get sold to new investors? Is there news of any characters or titles resuming publication. And what's up with ValiantMan and the stale prices on his web site? Is he on vacation in '06? Hope he shows up here so we can tar and feather him or coerce him to get back on the job so we can all enjoy the fruit of his labors!

[Warlord]

Hmmm, maybe there is no buzz after all!

[joe_collector]

The only buzz I get from Valiants is when I smell the smoke from a burning foil-enhanced case.

[BrianR]

There is a small hardcore fan base for Valiants which drives the prices up as well as some completists. I am a completist who as really enjoyed the stories. However I am not a Hardcore fan willing to pay big bucks for these books. I think a majority of people fit into my catagory and just aren't really willing to pay stupid prices for these books. If I can get them at cover price or less great (and on an occasion double cover) if not I will pass and try again later. I don't think the fan base is truly growing at this point, but rather shrinking as people move on to newer things.

[valiantman]

Valiant was great, then it was ok, then it wasn't good, then it was gone.

 

There are fans who never left the "fandom" of Valiant, some who left and came back,

some who came back and left again, and then some who would come back if they knew where "back" was.

 

The Valiant assets, last owned by Acclaim Ent., were sold in April 2005

at the Acclaim bankruptcy asset auction to a group (now) named Valiant Entertainment, Inc.

After a bidding war that involved numerous parties, Valiant Entertainment Inc.

was recognized as the new owners of the Valiant characters and has expressed

an interest in bringing the characters back to their popular pre-Acclaim state.

(John Taddeo did not complete the purchase following the auction, so despite correct

claims that he originally "won" the auction, he didn't finalize, and he is not the owner or part of VEI.)

 

Another entity, named Valiant Intellectual Properties filed for trademarks for a few of the Valiant names

prior to the auction, but did not attend or bid in the auction.

Trademarks do not confer the appearance, likeness, stories, or characters to the trademark holder,

those are copyrights and they belong to the asset holders for the characters,

so essentially trademarks are a name/word only. It's unclear what VIP intended to do with

a name that is completely unrelated to the characters and stories the name represents.

(Valiant fans have joked that if VIP was successful in their trademark "heist",

then comics such as "Rai" would have to be about a crime-fighting loaf of bread.)

 

Since the trademark applications first appeared, several have either already

been denied by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, or they are still in

the process of being reviewed (and should eventually be denied),

as VIP has no legitimate claim to any of the trademarks, since they own none of the assets.

 

As you might imagine Valiant Entertainment, Inc., has had to defend their rights

to the assets they legally won and officially own against the VIP (vulture).

 

In April 2006, Jeff Gomez, former editor of Valiant & Acclaim,

spoke at the Big Apple Con in NYC during the ValiantFans.com Panel Session.

Here's his quote:

"The new owners of the Valiant characters assure the fans that preparations

are being made to relaunch across multiple multimedia platforms."

 

Valiant Entertainment, Inc., has established an email account

for inquiries about the company at inquiries@valiantentertainment.com

and their website is under construction. http://www.valiantentertainment.com/

 

On a completely-unrelated-but-still-interesting-to-mention note:

Chuck Rozanski mentioned in the latest Mile High Newsletter that Jim Shooter confirmed

that he is currently being courted by several companies to rejoin the comics world.

 

 

Disclaimer: Though I am the "valiantman", I am not an employee of Valiant Entertainment, Inc.,

and my websites are fansites, and not affiliated with any publisher.

[Warlord]

Thanks for the news on the twists and turns regarding the Valiant assets, characters, trademarks, etc.

 

5 bidders and now up to $86 with days to go:

PvsM CGC 9.4

 

And I spotted the Shooter news in another thread just today! Was hoping it could be in some way related to the Valiant characters.

 

Lastly, what about that stale sales data on your website? Do we have to heat up the tar?

[Fan4Fan]

So, you can pick up the originals for $10 but the trade is north of $50?

[sckao]

So, you can pick up the originals for $10 but the trade is north of $50?

 

Magnus vs Predator originals you can pick up in the $.25-$1 bins. 2 issue set.

 

The TPB is much rarer.

[Solar]

So, you can pick up the originals for $10 but the trade is north of $50?

 

Magnus vs Predator originals you can pick up in the $.25-$1 bins. 2 issue set.

 

The TPB is much rarer.

 

And it has a bad @ss cover...

[Fan4Fan]

So, you can pick up the originals for $10 but the trade is north of $50?

 

Magnus vs Predator originals you can pick up in the $.25-$1 bins. 2 issue set.

 

The TPB is much rarer.

 

No doubt... just wanted to reinforce that for folks who dismiss trades as just reprints not worth the paper they are printed on.

[jonjesper]

Valiant...blah

 

The buzz is Gareb Shamus's mother sitting on a warehouse full of these and Wizard pumping the price up. I remember hearing this a few different times from few different people a couple of years ago when they 'seemed' to make a resurgance.

Not sure if it is true or not, but makes you wonder why something that dropped to .25 bins for years and was thought of as filler stock is now suddenly desireable as an entire line of comics (example 1 issue of a defunct series, compared to virtually the entire runs of a defunct company)

Just a thought, but I wouldnt put my money on a valiant book, not even close.

[valiantman]

Valiant...blah

 

The buzz is Gareb Shamus's mother sitting on a warehouse full of these and Wizard pumping the price up. I remember hearing this a few different times from few different people a couple of years ago when they 'seemed' to make a resurgance.

Not sure if it is true or not, but makes you wonder why something that dropped to .25 bins for years and was thought of as filler stock is now suddenly desireable as an entire line of comics (example 1 issue of a defunct series, compared to virtually the entire runs of a defunct company)

Just a thought, but I wouldnt put my money on a valiant book, not even close.

 

Not true of any pre-Unity Valiant book (1991-mid1992).

Gareb (and his mom) didn't start "hyping" Valiant until after the Unity crossover.

 

If you haven't read the Pre-Unity issues (and most people haven't, even if they were Valiant fans),

then you're missing the heart of Valiant.

 

Sure people bought massive amounts of Bloodshot and Turok comics

(and then video games) in 1993-94, but that's not what made Valiant special.

If Bloodshot existed at all in the Valiant books you read,

you're already reading too late.

 

Those post-Unity Valiant books (1993-94) are already worthless

(Bloodshot #1, Turok #1, X-O Manowar #0, Rai #9, Magnus #25, Deathmate, etc.)

so your warning is helpful, but doesn't convey any new information.

 

Anyone suggesting that a 1993 Valiant is worth anything needs to be strung up.

Half-cover price is more than fair for most Valiant books, probably 95%.

 

But that's true of almost every other publisher as well.

If Dark Horse put out 1,000 books in the 1990s, how many are worth more than cover price today? 10? That's 1%.

Marvel and DC didn't have many "keys" in the 1990s either...

at least, very few that are actually worth (that is, they sell for) cover price or more today. 1%?

Image? Probably less than 1% matter.

 

Valiant is no exception... 95% are worthless. It's the other 5% that "buzz" (continually).

[jonjesper]

Valiant...blah

 

The buzz is Gareb Shamus's mother sitting on a warehouse full of these and Wizard pumping the price up. I remember hearing this a few different times from few different people a couple of years ago when they 'seemed' to make a resurgance.

Not sure if it is true or not, but makes you wonder why something that dropped to .25 bins for years and was thought of as filler stock is now suddenly desireable as an entire line of comics (example 1 issue of a defunct series, compared to virtually the entire runs of a defunct company)

Just a thought, but I wouldnt put my money on a valiant book, not even close.

 

Not true of any pre-Unity Valiant book (1991-mid1992).

Gareb (and his mom) didn't start "hyping" Valiant until after the Unity crossover.

 

If you haven't read the Pre-Unity issues (and most people haven't, even if they were Valiant fans),

then you're missing the heart of Valiant.

 

Sure people bought massive amounts of Bloodshot and Turok comics

(and then video games) in 1993-94, but that's not what made Valiant special.

If Bloodshot existed at all in the Valiant books you read,

you're already reading too late.

 

Those post-Unity Valiant books (1993-94) are already worthless

(Bloodshot #1, Turok #1, X-O Manowar #0, Rai #9, Magnus #25, Deathmate, etc.)

so your warning is helpful, but doesn't convey any new information.

 

Anyone suggesting that a 1993 Valiant is worth anything needs to be strung up.

Half-cover price is more than fair for most Valiant books, probably 95%.

 

But that's true of almost every other publisher as well.

If Dark Horse put out 1,000 books in the 1990s, how many are worth more than cover price today? 10? That's 1%.

Marvel and DC didn't have many "keys" in the 1990s either...

at least, very few that are actually worth (that is, they sell for) cover price or more today. 1%?

Image? Probably less than 1% matter.

 

Valiant is no exception... 95% are worthless. It's the other 5% that "buzz" (continually).

 

 

I knew my post would draw you out , thanks for the info! I knew I would get the real skinny on the Shamus deal from you!

[valiantman]

I knew my post would draw you out , thanks for the info! I knew I would get the real skinny on the Shamus deal from you!

 

 

Wizard (since its inception) has been a "hype machine"... that's a given.

 

Whatever they're riding the bandwagon on (even now) is probably not 1/2 as good as they say.

 

It gives me great pleasure to know that Wizard missed the REAL Valiant bandwagon altogether,

and by the time they jumped on... it was too late.

 

 

(Still not denying that 95% of Valiant isn't "buzzworthy"... but a return might be.)

[valiantman]

And what's up with ValiantMan and the stale prices on his web site? Is he on vacation in '06? Hope he shows up here so we can tar and feather him or coerce him to get back on the job so we can all enjoy the fruit of his labors!

 

After at least 5 years of tracking Valiant books, I came to these conclusions:

 

1) Not a lot of change in EBay sales for raw Valiant books...

- 95% are still worth cover price or less

- More valuable books still sell for prices very close to the ValiantComics.com guide

 

2) The most fluctuation has been for CGC graded versions of the 5% "collectible" Valiants

("collectible" Valiants generally means anything prior to August '92, or a dealer incentive.)

- GPAnalysis already tracks all these auctions

 

3) A major increase/find of any particularly valuable Valiant book would have

an immediate and unpredictable effect on the market price,

so the guide would become somewhat useless at that moment for that book.

 

4) I spent a lot of time tracking, compiling, storing, and displaying information that was essentially unchanging.

 

As a result, I have stopped updating the ValiantComics.com price guide as long as I feel

that the prices are still valid for the books.

(I guess I've basically switched from a monthly guide to an annual one.)

 

I will make immediate changes following case #3 (when/if it occurs).

 

To top it all off, I started grad school, so it's really a case of time management.

I look for the biggest impact for my efforts. (Static information being low priority.)

 

[FlyingDonut]

At the risk of being a broken record, I'll buy every single one of your pre-Unity Valiants, and the last issue of all titles. Send them to me.

[sckao]

At the risk of being a broken record, I'll buy every single one of your pre-Unity Valiants, and the last issue of all titles. Send them to me.

 

How much are we talking about per Pre-Unity?

[FlyingDonut]

well, since everybody says they're worthless...

 

PM me.

[joe_collector]

well, since everybody says they're worthless...

 

[FlyingDonut]

well, since everybody says they're worthless...

 

 

You don't?