Conan the Barbarian #1 to #24 CGC 9.8+ Scan and Photo Library 1 1

[Rune]

Another #6 just emerged, graded May 18 2015. It's WP pedigree

 

 

Get it here:

 

http://www.pedigreecomics.com/auction-detail.php?issue_id=52012

 

I've got scans of 7 of the current 9 books:

 

http://s1270.photobucket.com/user/runesr2/library/Issue06?sort=9&page=1

[Rune]

Graded April 17 2015, this is probably the latest Conan the Barbarian #1 to be graded 9.8 - with nice pure WP:

 

 

Get it here:

 

http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?back=%2Fsearch%2Easp%3F_SORT%3DYES%26where%3Dsell%26title%3Dconan%26ItemType%3DCB%26f1%3DLastUpdate%26ODire1%3DDESC%26f2%3D4%26ODire2%3DASC%26f3%3DIssueNumber%252C%2BVolumeNumber%26ODire3%3DASC&id=1068859

[Rune]

Here's probably a chance to grab an inexpensive Conan #8 9.8:

 

 

Get it here:

 

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2Fauctions%2Fsearch%2Easp%3F_SORT%3DYES%26where%3Dsell%26title%3Dconan%26ItemType%3DCB%26f1%3DCondition%26ODire1%3DDESC%26f2%3D4%252C%2BIssueNumber%252C%2BVolumeNumber%26ODire2%3DASC%26f3%3DMaxBidX%26ODire3%3DDESC%23Item_1069958&id=1069958

 

Graded May 2015 and photo just added to the library (Yes, I know it's Qualified, but I leave no 9.8+ book behind! )

[cujobyte]

Nice thread! Great books!

[Rune]

Nice thread! Great books!

 

Thank you

 

BTW, there has been one thing I've been wondering about. It seems that two Conan #1 are quite similar - is it the same book?

 

The first one is 0015782005, graded in 2000, scanned in 2011:

 

 

And then there's 1108403001 from 2012:

 

 

None of the other 36 Conan the Barbarian #1 books look identical to eachother, or maybe I'm just going blind

 

Check the bottom staple, the cover orientation and alignment - of course different scanners have been used, so colors and shadows may differ.

[Rune]

The 38th copy of #1 just arrived, graded August 10 2015:

 

 

Place your bids here (thumbs u

 

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2Fauctions%2Fsearch%2Easp%3F_SORT%3DYES%26where%3Dsell%26title%3Dconan%26ItemType%3DCB%26f1%3DCondition%26ODire1%3DDESC%26f2%3D4%252C%2BIssueNumber%252C%2BVolumeNumber%26ODire2%3DASC%26f3%3DMaxBidX%26ODire3%3DDESC%23Item_1076291&id=1076291

 

Sigh, was more fun when I was a young collector and there were only 9 copies of #1 9.8

[Hibou]

Nice thread! Great books!

 

Thank you

 

BTW, there has been one thing I've been wondering about. It seems that two Conan #1 are quite similar - is it the same book?

 

The first one is 0015782005, graded in 2000, scanned in 2011:

 

 

And then there's 1108403001 from 2012:

 

 

None of the other 36 Conan the Barbarian #1 books look identical to eachother, or maybe I'm just going blind

 

Check the bottom staple, the cover orientation and alignment - of course different scanners have been used, so colors and shadows may differ.

 

I love the cover to Conan 1 and every time I see one, it takes a lot to not pick them up.

 

Anyways, I think these are two different books...

 

At the top, in the[font:Comic Sans MS] 'NEW! FIRST TIME IN COMIC BOOK FORM!'[/font] title (on the old label book) it looks like the last exclamation point is very slightly cut off on the top at the end of [font:Comic Sans MS]'FORM!'.[/font]

[Rune]

You might be right - I did try to enhance the images:

 

 

 

Still hard to get rid of the black shadow on the top image - now it nearly looks as if the exclamation point goes beyond the book, sigh :-)

 

I guess two books printed in succession (or close) could explain the phenomenon, but all the other #1 books look different; in the old days it looks nearly like a book got its own fingerprint when being printed... Even the two Suscha News #18 books look identical, but one of them has a small ink stain...

 

 

Edited August 24, 2015 by Rune

[Rune]

Just added three more books from the CLink auction to the library:

 

 

 

 

I hope the winner is happy about getting #3 for such a low price, especially because it is a perfectly centered book with great colors. Did consider dumping 1.5k on it, but decided not to - I already have 3 copies and thought I do not need more (and I do like an OW pedigree book more than a non-pedigree WP book)...

 

 

 

 

My #3s:

 

 

Still have not seen a high grade #3 with more perfect centering and orientation than this book (perfect orientation meaning that horizontal lines are truly horizontal - not going up or down across the cover):

 

My Northland 9.8:

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2015 by Rune

[Rune]

A new Annual #1 has emerged - maybe the best looking so far - had to reconstruct the scan, because the seller provided the label and the book in two seperate scans, did my best

 

 

Graded July 22nd 2015. Get it here:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONAN-THE-BARBARIAN-ANNUAL-1-CGC-9-8-WHITE-PAGES-SMITH-COVER-1973-WOW-/111777228262?

 

Seems like the Annual #1 Census just exploded from 9 to 17 - so now there's enough for everybody Well, sort of... So maybe one collector just dumped a lot of Conan Annual #1s on CGC and got 8 9.8 books back, in that case we might be seing many more in the next months... At least it's very rare for the Census to jump so high in such a short time - I mean for 15 years only 9 books were found, and suddenly that figure doubles in less than a year...

[Rune]

Just added two more books:

 

 

 

#2 is from February 2015 thus Census did not just grow - there are 11 #2 9.8, I now have pictures of 10.

 

Did not check #24, these are plenty, one more will not rock the boat...

 

Get them both on CLink in the November auction.

[Rune]

With this scan I've got scans of 8 out of 9 Conan the Barb #6 9.8 books

 

 

Graded Feb 2015, get it here:

 

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2Fauctions%2Fsearch%2Easp%3F_SORT%3DYES%26where%3Dsell%26title%3Dconan%26ItemType%3DCB%26f1%3DCondition%26ODire1%3DDESC%26f2%3D4%252C%2BIssueNumber%252C%2BVolumeNumber%26ODire2%3DASC%26f3%3DMaxBidX%26ODire3%3DDESC%23Item_1089257&id=1089257

 

See the 8 books here:

 

http://s1270.photobucket.com/user/runesr2/library/Issue06?sort=9&page=1

 

 

[Rune]

Just added two new #1s to the library:

 

 

 

Get them here:

 

http://comics.ha.com/itm/bronze-age-1970-1979-/conan-the-barbarian-1-marvel-1970-cgc-nm-mt-98-white-pages/a/7152-91238.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

 

http://comics.ha.com/itm/bronze-age-1970-1979-/conan-the-barbarian-1-marvel-1970-cgc-nm-mt-98-white-pages/p/7124-21001.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

 

The first was graded in 2010, the latter in September 2015. Census 37 Universal book in 9.8 and one SS.

 

On a side note, I think Obama made some great statements in relation to yesterday's terrorist attacks in Paris:

 

Edited November 14, 2015 by Rune

[Rune]

And today's Census overview, only Universal & Signature, 9.8 or better, a total of 364 books (drum roll):

 

 

Not many differences here since last year, although #1 still seems to be increasing - to break it up:

 

Max. 5 books in Census: #11-12, and 18 (thus these books are the most scarce of all).

6 - 10 books: #4, 6, 10, 14, 20-22, and Annual 1.

11 - 15 books: #2-3, 5, 15-17, and 19.

16 - 20 books: #23

21 books or more: #1, 7-9, 13, and 24.

 

Or an average of 15 books per issue... (median 12, with interquartile ranges 7 to 18, sorry I'll stop now )

 

PS. Could not help it, currently 7 new books have arrived in 5 months, so Census is increasing about 1.4 books per month, wonder when it'll stop...

 

One full year has passed - and currently Census looks like this - black colors mark last year's results, red colors mark November 2015:

 

 

Now there are 400 books in total, last year 364 (difference = 36 books), thus Census grew 3 books each month during the last year.

 

During the last year, each issue had the following number of new books added to the Census:

#1 - 4.

#2 - 1.

#3 - 1.

#4 - no changes.

#5 - no changes.

#6 - 2.

#7 - 1.

#8 - no changes.

#9 - 1.

#10 - 1.

#11 - no changes.

#12 - no changes.

#13 - no changes.

#14 - no changes.

#15 - no changes.

#16 - no changes.

#17 - 1.

#18 - no changes.

#19 - 1.

#20 - no changes.

#21 - 2.

#22 - 2.

#23 - 3.

#24 - 8.

Annual #1 - 8.

 

So for the Census regarding Annual #1 and #24, each issue grew by 8 more books - #1 grew by 4 books - four issues grew by 2 books - six issues grew by 1 book - and Census for 11 issues did not change during the year.

 

And what to learn from this Maybe that Annual #1 will be easier to get soon

 

Can't wait to continue next year, this is so exciting

[Rune]

A new #7 was graded Nov 3 2015 and just arrived on eBay:

 

 

I've added it to the library - so now there're photos of 21 out of 26 books:

 

http://s1270.photobucket.com/user/runesr2/library/Issue07?sort=3&page=1

 

Get the book here:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONAN-the-BARBARIAN-7-CGC-9-8-BW-SMITH-1ST-THOTH-AMON-1971-BUSCEMA-BY-CROM-/141844796297?

[Rune]

An another #7 just got added to the library

 

 

- together with #10:

 

 

Both graded Nov 20 2015.

 

Get them here:

 

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/search.asp?_SORT=YES&where=sell&title=conan&ItemType=CB&f1=Condition&ODire1=DESC&f2=4%+IssueNumber%+VolumeNumber&ODire2=ASC&f3=MaxBidX&ODire3=DESC

 

[Rune]

Conan book of the month? - Just added this one to the scan library

 

 

You can get it here - maybe

 

http://comics.ha.com/itm/bronze-age-1970-1979-/miscellaneous/conan-the-barbarian-annual-1-marvel-1973-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/121602-12319.s?type=wlem&wlc=511467971

[Vorpal]

Rune, this library/archive that you're keeping is really impressive. I love your passion and dedication. Your histograms are inspiring me to do something similar with my collecting focus. I do have a question, though. For the issues with really low census numbers, do you think that desirability/value (since these two things are intertwined) is a factor in any of them? Or is any Conan #1-24 valuable/desirable enough that any high-grade copy will get slabbed, and the low numbers are just due to actual scarcity of high-grade copies?

[Rune]

Rune, this library/archive that you're keeping is really impressive. I love your passion and dedication. Your histograms are inspiring me to do something similar with my collecting focus. I do have a question, though. For the issues with really low census numbers, do you think that desirability/value (since these two things are intertwined) is a factor in any of them? Or is any Conan #1-24 valuable/desirable enough that any high-grade copy will get slabbed, and the low numbers are just due to actual scarcity of high-grade copies?

 

Thank you For many years I just kept these photos on my PC, so that I could get an idea of what's out there - but I thought it could be a fun thing to share.

 

Regarding your questions about the low census numbers, it will be a guess, but I don't think the early Conans were that popular (although they did win several awards, but maybe I'm wrong) - at least in his books, Windsor-Smith described that Marvel had thoughts about cancelling the series due to low sales, but everything started to change for the better with #9 (and they tried to focus less on covers showing animals if I remember correctly). Can relatively low sales explain the single #11 (also double-bound = increased weight = more prone to damage, and then the red cover where you can see any damage) and the 3 #12 (black covers, again making it easy to spot any kind of damage to the spine) - I don't know.

Did think that Annual #1 was scarce, but then suddenly Census doubled last year from 9 to 17 books . Maybe there are a lot of speculants out there about to retire and release tons of such books Still, CGC has been here for about 16 years, in all those years less than 10 books have been found if we take #4, #6, #11, #12, #14 and #18 – so until things are proven otherwise I’ll consider these books scarce. - But not the other books (including #3 that may once have been in low distribution, but many 9.8 books still survived).

From 2000 to 2008 there were only 9 #1s, but in the last 8 years 30 more have been found. So is Census expanding faster than ever? To me it’s fun (well sort of ) trying to monitor when the Census will come to a stand-still (or close) – and of course that will happen sometime (in our lifetime ), because there’s not an unlimited supply of these books… Early issues of Tomb of Dracula and Spidey are also very scarce in 9.8, for a long time I thought that early 9.8 Conans were similar. If most early 9.8 Conans are ever found in 10 copies or more, I'll need to revise that idea...

I do think that many high grade Windsor-Smith Conan books will get slabbed - and of course low numbers may be even more interesting when slabbing (at least to me). Over the last years I'm not sure we're seeing much change in value even though Census has increased - #1 still sells for about 4 to 5k, many other for $500+ (even #24 despite its great Census increase), so I guess the interest is still strong (growing in much the same speed as Census is increasing? ) .

 

[Rune]

The 12th #2 was graded Dec 16 2015 and is soon up for auction, I just added it to the library:

 

 

Get it here (the auction starts in one month )

 

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2Fauctions%2Fsearch%2Easp%3F_SORT%3DYES%26where%3Dsell%26title%3Dconan%26ItemType%3DCB%26f1%3DCondition%26ODire1%3DDESC%26f2%3D4%252C%2BIssueNumber%252C%2BVolumeNumber%26ODire2%3DASC%26f3%3DMaxBidX%26ODire3%3DDESC%23Item_1099620&id=1099620

 

Highest price for #2 9.8 was probably 5500 in June 2014 (Barry James' copy, ComicConnect Summer auction).