And somehow Mike gets another post out of the Death of Superman.

§ August 16th, 2017 § Filed under death of superman, retailing § 3 Comments

So the other day I ran a little thread on the Twitteringabob about how, in the last few days, I have had an excessive number of people popping in to ask about the direct market edition of Superman #75, the infamous (and much discussed on this site) “Death of Superman” issue. In fact, in one instance there were a couple of guys hanging just outside my shop’s door, with one encouraging the other to “just go in and ask him, he’ll know!” As that happened, I even thought to myself “ooh, he’s going to ask me about the Death of Superman issue,” which was probably 15% Mike’s Psychic Powers manifesting themselves again, 90% Mike Has Been Dealing with As He Said Many Questions about This Comic for Days Now, and 3% Mike’s Not Very Good at Math.

Anyway, all these folks come in, inquiring about how much that particular issue is going for (and occasionally simultaneously wondering where their own copies may have been stashed away). As it happens, I’m currently out of stock on that issue, having recently sold through all my copies, but I inform them that my most recent price on that comic, in the sealed bag, in new condition, was $30. If you looked at that Twitter thingie I linked above, you’d have seen that I noted the general reaction was a slightly disappointed surprise, apparently at the fact that the price wasn’t much higher. Frankly, I’m surprised I can still sell them at that price…for years, back at the previous place of employment, we had ’em at $15 a pop, and even that started to creep up a small bit as we neared the end of my reign of terror there.

I opined in my Twitter posts that the “Death of Superman” issue, despite being sold in great numbers to people purchasing them as investments, likely suffered a sizeable attrition in sellable copies over the intervening decades due to poor storage, the kids getting at them, being peed upon by pets, whathaveyou. I know I’ve had several copies pass through the store in collections offered to me, only to pass on them because they were obviously wrecked. I knew I wrote about this on the site before, and it wasn’t even a year ago if you want to go back and read about this very thing in even greater detail.

In my view, then, at least locally, those bagged Superman funnybooks are getting harder to find in mint condition, so I feel at least a little justified in going $30 on them. I mean, I’m not getting much resistance at the price, and I’m out, so I guess that’s what the market will bear. I’m probably going to wait a while before that price scoots up any higher, though.

Oh, and at this late date, let me respond to Joe S. Walker’s comment there:

“How did you get on with all those copies of Teen Titans, The Falcon and the rest? Still got any?”

He’s referring to this, and I’m pretty sure my old boss Ralph got rid of all those in a massive back issue sale he made to another dealer. They’re Somebody Else’s Problem now!

Another topic brought up on Twitter that was discussed here on this site not too long ago was the 1980s black and white boom, mostly inspired by this tweet about my having a full run of Mark Bode’s Miami Mice in the shop. My primary reason for pointing it out was that I very rarely see later issues of the more obscure b&w boom indies of the period (assuming they had later issues…most were one Highly Investable Issue and done). For example, issue #1 and #2 of Miami Mice were familiar sights, but I can’t recall the last time I saw either #3 or #4. Of course, that’s because most people ordered heaviest on the first issues then slashed orders on the follow-ups so they could spend more money on other new first issues.

Like I say here, I wish I had more of a retailer’s eye view of the boom as it happened, though 30 years of comics-slinging later (tied together with having kept up with the comics press at the time) I have a general idea of what was going on. I just don’t have the memories of the stress of having to plow through the order forms of the time, trying to discern between people actually making an effort (like Bode’s Miami Mice), and people just cranking out shit to play the collectible market for some of that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-style mad money (like titles I could mention here, but won’t). But then again, I’d probably trade ordering comics then with having to deal with variant covers now. It’s always something.

3 Responses to “And somehow Mike gets another post out of the Death of Superman.”

  • Thelonious_Nick says:

    Geez, thirty bucks. Just a few years ago, I got a bagged copy as a freebie from online comics retailer Newkadia after a semi-large-ish order. Guess I should remove my copy from its current role as lining for the cat’s litter box in case I want to sell it to a comic store sometime.

  • Eric L says:

    OK, but was Radioactive Adolescent Black Belt Hamsters any good? The title sounds like a blatant rip off, but it seems to have lasted a while so maybe it had something going for it?

  • Dave Carter says:

    The comic I remember most from the B&W boom was Mark Martin’s Gnatrat. I recall quite enjoying it at the time (though may tastes may have been less discerning in those days…)