Owning a comic shop comes with a pretty groovy set of perks. One of the biggies being that it allows us to purchase collections of comic books, statues, figures, Pops, and other collectibles from folks looking to exit for various reasons. Now most of the time, people walk in with mostly junk or low value items. Once in a while, there’s some tasty and delicious stuff. But every blue moon, we strike gold and find treasure. This is one of those stories.
So a few weeks back, a gentleman popped in with 4 books. Usually when I see someone holding a few books to sell, I prepare myself to politely crush their dreams as I flip through the pile of “pure meh”. Before he shows me, he goes on about the fact that these were sitting in a garage for decades. Apparently his pops used to own a shop that closed in the 90’s, and these have just been collecting dust with thousands of others for a large portion of my lackluster life.
He handed em to me, and I started to flip. This all took 4 seconds in real time, so I’m breaking it down here for the theatrics.
First book…solid. Decent shape. Always a regular seller, but nothing that I’m going to get super excited about as I already have several copies in various shape at the shop already. It’s a Marvel Star Wars #1 from 1977.
Next on the list was a copy of Marvel’s Silver Surfer #1 from 1968. This one gave me a slight chub. I don’t have this at the shop currently, so I was suddenly intrigued and now wanted the collection. Every-time I’ve had this book in the past, it sells itself fairly quickly. He now had my attention.
Oof…bad choice in the third book. Valiant’s X-O Manowar #0. This book came out when I was only a few years into collecting funny books way back in 1993. While it has one of my favorite gimmicky covers (Chromium) of that time, there are a gazillion of em in circulation and line bargain boxes across the planet. Total dud.
Now for the eye opener. I had to actually do a double take which probably looked like I had a bad twitch or something. Reason being is in nearly 16 years, I’ve never had a copy of this come through my shop’s doors. I personally own a copy that sits in my retirement pile, but never had one ever the shop. That’s because this beauty from 1963 is a monster of a book…or a mutant of a book. That’s more appropriate when discussing Marvel’s X-Men #1!!!!
I mean…HOLY SHIT!!! this is one of the OG Silver Age keys. 1st appearance of Magneto, Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Professor X…it doesn’t get much more hard core than this badboy. Now…I’m sold on this weird and randomly picked lot.
I asked him what he was looking for and he weirdly kept harping on the Star Wars & X-O. So I told him I wasn’t interested in those 2, but definitely the others. He named a price and I didn’t even try to wheel & deal. I went into the safe, yanked out cash, and…
He said he’d be back with more soon but hasn’t been in since. Hoping he makes his way back with more as a shop that closed 3 decades ago could be sitting on some amazing treasures. Regarding the X-Men, it’s in lovely shape. Definitely prettier than my copy. It’s got some slight chipping on the front cover but it’s stunning. I’ll be pressing it and sending it in for grading sometime in the next couple weeks. Really eager to see what grade this hits. Is it a 4.0? 5.0? 6.0?????? I have no idea but even at a 4.0 (I think it’s most definitely much higher), that’s a $10k book. Realistically I’d think this could land anywhere between $10k - $20k at current market values. Definitely more if and when the MCU introduces the X-Men into the mix.
We ended up selling the Silver Surfer the next day to a regular for $400. It wasn’t perfect and had a big tear, but was ultimately still together and in tact and looked good. Solid deal for both of us, and helped lower my overall cost on the real prize which was the X-Men.
The strange part to this was that 3 days after this, another unrelated gentleman came in trying to sell some books, and in his stack…another X-Men #1!!! Sadly we didn’t score that one as we felt he was aiming too high and overvaluing the condition. But man…16 years with no copies entering our space just to have 2 walk in within 3 days. Life is strange indeed…
Blewitt
