Wonder-con update

[betterthanezra]

..Well it's not something to get excited about I will start with that.

Not ONE dealer had a Valiant comic on there display rack at the entire show. Most that I talked to said they notice more Valiant activity. But like Greg wrote in Overstreet they cant do anything about it because they dont have any pre-unity issues left to sell.
That not to say there were non because I found some. Not counting Comic Calvicade (more on them in a minute) I found 4-5 dealers with at least one pre-unity book. I spent the majority of my Valiant funds on one dealer who averaged about 4 dollars for his pre-unity issues and nothing to key (xo #1(3 copies)-4 magnus 1-2,5,9)
Dealers have told me that either they dont have any issues to sell or they are holding onto them untill they feel the time is right to bring them out.

Comic Calvicade........all I need to say is Turok 3 shadows one shot
hold on to yourself.......$50 dollars . Other eye openers shadowman (v3)#5 $25 , Rai #3-4 $35 each, Unity #1 gold $20,
Magnus #12 $25, Magnus #64 $25, Solar #60 $25, X0 #68 $35 Bloodshot Last stand $25

I actually bought something from them Turok #47 at only $4 and Solar #10 at a suprising (for them) $15. Oh and there is no haggeling with them at all.

The Magic issue that included the Valiant free view polybagged is Magic : The Shadow Mage #1 I found 8 of them still polybagged in a 50 cent bin.

There were no Harbinger #0-7, Rai #3-4 at anyother dealer besides Comic Calvicade not one.
Issues not seen at the show PERIOD
Unity RED
VVSS issues (only found X-O database)
Gold issues (besides unity #1 and a Turok)
Unity TPB
X-O #1/2 gold

I did find a Chaos Effect Omega Gold for $6 dollars thats the best find I had today.
We might be several months or years away from what we thought might happen with Valiant and any convention comeback.

Will anything change in San Diego? who knows I'll be there to find out though. Oh people were asking me if I ever heard of the Valiantcomics.com website I just smiled. I wore my Bloodshot softball shirt with the green sleeves to see if anyone would start Valiant conversations and they did.
Over all horrible show but I was happy with what I found in some areas. Feel sorry for anyone tom going that is looking for pre-unity though comic calvicade is the only dealer with any now.

-Brian

[magnusr]

The Magic issue that included the Valiant free view polybagged is Magic : The Shadow Mage #1 I found 8 of them still polybagged in a 50 cent bin.

Good to have that confirmed. Did you open any to see if it's the first or second print?

/Magnus

[betterthanezra]

Hold on I'll do that right now.
The one I just opened says SECOND printing........
interesting.
-Brian

[magnusr]

Hold on I'll do that right now.
The one I just opened says SECOND printing........
interesting.
-Brian

Thanks, the one I keep stored with my Magic comics is also second print. I believe you have now really proven it.

Greg, what was the print run of Shadow Mage 1? I assume Freeview second print has the same print run. Btw, there's no image in the database for the second print.

/Magnus

[ZephyrWasHOT!!]

Soooo....either this last year or so was just a small bump, fueled by a few folks like Agu002.....which is my guess...

OR....there's simply not enough supply to sustain demand, and there's not enough demand (read:$$) to release more supply.

Which is the reason the super rare (1-10 copies known) books don't sell for Detective Comics #27 numbers.....they're done in by their own scarcity.

[sckao]

Not ONE dealer had a Valiant comic on there display rack at the entire show. Most that I talked to said they notice more Valiant activity. But like Greg wrote in Overstreet they cant do anything about it because they dont have any pre-unity issues left to sell.

Was Comic Calvacade the store with the huge area right at the end of the convention floor? (all the comics were in blue bins?) They had Magnus #1s for $10, etc. plus actual title cards for each Valiant title.

I didn't set up at WonderCon or there would have been at least one vendor who had Valiants on their racks...

I recently came across several hundred more Pre-Unity Valiants in my stockpile of unopened long boxes so I've got a fair amount. (At least 80 more Archer and Armstrong #0s, couple dozen more Solar #2s and #3, sets of Harbinger 1-7, multiple bags of ten of Vintage Magnus, etc.)

They ARE out there and I'm sure some other dealers also have a fair supply left.

[betterthanezra]

Yes Comic Calvacade was the dealer at the end of the show in all the BLUE boxes that was them.
I didn't mention that yes they had Solar #1 and Magnus #1 for $10 each and the Solars #1-9 of the ones that were there were $10 each.

Sckao you went to the show what day?
-Brian

[greg]

Greg, what was the print run of Shadow Mage 1? I assume Freeview second print has the same print run. Btw, there's no image in the database for the second print.

Hmmm...
Capital City orders (20% to 25% of the print run)
for Shadow Mage 1 were 52,225.
So, the total print run would be 200,000 to 260,000.

Can anyone provide me with scans or digital photos
showing the differences between Valiant Free-View first and second prints?

Thanks!

[Vault-Keeper]

Personally, I think that there was & still is a ripe market for the right Valiant items. I've had great sales on most of the rare issues I put on the market, but I'm not the only one. For certain items, like the Diamond Unity books, there will always be a demand. For other items, low print runs on the final V1 issues have driven up the prices for collectors looking to fill in holes in their 'common runs'. The future value of these depends on the drive of the market after all the hardcore Valiant collectors have their holes filled (so to speak:)). JMHO!---Steve G

[greg]

The future value of these depends on the drive of the market after all the hardcore Valiant collectors have their holes filled (so to speak:)). JMHO!---Steve G

This is an interesting point...
right now Bronze Age issues are in the middle of a significant "drive up",
and it's been 25 or 30 years since the Bronze Age of comic books.

The people driving the Bronze Age books up today would probably consider
themselves "hardcore Bronze Age collectors" even if they didn't return
to those books until the books themselves were 20+ years old.

I guess what I'm saying is... we probably haven't seen the return of the
"hardcore Valiant collector" yet... The books are only 8 to 13 years old.
There's very little besides this website to remind people that Valiants were "it",
once upon a time, and little else to jog collectors memories as a whole...
to remind them that they were hardcore fans and could be again.
In fact, quite a large number probably aren't following ANY comic books,
since they left... much less the comics from a dead 1990s company.

Let's face it... we're a very isolated corner of the internet over here...
and I'm pretty sure everyone who remembers Valiant fondly
hasn't already found us.

[x-omatic]

Greg, what was the print run of Shadow Mage 1? I assume Freeview second print has the same print run. Btw, there's no image in the database for the second print.

Hmmm...
Capital City orders (20% to 25% of the print run)
for Shadow Mage 1 were 52,225.
So, the total print run would be 200,000 to 260,000.

Can anyone provide me with scans or digital photos
showing the differences between Valiant Free-View first and second prints?

Thanks!

The only difference is it says second print in the copy right are inside the first page.

[ZephyrWasHOT!!]

The future value of these depends on the drive of the market after all the hardcore Valiant collectors have their holes filled (so to speak:)). JMHO!---Steve G

This is an interesting point...
right now Bronze Age issues are in the middle of a significant "drive up",
and it's been 25 or 30 years since the Bronze Age of comic books.

The people driving the Bronze Age books up today would probably consider
themselves "hardcore Bronze Age collectors" even if they didn't return
to those books until the books themselves were 20+ years old.

:

As an addendum....the only...and I mean, THE ONLY...Bronze books that sold for more than $5 in the 80's were few and far between, like X-Men (with Hulk #180-#182), HOS #92, Spidey #121-122, Green Lantern #76, and Conan. That's it. People would have laughed at you in 1987 if you'd told them Marvel Spotlight #5 would be an $800 book in 9.6. Of course, they'd have no idea what you meant by '9.6', but I digress....

If you knew where to look, you could find almost anything and everything Bronze for $5 or less....Spiderman #129, #149, heck even #100-#102...Astonishing Tales #25...ALL of the Neal Adams books...Amazing Adventures #11. They were NOT Silver, and that was the point. No one wanted them.

Now...well, now you know the whole story. So....what lies ahead? Who knows. I just want to know what the ceiling is on comics prices in general. Are we going to watch Action #1 auctioned for $60 Million in 2032? is there really no limit to the prices people will pay for comics...?

[sckao]

Yes Comic Calvacade was the dealer at the end of the show in all the BLUE boxes that was them.
I didn't mention that yes they had Solar #1 and Magnus #1 for $10 each and the Solars #1-9 of the ones that were there were $10 each.

Sckao you went to the show what day?
-Brian

They also had the last issue of Magnus for $20, Magnus #12 for 25, Harbinger 0 Pink for $50, Harbingers 2-7 for $10, etc. Seemed kind of high actually. The guy there said they had 1 million comics back in Montreal so I assume they have a lot of Valiants. They had multiples of a lot of issues. What was odd was that they were selling the Harbinger 0 blue for $10 which also seems high since it came free with the trade paperback.

I had an industry pass for three days actually, but I only went for part of Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday. I did go to the CGC Forum dinner Saturday night which was attended by Steve Borock, Paul Litch, and Shawn Caffrey (and a bunch of people from the CGC board).

[Flinx]

It seems I had a lot better luck here in Australia at the Supanova convention.

I picked up the following;
Archer & Armstrong/Eternal Warrior 26
Harbinger 3
Magnus 2,3,4,9,10
Rai 2
Shadowman 2,3
Solar 2,3,5,9,33,42,43,46-55,58
X-O Manowar 2,3
Eternal Warriors: Mog

Most were $2.00 each with a few being between $3.00 & $5.00.