shaxper
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Posts: 22,872
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Post by shaxper on Mar 20, 2016 19:33:18 GMT -5
The reason they are so cheap is linked to their being labelled as "collector's editions". Warren overprinted the first issues and, for years and years after, was still selling them as part of their back issue catalog. I believe you can find a few issues of Creepy and Eerie in the 1980s still selling Creepy #1 and Eerie #2 in the back issue catalog for around $10 each (if memory serves correctly). In short, far more people have these and are looking to unload them than the number of people looking to acquire them. |
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Post by MDG on Mar 21, 2016 8:17:21 GMT -5
A collectable is an item that was produced without an collectible factor when it was produced, but later became sought after and collected. The first item that came to my mind is Depression era glass. It's now collected by some, like a neighbor of mine, but it wasn't produced as a collector's item. ... It's the truly rare stuff that no one thought would be collected, like The Walking Dead # 1, that uptick. Agreed--The Depression glass analogy could be made to comics as a whole--for the first 30-35 years of their existence they were made to be read and disposed of. Only a tiny percentage of readers planned to hold onto them the rest of their lives. The real collector's items are the things no-one sees coming, like Swamp Thing 21 or Daredevil 158. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 21, 2016 10:14:30 GMT -5
This may not qualify technically, but it must be one of the first suggestions that old comics were rare, out-of-print, valuable, that they were being collected and that this might be your only chance to read the gems contained within these covers. Oddly, Superman makes it seem as if they're all from different issues, but the two on top both were in Superman 19. He makes it seem as if a collector would pay that amazing 30 bucks for the story itself. Might as well rip it from the comic and try to sell it separately! The tagline "Prize Stories from the Superman Library" was irresistible to a kid who wanted in on a legendary tradition of characters and stories that went back nearly 30 years. Trust me on that.   |
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Post by Cei-U! on Mar 21, 2016 10:46:09 GMT -5
My rule of thumb in these matters is "If it has to tell you it's a collectible, it's not." This doesn't necessarily apply to 40- or 50-year-old comic books but as a general principle it's quite sound.
Cei-U!
I summon the Beanie Babies!
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Post by MDG on Mar 21, 2016 11:44:43 GMT -5
My rule of thumb in these matters is "If it has to tell you it's a collectible, it's not." This doesn't necessarily apply to 40- or 50-year-old comic books but as a general principle it's quite sound. Cei-U! I summon the Beanie Babies! Yeah, but most of the time, 40-50 year old books that call themselves "collectors items" are usually no more or less valuable than comparable books that don't use the label. That is: The current price Vampirella #1 isn't influenced at all by the fact that it was called a "collector's item." But the current price of bagged Death o' Superman and jewel-eye Eclipso is--there are so many out there, they ain't worth squat. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2016 11:50:13 GMT -5
well.. there were these, and tho not emblazoned with "Collectible" they were absolutely intended as collector's issues. and if you can find them, they have not only retained value, but increased (despite many reprints avail), due to the collectors of KISS memorabilia, in addition to the comic collectors.   |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
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Post by shaxper on Mar 21, 2016 11:51:10 GMT -5
This may not qualify technically, but it must be one of the first suggestions that old comics were rare, out-of-print, valuable, that they were being collected and that this might be your only chance to read the gems contained within these covers. Oddly, Superman makes it seem as if they're all from different issues, but the two on top both were in Superman 19. He makes it seem as if a collector would pay that amazing 30 bucks for the story itself. Might as well rip it from the comic and try to sell it separately! The tagline "Prize Stories from the Superman Library" was irresistible to a kid who wanted in on a legendary tradition of characters and stories that went back nearly 30 years. Trust me on that. $30 whole bucks?  Seriously though, I wonder where they got the "less than a hundred" figure from. While it's true that books from that period are scarce both because they were seen as disposable and because of the WWII recycling efforts, I can't imagine less tha a hundred copies were still in existence. Superman was probably the MOST collected/saved comic book of the Golden Age (well, Captain Marvel too...). |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 21, 2016 11:56:44 GMT -5
This may not qualify technically, but it must be one of the first suggestions that old comics were rare, out-of-print, valuable, that they were being collected and that this might be your only chance to read the gems contained within these covers. Oddly, Superman makes it seem as if they're all from different issues, but the two on top both were in Superman 19. He makes it seem as if a collector would pay that amazing 30 bucks for the story itself. Might as well rip it from the comic and try to sell it separately! The tagline "Prize Stories from the Superman Library" was irresistible to a kid who wanted in on a legendary tradition of characters and stories that went back nearly 30 years. Trust me on that. $30 whole bucks? Seriously though, I wonder where they got the "less than a hundred" figure from. While it's true that books from that period are scarce both because they were seen as disposable and because of the WWII recycling efforts, I can't imagine less tha a hundred copies were still in existence. Superman was probably the MOST collected/saved comic book of the Golden Age (well, Captain Marvel too...). I know! I quickly checked for a value on that issue and a relatively beat-up copy was sold for about $340 a couple of years ago. Not a very scientific search, I grant you, but at the same time, it seems the price should be higher if there are only a hundred left. Maybe they were checking their files and whatever back-issue dealers they knew of then. Or they were makin' it up. Mort Weisinger fibbing? Naaaahhh. PS: I love the appeal to ask Ma and Dad. My parents would've grabbed the comic, thrown it out and told me that they didn't waste their time with comics when they were kids. Even in their more wistful momnets they recalled nothing about reading comics. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 21, 2016 14:52:12 GMT -5
I bought this "First Issue Collector's Item" off the stands - surely it must be very valuable now.  |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Mar 21, 2016 16:50:29 GMT -5
well.. there were these, and tho not emblazoned with "Collectible" they were absolutely intended as collector's issues. and if you can find them, they have not only retained value, but increased (despite many reprints avail), due to the collectors of KISS memorabilia, in addition to the comic collectors. I've been looking for that at a decent price myself. I'm not a huge KISS fan, but (A) Gerber is my favorite writer, (B) I just found out they sang "Hard Luck Woman" which is a really good song, (C) How can I NOT appreciate a guy who dresses like a Jack Kirby character, makes Steve Ditko hand gestures, and references both of them by name. I remember there was a Kiss book from Todd MacFarlane in the '90s that was "hot" (according to Wizard Magazine) - despite the fact that Kiss were.... not at the peak of their popularity. |
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Post by Red Oak Kid on Mar 21, 2016 18:35:43 GMT -5
This may not qualify technically, but it must be one of the first suggestions that old comics were rare, out-of-print, valuable, that they were being collected and that this might be your only chance to read the gems contained within these covers. Oddly, Superman makes it seem as if they're all from different issues, but the two on top both were in Superman 19. He makes it seem as if a collector would pay that amazing 30 bucks for the story itself. Might as well rip it from the comic and try to sell it separately! The tagline "Prize Stories from the Superman Library" was irresistible to a kid who wanted in on a legendary tradition of characters and stories that went back nearly 30 years. Trust me on that. Thanks for posting this. I don't think I've ever seen it. It reminds me of a Batman Annual I bought around 1968. On the cover Batman is holding a negative image of a Batman page about Joe Chill, the guy who killed his parents. Batman is saying something about how historic this story is and why you should buy it. At that time it kind of broke down the fourth wall to me. Something about the Batman acknowledging that he was aware of comic books about him. So I bought it. And I'd like to know why the page was in negative form. It certainly caught my eye and made it more interesting. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
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Post by shaxper on Mar 21, 2016 18:57:14 GMT -5
I bought this "First Issue Collector's Item" off the stands - surely it must be very valuable now. It literally looks like someone just stamped that onto the book as an after-thought. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 21, 2016 23:05:15 GMT -5
The series of Famous First Editions were each billed as part of a Limited Collectors' Series, each witha different designation. Action #1 Whiz 2 and Superman 1 were billed as Golden Mint, Detective 27 and Batman 1 were Silver Mint; Sensation 1 was Bronze Mint, All-Star 1, Flash 1 and Wonder Woman 1 were part of the Blue Ribbon Series.
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 21, 2016 23:21:40 GMT -5
This may not qualify technically, but it must be one of the first suggestions that old comics were rare, out-of-print, valuable, that they were being collected and that this might be your only chance to read the gems contained within these covers. Oddly, Superman makes it seem as if they're all from different issues, but the two on top both were in Superman 19. He makes it seem as if a collector would pay that amazing 30 bucks for the story itself. Might as well rip it from the comic and try to sell it separately! The tagline "Prize Stories from the Superman Library" was irresistible to a kid who wanted in on a legendary tradition of characters and stories that went back nearly 30 years. Trust me on that. Thanks for posting this. I don't think I've ever seen it. It reminds me of a Batman Annual I bought around 1968. On the cover Batman is holding a negative image of a Batman page about Joe Chill, the guy who killed his parents. Batman is saying something about how historic this story is and why you should buy it. At that time it kind of broke down the fourth wall to me. Something about the Batman acknowledging that he was aware of comic books about him. So I bought it. And I'd like to know why the page was in negative form. It certainly caught my eye and made it more interesting. ROK, couldn't agree more, and I wrote about the idea here: classiccomics.boards.net/thread/190/50-years-ago-month?page=5 I have long loved that Batman annual cover, and have written about my love of it (and that whole issue) somewhere on the boards, I'm sure.  As for the negative of the page as the centerpiece of the illustration, I think it just seemed that the contrast with the rest of the cover design more striking and -- no pun intended, given the subject matter -- chilling, like a film noir. Made the whole scene more startling, frightening, somber and powerful. I wonder whose idea it was... I'm guessing Infantino's. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 22, 2016 7:49:43 GMT -5
And did a comic or story tagged as "pulse-pounding" ever affect you that way? Many had me going "THIS...IS... SO... BAD!!!" (*pulse rate increases in anger)* |
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Still cool though. I might start focusing on Creepy and Eerie again now when my eBay bucks come in. 
