Pre-unity Coupon books without coupons

lobo · Post by **lobo** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 12:11 am

The books in question being Magnus 1-8 and Harbinger 1-6 of course. In the course of buying cheap pre-unities, I have a small stack of books without the coupons.
Will these books with the coupon clipped ever achieve any appreciable value? How severe is the grade reduced if the coupon is clipped?
The coupons were not integral to the whole of the comic in the sense that Bronze Marvels with the 'Marvel value stamp(?)' was. These comics were never cut or mutilated to get the coupon out so the importance of these books in their own right should count for something though they will never be NM/M. If Valiants ever take off again with collectors again, I wonder if these books will ever see a decent return on the market. Nobody really needs them for reading as the trades cover that aspect already. So then what??

For now I'm content to throw them in a box and let them age comfortablely...

dellamorte · Post by **dellamorte** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 12:17 am

Who knows what the future holds for these books. But I can tell you this, in the early '90's when Valiant started to catch fire it wasn't uncommon to see a Harbinger #1 without the coupon going for around $40. Of course that was prior to the TPB being released. My guess would be that coupon free copies will sell for about 10 to 20% of the coupon having copies.

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 1:39 am

I will buy NM Harbinger 1-5 without the coupons for $1 each.

Comickings has stated he believes it will eventually go the way of the Spidey 238, since the coupons can be added back.

I'm not sure I agree, but I see what he is saying.

betterthanezra · Post by **betterthanezra** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 10:13 am

I also dont believe these books will go the way of Spidey 238.
The reason...Each coupon is unique to that issue with the Spidey issue in question W/tat. the same month Fantastic four also had the same tat in that issue which was being taken out of and inserted in the Amazing issue.

Your not going to find loose extra Harbinger coupons hanging around so you can just insert them when you find an issue without one.
Magnus......forget it, there cut thats it. I dont know anyone that would cut uncut sheets of the Magnus cards to fill in there issues without the coupon.
That would be plain stupid the print run on the Magnus issues still with coupon range in my est to be in the 34-38 k range so there out there.

I think that couponless issues will not take off at all and may only command a fifth the price of there coupon brothers

-Brian[/quote]

COMICKINGS · Post by **COMICKINGS** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 1:43 pm

I just think the Harbinger coupons can be faked very easy.And some weren't even attatched at the staple.Some had 1 end of the staple holding it and some had 1 full staple and a piece of another staple.It also was never on the same staple.It could've been anywhere up & down the spine.All anybody would have to do is find the same paper,print it and slide it inbetween the pages.And somebody really good could remove the staple and reinsert it.The Magnus coupons...it'd be a little harder,but I believe if any of the books ever got to be high dollar,you'd see people trying to fake those too. I'm always a buyer for the couponless books at a few bucks apiece on some of the Harbinger & Magnus',just on the chance that one day they will be equal in price.If not,I ain't losing much.

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 8:37 pm

I must (unfortunately) admit that the difficulties in faking a Harbinger coupon are minimal. All you need to do is match the paper stock, and then it is pure effort and attention to detail. And the stuff CK was talking about is all right - you really dont need to play with the staples, just a tight fold should do.

I doubt you could really fake the Magnus cards, though. These were printed on both sides with a high quality - shop-worthy process, cut from the uncut poster sheet premium, stapled in three places. Not that if they were $500 books it wouldn't be tried. You could sacrifice a uncut sheet and make a 1-8 set "whole" again.

For this reason, I do buy the Harbingers (really NM and cheap), and not the Magnus books, without cards.

Getting to the point directly, though - who would have ever thought Overstreet would price the 238's the same? Personally, I wouldn't touch a 238 without the tattoos, but who knows? Do they sell for $50 without the tattoos in NM?

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 9:21 pm

ckb wrote: Getting to the point directly, though - who would have ever thought Overstreet would price the 238's the same? Personally, I wouldn't touch a 238 without the tattoos, but who knows? Do they sell for $50 without the tattoos in NM?

You best hope they never sell for $911.12. You'll never be able to buy one.

Seriously though, the best thing for those worried about coupons is to buy a set NOW, while they're too cheap to mess with, so you know you've got an authentic set. I'm sure it's safe to say that anyone who's bought one up until now has an authentic copy...although, there may have been some enterprising folks in '93. Still...a safe bet.

As for coupon-less Harbs, I will always look at them as Value stamp-less books. I won't pay more than $5-$10 for a PERFECT Spidey #238 without tats, and that's how I feel about ANY book that's had ANY part of it removed.

COMICKINGS · Post by **COMICKINGS** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 10:08 pm

who would have ever thought Overstreet would price the 238's the same? Personally, I wouldn't touch a 238 without the tattoos, but who knows? Do they sell for $50 without the tattoos in NM?

Overstreet probably finally realised that it's not hard to take the tattoos out Fantastic Four #252 (basically a $1 box book) and put them into the Spider-man #238.Maybe somebody that was a professional grader could tell that a books staple has been tampered with but an average collector looking for that book...all he wanted to know is if the tattoos are there.If they were,it was a sale.He wasn't looking at the staples.And 99% of the people don't know that the tattoos are the same in the FF.I just wish I'd have been buying up all the #238's I passed up back in the day that didn't have the tattoos!

kryptonitecomics · Post by **kryptonitecomics** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 11:16 pm

You guys have me a little worried now. I have all of the books in question, but I have never looked to see if the coupons are still there

I remember the coupns from when I originally collected, but many years later when repurchasing these books, I never checked.........Oh boy I don't know if I want to look

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 1:25 am

kryptonitecomics wrote:You guys have me a little worried now. I have all of the books in question, but I have never looked to see if the coupons are still there

I remember the coupns from when I originally collected, but many years later when repurchasing these books, I never checked.........Oh boy I don't know if I want to look

Check 'em now. It'll hurt a lot less if you need to replace them for $75 than it will if it's $750.

kryptonitecomics · Post by **kryptonitecomics** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:54 pm

Looks like I am getting lucky. I have only found one book that had the coupon clipped and I have a duplicate of that one that does have the coupon. I'm not done checking, but it looks like I am in pretty good shape

dino · Post by **dino** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 10:08 pm

Looks like I am getting lucky. I have only found one book that had the coupon clipped and I have a duplicate of that one that does have the coupon. I'm not done checking, but it looks like I am in pretty good shape

Let us know how it turns out. You might get lucky and grab one with a blank coupon.