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These are not your kids' comics . . . 1990's Comics that are Selling and in Demand
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Started by divad,

108 posts in this topic

the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted
On ‎2‎/‎1‎/‎2020 at 1:14 PM, 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.

Aren't we talking about the 1994 Gen13 #1, which only had one cover?: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gen-13-1-1994-Image-VF-NM-Vol-1-1st-Print-Jim-Lee-J-Scott-Campbell/264654359603?hash=item3d9ea10c33:g:ZwIAAOSwL9peXZ9w

It must have had a decent print run, but not 500K or whatever. I remember that one being $30-$50 on the wall. I remember trading 1 - 4 in for store credit and getting a couple of GA Captain Marvels.

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david20009

david20009

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On 2/27/2020 at 12:46 PM, lou_fine said:

Was flipping through the CL auction results looking for a particular book and noticed this book here:

RAD3633B202019_16827.jpg
sold for  $2,300

The other 9.8 (just graded) is up on eBay for $2,495 now

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PRIMO-NINTENDO-Comics-System-SNEAK-PREVIEW-NM-MT-9-8-CGC-HIGHEST-1990-Valiant/333572718887?hash=item4daa7bc127:g:Gy4AAOSwoTJekliD

 

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lou_fine

lou_fine

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56 minutes ago, david20009 said:
On 2/26/2020 at 8:46 PM, lou_fine said:

Was flipping through the CL auction results looking for a particular book and noticed this book here:

RAD3633B202019_16827.jpg
sold for  $2,300

The other 9.8 (just graded) is up on eBay for $2,495 now

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PRIMO-NINTENDO-Comics-System-SNEAK-PREVIEW-NM-MT-9-8-CGC-HIGHEST-1990-Valiant/333572718887?hash=item4daa7bc127:g:Gy4AAOSwoTJekliD

 

Got all excited when I saw your post and link here.  :banana:

Then I click onto the link only to find out that they incorrectly placed the decimal point 2 places to the right when it would have been much more tempting if it was 2 places to the left and in between the "4" and the "9".   :bigsmile:   :takeit:

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valiantman

valiantman

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Posted
On 4/11/2020 at 10:57 PM, lou_fine said:
On 4/11/2020 at 9:57 PM, david20009 said:
On 2/26/2020 at 10:46 PM, lou_fine said:

Was flipping through the CL auction results looking for a particular book and noticed this book here:

RAD3633B202019_16827.jpg
sold for  $2,300

The other 9.8 (just graded) is up on eBay for $2,495 now

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PRIMO-NINTENDO-Comics-System-SNEAK-PREVIEW-NM-MT-9-8-CGC-HIGHEST-1990-Valiant/333572718887?hash=item4daa7bc127:g:Gy4AAOSwoTJekliD

 

Got all excited when I saw your post and link here.  :banana:

Then I click onto the link only to find out that they incorrectly placed the decimal point 2 places to the right when it would have been much more tempting if it was 2 places to the left and in between the "4" and the "9".   :bigsmile:   :takeit:

If we're cutting asking prices by 99%, then I'd say every book becomes tempting. :kidaround:

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maraxusofkeld

maraxusofkeld

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On ‎2‎/‎29‎/‎2020 at 2:10 PM, fastballspecial said:

I don't pass up books in the late 90s or early 2000s in great shape from a
strong selling title. The print runs are nothing and collectors will go back
for them.

 

There were a lot of great books from the late 90's/early 2000's Planetary, The Authority, Ultimate Spiderman, Ultimate's, and I thought most of the Crossgen titles were pretty good as well. 

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valiantman

valiantman

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36 minutes ago, maraxusofkeld said:
On 2/29/2020 at 1:10 PM, fastballspecial said:

I don't pass up books in the late 90s or early 2000s in great shape from a
strong selling title. The print runs are nothing and collectors will go back
for them.

 

There were a lot of great books from the late 90's/early 2000's Planetary, The Authority, Ultimate Spiderman, Ultimate's, and I thought most of the Crossgen titles were pretty good as well. 

Apart from Ultimate Spider-Man, I'm thinking you missed the part of the quote that said "strong selling title". lol

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Whizzer

Whizzer

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Posted

I recently bought a large collection which included all of the Harris Cyberfrog books. I wasn't very familiar with these and threw them up on Ebay not expecting very much. Wow! there was a feeding frenzy and they went for very good money.  I need to educate myself on 90's indies that's for sure.

 

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Qalyar

Qalyar

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On 4/18/2020 at 3:16 AM, Whizzer said:

I recently bought a large collection which included all of the Harris Cyberfrog books. I wasn't very familiar with these and threw them up on Ebay not expecting very much. Wow! there was a feeding frenzy and they went for very good money.  I need to educate myself on 90's indies that's for sure.

 

Cyberfrog has a following that is apparently both pretty rabid in acquiring copies and quite well funded in doing so.

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littledoom

littledoom

Posted
Posted

X-Men 4 is selling pretty well... I'm noticing more now than ever that ppl really enjoy Jim Lee's 1990 X-Men run and many of his back issues like Alpha Flight 51 are selling well... He's selling off monster sketches on ebay every single day and I think it somehow is driving demand for his key issues

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fastballspecial

fastballspecial

Posted
Posted
On 4/18/2020 at 3:16 AM, Whizzer said:

I recently bought a large collection which included all of the Harris Cyberfrog books. I wasn't very familiar with these and threw them up on Ebay not expecting very much. Wow! there was a feeding frenzy and they went for very good money.  I need to educate myself on 90's indies that's for sure.

 

You are not alone in this. When I get indy's in now I check quite a bit before I put them up for sale. My shops didn't have indy books in the 80s and early 90s so I 
lack some knowledge with them.

 

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followtheleader

followtheleader

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, Qalyar said:

Cyberfrog has a following that is apparently both pretty rabid in acquiring copies and quite well funded in doing so.

I used to have an enormous indy collection, but sold a lot of it. 

Fortunately, I kept the Cyberfrog collection.  I was a bit crazy about it before it got hot.  I knew I was getting too into it when I bought a page that he didn't print in an issue because it was too risque. But than later printed as a single page on thicker stock.  Do I need that?  Nah.

Patrick

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followtheleader

followtheleader

Posted
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2 minutes ago, followtheleader said:

I used to have an enormous indy collection, but sold a lot of it. 

Fortunately, I kept the Cyberfrog collection.  I was a bit crazy about it before it got hot.  I knew I was getting too into it when I bought a page that he didn't print in an issue because it was too risque. But than later printed as a single page on thicker stock.  Do I need that?  Nah.

Patrick

This is the page I'm referring to: 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1996-HARRIS-COMICS-CYBERFROG-CENSORED-MAIL-AWAY-PAGE-BY-ETHAN-VAN-SCIVER/333395354292?hash=item4d9fe962b4:g:2jIAAOSwtcBdNhyX

Patrick

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littledoom

littledoom

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, followtheleader said:

Fortunately, I kept the Cyberfrog collection.  I was a bit crazy about it before it got hot.  I knew I was getting too into it when I bought a page that he didn't print in an issue because it was too risque. But than later printed as a single page on thicker stock.  Do I need that?  Nah.

I find myself regretting those "do I really need these?" purchases... they never seem to be worth it in the long run...

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Brock

Brock

Posted
Posted
On 4/20/2020 at 7:41 PM, followtheleader said:

This is the page I'm referring to: 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1996-HARRIS-COMICS-CYBERFROG-CENSORED-MAIL-AWAY-PAGE-BY-ETHAN-VAN-SCIVER/333395354292?hash=item4d9fe962b4:g:2jIAAOSwtcBdNhyX

Patrick

At $150 a page, that’s like a $3,000 book... I’d say that wasn’t a bad purchase.

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followtheleader

followtheleader

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, Brock said:

At $150 a page, that’s like a $3,000 book... I’d say that wasn’t a bad purchase.

Agreed, definitely not complaining. 
It was just a moment where I was thought I was getting a little too in the weeds.

Patrick

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lighthouse

lighthouse

Posted
Posted

We break out sales by decade in my shop. And 90s outsells all other decades in volume, and is only behind 60s in total dollars if you give 60s credit for the wall book sales. Pull the wall book sales back out and 90s is the champ. 

There is plenty of 90s drek that never moves at all. But late-90s superhero, mid-90s sci-fi, and all-90s Spidey and Spawn sell very well. Give me tables full of Dark Horse Star Wars, Aliens, Predator, Terminator... McFarlane Spawn and Spidey... Danger Girl, Battle Chasers, Witchblade... all those titles that started in 1997-1998 like Deadpool, Nightwing, Daredevil... and I’ll take at least a table worth of every Venom miniseries, all the pre-Unity Valiant, JTHM, Squee, Scud... and give me two full tables of all the DC Animated books. I’ll even take one full table of the Onslaught storyline, all of it, all the tie-ins. 

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dfx1

dfx1

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Posted
On 2/28/2020 at 5:09 AM, david20009 said:

I was the buyer of this book. 

Valiantman is correct I am trying to put together all of the original Valiant in CGC 9.8.  Besides the hero books this includes the early WWF, Nintendo, KFC, Cheesasaurus Rex and Spegehetto books.  There are 52 Valiant Nintendo comics (inlcuding variant covers but excluding TPBs and HCs).  I have 29 of them so far in 9.8.  This is far and away the most important book in the collection and was one of my whales.  My final bid was $7,000 as this fell into the category of book that I had to have at any cost.  As a major Valiant fan it was important for me to have the first book they made.  I already have a raw copy.

One concern I had for this auction is I would set the price and then there might be a flood of this book becoming available (and remember someone bid $100 less than me). If it was a regular Marvel book from 1990 I wouldn’t have done it but I do not think there are many copies of this thin preview floating around in perfect condition. I know it was a risk to pay up for the book but I am ok with it as there may not be another copy in this grade. If more come out of the wood work and they start selling for $500 I would be ok with that too as other guys I know who want one could pick one up. I doubt that would be that case.  I was also thinking about how crazy some Nintendo video games go for and didn’t want to risk early Nintendo comics falling into that group of collectors. (I would have sold this in a Heritage comic book / video game auction myself personally and I think it would have gone for more than I paid.

I am not a video game collector but I did save money from my paper route to buy an original 8-bit Nintendo with Mario Bros/Duck Hunt when it came out to I have fond memories playing the original Nintendo games.

I do take issue with the statement it is not rare and there are many high grade copies around.  How many 1989/1990 books have more copies graded 9.0 and below than 9.2 and above.  There are 20 copies of this book graded. 

9.8 - 1

9.6 - 2

9.4 - 4

9.2 - 2

9.0 - 4

8.5 - 1

8.0 - 1

7.5 - 2

7.0 - 2

6.5 - 1

There are a few other Valiant fans that have been looking for a high grade copy, many of whom are very good at scouring esoteric places to find high grade copies of books to send off and grade.  None of them have ever found a 9.8 of this book despite looking.

Anyways I am over the moon with my purchase so am fine if others think I am crazy.  This is a book going into my collection and it will not be coming out until my heirs have to deal with all my books. 

 

 

Did you notice that the Sneak Peak you won had creep engine? Was wondering if you are going to send it in to fix or not? Wont it damage the book after a while?

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divad

divad

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Posted

WTH is going on here? :bump: They are talking about books released TODAY! in the "Moderns heating up" thread. Oy! :facepalm:

Let's get this thread up and running again. :bigsmile:

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divad

divad

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Recent sales of 1990's comics include . . . . :banana:

 
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