All things Valiant. 0

[Readcomix]

Bump

[valiantman]

[elibowman]

Posted before but...

 

Despite my active & passive Valiant collecting (and occasional hoarding) over the last 20+ years, I remain 14 books short of a full VH1 set.

 

One of those books I was never able to get was Chaos Effect Alpha (Red).

 

I can, however, console myself with this:

 

Even hard to find the signed version with original retailer letter.

 

Chaos Effect Red Alpha signed by Bernard Chan with Retailer Letter.

 

 

I sure wish mine came with the letter. I will have to settle for the high grade. Got this back from CGC a couple months ago

 

 

IMG_2912 by Eli Bowman

[Bosco685]

 

NICE!

 

[VegasJeff]

I'll have to dig out my box of 90's Valiant Comics from storage to see if they are still worthless. 

Even though they were gimmicky, I still love the chromium/foil covers like Ninjak had. Still awesome. 

 

 

[valiantman]

Many years of waiting... hoping for a surprise great deal.  Nope.  Just paid the asking price and marked it off the list. 

[mrwoogieman]

Nice one, congrats!

I was going through some old boxes and I had three copies of Harby 7 that I had marked on their backing boards as "missing coupon".

I'm an insufficiently_thoughtful_person sometimes!

 

[Gatsby77]

So what's the hardest pre-Unity Harbinger to find in 9.8?

I remember back-in-the-day # 4 had a bit of heat because it had the lowest print run. That hold true today in 9.8?

And I reckon # 1 is easier to find than the others because it's a more obvious slabbing choice.

[valiantman]

2 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

So what's the hardest pre-Unity Harbinger to find in 9.8?

I remember back-in-the-day # 4 had a bit of heat because it had the lowest print run. That hold true today in 9.8?

And I reckon # 1 is easier to find than the others because it's a more obvious slabbing choice.

Just using the CGC census, the numbers for 9.8s for Harbinger (pre-Unity 1992) are:

#1 = 227

#2 = 145

#3 = 63

#4 = 105

#5 = 33

#6 = 38

#0 (coupon send-away) = 249

 

Yes, Harbinger #4 was listed as the rarest Harbinger (and rarest any title not Rai) in the Valiant official list at the time (late-1993).

The four rarest books listed were (1st) Rai #3, (2nd) Rai #4, (3rd) Rai #5, and (4th) Rai #2. 

 

I suspect that the CGC census numbers for Rai #3, Rai #4, and Harbinger #4 are heavily-influenced by the "rare" list from 1993.

 

As far as Valiant key issues go, it's hard to pick much better than Harbinger #1, so the 9.8s for Harbinger #1 are a high CGC census count, but fewer than 20% of copies graded have been 9.8... and the average CGC grade has been 9.29.

Edited June 2, 2017 by valiantman

[Broke as a Joke]

Wow, alot more Harbinger 1's at 9.8 than I thought.  It seems like such a short time ago when there were barely any on the census and sales were as high as $2500.  Still brings in good money considering how many there are now.

[valiantman]

1 hour ago, Broke as a Joke said:

Wow, alot more Harbinger 1's at 9.8 than I thought.  It seems like such a short time ago when there were barely any on the census and sales were as high as $2500.  Still brings in good money considering how many there are now.

Yep, CGC definitely "re-defined" CGC 9.8 for Harbinger #1 around 2009.  I think that was when "production defects" specific to Harbinger #1 began being allowed in 9.8.

For the first half of CGC's existence, there were about 20 Harbinger #1 CGC 9.8.  That wasn't even close to meeting demand even at $2,500 each.   Now that there are 227, demand equates to about $750 a copy.

[Gatsby77]

Yes - I'm well aware of the census numbers for Harbinger # 1 (and their continued upward growth).

But my question re. Harbinger # 6 (and now, # 5) is if 9.8s are considered hard to find outside of the census - perhaps due to printing defects a la # 1.

The low numbers could mean they're difficult books, or just that nobody's slabbing them like there are # 1-4.

Looks like it, as only 31% of 5s and 38% of 6s slabbed actually hit 9.8.

(vs. say...60% of 2s and 59% of 4s).

[valiantman]

3 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

Yes - I'm well aware of the census numbers for Harbinger # 1 (and their continued upward growth).

But my question re. Harbinger # 6 (and now, # 5) is if 9.8s are considered hard to find outside of the census - perhaps due to printing defects a la # 1.

The low numbers could mean they're difficult books, or just that nobody's slabbing them like there are # 1-4.

Looks like it, as only 31% of 5s and 38% of 6s slabbed actually hit 9.8.

(vs. say...60% of 2s and 59% of 4s).

Good question.  I don't think there's anything particularly special about Harbinger #5 or Harbinger #6 relative to Harbinger #3 and #4.  

I think fewer have been slabbed as a result of general submission factors... specifically that #1 and books close to #1 are submitted most often.

A similar book would be Spawn (also 1992), where about half as many #5 and #6 are graded compared to #3 and #4.

In both cases, the #4 issue has more submissions than #3 because collectors/retailers/submitters remember something different about #4 (Harbinger #4 was rarest early Harbinger and Spawn #4 had a coupon.)