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).

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.





GPA variant report for April 2014; record prices for Jungle Action 21 and Iron Fist 13

Every so often I post the GPA variant report that is produced by GPA every month.  As I have written before, I highly recommend GPA to high-quality comic collectors, especially high-quality variant collectors.  Overstreet does not come close to a correct value for these books - GPA is the only useful guide and as you will see in upcoming posts - GPA is only a guide, each sale can bring a new high.

As you can see from the report, there were a couple of highlights for the month.  Here is the sale of the Jungle Action 21, one of the toughest 30 centers particularly in high grade.  The black cover and low distribution of this book add to the difficulty.  $565 is a record price for this issue which isn't surprising because it is the single highest graded of only six specimens.  This book also doesn't come up for sale very often.  The only comparably graded book sold for $82 back in 2005.  Pretty solid appreciation for a hard-to-find 30 cent variant.  One 9.2 on the census and only one 9.0 on the census.

Another record sale propelled Iron Fist 13 into the rapidly growing Four-Figure club.  This book was purchased as a Buy-It-Now Best Offer for $1700.  This 9.4 is one of two highest graded books of this ever-popular Iron Fist issue.  How often does this book come up for sale in high grade?  The previous high sale was a 9.0 for $282 back in 2004.  Yes, 10 years ago.  There are still only 10 of this issue that have been certified.

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.