November 2018 in Review – Part I

Welcome once again to the monthly review where we check the status of all the weekly picks and books we covered from the previous month. This time it’s for November 2018 Part I.

With these reviews, we find out how right or wrong we were, what we missed and what you can likely still find at cover price, likely at the local comic shop or at online retailers.

First things first, we start off with the top ten books from November based on Comichron print run totals.

1. Uncanny X-Men #1 – 176,125 (We knew this one was going to be huge).
2. Green Lantern #1– 113,651 (Way bigger print run than I anticipated)
3. Web of Venom Carnage Born #1 – 104,289
4. Amazing Spider-Man #10 – 103,636
5. Batman #58 – 94,930
6. Batman #59 – 93,029
7. Amazing Spider-Man #9 – 85,534
8. Heroes in Crisis #3 – 83,794
9. Avengers #10 – 77,715
10. Venom #8 – 74,584

November 7th Books

Deathstroke #37 Mattina Cover B – 30,734
This sold out at most online retailers quickly once listed. It’s a great Mattina Killer B and since it’s Deathstroke, it carries those smaller print runs as he’s not your normal 100k an issue type of character.

With a print run around the 30k mark though and these being open order Cover B, we just don’t know what the real print run is on this one. I can only attest that my own local shops seem to go heavier on Cover A while ordering much less of Cover B for DC books, sometimes even none at all.

This particular Mattina only reached a peak selling price of around $12 on it’s own. Seems some were having success in bundling the previous Deathstroke #36 Mattina variant for around the $20-$25 range. I guess that’s a good way to offload your books when you miss the initial peak selling time frame if you were waiting for them to arrive if you order online, etc.

Road of the Dead Highway to Hell #1 – 5,278

I’m surprised at the print run on this book but while it quickly sold out at most local shops and pretty quickly at online retailers, surprisingly Midtown has the regular cover A and B back online and available.

The pencil art variant from Cover A is not in stock and is likely the most desirable from this series. The RI variant reached as high as $25, some signed editions hit the $40 mark. Sets of both A and B were reaching as high as $20.

Not bad if were able to snag the RI at cover or for cheap. Could be a long term hold as well since the movie has not yet made it. If the movie ever comes to fruition, these could see some more demand causing the value to go back up.

Spider-Geddon #3 Cover B In-Hyuk Lee Variant – ??

This was a sweet looking In-Hyuk Lee connecting variant cover. I think this one was popular not only because it’s In-Hyuk Lee but with the new Spider Animated Movie coming out, people are seeking these out.

Sold at still at most online retailers.

This was open order to my knowledge so actual print numbers would be impossible to know but overall it was reported this issue had 51,546 total printed.

Seems you might be able to find these on the secondary market for cover price or less if you can justify most sellers shipping costs. Perhaps try to throw in a few extra books to justify the shipping overhead (of course for sellers that combine shipping). There was a few sold listings just slightly over cover price but I wouldn’t pay more than cover currently.

Star Wars Han Solo Imperial Cadet #1 Luke Ross Variant – 27,404

These are those ghost variants. The print run total was for all issues so the exact number for this ratio variant would be undetermined depending on the qualifications or if it was a straight up, buy X get Y type of ordering. Anthony the boss man needs to hook us up with a read-only Diamond account or something. Having access would be so beneficial.

Not a whole lot of shops are ordering to get these higher ratio Star Wars variants so that could be one reason that these are first, hard to come by and second, the small demand is causing the value to go up.

Only 2 listings currently and recent sales still puts this one at a $50 book.

It peaked at the $90 mark so if you got in early, this one was a great flip for some. The lowest recent sold was at $17.50 so that was a steal for whoever won that auction.

Punchline #1 – 1,497

One of the Antarctic Press books that is getting a log of buzz on the secondary market. This one quickly sold out likely due to the success of Rags but as it’s seeing some secondary sales success, has anyone even read this book? None of my shops got these and I have yet to obtain a copy to just simply check out.

Is it only getting success due to the other books from this publisher having success?

Despite it having such a small print run, those that got in early with this one likely saw success selling them. It’s sizzled off some after the hardcore collectors got their copies but it’s still a solid $20 book on average for Cover A. Cover B is seeing similar success, it’s prices are all over as a BIN sold at $25 while an auction ended at $42 on December 11th.

Sets of A and B were selling for $90 at their peak and if you were able to snag a copy of the Virgin Variant, it saw sales of well over a $100 on it’s own with a limited 100 print run.

Rags #2 – 1,255

Issue one was a huge success for the secondary market.

The 2nd print saw great success and those who had the self published books did really well until they established anyone can “print to order” the self published books.

Since then it seems the market as swung back in favor to the Antarctic Press published editions since that makes them harder to find and obtain with a really small print run of only 1,255.

The virgin variant which was limited to 200 saw sales of around $165 peak value on their own. The Silver Variant issue saw one auction end around the $103 price tag.

The regular Cover A saw sales peak around the $80 range on it’s own. This is a flippers dream so if you can find them still out in the wild, these are still selling well.

Trump Titans Space Force #1 Fake News Fake News Cover Variant – 516

This had 5 covers total.

Comichron reports 516 for it’s total print run.

It’s a wild guess but I’m gonna say this cover likely has around 100 or so total if these were open orders but it’s still not a guarantee.

Sales topped around the $10 range. So not a lot of success on the secondary market but I’m sure it’s a good entertainment read if you did grab a copy.

Transdimensional #1 – ??

This one didn’t even register onto the Comichron list for the month of November. So either that information was withheld or it was just too small to report.

Regardless, if you grabbed a copy, these are selling all over the place but I’d have to say it’s a $15 book on it’s median average of sales with top sales going for around the $20 to $22 mark.

Current listings have this from $10 to $20 with just a handful to choose from.

November 14th Books

Transformers Unicron #6 Francesco Francavilla Variant – 7,619

This is a must for any Francavilla fan.

Although they have not seen any crazy heat, one listing went for $40 and another for $30. A few others in the $20 range.

Francavilla has done a higher ratio variant for each of these issues. This would be a nice set if one were to grab all the issues. These are 1:10 ratio variants so they shouldn’t be too hard to find or obtain.

Weatherman #6 Opena Variant – 7,350

None currently listed and most sales averaging around $60 to $70, I’d say this one was a winner even if you paid the average retail price of $25-$30. For those that found it cheaper, this would have been a great flip.

With such a small print run, my guesstimate puts this one at 200 or maybe even less as I doubt most shops even ordered 25 copies to qualify for this variant.

This was a 1:25 ratio. You can still find all the other covers and even the 1:10 Chiang variant at most retailers.

Black Order #1 – 32,532

Cover A you can still find at most retailers while the JTC Cover B sold out quickly, along with the awesome looking In-Hyuk Lee variant that is still on fire with most recent sales.

The JTC Variant is in fact a really cool cover and did sell out rather quickly initially but most sales still puts this one as a cover price book. So if you missed out at the shop, you can likely find these for cover or still rather cheap on the secondary market.

If you missed out on the In-Hyuk Lee 1:50 variant, well, you’ll have to fork over some cash if you want this in your collection. This one is still a $75 or so book with the most recent sales. Will it cool off? It might but as time goes on, supplies will start to run dry making it even harder to find after those that are seeking them for the personal collection nab their copies and tuck them away.

Domino #8 – 21,050

This is an awesome Hyuk Lim variant and it’s a Cover A book. Sold out online and I couldn’t locate any at my local shops last visit I made, grab’em if you find’em despite them not being terribly expensive on the secondary market.

This is a solid $10 book on average. With other sales from cover to a few bucks over cover, not a bad pickup for an up and coming artist.

You have to really appreciate the detail in this art work. The details on the fabric of Domino’s shirt almost looks lifelike.

Unstoppable Wasp #2 Vecchio Variant – 9,475

Small print run with a 1:25 ratio variant usually results in really small available quantities.

I don’t know about you but I don’t see most shops ordering 25 or more Unstoppable Wasp issues since this is more a supporting character rather than a character that gets her own series.

Regardless, this saw some slight success. An auction ended at $20 while two others were $30 and up (one was a best offer taken listed at $59.99). All other available books are listed at $30 or more from a quick search.

Only the hardcore Wasp fans are likely to dish out the cash for this book or the Vecchio fans (which I must admit, I really dig his style as well).

Life Is Strange #1 – 7,589

Once again available at Midtown for $7 and they have all covers available. This did see some little success on the secondary market but it was brief. Most sales seemed to have averaged around the $5-$8 range.

One seller was lucky enough to dump a complete cover set for $100.

There was a Forbidden Planet variant that saw some success with a few at the $30 range but for the most part, you can find most of these issues at cover price or slightly over, besides the Forbidden Planet which there are very few seldom listing and most are sticking to the $30 or so price tag.

Friendo #1 2nd Print – 446

Such a small print run which made them pretty much non-existent at most shops, online and local.

This one quickly became a $15 book on the secondary market. Most sellers now have these listed starting at $7.99 to $10.

So now’s the time to grab this awesome homage variant if you missed out as it won’t break the bank.

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Stay tuned for Part II which will cover the rest of November month in review.