Vengeance of Vampirella #1...actual Royal Blue...? 4 4

[RockMyAmadeus]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vengeance-of-Vampirella-1-CGC-9-6-White-Pages-Royal-Blue-Edition-/283665883432?ul_noapp=true&nma=true&si=tf82LCWf7jRSN6jsjwM4vJKD1pw%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I'm concerned about this one. CGC has been making mistakes identifying these, and while you can NEVER be certain just looking at a scan, I have a bad feeling that this is just a typical teal/aqua second printing that is mislabeled "Royal Blue."

Two mislabeled 9.8s were sold earlier this year.

Wish I had bought it...if it IS an RB, then it's a good price...but if it's not, then it needs to be fixed.

Stupid Harris. They never should have made these like this.

[Real Elijah Snow]

I'm lending towards mislabel too, but it's definitely a 45/55 situation. 

How many of the actual royal blue's do you think there are? 

It's been on my radar for about 20 years, and I haven't run across one. I've got a stack of the aqua's. 

For context in that same time period I have ran across 3 Batman/Grendel silvers, hundreds of 35 cent variants, every whitman, every VVSS etc etc ect, and never one of these royal blue Vampi's. It's definitely on a short list of books I haven't ever had the opportunity to own. 

[RockMyAmadeus]

3 hours ago, Real Elijah Snow said:

I'm lending towards mislabel too, but it's definitely a 45/55 situation. 

How many of the actual royal blue's do you think there are? 

It's been on my radar for about 20 years, and I haven't run across one. I've got a stack of the aqua's. 

For context in that same time period I have ran across 3 Batman/Grendel silvers, hundreds of 35 cent variants, every whitman, every VVSS etc etc ect, and never one of these royal blue Vampi's. It's definitely on a short list of books I haven't ever had the opportunity to own. 

I own one, sold another one, and have missed 3-5 over the years.

I think there's really just 100. They were made "by accident", and they liked it, so they continued it.

[TheSpud]

I've bought and sold 20 - 25 of these back in the good old days when Ebay worked.

Picked them up on Auction from the Anarchy Studios ebay for $9.99, 

shipped here to the UK and sold for about $50 - $60 a time.

This was a good few years after release & they were still auctioning them when I moved onto other things so not sure about the

validity of "100"

[Taxmick1]

I bought the Royal Blue book in question and you were correct, it was a Green Foil Second Printing that had been  mislabeled by CGC.  Fortunately, the seller was quite reasonable when I explained the error and I was able to get my money back. I noted that there is another mislabeled Royal Blue 9.0 on eBay currently ... just unreal. 

[lightninglad]

I don't know the history of this book. Was the Royal Blue Edition a second printing? I noticed the label designated it as such.

[Taxmick1]

My understanding is that it was intended to be a second printing run of gold foil issues, but the printer ran out of gold foil and used blue foil instead. 

[RockMyAmadeus]

14 hours ago, Taxmick1 said:

I bought the Royal Blue book in question and you were correct, it was a Green Foil Second Printing that had been  mislabeled by CGC.  Fortunately, the seller was quite reasonable when I explained the error and I was able to get my money back. I noted that there is another mislabeled Royal Blue 9.0 on eBay currently ... just unreal. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/372850828641?ul_noapp=true

Yes, this is most certainly a mislabeled teal/aqua foil second printing.

[RockMyAmadeus]

2 hours ago, Taxmick1 said:

My understanding is that it was intended to be a second printing run of gold foil issues, but the printer ran out of gold foil and used blue foil instead. 

I'd like to know where this "gold foil" story came from. The story repeated at "Vampirlore" and other places is not correct, despite being quoted from Bon. There was never going to be a "gold foil second printing"; they'd already MADE the gold foil variant for the first printing, so they certainly didn't "run out" of "gold foil"...they never made them in the first place ("gold foil 2nd printings.") 

What DID happen is that they went back to press to print a second printing, and they used (obviously) the teal foil...but they had the (what would come to be known as the "royal") blue foil available as well, so they printed "100" or so of the actual blues as a "test" run, to see what they'd look like...much like the red and blue Maxx 1/2s. Someone liked the look, and they then decided to use it going forward...with the next one being Vampirella #0 6 months later.

The idea that a publisher would order "gold foil" and the printer "ran out" and substituted another color is not plausible. They also wouldn't have only printed "100" of them if they had an actual order. Harris didn't yet do "100" print runs. The details don't jive. 

If the quote at Vampirlore from Bon is correct, he's mistaken, since he makes no mention of the "teal" second printings, and has confused the details between the first and the second. Technically, they used a "blue foil" on all of them...just different shades (blue and blue-green.)

 

[Taxmick1]

Your explanation makes more sense than the story I quoted, which I have been reading for years now ... thanks! 

[RockMyAmadeus]

Yeah, I've been reading that story for years now, too. I have an email from Bon from somewhere around 2007, when I asked him about this. I'm pretty sure he's just got the details mixed up.

What I wish they hadn't done was make two books that are virtually identical, except for the shade of the foil. That little "second printing" notation made it impossible to tell the difference in pictures.

Many are the days when I looked at scans and wondered if it was teal or blue.

 

[manetteska]

How about this one?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F133264972586

[I like pie]

5 hours ago, manetteska said:

How about this one?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F133264972586

That's legit.

[RockMyAmadeus]

15 hours ago, I like pie said:

21 hours ago, manetteska said:

How about this one?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F133264972586

That's legit.

Definitely legit. 

Here's the two, side by side:

The only difference is the color of the foil. 

That 9.0 is one of the two that sold raw in the last 2-3 years for about $750. I was the second high bidder on both. The owners decided to slab them, then list them for "no" prices through MCS for the last couple of years.

[Al']

On 11/6/2019 at 10:39 AM, Real Elijah Snow said:

I'm lending towards mislabel too, but it's definitely a 45/55 situation. 

How many of the actual royal blue's do you think there are? 

It's been on my radar for about 20 years, and I haven't run across one. I've got a stack of the aqua's. 

For context in that same time period I have ran across 3 Batman/Grendel silvers, hundreds of 35 cent variants, every whitman, every VVSS etc etc ect, and never one of these royal blue Vampi's. It's definitely on a short list of books I haven't ever had the opportunity to own. 

My dad had two copies of this in the early 2000's and he had no idea how he had two he sold them both for 50 bucks to this guy who wouldn't stop bugging him for them Lol. 

[DocGo]

I don’t see the “Royal Blue” versions listed in the census anymore which is probably a good thing considering there have been so many mistakes. I think I’ve seen two in the last 6-12 months that have both been teal editions marked as “Royal Blue” on the slab.

[mtracy64]

I chased the Royal Blues from perhaps 2003 to 2017, give or take, and most of them weren't difficult to get. I was left with the impression that there must be fewer than 100 of the #0 and considerably fewer than 100 of the Vengeance #1. The #0 was the last one I got, and it was close to ten years after I had picked up my previous last one. I never did get the Vengeance #1, and when one finally did become available it was a CGC 9.8 listed at $3,600 on eBay.

[DocGo]

On 12/24/2022 at 3:02 AM, mtracy64 said:

I chased the Royal Blues from perhaps 2003 to 2017, give or take, and most of them weren't difficult to get. I was left with the impression that there must be fewer than 100 of the #0 and considerably fewer than 100 of the Vengeance #1. The #0 was the last one I got, and it was close to ten years after I had picked up my previous last one. I never did get the Vengeance #1, and when one finally did become available it was a CGC 9.8 listed at $3,600 on eBay.

#0?

[mtracy64]

On 12/24/2022 at 11:22 AM, docgo said:

#0?

Yes, this one.

[DocGo]

On 12/24/2022 at 9:05 AM, mtracy64 said:

Yes, this one.

Interesting. Don’t think I’ve ever heard the story about this one. I know the #25 also has a rarer blue version but don’t know how much rarer.