Daniel's Tale
Moderators: Daniel Jackson, greg
-
Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
- Posts: 38007
- Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:33 pm
Daniel's Tale
If you need to take a bathroom break you probably better do it now.
I had pretty much stopped collecting comics for several years, so when the 90's rolled around I was out of the loop, so to speak. My wife and I were driving through the downtown business district while shopping one day back in 91 (if my memory serves me correctly) when we ran across a new comic book shop having a Grand Opening sale. I went in to see what was new and I saw a comic character I had not seen in a long time, Magnus. I picked up the issue and was immediately impressed with the artwork and colors. I bought it, along with some Marvel and DC stuff and went home.
After reading the Magnus story I wanted more. I continued to buy Magnus every time a new issue came out and started to try some of the other Valiant titles when they emerged. Solar, Harbinger, X-O, Rai and Shadowman. I had not been this excited about comics in a long while and I was hooked.
By this time the Valiant name was the hottest thing around and every respectable (and not so respectable) comic book dealer was scurrying to get the back issues. I was seeing Valiant being prominently displayed on the walls of local comic book shops like they were Silver age Spiderman or very early Batman or Superman books. Price tags continued to rise each week as customers came in to buy these Valiant gems. I just knew I was witnessing something that had not came along since Stan Lee. It lasted for a couple of years maybe three then darkness fell upon the Valiant Universe, it seemed like the gas had run out and they were coasting on fumes.
I reluctantly kept going till the end of the Vh1 era and when I seen what Acclaim was doing with the relaunch I did not want to continue wasting my money on the stuff. I had collected all the regular issues but I was never interested in the "Gold's" because of the prices they were asking. When I discovered ebay I remember typing in "Valiant" one day and was surprised to see how many Gold books were now selling for peanuts. I bought all of them from various sellers and with the exception of a few VVSS books and a few others I'm nearing 100%. I was never big on signed books and I did not pick these up when they were dirt cheap, Oh well live and learn.
I had came across Greg's first Valiant site shortly after he created it and he has certainly come a long way since then. I greatly appreciate the commitment he has shown to everyone who has asked him questions or needed help with Valiant over the years, I cannot praise him enough. There were others too like Joe's site and Sonicdans, but Greg's price guide and Valiant updates over the years has made him the Valiant Guru. I honestly do not know how he finds the time.
I'm glad I finally took the plunge with other like minded Valiant fans by finally joining here and participating in the message boards.
It's over, you can get a snack now.
I had pretty much stopped collecting comics for several years, so when the 90's rolled around I was out of the loop, so to speak. My wife and I were driving through the downtown business district while shopping one day back in 91 (if my memory serves me correctly) when we ran across a new comic book shop having a Grand Opening sale. I went in to see what was new and I saw a comic character I had not seen in a long time, Magnus. I picked up the issue and was immediately impressed with the artwork and colors. I bought it, along with some Marvel and DC stuff and went home.
After reading the Magnus story I wanted more. I continued to buy Magnus every time a new issue came out and started to try some of the other Valiant titles when they emerged. Solar, Harbinger, X-O, Rai and Shadowman. I had not been this excited about comics in a long while and I was hooked.
By this time the Valiant name was the hottest thing around and every respectable (and not so respectable) comic book dealer was scurrying to get the back issues. I was seeing Valiant being prominently displayed on the walls of local comic book shops like they were Silver age Spiderman or very early Batman or Superman books. Price tags continued to rise each week as customers came in to buy these Valiant gems. I just knew I was witnessing something that had not came along since Stan Lee. It lasted for a couple of years maybe three then darkness fell upon the Valiant Universe, it seemed like the gas had run out and they were coasting on fumes.
I reluctantly kept going till the end of the Vh1 era and when I seen what Acclaim was doing with the relaunch I did not want to continue wasting my money on the stuff. I had collected all the regular issues but I was never interested in the "Gold's" because of the prices they were asking. When I discovered ebay I remember typing in "Valiant" one day and was surprised to see how many Gold books were now selling for peanuts. I bought all of them from various sellers and with the exception of a few VVSS books and a few others I'm nearing 100%. I was never big on signed books and I did not pick these up when they were dirt cheap, Oh well live and learn.
I had came across Greg's first Valiant site shortly after he created it and he has certainly come a long way since then. I greatly appreciate the commitment he has shown to everyone who has asked him questions or needed help with Valiant over the years, I cannot praise him enough. There were others too like Joe's site and Sonicdans, but Greg's price guide and Valiant updates over the years has made him the Valiant Guru. I honestly do not know how he finds the time.
I'm glad I finally took the plunge with other like minded Valiant fans by finally joining here and participating in the message boards.
It's over, you can get a snack now.
Last edited by Daniel Jackson on Sat Mar 12, 2005 6:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
- Posts: 38007
- Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:33 pm
Yeah, except for me missing the boat on the V.V.S.S. stuff, at that time they were on ebay quite a bit and not going for very much so I put those low on the priority list.
I made a concerted effort though to get the Unity Diamond Trades and the Chaos Effect Alpha Red. I just had a feeling about these. The Diamond Trades came out of the blue on ebay one day and lo and behold no one else bid on them but me (great price too $35.00 for both). The CEAR was the tough one, I had not seen one on ebay or anywhere else for that matter. I had a deal with Joe Petrilak and he told me he would gladly sell me one but for some reason he just stopped all communication. I then made it a point to ask all the sellers I had bought anything from about it and finally one of them said they had a copy they would sell me for $5.00.
It's strange to see the CEAR's on ebay all the time now because back then I thought that the retailers must have threw most of them in the garbage or something because of the lack of them anywhere.
I made a concerted effort though to get the Unity Diamond Trades and the Chaos Effect Alpha Red. I just had a feeling about these. The Diamond Trades came out of the blue on ebay one day and lo and behold no one else bid on them but me (great price too $35.00 for both). The CEAR was the tough one, I had not seen one on ebay or anywhere else for that matter. I had a deal with Joe Petrilak and he told me he would gladly sell me one but for some reason he just stopped all communication. I then made it a point to ask all the sellers I had bought anything from about it and finally one of them said they had a copy they would sell me for $5.00.
It's strange to see the CEAR's on ebay all the time now because back then I thought that the retailers must have threw most of them in the garbage or something because of the lack of them anywhere.
-
Daniel Jackson
- A toast to the return of Valiant!
- Posts: 38007
- Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:33 pm
-
JustCallMeAric
- ...remember that they are just paper.
- Posts: 3682
- Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:30 pm
- Location: Where the Wild Things are
-
leonmallett
- My mind is sharp. Like a sharp thing.
- Posts: 9472
- Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:39 am
- Valiant fan since: 2006
- Favorite character: Shadowman (Hall version)
- Favorite title: Shadowman (under Hall)
- Favorite writer: Fred Van Lente
- Favorite artist: Clayton Henry
- Location: hunting down paulsmith56 somewhere in the balti belt...
-
ZephyrWasHOT!!
- Chief of the Dia Tribe
- Posts: 22415
- Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2004 8:55 pm