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1st Smurfs 1958 (yes 1958) Spirou 1071/1072 Club
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303 posts in this topic

On 1/2/2020 at 6:00 PM, Frederic9494 said:

I was on holidays in Orlando this week and then realized "Maybe Joeypost has received my Spirou back from CGC?"

He had just received them so I was able to pick them up in person (Joe is a great guy!). I am very pleased with his work and the grades I got from CGC.

 

 

IMG_8232.jpg

Nice pile 

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On 5/16/2020 at 11:51 AM, Spiderturtle said:
On 3/15/2020 at 2:03 PM, Frederic9494 said:

Recent haul... missing one high grade 1071 that's lost in the mail since early January :cry:

 

IMG_8435.jpg

 Very nice

With memories of watching the Smurfs TV show from way back in the day, I was seriously thinking of acquiring copies of these first appearance issues when they first appeared in the comic book marketplace several years ago.  :luhv:

Now I am glad that I didn't want to fork over that kind of dough as the prices on them have seemingly dropped as more and more copies of these books have surfaced, slabbed, and sold into the marketplace over the years.  No more evident than this highest graded copy of the Belgian Edition which sold on CL tonight for only $825:

50079820092000002096453002.jpg

Compared to past sales of lower graded copies which have sold for more than this, looks like a downward trend when compared to the CGC 9.0 graded copy which CC was able to sell for $1,550 in one of their Event Auctions a couple of years ago.  hm

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7 hours ago, lou_fine said:

With memories of watching the Smurfs TV show from way back in the day, I was seriously thinking of acquiring copies of these first appearance issues when they first appeared in the comic book marketplace several years ago.  :luhv:

Now I am glad that I didn't want to fork over that kind of dough as the prices on them have seemingly dropped as more and more copies of these books have surfaced, slabbed, and sold into the marketplace over the years.  No more evident than this highest graded copy of the Belgian Edition which sold on CL tonight for only $825:

50079820092000002096453002.jpg

Compared to past sales of lower graded copies which have sold for more than this, looks like a downward trend when compared to the CGC 9.0 graded copy which CC was able to sell for $1,550 in one of their Event Auctions a couple of years ago.  hm

The crazy prices of a few years ago (close to $1000 for 6.0 copies...) are long gone but I do think that those books will appreciate over time. Especially in 8.5 and above as it is very (very) difficult to find high grade copies, especially with Spirou 1071 and its dark blue cover. I have seen too many copies that have significant rust problems (hey it's France & Belgium where climate is often pretty damp!!!), coffee stains, subscription marks and on a lot of Belgium copies, the value stamp has been cut from the back cover. 

Also, the downward trend I have seen are essentially for Spirou 1072, which is the Smurfs 2nd appearance. Market is correcting vs 1071 (1st appearance) which had to be expected at some point.

That being said, you got it at a great price! (thumbsu

Edited by Frederic9494
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2 hours ago, Frederic9494 said:

The crazy prices of a few years ago (close to $1000 for 6.0 copies...) are long gone but I do think that those books will appreciate over time. Especially in 8.5 and above as it is very (very) difficult to find high grade copies, especially with Spirou 1071 and its dark blue cover. I have seen too many copies that have significant rust problems (hey it's France & Belgium where climate is often pretty damp!!!), coffee stains, subscription marks and on a lot of Belgium copies, the value stamp has been cut from the back cover. 

Also, the downward trend I have seen are essentially for Spirou 1072, which is the Smurfs 2nd appearance. Market is correcting vs 1071 (1st appearance) which had to be expected at some point.

That being said, you got it at a great price! (thumbsu

There was an interesting market curve on these two books over the past few years, based on my observations. Once it became more known that these were the first Smurfs appearances there was somewhat of a frenzy for them, with 1071 & 1072 seemingly going hand in hand pricewise. Prices escalated quickly. 

Then copies were suddenly being made available left and right and it didn't take long for collectors to realize that these books were not all that rare so prices started dropping. 

Now collectors are realizing that they can be a bit more selective when choosing copies to buy, with 1071 taking the clear lead as the more desired book. 

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44 minutes ago, Ryan. said:

There was an interesting market curve on these two books over the past few years, based on my observations. Once it became more known that these were the first Smurfs appearances there was somewhat of a frenzy for them, with 1071 & 1072 seemingly going hand in hand pricewise. Prices escalated quickly. 

Then copies were suddenly being made available left and right and it didn't take long for collectors to realize that these books were not all that rare so prices started dropping. 

Now collectors are realizing that they can be a bit more selective when choosing copies to buy, with 1071 taking the clear lead as the more desired book. 

Total print run for Spirou in 1958 was less than 200,000 per issue (including Belgian + French editions), which is much smaller than the leading titles at DC Comics or Marvel Comics in early 60s that ranged 500,000-750,000 per issue. 

In addition, European don't collect much the original magazines as they are more interested in the bound editions so a lot of those magazines were not well preserved. As I have said in my previous post, high grade copies are hard to find - just look at the census!

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1 minute ago, Frederic9494 said:

Total print run for Spirou in 1958 was less than 200,000 per issue (including Belgian + French editions), which is much smaller than the leading titles at DC Comics or Marvel Comics in early 60s that ranged 500,000-750,000 per issue. 

In addition, European don't collect much the original magazines as they are more interested in the bound editions so a lot of those magazines were not well preserved. As I have said in my previous post, high grade copies are hard to find - just look at the census!

As a GA collector, 200K copies potentially available may as well be 200 million.

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36 minutes ago, Ryan. said:

As a GA collector, 200K copies potentially available may as well be 200 million.

Because you will only buy one copy??  I was only pointing out that Spirou print run was about 2-4x smaller than leading American comic books from that era... nothing else.

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1 minute ago, Frederic9494 said:

Because you will only buy one copy??  I was only pointing out that Spirou print run was about 2-4x smaller than leading American comic books from that era... nothing else.

Sorry, I dont understand your question. 

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On 5/29/2020 at 4:05 AM, Frederic9494 said:

That being said, you got it at a great price! (thumbsu

 

No, I was not the winner of this copy here as I was not willing to bid more than the $825 winning bid based upon the following analysis which I would tend to agree with:  (thumbsu

On 5/29/2020 at 6:15 AM, Ryan. said:

Then copies were suddenly being made available left and right and it didn't take long for collectors to realize that these books were not all that rare so prices started dropping. 

 

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One collector asked me Are the French versions considered to be the original while the Belgian versions are considered to be a variant or reprint copy which would tend to make them less valuable than the French versions?

Spirou is a Belgium magazine published by Editions Dupuis in Charleroi, Belgium. (this Belgium company was bought in 2004 by a French media company)

Publication started in April 1938 in Belgium in French language.

It was followed in October 1938 by publication in Belgium of "Robbedoes" which is the Dutch translated version of Spirou magazine for the Flemish part of Belgium.

Starting from 1946, Spirou was also published in France (in French language) using a different cover price and sometimes slightly different content.

By 1958, the main differences with Spirou 1071 & 1072 is the Spirou value stamp present on the lower left of the back cover of the Belgium edition, along with some adds and written educational articles.

So short answer: the Belgium edition of Spirou is the original, but to me the French version is pretty equivalent. That being said finding high grade copies of Belgium Edition is much more difficult since a lot of copies have rusted staples (climate is more humid in Belgium vs most of France) and have value stamp cut out from the back cover (there is no value stamp on the French edition)

Robbedoes magazine on the other hand is a Dutch translation of the original Smurfs, Spirou and other comic book stories from the famous "School of Marcinelle" comic book studio behind Spirou magazine, which were written in French language. In that sense, it is less original...

Here are some pictures comparing Spirou 1071 Belgium edition (on the right) and French Edition (on the left):

image.thumb.png.16b6cb986c6f20562c8950e61e85742a.png

image.thumb.png.8fffa59d82ffc24310a325bd4a31cf96.png

Edited by Frederic9494
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8 minutes ago, MusterMark said:

I think perhaps there’s an inadvertent error in your labeling of your pics in the post just above.

I think both sets of pics (on the left and on the right) should say “1071”.  But the labels on the right say “1072”.

Doh! You are right... will edit. Thank you!

Edited by Frederic9494
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I believe in the smurfs as part of pop culture.  I’ve hoarded quite a few of these copies and really believe in the book.  Will continue to hoard them.  Truly believe in it.  It doesn’t get the recognition because it’s not a book that originated in the USA so kids didn’t grow up with it.  I’m Asian so my Asian relatives grew up with these so I was introduced when I was younger but I never realized that the 1071 contained the 1st smurfs until I joined the boards.  There’s many 2nd and 3rd  tier characters from marvel/dc that get more respect than these spirou but it might be because most USA collectors are not aware of the existence of spirou.  Like I stated before a couple of “expert” big time comic dealers here on the boards didn’t even know these existed 

 

 

Edited by Spiderturtle
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4 minutes ago, Spiderturtle said:

I believe in the smurfs as part of pop culture.  I’ve hoarded quite a few of these copies and really believe in the book.  Will continue to hoard them.  Truly believe in it.  It doesn’t get the recognition because it’s not a book that originated in the USA so kids didn’t grow up with it.  I’m Asian so my Asian relatives grew up with these so I was introduced when I was younger but I never realized that the 1071 contained the 1st smurfs until I joined the boards.  There’s many 2nd and 3rd tier characters that get more respect than these spirou but it might be because most USA collectors are not aware of the existence of spirou.  Like I stated before a couple of “expert” big time comic dealers here on the boards didn’t even know these existed 

I agree and it's also unfortunate that the US kids were mainly exposed to the Smurfs through the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I find Smurfs comic book stories (along with Johan & Peewit) way better than their TV cartoon adaptation or the horrible movies, which are very different in many aspects from the comic book...

Regarding big time comic dealers, some are getting there. I recently did two interesting trades for some of my CGCed Spirou 1071/1072 at very interesting valuation.

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