Comichunters does it again - and X-Men 107 joins the growing Four Figure Price Variant Book Club

For those unaware, ebay comic treasure hunter Comichunters is one of the best, if not the best, variant finder in the world.  He recently listed an exceptional X-Men 107 35 cent price variant which brought $1026 for the book he described as F/VF.  This auction result shattered the previous high price for this issue which was a sale of $910 for a CGC 9.2 back in 2005.  Of course, having to track sales of books that only sell every ten years or so speaks to how rare these price variants really are, particularly the 35 cent variety.  I wonder what that CGC 9.2 would fetch today?  It is still the second highest graded book behind a single 9.4.

 

 

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know how tough these price variants have proven to be.   Here is a real-world illustration that you will only find here.  The CGC condition census (top five grades) for this issue are one 9.4, one 9.2, and four 8.5s.  Compare that to 18 9.8s and 76 9.6s for the regular edition and you can see why the price variants sell for 10 to 20 times as much. 

 

One other note that is very interesting, usually when books, particularly bronze age books, sell for big bucks, other books like it come out of the wood work.  Check this amazing statistic.  Despite bringing big bucks whenever they come up for auction, these books just aren't out there.  The 9.4 was graded by CGC in the first half of 2004.  It is still the highest graded book and was part of an X-Men set that is still the highest graded set in existence.  Two of the four 8.5s were graded in the last half of 2004 and the 9.2 was graded in the first half of 2005.  The other two 8.5s were graded in May 2009 and February 2011.  So despite a high grade book selling for $910 in 2005, there have been a total of two books graded 8.5.  Yes, they are really tough books to find, especially in high grade.