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.

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

Marvel Team-Up 59

Star Wars 1

2001: A Space Odyssey 7

Iron Man 100

Star Wars 1 7.0 SS

Spectacular Spider-Man 7

Spectacular Spider-Man 9

Spectacular Spider-Man 10

Star Wars 1 8.5

Thor 261

Master of Kung Fu 55

Marvel Team-Up 60

Nova 12

Marvel Super-Heroes 66

Marvel Tales 81

Star Wars 2, 3, 4 group

Incredible Hulk 213

Incredible Hulk 212

Marvel's Greatest 73

Ghost Rider 26

X-Men 106

Tomb of Dracula 59

Ms. Marvel 6

Conan 79

Marvel Tales 84

Tomb of Dracula 60

Super-Villain Team-Up 14

Ms. Marvel 9

Ms. Marvel 8

Logan's Run 6

Ghost Rider 25

Captain Marvel 52

Defenders 49

John Carter 1

Some notable sales of high grade 30 cent variants on ebay.

Marvel's Greatest  63

Daredevil 135

Moon Knight 29

X-Men 99

Conan 62

Ringo Kid 28 in CGC 9.4 sells for $575

A beautiful copy of Ringo Kid 28 in CGC 9.4 sold for $575 on ebay as a Buy-it-Now.  In the interest of full disclosure, I should also add that I was the seller and I actually lost money on the book.  Here is the story.  Several years ago, when I and a couple of other collectors were try to finish the 30 cent variant set, Ringo Kid 28 was right up there with Kid Colt 208 and Weird Wonder Tales in terms of absolute rarity.  It was (and still is) a key to completing the set.  Ebay seller zillaf4 listed the book and it looked absolutely fantastic.  As you might expect the bidding was a trainwreck and I ended up winning the book for $675 and was ecstatic anyway.  And then zillaf4 listed two more of them the next week.  And the next book ended at $400 and I got the third book at $300 and change.   Three books in a couple of weeks made the book almost seem common, and all three books were nice. 

Several years have passed and I have not seen another Ringo Kid 28 come up on ebay. 

Anyway, I needed to raise some money for a mission trip that I am going on with my family this summer and I decided to sell my undercopy western variants.  The Ringo Kid was basically identical to the 9.4 copy that I kept. 

Nice deal on Marvel Super-Heroes 58 in 9.2 White

This nice copy of Marvel Super-Heroes 58 sold for $115 as a buy it now on ebay.  It is the fourth highest book graded behind one 9.6 and two 9.4s.  Marvel Super-Heroes is absolutely one of the tougher 30 cent titles.  In 2008, a 9.4 sold for $200.

How to profit from the Avengers movie and mislisting Variant Editions.

An ebay seller listed Logan's Run #6 correctly as the first solo Thanos story.  He also listed the book as a 30 cent variant and received eight bids and sold the high mid-grade book for almost twenty bucks.

I am of the opinion that the book which has long been bird cage material except for the 35 cent variant version is a sleeper because of the Thanos story, particularly if the next Avengers movie is as good as the first one.  However, it is disingenous to list the regular edition as a 30 cent variant in my opinion.  The 35 cent cover price is the variant edition.  You should always double check your list when bidding on these books.

Marvel 35 Cent Price Variants Checklist, Rarity Index, and Price Information

Many of you have asked when the updated Marvel 35 Cent Price Variant MasterList would be updated.  Well, at long last, here it is.  Just clip on the link and the Master List should pop up.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0An2Fkbt07yWJdFBPZmRydkRPUlVKYmZ3TDAxSTFrTVE&output=html

Ultra-Rare Spiderman 184 All Detergent Sets New Record

Ebay stalwart seller zillaf4 auctioned off the extremely rare Amazing Spider-Man 184 All Detergent Promotional Giveaway Variant copy with the sticker attached.  With 3 or 4 known copies, this is an extremely rare book.  Given the huge number of Spider-Man completionist collectors, this auction was bound to bring a trainwreck.  Twenty-seven bids later, a hammer price of $1525 won the book.  This result has to be a record for a VG to Finish bronze-age Spider-Man comic book.  Here are the details on the listing and the book.  You may not ever see another.

Two things make the book special (and by special, I mean compared to a regular issue 184 in the same condition which would be lucky to sell in a quarter bin).  The first is that the All Detergent sticker is still attached to the front.  You can see it in the bottom left of the cover.  The second is that this is a price variant book.  Note that there is a blank white box next to the issue number in the upper left corner.  The regular issue is printed with the usual 35 cent price.

April GPA Variant Analysis Highlights

Here are the highlights from the April 2011 GPA report.