Any guesses how much this 30 center goes for?

[DiceX]

I've not seen but a few of these, ever.

But then again, it's probably one of the more well known ones and sticks in your mind.

 

30 Cents

 

Any guesses on the final price?

[buena_vista]

It's actually not as rare as previously thought. More of these books have popped out of the woodworks the past year or so. My guess it'll go for $175-200 in that shape. Maybe even less. I bought my copy at the Orlando con this year, in about the same shape, for $85 but not CGC'd.

[DiceX]

It's actually not as rare as previously thought. More of these books have popped out of the woodworks the past year or so. My guess it'll go for $175-200 in that shape. Maybe even less. I bought my copy at the Orlando con this year, in about the same shape, for $85 but not CGC'd.

 

I guess it stands to reason that since X-Men had a higher print run than most of the other books, this one would be a little more common.

[joe_collector]

I guess it stands to reason that since X-Men had a higher print run than most of the other books, this one would be a little more common.

 

Actually, this statement is a common misconception. X-Men had extremely low print runs early on, it didn't become a monthly title until issue 112 or 113, and even well into the Byrne run, the comic was near the bottom of the Marvel sales charts.

 

What's popular today is not always what was hot in the past.

 

We went through this (with stats and print runs) in the What Comic Started the Bronze Age thread.

[rob_react]

It's actually not as rare as previously thought. More of these books have popped out of the woodworks the past year or so. My guess it'll go for $175-200 in that shape. Maybe even less. I bought my copy at the Orlando con this year, in about the same shape, for $85 but not CGC'd.

 

I guess it stands to reason that since X-Men had a higher print run than most of the other books, this one would be a little more common.

 

X-Men was a bi-monthly book that had just come out of reprints. It was definitely at the bottom of the super-hero sales charts. I believe Daredevil was out-selling it at that point and Daredevil, before Frank Miller showed up, wasn't the hottest selling title. It wasn't until after John Byrne took over that X-Men became the "hot book" on the shelves. Without the Standard Catalog in front of me I'd guess that X-Men had half the print run of something like Spider-Man and probably one third less everything else. The only reason the X-Men variants show up with a little bit of regularity is the fact that they're broken out in the price guide and have a high guide value. It takes no variant savvy to know that these are worth buying and listing.

[joe_collector]

Here's a reprint of my original look at the early X-Men sales/print runs. Although I like the Byrne work, his influence wasn't really felt until the late 130's, and then carried over into the mid-80's where X-Men took over as the top-selling book:

 

Here's some annual averages:

 

X-Men 104 (April 1977): 116K sold, 250K printed

 

X-Men 110 (April 1978): 125K sold, 260K printed

 

X-Men 120 (April 1979): 113K sold, 260K printed

 

Now these did grow into the 1980's, but we're in 1979 and X-Men (even with Byrne) aren't exactly heating up the charts, and could easily be catalogued as a "poor seller" at Marvel.

 

[shadroch]

Here's a reprint of my original look at the early X-Men sales/print runs. Although I like the Byrne work, his influence wasn't really felt until the late 130's, and then carried over into the mid-80's where X-Men took over as the top-selling book:

 

Here's some annual averages:

 

X-Men 104 (April 1977): 116K sold, 250K printed

 

X-Men 110 (April 1978): 125K sold, 260K printed

 

X-Men 120 (April 1979): 113K sold, 260K printed

 

Now these did grow into the 1980's, but we're in 1979 and X-Men (even with Byrne) aren't exactly heating up the charts, and could easily be catalogued as a "poor seller" at Marvel.

 

Just keep in mind that many of those unsold copies ended up in wareouse finds a few years later,well preserved and directly into the hands of dealers.

[joe_collector]

Just keep in mind that many of those unsold copies ended up in wareouse finds a few years later,well preserved and directly into the hands of dealers.

 

And the point of your comment is?

 

These print runs were extremely low for the era, and by your reckoning the 500K-600K+ runs of the high Marvel sellers also ended up there in pristine condition.

 

It's all relative.

[harveyfan323]

Here's some annual averages:

 

X-Men 104 (April 1977): 116K sold, 250K printed

 

Now these did grow into the 1980's, but we're in 1979 and X-Men (even with Byrne) aren't exactly heating up the charts, and could easily be catalogued as a "poor seller" at Marvel.

 

That puts current comic sales into sharp perspective as a 100K seller these days is a bonafide hit as I understand it.

 

In 10 years, I wonder if a comic selling 50K copies will be at the top of Diamond's chart?

[joe_collector]

In 10 years, I wonder if a comic selling 50K copies will be at the top of Diamond's chart?

 

Actually, it probably should be "In 10 years, I wonder if a comic will be at the top of Diamond's chart?

[shadroch]

Just keep in mind that many of those unsold copies ended up in wareouse finds a few years later,well preserved and directly into the hands of dealers.

 

And the point of your comment is?

 

These print runs were extremely low for the era, and by your reckoning the 500K-600K+ runs of the high Marvel sellers also ended up there in pristine condition.

 

It's all relative.

 

I dunno, it would seem my point was quite clear. In addition to the books that were reported sold,there were thousands of the unsold books sitting in warehouses that surfaced later. Never mentioned printruns nor compared them to any other title. Simply pointed out that an additional number of books were available than you would deduce from reading your sales charts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BTW an accurate comparison would have shown xmen sales compared to the best selling books. Which books from this era had printruns of 600k

[joe_collector]

BTW an accurate comparison would have shown xmen sales compared to the best selling books. Which books from this era had printruns of 600k

 

I know ASM did, and even a sad-sack book like Daredevil was outselling/printing X-Men. Don't get me wrong, these X-Men books are not rare, but their have a relative scarcity to the era.

[rob_react]

For comparison's sake, here are some numbers I pulled out of the standard catalog a while back. These are the number reported under statement of ownership number from the month that Tomb Of Dracula 10 came out (a few years earlier.) I'll look at the month X-Men 100 came out when I get home.

 

...Amazing Spider-Man had a circulation of 273,204, Avengers was at 183,039, Captain America was at 175,738, Daredevil was at 168,379, Fantastic Four was at 218,330, Hulk was at 187,318, Thor was at 195,239, and X-Men (which was in reprints) was at 127,663.

[joe_collector]

Amazing Spider-man

 

1974: 315K Sold / 575K Printed

 

1975: 288K Sold / 580K Printed

 

1976: 273K Sold / 555K Sold

 

1977: 326K Sold / 643K Printed

[rob_react]

Where's that from?

[joe_collector]

Where's that from?

 

Comic book letterpages.

[shadroch]

Assuming you two are using numbers from the same original souce,it seems the X-men actually sold more books when they were in reprints than thru issues 120. I always was under the impression that sales had declined in the early 70s but by 76-77 they were back up.I remember Daredevil sales had declined greatly around issue 108 and it was announced that it was going bi-monthly although I'm not sure it ever did.I thought increased sales across the board were the driving force behind the Nova,Marvel premier,Human Torch ect,ect of the same time frame.

On a whole, are sales fom 1977-78 equal to or lower than 74-75?

[joe_collector]

Actually, I think sales in 77 are higher than the early to mid-70's. That's the start of the Direct Market really catching on, which was a good thing.... until Marvel and DC worked the scam and started racking comic prices in the 80's.

 

There was a chart in an OS or CBG that showed how each successive price jump lowered sales all through the 80's.