Speculating on Comics 02.06.2019
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Here we are once more, with new releases due out on the 6th of February, 2019 (and new rules for collecting, as mentioned yesterday…). Can I hold to my new rules? I doubt it, but I'll try anyway.
Picks for Flips
Harley Quinn 58 Chew Variant
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DC yet again with hot covers: Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman, and now Harley once more. This one is already selling for $13-$15 USD online. Snag it if you can and flip it if you are so inclined. I’m keeping mine long term, however. I might file this one in my new cardboard box I am calling “Slab City.”
Female Furies 1 Mattina Variant
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I’m going to pass on this one, as the whole Mattina controversy is disappointing. I appreciated his run on Batman and Deathstroke, as I was very late to the game, but going forward will probably pass on his work. Still, this one is fetching $8-$10 USD on eBay already. Maybe it’s the old, wannabe artist in me that was talked out of focusing on creative endeavors in school because I needed certain “real” classes for college, but I always hated people that copied other people’s work. You want to copy my journal entry for asset depreciation for fiscal year end? Go for it, it’s all yours…but if you want to copy my oil pastel flower drawing that I made for my girlfriend/future wife, I will disdain your forever. Sorry!
Items I Want for My Long Term Collection
Daredevil 1 Tedesco Cover A
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Another book I can’t wait to read. That Tedesco is cover is beautiful. I know yesterday I mentioned that I wasn’t going to chase incentive variants, but I’m very tempted to splurge on that 1:10 Dell Otto variant. Very tempted…we’ll see…I might wait a bit and see if I can get it on eBay down the road.
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Harley Quinn 58 Cover A
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Everyone is excited for the Chew variant, as seen above, but this cover A is splendid. I love it; I historically have not been the biggest Harley fan, despite her inclusion in the Batman mythos, but she’s starting to grow on me (and my little girl). And that Birds of Prey trailer is making me excited for the upcoming DC films.
Batman 64 Murphy Variant
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Where is Tom King going now? Oh, I see…he’s tying this into his Heroes in Crisis series. When are we going to get back to the Batcave to see who that other Batman was? I’m sure King has a plan, right? I think so...what do you think?
Immortal Hulk 13 Ross Cover A
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Reading that last issue, with references to the Sephiroth and the Qlippoth, I thought I was reading an old blog post of mine! Talk about some heavy duty occult/esoteric ideas being thrown in with the Incredible Hulk. What a read, and what a way to blow the cobwebs off the left side of the brain. I’m still loving this Hulk run. I know I sound like a broken record, but I think this is Marvel’s best offering at this time.
Female Furies 1 Cover A
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Speaking of the esoteric, I’m really looking forward to this one; I love my Jack Kirby and his New Gods. With the upcoming movie featuring Mister Miracle and his wife, Big Barda, this one should be a good buy with what I’m hoping is an equally fantastic story. Plus Big Barda looks, well,…big.
The Green Lantern Cover !
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If you read my review of Morrison’s previous Lantern, you know why I’m excited to see where this modern day Gnostic scribe takes Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns next. Such good stuff. I’d dare say profound, really, but that sounds obnoxious and pretentious.
Other Items of Interest
Nothing compelling that is on my “fence”. That’s ok, as it appears next week’s offerings will cost a bit of money. I’ll save where I can. Yet I'll probably pick up that Conan the Barbarian too as I'm enjoying that run.
The Midtown 24 Metric
As I previously wrote yesterday, this is a bit of a hypothesis for me. Here it is:
- Code all comic books that sell out within 24 hours on the Midtown website after their initial offer
- Track resales prices of said comic books on the secondary market (in this case, eBay)
The idea is to see if there is any short term gain opportunities from grabbing these books at your LCS the following Wednesday. I'll plan to put a table together to track gains/losses over time. Maybe this will work, maybe not, but we'll find out together on Steem. Below is what I had for previously fast moving books; I'll do better going forward to track data.
Those Tedescos are still holding roughly one month after its release. Is this truly going to be this year's Batgirl 23? Time will tell.
That’s it for this week; as always, drop a note or line, and let me know what I missed on. Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by.
I never really knew about variant covers much growing up. When I discovered them, I was practically drooling over some of them. They'll really make you wanna spend whatever it takes to get one sometimes. They'll also extremely disappoint you when you think you have the variant cover worth a ton, and then it turns out, no, there's a slight difference, and your's isn't worth much of anything.
I was clueless too; I started my older collection in the late 1980's and early 1990's like most people my age once the Batman movie broke out. I just read the books I got, didn't think much from a collector standpoint, and even gave away my ASM 300 without much thought to a friend to read.
I knew nothing about variants either; this past year I thought I'd start getting Batgirl comics for my (redheaded) daughter, and discovered all these wonderful Artgerm, Hughes, and Middleton variants fetching some extraordinary sums on eBay (extraordinary for me anyway, to see a $3.99 less than a year old book go for $80 today). My thinking is really two things perhaps I'd like to explore this year :
a) attempt to pick a "hot" book up at my LCS and sell it on eBay
b) keep the cost of the book and use any margin to save for more expensive books like Batgirl 23 for my daughter
That was my thinking originally,but haven't followed through yet. Ideally, if I could sell books on an open market to people who want them, make a bit, and save up for a Swamp Thing ! or Batgirl first appearance down the road, I'd be ok with it to build up a "hobby" budget. Yet who knows? It takes a bit of work, and my LCS doesn't have the largest inventory on Weds, so the plan may not work for me.
And by the way: Tom King isn't the author this week on Bats...looks like it is Joshua Williamson. Error!
You said you are working on completing sets right now - which set are you focusing on finishing up? My current task is indeed the Middleton Batgirls...
Just random things in my collection. Some old X-Factor from when I was a kid I never got around to filling in. Thinking about selling them once I complete the numbers. Strong Man kinda ruins them, even if I like some of the other characters.
Some X-Men from the same era.
Um...got one book I'm missing I think in the Cloak and Dagger 4 book series from the 80's.
Was thinking about starting collecting Deadpool. Always liked him, but just never ended up picking up his comics for some reason. Wait, that's not true. I got him in some other comics, like X-Force...which I also am missing a couple of to have a full number series from 1 to whatever.
Oh...there's also a few issues of Captain America from the 70's I'm missing. Boy, those are horrible. Like seriously, those comics will make you wonder why he's so popular. But he does have a motorcycle.
Basically just a lot of random comics that I just never got around to getting because I tend to forget to fill out the collection until I randomly stumble upon it.
I'm also planning on getting the whole Death of Superman arc. It's probably never going to be worth much, because so many collected it and bought the books...but I liked the story, and there's a ton of the books around. I've managed to pick up a lot of them so far in very excellent condition. Some perhaps Near Mint even, though there's probably some flaw I'm overlooking. All of them so far I've gotten at great deals. So just slowly gathering it up.
There was this mini-series with Robin from the 90's that I somehow am missing just one book from. I could have sworn I had it.
Most of the things just really I don't have a priority to collect. What I do end up collecting in some ways is sort of chosen by fate. I find some book for a nice price that looks interesting and try to get the series.
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great thanks so much!