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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 20, 2021 13:19:39 GMT -5
I have the Starslayer issues and I can't believe the hubbub. The Rocketeer is a dead property. The art by Dave Stevens can't be that big of a selling point , can it ?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2021 13:24:15 GMT -5
^ Dave's art is super collectible.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Jan 20, 2021 13:46:34 GMT -5
It's also not a dead property in terms of media outside of comics. Disney still owns the media rights. In 2019 they did a Rocketeer cartoon about a kid who becomes the new Rocketeer, and they have also announced a live action Rocketeer remake film that will be on Disney+. So there's that as well!
But right now I think the art is the main draw. Stevens art has definitely picked up a lot of steam in the last 5 years or so.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jan 20, 2021 13:54:03 GMT -5
It's also not a dead property in terms of media outside of comics. Disney still owns the media rights. In 2019 they did a Rocketeer cartoon about a kid who becomes the new Rocketeer, and they have also announced a live action Rocketeer remake film that will be on Disney+. So there's that as well! But right now I think the art is the main draw. Stevens art has definitely picked up a lot of steam in the last 5 years or so.
Yep. I've collected Stevens since the '80's, and have most of his published work-- much of which is simply guest-artist cover work. Lots of these books from smaller and/or defunct publishers, which could be had very cheaply until the last few years. I was shocked when @mrp told me how much some of the lesser known covers (DNAgents, Cheval Noir, etc) are going for now. It's crazy. I wonder how much my signed, numbered (165/395) and framed print of "Betty's Bath" is going for these days? I've got a couple of other signed Stevens prints as well, namely Vampirella and Mr. Monster.
{Spoiler: Click to show (caution-- artistic painted "nekkid" lady inside)}
Not to mention a personalized photo of Dave's favorite model, his ex-wife, Brinke.
{Spoiler: Click to show (caution again--if you didnt open the first one, you probably wont want to open this one either)}
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2021 14:13:58 GMT -5
I had forgotten I had this print, but thrilled when I found it with my other art back in Sept. and signed too!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2021 14:20:18 GMT -5
There's also been a handful of Rocketeer action figures released in the last 2-3 years that sold out immediately and are in high demand and kind of pricey in the secondary market right now. So there's demand for both the character and the artist. If the in production documentary about Stevens that I've mentioned (and posted requests for material from the producer) on the forums recently gets released, it will only raise the profile of Stevens stuff. Do a search for Dave Stevens covers on ebay and look at some of the asking prices. Then look at sold prices and you'll see people are willing to pay a fair bit for Stevens stuff. Certain covers are in higher demand for sure, but even the more obscure covers can fetch a decent price a lot of the time.
Also, Grimjack was optioned for TV, which gave it a bit of heat before the pandemic, with the pandemic, who knows the status of that option, but if something gets to the point of being in production or released, expect that Starslayer issue to jump again (it jumped out of dollar bins two years ago to a $5-$10 book in a lot of places, if Grimjack hits screens it will jump a lot more). There's a whole segments of the hobby (with a plethora of youtube channels) devoted to analyzing/highlighting which books to buy before the Hollywood machine gives them a price bump (they call 'em SPEC books) which is skewing the prices for a lot of these types of books on the market. Add in that 80s books are getting the same kind of attention early Bronze Age books got about 15 years ago (when Bronze Age prices started to take off) because they have aged into the nostalgia demographic for another generation of collectors and you have the recipe for a lot of potential price inflation on those books. Even some 90s books are heating up from that combo of nostalgia and Hollywood heat (I've not seen as many people excited about Spawn back issues as I have in the last 6 months since the year after the book was launched).
The landscape of the collecting hobby is in flux. It's changed massively since I got in decades ago, and it's the type of changes that renders the past as a poor prognosticator of future trends. A lot of the assumptions and standards I always operated under are null and void in the current market. Demand is high for certain types of books and non-existant for others (stuff seen as filler issues mostly), but what differentiates an in-demand book from an unwanted book can change in a heartbeat and dollar bin fodder can become a wall book in a matter of hours with a single announcement from some entertainment company. I've seen a couple of dollar bin fodder books selling for triple digits on ebay within hours of such an announcement in recent months, so the tack I am taking with collecting is that certainty should be avoided and I need to know what I don't know if I am going to navigate this morass to get the stuff I am interested in at a fair price.
-M
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Post by MDG on Jan 20, 2021 14:27:11 GMT -5
My friend started buying pretty much anything by Stevens when Rocketeer first appeared. He was on a FB fan group with Steven's sister, who was looking for some items she didn't have and he sent her a couple of posters that reproduced the covers of Crossfire and Rainbow w/o the logos. He just received this from her in exchange:
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 20, 2021 14:30:27 GMT -5
I had no idea. Go figure.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
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Post by shaxper on Feb 7, 2021 10:28:00 GMT -5
I'm usually not a speculator, mind you. There are just some no-brainers that seem like sure things to me. Case in point, just this month, I purchased three copies of Legion of Super-Heroes #298: 1st Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. They are selling for next to nothing right now, and if DC doesn't eventually turn Amethyst into a cartoon, I'll be a monkey's Gemworld fairy godmother. ...and DC just announced a new Amethyst GN targeted to the YA Reina Telegmeier crowd that is driving graphic novel sales these days. Amethyst may be on the verge of reaching a whole new generation of readers.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,707
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Post by shaxper on Feb 15, 2021 9:38:23 GMT -5
I decided this morning that, with the X-Men slated to appear in the MCU soon, many of their Copper Age keys are seriously undervalued, so I dropped $80 on two copies of Forge's first appearance (selling for under $10 right now), three copies of Bishop's first appearance (Selling for $10-15 right now), and two sets of Magik #1-4 (roughly $12 per set). Forge is a minor risk, but he's an awesome and underused character. I figure Bishop and Magik are no-brainers. Those books are seriously undervalued in this market.
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Post by Duragizer on Feb 18, 2021 23:14:45 GMT -5
When I was a kid, I owned two copies of Amazing Spider-Man #401 and Deathlok #1. The former my dad bought for me, not knowing I already owned a copy; the latter two showed up in different sets of packaged comics. Those are the only duplicates I remember owning.
Growing up in the '90s, I'd unfortunately been exposed to the speculator mindset. That left me with a desire to buy two copies of every comic I wanted. For good or ill, money was too tight for me to indulge my fantasy.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 19, 2021 6:54:16 GMT -5
I don't have that many multiple copies of anything, but I was conned into buying all the variant covers of X-Men #1. Silly younger me, and silly fear of missing out.
The doubles I do have are either accidental (they were part of comic-book lots) or replacement copies: for example, my first copy of Savage Tales #2 was missing a page, and that just wouldn't do!
All the extra copies are in a box and meant to be traded.
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 19, 2021 7:00:50 GMT -5
I bought and had 10 copies of this It had an amazing wrap around foil cover. I got caught up in the speculation craze too. I don't think I have one left.
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Post by james on Feb 19, 2021 9:32:30 GMT -5
I bought and had 10 copies of this It had an amazing wrap around foil cover. I got caught up in the speculation craze too. I don't think I have one left. ME TOO! Maybe not 10 copies but at least 3. Why were we so into the foil covers? I look at them now and think they all look kind of cheap.
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 19, 2021 9:36:21 GMT -5
That was one of the really nice foil covers. Valiants X-O had another that was really nice.
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