One Year Later: Spec Review for 7/27/16

By Shawn B. The One Year Later Investigator
What up CHUggernauts!?! Shawn B. back with another One Year Later round up, where we take a look at some of the comics that Anthony, Mel and Poyo specced on one year ago. Their specs turn out to be quick flips, slow burns, straight up misses, straight up winners and on and on. Sometimes they spec with their hearts out of their passion for comics. Sometimes they spec based on data. And sometimes they spec based off the word on the street. Either way, all their specs appeal to a few or many collectors whether it is due to them having similar taste in writing or art, or just an opportunity for a collector to flip a book and make money to “support their habit”. So, this is our weekly chance to look back at how some of our buys from a year ago are doing today. It was a pretty good week.
Winners

Animosity #1 – Anthony Pick
Original Value: $4 Current Value: $14
5 printings and 1 year later this is still hot. Was going for over $20 at one point. The B Cover was up to $40.

Kill or Be Killed #1 – Poyo Pick
Original Value: $4 Current Value: $8
4 printings, Image Firsts printing and 1 year later this one is also still hot. Was going for in the upper teens for a while. Poyo said it best. With Brubaker and Phillips….you can’t go wrong.

Hillbilly #2 – Anthony & Poyo Pick
Original Value: $4 Current Value: $8
Still popular. Was up to $10. My feeling is that this will climb again.
Near Misses

Walking Dead #157 Arthur Adams Connecting Variant – Mel , Poyo & Anthony Pick
Original Value: $3 Current Value: $3-6 Still available at Midtown
Whisperer War Part One. Certainly the start of a big arc in TWD series. This is a no brainer slow burn. Both covers.

Dishonored #1 – Anthony Pick
Original Value: $4 Current Value: $4 Still available at Midtown
This was a quick flip winner going for well above cover for a bit after release. Still potential down the road.
Misses

Civil War II: Kingpin #2 – Mel Pick
Original Value: $4 Current Value: $4 Still available at Midtown

Harley Quinn #1 Variant Bill Sienkiewicz Cover – Mel & Anthony Pick
Original Value: $3 Current Value: $3 Still available at Midtown.
This one is surprising. Even warranted a second printing of the B Cover. Quick flip was the way to go here but this could still be something down the road.

Invincible Iron Man #12 – Anthony & Poyo Pick
Original Value: $4 Current Value: $4 Still available at mycomicshop.com
Was sold out at one point. Riri meets Tony Stark for the first time. Could be a key issue later on depending on Riri’s popularity.

Suicide Squad #1 – Anthony & Poyo Pick
Original Value: $3 Current Value: $3
Sold out at some on line retailers. A couple for sale at mycomicshop.com. Personally, I really like the Lee Bermejo Variant. It’s bad ass and there are multiple completed sales for this one from $3-7.
Unspecced Winners – No Unspecced winners from this week. Uncanny Inhumans #12 Death of X Cover has seen a little heat but not enough yet to call it an Unspecced Winner.

21 thoughts on “One Year Later: Spec Review for 7/27/16”

  1. I still think animosity will get optioned. Too much going for it not to get picked up.

  2. I’ve seen Harley #1’s move for $4.95 plus $4 shipping that’s $9. The prophet margin for me at $9 after paying $2.61 to ship and $1.50 for the book when preordered. Profit $4.89 per sale or roughly 300% of the $1.50 to originally preorder the book. It’s all matter what you pay to start with.

    2. Impressive numbers. Especially if you are able to secure a 50% discount on the pre-order and also pay no tax while also getting free bags and boards. That 50% figure would put you at a small retailer level for the diamond discount. Shipping a book for $2.61 cost is also very impressive, especially if you factor in materials for packing etc. Not including eBay and PayPal fees is also a great idea to get to your profit level. I can’t be the only one doubting these figures.

      1. “That 50% figure would put you at a small retailer level for the diamond discount.”
        Small retailer level would be 35%. Between that damages, and Diamond’s ridiculous shipping charges, it practically feels like you’re paying retail…

      2. DCBS usually has a specific selection of books at 50% Off to non-retailers each month. And if you order enough books, the shipping cost is divided against so many books it is a minimal amount attributed. What I wonder is where the book is being sold that a cut of the cost doesn’t go to eBay and Paypal. eBay takes 12% across the top (including postage) and Paypal takes an initial 35 cents per payment automatically, plus 3%; last I checked. Even if you use other avenues, and don’t need to pay anything on the sale itself, you’re usually still getting dinged at least 40-50 cents by the payment service provider.

      3. I love DCBS. Other than not having FOC, it’s better in nearly every way (for me) than Diamond was the last couple of years I had an account.

      4. my shipping on 200 copies of Harley #1 was $12.95 including the rest of my order for the month from MMcomics. Shipping supplies are easy I save all comic shippers I receive in the mail. My attic is full of comic shippers lol. I buy way more then I sell.As for paypal fees I pay those ebay fees not so much if they are over $100 for the month I tank the account and start a new one since they dont have any of my real information attached to the accounts. Ebay has made enough off seller fees from me in this lifetime and after they ruined a $1600 sale for me by removing a listing of an already sold item which in turn made the seller back out and ask for a refund when there was no reason for ebay to remove the listing in the first place i wont give them a dime. i do have them bagged and boarded out of my pocket 4 books per bag. they will need to be individually bagged eventually.

        1. I reuse shippers too but as of lately have been burning through them. I buy 100 Gemini mailers for $60 shipped. It’s added into the shipping costs.

    3. I ordered some at 1/2 price too. Also Suicide Squad. I haven’t tried to sell one yet. Good thing on those Suicide Squads because Lee Bermejo is coming to Baltimore next month…. and I have 10 copies ready for him.

    4. How can a book be shipped for $2.61 .. ?? That’s a package weight of 4OZ max .. I’ve never had a properly packed book that weighed less than 10-11OZ .. ?? I do follow the USPS rules and ship First Class, not Media Rate ..

      3. Uncle Willie is correct. Comic books are not allowed to be shipped via media mail according to USPS rules. It clearly states that on their website. The USPS makes a distinction of what can and cannot be shipped via media mail. One of their rules states that anything that has advertisements does not qualify for the media rate. The original purpose for the media rate was to ship textbooks (which are obviously very heavy) to students as cheap as possible since they cannot afford regular weight shipping costs. People started taking advantage of the media mail rate and the USPS followed that up with “rules” as to what qualifies for that discounted cost.

  3. I’ve seen larger retailers secure a 60% discount. Today I talked with the manager of a smaller store (I guess “smaller” depends on our interpretations of scale) and they currently have a 54% discount. I’m not sure if there are significant regional disparities or deviations from the formula Diamond uses that would impact the discount levels. Perhaps someone else can shed light on this.

  4. Love seeing this article every week. Keep it up. I’m a big fan of Animosity, I think it’s a nice long term hold if the series keeps going.

  5. I got in on those harley 1s at mmcomics for 50% off too, no bags and boards but the came nice, and I chose the 1 month shipping option I came in around 1.75 for each delivered to my door.

  6. I love these year ago reviews. I started flipping books a little over 1 year ago, so these articles are helping me relearn some lessons about the market. Great read. Thank you. Hillbilly and Animosity are regular pulls for me now. I love both of those series.

Comments are closed.