That Comic Reader cover I posted yesterday wasn’t what I was planning on posting. I had scanned a page out of an old British Marvel hardcover annual a couple weeks back, and now I can’t find the scan. And I can’t rescan the page, because I’ve since sold the book on the eBay, and it’s currently winging its way to the wild jungles of Canada. Well, rats.
Here’s a conversation I have entirely too often at the shop:
Customer: “Hey, I have a Spawn #1. What do you sell it for?” (i.e. tell me how much my copy is worth so I don’t have to buy a price guide to find out)
Me: “Well, I have a copy here in near mint for $15.00.”
Customer: “That’s it? When did the price drop?”
Me: “Well, I think we had copies at $18.00 for a brief period of time a while back, but for the most part it’s been around $15.00.”*
The customer will then proceed to tell me that he either thought it was worth a lot more or that he paid much more for a copy. It seems to be a common perception that Spawn #1 has to be a valuable comic, since it’s a #1 (and we all know #1s always go up in value, he said sarcastically), it’s an early Image comic, it’s a comic with some visibility in the general public (thanks to the movie, cartoons, toys, etc.), and it’s by Todd McFarlane (a distant second to Stan Lee in the realm of “comic creators non-comic fans may actually have heard of”).
And though Spawn new issue sales are only a fraction of what they were (at least at our shop), back issue sales are still fairly brisk. Spawn #1 itself is not rare by any means, but it still has enough demand to keep its price range at that level. In fact, around here the only “rare” issues are the ones in the 40 to 70 range.
We’ve sort of been through the “I can’t believe it’s that cheap” thing before, with Superman #75 (the black-bagged “Death of Superman” issue). I can sort of see why people would be surprised at the pricing of this item (coincidentally, also between $15 and $18…at least until a recent slight jump in price), given that at the time of its release there was a lot of “panic” pricing. The most extreme price I heard was $200(!), and I’m sure there were even more outrageous examples than that. I’ve shocked plenty of people when I told them that we never sold it for more than $18 at our shop…and that wasn’t until years after its release.
Did someone say Wildcat? Yes indeedy, someone‘s favorite superhero turned up on Justice League Unlimited last night for a surprisingly brutal half-hour. Then again, the episode was focused around an underground fighting arena, so the violence should be expected, but it was still tough going. TV Tome, as usual, has a fairly comprehensive overview of the episode.
