Cosmic-Spider-Man unloads a Iron Fist 14 plus a starter price variant set of duplicates

Terry Hall, aka Cosmic-Spider-Man, the only collector to complete the 35 price variant set (ShieldAgent is one book away) unloaded a nice Iron Fist 35 cent price variant along with a nice starter set of price variants.

Here is a picture of the Iron Fist plus a list of the books.  A nice set for $3500.

30 cent variants

1. AMAZING ADVENTURES #36 in 6.0
2. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #158 in 5.
3. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #159 in 5.0
4. AVENGERS #150 in 3.5 with stain on back cover
5. BLACK GOLIATH #4 in 6.0
6. CAPTAIN AMERICA #196 in 8.5 very nice copy
7. The CHAMPIONS #7 in 5.5 some stains on back cover
8. DAREDEVIL #132 in 4.5
9. The DEFENDERS #34 in 4.0
10. The DEFENDERS #36 in 2.0
11. GHOST RIDER #18 in 6.0
12. The INCREDIBLE HULK #202 in 5.0
13. IRON MAN #87 in 8.0 nice copy
14. IRON MAN #88 in 7.0
15. The INHUMANS #6 in 3.0 stain on back cover
16. KA-ZAR #15 in 4.0
17. MARVEL TALES #66 in 2.5 bad indents on front cover
18. MARVEL TALES #69 in 2.0
19. MARVEL TALES #70 in 3.0
20. MASTER of KUNG FU #41 in 5.5
21. OMEGA The Unknown #2 in 6.0
22. The SON OF SATAN #5 in 3.0 moisture warping on back cover
23. SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #6 in 5.0
24. SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #7 in 4.0 stain on back cover
25. TOMB of DRACULA #44 in 7.0 nice copy
26. WARLOCK #14 in 5.0
27. WEREWOLF by NIGHT #39 in 3.5

35 cent variants
28. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #169 in 3.0 pincel marks in many places on front cover
29. The AVENGERS #160 in 1.8 Lots of wear and price circled in marker
30. CONAN The Barbarian #77 in 4.5
31. DAREDEVIL #148 in 2.0 spine roll
32. GODZILLA #2 in 3.0
33. The INCREDIBLE HULK #214 in 4.5 first Jack of Hearts
34. The INCREDIBLE HULK #216 in 4.5
35. The INVADERS #17 in 3.0
36. IRON MAN #99 in 4.0
37. IRON MAN #100 in 5.0
38. IRON MAN #102 in 5.5
39. IRON MAN #103 in 5.0
40. IRON FIST #14 in 5.0 (VG/F) first Sabre-Tooth
41. KULL the Destroyer #22 in 4.0
42. MARVEL PREMIERE #37 in 4.0
43. MARVEL TEAM-UP #61 in 4.5
44. MARVEL TEAM-UP #62 in 3.0 stains on front and back cover
45. MS. MARVEL #10 in Poor condition bad stains and creasing all over!
46. OMEGA The Unknown #10 in 7.0
47. TARZAN #4 in 3.0
48. TARZAN #5 in 2.5
49. TOMB of DRACULA #57 in 3.0
50. TOMB of DRACULA #59 in 6.5

Iron Fist 15 on ebay

This copy of the 35 cent price variant issue of Iron Fist 15 sold on ebay for $275.  The transaction was a Buy-It-Now offer. Iron Fist price variant books remain some of the most sought after issues and always bring strong prices when they become available.

Another curious auction for a 35 cent variant key - Iron Fist 14

CGC boardie, Keldog, pointed me to a couple of recent curious auctions for a PGX 8.0 copy of an Iron Fist 14 35-cent price variant.  First on April 14, snugglebug2009 ( Feedback Score Of 47)  sold this copy on ebay for $1324 to a zero feedback buyer, who outbid two other bidders by $25 to $100 or so.  Zero feedback bidders always draw scrutiny, particularly when their only bid is on the auction in question.  Perhaps it is a new ebay bidder who signed up just to bid on the Iron Fist 14 variant that he had always wanted.  Or maybe it is just another ebay shill.  Who knows?

But then the same book is relisted five days later by bestdeals360 ( Feedback Score Of 513) and sells two days later for a best offer Buy it Now for $1625.

Strange things happen all the time on ebay.  I wonder if and when we will see this book again?

Iron Fist 14 CGC 8.5 White

CGC boardie Keldog sent me a private message about a beautiful Iron Fist 14 in CGC 8.5 White that sold for $3000.  This is decent price for both the seller and buyer of this 35 cent variant key.  The selling site in Finest Comics and you can link to it here - Iron Fist 14 CGC 8.5 White.

Thanks Keldog

Tales from the variant hunt - Iron Fist 14

I have been asked several times how I find variants.  I don't pretend to be the best variant hunter out there.  Frank (ebay seller comichunters), Terry (cosmic spider-man), Harry (horkorp) and a few others in the Variant Mafia would get that award.  Searching for them is a blast and can be addicting.  Here is the story of one successful hunt.

A couple of years ago an ebay seller listed a lot titled "Iron Fist 14 variant and others" with a high starting bid of $1000 or so.  Here is the picture of the Iron Fist book that was included in the auction.  There were no bidders.

Since the auction had no bidders, I emailed the seller and asked him if he would send me more pictures of the Iron Fist and information on the other books in the lot.  Here are the additional pictures that he sent and he said that he would throw in a Silver Surfer 3 and a Silver Surfer 4 if we could agree on a price.  I offered $600 for the lot.  He countered at $700.  We split the difference at $650.

So was this a good deal or not, you ask.  It is always difficult to grade from scans or pictures on ebay.  At the time, Iron Fist 14 price variants sold for around $350 in CGC 3.5, $700 in CGC 6.0 and $1700 in 8.0.  Is that a tape pull on the T on the cover or is it a fingerprint?  Tape pulls are a grade killer, fingerprints or smudges keep a book from being NM but this book obviously isn't NM anyway.

I submitted the book to CGC and it was my registry set book until I was able to get a higher graded one from Jon McClure.  I gave the Avengers 4 to Shieldagent because it was one of his grails and I have a nice one already.  The rest of the books are in a box somewhere. 

Here is the book back from CGC.  After I received the McClure Iron Fist 14, I sold this one so I was able to buy more high-grade variants.

   

Iron Fist 14 Redux Part 2

CGC forumite Keldog sent me an email reminding me of a recent CGC forum thread about a BOGUS Iron Fist 14 sale.  In October of last year, a scammer from Aussie listed on ebay a CGC 9.4 Iron Fist 14.  He did not mention in the listing that the book was the variant issue, but used a scan of the lone CGC 9.4 book in the listing.

Interestingly, the auction ended at $6100 despite the fact that the listing looked so fishy.  Since the book was not described as a variant, many variant collectors missed the listing and others simply ignored the listing because it had scam written all over it.

Anyway, it appears that ebay scuttled the auction which hopefully means that the buyer didn't get burned.  If the true owner of the 9.4 Iron Fist 14 variant does want to sell (trust me, he knows the difference between the variant and the non-variant issue), I will gladly pay $6100 for it.

If you would like to read the CGC forum thread discussing this book, you will find it here CGC discussion of bogus Iron Fist sale.

Iron Fist 14 Redux

Bill, a variant sent me an email about an Iron Fist 14 35 cent variant that sold last year at Pedigree Comics. 

He wrote, "An IF #14 CGC 2.5 Variant sold for $575.00 on pedigreecomics last year as seen on GPA. That sale represents the most multipules of guide in grade that an IF 14 Variant has ever sold for."
I checked Overstreet's 37th edition which lists the regular edition at $13 in Good (2.0) and the price variant at $50 in Good.  (I don't have the current guide since they are not particularly helpful when it comes to price variants.)  So $575 is over 11 times the guide price.


I appreciate Bill sending me the note and would add two additional points. 
    
     1.  The Overstreet guide is simply not useful as a price guide for bronze age price variants.  The reality is that there is NO GPA (and GPA goes back to 2002) sale of an Iron Fist 14 at less than the Overstreet Price Guide.  The books have always sold at multiples of guide.  Always. 
     2.  One really neat thing about the marvel bronze age price variants is that they are rare enough that most variant collectors are happy to collect the books as long as they are complete.  I don't think there are many Iron Fist collectors that are going to be interested in a regular edition 14 in Good condition and if you offered one for sale at the Overstreet Price Guide price of $13, it will not sell.  If you list a 35 cent price variant at the Overstreet Price Guide of $50, it will sell immediately.

ComicLink June Auction highlighted by Iron Fist 5 CGC 9.8 for $1037

To make a long story short, it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted.  I upgraded my computer but between traveling and trying to get the new computer reloaded and back up to speed, it seems like I have taken a two week sabbatical.

Speaking of long stories, as opposed to short ones, Charles Dickens" A Tale of Two Cities opens with the line 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".  That kind of describes the June ComicLink auction.

There were three nice thirty cent price variants in the auction. 

Amazing Spider-Man 157 in CGC 9.4 sold for $103.  That price is a bargain for a 2nd highest graded Spider-Man issue with only 5 higher graded copies.  In fact, in the last three years, GPA only records one other sale of a 9.4 book.  $675 in March of this year.  I suspect that the Cream to Off-White page quality affected the price. but I also think that many times price variants get lost in the focused ComicLink auctions.  Unless a collector looks closely, the price variant books can get lost in sea of 9.8 graded bronze.  Anyway, CGC Registry set points don't distinguish on page quality and page quality is the most inconsistent CGC metric.  Still, I like my bronze-age books to have Off-White to White or better page quality but I will settle for less on price variants.  In fact, I would take a brittle Flintstones 1 35 cent price variant in a second.

The next price variant in the auction was an old label Howard the Duck 3 which has been passed around more than a bottle of Mescal Tequila (yes, the one with the worm) at a frat party.  I think this book has changed hands at least three times in the past twelve months.  It is commonly believed that the old label books are more conservatively graded than more recently graded books.  I have not found this to be particularly true and I am guessing that maybe this book is getting passed around in hopes that someone will crack it out and resubmit it to try and get that elusive 9.8.  There have been twelve HTD 3s that have been graded 9.6 but no 9.8s.  Howard the Duck 3 and Eternals 1 are the most common 30 cent variants, particularly in high grade.  However, if a 9.8 ever shows up at auction, it is going to go real high.  Alas, this copy of an apparently unimprovable 9.6 went for 9.4 money and sold for an absolute bargain price of $43. 

The highlight of the auction, or any auction for that matter, was the sale of a CGC 9.8 Iron Fist 5 with white pages and a full starburst.  The series ran for only 15 issues but there are six price variant issues.   Price variants don't come much nicer than this one and there are more than a few bronze age Iron Fist collectors, so when a book like this one comes up at auction you can throw the price guides in the trash. This book brought a hammer price of $1037 and joins the growing list of price variant issues to achieve a four figure price.