1981- what did $400 buy in comic collectibles then? 2 2

[oakman29]

5 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

That sounds like a great job

You Canadians might think so. Lol. It sucked royally.😉

Winchells was no Tim Hortons,  that's for sure.

Edited March 17, 2021 by oakman29

[snitzer]

I remember seeing an X-men #1 for sale, mid-80’s for $100 at my LCS. Wanted it so bad. Might as well been a million to me though. It’s all relative.

[thehumantorch]

9 minutes ago, oakman29 said:

You Canadians might think so. Lol. It sucked royally.😉

Winchells was no Tim Hortons,  that's for sure.

Sometimes I dream I'm falling into a vat of doughnut dough, little sprinkles falling onto my naked legs.  Then I wake up.

Edited March 17, 2021 by thehumantorch

[oakman29]

24 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Sometimes I dream I'm falling into a vat of doughnut dough, little sprinkles falling onto my naked legs.  Then I wake up.

Waaaaay too much information Dave.😬

[Ken Aldred]

About 10 Giant-Size X-Men 1 in NM condition.

I got one late 1980 for £20 / $40.

[piper]

45 minutes ago, KCOComics said:

It's a Marvel Collecting guide. 

The owner of a new comic shop in Rhode Island bought a collection that included about 100 uncirculated copies of it in an original mailing envelope. 

He gave me one with a purchase. It's got allot of cool stuff. 

I recall it as an insert in an issue of ASM.  

[Azkaban]

some of my old mail order catalogs from around that time. Check out some of these prices

 

X-men 1 for $150

Tomb of Dracula 10 for $2.50

Werewolf by Night 32 $8.00 about where it should be 

[podochigae]

Here's another catalog, this one from Maxwell Seeley (expired Mar 31, 1981).  ASM #1 ($300) was more expensive than AF15 ($275), IH 181 was $10.  I did buy X-Men #94 for $75 (not from this catalog) but that was about all I could afford back then.  I didn't realize at the time, though, that these prices are only for good, collectible condition (pre-1978).  For fine condition, you need to double the price.  It's mentioned in the 4th and 5th paragraph on pg. 1 (which I never saw until recently).  Not exactly sure what his "good" and "fine" grades would correspond to on our current grading scale, though - maybe Fine and VF/NM?

 

[alexgross.com]

just a year or two after this, i saw that xmen 1 was worth $400 in vf/nm condition in one of these price guides. i convinced my dad to give me $400 so we could invest in one for the future, and i went to one of the comic cons in nyc. no one had a nice copy on display there, and i returned the money to my father, disappointed. it was the most money i had ever held at one time. years later at sdcc i was amazed at just how many copies i saw on walls behind dealer booths. 

[James J Johnson]

3 hours ago, oakman29 said:

I bought a 5.0/5.5ish AF15 for 500.00 around that time, and I still own it.😊

Well, with the application of a little simple logic, you're talking about at least a $30,000+ book. So let's think about this realistically. How good can your AF 15 be if you only paid $500 for it?  

 

[James J Johnson]

2 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

 little sprinkles falling onto my naked legs. 

  Multi-colored   , or chocolate   ?  

[Azkaban]

here's a copy of one of my big order's,  spending my lawn money

 

[Domo Arigato]

3 hours ago, oakman29 said:

3 hours ago, piper said:

3 hours ago, oakman29 said:

What does a 5.0ish AF15 go for these days. I dont even know? I do know considerably more than I paid, but....

PM Sent.

That's one book that will be buried with me my friend.

Where are you going to be buried?

 

[podochigae]

19 minutes ago, www.alexgross.com said:

just a year or two after this, i saw that xmen 1 was worth $400 in vf/nm condition in one of these price guides. i convinced my dad to give me $400 so we could invest in one for the future, and i went to one of the comic cons in nyc. no one had a nice copy on display there, and i returned the money to my father, disappointed. it was the most money i had ever held at one time. years later at sdcc i was amazed at just how many copies i saw on walls behind dealer booths. 

That sounds really disappointing.  Did they have copies, but only in poor condition?  Did you and your dad get a 2nd chance at some other book, perhaps?  

You do have a good point, though.  I remember trying to buy X-Men #94 several times from mail-order places but they didn't have it.  Back then you had to list alternates, and I frequently wasn't able to get every thing on my order.

[JazzMan]

58 minutes ago, podochigae said:

Here's another catalog, this one from Maxwell Seeley (expired Mar 31, 1981).  ASM #1 ($300) was more expensive than AF15 ($275), IH 181 was $10.  I did buy X-Men #94 for $75 (not from this catalog) but that was about all I could afford back then.  I didn't realize at the time, though, that these prices are only for good, collectible condition (pre-1978).  For fine condition, you need to double the price.  It's mentioned in the 4th and 5th paragraph on pg. 1 (which I never saw until recently).  Not exactly sure what his "good" and "fine" grades would correspond to on our current grading scale, though - maybe Fine and VF/NM?

 

Crazy how AF 15 was cheaper than ASM 1.

[Larryw7]

I was a freshman in high school in 1981, so I never had 400 bucks to spend. But I do remember getting a Batman 5 in Fair/Good for 45 bucks, a low grade Action 59 for 12, Batman 39 in good for 14, Vault of Horror 32 for six bucks, and lots of other good stuff. Silver Age DC's for 3.00 in high grade, 1.50 in low. And.that included Batman 181, Detective.359, and all of the other key issues.

[littledoom]

5 hours ago, drdonaldblake1 said:

what do you think the dd 181 cover would be worth today?

Probably 6 figures.. it’s one of the most iconic covers and it’s key due to Elektra’s death. it being penciled by a premiere artist in Frank Miller- added to the fact that it’s perhaps the best DD cover in perhaps the best comic storyline/run of all time I can see bidders aggressive to get a cover that means so much 

[HotKey]

I bet you could get a nice price on a Cerberus #1 back then. 

[Comics4All]

8 hours ago, Azkaban said:

here's a copy of one of my big order's,  spending my lawn money

 

You overpaid for the micronauts in 2021 pricing!

Iron Man <Micronauts! Crazy times!

[the blob]

11 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

Overpaid dude

all kidding aside, the 5.0 price was a lot closer to the 9.4 price back then, the ratios were different, and OPG had a much bigger say in things

and that $1100 AF 15 would probably be anything 8.0 and up by CGC standards, possibly lower, many comic shop "NMs" back then would be CGC 8.0s now