UPDATE - Groo 29 WAS a $20-30 book in late 80's! 0

[Hey Kids, Comics!]

I have a long time collector buddy who lived in Indianapolis at the time who swears that Groo 29 (1st app Ruferto) was a $20-30 wall book and was also listed in the old Comics Value Monthly at that price as well. I have no recollection of this even though I remember Groo being extremely hot. Anyone have any recollection of this or better yet some old CVMs from late 1988-1989?

Edited April 4, 2020 by Hey Kids, Comics!

[MetaHuman]

I found an Overstreet's Comics Price Bulletin from Spring 1988 that I saved. Groo #29 wasn't broken out. It's grouped within #27-35 with a price of $1.20. The title was hot back then since all the issues had an "H" beside them. 

[divad]

4 hours ago, Hey Kids, Comics! said:

I have a long time collector buddy who lived in Indianapolis at the time who swears that Groo 29 (1st app Ruferto) was a $20-30 wall book and was also listed in the old Comics Value Monthly at that price as well. I have no recollection of this even though I remember Groo being extremely hot. Anyone have any recollection of this or better yet some old CVMs from late 1988-1989?

Uh . . . no. 

[shadroch]

I recall the Pacific issues being fairly in demand, and Groo 1 but not the others. Perhaps it was a regional thing or the shop was owned by a former snake oil merchant.  

OR, and this was done in several NYC shops, Groo 29 was a wall book because it there was $20 worth of weed in it. Hidden in plain sight.

[Martin Sinescu]

I bought Groo off the stands as a kid and held them until the mid-90's when I sold off a large chunk of my collection. I don't remember any of them being worth anything except the issues Shadroch noted (the independent series/appearances and 1st Marvel issue). $20-30 back in the late 80's would have been a very significant amount of money for a modern book.

Actually, let me just get off my duff and grab a CVM. 

Here's July 1989 listings for Groo....

As a point of reference, the Punisher Limited Series was $22 in this issue and the Wolverine Limited was $18 GI Joe #2 was $35 and Groo #1 (Marvel) was $15, so the $20-30 range is really out of the question for this book during that period. I jumped up a couple of years to an Overstreet Monthly from 1991 and this issue isn't even broken out. Maaaayyyybeeeee a few years after and just before the crash, but it doesn't really stand out as anything significant in my mind and I tried to stay up on any hot books through that period. I feel like Wizard would've had to really be hyping this issue to get that large an asking price, but maybe someone else has a different recollection.

[seanfingh]

14 hours ago, Hey Kids, Comics! said:

I have a long time collector buddy who lived in Indianapolis at the time who swears that Groo 29 (1st app Ruferto) was a $20-30 wall book and was also listed in the old Comics Value Monthly at that price as well. I have no recollection of this even though I remember Groo being extremely hot. Anyone have any recollection of this or better yet some old CVMs from late 1988-1989?

I 100% remember this!!!  I had never read Groo and I tracked several of them down, for cover price.  I took them to several shows and was never asked about them, never had anyone look at them, nothing.  I ended up thinking it was one of those books that you always heard about that the guide makers intentionally put a typo or a wrong bit of information in to have as evidence if someone grifted their information.

In an insane bit of coincidence, I also grew up in Indianapolis.

 

[Jeffro.]

Comics Values Monthly's prices were in some cases (to borrow a term from our British cousins) bollocks. 

The one enduring memory that I have of CVM was the indie B/W comics being listed at silly values. Stuff like Red Fox, Fish Police, Adventurers, etc

Edited March 26, 2020 by Jëffrö...

[Bronty]

There was one month when CBM raised its price on fugitoid 1 from 8 dollars to 96.   I traded in my copy to the store once I saw it.   By next month, it was back down to 8 bucks.   Just a typo.    Wonder if there was a similar issue here?

[Hey Kids, Comics!]

7 hours ago, shadroch said:

I recall the Pacific issues being fairly in demand, and Groo 1 but not the others. Perhaps it was a regional thing or the shop was owned by a former snake oil merchant.  

OR, and this was done in several NYC shops, Groo 29 was a wall book because it there was $20 worth of weed in it. Hidden in plain sight.

That’s what I assumed until he said the part about it being in CVM. Noted that he remembered because it was one of his more “valuable” books in his collection at the time. Take in consideration, he was in his 20’s at this time and not a kid.

[davidtere]

I still have all of my Groo comics. I was once offered a significant amount of cheese dip for them but declined. 

[Bronty]

1 minute ago, davidtere said:

I still have all of my Groo comics. I was once offered a significant amount of cheese dip for them but declined. 

Only a mendicant would have no Groo in his collection.   

[jjonahjameson11]

12 hours ago, shadroch said:

I recall the Pacific issues being fairly in demand, and Groo 1 but not the others. Perhaps it was a regional thing or the shop was owned by a former snake oil merchant.  

OR, and this was done in several NYC shops, Groo 29 was a wall book because it there was $20 worth of weed in it. Hidden in plain sight.

The Groo Special #1 published by Eclipse was for a long time the most expensive Groo comic.

Groo 29 was never, ever more than cover price.

[Legion HQ]

7 hours ago, Jëffrö... said:

Comics Values Monthly's prices were in some cases (to borrow a term from our British cousins) bollocks. 

The one enduring memory that I have of CVM was the indie B/W comics being listed at silly values. Stuff like Red Fox, Fish Police, Adventurers, etc

[Legion HQ]

6 hours ago, Bronty said:

There was one month when CBM raised its price on fugitoid 1 from 8 dollars to 96.   I traded in my copy to the store once I saw it.   By next month, it was back down to 8 bucks.   Just a typo.    Wonder if there was a similar issue here?

I actually remember that! I saw that as well and got very excited for 5 minutes thinking I had the next TMNT 1 in my collection. Stupid stupid CVM price misprints!

[shadroch]

35 minutes ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

The Groo Special #1 published by Eclipse was for a long time the most expensive Groo comic.

Groo 29 was never, ever more than cover price.

Yes, the Groo Special was pretty hot for a spell.

[Bronty]

52 minutes ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

The Groo Special #1 published by Eclipse was for a long time the most expensive Groo comic.

Groo 29 was never, ever more than cover price.

Well, I'd say never more than 5 bucks is fair.   There was a bit of a buzz around it but a 3-4 dollar 'book to watch' buzz, not a 30 dollar 'minor key' book buzz.

Edited March 26, 2020 by Bronty

[Bronty]

16 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Yes, the Groo Special was pretty hot for a spell.

Its a great book!

[shadroch]

1 hour ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

The Groo Special #1 published by Eclipse was for a long time the most expensive Groo comic.

Groo 29 was never, ever more than cover price.

Most shops marked up every  back issue in the 80s.  My minimum price in the bins was $1 when new books were 60-75 cents, except X-Men. They were $2 for anything after 143.

Groo had a niche following. With $1.50 cover, I imagine I had them for $2. I had my issues segregated by Publisher, and every month I would feature one indie publisher and offer all the back issues for fifty cents. I didn't know anything about cycle sheets when I opened up so the first six months or so I greatly over ordered some books and under ordered others. After a few months, it became obvious that a small number of books represented most of my sales and I got to be decent about ordering properly. I had a small store, with no backroom so unsold stock was a real burden, aside from being constantly near broke.

I did two monthly shows and tried to blow out excess back stock there, but even then some books just didn't sell. Hard to believe now, but Batman titles were really slow sellers. I had two boxes of Bat Books come in one day. I bought them for a quarter each in trade and priced them at fifty cents and they barely sold. Lots of 12 cent books and no one wanted them. Then Dark Knight came out and everyone totally under-ordered them. Batman sales sucked, Millers last project was a disaster for most shops and it was several times the price of a normal comic.  Some shops ordered the minimum and some didn't even order it. MY 20 copies were sold out in a day or two.

Edited March 26, 2020 by shadroch

[Hey Kids, Comics!]

1 hour ago, shadroch said:

Most shops marked up every  back issue in the 80s.  My minimum price in the bins was $1 when new books were 60-75 cents, except X-Men. They were $2 for anything after 143.

Groo had a niche following. With $1.50 cover, I imagine I had them for $2. I had my issues segregated by Publisher, and every month I would feature one indie publisher and offer all the back issues for fifty cents. I didn't know anything about cycle sheets when I opened up so the first six months or so I greatly over ordered some books and under ordered others. After a few months, it became obvious that a small number of books represented most of my sales and I got to be decent about ordering properly. I had a small store, with no backroom so unsold stock was a real burden, aside from being constantly near broke.

I did two monthly shows and tried to blow out excess back stock there, but even then some books just didn't sell. Hard to believe now, but Batman titles were really slow sellers. I had two boxes of Bat Books come in one day. I bought them for a quarter each in trade and priced them at fifty cents and they barely sold. Lots of 12 cent books and no one wanted them. Then Dark Knight came out and everyone totally under-ordered them. Batman sales sucked, Millers last project was a disaster for most shops and it was several times the price of a normal comic.  Some shops ordered the minimum and some didn't even order it. MY 20 copies were sold out in a day or two.

LOVE hearing stories from shop owners in the 80's before there seemed to be multiple comic/sports card shops in every town. 

[Bird]

2 hours ago, shadroch said:

Millers last project was a disaster for most shops

would that have been Ronin? I was so confused and dumbstruck as a 16 year old reading that off the racks!