Informed Comic Book Speculation and Pop Culture News
So as we reported, ‘Hoax Hunters’ has been optioned for a movie deal. The back issue prices have been moving up nicely. But how many issues are there out there? Well Here you go. I do not have a solid number on #2 yet as it did not appear on the top 300 list for books shipped but it is an estimate. All in all, pretty low number for a Modern Comic.
#0 – 5,779
#1 – 6,973
#2 -4,000 (estimated)
#3 -4,404
Seems these announcements come out every day now, and when they do the market takes notice quickly. Steve Seeley’s Hoax Hunters has been picked up for a movie deal and prices are shooting up.
Issue 0 is closing in the $37 range. A set of 0-5 went for a best offer with an asking price of $75.
Issue 0
a href=”http://www.ebay.com/itm/161017536848?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
Issue 1
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161017562211?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
Issue 2
a href=”http://www.ebay.com/itm/151036925341?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
Check out the closed highlights here:
http://www.ebay.com/csc/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=Hoax+hunters&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc
‘Jupiters Legacy’ is the new Mark Millar and Frank Quitely superhero comic book coming out from Image Comics soon. There was much hype on this book and it was even featured highly on the Diamond Comics Advance Reorder List for 4/7/13.
http://comicsheatingup.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/diamond-comics-advance-reorder-4713/
The combination pre-release buzz and advanced reorders usually lead to speculation gold (or at least silver or bronze), but Image has killed any chances of this getting big on the secondary market. Sure, the publishers, artists and writers, do not care about books becoming big money makers on the secondary market, but the heat it can generate can lead to more people picking up future issues. Books like ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Chew’, ‘Saga’ and ‘Peter Panzerfaust’ all benefited from new readers picking up the books on the secondary market.
‘Jupiters Legacy’ probably will not reap the same rewards because of the distribution plan that they are using. The plan is this, retailers can order as many copies of the book as they like and return ones that do not sell as long as their order is above their ‘The Walking Dead’ 106 order. In other words, a retailer can order hundreds of copies, get all the variants, sell them at the inflated variant price, and return all the regular copies that do not sell. The total print run for ‘The Walking Dead’ 107 was in the 75,000 unit range. The total orders for ‘Jupiters Legacy’ is in the 150,00 range. This effectively kills the secondary market value on the regular covers, in fact this helps kill the variant market as stores who normally wouldn’t order so high on a new book have done so to get the variants, after all, they can return the unsold ones.
One way to gauge how hot a comic is/will be is by the Advanced Reorder list from Diamond Comics. This is a list of books being most reordered by retailers before the publication date of the comic.
This week is a weird one as speculation wise there is not too much. Uber dominates the chart this week for single issues.
1. Doctor Strange The Oath TPB
2. Uber #0 Enhanced Edition – This is the second printing of the hot sold out book. Avatar books are greatly under ordered and this one sold out due to the demand and the fact Kieron Gillen is writing it. The Enhanced Edition costs $1 more at $4.99 but features 60 pages.
3. Thanos Rising #2 – Thanos is popular with his appearance in The Avengers movie and all things Guardians of the Galaxy being hot due to the upcoming GoG Movie.
4. Superior Spider-man #9
5. Age of Ultron #2 2nd printing
6. Iron Man #9
7. Amazing Spider-man #700 4th printing
8. Polarity #2 Boom Studios- 1st Issue flew under the radar and sold well now retailers are trying to stock enough of the second issue. Orders usually drop from the 1st to 2nd issue of a book as many people try the first issue and may not continue to pick it up.
9. Wake #1 DC
10. Avatar the Last Air Bender TPB Vol. 5
11. Ten Grand #1 Image- This is the big speculator book of the list. JMS returns to monthly (single issue) comics with the launch of this book. Art by fan favorite Ben Templesmith.
14. Image Firsts Peter Panzerfaust #1 – Try buying a first print of PP for under $300 any more is almost impossible. There was a second print which also commands big bucks.
15. Regular Show Phantom Variant #1 Boom Studios- This is a must buy in any cover. Just look how well Adventure Time did.
25. Ten Grand #1 Bill Sienkiewicz Variant Image- See #11
Saga #12 drops tomorrow and there is already some controversy on it. Seems that Apple censors have banned the sale of it due to sexual content. Saga has been no stranger to sexual content in the past but this one apparently has graphic male on male sexual content. You can still buy this one in stores tomorrow. Saga back issues always do well and the added press it’s getting could help fire up the prices on the secondary market.
I read a lot of forum posts, and have seen a trend. People talk about going into stores looking for certain books (Saga, Peter Panzerfaust, Sixth Gun) and not finding the earliest issues. They often state that they had some of the later issues but passed them up. I am not talking about key issues in a run, but just other books in the series worth selling.
Why?
We all know Saga 1 and 2 are commanding big bucks, but, Saga 3 and up are pulling in multiples of cover price and worth flipping as well.
Here are some examples of non-#1’s going for good prices
Saga #3 $9-15
Saga #4 $10-15
Saga #5 $14-18
Saga #6 $6-12
Sixth Gun #10 $10-15
Sixth Gun #11 $7-11
Sixth Gun #12 $7-12
Sixth Gun #13 $7-14
Nowhere Men #3 $8-10
Nowhere Men #4 $5-8
Just an idea. Do not pass up the chance to buy earlier issues (if you come across them) to sell on eBay. A lot of my sales come from these “other” issues in the run.
One way to gauge how hot a comic is/will be is by the Advanced Reorder list from Diamond Comics. This is a list of books being most reordered by retailers before the publication date of the comic.
1. Age of Ultron #6 – This is Marvel’s current big event book. I cannot see too huge of a rise in some of the issues as so many copies have been printed. With Angela being introduced to the 616 it might be worth picking up.
2. Five Ghosts, Haunting of Fabian Gray #2 – Retailers missed out on ordering enough of the first issue but are upping their orders on the second. Did you get the first issue of this book? It’s good, really good. Showing movement on the secondary market already! Phantom Variant by Ben Templesmith to support it.
3. Batman #18 2nd Printing – Death of Robin fallout, worth picking up the first print if you can still find them.
4. Star Wars #1 4th Printing – The 1st printing saw brisk sales on eBay but has fallen off some with the subsequent reprints.
5. Five Ghosts, Haunting of Fabian Gray #1 2nd Printing – retailers did not order enough of the 1st print and now are covering for people who want this series. (When will retailers learn to up orders on talked about Image books?)
Other Notable entries:
7. Chin Music #1 – A new talked about #1 from Image (looks like they might be learning after all.) This is also another good speculation book as it has been talked about a lot and is being reordered in advance.
10. Miniature Jesus #1 – Another new Image #1 being reordered in advance. Also a speculator pick.
11. Peter Panzerfaust 10 2nd Printing – Hopefully the 1st prints will see an uptick in sales since it is sold out, has a small print run, and is in demand. This has been flat at cover price on eBay since it came out. (Partially due to the fact that “The Croc” was supposed to be introduced and wasn’t.
Well there you go folks. I hope this gives you something to think about and look for.
So our pick of the week, seems to be everyone’s pick of the week.
Why is this the pick of the week? It is a new Image book. It is written by fan favorite Jonathan Hickman (Manhattan Projects.) There has not been a lot of press on this book, but it did make the cover of previews.
There is a down side. Hickman stated in a recent interview the print run of this one would be 3x his largest Image book. That book was Manhattan Projects which had a print run of 18,000 books. That would place this book at roughly 54,000 copies if you take what he said literally.
Still, Saga was promoted more, and had a print run of 37,000 books. People still say “I wish I had gotten more copies of Saga.”
I, myself plan on picking up a couple of copies and holding a few in reserve.