These are not your kids' comics . . . 1990's Comics that are Selling and in Demand 4 4

[Hollywood1892]

Yeah, they need to give it an actual age

Maybe....

Platinum

Or

Bitcoin

[FlyingDonut]

Here's your hint for the day. Starting with this book:

you should be buying all major title Marvels published until about 2002. You should be able to get them for bulk buy prices, even in high grade. The print runs were tiny and there's actually some good stuff in there.

The Rule of 25 always holds, and 10 years from now you'll be happy you have your copy of Amazing Spider-Man (second series) 30 to flip.

That is all.

[F For Fake]

Re: McFarlane Spideys, sets still do well, at least for me, relative to cost. #1 and #13 are generally not in the dollar bins anymore. The rest are easy 50 cent to $1 finds. Get lucky and put a set together for $10-$15, sell them for $30-$40 depending on condition. Always worth a pick up, to me. I don't love the book personally, but if they sell, they sell. #13 newsstand can be a $15-$20 book as well.

Re: Gen 13, now that's close to my heart. I was working at a comic shop back when that book blew up, and I remember #1 being a $50+ wall book. So, I am inclined to pick them up whenever I find them for a buck or less. I've got a pretty healthy stack. True, they may never be worth much more than a buck, and will almost certainly never reach the heights of the mid-90's, but I just can't let them go.

More challenging are the newsstand copies. I've only found a couple of newsstand #1's, probably 1 for every 10 copies of the direct version I've found. I'd like to put together a newsstand set of the mini series, but only have 1 & I think 3 represented so far. They just don't pop up very often.

I think the print runs were relatively high for that series, it was pretty amazingly popular at the time. So, none of them are hard to find, even with the sexy JSC art, but I still hoard #12's (sexy Fairchild cover) and #5 (Fairchild bikini cover on a white cover that often has issues with color rub). #2 is out there by the palette load, but it's tough to find them in really nice shape because they had trading cards or something inserted, so they tend to have gnarly spine dents.

Again, we're talking about books to look for in the dollar bins in hopes of them some day maybe being worth $2-$5. I have no unrealistic expectations of their value. I just like the books, so I buy 'em.

On the pricier side, The Gen-et Jackson and Lingerie variants of #1 are still good sellers, and the blank cover as well, as lots of folks like to get JSC sketches on them. 

For potential sleepers, I'd look at the latter-day Adam Warren issues. They are uncommon. Not valuable at all, and if you DO find them they're probably only a buck, but compared to the JSC issues, you just don't run into them very much.

[Lazyboy]

5 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

Here's your hint for the day. Starting with this book:

you should be buying all major title Marvels published until about 2002. You should be able to get them for bulk buy prices, even in high grade. The print runs were tiny and there's actually some good stuff in there.

The Rule of 25 always holds, and 10 years from now you'll be happy you have your copy of Amazing Spider-Man (second series) 30 to flip.

That is all.

Wait, since when is the Rule of 25 about what guys in their 50s liked 25 years earlier?

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 1/30/2020 at 8:08 PM, Hamlet said:

Here is a question-

What kind of print runs did these Gen 13 books with Campbell covers have?  The Gen 13 issue 12 seems to be the cover with at least a little demand.  It occasionally sells on EBay for $5-10.  
 

I’m guessing it’s got a pretty big print run, but if anyone has ballpark figures I’d be interested in some confirmation.

I was completely out of comics at the time these came out.

 

Print runs were tanking by the late 90s. Gen 13 #1, in 1995, had a fairly substantial print run, spread out over 14 initial covers. Cap City orders for #1 were huge, 91,000. It was the 5th highest selling book of the month (3/95) during the INSANELY popular Age of Apocalypse storyline (probably the last time that an X-crossover was this popular), and barely edged out by those titles. In fact, Cap City orders for the #1 book that month (Amazing X-Men #1) were only 92,650. Based on those numbers, Gen 13 #1 *probably* was printed to the tune of 500,000 copies, including a not-insubstantial newsstand run.

Cap City orders slid pretty bad after that, to 43,025 with issue #6...and then Cap City, sadly, was bought out by Diamond during the Distributor Wars, and we have no more numbers until September, 1996, when JJM was finally able to index numbers again from Diamond and Heroes. At that point, Gen 13 was functionally a bi-monthly title, and JJM estimates there were 121k Direct copies sold that for that issue (and an unknown quantity of newsstands), placing it in the top 20 in terms of units and dollars.

So, based on what we know, maybe an estimate of 200,000-250,000 copies of #12...? Broadly?

Interestingly is that, despite the numbers, Gen 13 continued to be a top 10 or 20 title; the plummeting sales numbers were a reflection of the entire industry slowly being sucked into oblivion. X-Men #59, the #1 book for 9/97, only had est sales of 202k against Gen 13 #14s 121k. Looks healthy now, but sales were double or triple that only 2 years earlier, and 5-10 times that in 1991.

[Hamlet]

45 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Print runs were tanking by the late 90s. Gen 13 #1, in 1995, had a fairly substantial print run, spread out over 14 initial covers. Cap City orders for #1 were huge, 91,000. It was the 5th highest selling book of the month (3/95) during the INSANELY popular Age of Apocalypse storyline (probably the last time that an X-crossover was this popular), and barely edged out by those titles. In fact, Cap City orders for the #1 book that month (Amazing X-Men #1) were only 92,650. Based on those numbers, Gen 13 #1 *probably* was printed to the tune of 500,000 copies, including a not-insubstantial newsstand run.

Cap City orders slid pretty bad after that, to 43,025 with issue #6...and then Cap City, sadly, was bought out by Diamond during the Distributor Wars, and we have no more numbers until September, 1996, when JJM was finally able to index numbers again from Diamond and Heroes. At that point, Gen 13 was functionally a bi-monthly title, and JJM estimates there were 121k Direct copies sold that for that issue (and an unknown quantity of newsstands), placing it in the top 20 in terms of units and dollars.

So, based on what we know, maybe an estimate of 200,000-250,000 copies of #12...? Broadly?

Interestingly is that, despite the numbers, Gen 13 continued to be a top 10 or 20 title; the plummeting sales numbers were a reflection of the entire industry slowly being sucked into oblivion. X-Men #59, the #1 book for 9/97, only had est sales of 202k against Gen 13 #14s 121k. Looks healthy now, but sales were double or triple that only 2 years earlier, and 5-10 times that in 1991.

Thanks!

[RockMyAmadeus]

1 hour ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

we have no more numbers until September, 1996, when JJM was finally able to index numbers again from Diamond and Heroes. At that point, Gen 13 was functionally a bi-monthly title, and JJM estimates there were 121k Direct copies sold that for that issue (and an unknown quantity of newsstands), placing it in the top 20 in terms of units and dollars.

Forgot to put that as issue #14.

[Mercury Man]

On 1/30/2020 at 11:09 PM, Randall Dowling said:

I have a question for everyone that thinks the McFarlane Spider-Man run is worthwhile:  have you read those books?  They’re complete garbage from a writing point-of-view

Wait, we are supposed to read these things?   In all seriousness, did it deserve a Will Eisner award....no.   But, there are lots of books with terrible insides from a story point of view, that still do very well.  Or maybe to your point, people just haven't read them yet.  

[fastballspecial]

9 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

On 1/30/2020 at 10:09 PM, Randall Dowling said:

I have a question for everyone that thinks the McFarlane Spider-Man run is worthwhile:  have you read those books?  They’re complete garbage from a writing point-of-view

Wait, we are supposed to read these things?   In all seriousness, did it deserve a Will Eisner award....no.   But, there are lots of books with terrible insides from a story point of view, that still do very well.  Or maybe to your point, people just haven't read them yet.  

It is difficult to find good stories from the mid 90s to 2000 or so. That is a dark period for Marvel at least. Other publishers had better material at the time. 

Edited February 2, 2020 by fastballspecial

[Mercury Man]

2 minutes ago, fastballspecial said:

That is a dark period for Marvel at least

I will go one further and say, Marvel has been in a dark period from much of the year 2000 an beyond.  Utter garbage, with a few minor exceptions. 

[Mercury Man]

On 1/31/2020 at 8:14 AM, FlyingDonut said:

Here's your hint for the day. Starting with this book:

you should be buying all major title Marvels published until about 2002. You should be able to get them for bulk buy prices, even in high grade. The print runs were tiny and there's actually some good stuff in there.

The Rule of 25 always holds, and 10 years from now you'll be happy you have your copy of Amazing Spider-Man (second series) 30 to flip.

That is all.

I really enjoyed that Kevin Smith arc. 

[eastcoaster]

On 1/29/2020 at 7:28 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

Yeah, it's certainly a lot of fun. The buildup to this series was phenomenal. It's a nice way to get McFarlane Spidey art on the cheap.

Unfortunately the Spider-Man run was forgettable despite the great art.

Also, aside from the ASM Venom issues the ASM run had some pretty weak issues.  

Edited February 2, 2020 by eastcoaster

[RockMyAmadeus]

44 minutes ago, eastcoaster said:

Unfortunately the Spider-Man run was forgettable despite the great art.

Also, aside from the ASM Venom issues the ASM run had some pretty weak issues.  

Forgettable? It was horrible, unreadable garbage. It's purely an art title, and it doesn't even hold up to the classic art from #307-314 or so.

[fastballspecial]

10 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

I will go one further and say, Marvel has been in a dark period from much of the year 2000 an beyond.  Utter garbage, with a few minor exceptions. 

While I will agree I am not sure they will ever get back to what they used to be due to the draw outside the comic book field.Writers and artists can make more money in digital animation and doing just covers now. I honestly don't think its going to changemuch because Marvel I don't think can pay what it takes to keep great talent now. I think now it will just be diamonds in the rough that they will fine and refine and then they will leave. I am sure DC has the same problems.

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by fastballspecial

[divad]

On 2/2/2020 at 7:40 AM, fastballspecial said:

diamonds in the rough

Always my fave. 

[whetteon]

Scud! About a disposable vending machine robot that was hired to assassinate a beast named Jeff. Before finishing the job, he realized that upon killing Jeff he would die so he put the beast on life support and took odd jobs to pay the bills.

An astounding story line unlike ANYTHING else produced at that time.  The 1st issue can get up to $20. A bonus was that it was a Wizard top pick one month. Since it was an independent title, copies were a little harder to find later in the series..

Many of the covers are awesome in and of itself. Here's issue #3 literally mocking the industries current norm at that time.

 

[MetalPSI]

4 hours ago, whetteon said:

Scud! About a disposable vending machine robot that was hired to assassinate a beast named Jeff. Before finishing the job, he realized that upon killing Jeff he would die so he put the beast on life support and took odd jobs to pay the bills.

An astounding story line unlike ANYTHING else produced at that time.  The 1st issue can get up to $20. A bonus was that it was a Wizard top pick one month. Since it was an independent title, copies were a little harder to find later in the series..

Many of the covers are awesome in and of itself. Here's issue #3 literally mocking the industries current norm at that time.

 

I remember this

[whetteon]

Another awesome cover. Who DIDN'T want that action figure?

[MetalPSI]

1 hour ago, whetteon said:

Another awesome cover. Who DIDN'T want that action figure?

[devald]

22 minutes ago, IkewithMike said:

Could be the first "action figure" themed cover... followed by Batman Gotham Adventures 3