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Comico Primer Club.
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233 posts in this topic

Back to comics after 30+ year break.  I have a Primer #2 that may be 9.8 candidate.  (I actually bought it new from a comic shop in the 80's...I'm old).  I've never submitted to CGC.  Little scared on the process.  Been trying to learn.  Couple tiny tics on seam, that's it. I was hoping to get some advice with 3 questions.  1) I don't know what value to declare when submitting since the value range is so huge between a 9.6 and a 9.8.  2) I am terrified of sending this through the mail.  Insurance recommendations?  3)  Would having it signed by Matt Wagner help or hurt it's value?   

Sorry, just a scared beginner here!  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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Back to comics after 30+ year break.  I have a Primer #2 that may be 9.8 candidate.  (I actually bought it new from a comic shop in the 80's...I'm old).  I've never submitted to CGC.  Little scared on the process.  Been trying to learn.  Couple tiny tics on seam, that's it. I was hoping to get some advice with 3 questions.  1) I don't know what value to declare when submitting since the value range is so huge between a 9.6 and a 9.8.  2) I am terrified of sending this through the mail.  Insurance recommendations?  3)  Would having it signed by Matt Wagner help or hurt it's value?   

Sorry, just a scared beginner here!  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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If you have visible spine tics, 9.8 is pretty unlikely...

The signature is all up to you though! Will it be more valuable? Maybe a little. I got mine signed "to jim" though, which definitely hurts the value, but I didn't care... that's what I wanted!

I never bothered insuring shipments to CGC, and I've never had an issue. (Always sent via USPS Priority) That, of course, is a risk, and I'm not sure I'd send anything valuable right now without insurance just based on what I've been hearing about delays and such with USPS.

Don't sweat the value too much... keep it at a lower tier for the initial submission. If you make some kind of major error CGC will change the tier once they have the book. 

Hope that helps a bit... welcome back to collecting! :)

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On 1/9/2021 at 4:48 PM, NSR said:

Back to comics after 30+ year break.  I have a Primer #2 that may be 9.8 candidate.  (I actually bought it new from a comic shop in the 80's...I'm old).  I've never submitted to CGC.  Little scared on the process.  Been trying to learn.  Couple tiny tics on seam, that's it. I was hoping to get some advice with 3 questions.  1) I don't know what value to declare when submitting since the value range is so huge between a 9.6 and a 9.8.  2) I am terrified of sending this through the mail.  Insurance recommendations?  3)  Would having it signed by Matt Wagner help or hurt it's value?   

Sorry, just a scared beginner here!  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome back!

As mentioned above, with any tics on the spine, it's not a 9.8. A 9.2 might be best case, in my experience. Still worth slabbing it. 

1) the value you put only matters for insurance when CGC mails it back to you. I would use 299 in this case, to get the lowest cost slabbing fee.
2) I've shipped about a 1000 books, never insured anything, never had any problems. Obviously YMMV. 
3) signatures generally increase value

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I've always loved these books.  Probably my favorite character of the 80s.  What do you guys think about the long-term potential of Grendel (Hunter Rose)?  It used to be as popular as TMNT and Albedo back in the day and has since fallen quite behind.  Thoughts?

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I really appreciate the DH over sized hardcover collections too. Would like to be able to have the whole story in that format, but it's not quite complete, right? I haven't looked in a while... 

War Child is the first I ever read due to that badass Biz cover on #1. For a long time that's all I knew of Grendel... but Hunter is the shiz, and I'd love to see his story adapted. Seems like it'd be a fairly cost-friendly story to make too...

But either way... don't need it on TV for it to still be great! I should really upgrade my 1-3 before that happens though...

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5 hours ago, F For Fake said:

It's an interesting question, and I have conflicting feelings.

On one hand, Grendel is absolutely one of my all time favorite stories and comic series. The scope and imagination of the Grendel Saga, as it progressed from the humble beginnings of Primer 2/Comico Mini/Mage back-ups, into what it would become at Dark Horse, is mind boggling. A weird sci-fi crime noir eventually evolved into a rumination on the centuries-long ramifications of evil. It's pretty heavy, and crazy, stuff.

So, to be sure, I love Grendel, and my Primer 2 is one of my absolutely favorite back issues that I own.

BUT...as for the prices, I don't really know what's keeping them aloft. True ,they're nowhere close to TMNT and Usagi prices, but they're still much higher than you might expect for a character that hasn't been particularly relevant for 25 years.  In the last ten years there have been, what, 2 mini-series involving the character? One was a crossover with The Shadow, another was a revisit of Grendel Prime. Before that, you have to go all the way back to 2007 for the last Grendel Mini Series. That's not a lot of action on the publishing front. The character is basically invisible to current readers. The only people who care are likely the same folks like me who were reading it in the 80's, and have stuck it out. And as a result, Primer still stays pricey due to a memory of how popular the character once was, whereas most everythign from the Comico ongoing through all of the DH books would be considered dollar bin fodder.

So, the character isn't really relevant to current comics, so why do the prices on Primer and the 3-issue mini stay up? Is it simply because of that nostalgic love of how great the series used to be? Is it because Primer and the mini are still relatively hard to find compared to other characters from the era? I'm not sure.

What I DO know is that given the current value on these books, absent of any real presence in the world of comic books today, any sort of media announcement would be pretty huge. In the current market, tv and movie announcements send prices on relatively easy books to go sky-rocketing. If Grendel were suddenly optioned for an HBO miniseries, those high prices are going to get crazy high, I'd reckon. He won't ever touch TMNT numbers, but I could see the title once again sharing a spotlight with Usagi.

And to that end, if there were a media adaptation, HBO mini would be my preference. I'd like to see the story begin with Christine, telling Hunter's story in flashback. And then just let it all unfurl from there. You could do entire seasons on Hunter, Christine, Brian, Eppy, etc before even getting to Grendel Prime, Grendel Khan, and all of the future stuff. It could be really, really cool.

Again, all just conjecture and speculation. My series is pretty much complete (there are a couple of random Dark Horse issues I haven't picked up, but haven't been in any hurry to get as they aren't worth anything), so I'm satisfied. But mostly I wish more people were tuned in to Matt's awesome world of Grendel

Nice post.  I agree.  Back in 2007 I was speaking to Matt at a convention, probably NYCC or SDCC, and he was really trying to pitch Grendel for a movie.  That obviously never happened, but I agree the plots a great fodder for a mini-series.  The initial Hunter Rose Devil by the Deed is great, as is the Christine Sparr storyline.  I'm surprised that with all the possible venues it can't find a home.  But then again it depends on how good the pitch is.

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On 1/11/2021 at 8:32 AM, Schmakt said:

If you have visible spine tics, 9.8 is pretty unlikely...

The signature is all up to you though! Will it be more valuable? Maybe a little. I got mine signed "to jim" though, which definitely hurts the value, but I didn't care... that's what I wanted!

I never bothered insuring shipments to CGC, and I've never had an issue. (Always sent via USPS Priority) That, of course, is a risk, and I'm not sure I'd send anything valuable right now without insurance just based on what I've been hearing about delays and such with USPS.

Don't sweat the value too much... keep it at a lower tier for the initial submission. If you make some kind of major error CGC will change the tier once they have the book. 

Hope that helps a bit... welcome back to collecting! :)

Thank you so much for your info!  I appreciate it.

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This was a CGC 9.4 Qualified (because of the unwitnessed signature) until I broke it out. That was 10+ years ago. Recently I pressed it as it had a slight finger bend on the top edge of the front cover. It's still a solid 9.4 if not better.

Truly one of my grails. I added a signed and sketched (first interior page) Grendel 1 CGC 9.2 to my collection this past year.

2079898237_Primer2(CGC9.4qualified).thumb.jpg.2531e86a0941605bc40ba6aeeba3fd26.jpg

Edited by grendelbo
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On 9/14/2021 at 4:24 PM, Sauce Dog said:

Better snag those 1st Grendels while you can before the new Netflix series debuts, I'm sure we are going to see a wave of speculation bumps finally for this issue :D

That's hysterical- I thought you were joking but it seems not!

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On 9/6/2021 at 11:14 PM, grendelbo said:

This was a CGC 9.4 Qualified until I broke it out. That was 10+ years ago. Recently I pressed it as it had a slight finger bend on the top edge of the front cover. It's still a solid 9.4 if not better.

Truly one of my grails. I added a signed and sketched (first interior page) Grendel 1 CGC 9.2 to my collection this past year.

2079898237_Primer2(CGC9.4qualified).thumb.jpg.2531e86a0941605bc40ba6aeeba3fd26.jpg

These will be among the last to go when my hobby ends.

Grendel 1 CGC 9.2.jpg

Grendel 1 CGC 9.2 M. Wagner signature and sketch a.jpg

Grendel 1 CGC 9.2 M. Wagner signature and sketch b.jpg

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