My story.
Moderators: Daniel Jackson, greg
My story.
I'm stealing this from my thread on the CGC site. 
I was 11-years-old when I bought my first Valiant comic. I remember going to my local comic shop and picking up a copy of Solar # 4, reading it, and loving it. I was quickly spending my weekly earnings buying whichever books I could afford. Alas, speculators drove the prices on many issues through the roof and I never picked up certain issues like Magnus #12 or Rai #3.
If you were to ask me: "What comes into your mind when you think of Valiant?" my reply would be "speculation." That's pretty much all I remember about Valiant, even moreso than the stories. I remember people I've never seen before coming into the LCS asking for copies of Harbinger #1, Magnus #12, etc. I also remember stocking an inordinate number of new Valiant issues every Wednesday. Each week it seemed we received more and more copies of new titles like Geomancer or HARD Corps. For a while, the LCS where I worked was doing record business off of this Valiant boom. Until around late-1994 or early 1995 there was a sudden fallout and those speculators that regularly came in stopped showing up.
In fact, I remember one of the biggest spenders came into the LCS with 4 or 5 longboxes full of rare Valiant issues maybe 2-3 months prior to the fallout looking to sell. He wanted $3000 for the lot, which was OS valued at around $15k. I strongly recommended to the shop owner that buying them was a BAD idea. He eventually decided that it wasn't worth buying. I'd say less than 3 months later, speculators were forcefully trying to unload their books.
That's my story.
I was 11-years-old when I bought my first Valiant comic. I remember going to my local comic shop and picking up a copy of Solar # 4, reading it, and loving it. I was quickly spending my weekly earnings buying whichever books I could afford. Alas, speculators drove the prices on many issues through the roof and I never picked up certain issues like Magnus #12 or Rai #3.
If you were to ask me: "What comes into your mind when you think of Valiant?" my reply would be "speculation." That's pretty much all I remember about Valiant, even moreso than the stories. I remember people I've never seen before coming into the LCS asking for copies of Harbinger #1, Magnus #12, etc. I also remember stocking an inordinate number of new Valiant issues every Wednesday. Each week it seemed we received more and more copies of new titles like Geomancer or HARD Corps. For a while, the LCS where I worked was doing record business off of this Valiant boom. Until around late-1994 or early 1995 there was a sudden fallout and those speculators that regularly came in stopped showing up.
In fact, I remember one of the biggest spenders came into the LCS with 4 or 5 longboxes full of rare Valiant issues maybe 2-3 months prior to the fallout looking to sell. He wanted $3000 for the lot, which was OS valued at around $15k. I strongly recommended to the shop owner that buying them was a BAD idea. He eventually decided that it wasn't worth buying. I'd say less than 3 months later, speculators were forcefully trying to unload their books.
That's my story.
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Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
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- Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:33:38 pm
Re: My story.
Sounds like that LCS owner owes you big time. I know quite a few shops owners that weren't quite so lucky and they have gone the way of the Dodo bird.psiknight wrote:In fact, I remember one of the biggest spenders came into the LCS with 4 or 5 longboxes full of rare Valiant issues maybe 2-3 months prior to the fallout looking to sell. He wanted $3000 for the lot, which was OS valued at around $15k. I strongly recommended to the shop owner that buying them was a BAD idea. He eventually decided that it wasn't worth buying. I'd say less than 3 months later, speculators were forcefully trying to unload their books.
That's my story.
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jedimarley
- Evra'Ting Ire Mon.
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Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
- Posts: 38007
- Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:33:38 pm
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Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
- Posts: 38007
- Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:33:38 pm
-
jedimarley
- Evra'Ting Ire Mon.
- Posts: 16063
- Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:44:29 pm
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ibreakhorses
- ...it has been down hill ever since.
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