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Moderns that are heating up on ebay!
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Started by thirdgreenham,

63,755 posts in this topic

ygogolak

ygogolak

Posted
Posted

 

On the other hand, the overstreet magazine would publish market reports acknowledged that the valiant books were selling for that much, many of the dealers thought it made no sense.

 

Anecdotally, my friend who owned a shop told me he would get tons of calls asking for the valiant books. He ultimately got the sense that these might have been people Pais by valiant to pump up interest in the books. I wonder if other shop owners had a similar experience.

 

Right, but Overstreet was reporting sales. Whereas, as others have said, Wizard was stating books were hot before they were released.

 

 

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FrankCastle

FrankCastle

Posted
Posted

And I know so many of us were there, and it was hard to report sales on Valiants because 'at the time' the books were super scarce! But I witnessed multiple sales over $100 for Harbinger 1 for sure, among many others. The hype and flash was all with Image, Valiant WAS selling for big money. However those were low printed books (in comparison to other books of the period). The mistake Wizard made (and perhaps Valiant now knowing companies were paying to be on the hot list), was to continue to push books that had a million print run or more. There was no way the hobby could sustain that, and we all remember what happened soon thereafter!

 

Jay

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fastballspecial

fastballspecial

Posted
Posted (edited)
Very impressive book. Almost a $100 book in raw in VF grade or better.

 

ASM 654 2nd print

 

$100, should be in the cooling thread then. :baiting:

 

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=9308311#Post9308311

 

:foryou:

 

Maybe so, pretty consistently at $80-100 raw last 6 months. Maybe its

hit its equilibrium price. Auctions and BINS are all around there now.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Fastballspecial
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Jaydogrules

Jaydogrules

Posted
Posted
Very impressive book. Almost a $100 book in raw in VF grade or better.

 

ASM 654 2nd print

 

Don't think I ever saw that even when it dropped, or since even. I was buying a lot of 2nd print Marvels over the years with the nifty covers; often times they were better than the 1st prints.

 

Isn't that particular cover just a reprint of an interior panel ? If it is, it's nothing I'd ever be interested in at any price.

 

-J.

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MrWeen

MrWeen

Posted
Posted
Though at least that Wizard list was based on sales, and not just "opinion" or their own books

 

? Now THAT is funny.

 

For those curious about the actual history of things, and not just what people want to believe are real, the Wizard list was very much like what you see today. All based upon someone trying to make money off of comics, the truth be damned.

 

In fact, thanks to early Image's horribly late printing schedule, there were times a book would appear in Wizards Top Ten hottest comics, when in actuality that book hadn't even been released yet.

 

Publisher's PAID them to have their books promoted. It was probably the most gratuitous example of taking advantage of consumers' greed and stupidity to feed a publishers greed that I've seen in the history of comics.

 

And it led to the market shrinking down to it's worst numbers ever.

 

To think for even one moment, that Wizard Magazine's intentions were pure or honorable, is completely blind. They saw an opportunity to take advantage of the marketplace and they did so with cunning and precision, and unfortunately with a carless regard for how it would impact the industry and the hobby.

 

This is why people see flippers as bad for the hobby. It undermines the essence of what comics should be about - the writing and the art, and instead turns it into a product, a commodity; something to be bought low and sold high for the sake of money.

 

I'm gonna stick up for Wizard because they offered a lot

of well written, useful content that had nothing to do with flipping. Massive print runs and poor

storytelling did more to hurt the industry

than a magazine about comics ever did.

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fastballspecial

fastballspecial

Posted
Posted (edited)

Wizard was a victim of their own success. They started a comic book company which never panned out then moved into the Convention business.

 

I don't know enough of that aspect to speak to it, but when you have your hands in several pots in the same industry its a disaster in the making. The internet killed their magazine, but their greed is killing their convention business.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Fastballspecial
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COMICKINGS

COMICKINGS

Posted
Posted

Those early Valiants were selling like crack at the shows on the bulletin boards and in the shop back then. Every one we got we sold. Harbinger 1's $125...Rai 3,4 $90-$100 each....Magnus 12 $100...just to name some of the keys...good times....Wizard was legit on those pre-Unity books!

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

Posted
Posted
Wizard was a victim of their own success. They started a comic book company which never panned out then moved into the Convention business.

 

I don't know enough of that aspect to speak to it, but when you have your hands in several pots in the same industry its a disaster in the making. The internet killed their magazine, but their greed is killing their convention business.

 

 

Shamus' parents owned a comic book store in Jersey and had success.

The magazine was a success, it ran for almost 20 years. (And I'm sure the magazine helped his parents store sell a lot of back issues).

And the conventions have overall been a success, they just extended themselves too far into markets that just couldn't sustain them.

Their greed is certainly their undoing, but no different than many other business' that try and expand. Shamus walked away from it unscathed and quite wealthy.

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JayT

JayT

Posted
Posted

I have fond memories of Wizard (the actual magazine, I don't care about cons) as its height aligns with my own childhood, comics were most exciting to me when Wizard was a force and was an instant buy for me almost above any comic when it was released. It's weird that a magazine that can be, I think, properly described as comics internet pre-net was so bad at transitioning to the .com/digital era - looking back they seemed to have the right stuff for it, even (something I didn't enjoy) jumping into celebrity/film news which is more fruitful online.

 

I think perhaps the mail section lived too long, and didn't age with its readers, and the same could be said with a bunch of section but in earlier iterations the hot comics/top 10 was gold to me, even though I was not and had not intention of selling comics - it was just fun. I suspect maybe less so for people that were already old at this time.

 

There was a of fluff for sure but every now and then you'd get a killer piece, be it a indie highlight or something like an article I always remember about BIll Mantolo, which was heartbreaking and excellent. I'm not into Love and Rockets but also recall a real nice piece on it as well.

 

As a business, unless he made an unrelated misstep Shamus had to come off big. Think about how much money the big indie comic creators of the early 90s made per issue (the Image founders etc - I think that for some given today's environment it's hard for people who weren't around to wrap their head around just how much money these guys were pocketing - legit getting rich in a short period of time) and now think about how much a magazine, at that price point, which had to have circulation like the top comics had to make. He paid for a cover just like comic creators/companies did, filled it up with a mostly unchanging price guide and fluff pieces (as much as I liked the top 10, someone could write that in an hour if they had to), and had access to everyone people wanted to read about - and unlike a lot of those comic creators that magazine was out almost every month. He was printing money and Wizard was everywhere I ever was overseas. You might not be able to find you favorite U.S. car or lifestyle magazine on a island in the Med, but Wizard was there every month.

 

We often make fun of certain eras of comics and the comics sitting around unwanted in incredible volume (say like X-Force #1). Well, the people who actually made those comics made bank, comics aren't meant to be evergreen, they are periodcials and Wizards was the magazine of those comics.

 

There certainly was a nefarious nature to Wizard as some describe above, they certainly were capable of and did steer the hobby in ways, but I think it's not much different than other magazines telling you what the hot shoe or car is going to be next fall and having them as investors or advertisers, and I'd file it under simply being an entertainment/hobby magazine at the top of its vertical. There are always external forces, advertisers, distributors etc, and unlike sport cards, comics doesn't have that actual on-field production moment of truth that effects value no matter how much you are or not pumped. Brien Taylor and Todd Van Poppel fell of fast lol.

 

I never really had a problem with Wizard in the early days, the only time I really was like WTF was much later during that Cap#25 thing where I seem to recall (I hope I'm remembering this right, if not, please disregard!) they were loaded up with graded copies really early. Didn't pass the smell test but also, not too different than some here would gladly do too probably. The magazine did not age well tho in the time of digital distribution and not to knock anyone because I seem to recall a lot of the talent saying they weren't being allowed to do the content they thought would succeed, but it was a pretty awful late, but not different than most comic websites in that regard now. They should have use their advantages of branding and income and skipped the website aspect and went write into youtube/video, where during this kind of nerd boom people are doing pretty well.

 

Okay, that went long, sorry. Mort of the Month poster, here.

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Lonzilla

Lonzilla

Posted
Posted

Detective 850 over the last few days is staying steady. I'm still finding them at cover or slightly above cover at shops. Sure it will be a wall book in a month once they figure it out

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Comics/63/i.html?_from=R40&_sop=1&_nkw=detective%20850&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

 

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