How rare are high grade bronze comics?

[comicworkbench]

Having only a couple upper grade bronze age comics I wonder....

Are these comics really rare? I figure there are probably a few hundred thousand issues still out there with some 50 000 high grades for each bronze age comic. Any opinions or internet sites we can check?

Specifically, are Uncanny X-men #s 108-143 rare? Probably not, right? I love these comics and pick them up whenever I see them for a deal but have a set already. It is the collector in me that gets me buying extras.

[habib]

Having only a couple upper grade bronze age comics I wonder....

Are these comics really rare? I figure there are probably a few hundred thousand issues still out there with some 50 000 high grades for each bronze age comic. Any opinions or internet sites we can check?

Specifically, are Uncanny X-men #s 108-143 rare? Probably not, right? I love these comics and pick them up whenever I see them for a deal but have a set already. It is the collector in me that gets me buying extras.

Not rare at all. Late 60's and early 70's are when people started to seriously collect/speculate/invest in comics so there are many, many copies of most bronze.

X-Men especially were invested in in the late 70's and on so there would probably be more high grades of those than most other bronze comics.

That being said....an ultra high grade can still be an expensive book!

[Quato]

Having only a couple upper grade bronze age comics I wonder....

Are these comics really rare? I figure there are probably a few hundred thousand issues still out there with some 50 000 high grades for each bronze age comic. Any opinions or internet sites we can check?

Specifically, are Uncanny X-men #s 108-143 rare? Probably not, right? I love these comics and pick them up whenever I see them for a deal but have a set already. It is the collector in me that gets me buying extras.


X-Men was an instant success at issue #94, so by #100 everyone was ordering quite enough and multiples of that. A retailer in my area said that back then, they could order 200 of anything and it would sell out. Keep in mind that retailers back then purposely ordered to have backstock. Unlike now, most comic retailers then were in business for back issue sales and they ordered with the intent to have more than they needed. Collecting had really started to take off by that point so almost every copy was instantly protected.

Q

[Shadow-wolf]

Here are some articles regarding this topic, it seems some high grade bronze age books are rarer then most would think.

http://comics.gpanalysis.com/gpaforcomics_newsfocus.asp?article=article000003

http://comics.gpanalysis.com/gpaforcomics_newsfocus.asp?article=article000002

http://comics.gpanalysis.com/gpaforcomics_newsfocus.asp?article=article000001

[habib]

Thanks for posting the article Shadow....it was an interesting read.

I still believe that most bronze comics are very plentiful in high grade (maybe not CGC 9.8).

VF/NM or better to me is a very, very nice high grade book and there are a boat load of bronze out there to fit the bill!

[Quato]

Here are some articles regarding this topic, it seems some high grade bronze age books are rarer then most would think.

http://comics.gpanalysis.com/gpaforcomics_newsfocus.asp?article=article000003

http://comics.gpanalysis.com/gpaforcomics_newsfocus.asp?article=article000002

http://comics.gpanalysis.com/gpaforcomics_newsfocus.asp?article=article000001

Friends of mine that were collecting and quit.... they don't care about CGC Their precious gems are protected and locked in their closets. Also, that article references bronze age books from the early 70's. Collecting boomed in the mid to late 70's dramatically. There are quite a few out there.

[comicworkbench]

Thanks for the info and opinions.

Shadow-Wolf the articles where very helpful for me.
'X-Men 101… (6), but many in line for the next. 9.8s' Proves that there are quite a few bronze age high grades. It is nice to know there are a few gems out there.

[stupidman]

Thanks for posting the article Shadow....it was an interesting read.

GPA is for slabbed comics only, but Bronze Bruce is pretty objective.


I still believe that most bronze comics are very plentiful in high grade (maybe not CGC 9.8).

VF/NM or better to me is a very, very nice high grade book and there are a boat load of bronze out there to fit the bill!

I agree - 9.8 isn't high grade, it's super high grade . Anything 9.0 or higher is High Grade (I think some Slabbers lose sight of this). So yes, I also believe that most bronze comics aren't rare in high grade.

[boatfund]

ebay sellers shipping in manila envelopes with no cardboard will/have caused a shortage of high grade books even in moderns

[Big Daddy]

It also depends on the title. The DC 52 pagers are a little harder.

[disneyteddies]

While bronze issues in high grade are very nice they are no where near rare or scarce. There's a guy in town always has a small booth at the conventions with high grade bronze and while he only has about 40 of them with him, he does quite well...and they look GooooooD!

Something to be said for nice bronze books.

[jordanscott]

It also depends on the title. The DC 52 pagers are a little harder.

It seems fairly rare (for me, anyway) to find those 50, 60 or 100 pagers that don't have spine rolls, tears, bad wraps, etc.

Sweet books, though.

[Big Daddy]

I agree. Especially the HG GL Adams issues. When you do find them you'll pay a fair sum of cash for them.

[fastballspecial]

Your Bronze books that are rare in high grade are books like the following.

Late issue Western books were the print run was low.
Horror books toward the end of their runs when interest was low.
35 cent variants some still today have under 10 copies discovered and many might have only one or two above 9.0.

Its your fringe books that will have impossible to find high grade books and reprints. Last X-men copies like 85-93 when nobody was buying, Marvel Reprints titles that had short runs I recall a Thor title had like 12 issue or so cant remember title.

Your Horror, your Scooby Doo, your Sci Fi books like Dell Key had like Star Trek and Twilight Zone and such.

Super Hero books in high grade are easy to find until you get to your reprint titles and some oddball annuals and such. Anything that wasnt collected in the runs.
There are a few oddball Super Hero books tough in high grade. Usually a black covered book.

[Grico]

As is usually the case with collectibles you need things that had low print runs or were unpopular when they came out but now have a more dedicated fan base. Not Bronze Age books, but for one example the late issues of the 1980s GI Joe series had very low print runs when they came out but ended up being worth a decent amount when GI Joe got hot again in the early 00s and hard to find. I agree with fastballspecial and would add books that were targeted primarily at kids (i.e. toy tie-ins, cartoon books) not burgeoning collectors in the Bronze age are likely to be the scarcer bronze age books to find. The market they were sold to didn't keep them in good condition and dealers didn't then and still don't pay much attention to them and having them in good condition.

[vathgar]

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that even though higher grade copies of bronze age books are out there that they are slowly drying up and degrading. Finding VF/NM copies is not overly difficult but finding true NM or better copies is getting harder and harder as many of these have been shuffled around in dealer overstock boxes, alot of them unbagged/boarded for the last 30+ years and have general box wear and tear. Except for the most well stocked shops/dealers, finding significant quantities or runs of Bronze in NM or better is pretty tough.

This is starting to get more and more true for 80s stuff too. Not that they are not out there or that they are rare by any stretch but from what I have seen most of what is out there as high grade is VF/NM. Another thing to keep in mind is that the standard for NM has changed over the last 20 years, especially the last 10. What many folks have in their collections that they picked up in the 80s or 90s as NM are most likely VF or VF/NM. Still very nice copies but if you are talking about the strictest grading there are not as many NMs left as folks believe from what I have seen.

[oxbladder]

:rolleyes:
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that even though higher grade copies of bronze age books are out there that they are slowly drying up and degrading. Finding VF/NM copies is not overly difficult but finding true NM or better copies is getting harder and harder as many of these have been shuffled around in dealer overstock boxes, alot of them unbagged/boarded for the last 30+ years and have general box wear and tear. Except for the most well stocked shops/dealers, finding significant quantities or runs of Bronze in NM or better is pretty tough.

This is starting to get more and more true for 80s stuff too. Not that they are not out there or that they are rare by any stretch but from what I have seen most of what is out there as high grade is VF/NM. Another thing to keep in mind is that the standard for NM has changed over the last 20 years, especially the last 10. What many folks have in their collections that they picked up in the 80s or 90s as NM are most likely VF or VF/NM. Still very nice copies but if you are talking about the strictest grading there are not as many NMs left as folks believe from what I have seen.

Well this isn't any different that what Overstreet guide said for the 20 years or so. It is that they were and now aren't it is that they probably never were. IMO the grading standards have changed little some and most people are waking to the fact that NM isn't the standard off the rack and never was.

Does this mean that high grade bronze books are rare? Absolutely not. High grade bronze are common if your concept of high grade remains 8.0 to 9.2 if high grade is now only 9.4 to 10.0 then yeah everything is rare. :roll:

As well the reason for the "dry up" isn't only because of dealers moving stock around it is because people have bought them. While some people were concentrating on snapping up high grade silver and gold or the newest variants (or just new titles in general) there have been a large number of collectors methodically buying up most of the highest grade stuff.

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[Matthew_tx]

:rolleyes:

Well this isn't any different that what Overstreet guide said for the 20 years or so. It is that they were and now aren't it is that they probably never were. IMO the grading standards have changed little some and most people are waking to the fact that NM isn't the standard off the rack and never was...

I find this statement strange. I absolutely agree with Vathgar; in my opinion, it's unquestionable grading standards have become more strict in the last 20 years. I wish I could remember the specifics, but I believe there was an interview in the comic buyer's guide in which the Overstreet folks were talking about the impact of CGC on grading starndards - and how grading had changed. I specifically remember the phrase of "political solution" being used (referring to finding a middle ground on what had been traditional grading standards and "new" grading standards). If anyone remembers this discussion/interview, etc. please help me out.

[Hepcat]

Friends of mine that were collecting and quit.... they don't care about CGC Their precious gems are protected and locked in their closets. Also, that article references bronze age books from the early 70's. Collecting boomed in the mid to late 70's dramatically. There are quite a few out there.

I agree. There are tens of thousands of particularly Marvels out there from the mid-seventies on that could be graded 9.8s on any given day, and of course on other days they could only be graded 9.4s. To the casual observer they'd all look to be right off the stands.

#wolverine#

[Hepcat]

Not that they are not out there or that they are rare by any stretch but from what I have seen most of what is out there as high grade is VF/NM. Another thing to keep in mind is that the standard for NM has changed over the last 20 years, especially the last 10. What many folks have in their collections that they picked up in the 80s or 90s as NM are most likely VF or VF/NM. Still very nice copies but if you are talking about the strictest grading there are not as many NMs left as folks believe from what I have seen.

Keep in mind though that were these 8.5s from the eighties instead books from the sixties, CGC would grade them as 9.2s. Were they from the forties, they'd be 9.6s. CGC has championed the old shyster's mantra "Well it's mint for its age".

There's no shortage of books from the seventies that look to have never even been read.

#oldie#