Miracleman 5 5

[JTLarsen]

As I say, I went to about £1,100 but £2,500 is far too much even if I could afford it

 

I doubt very much another no.26 will appear, certainly not anytime soon. no.25 when sold never did - I think there's more than 2 copies (maybe 5) but all these early Miller titles are super, super rare

 

, that was my feeling about the final price, too. We could only barely afford it, but upon reflection it just seemed to me that long-term, ALL of these early books are going to be seen as super scarce and 26 will gradually recede from its current mythic status. For all I know there's only one issue of 27!

 

I know you bought a Marvelman Family 1, Ewan. So that makes three of that issue I know of. Derek has a Marvelman 102 (first Kid Marvelman), but the copy I won on ebay years ago is the only other copy I've ever seen of that issue. Likewise Marvelman 65--his origin.

 

I decided long ago that it was kind of nuts to try to get all 370 issues of Marvelman, so I focused on what I considered keys (including neat covers!) and I guess I just thought that long-term, 26 won't actually be much of one when its scarcity is compared to other early issues. That, and I don't intend on selling my collection until years and years from now and I didn't want to get on the slippery slope of turning around the 26 for whatever margin of profit I could squeeze out of it.

 

Maybe I was wrong, but I was also glad not to end up paying quite so much money to a seller who had behaved that way. I much prefer the good will and integrity I've experienced dealing with fellow (and rival!) collectors like you, Derek, and others.

 

Glad you enjoyed the new subject heading! Ha!

[Cyclops]

Could this be a case of a greedy seller thinking he/she might be able to get more for it? It sounds like it, to me.

 

No way I would turn down that much money for something I thought was worth maybe a few dollars. They were happy to sell it for $50...

 

I would send it anywhere in the world, Express and fully insured, for whatever it cost.

 

Great story, jt, thanks for posting.

 

 

[JTLarsen]

Could this be a case of a greedy seller thinking he/she might be able to get more for it? It sounds like it, to me.

 

They were pretty explicit explaining why they reneged on my first offer--they wanted to get more money. I can't blame them for wanting money--that's why I offered $50, less than I was actually willing to pay, after all! I do, however, think it's wrong to renege on an agreement to sell. It would have been one thing to come back and ask whether I'd go above $50, which I would've. But they didn't. Which was their right.

 

And, of course, I don't know why they then also reneged on the auction result itself. As I said in my original post, they knew and were comfortable with shipping to the U.S. from the get go. It was only a couple days after the auction ended that they cited the fact I'm in the U.S. has a rationale for cancelling the auction. Whether they had another reason, I have no way of knowing.

 

In any case, when I looked at how many people actually bid as much as I did--only one came anywhere near close. So, given that I'm more interested in Marvelman keys (first appearances, origins, etc...) and this is now much less of a key since we know it exists and that at least one is out there, I was willing to let it go. Will I regret it? Maybe...but even if I ultimately would've made money off it, I always would've felt icky about having to go through all the rigamarole of changing my shipping address or whatever just to get them to honor the auction. So...thanks for your thanks. Glad you found the whole thing at least somewhat interesting!

[Cyclops]

From what I could tell from your story, they reneged on your dealings when someone offered 200 pounds - a big flag that the book was worth more than they thought and decided to let the auction run.

 

But to then decided to not honor the auction just doesn't make sense (if they've already said they're fine with shipping to the US) unless they think they can get more for it.

 

I just don't think that's a smart decision. You should count your blessing when this type of thing happens, imo. Then again, the amount of money I've left on the table over the years doesn't qualify me as a great expert haha.

 

 

[nmtg9]

This has either gone to someone who emailed the seller after the auction or will be up for sale again soon.

[FlyingDonut]

So, some of you were discussing the recent "sale" of the supposedly "lost" issue of Marvelman, Marvelman #26.

 

As some of you may know, Marvel tried and failed to find it when they reprinted early Marvelman issues--even though they had the help of Derek Wilson, a UK collector who has every issue of Marvelman...except 26.

 

In fact, the existence of Marvelman 26 had long been debated. Some wondered whether it was ever even printed--though there had been reports of sightings in the distant past.

 

Then, a little over a week ago, I saw it on ebay. Marvelman 26 auction

 

I instantly emailed the seller offering a now-laughable $50 for it (even though the listing said he wouldn't ship to the U.S.).

 

The seller accepted my offer, but said it would cost an additional $16 and change for shipping to the U.S.

 

I wrote back right away and said no problem, just send me an invoice.

 

Hours went by. Finally, he wrote back again and said that he had received another offer of 200 pounds and so he had decided not to sell it to me after all, as he had agreed to. He would let the auction run its course.

 

Now, in the past, I've bid a lot (for me) for issues of Marvelman that I thought were important. I paid more than $500 for Marvelman 25, his first issue. I paid more than $500 for the original art to the cover of Marvelman 114. I've never paid more than $600 for anything, not because I wouldn't, but because I'm not rich so I try to focus my purchases on things that (a) I can afford and (b) have a lot of upward potential..

 

My prior Marvelman purchases had been several years ago and given that someone else had upped the ante on 26 so early, I suspected this book might go for more than I had ever paid before. So I discussed it with my wife and we figured out a way to use our credit cards to finance a bid in the thousands.

 

I told myself it was an unbelievably rare book. Plus, I'd get a kick out of lending it to Marvel so they could finally reprint it. It would enhance my Marvelman collection in toto. Et cetera.

 

So I bid way too much money for it. And to my delight/horror...I won! My wife stood by my exorbitant purchase. A friend reassured me it would be a good investment in the long term. I told myself I could always turn around and sell it to the next-highest bidder if I really had cold feet.

 

Then, later that day, the seller emailed to say that he needed to wait until Monday to find insurance for shipping to the U.S. that would cost less than 150 pounds. I responded that that was fine with me, since I certainly didn't want to add another 150 pounds on to the purchase price!

 

And then, Monday morning, I awoke to an email from the seller saying he was canceling the sale. Why? Because I live in the U.S. and the U.S. wasn't listed as one of the places he ships to in the original auction.

 

And you know what? I was relieved.

 

For one thing, only one other bidder had come remotely near the final price. So I had to question its real investment value. But also because it had occurred to me that over the years, everything that made Marvelman 26 special is going to fade away now that it's known to exist and it's been found. There's only one known copy of it? Well, that's true of many issues. Hell, there's only two confirmed copies of Marvelman 25. And the difference between 25 and 26 is that as soon as another copy of 26 comes to light...it loses the one thing that made it special. 25 never will. (Will another copy come to light? Well, aside from the fact I have no idea whether this seller has other copies, the fact that ONE came to light does tend to suggest there might still be others out there...the British comics market is still quite behind the U.S. in terms of public awareness, etc., so it strikes me as quite possible there are still any number of post-WWII keepsake collections that grandpa's kids haven't sorted through yet. I don't mind waiting!)

 

So, ambivalent as I was about the whole experience, the bottom line was I was okay with it. So, just now, I responded to the official ebay cancellation request by agreeing to it.

 

And if you're wondering whether this is just sour grapes on my part, I suppose that may be part of it. I definitely wasn't thrilled about the prospect of sending that much money to someone who had behaved in this manner over the course of our dealings. But another thing to keep in mind?

 

I didn't have to accept the cancellation. In fact, I had two options. I could have shown ebay the emails in which he agreed to ship to me. I also could have utilized the option ebay gave me of simply switching my shipping address--my wife has a cousin in Scotland and I could have used hers.

 

But I didn't. I think as an investment it would have been okay. But probably just okay. And I think there are probably still Marvelman and other rarities out there to be had for a lot less and therefore with much more potential for growth. Am I bummed that I don't own the legendary-at-least-for-now lost issue of Marvelman?

 

Yeah. But I'll get over it.

 

Kimota!

 

The Escapist begs to differ with your interpretation.

[JTLarsen]

Yeah, I saw that. I'm not so sure they do. They call the winning bid "astonishing." Meaning they think it's a lot. Whether anyone's going to pay considerably more than that if/when it goes up for sale again remains an open question. Only one other person came anywhere close to what I bid. Everyone else dropped out thousands of dollars lower. In retrospect, I think they were right. If it had had a BIN of $4300 on it, would anyone have bought it? I don't think I would've. I got caught up in auction fever, which, of course, could happen again.

 

But is 26 really, at this point, any more rare than 27? I only know of one copy of 27--Derek Wilson's. Anyone know of another?

 

I think long term, this auction will help clarify just how rare ALL those early Marvelmans are...and once that happens, the "key"-ness of this particular issue will ease off and prices will level off.

 

In any case, I don't have the money to fund a career as a comics investor who pays prices like that. What I enjoy and have been good at is finding comics cheaply BEFORE they go nuts, by recognizing their rarity and/or future potential. Marvelman 26, I think, is already at that level.

[EwanUK]

I do love it when the industry's ill-informed sites try and make stories out of unique ebay sales (another example being when I sold the equally- unique Alan Moore Utopia fanzine earlier in the year)

This is not like a seller finding an Action 1 or Spider-man 1 - I would expect the seller would be absolutely thrilled with the price it went for. Amazed even! He sold it with a Soccer Album (£10.51) and 1952 Saint Comic (£7.39). He probably thought it might be worth a fiver at most.

How do you put market value on something so unique? I would've gone to £1,500 and I'm one of about 5 major Marvelman collector's in the world.

 

I have 456 of the 751 issues available (61%). I began collecting Marvelman fully in 2009. I'd say 400 of the issues were bought in the first 3 years, all off ebay.

 

Of the remaining ones I need (285) I usually locate about 1 or 2 a month now. Most from UK, but other copies from Australia, USA & Germany.

 

Many of the issues I have NEVER seen, or once only, probably about 50 I've been outbid on or missed...

 

By series -

 

Marvelman 187 of 349 (earliest no.31) notable gaps 50-80, 202-210

Young Marvelman 239 of 349 (earliest no.29, though 26,27 & 28 have all been on ebay). I have most issues 29-100, notable gap 200-210 strangely

Family 17 of 30 (earliest no.1) all issues very rare

Magic 4 of 4

Annuals 9 of 19

 

Derek has 750 of 751 unless he bought no.26

 

The most I've paid was for the MF 1 - which was only £150 and it's a nice FN/FN+ and was going to be used for Marvel's MF book until it got pulled

 

 

[EwanUK]

Actually, it looks like the under-bidder was Derek - just worked it out

So he now has the full set, a pretty amazing achievement!

I think we might see Marvel reprint this in a up-coming issue of Miracleman

[JTLarsen]

Actually, it looks like the under-bidder was Derek - just worked it out

 

Hi Ewan...what makes you think it was Derek? How could you tell??? (More on your other thoughts, too, at some point. Great info, as always!)

[OtherEric]

I think you may have lucked out on this one; even if you didn't get the book the way the seller has been acting would make me feel I dodged a bullet.

 

Although I do hope it gets into the hands of somebody who will share it. The thought of hyper-rare books being hoarded rather than preserved and shared absolutely terrifies me. So even if I think you might be better off having not gotten it, I'm not sure the rest of us are.

 

Here's hoping it pops up somewhere soon.

[JTLarsen]

I think you may have lucked out on this one; even if you didn't get the book the way the seller has been acting would make me feel I dodged a bullet.

 

Although I do hope it gets into the hands of somebody who will share it. The thought of hyper-rare books being hoarded rather than preserved and shared absolutely terrifies me. So even if I think you might be better off having not gotten it, I'm not sure the rest of us are.

 

Here's hoping it pops up somewhere soon.

 

Agreed and then some. If Ewan is right and Derek ends up with this, well, I'm sure he'll share it with Marvel just as he shared the rest of his amazing collection!

[woregul]

Let me know if anyone has a suggestion on how to get this fixed.

 

Gold edition not labeled at all by CGC

 

[Ryan.]

This is ... interesting.

[50 Cent #II (1st)]

Another article on the December Annual. I'm looking forward to it.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137577-All-New-Miracleman-1-With-Work-By-Grant-Morrisson-and-Mike-Allred

 

Here's one from a couple weeks ago.

https://www.nerdist.com/2014/09/grant-morrison-and-peter-milligan-join-marvels-miracleman-annual-1/

[Mr 9.8]

I'm definitely picking up that annual.

[abracadabra]

I am definitely interested as well. Slightly nervous, but interested.

[ianrush95]

How do you find out how rare the Marvelman comics are; looking to find out rarity and value of Marvelman 34, 64 and 188.

[JTLarsen]

How do you find out how rare the Marvelman comics are; looking to find out rarity and value of Marvelman 34, 64 and 188.

 

Spend ten years looking for them? Bottom line, they're very rare. I have 64 but not the other two. In my admittedly anecdotal experience, the earlier (and much later) issues are toughest to find. Why are you seeking those issues specifically? They never struck me as being any of the keys?

[ianrush95]

No I have them I want to find out how much to sell them at on boards