The very enjoyable Your Mom’s Basement forum feels that it’s time to admit to some shameful purchases:
“What comics did you have way back when that were going to put your kids through college one day? Mutiple copies of Spawn number 1? X-Force number one with each card in that bag? Rai 0, the cornerstone of the valiant universe? Did you ever actually sell any of these and make a few bucks? I remember when I first started ‘collecting’ comics. I missed out on Superman 75 when it first appeared and a guy i knew told me he’d give me a copy for $25 bucks so I saved my lunch money for weeks to get it from him. At the time (The couple of months or so after it came out) it was going for up to a hundred bucks some times and every one knew it was going to be worth a mint one day.”
“Who among us didn’t buy a copy of Spider-Man #1? Or X-Men#1? or all four covers of X-Men #1? …seriously, tell me I’m not alone here.”
“Got all of the X-Forces, including an extra cable for me to open. I also have a bunch of those shit Wizard collectors cards, like Spawn and ShadowHawk.”
“The chromium ones? Those things can cut the shit out of you. I learned that the stupid way.”
“I sold the New Mutants issue with the first appearance of Cable for, like, 85 dollars. HUGE SUCCESS.”
“Anyone remember the big Liefeld signing at Jim Hanley’s in New York back when Image first started up? I went for my regular comics stash and came across a mob scene. The store owners ended up renting a vacant store next door to handle the crowd.”
Ahhh, the ’90s. Another world…
January 10th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I got about 2500 of them and they’re all going on ebay this Saturday. Search for Squashua in an auction.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
That’s so funny. I remember buying the silver, bagged edition of Spider-Man #1 all those years ago for $20 when I had heard reports they were going for up to $80. Now it doesn’t seem I can give it away – keep being told the market is lousy with them.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
It was so obvious, in retrospect – the thing that makes classic comics valuable is their scarcity. The stuff in the 90′s was being produced in record-setting numbers. Millions and millions of copies produced, and 90% of them shoved into plastic bags and preserved. Yet so many otherwise intelligent people bought into it. I’m sad to admit that I have a Spidey #1 and, until I finally threw it out, had a X-Force #1 as well.
My favorite was the X-Men #1 “limited edition” that sold about ten million copies. Apparently it was “limied” to the number Marvel could sell.
January 11th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Marvel UK published a series in the early 90′s called “DIE-CUT”. I’m guessing that Marvel UK’s execs figured that people in 1993 were dumb enough to buy a book just because it was *named* after a cover gimmick.
How silly is that?
Too bad Marvel UK folded in the U.S. before the spin-off “HOLO-FOIL” mini-series could come out.
Rob Liefeld probably had a knock-off series called “G.A.T.E.-Fold” in the works at the time.
January 11th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Almost forgot to mention my personal ’90s shame:
When I was a kid, I had a subscription to ‘Moon Knight’. My subscription ran out with issue #54 and I decided not to renew it (mainly because the book was horrible).
Moon Knight #55 came out and then a month later it was selling for $30 a copy.
I think I ended up shelling out $20 of my allowance money for a copy, and then sold it for $5.00 on eBay years later.
Story of my life.