THE HULK #181 CLUB 24 24

[davebo357]

8 hours ago, drbanner said:

 

Congrats! Was the "restored" MVS stamp the original one from the book, or a copy?

Assuming no deception on the part of the seller I got it from, it was the original.  The guy bought all Marvel comics as a kid in the 70's, and cut every one out and taped it into the collector's book, then put a black mark over the price on the cover to denote he cut the stamp out, so it fit perfectly.  What he did is slice the tape that was holding it in the stamp book along the edges, left it on the stamp, then used archival tape to connect it back into the comic.  There's a photo of it at the bottom of page 45 of this thread.

Out of curiosity I checked ebay for sold listings of unqualified 4.5's and in the past few months saw everything from 850-1300.  Pretty big range but I'm not concerned.  My CGC collecting is in its infancy still, and I'm a few decades away from selling mode.  First I gotta see if and how many kids I have, then what their college tuition looks like in 18 years

[MGsimba77]

On 4/28/2018 at 10:18 AM, ADAMANTIUM said:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?__isEmpty=&_from=R40&_nkw=incredible+hulk+181+&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

is it just me or has IH 181 sold listings gone on whacky tobbaky? how does a 5.5 sell for close to a 7.0? and a 5.0 ss by stan lee go for $2000 in an auction? now I don't feel too bad about having a 2.5 signed by Stan.....cause a blue label 2.5 went for $950 in auction...

The 5.5 & 7.0 sold on the same day. I have to imagine the seller of the 7.0 would be kicking himself if he knows about the 5.5 sale! Can't imagine the next sale of a 7.0 would be anywhere near that last one! 

[ADAMANTIUM]

12 minutes ago, MGsimba77 said:

The 5.5 & 7.0 sold on the same day. I have to imagine the seller of the 7.0 would be kicking himself if he knows about the 5.5 sale! Can't imagine the next sale of a 7.0 would be anywhere near that last one! 

Especially on the next 7.0 bin, when people save money it seems they don't have the patience for auctions. It is no longer what if it goes for cheaper, it's what if it goes for more and they hit that BIN! We need auctions from time to time to gauge stability in prices, bit I too feel bad for the 7.0 seller. Not to mention it hurts GPA...

Edited April 29, 2018 by ADAMANTIUM

[MGsimba77]

33 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

Especially on the next 7.0 bin, when people save money it seems they don't have the patience for auctions. It is no longer what if it goes for cheaper, it's what if it goes for more and they hit that BIN! We need auctions from time to time to gauge stability in prices, bit I too feel bad for the 7.0 seller. Not to mention it hurts GPA...

Yeah but I don't know how much of a gauge an auction can be if it's only a week long auction. I've seen very short eBay auctions. They have to be longer for a true measure. Don't think it'll hurt GPA for 7s since the census is so high. I don't know but by next month there could be a number of 7.0 sales that would nullify this? 

Anyways I don't want a price stabilizer. I want this thing to get on loads of jet fuel & never stop!!!! Especially since I'll be completing my trilogy soon! And they're all white pagers!!! Keep on movin up baby!

Edited April 29, 2018 by MGsimba77

[Supraman16]

My collection.  All virgins...never pressed or cleaned. I've been hunting for a 9.8, but I can't get myself to shell out $20K+ for what they are going now.  I got all these years ago for SUBSTANTIALLY less than what they are going for now.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Supraman16

[Dark Knight]

1 hour ago, Supraman16 said:

My collection.  All virgins...never pressed or cleaned. I've been hunting for a 9.8, but I can't get myself to shell out $20K+ for what they are going now.  I got all these years ago for SUBSTANTIALLY less than what they are going for now.

 

[scooter99]

11 hours ago, Supraman16 said:

My collection.  All virgins...never pressed or cleaned. I've been hunting for a 9.8, but I can't get myself to shell out $20K+ for what they are going now.  I got all these years ago for SUBSTANTIALLY less than what they are going for now.

Nice!  I'd love to take that 9.2 off of your hands.  Not in this market though.  Congrats on an awesome trifecta!

[Chickenwings]

[ADAMANTIUM]

[lou_fine]

On 1/24/2018 at 11:47 AM, drotto said:

On 1/23/2018 at 11:00 AM, jasmit990 said:

 

Going forward, we could easily see a dump of many copies on the open market which would send prices lower.  I'm sure it would be temporary but still not a good feeling.  

 

The thing is there are 10000 plus copies slabbed of this book and an unknown number of raw. 

Well, if there are 10,000 plus copies of graded Hulk 181's already slabbed out there, I imagine there must be 10's of thousands of raw copies still sitting in private collections.

Especially since I haven't seen very many graded copies myself over the years except in scans, but have seen a ton of raw copies sitting on convention tables wherever I go.

Edited May 2, 2018 by lou_fine

[lou_fine]

On 4/10/2018 at 8:04 PM, Jaydogrules said:

On 4/9/2018 at 10:48 PM, Dark Knight said:

I'm back in

 

Nice copy!  Very nice, can't believe it's a 6.5!

-J.

On 4/10/2018 at 9:49 PM, Dark Knight said:

Thanks!  Yea same here.  I'm happy with it.

+1

Yes, if I had a book that looked like that and it came back as a CGC 6.5, I would also be jumping for joy. 

Big congrats on the book and grade.

[drotto]

48 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Well, if there are 10,000 plus copies of graded Hulk 181's already slabbed out there, I imagine there must be 10's of thousands of raw copies still sitting in private collections.

Especially since I haven't seen very many graded copies myself over the years except in scans, but have seen a ton of raw copies sitting on convention tables wherever I go.

I personally doubt there are 10's of thousands of raw copies still around.  I also personally doubt the stories you here of thus and so guy is sitting on 200 copies.  The simple fact is the book is worth too much for the average person to be sitting on that many copies.   Yes a few may, but the average person would unload the majority.

 

A LCS store owner and I have had this conversation many times, and he agrees with me.  He does very well buying collections with big key issues in them.  He has found several impressive books raw.  He has stated that he ccomes across a 181 every few years, and he is constantly buying new collections. He agrees that there are many out there, but the majority of collectors have their one or two copies and are content with that. He has seen no evidence of multiple people hoarding 100's of copies. Even if they did find a stash of a few hundred raw books, it would hardly cause a blip on the market.  There are at least 12k stabbed copies ( including other companies) plus many known raws, and the market is still very strong.

 

He is actually of the belief that the surge in collecting and slabbing is actually starting to cause many Gold, Silver, and Bronze age books to start to dry up.  Keys have become so valuable, and easy to sell, we now have a much better handle on how many roughly exist.  

 

This is the key book of the Bronze age.

[lou_fine]

19 minutes ago, drotto said:

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

Well, if there are 10,000 plus copies of graded Hulk 181's already slabbed out there, I imagine there must be 10's of thousands of raw copies still sitting in private collections.

Especially since I haven't seen very many graded copies myself over the years except in scans, but have seen a ton of raw copies sitting on convention tables wherever I go.

I personally doubt there are 10's of thousands of raw copies still around.  I also personally doubt the stories you here of thus and so guy is sitting on 200 copies.  The simple fact is the book is worth too much for the average person to be sitting on that many copies.   Yes a few may, but the average person would unload the majority.

 

He has seen no evidence of multiple people hoarding 100's of copies. Even if they did find a stash of a few hundred raw books, it would hardly cause a blip on the market.  There are at least 12k stabbed copies ( including other companies) plus many known raws, and the market is still very strong.

 

This is the key book of the Bronze age.

Would definitely agree with you that Hulk 181 is the key book of the Bronze Age. 

I would also agree with your comment that nobody would be out there sitting on hundreds of copies of this book, as any rational person (even the staunchest long term collector here) would surely sell off some of their multiples given the current market demand for this book.  On the other hand, I also don't believe their are 12K slabbed copies out there, especially since there are so many resubs when it comes to these key books.

Although there might not be high 10's of thousands of raw copies of this book out there, I strongly believe there are still much more raw copies of this book sitting in collections, as compared to the number of slabbed copies.  Especially when there is no real reason to have a book slabbed until it comes time to sell it.

This reminds me of the same discussion that takes place with respect to AF 15 and how many copies are still out there.  Was down at my LCS last week and the owner told me that he now has 5 copies of AF 15's.  I believe virtually all of them are still raw since he doesn't really plan on selling any of them yet, so why bother slabbing them.

Edited May 2, 2018 by lou_fine

[360racer]

Slab them to have reassurance that they’re worth what they are. Personally nowadays I hesitate to buy raw books, some are fakes, some get damaged along the way and finally, I don’t want the headache of waiting so I rather pay too dollar and get something that has already been graded. I possibly only represent 50% of the retail buyers out there ?

[october]

16 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Would definitely agree with you that Hulk 181 is the key book of the Bronze Age. 

I would also agree with your comment that nobody would be out there sitting on hundreds of copies of this book, as any rational person (even the staunchest long term collector here) would surely sell off some of their multiples given the current market demand for this book.  On the other hand, I also don't believe their are 12K slabbed copies out there, especially since there are so many resubs when it comes to these key books.

Although there might not be high 10's of thousands of raw copies of this book out there, I strongly believe there are still much more raw copies of this book sitting in collections, as compared to the number of slabbed copies.  Especially when there is no real reason to have a book slabbed until it comes time to sell it.

This reminds me of the same discussion that takes place with respect to AF 15 and how many copies are still out there.  Was down at my LCS last week and the owner told me that he now has 5 copies of AF 15's.  I believe virtually all of them are still raw since he doesn't really plan on selling any of them yet, so why bother slabbing them.

There is a well known collector with almost a full shortbox of AF 15s. 100-200 copies of Hulk 181, while somewhat implausible, is definitely far from impossible.

[lou_fine]

3 hours ago, october said:

There is a well known collector with almost a full shortbox of AF 15s. 100-200 copies of Hulk 181, while somewhat implausible, is definitely far from impossible.

Well, I am quite sure that we also have some long time dealers like Fishler and the likes who probably have scads of these "common" books just sitting around.

Just like his well documented attempt back in the day at trying to corner the market on the much rarer Fantastic 3.

But these types of collectors would generally be one-offs and the definite exception(s) to the regular collectors like you, me and probably 99.99% of the other board members here.

[Martin Sinescu]

5 hours ago, october said:

There is a well known collector with almost a full shortbox of AF 15s. 100-200 copies of Hulk 181, while somewhat implausible, is definitely far from impossible.

yeah, what was his address again? 

[comicartfan]

I bought this raw from a local flea market that has a few comic dealers. 

[Jaydogrules]

The 9.6 in the Heritage auction also broke  $13k: 

https://comics.ha.com/itm/bronze-age-1970-1979-/the-incredible-hulk-181-marvel-1974-cgc-nm-96-white-pages/a/7187-92391.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

-J.

[dinesh_s]

My entries into the club