Finding a Needle in a Haystack Marvel Price Variant Style

Even though the Marvel Price Variants are very sought after, and even though they always bring strong prices, there are still unknowledgeable sellers out there, particularly on ebay who don't know what they have when they list something for sale.

Here is a case in point.  The Marvel Reprint Titles like Marvel Tales and Marvel Super-Heroes are some of the toughest to find.  Low sales and collector interest whene they were released led to very few being saved.  Even today they are many more Incredible Hulk series collectors than there are for the Marvel Super-Heroes title which reprinted the Hulk stories.  But two of the issues were issued as 35 cent price variant issues and are among the toughest to find.  Recently an ebay seller listed this book correctly as Marvel Super-Heroes 65 but forgot or didn't know to mention that book was a 35 cent price variant.  It was found by the best ebay variant hunter in the business and purchased for $8.  After he received the book from the seller, he immediately relisted the book correctly on ebay and it brought $91 at auction.  Yes, $91 for a book in Good condition.

The moral of the story?  Sometimes if you look hard enough, you can find the needle in the haystack.

Listing Correctly is Important Redux

One additional listing tip is in order.  Here is a very nice example of one of the very hard to find Marvel Reprint Issues - Marvel Super-Heroes 57.  There are only three of these certified by CGC with the nicest being a CGC 8.5. 

This book was listed as "MARVEL SUPER-HEROES # 57 PRICE VARIANT ISH LOOK FN+."  Putting "LOOK" in the title may seem like a good idea, after all who doesn't want their listing looked at by as many interested parties as possible.  On ebay, unless you think that all of your potential variant collector/buyers are looking at all TWO MILLION current listings of comic books to find your price variants, you should put "30 CENT VARIANT" in your listing rather than "ISH or LOOK."  Unless of course, you want to continue selling a really neat rare book for $3.25.