Bronze-Age Marvel Variants: 35 cent variant

Showing posts with label 35 cent variant. Show all posts

Saturday, June 13, 2015

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.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Proof that all of the high-grade X-men books belong in the Four Figure Book Club

Ebay seller Filter81 sold one of the highest graded X-Men 100 30 cent price variant books for $1850 on ebay as a Buy It Now item. Since 9.4 copies of this book regularly sell for more than $1000, this was just confirmation that if you want a high grade X-Men registry set, the six issues will cost you what a decent car would cost.

Another nice X-Men 100, this one in CGC 9.0 sold for $394 in December.

Also, a pretty nice raw X-Men 105 35 cent price variant sold for $305.

So just exactly how much would the highest graded X-Men set cost nowadays if you could acquire all the books at once. Yes, I know that this impossible, but let's examine the hypothetical just for fun.

The three 30 cent issues are 98, 99, and 100.

There are three copies of issue 98 graded in CGC 9.6. The last of which sold in 2012 for $2225.

There are only four copies of issue 99 graded in CGC 9.4, which is the highest grade for this issue. There are no recorded sales of a 9.4. The last recorded sale of a 9.2 of this issue is back in 2009 and was for $975. I suspect that it would take at least $2000 to snag one of the four 9.4s in today's market.

As seen above, $1850 is a realistic price for a 100 in 9.6. I suspect that if the seller had auctioned the book instead of listing as a BIN, the price would have been higher. The last private sale of that book was for $3000 so who knows?

The three 35 cent issues are 105, 106 and 107.

The last recorded sale of a 105 was an 8.5 which sold in 2010 for $799. What would one of the four highest graded 9.4s sell for today? My guess would be at $2500 to $4000.

The last recorded sale of a 106 was a 9.2 that sold for $1000 in 2011. There is a single 9.6 on the census and it is the highest graded by two grades over the three 9.2s on the census!!! I would guess that this book would easily bring $5000.

The last recorded sale of a high grade 107 was a 9.2 that sold back in 2005, yes nine years ago. That sale brought $910. There is just one 9.4 and one 9.2 on the census. I think the 9.4 would easily bring $4000 to $5000 in auction.

Totaling the damage on the six books makes me think that it would take $17,500 to $21,000 to get all six of the top graded books on the census. I don't think it will ever happen, but it would be fun to see the fireworks if it ever did.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

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.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Record Price for "Blank Bar" Capt. America 212

One of the three or four known copies of the "Blank Bar" printing error 35 cent price variant issue of Captain America 212 was recently auctioned on ebay.

$3550 was the winning bid for this book which has now been added to the CGC 35 cent price variant registry set and joins the HB, westerns and war books as the hardest to find.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Logan's Run in Good sells for $200 bucks

Here is an example of a real sleeper book. First, it is a very hard to find 35 cent variant of a minor title which makes it even tougher. Second, it has a back-up story which just happens to be the first solo story of Thanos. Thanos is going to be the main protagonist of the next Avengers movie so this is a very important book. This is also why a beater copy of this book would bring $200 bucks at auction. Watch what happens when the movie comes out.

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, DC, 35 cent price variant

I haven't spoken about them much, but there are a couple of interesting DC price variant books. I don't know many collectors of the Amethyst title, but there are several collectors of the price variant books which is a very short series. Recently, a CGC 9.4 copy brought $225 in an ebay auction.

Ghost Rider 24

A very nice copy of Ghost Rider 24 found by the best variant hunter of them all was recently auctioned on ebay for $282.

Conan 75 in CGC 9.4 brings strong coin

A very nice Conan 75 brought $315 in a recent ebay auction. It is one of only two books certified at the 9.4 level with only one book certified higher at 9.6. This is a record price for the issue and for comparison, a 9.8 of the issue would normally fetch $50.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Certified Variant sales as reported by GPAnalysis for the August 2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Important Iron Fist 14 sale sets record

CGC boardie Keldog sent me a message about an important sale of an exceptionally high-grade Iron Fist 14 35 cent variant. High-grade dealer Greg Reese's Rare Comics sold this CGC 9.2 copy of this key bronze-age issue. The sales site shows the comic as sold with the price shown as $6000. GPAnalysis reports the final sale as $5600. Since the last reported sale of a CGC 9.2 Iron Fist 14 was $4100, this is a new record for the book. This sale amount is also higher than the last reported sale of one of the two 9.4 copies in existence in 2006 for $5100. Your guess is as good as mine, but this sales implies a five figure value for a 9.4 copy in today's market.

Kid Colt 219 ebay sale

A couple blogs ago, I mentioned that a great variant hunter had found a lot with at least two Kid Colt 35 cent variants. Well the second Kid Colt auction ended and again produced expected results. $413.28 for what could only be described as a Poor to Fair copy. I don't think there are any other bronze age comics which would sell for this kind of money in this condition except for 35 cent price variants. In fact, I am not sure that there are many silver age comics that would sell for this kind of money in this condition. A poor Amazing Fantasy 15 which is the key silver age comic and the first appearance of Spider-Man would sell for between $1000 and $1500.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Some other notable Price Variant Sales.

On ComicLink,

On ebay

one of the best if not the best 30 cent variant collection ever sold,

another good ebay seller,

From Heritage

Arrrgh. I was out of the country and missed this one. Kid Colt 218!!!!!!

I went to China for a week and completely missed this one. One of the best variant hunters found a zero feedback seller listing a lot consisting of several issues of bronze age dreckage. He smartly noticed that the seller was in Toledo, Ohio which we think is one of the test areas for selling 35 cent variants and that despite the sketchy pictures, this lot was worth the $50 bucks that the seller was asking. Why would this normally ignored box of bronze age beaters be worth $50, you ask? Well check the scan and look closely in the middle.

The variant hunter received the books and correctly listed the Kid Colt 218 as the super rare Kid Colt 218 35 cent price variant and the auction closed at $540. Yes, $540 in VG, and I can assure you that the buyer was ecstatic. If I had seen the auction, the book would have gone higher, but still it wasn't a bad return for the seller. In my opinion, sometimes 3 day auctions get missed, I think that a 7 day or 10 day auction would have achieved even better results for this book.

Ohh, and by the way, the lot also contained an even more beat-up Kid Colt 219. We will see how that one does.

GPA variant report for May

As I have written before, GPAnalysis is the best source of information on certified comic sales. I highly recommend a subscription if for no other reason than getting the market reports. One of the market reports is the price variant sales report. This is the report for May 2012.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Some Notable 35 Cent Variant Sales on Ebay

It appears that several new collectors have entered the 35 cent variant fray. I have missed out on three books that I need in the past four weeks with what I thought were strong bids but in actuality wasn't even close.

John Carter 1