So you want to find a Star Wars price variant cheap?

If you don't mind looking tediously through thousands of listings, you can have a lot of fun when you find the proverbial "needle in the hay stack".  Take this variant hunter and this ebay transaction for instance.

So what did this ebay buyer get for his $6 plus shipping?  Yes, a nice little low-grade Star Wars 4 35 cent price variant.  Plus a couple of other books for fun reading or to give away to the kids on Halloween instead of candy.

If you find a sweet hidden copy sometime, shoot me a note and let me know.  I heard a story from a source who normally knows what he is talking about that back in the day, an ebay buyer won a lot for a high grade CGC certified Iron Fist 14 price variant which was incorrectly graded and labeled by CGC as a regular edition.  That may be the all-time story.  Can you top it?

A couple of lower grade 35 cent price variant books to illustrate a point.

There is a tremendous amount of collector interest in the Marvel Price Variant issues.  Collectors looking to complete specific titles and collectors trying to complete the entire series create a healthy competition for any fresh material that hits the market.  In addition to the Rawhide Kid 141 in CGC 4.5 that I mentioned in an earlier post, there were two other sales of nice CGC certified 4.5 books that illustrate the true rarity of these books and offer a perspective on the pricing for the books.

On ComicLink, a CGC 4.5 copy of Amazing Spider-Man 173 sold for $205.  This is the seventh highest graded copy out of eight graded copies.  The key term is that there are only eight graded copies and there are certainly more than eight Spider-Man collectors looking for these books.  Comparisons to sales of the regular issue are really difficult, because with 17 copies graded in 9.8, there just aren't that many collectors looking for a CGC 4.5 regular edition.  Honestly, a 4.5 copy of the regular edition is not worth slabbing.  The closest comparison I could find is a CGC 8.0 regular edition that sold in December 2012 for $10 (or 1/2 of the CGC encapsulation fees).  A CGC 4.5 Spider-Man price variant is worth twenty times a CGC 8.0 of the regular issue.

GPA reports the sale in May of 2013 of an Iron Fist 15 graded in CGC 4.5 for $180.  The statistics are similar to the Spidey 173.  There are 21 total books graded of the price variant issue while there are 21 9.8s graded of the regular issue.  The closest comparison is again a CGC 8.0 regular edition that sold for $19 in September of 2012.  A CGC 4.5 Iron Fist price variant is worth ten times a CGC 8.0 of the regular issue.

It bears repeating.  35 Cent Price Variants regularly trade at ten to twenty times the price of the regular issues.  For the rarest of the rare books like the HB's, horror, war and western price variants the multiple is 100 times, i.e. Scooby Doo 1 in CGC 8.5 at $3500 versus $35 for the regular issue.  Or try Star Wars 1 in CGC 9.6 for $26,000 versus $190 for the regular issue.

Rawhide Kid 141 in CGC 4.5 shows up on ebay and then disappears

One of the grails of the 35 cent price variant set showed up on ebay.  Listed by ebay seller comics4less, the book was listed in an auction format.  Within a day, however, a buyer had contacted the seller and worked out a deal (purported to be $800) to sell the book privately and pull the listing off of ebay. 

The rarity of western 35 cent price variant issues is epic.  If the purported price is true, I think it a fair price., and a record for the issue. However, knowing how many collectors are missing that book, I think if the auction had gone to completion, I suspect that the final hammer price may have even been higher.  Alas, we will never know. 

Super-Villain Team-Up 13 Joins the Four Figure Price Variant Book Club

An absolutely sensational copy of Super-Villain Team-Up in CGC 9.8 sold on ebay for $1000 which puts S-V T-U 13 in the Four Figure Price Variant Book Club.  It should be noted that CGC 9.8 price variants are exceedingly rare.  There are 184 different (185, if you count the Captain America 212 blank bar) issues in the set.  Just 10 BOOKS total out of the 184 ISSUES have achieved the CGC Mint grade of 9.8.

What are the implications?  If Super-Villain Team-Up is worth four figures in 9.8, then just about any other 35 cent price variant is worth at least $1000.  This makes sense as I don't know of any copies of a 9.8 35 cent price variant that have sold for less than $1000 except for an Avengers book which sold for over $900 many years ago.  The other thing that is interesting is that with the exception of the Avengers books, the other 9.8s are all second or third tier titles.  I think that because of their rarity, CGC is really tough on price variants, particularly the big titles.  It would be a big-time event if a 9.8 Spider-Man or X-Men book showed up.  Two 9.6 Spider-Man books and one 9.6 X-Men book are the top of the census.

2001: A Space Odyssey 8 (never sold)
Avengers 162 (never sold)
Avengers 163 ($925 in 2008)
Black Panther 5 (Four Figure Club)
Invaders 18 (never sold)
Kull, the Destroyer 21 (never sold)
Nova 10 (never sold)
Nova 12 (never sold)
Super-Villain Team-Up 13 (Four Figure Club)
Tarzan 3 (Four Figure Club)

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.

Jon McClure lists some nice price variants on the bay

Jon McClure apparently is still searching for variants or found a few treasures that he had tucked away.  He listed a nice group of variants that appear to be every bit the VF+/NM- that he graded the books.  The lot was snatched up as a Buy-It-Now for $395 or just about $60 per book.  Here is a screenshot of the listing.

 Jon also listed some very nice, very high-grade 35 cent variants on ebay.  The first to sell was this Thor 261 which was described as VF/NM and sold as a Buy-It-Now for $543. 

For those of you that don't know, Jon McClure was one of the early discoverers and researchers of the Marvel price variants.  Using the time machine (that only comes from a library of saved screen shots of key price variant books) to travel back in time to January of 2008 we can see from his last bulk sale of price variants how the collector pressure has increased for marvel price variants.  This sale was for $1704 and was for 21 different high grade CGC graded books or $81 per book.  The lot included a Godzilla 1 (CGC 9.0), Invaders 18 (CGC 9.4), Invaders 19 (CGC 9.2), Invaders 20 (CGC 9.0), Iron Fist 15 (CGC 9.2), and a Red Sonja 4 (CGC 9.0).  Five and half years later, it is safe to say that this lot would sell for at least five times if not ten times as much.

Fake Star Wars 35 Cent Price Variants in PGX holders bring big bucks in January ComicLink Auction

In the recent January ComicLink Auction, two altered Star Wars comic books brought big bucks.  In my opinion, it is obvious that a scammer has altered the price block on a Star Wars 1 and a Star Wars 2 regular issue book to make the books look like the much more costly 35 cent price variants.  How these two books ended up in a PGX holder makes for interesting speculation.  Perhaps the scammer submitted the books to PGX and PGX simply missed the alteration through negligence or incompetence.  Maybe the scammer is an employee of PGX who altered the books and encapsulated the books themselves.  Maybe the books were altered and sold to an innocent buyer who sent the books to PGX.   Regardless of how it happened, the end result is that two mid-range Star Wars books which should normally sell for a few bucks were altered, encapsulated in PGX holders, and sold at auction for hundreds of dollars.

I have bought many books on ComicLink and I have sold books on ComicLink.  ComicLink does a great job and I recommend them to others.  I do not think that they played any part in the scam and trust them to do right by their customers.  I do think that they should reconsider whether they want to allow PGX graded books in their auctions.   I also hope that ComicLink will cancel the auction and send the books back to the seller.

I am not sure that PGX offers a guarantee for missing alterations in their grading.  I am certain that I will not use or recommend their services.

Here is a screen capture of the listing for the altered Star Wars 1 35 cent price variant.

Here is the scan of the altered Star Wars 1 and a close-up of the label.

 

So how do we know that a scammer has turned a common mid-grade book into $705 bucks?  The dead give-away is the price block.  Here is a close-up of the altered title block which you can compare to a close-up of the title block of an authentic copy below it.  As you can see, the "3", "5" and "c" and "Ccc" are not even close.

 

 

Here is a full-comic scan of an outstanding and authentic Star Wars 1 price variant that sold for $4367 in the same auction.

 

 

In the same auction, this altered Star Wars 2 sold for $390.  It has the same problem as its PGX brother above.

 

 



 

 

Here is a close-up of the altered price block and below it a close-up of an authentic Star Wars 2 35 cent variant price block. 

 



Conan 65 in CGC 9.8 (highest graded) sets record

A very nice CGC 9.8 example of Conan 65 recently sold on ComicLink for an issue-record $825.  The last high-grade example of this issue was a CGC 9.6 that sold in May 2012 for $185.  As a comparison, a very nice pedigree example of the regular issue Suchsa News 9.8 sold for $216.

An update to the sale of the "Blank Bar" Captain America 212 price variant

CGC board member Keldog sent me a note on an additional listed sale of the Captain America 212 "blank bar"  35 cent price variant.  The sale is noted on the Quality Comix site.  I am not sure what is going on but the Quality Comix site lists a sale of the same CGC 6.0 book at $4520.

Interestingly, the book has now shown up on ComicLink with an asking price of $7000.  It certainly begs the question of what is going on with this book?  Anyone know?

GPA Price Variant Report for December 2012

Here is the GPA Price Variant Report for December 2012.  Highlights include the always popular Star Wars 1 price variant and a nice mid-grade X-Men 100 for $250.