08th Jan2021

eBuying Comics: Week 49

by Ian Wells

This week I just want to do a round up of what 2021 has in store for eBuying Comics. But first before everyone gets carried away with looking forward I have one piece of looking back to do. So without delay lets jump into the last year and a half of character spotlights and see how those valuations are faring. I have decided this will be the last time I revisit these issues for analysis. It is getting a little repetitive and to be honest the valuations haven’t changed much in the time the feature has been running. I will speculate on what the reasons for this may be later, but now I think it is best these issues rest and the character spotlight gets a revamp for 2021. I had planned the revamp for last year but then something happened… Before we get into the nitty, gritty of those all important valuations I will just do a quick recap of how the character spotlight works. After choosing a character completely at random (trying to avoid characters who are in movies), I then research 2-3 key issues from that characters publication history. comicspriceguide.com is my go to for getting my prices. They offer prices for grades going from 0.5 (P) right up to 10.0 (GM) for both raw and slabbed issues. Being a dot com it will come as no surprise the prices are in Dollars. I simply use Google to get the current exchange. I don’t know how effective this is but it is the method I have stuck with for all of eBuying Comics. So if the method is good or bad at least they are all on the same method! When a character first goes under the spotlight I looked at low (2 G), medium (6 F) and high grade (9.8 NM). When it came to the end of year recap I only looked at the 9.8 grades and I didn’t look at every issue presented in the original spotlight. This year to add a further element I used comicspriceguide.co.uk to see if my Google exchange rates matched up. A quick side note the .co.uk site is nowhere near as good as its dot com counterpart. It’s highest grade is a 9.4 so right away that is creating a huge discrepancy in the prices I researched. Also its database of issues is very small in comparison. five of the issues in the spotlight were not on the database. The biggest problem I had with it is that it bundles short runs of issues together and gives them a blanket valuation. Only really focusing on key issues. All of this may be because I used a free subscription and options and information may be wider when paying. But for free comicspriceguide.com others far more accessibility.

Let’s kick things off with the most expensive issue that went under the spotlight. DC Showcase #6, the first appearance of Challengers of The Unknown. In 2019 this was valued at £18.540. Despite 2020 seeing a lot of Jack Kirby love through a variety of different projects and people being stuck at home discovering comics Showcase #6 saw a small decrease in value now coming in at £18,157. With comicspriceguide.co.uk only offering a 9.4 as the top grade it accounts for a £6237 difference in price. Sticking with Kirby and providing a victory for the UK site, up next we have Mister Miracle #1 from 1971. Again surprisingly decreasing in value ever so slightly from £154 to £151. But the a UK valuation at 9.4 places it at £154 meaning a higher grade on that site would garner a higher price. All in all everything had a drop in price all though all very small. Nothing drastic. There is the unfortunate events of the release of the New Mutants movie. It was released in the end right that could explain the inactivity of one issue I placed under the spotlight. New Mutants #16 the first appearance of James Proudstar was a reasonable £23 in 2019 and has since plummeted to the still very reasonable £22.70! I know Warpath wasn’t in the eventually released movie, but it begs the question had the movie received a release in non COVID times could the New Mutants might have built some hype? If a sequel was in the works. No doubt the cast would have been expanded and he would have been a contender to join the ranks for sure. Lastly there is one issue I have to mention. When I started gather my data and saw the small decreases in value I didn’t expect whats coming next. I had to check and recheck my past notes dozens of times. In the 2019 wrap up, the Raphael Micro Series one-shot at 9.8 was valued at £177 which in itself seems low for early TMNT issues. This year the same issue at the same grade is £1307. An increase of £1130! Have I missed something in TMNT lore this year? Like I said I checked and rechecked my notes. May be in the wrap up I missed a digit or something? My notes tell me when I first put it under the spotlight it came in at £181 so by the end of 2019 it had gone down in value. Unfortunately the UK site did not have the issue in its database so it was unable to shed some light on the mystery. The one listing currently on eBay is only £368. Can anyone shed some light on this?

eBuying Comics in 2021

I hope to bring the same levels of entertainment and information in the coming year. Mainstays such as VS and talking up books with buzz will continue. Like I mentioned earlier the character spotlight will be getting a reboot after anyway of broken promises. Last year I started creator spotlights and then promptly let them fall by the way side! The one feature I would really love to return in the convention price comparisons, because obviously that will mean I am attending cons again! On a personal note my own selling will be on hold until the lockdowns ease again. I know postal services are open as usual but as I am working Monday to Friday I don’t want an extra trips outside, especially to the town centre on a Saturday morning.

Looking at expanding my collecting. Again I wish I was doing it at cons. I am still looking to make series head way in to my Master of Kung Fu collection before movie hype starts. I think at this point early issues are already on the up and up. I don’t even have half the series yet so wish me luck with not breaking the bank. On the Daredevil side I want dive into the Ann Nocenti run. I have some of the keys from her time on the series but would really like to acquire it all for a long reading session. Lastly there is my new found love for Marvel Comics Presents. The first ten issues are a given to be collected. Wolverine then started solidly from #39 – #104. Whether I get all of these remains to be seen. Obvious candidates are the rest of the Weapon X issues I need and the Sam Kieth stuff. By collecting MCP I will also be creating content for my other blogs. When current Wolverine comics get a little slow I can dip into these issues for fun. Also I am really interested to see what other stories are within. I hear great things of Ditko Captain America, even more of Gulacy on Shang-Chi to name a few.

A belated Happy New Year to you all. Things will get better, we all have to remain positive. At the end of the day comics will always keep us company.

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