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Top Ten Most Valuable Comic Magazines
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76 posts in this topic

The next ten is where we see many of the familiar titles listed so far:

12  True Movie And Television 1 (1950; Part teenage magazine; Liz Taylor photo-c)
13  Out Of This World Adventures 2 (1951; sci-fi pulp magazine w/32 page color-comic insert; Kubert-a)
13  Pussycat 1 (1968; B&W reprints from Men's magazines; scarce)
15  Cracked 1 (1958)
16  Mad 30 (1956; 1st Alfred E. Neuman cover by Mingo)
17  Blazing Combat 1 (1965)
17  Mad 25 (1955)
17  True Movie And Television 2 (1950; Part teenage magazine; movie stars photo-c)
20  From Here To Insanity V3#1 (1956; cover says "Crazy, Man, Crazy" and becomes so w/V2#2)
20 

Marvel Preview 7 (1976; Rocket Raccoon debut)

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7 hours ago, Ant-Man said:

The next ten is where we see many of the familiar titles listed so far:

12  True Movie And Television 1 (1950; Part teenage magazine; Liz Taylor photo-c)
13  Out Of This World Adventures 2 (1951; sci-fi pulp magazine w/32 page color-comic insert; Kubert-a)
13  Pussycat 1 (1968; B&W reprints from Men's magazines; scarce)
15  Cracked 1 (1958)
16  Mad 30 (1956; 1st Alfred E. Neuman cover by Mingo)
17  Blazing Combat 1 (1965)
17  Mad 25 (1955)
17  True Movie And Television 2 (1950; Part teenage magazine; movie stars photo-c)
20  From Here To Insanity V3#1 (1956; cover says "Crazy, Man, Crazy" and becomes so w/V2#2)
20 

Marvel Preview 7 (1976; Rocket Raccoon debut)

Despite what Overstreet claims the Out of the World Adventures go for a fraction of that in the Pulp market.  They are also close to comic book size.  I’ll post scans of my copies when I get home if anybody is interested 

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I think for me, Eerie 1 doesn’t live on the magazine list, but rather on the ashcan list, which is really what it is in the sense of definition and construction. Turtles 1, while larger in format, is a king on both the copper age list and right up there with Cerebus 1 on the independent comics lists. It was produced that format simply as the best option for the budget from their printer, and went to a traditional comic size format once they had some money. Could live here, but I don’t put it on my personal list after consideration. Couldn’t fault anyone for having it on theirs. 

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On 12/3/2019 at 8:55 PM, N e r V said:

Prices vary. As I posted a cgc 8.0 sold this year for $500.00 but I’ve seen raws  show up closer to $300.00 in that grade. It’s one of those books I’ve been told that’s difficult to find but I’ve never not been able to find copies if you’re willing to pay the price which as I said can swing sometimes by a fair amount. Mycomicshop alone has 4 copies up for sale right now from 4.0-8.5. Overpriced too IMO. 

I think the Canadian edition is also more scarce if I remember correctly.

Cool book though for sure....

BBFED1E4-3FDB-46F6-8C00-BBDCD733F804.jpeg

MCS just added a CGC 6.0 of Pussycat #1  at $350 yesterday and it has already sold.  You can see from yesterday if you page down in their New Arrivals.  I thought it was a good price when I saw it, but it isn't really in my focus.

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56 minutes ago, Frederic9494 said:

I would add Spirou magazine #1071.

It's the first Smurfs appearance in any media, published in 1958.

Smurfs were comic books characters way before they are adapted for the small and big screens.

 

Yep. Smurfs are pretty big .

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1 hour ago, oakman29 said:

Yep. Smurfs are pretty big .

No they aren’t! :baiting:
 

1B7ADAD8-7860-492B-BFBB-36200E07FBC4.thumb.jpeg.360591d35a93e43533d0e106b172f656.jpeg

 

Physical Makeup 

Physically, a Smurf is usually no more than "three apples tall" (in human measure, probably around 3 inches; the 2011 movie records them as being 7.5 inches) and has a pear-shaped body with an oval-shaped head, springy legs, and limber arms, with a short stubby tail sticking out from his or her buttocks. The springy legs allow a Smurf to jump to high places or across rocks and branches rather easily. 

 

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On 11/29/2019 at 7:28 PM, N e r V said:

Understood if that helps you with your own clarity, that’s fine. A lot of US and Canadian editions were printed along side each other though then shipped to their respective markets. Happens today still with any number of products manufactured here (US) or abroad.

My problem with calling foreign or non US comics variants you’re confusing the market with true variant editions when selling. It’s a fairly recent phenomenon and it seemed to follow certain collectors complaints about a perceived lack of respect for most collectors preferring US over non US editions of the same issue published at the same time. The listings below are some examples of the new “variant” trend with sellers trying to make you think these are now somehow special because the word variant conjures up scarcity...4A777E2D-49A6-47FD-9273-0ABF70B9EA6A.thumb.png.565e9741ed98addcf89ce9510071cb6b.png

25E92A90-AAC5-4F1E-ADD5-CC76998E6D24.thumb.png.16154eb206eae0c54fde289cbc6fd1df.png

 

It wasn’t that long ago that these would have been listed as simply Canadian or UK editions. If foreign books are now real variants then every comic not sold in the US is a variant???

That would be mind boggling....:ohnoez:

 

 

Marvel or DC U.K. price variants are true variants... printed at the same time & place in the U.S. then shipped overseas...

There is a big thread on that on the Board. Nothing to do with other foreign editions.

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On 12/11/2019 at 7:57 PM, Frederic9494 said:

Marvel or DC U.K. price variants are true variants...

There is a big thread on that on the Board. 

What idiot posted that! 

1801926035_drwhowhat.gif.65201c65dc88c962ce9f0244125aec6c.gif

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On 12/3/2019 at 7:55 PM, N e r V said:

Prices vary. As I posted a cgc 8.0 sold this year for $500.00 but I’ve seen raws  show up closer to $300.00 in that grade. It’s one of those books I’ve been told that’s difficult to find but I’ve never not been able to find copies if you’re willing to pay the price which as I said can swing sometimes by a fair amount. Mycomicshop alone has 4 copies up for sale right now from 4.0-8.5. Overpriced too IMO. 

I think the Canadian edition is also more scarce if I remember correctly.

Cool book though for sure....

BBFED1E4-3FDB-46F6-8C00-BBDCD733F804.jpeg

the copy I sold was the canadian version and cgc 9.2

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On 12/4/2019 at 2:49 PM, OtherEric said:

Despite what Overstreet claims the Out of the World Adventures go for a fraction of that in the Pulp market.  They are also close to comic book size.  I’ll post scans of my copies when I get home if anybody is interested 

Just decided to follow up with this comparing the Overstreet prices (from 2019, the most recent copy of the guide I have) with Bookery's pulp guide at 2.0/ 4.0/ 8.0, since those are the price points Bookery provides.  Bookery has both at $20/60/180.  Overstreet has #1 at $94/188/597 and #2 at $60/120/381.  Bookery is much closer to reality.

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As this was just linked to, I reread it and one of the distinctions that makes sense to me is between magazines and "magazine-sized comics".  I don't think they belong together in consideration.  In that light, the Captain Britain issues, TMNT, Treasuries, etc. would be outside of consideration for the most valuable mags.  As would (in my view) the Mickey Mouse magazines and the early Wow Comics and Jumbo Comics.  I think of those as Platinum era books and part of the sorting out what a comic book was in the early days.

Interestingly, I don't have much more clarity on the Top 10 than I did back then.  Obviously, Vampirella 1 is in there.  As is Shock Illustrated 3 and Blazing Combat 1.  Also, probably Savage Tales 1 and Pussycat 1.  But as @Stevemmg said, it gets pretty murky after that.  It seems like a few of the Gothic mags would sell for really big money if they ever showed up in high grade (good luck with that).  There's just not enough data (due to not enough sales of some of the really tough material) to know.

Edited by Randall Dowling
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Wow, haven’t seen this thread in a while. Great comments/suggestions since 2019. Keep in mind that the non-US titles like Spirou and Warrior are not in Overstreet. Doesn’t mean they are not amongst the more valuable mags, just explains why they were not included in my list.

As far as ‘magazine’ vs. ‘magazine-sized comic’, I made the decision to include both when compiling the list. Give folks a bigger grouping to consider. The challenge I see is defining a magazine. If comics are ‘storytelling through sequential art’, and we find this in magazines, what differentiates a magazine from a comic if not the size? I’m sure there are many here who could express it more eloquently than I.

A few changes since 2019. Vampirella 1 has jumped Mad 24 and now sits behind Shock Illustrated 3. Blazing Combat 1 has passed both Pussycat 1 and Cracked 1. Savage Tales 1 saw a 68% increase (largest amongst the higher-priced mags) and is valued above all of the ‘Gothic’ mags. Sitting right behind that group, with a significant increase of its own, is FOOM 10 (if considered a mag).

Has anyone here ever contacted Overstreet to discuss the creation of a magazine section  within the Guide (similar to the War Report)? Collectively, I’ll bet the experts here on the Boards could educate the comic masses.

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On 1/13/2022 at 8:15 PM, Ant-Man said:

Wow, haven’t seen this thread in a while. Great comments/suggestions since 2019. Keep in mind that the non-US titles like Spirou and Warrior are not in Overstreet. Doesn’t mean they are not amongst the more valuable mags, just explains why they were not included in my list.

As far as ‘magazine’ vs. ‘magazine-sized comic’, I made the decision to include both when compiling the list. Give folks a bigger grouping to consider. The challenge I see is defining a magazine. If comics are ‘storytelling through sequential art’, and we find this in magazines, what differentiates a magazine from a comic if not the size? I’m sure there are many here who could express it more eloquently than I.

A few changes since 2019. Vampirella 1 has jumped Mad 24 and now sits behind Shock Illustrated 3. Blazing Combat 1 has passed both Pussycat 1 and Cracked 1. Savage Tales 1 saw a 68% increase (largest amongst the higher-priced mags) and is valued above all of the ‘Gothic’ mags. Sitting right behind that group, with a significant increase of its own, is FOOM 10 (if considered a mag).

Has anyone here ever contacted Overstreet to discuss the creation of a magazine section  within the Guide (similar to the War Report)? Collectively, I’ll bet the experts here on the Boards could educate the comic masses.

I tend to think, for US books, if it goes in a magazine slab it's a magazine, so TMNT and such count.  I'm more torn on UK and other foreign books... the default format was magazine size on things like Captain Britain or Warrior or 2000AD, so I'm partial to an argument that they're not magazines.  Particularly with books that don't even hit 32 pages.  So I'm willing to listen to arguments either way. Even within that category, I'm more willing to include Warrior as a magazine over Captain Britain (first series) or 2000AD, since Warrior had enough US distribution to have US prices.  (Same with the 2nd Captain Britain series.)  My main problem with this is that it's a very arbitrary distinction, even if I can clearly articulate it.

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