Mysterious Valiant Surge in Local MD Comic Show....

Escaflown4 · Post by **Escaflown4** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:46 am

There was a comic show in Laurel, MD over the weekend. Granted this was my first time at that particular show, so I am not sure whether Valiant fans are usually out there in full force. It has been a long time since I've seen a strong amount of folks asking for Valiant comics. Normally around the Northern Virginia area I would see like maybe two or three other folks at most that collect Valiants at any of the local comic shows. However, this weekend, I must have seen maybe 10 or more folks running around asking for Valiants and literally buying up everything that has the Valiant logo on it.....even all the commons!

It got to the point where I start overhearing all the dealers start talking about Valiant comics and trying to figure out why there's been such a strong demand for them recently. For a brief moment of time, it just kinda felt like the early 90's again.

geocarr · Post by **geocarr** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:01 am

Freaky.....but good..., right?

JustCallMeAric · Post by **JustCallMeAric** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:33 am

xodacia81 · Post by **xodacia81** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:34 am

Valiants ARE due for a return

Draco · Post by **Draco** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 9:31 am

I get ribbed at the London show for asking for Valiants alot, but outside of a few gap fillers nothing great has turned up as of yet.

xodacia81 · Post by **xodacia81** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:34 am

Draco wrote:I get ribbed at the London show for asking for Valiants alot, but outside of a few gap fillers nothing great has turned up as of yet.

You poor blighters. To have so little in the way of back issues over there. I feel for yas.

Draco · Post by **Draco** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:58 am

xodacia81 wrote:
Draco wrote:I get ribbed at the London show for asking for Valiants alot, but outside of a few gap fillers nothing great has turned up as of yet.

You poor blighters. To have so little in the way of back issues over there. I feel for yas.

Not too worry dude, theres plenty of tat on a very regular basis for my DU wants lists.

xodacia81 · Post by **xodacia81** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:04 pm

Draco wrote:
xodacia81 wrote:
Draco wrote:I get ribbed at the London show for asking for Valiants alot, but outside of a few gap fillers nothing great has turned up as of yet.

You poor blighters. To have so little in the way of back issues over there. I feel for yas.
Not too worry dude, theres plenty of tat on a very regular basis for my DU wants lists.

There IS the net, after all

h-comics · Post by **h-comics** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:32 pm

Wow that is awesome,here also I am seeing Valiants on the shelf for sale and talking to the guy that owns the shop tells me that they are asking for them

.

Jesse

greg · Post by **greg** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:07 pm

Generally, there's a "increase in interest" around collectibles which reach 20 years old,
and then a larger increase when those collectibles reach 30 years old.

Right now, Valiant books (pre-Unity) are essentially 16 years old... but Valiant started in 1989,
printed some Nintendo books in 1990, and those are going to be 19 years old next year.

Any time there is an increase in interest, there's a possibility that buyers are suddenly paying too much...
After all, if these guys had bought when there was very little interest, they would have paid much less...
but when you start talking about decades, it's very unusual for collectibles which are 20 years old
to be more expensive than those same collectibles 10 years later, when they turn 30.

Would you rather have bought Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1982 or in 1992?
Would you rather have gotten a copy of Incredible Hulk #181 in 1994 or 2004?

Obviously, Valiant books don't carry the same weight as the first Spider-man or first Wolverine,
but certain Valiant books were on top of the industry "in their day", which forms the basis
for stronger cases of "nostalgia" around the 20 and 30 year marks.
There are few comics from the early 1990s that are "more nostalgic" than Valiant.
Whatever those are, it's likely that fewer people were collecting them.

After all, very few people have nostalgia about something that very few people remember.

BloodOfHeroes · Post by **BloodOfHeroes** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:42 pm

greg wrote:Would you rather have bought Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1982 or in 1992?
Would you rather have gotten a copy of Incredible Hulk #181 in 1994 or 2004?

I started collecting VALIANT in late 1996 or early 1997 (shortly before the VH-2 relaunch). I was able to get a fairly decent collection at a fairly reasonable price because, then, no one cared (except for about a dozen of us who all shared the obsession). I'll bet that I'd have half the items I do if I'd've started collecting 10 years later. When I look at what I've added to my collection since 2004 (when I went on hiatus) it's been blessedly small: the Turok videogame comic, the PunX preview in Wizard. I've gotten NO golds, NO VVSS (too rich for my budget). I have picked up lots of copies of Bloodshot and probably between 1-2 dozen pages of OA, is all.

If Valiants become popular again and that popularity translates into a BOATLOAD of new content, I'd be very happy for VEI (and for the fans).

But I'll always be relieved that I got my checklist completed (and by that I mean as complete as it'll most likely ever be) when it was easy to do so.

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:34 pm

I talked to a guy a bit ago that said he sold a bunch of pre-uni off the wall.

He knows I am the Valiant guy...... so he thought he would tell me.

BloodOfHeroes · Post by **BloodOfHeroes** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:59 pm

I went into an LCS and asked the guy behind the counter if he had any Valiants. He didn't even look up when he replied, "I don't have any pre-Unity or the final issues."

I figured at least one of the people here had beaten me to it!

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:05 pm

BloodOfHeroes wrote:I went into an LCS and asked the guy behind the counter if he had any Valiants. He didn't even look up when he replied, "I don't have any pre-Unity or the final issues."

I figured at least one of the people here had beaten me to it!

But you should still look through the bins. Maybe a EW #27.... VVSS.

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:32 pm

My lcs calls me if he gets in a collection and quotes me a price and I usually buy the whole thing

the last one was pretty much a pre unity set for almost nothing and a few other boxes of v stuff

betterthanezra · Post by **betterthanezra** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:54 am

BloodOfHeroes wrote:
greg wrote:Would you rather have bought Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1982 or in 1992?
Would you rather have gotten a copy of Incredible Hulk #181 in 1994 or 2004?
I was able to get a fairly decent collection at a fairly reasonable price because, then, no one cared (except for about a dozen of us who all shared the obsession).

-Brian