Valiants mentioned in the 2003 Overstreet market reports

[valiantman]

I guess I'll just say it again...

 

Pro-Valiant, I understand.

Valiant-Neutral, I understand.

Anti-Valiant, I don't get.

 

If you don't care, then you shouldn't be so excited about posting on this thread!

FlyingDonut says he can sell them all day long and you say "they're rubbish".

 

Alright, fine...Joe_Collector votes "No" to Valiant. Whoop-dee-doo.

[joe_collector]

And dotcomfool more than lives up to his name. Whoop-dee-doo.

 

Seriously though, keep collecting those Valiants and let money flow through your fingers like water, especially if you're speculating on them jumping in value.

 

I really should stop replying, since it's highly doubtful that any longtime collector would be stupid enough to speculate on Valiant comics.

 

And let's not beat around the bush, that's what your site and this thread is about: ressurecting an old speculator dinosaur, like some sort of Jerk-rassic Comic Park where we can go laugh at the excesses of the 90's.

[valiantman]

Who's speculating on anything...?

 

FlyingDonut clearly stated that buying them for double-cover price, he could

sell them all-day-long for profit.

 

No one's trying to say Valiants should be $1,000 each.

What we're saying is...they're not $0.50 books even though they're

from the bargain bin 1990's era.

 

They're great stories, worthy of some recognition...

Would I be "speculating" if I bought $2 bills for $1?

[blowout]

If you don't care, then you shouldn't be so excited about posting on this thread! FlyingDonut says he can sell them all day long and you say "they're rubbish".

 

No one here is saying that Valiant books are 'rubbish', I think we all agree that the early issues were quality reads.

What is questionable however, is the specualtion on Valiant books. They may have some nostalgia value for some early 90's collectors but that is not going to be enough to maintain the value on books containing what are basically 'dead' characters.

[joe_collector]

If the comics are so valuable and buying them is like getting $2 bills for $1, then why aren't you picking them all up instead of blathering on here? You'd think spreading the word on this forum, and trying to build demand, would cut into your profit model.

 

Unless, creating some "dinosaur comic hype" is what you're intending to do...

[joe_collector]

>>They may have some nostalgia value for some early 90's collectors

 

One of the key elements to the early Valiant reader/collector base was that it was much older than the regular crowd. Older adults, greybeards and fogies were the target audience, and it wasn't until Wizard got into the speculation act, that the readership got younger.

 

Now it's no secret that older collectors don't feel the same nostalgia for comics they bought as adults, as opposed to the books they read as kids, so I highly doubt Valiant books will do anything in the future.

 

That is, unless Wizard starts up with the "low print run" BS (tons of 1980's comics had much, much, much lower print runs) and works the specs and feebs into a lather.

[valiantman]

I didn't start this thread...and I didn't write the comments in Overstreet.

 

Since there are thousands of these books "out there"...there's no way that _I_

could possibly own them all or force them all to be sold for what they currently get on Ebay.

 

It's more than me. It's more than FlyingDonut's customers. It's something else.

There's no "Wizard hype"...Overstreet doesn't list a single book over $10,

there's even plenty of the "Anti-Valiant" sentimate...

and despite ALL that...

somehow these little 1991 books are thriving---

outpacing Marvel & DC books from the same time period.

 

Dinosaurs, maybe. But I always liked Dinosaurs. Didn't you?

[joe_collector]

You're right, if people want to toss their money out on the freeway, who am I to tell them not to. If they want to invest their money in Valiant comics, while I still recommend the freeway as a far better investment opportunity, it's their cash to waste.

[valiantman]

Now it's no secret that older collectors don't feel the same nostalgia for comics they bought as adults, as opposed to the books they read as kids, so I highly doubt Valiant books will do anything in the future.

 

So...those kids from the 1990s...who couldn't afford the early Valiants...

they'll never grow up and want to go back and get them?

 

Yeah, right.

 

1940's kids DEFINED the Golden Age market...

1960's kids ARE the Silver Age market...

1970's kids FUEL the currently blazing Bronze Age market...

1980's kids WANT those Transformers, GIJoe, Star Wars, TMNT...

What do you think the 1990's kids will pick? Marvel? DC? Image?

 

Let's face it...Marvel and DC were either on volume 3+, or issue 400+ by the 1990s.

Image comics...did anyone even READ them?

 

...were Valiant books worth $100 the day they came out? Nope.

...should the earliest ones with the best stories and art be worth $10 after 12 years?

 

You bet they are.

[joe_collector]

Do you even have a clue who bought, read and collected the early Valiants? It sure wasn't kids, and if you ask dealers who were actually there at the beginning, you'd already know this.

 

The only Valiant experience kids (the few that were left) had in the 1990's, was following Wizard and buying horribly over-priced schlock and then taking it from behind when the market crashed.

 

Many of the smart collectors (myself among them) cashed out early, and the core group of older collectors stopped buying Valiant when the foil-enhanced/high print run [!@#%^&^] started appearing. i.e. The Bloodshot/Turok era.

 

That's what kids remember, catching a wave late, and stocking up on Turok #1's. That's not nostalgia, that's a nightmare.

[valiantman]

Do you even have a clue who bought, read and collected the early Valiants?

 

I agree with you...really I do.

 

Kids NEVER owned Harbinger #1, or Magnus #12, or Solar #10, or Rai #3.

Wizard said -- Go Get Them NOW! But the kids couldn't do it...too expensive.

 

The kids wanted them...but the kids didn't get them.

 

What fuels nostalgia more than buying that "unattainable prize" of your youth?

 

What are comic books about if they're not about grown-up kids getting what they want?

 

I am that kid.

I've spent four years building a website devoted to comics I didn't even own...

I wanted them...I wanted them badly... I never got them.

Never, that is, until I turned 21.

You want to know about 1990's kids? Ask me.

I am Seinfeld... I am Nintendo... I am Valiant Comics... I am not alone.

 

Why do you think you have that "old-time" Wolverine face for your avatar?

Seriously, how old were you then?

[FlyingDonut]

Just a couple of points, and then I'll leave you two to your wrestling match:

 

1) High-grade pre-Unity Valiants are genuinely hard to find. This may have been because nobody really caught on to Valiant for the first 10-12 months. The first one I bought was Magnus 12, and then went back and backfilled, and if I remember correctly, even those were hard to find. There are a bunch of them out there in the VF range, but really high grade books are tough.

 

2) Nobody is saying people are "speculating". I think the people buying pre-Unity Valiants are (well at least the people buying them from ME) in their late 20s and early 30s and are looking for good books that they read in high school.

 

3) They are not expensive. The most expensive Valiant book I've sold in a while was a copy of Rai 3 for $20. Most of them sell in the $7-10 range, which, when you think about it, is not an outrageous price, given that basic new books on the stands now sell for $3-6.

 

4) So, if I can buy them for $4 and sell them for $7, everybody's happy. That, by the way, is the foundation of the glorious Flying Donut Empire! Making everybody happy and basically doubling my money. Slow and steady...

[PovertyRow]

What fuels nostalgia more than buying that "unattainable prize" of your youth?

 

Yes, that is one factor. But do not ignore the very powerful "buying that we once had - discarded when we thought we were all grown up and then realizing we want them again.

 

 

[valiantman]

Yes, that is one factor. But do not ignore the very powerful "buying that we once had - discarded when we thought we were all grown up and then realizing we want them again.

 

I agree... but there's a problem.

 

For 1990's kids...we were taught not to throw away comics, or cards, or lunchboxes.

We can't get excited about what we lost...we didn't lose them.

The only thing that really excites us is the thing we never owned...but really wanted.

[joe_collector]

>>Why do you think you have that "old-time" Wolverine face for your avatar?

Seriously, how old were you then?

 

With Oil of Olay, I'll never have to tell.

 

But the New X-Men were my "Golden Age" starting at around issues 112 or so (loved the feral Wolvie) and I nabbed the back issues fast through mail-order, and bought loads and loads of suqsequent copies off the shelf. In the years that followed, I've amassed a pretty wild storehouse of them, and they're actually the only CGC books I actively pursue.

 

Buying them off the shelf was a key for the nostalgia bug personally speaking, and I hold no affinity for the hyper-hot and speculated issues of that era, such as Howard the Duck,Star Wars or any of that [!@#%^&^].

[PovertyRow]

With Oil of Olay, I'll never have to tell.

 

OK - THAT was funny!

[PovertyRow]

For 1990's kids...we were taught not to throw away comics, or cards, or lunchboxes

 

I don't know. Parents can do some major damage. And you have to remember, how many kid's really adhere to what they were "taught".

[valiantman]

Joe...I think we're coming to an understanding... (maybe)

 

Your story of buying X-Men 112 in your "golden age" is clearly important

and very personal to you. Building your collection for basically cover price

and having no regrets about your favorite books.

 

You clearly, don't get my fascination with Valiant comics...yet my story mirrors yours.

 

I, clearly, don't get any fascination with Pokemon, Dragonball Z, or Yu-Gi-Oh,

and I think it's the most worthless [!@#%^&^] I've ever seen...and it's everywhere!

 

How many Golden Age comics do you own? Or seek? Or covet?

Few of them? None?

 

If 1940's comics mean nothing to you...that's understandable.

1970's X-Men means nothing to me. And I think that's understandable.

1990's Valiant means nothing you...and that's understandable.

2000's Japanese-card-cartoon-games mean nothing to you or me...

and that's understandable.

 

The world now respects your treasures...the "new" X-Men of the 1970s.

(Thirty years later.)

 

Why shouldn't the world get a "blurb" about my treasures...early Valiant 1990s?

After all, it is twelve years later...and they're still less than $10 each.

Not bad for 1990's kids hitting their 20s and 30s, now doing some treasure-hunting.

[valiantman]

I don't know. Parents can do some major damage. And you have to remember, how many kid's really adhere to what they were "taught".

 

Oh, don't worry...it wasn't our parents doing this teaching.

It was Wizard. And Beckett. And Overstreet. And the local comics & cards guy.

 

Trust me...the days of the "thrown out" treasures for comics & cards are past...

But the "I never got what I really wanted" mentality will live on forever...

[joe_collector]

Mainly because I don't care if Byrne X-Men are hot or not, I'll keep buying them. I don't tout their prices in the least, as they have inherent value to me.

 

Be like me and just collect the damn things, and argue about the impending market crash.