GPA Price Variant Report for May 2015 shows Record sale of a Thor Price Variant $3000

Many of you know that I highly recommend GPAnalysis (GPA) to serious variant collectors.  GPA keeps track of almost all publicly traded sales of certified comic books.  If you buy or sell certified comic books you owe it to yourself to get a subscription.  The subscription is reasonably priced.

One of the things I like best about GPA is that it has several Market Reports.  The GPA-Price Variant Report is one of these reports.  Below is a copy of the May edition.  GPA is reporting that a 9.8 copy of a Thor 260 35 cent price variant sold for $3000.  This is a new record for Thor Price variant and is also indicative of the current market for single-highest graded 35 cent price variants.  There are only 13 certified copies of this issue in any grade.  The condition census is one 9.8, one 9.4 and three 9.2s.

Important variant sales last month also include near record sales of Star Wars 1, X-Men 99, and a $250 sales of a mid-grade Logan's Run 6 (a very cool book).

ComicLink sale of Star Wars 1 35 cent Price Variant Crushes Previous Price Record

One of the two highest graded copies of the 35 cent price variant issue of Star Wars 1 shattered the previous record sale of a price variant by more than $10,000.  The June ComicLink auction of the CGC 9.6 Star Wars 1 price variant closed at $36,500.  This sale is over 60 times higher than the current price of a regular issue certified 9.6.  Interest in the classic bronze age Star Wars books has been stoked because of the upcoming launch of new Star Wars films starting in December 2015.   You can search this blog for the previous two record sales of 9.6 Star Wars 1 price variants back in 2010 and 2011.  

The regular edition Star Wars 1 has risen in price in the last year from the $600 dollar level to around $2500.  It is not surprising that interest in the much, much, much rarer Star Wars 1 price variant is at an all-time high.  This is the only mainstream Star Wars collectible to be released before the release of the first Star Wars movie.  The CGC census of Star Wars 1 price variants currently has two 9.6 copies certified and lists eleven 9.4 copies.  The number of 9.4s is probably inflated a bit because both 9.6 copies were a result of resubmits to CGC.


These numbers will give you an idea of the rarity (and the justification for the high prices) of Near Mint or higher price variant issues versus the regular issues of Star Wars 1.

There are 339 copies of Star Wars 1 that have been graded 9.8, 921 copies that have graded 9.6, and 861 that have graded 9.4.  This is a total of 2121 books graded 9.4 or higher.

There are two copies of the 35 price variant in 9.6 and somewhere between seven to eleven copies in 9.4.  In other words, there is about one NM or better 35 cent price variant of Star Wars 1 for every 200 NM or better regular editions.

Here is the information on the ComicLink auction.  ComicLink does not report sales to GPA, but this blog keeps track of the important ComicLink variant sales.

Also featured in the ComicLink auction was a very nice CGC 9.0 Star Wars 1 price variant with Off-White to White pages.  I think that this is the first time that two high grade copies of this book have been auctioned in the same event.  This auction closed at $5764. 

These two sales imply current prices of $18,000 to $20,000 for 9.4 certified Star Wars 1 price variants and $9000 to $11,000 for 9.2 copies.

 

Star Wars 1 CGC 9.0 White Pages brings $6250 on ebay.

Star Wars 35 cent price variants are quickly rising to new price levels along with the rest of the original series as interest in the books has intensified with the announcement of the new movies that will extend the ever-popular franchise. Copies of the first issue, both regular and price variant, are leading the charge.

Two 9.4 copies have sold recently, both topping $13,000 (more information coming on those two sales). One sold in December of 2014 and one in February of this year. 

A buyer just paid $6250 for this very sharp copy of the first issue 35 cent price variant. The CGC census now has 148 certified copies of the price variant first issue in all grades versus 3439 of the regular edition first issue or about 4%. The CGC census currently reports that there are two 9.6s, eleven 9.4s, seven 9.2s, and eleven 9.0s. It should be recognized that the census is overstated by several books in the 9.0 to 9.4 level because they have been cracked out of the original case and resubmitted to try and achieve a higher grade. Competitive grade sets and several thousand dollars difference between each grade point will continue to drive this activity.

 

By the way, readers have asked me how I know that this book sold for $6250, when all you can find from the ebay search is that the seller listed the book for $8000 (which is scratched through) and then accepted a best offer. Why ebay is making this information difficult to find is puzzling to me, but I know of two ways to find this important information.

The first way is the easiest and simply requires a subscription to gpanalysis.com. You simply look up the book in their database and voila you have it.

The second way is more complicated but free so I will walk you through it. Once you look up the listing on ebay, copy the address of the book. Then you go to http://www.watchcount.com/ and paste the address that you copied.

Hit the "Show Me What's Most Popular" button and you get the information that you are looking for.  Pretty spiffy tool, actually.

GPA doesn't list it because ComicLink is one of the few sites that does not report sales to GPA, but the only 9.2 to sell in the last couple of years is this book, which sold in mid 2014. The seller probably sold a few months to soon as the price would be a few thousand higher today.

Ever wonder what it would take to get a 9.8 Spidey 30 cent price variant? Filter81 Spider-Man 159 sets record

A true highlight of any Marvel 30 cent price variant collection would be a MINT 9.8 example of a Spider-Man price variant. There are five Amazing Spider-Man 30 cent price variant issues. There are two certified 9.8s the variant issue of 155 (32 regular issue 9.8s). No certified 9.8s of the variant issue of 156 (only 9 regular issue 9.8s, key issue right here). Two certified 9.8s of the variant issue of 157 (107 regular issue 9.8s). One certified 9.8 of the variant issue of 158 (32 regular issue 9.8s). There is one single-highest graded 9.8 of issue 159 (53 regular issue 9.8s). 

Two 155s, no 156s, two 157s, one 158, and one 159.  Six total. That is not very many for the legion of Spider-Man collectors out there. 

Filter 81 auctioned off this unbelievable certified 9.8 copy of Issue 159. Not surprisingly, bidding was exceptionally strong, generating 41 bid increments, and closing at $2403.67.

This is a new record for the issue and a new member in the Four Figure Club.

Daredevil 132 Hits New Record (Filter 81 sale)

The Daredevil 132 Marvel 30 Cent Price Variant has always been a tough, sought-after book for several reasons. First, this has always been one of the toughest super-hero 30 cent price variants, particularly in high grade.

Second, Daredevil has remained popular and the story arc that started in the previous book #131 where creator Marv Wolfman introduced Bullseye is one of the best of the Bronze Age of comics.  The book was inked by Klaus Janson who would late team up with Frank Miller to do the phenomenal Daredevil-Kingpin-Punisher-Bullseye-Elektra story that kept readers thirsting for the next issue to hit the newsstands. I still can't believe that the movie stunk as a bad as it did. Issue 132 is the second appearance of Bullseye.

Third, the book is crazy tough in high grade. The black areas and contrasting yellow areas of the cover show defects like crazy.  The book also contains a Series "B" Marvel Value Stamp #63: Stan Lee. Many otherwise nice books were cut up for that Stan Lee value stamp.

The condition census for the book is a single highest 9.8 followed by two 9.6s and five 9.4s.  A total of 22 books have been graded. The only other time that a CGC certified 9.6 came up for sale was exactly ten years before the sale of this book, back in 2004, where it fetched $500. A high-grade 9.4 sold in 2012 for $508.

When Filter81 listed this book, I was very excited to see what kind of interest the auction would generate. The answer was a lot. $2259.  That is a new record and a new entrant into the four figure club.

 

 

Here is a nice bonus for the post, a scan of the single highest graded 9.8.





Simply incredible Filter81 30 cent Price Variant sale.

Every once in a while a truly incredible run of books comes up for sales.  In the next few posts I will highlight some of the individual gems, but this past summer ebay seller Filter 81 put up a truly remarkable run of price variants on ebay.  The interest in Filter81s books became infectious and chased out some other high grade books from other sellers.  Here is the GPA price variant report for the time period that covered those sales, you will probably never see another with the sheer number and quality of these Marvel price variants.

For perspective, I can usually easily capture the GPA Price-Variant report in one screenshot.  This month, it took three.  Eleven different 30 cent price variants joined the four figure club (over $1000 selling price, for those new to the blog).

  

As I have written before, I highly recommend Gpanalysis.com to any serious certified comic collectors.  I find it indispensable.

New record for Amazing Adventures #36 CGC 9.4 highest graded.

One of the two CGC 9.4 certified copies of Amazing Adventures #36 sold at auction for $250. This is a new record for the book. There are sixteen total certified copies and the condition census is two 9.6s and four 9.4s. 

 

 

 





There were several recent sales of the other Amazing Adventures 30 cent price variant.  This copy was from the simply incredible Filter81 sale.  $113.50 for a very sharp 9.2.

 

Weird Wonder Tales 17 correctly listed (for comparison with the last post)

To give you an idea of the money that the seller (previous blog post) of the WWT 15 left on the table, compare this listing.  All of the Weird Wonder Tales books are pretty tough, but correctly listing the book and not relying on the Overstreet price Guide brought this seller $178.50 at auction for this WWT 17.  The previous seller sold the three WWT books (15, 16, and 17) for $50.  I am guessing the seller left at least $500 on the table, probably more.  That is a lot of "meat on the bone."

When the Overstreet Pride Guide is not your friend

I am returning from a length sabbatical from blogging about Marvel Price Variants. While I was gone, there were some exciting things that happened. I will try and catch up over the next few weeks.

Someone got a crazy-good deal on this lot, and the seller offered volume pricing and shipping for the whole Weird Wonder Tales lot. Weird Wonder Tales 15 is still one of the keys to the 30 cent price variant series. Kid Colt 208 and a couple of the other westerns might be just a smidge tougher but this was one of the last two books I needed to complete the series.

There are still only nine copies of this issue certified by CGC, with the condition census grades being 9.2, 9.0, 7.5, 7.0, and 6.5. There is some writing on the cover of this book, but from just looking at the picture, this copy might be close to condition census. 

Buy the set of three for $50? Absolutely, I would have.