Mike Sterling's Progressive RuinWhere legends live since 1969

You could probably get a full run of Blue Devil on eBay for less than what that one issue was priced.

§ February 26th, 2016 § Filed under retailing § 5 Comments

Dental issues have kind of thrown me off this week (and why not take a look at my eBay listings, he said completely coincidentally), but I’m still putting together material for this site, and, shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but I may have an End of Civilization post again soon, at long, long last. But, in the meantime, life goes on, and your pal Mike has been processing a few beat-up long boxes of what was once back issue stock for a long-defunct comic book shop. And in these boxes, amongst the copies of Serenity comics with Scotch tape affixed directly to the covers, and forgotten late ’90s Image books that will never ever sell again even in the bargain bins, I found this:

Now, there was a time when Warlord comics were, if not necessarily “hot,” but definitely in demand. However, it was not anytime during or after the release of this comic, which in no way, at no point, should have been priced anywhere close to $24.00. The current Overstreet has it at $4 in near mint, and was likely listed in the guide at that price or even less whenever the pricetag was actually affixed to this issue. Oh, and it probably goes without saying that the comic wasn’t anywhere close to near mint, and I suspect that wasn’t from mishandling in storage, but rather wear that was present when it was slipped into its bag and board.

I don’t think it was a case of switched bags or anything, given that I also found a few issues of Blue Devil, each with the proper issue number inscribed on the tag like above, also priced at $24. This is almost DC-obsessed-with-the-number-52 level, what with all the $24 pricetags. Suffice to say, any given issue of Blue Devil generally isn’t worth $24 even if you stuffed a twenty dollar bill into the comic bag with it. And hey, I love Blue Devil, but c’mon.

I don’t know if this was an honest mistake from misreading the price guide (unlikely, given the multiple instances), or, as was suggested to me, just wishful thinking (“only takes one person to go for it!”) much like the $5000 price tags you’ll see on, say, an issue of Care Bears on eBay or Amazon or wherever.

But don’t worry…I’ll be repricing all these at much more reasonable levels. I might even go as low as only $12 apiece. No need to thank me.