I used to work as a comic shop in high school and the amount of times I ruined someone’s day by telling them that death of Superman still in the black bag is worth nothing
@@noway2009it is worth 30 dollars? Going up, i have 50 of them bagged in mint condition. When they get 50 bucks i'm grading them all. I would accept 3k for the 50 lot.
As someone who's worked with a comic store for about 5 years now, I have to say almost every book that's based on a movie, sports, or video game. Seen many come through and had to break the news that they were worth about 10-25 cents each.
as someone who collects the weird and unpopular I also really hesitate to pick up licensed comics beyond Franchises I really like (or just really strong Licenses like Transformers which I think is probably at its best in comics)
The most uncollectible comic I've ever seen was way back in 1992 when I was working in a Sydney comic book store. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was the comic to have. Then it wasn't. We ordered dozens of copies. I went into the comic store I worked at when I was in Sydney again back in 2007. I checked the back issue bin. There were still dozens of copies of Turok for 50 Australian cents.
I stopped by a hole-in-the-wall vintage store to see if they had any comics. I was pointed to a corner of the store and saw about 5 or 6 long boxes just waiting to be gone through. I was so excited! Imagine my crushing disappointment to see that they were 95% Valiant titles. :/
The crazy thing about all the Valiant books is they have probably aged better than most of the mid to late '90's books. It's just that most people aren't familiar with the characters and Valiant art is solid but not jaw dropping.
@@jameydunne3920 I liked the Valiant stuff myself. I've picked up the omnibus editions as they've released them. As you said nothing jaw dropping but stories were decent enough. Looking forward to the Eternal Warrior omnibus too
Flawed, but I liked it. It felt a little like the Marvel Winter Soldier story that I really wanted but didn't get. I heard there was a sequel in the works, and was curious how they would build on the first one
I bought a silver age key online and it was packed amongst a stack of Ultimate Fantastic 4 books for protection instead of something like a Gemini mailer
Love Micronauts - far more deep than any toy comic needs to be. Which came first - Micronauts or Star Wars, so many similarities: the force/the enigma force, Darth Vader in black Armour with "magic powers" / Baron Karza in black Armour with magic powers. Princess Leia/Princess Mari etc
I was a small time dealer back in the late 80s and early 90s. once people caught on to the early Valiant issues that had ridiculously low print runs (harbinger 1 = 30,000) speculators began ordering quantities of the books and then the crash. in ending, you can add the Malibu titles to the list.
true. which shows how much the market has changed. a friend of mine has a shop and his $ in sales have been somewhat constant over the years, even though the cover prices have increased, so numbers have been going down@@davidallen8891
I really liked a lot of the early valiant stuff, solar was really a good read for awhile espcially with the Barry Windsor Smith art. Shadow Man 1 had one of the best covers of the 90s
@@ImagineNationInk Is "secondary market" a common term, because it works as a descriptor for stuff like that? Minor titles/second tier - I've seen. Like X-Factor/New Mutants/DC equivalents.
@@joshuaclark1930 “Secondary market” essentially means reselling something after the initial publication/release. For example; eBay, garage sales, thrift stores, dollar bins, etc
Back issues are so over-priced most of what I buy these days comes out of the dollar bin, just hunting for cool stuff, stuff to trade and the occasional under-priced gem.
The first 8 issues of Ravage 2099 are actually pretty good (those are the issues primarily written by Stan Lee and I actually enjoyed them). Only the first 8 issues are worth checking out. When Stan finally leaves, the series falls apart very freaking hard starting with issue # 9. Stan's replacement decided to throw almost everything into a metaphorical toilet and flushed it hard and ruined the character (Ravage got mutated, grew horns out of his head and became a beast man mutant thing, and several parts of the overall story got ruined and / or flushed down the toilet. It got REALLY bad). Strangely, The series lasted till issue # 33, but honestly the main thing that was keeping it alive after Stan left were the 2099 crossovers like "Fall of the Hammer" which crossed over into all the 2099 books (I remember buying later issues of Ravage ONLY because it was part of a crossover of some sort), smaller crossovers like Punisher 2099 showing up in Ravage, and especially the lead up to the super massive 2099 crossover called "One Nation Under Doom" (which actually caused major permanent changes to happen in all the 2099 books). If it wasn't for Ravage being tied in so heavily with the 2099 in general, it wouldn't have lasted 33 issues. Anyway, by issue # 33, they cancelled Ravage permanently by having him play a significant role during "One Nation Under Doom". Overall, Only the first 8 issues are worth checking out (the Stan Lee issues are pretty good). The rest of the series (which is NOT good) is ONLY recommended towards people who are OCD about reading the entire 2099 universe and just need to know every little thing about it.
@@johnpenguinthe3rd13 I disagree that the good part of Ravage is the Stan Lee part. Stan epically shit the bed for 8 issues. The sweet spot with that series is 9 when Pat Mills takes over until about 23 when Mills jumps the shark.
I found a stack of Elflord 1st and 2nd series dumped on the street and it was about to rain. Not sure if they are unwanted or hard to move but I couldn’t let them die a horrible death in the rain.
I've been trying to collect a full run of Elflord for around 25 years but there are still certain issues I can't find. It's weird, I can find hundreds of copies of certain issues for next to nothing, but others are impossible to track down.
As a massive Captain Marvel fan, I don't know why they decided to push her by making her an unlikeable crazy person in civil war II. I feel like that really damaged the character for a while
I recall trading in a bunch of Valiant comics for in store credit and getting the reply, "Oh, I can fill my bird cage with these." Yeah, safe to say I didn't get much.
Yeah, listening to youtubers or "hot spec key" websites about "investment" has lost a lot of people their shirts with 2022 MCU spec for example. (That said I thought Bloodlines, new 52 Superman, Civil War II are not worth 50 cents as someone who reads comics and doesn't look at them like stocks.)
John sable freelance. Literally picked a full run out of 10 cent bins all at once, from the same location. Still had 2 more 3/4 complete runs of it still in them when I was finished
I collected a bunch of these when they were current along with a lot of other titles that are probably in the 10 cent bins: Nexus, American Flagg, Camelot 3000, Amethyst, Arion, Dalgoda and so on.
Marvel's New Universe. The only comics that I ever chucked into a recycling bin. I had runs from #1 onward of each title, which were part of a collection I bought in the '90s. I've seen them in boxes for 10 for a $1 & they don't go!
I guess it’s tangentially mentioned here by Valiant’s entire 90s run. I believe Valiant’s mastermind Shooter was behind that essentially cold run to the Valiant universe.
Only two of the titles of the New Universe were interesting (Starbrand and DP-7), the others... not so much. Honorable mention to Nightmask at the beginning though.
@@jonothanthrace1530 I believe you are referring to the Marvel Epic Shadowline where Terror was called Shrek and was an enemy of St. George. Easy to get the two confused cause they were very similar, Shadowline and the New Universe
The X-Force run by John Francis Moore is pretty awesome though, sort of a spiritual successor to Claremont's New Mutants run where the characters are now angsted out twenty-somethings.
I second this. Moore's run was really solid and once Pollina came on for the art they meshed really well on storytelling. Moore is really an under appreciated writer in my book. His Chronos book for DC only lasted like 12 issues but was a sleeper hit for me back in the 90s.
That X Force run,especially the issue in the thumbnail,is what got me back into comics. Absolutely loved it and still do. Pollinas art was incredible and so was Jimmy Cheungs when he took over. Probably the best run X Force ever had outside the X Statics stuff.
Their are a few runs of books I collect that hold no monetary value, just love the books. It's great because the runs are very cheap to finish. But I have found that trying to finish a graded 9.8 run of them is almost impossible because these books have been sitting in dollar bins for over 20 years and haven't been taken care of.
I didn't buy into the Valiant hype at all, but I did spend a lot of money on CrossGen comics. It's fun to talk to the creators about it today, though, since it was a unique operating model.
I picked up two Bloodshot #1’s back in the day because the guy at my LCS at the time, said, “this is going to be a hot book.” I was new at collecting and thought, “what a good investment.” Today, I’m seeing the same book in the dollar bins.🙄
@@GhostRiderSpiritOfVengeance an antique mall in my area has a stack of both Cabel #1 and Bloodshot #1. I was debating on buying them all and throwing them up on ebay.
I must be one of those weird people, most of the books no one wants are usually what I buy the most of. I love digging through the bins of comics no one else will buy because of no resale value. Since always being that poor kid who couldn't afford new comics. The bins have always been my special place.
I collect easy listening orchestral L.P.s from the 1950s-60s. Abundant and cheap in thrift shops because nobody wants them. Also usually in good condition because folks who bought them originally didn't listen to them either.
I think those Superman books in 2004 that Michael Turner was associated with still have interest. I believe he wrote or co-wrote those 6 issues between Action, Adventures of, and Superman.
Books that nobody wants. I have 100 Red Sonja 50 Evil Ernie 50 Lady Death Comics mint condition, and I can't give them away. I was hoping to trade for a loaf of bread at this point.
I really enjoyed this video, You made some very valid points. I was collecting Superman in that era, and it was pretty vanilla for the most part. P.s I too see alot of valiant in the discount bin but they were the fist company I saw that did reflective foil covers and it blew my mind as a kid
@@xhagast the sad thing they had some interesting characters like Prime who was a less angry Rage (another forgotten gem from the 90s) or even Nightman had a brief proto CW show.
I'm old enough to remember in the mid-90s when GI Joe and Transformers comics were back issue poison.Then all of a sudden everyone wanted them again (though Special Missions and Transformers: Generation 2 are still pretty cheap per my experience).
This should have been titled the "Land of Misfit Toys" books. Lol... Also, it's hilarious how many of these books took art homage from Rob Liefield's art style. Thor, Xforce etc. fun stuff though. True story, my buddy went to his LCS, and staid he'd take all the books in the .50 bin for $25 (I think he figured out it was closer to $50 in "value". LCS owner took him up on it, and then he carefully cut the covers off all of them, and then epoxied them into a bar top he was making for a client who had a superhero themed home bar (Big DC guy supposedly).
NOBODY buys old Defiant comics back issues. It’s a damn shame too because Shooter,Ditko and Claremont worked on em and they were actually pretty good early 90s books
When you're right, you're right. I went to my LCB this past Saturday, and there were three and a half long boxes full of X - Force. All of the issues were issues 16 and above. I know because I was looking for issue 15.
Cool that you mentioned Valiant, but another deep cut nineties company/imprint is Now Comics. I have a few myself, they seemed to do mostly licensed properties. Green Hornet, the Twilight Zone, Terminator, they even had a Married With Children comic!
So I'm actually collecting bloodlines with 4 left to go. As for all the valiant comics from the original run I only have 50 comics left to get including the valiant voice. I believe people sleeping and not buying valiant now will come back on them years from now since it is a small enough universe it has a golden era comics feel to it. Yes they over printed a bunch of issues but who can honestly say they finished an entire run of a comic company these days. They were 3rd behind DC and Marvel for a reason. Give it time eventually they will be collectable again.....I hope lol
I used full runs of 90's valiant when I was learning to make custom bonds. To this day one of the larger comic shops in Pittsburgh had about 80 copies of Eternal Warrior #1 in the dollar bins.
Maybe do a video about stuff like Elfquest or Groo, just as examples of titles that kind of started out amazingly and then just went to shit. And I have 30-40 of both of those comics.
I go through dollar bins all the time. When I was in Pensacola FL one of the comic shops had all Mystique comics from 2003 (except #1) for a dollar. I been collecting X-Factor out of dollar bins now I just need 52 issues to finish the run. Back in the late 80's I found AMS#31 in a 25 cent bin. I also found a lot of Spectacular Spider-Man in the 25 cent bin back then. Recently in my LCS I've been finding Fantastic Four vol.1, Captain America vol.1 & 2, Avenger vol.1 and The New Avengers in the dollar bin.
I remember when Valiant comics first started coming out. I read Magnus and Solar with a little skepticism and the stories were really good. Then I expanded to other Valiant titles and the stories were awesome (to me at least). I eventually stopped getting a few books from DC and Marvel and got pretty much everything from Valiant. I loved those stories and for the most part, the art was amazing. I even started buying old Gold Key versions of Magnus and Solar. I was hooked and now it seems that re-selling comics is more important than reading them and the fact that Valiant comics dominate the 50 cent to a dollar bin, means that still not many people are buying them. If you really want something to read, check out the old Valiant books from the 90's.
This. I just wrote a comment relating this. Granted, Valiant was greatly helped getting noticed being that the Wizard crew hyped them to kingdom come, and they were competing against Image, Marvel (I believe post-Claremont) and DC. Image was just that, all about looks and not so much coherent storylines. Marvel and DC had just lost their powerhouses when Image came around, right after shifting into the “image is all that matters” idea of comics. Leaving Valiant to develop stories. So I’m glad to hear they didn’t keep their value, as I’d love to pick them up whenever I make it back to the States.
i remember that morbius comic was one of my favorite series along with ghost rider, till some friend of my grandma said there is torture, serial killers, drugs and monster rapes in this comic and suddenly my entire collection was gone over a couple issues of morbius being on the coffee table when my grandmas friends from the va hospital came over. really one of the things that pushed me into the streets as a small child. my comics and cartoons were the only reason i wasnt joining gangs and shooting gangs before i was 10. after that i was all about getting into problems in the ghetto. i wonder if they realized the damage they were doing to my future by criminalizing lame marvel comics.
I’m surprised Wolverine: Agent of SHIELD didn’t make the list. My old LCS had an entire LONG BOX full of the first issue. They couldn’t even give them away!
I had taken a break from collecting for college when Bloodlines hit -- those issues that I picked up for my Titans, Legion, & Justice League collections were solid reminders that sometimes we just collect to complete our runs.
A comic book store near me USED to be jammed so tight that the whole place was considered an OSHA and fire code violation. They were forced tp do a 75% off sale or the city safety inspectors were going to shut them down. Even then NOBODY was buying Groo the Wanderer. Okay, everyone but me. I think I walked out of the store with about half the Marvel run of the series for under $20. I would have bought duplicates of the ones I already had but because it was a sidewalk sale, they could not take debit or credit cards and that was as much cash as I had on me.
Sadly, everything you said about the 90's Valiant comics is true as almost no one seems to collect those issues hardly even the key issues. The same could be said for the most part about the early Image titles of that same era. I don't see anyone clamoring for the original runs of Wildcats, Youngblood, Savage Dragon, or even Shadowhawk. The only series from that era that holds any value is the early Spawn books. The one thing I will say is that at least with the Valiant's they are very hard to find especially in high grade as they had much lower print runs than the big publishers at the time. It took me a long time to find a high grade copy of Harbinger #1 and I ended up getting it at what now seems like a pretty reasonable price. I pressed, cleaned, and then submitted it to CGC and it came back a 9.6. Now I am on the look out for a copy of X-O Manowar #1 in high grade.
I've been looking for a clean Shadowhawk 1 newsstand edition for years. I usually pick up the Savage Dragon books because I think they're a good read. Larson doesn't get respect he deserves for that or his work on ASM and SM.
@@jmpw005 I've been searching for all six of the Image launch titles in Newsstands and so far I have Cyberforce 1 and Shadowhawk 1. I am still looking for the others but I think that Shadowhawk 1 is the hardest one to find in high grade, I just got lucky to score one.
@@jthomascruz4890 Good luck finding the rest. I was able to get a high grade newsstands of the titles I liked. Someday I'll get that Shadowhawk #1 to go with my #2 & #3 newsstands.
A lot comics from the 80s, 90s to early mid 2000s were real good and fun to read. Unlike comics today where everything has to be politically correct and woke. It's why I stop collecting comics made in the 2010s till now.
Y'know... As a teen in the 70's... I had a big collection. Lots of #1's. Marvel. DC. Charlton. Atlas..(+ others). Nova#1. Kamandi#1, OMAC#1. Hercules #1. Champions#1 Plus hundreds of issues from my subscriptions to DC and Marvel main characters. Ah... I miss my comics. Probably be worth something today.
I will happily take the Morbius, all of the bloodlines, Thor and Eternal Warrior. I love Valiant comics, just bought Ninjak 1-7 at an antique shop last weekend.
I always found Darkhawk and Moonknight books in the $1 bins. My 1st comic I ever bought was Moonknight vol. 1 #17 and I loved it. I bought so many #1s that I was able to get so many great trades when he started to become more popular. Darkhawk hasn't gotten his jump into popularity. They've tried to push him here and there. I keep hoping he'll get a new run that stays longer than a miniseries.
From what I've seen, people will still fork over a bit for some pre-Unity classic Valiant era books. Usually not stupid money, but enough where putting them in the dollar bin would likely be a loss for the comic shop. Solar 1-10, Harbinger 1-5, Rai 1-5, the first few issues of X-O, etc. It's the post Unity/post Shooter stuff that really sits, which is a shame in some cases as there were still some good books running (Magnus, Shadowman) until Acclaim bought out the company. What's sad is history's pretty much repeated itself with the current Valiant universe\Dinesh ousting. I swear the characters are cursed. It's interesting to see Morbius #2 listed here. I remember the first 12-18 months of that book being pretty solid, at least until Ron Wagner left. It was probably the best take on the character I've read, though I gave up on Marvel years ago. Most of the other Midnight Sons early 90s books outside of Ghost Rider were pretty weak from the get-go.
Great video and list James!! X-Force issues that can be found in the dollar bins that are worth $3 -$5: #25 hologram card cover, #38 foil cover, #47 Deadpool on cover, story and for Deadpool collectors, #50 X-Force vs Cable, foil and for Cable collectors and #56 Deadpool on cover, story and for Deadpool collectors! Yes Valiant comics are constantly i the dollar and under bins….!
I didn't read Valiant comics back in the day, but then again, I was off comics in the early 90's. More because I was finishing college and had no money than the quality of the comics. I more or less discovered the company in their new incarnation and really loved some of the titles. I've picked up a few of the older trades and the stories are definitely enjoyable, but not something I gravitate towards in the cheap bins.
When I was a kid (late 90s) my dad got me a huge grab bag of comics for Christmas and it was loaded with Ultra, Malibu, Topps and Wildstorm comics (like Prime, Shadowhawk, The Fly, Extinction Event, The Strangers, etc). In hindsight, it was a lot of random miniseries, but those were technically the first comics I read. I didn't read "new" comics until Marvel's Ultimate titles were underway. I've never gotten the impression they were worth anything to anyone.
(29.02.24) Actually people still collect to read...but personal tastes change. From 1983 to 1989/90, I was a hardcore 'Marvel Zombie' getting every (non-licensed only, save for the reg Star Wars title) Marvel branded comic - then I got disillusioned by Mutant Massacre and Fall of the Mutants and switched to Batman after selling off most of my Marvel books. Even now I cull my collection every now and then.
I’ve been trying to sell all my number 1’s from the new 52 at a crazy low price and nobody wants them. We’re talking about like 20 issues for under 15 bucks in mint condition.
Do any of the old Valiant comics hold their value. My brother read Eternal Warrior growing up (we were big Valiant heads), and maybe 7 years ago I bought the entire run of HARD Core for like 50 cents a pop. Read through them once, and chucked them. You truly can’t go home again.
Eternal Warrior 4 is still a key that has been a mainstay of all Valiant books that used to have a good value, but has dropped recently quite a bit. In the 90's, issue 9 was a key but now is $1 bin fodder. The last issues of Valiant are STILL hard to get & fairly expensive.
I do the odd comic show and sell comics out of my garage two or three times a summer, and amazingly enough, I got rid of a lot of Image and other 90s independent crap these past couple years in my dollar bins. I couldn't believe it either, but it does happen. Had a guy pull out a chunk of Ultraverse this summer and I almost dropped my coffee.
Malibu's Ultraverse was a tragedy. I LOVED it, I have most of it. For three years Mantra's a$$ was in every comic in the lists of back issues for sale. Then the collapse of the industry in the 90s Marvel buys it and runs it into the ground. It is SO forgotten that even when they do multiversual travel they never go there.
It's funny, because Valiant was super popular in the 90's, and a lot of the back issues went for big bucks. It was pretty much my favorite comic company when it was in its heyday, and I still have complete runs of a lot of the titles like Ninjak, X-O, Eternal Warrior, Bloodshot, Archer and Armstrong, and etc. The company made a huge mistake when they forced out Jim Shooter. He was the driving creative force behind the entire line, and once he was gone the quality of the comics quickly went downhill and then shortly after that Valiant was history.
Same here. I have most number 1s and some 0s. I acquired Harbinger 2 sometime in 92. Early 93 I was told by my LCS it was valued around 75 bucks. I thought I had struck gold and stored them in a nice place.
I love Superman 2003-2011, which works out great for me because they're very affordable. In fact, I recently picked up a NM copy of Superman 204 (Jim Lee cover) for a buck! So everybody PLEASE keep ignoring that era, thanks! 😎
I'll take them over new 52 Superman anyday. New 52 Superman sucks on toast, that to me is when Dan Didio got his cold greedy as hell hands on Superman.
@@jakeproven256 I totally agree. Those N52 Superman are dirt cheap too because nobody wants them. The 2000's were awesome for Superman IMO. We had Busiek, Rucka, Azzarello, Loeb, and Johns runs during that time. Shoot, Richard Donner even got in on the action. If you ask me that decade of Superman is criminally underrated. But whatever, cheaper back issues for us.
That’s what happens when you have an ultra powerful hero and he’s been around for years: you run out of things to do with him. I feel like once he died, he should have comeback with old golden age Superman powers and worked to earn back his modern Superman abilities (kinda like a goku kaio Ken to super saiyan and beyond type of thing). I mean he was fizzling out in the 50s and they didn’t know what to do anymore so they had to introduce new things like kryptonite and brainiac and the like. That’s where Superman has always shined as a comic: when he fights villains with superior minds not brutish villains because there’s no way they can win. It’s almost like an inevitability for Superman to win and for him to be interesting as a character again, he needs to take a lot more losses. That’s why the movie man of steel was so controversial amongst comic fans. Superman doesn’t kill but you made him do so when the more interesting story is let him stick with his principles and have to live with the fact that Zod killed someone and Superman didn’t kill him to stop him. That’s what would’ve made a better sequel. It’s not how Superman deals with his powers it’s how his powers and his villains gallery affect those who are around him. When there’s a Superman writer who understands that we will have an awesome Superman run on our hands.
great video, nothing really to add as I am currently facing the opposite putting my walking dead run together, seems any issue under 100 is at LEAST $10 cdn lol I almost started putting a IDW turtles run together before I saw THOSE prices sheesh, who knew modern filler issues could get so expensive!
Cool to see someone talk about this subject. After my real collection got stolen and sold, I started collecting only comics that were worthless - usually if they were LESS than the cover price I would collect them. Also, I speciallized in "number zero" comics. It turned out to be a super fun thing to do. Radio Shack comics were the ones I ran into the most - my ideal worthless comic, just a total advertising to kids piece of crap. But yeah, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, and lots of actual real comics are such stinkers they're less than their original cover price. Black LIghtning number one was worthless, which I always thought was kind of unfair - he's a pretty cool hero. Another fun thing is getting the ones with yard sale prices written across them in marker. Oops! That one can now earn a place in my collection. I was sort of surprised how well it satisfied my little urge to collect things. It's not the monetary worth - at least not entirely. I have a bro who collected ALL of those little plastic NFL helmets, by buying them from a vending machine. It took him years to get them all. He has them in a little shadow box display, and it's gotta be one of the coolest collections I've ever seen. He has the divisional and pro bowl helmets in there. Unbelievable. Beautiful.
I didn’t buy the old Valiant books at cover price but I’d grab them from bargain bins because there were some very good stories among the titles. Oddly enough I think I only found 1 Ninjak during that period but plenty of Archer & Armstrong. No Image comics made this list? A lot of their early titles were overprinted garbage. I have a huge collection because I enjoyed them, especially Stormwatch. Maybe they are so worthless that they aren’t even mentioned anymore. I have a collection of 50k comics of assorted publishers that I bought between 1975 and 2005 that I’m now looking at parting with. From collector to seller and I’m clueless, so thanks for the videos. I like to understand what I’m doing before I do it.
Greg Capullo drew X-Force 15-25, before moving on to Spawn & Batman. One might say those are worth collecting, especially if you can get them on the cheap
#25 is also the Fatal Attractions crossover issue, and there are a couple of others that are parts of crossovers or have gimmick covers in the run that people definitely cherry pick. That applies to pretty much every nineties X-Men spinoff.
That’s before he became incredibly amazing and super talented (he had to crank out thirty issues of spawn to get his chops. Now he’s untouchable! His Batman is definitely dope and top five of definitive artists for Batman.). You can look at old capullo stuff and can’t tell the difference between him and Tony Daniel at that time. His pre 1996 artwork doesn’t have the flair that his latter work does.
Capullo's first comic was Cable vs Deadpool- A must buy. Then a few X-Cutioner's Song. Which I liked that crossover. The SHEILD and War Machine vs X-Force was kind of cool- but no Cable. Cable came back in #25 and that issue was cool. Cable stuck around for a bit, but the issues were merely ok. Then Cable left and....well- who cared about X-Force again with the exception of a pair of random Deadpool appearances?
@@cheeseburger12 X-Force definitely petered out without Cable, but I’ve gained an appreciation for the eighties and nineties X-Men spin-offs lately and started chasing them down. Even Excalibur!
Maybe Thor's OG costume was in the laundry? Couldn't agree more with X-force. I tried to shift mine during the height of the boom & was shocked at the total lack of intrest. No clicks or anything. Then I went back and read a few. It was painful. I remembered them being pretty good but it was all style over substance & the style had worn out its welcome.
I know this video is about comics, but watching made me think of about ten years ago I found a mint copy of the original 1979 Advanced D&D player's handbook in a bargain bin, for maybe 2 bucks. It didn't have any marks or wear and tear of any kind. Needless to say, I picked it up lol. Anyone else here made a score like that in a bargain bin? I wanna hear about it!
Ultimatum. Everyone hated it. The Ultimate Universe was so popular, and they just destroyed it
Just bizarre and full of “shock value”
After the first five years it was becoming like the rest of marvel. Better to burn up than to fade away. Afterward what was left was a draugr.
I used to work as a comic shop in high school and the amount of times I ruined someone’s day by telling them that death of Superman still in the black bag is worth nothing
Shame.
Because it's a dime a dozen. You can get it at any comic shop easily. It's worth the value of the most expensive thing on the Burger King value menu
Despite that, I am still glad that I kept it in the bag and didn't wear the black armband like someone I knew.
@@noway2009it is worth 30 dollars? Going up, i have 50 of them bagged in mint condition. When they get 50 bucks i'm grading them all. I would accept 3k for the 50 lot.
@@noway2009 a friend said don't take less than 6k for the 50 lot.
please make more videos like this. its such an overlooked subject of discussion.
I’d love to!
As someone who's worked with a comic store for about 5 years now, I have to say almost every book that's based on a movie, sports, or video game. Seen many come through and had to break the news that they were worth about 10-25 cents each.
as someone who collects the weird and unpopular I also really hesitate to pick up licensed comics beyond Franchises I really like (or just really strong Licenses like Transformers which I think is probably at its best in comics)
The most uncollectible comic I've ever seen was way back in 1992 when I was working in a Sydney comic book store. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was the comic to have. Then it wasn't. We ordered dozens of copies. I went into the comic store I worked at when I was in Sydney again back in 2007. I checked the back issue bin. There were still dozens of copies of Turok for 50 Australian cents.
That’s funny, I brought a copy of Turok from Comic Kingdom in Sydney, just before they closed
There's Turok movie scripts floating around since 1992. I bet those end up in bins too
@@OliverDunlop I remember that place was a freak show when I used to shop there. A friend of mine coined it the Tatooine Cantina.
I thought they were going to get a bump after the video game became popular: Nope.
Moved into an old comic book store like 15 years ago. Cleaning up found boxes of comics. I know i have like 50 copies of issue number 1 Turok.
I stopped by a hole-in-the-wall vintage store to see if they had any comics. I was pointed to a corner of the store and saw about 5 or 6 long boxes just waiting to be gone through. I was so excited! Imagine my crushing disappointment to see that they were 95% Valiant titles. :/
The crazy thing about all the Valiant books is they have probably aged better than most of the mid to late '90's books. It's just that most people aren't familiar with the characters and Valiant art is solid but not jaw dropping.
@@jameydunne3920 I liked the Valiant stuff myself. I've picked up the omnibus editions as they've released them. As you said nothing jaw dropping but stories were decent enough. Looking forward to the Eternal Warrior omnibus too
@@AzraelDbD Did you see the Vin Diesel Bloodshot movie? If so, what did you think?
Those Valiant Nintendo comics are pretty out there
Flawed, but I liked it. It felt a little like the Marvel Winter Soldier story that I really wanted but didn't get. I heard there was a sequel in the works, and was curious how they would build on the first one
I bought a silver age key online and it was packed amongst a stack of Ultimate Fantastic 4 books for protection instead of something like a Gemini mailer
I really liked Ultimate Fantastic Four, especially when they first introduced the zombies!
Micronauts and Human Fly have been perennial dollar bin material for decades, along with nearly the whole run of Batman Knightfall.
Human Fly had John Byrne covers YOU FIEND!
I have and, love both...
Love Micronauts - far more deep than any toy comic needs to be. Which came first - Micronauts or Star Wars, so many similarities: the force/the enigma force, Darth Vader in black Armour with "magic powers" / Baron Karza in black Armour with magic powers. Princess Leia/Princess Mari etc
What? NO Deathmate Yellow?
HAHAHHHAAA.
Fun times man.
Thanks
I was a small time dealer back in the late 80s and early 90s. once people caught on to the early Valiant issues that had ridiculously low print runs (harbinger 1 = 30,000) speculators began ordering quantities of the books and then the crash. in ending, you can add the Malibu titles to the list.
Nowadays most books don't even have that circulation.
true. which shows how much the market has changed. a friend of mine has a shop and his $ in sales have been somewhat constant over the years, even though the cover prices have increased, so numbers have been going down@@davidallen8891
I really liked a lot of the early valiant stuff, solar was really a good read for awhile espcially with the Barry Windsor Smith art. Shadow Man 1 had one of the best covers of the 90s
Excalibur sits in a lot of dollar bins, which has been great for me, since I’ve been building a set!
Yup, I see a lot of Excalibur, and you can add New Warriors to that list too!
I’m with you on Excalibur. I feel those early Claremont/Davis issues are some of the most slept on issues in the secondary market
@@ImagineNationInk Fact!
@@ImagineNationInk Is "secondary market" a common term, because it works as a descriptor for stuff like that? Minor titles/second tier - I've seen. Like X-Factor/New Mutants/DC equivalents.
@@joshuaclark1930 “Secondary market” essentially means reselling something after the initial publication/release. For example; eBay, garage sales, thrift stores, dollar bins, etc
One Man's junk is another man's treasure.
TRUE!
I adore my X-Force complete run. It got totally gnarly toward the end (before the XStatix reboot, that doesn't count IMO) .
I picked Morbius #2 out of a dollar bin recently specifically because of the cover, I think it looks incredible.
Just awful low level “art” any no talent high schooler could draw that. Time for glasses, I think.
There were much worse covers later in the run. Some of the later covers were atrocious.
Turok #1 I can't even sell those for toilet paper. The staples hurt.
I'll have to remember that one.
Back issues are so over-priced most of what I buy these days comes out of the dollar bin, just hunting for cool stuff, stuff to trade and the occasional under-priced gem.
Great video!! Love that you’re making this your full time gig!!! Definitely going to become a member!!
Marvel's Ravage 2099 is the title I always see in bargain bins over here
Most dont even know ravage wa written by stan the last work he did with marvel
The first 8 issues of Ravage 2099 are actually pretty good (those are the issues primarily written by Stan Lee and I actually enjoyed them). Only the first 8 issues are worth checking out. When Stan finally leaves, the series falls apart very freaking hard starting with issue # 9. Stan's replacement decided to throw almost everything into a metaphorical toilet and flushed it hard and ruined the character (Ravage got mutated, grew horns out of his head and became a beast man mutant thing, and several parts of the overall story got ruined and / or flushed down the toilet. It got REALLY bad).
Strangely,
The series lasted till issue # 33, but honestly the main thing that was keeping it alive after Stan left were the 2099 crossovers like "Fall of the Hammer" which crossed over into all the 2099 books (I remember buying later issues of Ravage ONLY because it was part of a crossover of some sort), smaller crossovers like Punisher 2099 showing up in Ravage, and especially the lead up to the super massive 2099 crossover called "One Nation Under Doom" (which actually caused major permanent changes to happen in all the 2099 books). If it wasn't for Ravage being tied in so heavily with the 2099 in general, it wouldn't have lasted 33 issues. Anyway, by issue # 33, they cancelled Ravage permanently by having him play a significant role during "One Nation Under Doom".
Overall,
Only the first 8 issues are worth checking out (the Stan Lee issues are pretty good).
The rest of the series (which is NOT good) is ONLY recommended towards people who are OCD about reading the entire 2099 universe and just need to know every little thing about it.
@@johnpenguinthe3rd13 I disagree that the good part of Ravage is the Stan Lee part. Stan epically shit the bed for 8 issues. The sweet spot with that series is 9 when Pat Mills takes over until about 23 when Mills jumps the shark.
Ravage was ok till they tried to make him Sabertooth or something.
I found a stack of Elflord 1st and 2nd series dumped on the street and it was about to rain. Not sure if they are unwanted or hard to move but I couldn’t let them die a horrible death in the rain.
Hell yea bro I got a stack of elflord too 😂
I've been trying to collect a full run of Elflord for around 25 years but there are still certain issues I can't find. It's weird, I can find hundreds of copies of certain issues for next to nothing, but others are impossible to track down.
As a massive Captain Marvel fan, I don't know why they decided to push her by making her an unlikeable crazy person in civil war II. I feel like that really damaged the character for a while
blame the SJW!
Just like at the Willow show and Witcher Blood Origin. They really want to sell unlikable psychos for some reason…
Brie Larson didn't do Captain Marvel's likeability any favors either.
Lol "massive captain marvel fan"
@@dimitrijetucovic1307 LOL great !!! i hope those comic book investments work out for you.😅
I recall trading in a bunch of Valiant comics for in store credit and getting the reply, "Oh, I can fill my bird cage with these." Yeah, safe to say I didn't get much.
Demand is dependent on persona. If you’re a reader maybe those titles are great. Monetary value to me is a fugazi concept that influencers push.
Yeah, listening to youtubers or "hot spec key" websites about "investment" has lost a lot of people their shirts with 2022 MCU spec for example. (That said I thought Bloodlines, new 52 Superman, Civil War II are not worth 50 cents as someone who reads comics and doesn't look at them like stocks.)
No mention of "investment " or "value " that I can hear. Just " these don't sell. They're dollar bin stuff and still won't move. "
Yeah, money is a lie the government is lying to you 😜
this isn't really Fugazi stuff he's just talking about stuff that doesn't leave the store
John sable freelance. Literally picked a full run out of 10 cent bins all at once, from the same location. Still had 2 more 3/4 complete runs of it still in them when I was finished
I collected a bunch of these when they were current along with a lot of other titles that are probably in the 10 cent bins: Nexus, American Flagg, Camelot 3000, Amethyst, Arion, Dalgoda and so on.
@@actionic135 I grabbed them up as I enjoy Mike Grell's work so I figured I'd give them a try
Loved John Sable and the sequel title Sable!
Marvel's New Universe. The only comics that I ever chucked into a recycling bin. I had runs from #1 onward of each title, which were part of a collection I bought in the '90s. I've seen them in boxes for 10 for a $1 & they don't go!
I guess it’s tangentially mentioned here by Valiant’s entire 90s run. I believe Valiant’s mastermind Shooter was behind that essentially cold run to the Valiant universe.
Truth!
Same for me but it wasn't so bad.
Esp Justice.
I rather liked DP7 and Nightmask, but I've deliberately avoided the other New Universe titles.
A lot of those have potential . when they get a tv show.you'll shoot yourself
Cyberforce has an abundance of dollar bin real estate.
I know I am showing my age, but I loved the Marvel New Universe titles, the Jim Shooter experiment. I’m not sure anyone remembers those anymore.
One of my favorite unlikely-to-leave-the-page characters, Terror, came from New Universe!
I think Jim Shooter was a great writer and have almost everything he ever put out.
Ive been hunting all the new universe titles in the last year. Not many want them, I do. Theyre everywhere and in nice shape. Loved Starbrand.
Only two of the titles of the New Universe were interesting (Starbrand and DP-7), the others... not so much. Honorable mention to Nightmask at the beginning though.
@@jonothanthrace1530
I believe you are referring to the Marvel Epic Shadowline where Terror was called Shrek and was an enemy of St. George.
Easy to get the two confused cause they were very similar, Shadowline and the New Universe
The X-Force run by John Francis Moore is pretty awesome though, sort of a spiritual successor to Claremont's New Mutants run where the characters are now angsted out twenty-somethings.
I'll check it out!
I second this. Moore's run was really solid and once Pollina came on for the art they meshed really well on storytelling. Moore is really an under appreciated writer in my book. His Chronos book for DC only lasted like 12 issues but was a sleeper hit for me back in the 90s.
That X Force run,especially the issue in the thumbnail,is what got me back into comics. Absolutely loved it and still do. Pollinas art was incredible and so was Jimmy Cheungs when he took over. Probably the best run X Force ever had outside the X Statics stuff.
@@miggypeso909 Yeah, I was surprised to see the Stryfe In Hell issue, that was probably the best issue of an x-book that came out that year.
@@chrisschumacher8553 wasn’t it tho? Especially the ending! I have no idea why people don’t like this run.
Their are a few runs of books I collect that hold no monetary value, just love the books. It's great because the runs are very cheap to finish. But I have found that trying to finish a graded 9.8 run of them is almost impossible because these books have been sitting in dollar bins for over 20 years and haven't been taken care of.
I didn't buy into the Valiant hype at all, but I did spend a lot of money on CrossGen comics. It's fun to talk to the creators about it today, though, since it was a unique operating model.
Ruse is a great tv show idea.
Negation is still one of my all-time favorites!
I picked up two Bloodshot #1’s back in the day because the guy at my LCS at the time, said, “this is going to be a hot book.” I was new at collecting and thought, “what a good investment.” Today, I’m seeing the same book in the dollar bins.🙄
I will trade you a stack of Cable #1 books 😁
Really? I remember those shot up to $10/$15 for a while
@@GhostRiderSpiritOfVengeance an antique mall in my area has a stack of both Cabel #1 and Bloodshot #1. I was debating on buying them all and throwing them up on ebay.
Liefield's lines of books (Brigade, Bloodstrike, etc.) from the early Image days & after he split from the imprint.
I must be one of those weird people, most of the books no one wants are usually what I buy the most of. I love digging through the bins of comics no one else will buy because of no resale value. Since always being that poor kid who couldn't afford new comics. The bins have always been my special place.
I collect easy listening orchestral L.P.s from the 1950s-60s. Abundant and cheap in thrift shops because nobody wants them. Also usually in good condition because folks who bought them originally didn't listen to them either.
I think those Superman books in 2004 that Michael Turner was associated with still have interest. I believe he wrote or co-wrote those 6 issues between Action, Adventures of, and Superman.
Books that nobody wants. I have 100 Red Sonja
50 Evil Ernie
50 Lady Death Comics mint condition, and I can't give them away. I was hoping to trade for a loaf of bread at this point.
That’s a shame
@@MintHunterComics I agree, in that Stephen Hughes (Lady Death's creator) was a first-rate artist.
I really enjoyed this video, You made some very valid points. I was collecting Superman in that era, and it was pretty vanilla for the most part. P.s I too see alot of valiant in the discount bin but they were the fist company I saw that did reflective foil covers and it blew my mind as a kid
Surprised he didn't bring up Malibu Comics that were quickly deemed less valuable then the premium paper they were printed on.
Malibu was Image 0, the place for independents/experimentals before there was one.
@@xhagast the sad thing they had some interesting characters like Prime who was a less angry Rage (another forgotten gem from the 90s) or even Nightman had a brief proto CW show.
@@byronnotbryon8605 I remember. I loved Firearm. The Strangers and Hardcase were good too. Malibu's Ultraverse was pretty realistic.
I'm old enough to remember in the mid-90s when GI Joe and Transformers comics were back issue poison.Then all of a sudden everyone wanted them again (though Special Missions and Transformers: Generation 2 are still pretty cheap per my experience).
This should have been titled the "Land of Misfit Toys" books. Lol... Also, it's hilarious how many of these books took art homage from Rob Liefield's art style. Thor, Xforce etc. fun stuff though. True story, my buddy went to his LCS, and staid he'd take all the books in the .50 bin for $25 (I think he figured out it was closer to $50 in "value". LCS owner took him up on it, and then he carefully cut the covers off all of them, and then epoxied them into a bar top he was making for a client who had a superhero themed home bar (Big DC guy supposedly).
NOBODY buys old Defiant comics back issues. It’s a damn shame too because Shooter,Ditko and Claremont worked on em and they were actually pretty good early 90s books
Cyberforce, Bloodstrike, Shadowhawk, Stormwatch, basically 90% of 90s Image
Garbage series with guys in steroids or gun freaks. The gals were mostly centerfolds. The best of the worst being Gen13.
I did like Shadowhawk when it came out. I was 12 tho.
When you're right, you're right. I went to my LCB this past Saturday, and there were three and a half long boxes full of X - Force. All of the issues were issues 16 and above. I know because I was looking for issue 15.
Ha, I have an X-Force run from 1 - 50, and then the last issue 129 for a cap at the end 'cuz it has a cool Doop cover
sorry to say I put together a full set of the Bloodline comics....not sure really why but I did...
Cool that you mentioned Valiant, but another deep cut nineties company/imprint is Now Comics. I have a few myself, they seemed to do mostly licensed properties. Green Hornet, the Twilight Zone, Terminator, they even had a Married With Children comic!
So I'm actually collecting bloodlines with 4 left to go. As for all the valiant comics from the original run I only have 50 comics left to get including the valiant voice. I believe people sleeping and not buying valiant now will come back on them years from now since it is a small enough universe it has a golden era comics feel to it. Yes they over printed a bunch of issues but who can honestly say they finished an entire run of a comic company these days. They were 3rd behind DC and Marvel for a reason. Give it time eventually they will be collectable again.....I hope lol
Spider-Man: Chapter 1 by John Byrne is impossible to shift. I had all the issues on Ebay for 99p for months and nobody even looked at the damn thing!
I loved Tekno-Comics back in the 90s. Those were some fun and original stories. Primortals and Mr Hero were the best!
Woot woot!
I have some. Good ideas, third rate art.
Oh yeah, I always come across those. Very unique titles.. Nimoy did Primortals, right?
I used full runs of 90's valiant when I was learning to make custom bonds. To this day one of the larger comic shops in Pittsburgh had about 80 copies of Eternal Warrior #1 in the dollar bins.
Dang, really are Making videos every day now. I predict “10 books in my collection with yellowing pages” being a video topic eventually this year 😅
Warriors of Plasm from Defiant Comics. Jim Shooter strikes out again.
Defiant comics were great reading, but no desirability since company folded.
Maybe do a video about stuff like Elfquest or Groo, just as examples of titles that kind of started out amazingly and then just went to shit. And I have 30-40 of both of those comics.
I actually like Groo!
I have them all or most. Groo changed over time. Elfquest tried to become an extended universe too hard.
I go through dollar bins all the time. When I was in Pensacola FL one of the comic shops had all Mystique comics from 2003 (except #1) for a dollar. I been collecting X-Factor out of dollar bins now I just need 52 issues to finish the run. Back in the late 80's I found AMS#31 in a 25 cent bin. I also found a lot of Spectacular Spider-Man in the 25 cent bin back then. Recently in my LCS I've been finding Fantastic Four vol.1, Captain America vol.1 & 2, Avenger vol.1 and The New Avengers in the dollar bin.
I completed my run last year. I bought lots to complete it.
Yea X Factor had a lot comicbooks nobody wanted
I remember when Valiant comics first started coming out. I read Magnus and Solar with a little skepticism and the stories were really good. Then I expanded to other Valiant titles and the stories were awesome (to me at least). I eventually stopped getting a few books from DC and Marvel and got pretty much everything from Valiant. I loved those stories and for the most part, the art was amazing. I even started buying old Gold Key versions of Magnus and Solar. I was hooked and now it seems that re-selling comics is more important than reading them and the fact that Valiant comics dominate the 50 cent to a dollar bin, means that still not many people are buying them. If you really want something to read, check out the old Valiant books from the 90's.
Agree completely, I loved the Valiant run from the early 90's...and then they fired Jim Shooter and it all went to Hell very quickly.
@@michaelbaker8375
Absolutely! Jim Shooter was the glue that held it all together. I think he did way more for Valiant than he did for Marvel
Solar was really good imo
This. I just wrote a comment relating this. Granted, Valiant was greatly helped getting noticed being that the Wizard crew hyped them to kingdom come, and they were competing against Image, Marvel (I believe post-Claremont) and DC. Image was just that, all about looks and not so much coherent storylines. Marvel and DC had just lost their powerhouses when Image came around, right after shifting into the “image is all that matters” idea of comics. Leaving Valiant to develop stories.
So I’m glad to hear they didn’t keep their value, as I’d love to pick them up whenever I make it back to the States.
Valiant up until BWS left was incredible. Some of the best comics ever.
i remember that morbius comic was one of my favorite series along with ghost rider, till some friend of my grandma said there is torture, serial killers, drugs and monster rapes in this comic and suddenly my entire collection was gone over a couple issues of morbius being on the coffee table when my grandmas friends from the va hospital came over. really one of the things that pushed me into the streets as a small child. my comics and cartoons were the only reason i wasnt joining gangs and shooting gangs before i was 10. after that i was all about getting into problems in the ghetto. i wonder if they realized the damage they were doing to my future by criminalizing lame marvel comics.
How about almost every Malibu title from the Ultraverse?
They had some great titles like Prime, Solution or Firearm but they will not sell anymore.
Firearm was better than people remember. Now I want to build that set haha
Ive got the entire malibu/ ultraverse universe! Fits into one short box!!👍
I still have every issue of Malibu's Ultraverse titles.
Really enjoyed them - still do!
@@stevenschaller1672 You are short, I need two boxes(not long comic store boxes but still). I miss it.
I forgot.i keep the marvel crossover issues seperate! All the infinity stuff too!👍
I’m surprised Wolverine: Agent of SHIELD didn’t make the list. My old LCS had an entire LONG BOX full of the first issue. They couldn’t even give them away!
Does Malibu Ultraverse outsell Valiant comics? What about Defiant's Warriors of Plasm?
I had taken a break from collecting for college when Bloodlines hit -- those issues that I picked up for my Titans, Legion, & Justice League collections were solid reminders that sometimes we just collect to complete our runs.
A comic book store near me USED to be jammed so tight that the whole place was considered an OSHA and fire code violation. They were forced tp do a 75% off sale or the city safety inspectors were going to shut them down. Even then NOBODY was buying Groo the Wanderer. Okay, everyone but me. I think I walked out of the store with about half the Marvel run of the series for under $20. I would have bought duplicates of the ones I already had but because it was a sidewalk sale, they could not take debit or credit cards and that was as much cash as I had on me.
Yeah, what crazy person would ever complete the Bloodlines run, ha ha ha ha ..............erh
Sadly, everything you said about the 90's Valiant comics is true as almost no one seems to collect those issues hardly even the key issues. The same could be said for the most part about the early Image titles of that same era. I don't see anyone clamoring for the original runs of Wildcats, Youngblood, Savage Dragon, or even Shadowhawk. The only series from that era that holds any value is the early Spawn books. The one thing I will say is that at least with the Valiant's they are very hard to find especially in high grade as they had much lower print runs than the big publishers at the time. It took me a long time to find a high grade copy of Harbinger #1 and I ended up getting it at what now seems like a pretty reasonable price. I pressed, cleaned, and then submitted it to CGC and it came back a 9.6. Now I am on the look out for a copy of X-O Manowar #1 in high grade.
I've been looking for a clean Shadowhawk 1 newsstand edition for years.
I usually pick up the Savage Dragon books because I think they're a good read. Larson doesn't get respect he deserves for that or his work on ASM and SM.
@@jmpw005 I've been searching for all six of the Image launch titles in Newsstands and so far I have Cyberforce 1 and Shadowhawk 1. I am still looking for the others but I think that Shadowhawk 1 is the hardest one to find in high grade, I just got lucky to score one.
@@jthomascruz4890
Good luck finding the rest. I was able to get a high grade newsstands of the titles I liked. Someday I'll get that Shadowhawk #1 to go with my #2 & #3 newsstands.
A lot comics from the 80s, 90s to early mid 2000s were real good and fun to read. Unlike comics today where everything has to be politically correct and woke. It's why I stop collecting comics made in the 2010s till now.
Y'know... As a teen in the 70's... I had a big collection. Lots of #1's. Marvel. DC. Charlton. Atlas..(+ others).
Nova#1. Kamandi#1, OMAC#1. Hercules #1. Champions#1
Plus hundreds of issues from my subscriptions to DC and Marvel main characters.
Ah... I miss my comics.
Probably be worth something today.
I still love the Valiant years. Picked up the Unity TPBs for $1 each. Can't wait to read it with my kids.
For great deals - it's worth it!
I had a Batman Confidential #1 when I was a kid and I read it until the cover almost fell off. Loved that thing. (Still have my copy, beat to hell)
I bought Fantastic Four #1 when I was a kid. Thought it was lame and tossed it. Story of my life.
completely agree with that list. Good luck with everything! All the best, cheers!
I will happily take the Morbius, all of the bloodlines, Thor and Eternal Warrior. I love Valiant comics, just bought Ninjak 1-7 at an antique shop last weekend.
Anything dealing with New 52 Lobo. I don't know any actual Lobo fan that wants to remember that run existed.
I always find the spin off 90s x-men titles that no one wants
Actually, I am putting together a Bloodlines run right now. Yes, I know it’s bad . . .
ClonesagaClonesagaClonesagaClonesaga...
I always found Darkhawk and Moonknight books in the $1 bins.
My 1st comic I ever bought was Moonknight vol. 1 #17 and I loved it. I bought so many #1s that I was able to get so many great trades when he started to become more popular.
Darkhawk hasn't gotten his jump into popularity. They've tried to push him here and there. I keep hoping he'll get a new run that stays longer than a miniseries.
From what I've seen, people will still fork over a bit for some pre-Unity classic Valiant era books. Usually not stupid money, but enough where putting them in the dollar bin would likely be a loss for the comic shop. Solar 1-10, Harbinger 1-5, Rai 1-5, the first few issues of X-O, etc. It's the post Unity/post Shooter stuff that really sits, which is a shame in some cases as there were still some good books running (Magnus, Shadowman) until Acclaim bought out the company. What's sad is history's pretty much repeated itself with the current Valiant universe\Dinesh ousting. I swear the characters are cursed.
It's interesting to see Morbius #2 listed here. I remember the first 12-18 months of that book being pretty solid, at least until Ron Wagner left. It was probably the best take on the character I've read, though I gave up on Marvel years ago. Most of the other Midnight Sons early 90s books outside of Ghost Rider were pretty weak from the get-go.
I would see boxes of Tarzan when I was a kid. Nobody wanted them.
Great video and list James!! X-Force issues that can be found in the dollar bins that are worth $3 -$5: #25 hologram card cover, #38 foil cover, #47 Deadpool on cover, story and for Deadpool collectors, #50 X-Force vs Cable, foil and for Cable collectors and #56 Deadpool on cover, story and for Deadpool collectors! Yes Valiant comics are constantly i the dollar and under bins….!
I didn't read Valiant comics back in the day, but then again, I was off comics in the early 90's. More because I was finishing college and had no money than the quality of the comics. I more or less discovered the company in their new incarnation and really loved some of the titles. I've picked up a few of the older trades and the stories are definitely enjoyable, but not something I gravitate towards in the cheap bins.
When I was a kid (late 90s) my dad got me a huge grab bag of comics for Christmas and it was loaded with Ultra, Malibu, Topps and Wildstorm comics (like Prime, Shadowhawk, The Fly, Extinction Event, The Strangers, etc). In hindsight, it was a lot of random miniseries, but those were technically the first comics I read. I didn't read "new" comics until Marvel's Ultimate titles were underway. I've never gotten the impression they were worth anything to anyone.
I collected comics to read them. Guess that's not a thing anymore.
(29.02.24)
Actually people still collect to read...but personal tastes change.
From 1983 to 1989/90, I was a hardcore 'Marvel Zombie' getting every (non-licensed only, save for the reg Star Wars title) Marvel branded comic - then I got disillusioned by Mutant Massacre and Fall of the Mutants and switched to Batman after selling off most of my Marvel books.
Even now I cull my collection every now and then.
Loved the first Civil War except for the ending. It got me back into new comics for a few years. Won't touch Civil War II.
I’ve been trying to sell all my number 1’s from the new 52 at a crazy low price and nobody wants them. We’re talking about like 20 issues for under 15 bucks in mint condition.
Great topic for a video. I've heard of a few of these but most of them were brand new to me(I guess that sorta makes sense😆) would love a part 2
Glad you enjoyed!
Do any of the old Valiant comics hold their value. My brother read Eternal Warrior growing up (we were big Valiant heads), and maybe 7 years ago I bought the entire run of HARD Core for like 50 cents a pop. Read through them once, and chucked them. You truly can’t go home again.
Eternal Warrior 4 is still a key that has been a mainstay of all Valiant books that used to have a good value, but has dropped recently quite a bit. In the 90's, issue 9 was a key but now is $1 bin fodder. The last issues of Valiant are STILL hard to get & fairly expensive.
I do the odd comic show and sell comics out of my garage two or three times a summer, and amazingly enough, I got rid of a lot of Image and other 90s independent crap these past couple years in my dollar bins. I couldn't believe it either, but it does happen. Had a guy pull out a chunk of Ultraverse this summer and I almost dropped my coffee.
Malibu's Ultraverse was a tragedy. I LOVED it, I have most of it. For three years Mantra's a$$ was in every comic in the lists of back issues for sale. Then the collapse of the industry in the 90s Marvel buys it and runs it into the ground. It is SO forgotten that even when they do multiversual travel they never go there.
It's funny, because Valiant was super popular in the 90's, and a lot of the back issues went for big bucks. It was pretty much my favorite comic company when it was in its heyday, and I still have complete runs of a lot of the titles like Ninjak, X-O, Eternal Warrior, Bloodshot, Archer and Armstrong, and etc. The company made a huge mistake when they forced out Jim Shooter. He was the driving creative force behind the entire line, and once he was gone the quality of the comics quickly went downhill and then shortly after that Valiant was history.
Same here. I have most number 1s and some 0s. I acquired Harbinger 2 sometime in 92. Early 93 I was told by my LCS it was valued around 75 bucks. I thought I had struck gold and stored them in a nice place.
I love Superman 2003-2011, which works out great for me because they're very affordable. In fact, I recently picked up a NM copy of Superman 204 (Jim Lee cover) for a buck! So everybody PLEASE keep ignoring that era, thanks! 😎
I'll take them over new 52 Superman anyday. New 52 Superman sucks on toast, that to me is when Dan Didio got his cold greedy as hell hands on Superman.
@@jakeproven256 I totally agree. Those N52 Superman are dirt cheap too because nobody wants them. The 2000's were awesome for Superman IMO. We had Busiek, Rucka, Azzarello, Loeb, and Johns runs during that time. Shoot, Richard Donner even got in on the action. If you ask me that decade of Superman is criminally underrated. But whatever, cheaper back issues for us.
@@jaylucien669 Yes, a lot of decades for Superman are underrated in fact.
@@jakeproven256 I couldn't agree more.
That’s what happens when you have an ultra powerful hero and he’s been around for years: you run out of things to do with him. I feel like once he died, he should have comeback with old golden age Superman powers and worked to earn back his modern Superman abilities (kinda like a goku kaio Ken to super saiyan and beyond type of thing). I mean he was fizzling out in the 50s and they didn’t know what to do anymore so they had to introduce new things like kryptonite and brainiac and the like. That’s where Superman has always shined as a comic: when he fights villains with superior minds not brutish villains because there’s no way they can win. It’s almost like an inevitability for Superman to win and for him to be interesting as a character again, he needs to take a lot more losses. That’s why the movie man of steel was so controversial amongst comic fans. Superman doesn’t kill but you made him do so when the more interesting story is let him stick with his principles and have to live with the fact that Zod killed someone and Superman didn’t kill him to stop him. That’s what would’ve made a better sequel. It’s not how Superman deals with his powers it’s how his powers and his villains gallery affect those who are around him. When there’s a Superman writer who understands that we will have an awesome Superman run on our hands.
I have Thor 502. Must have come in a multipack I got at Ollie's one time, because I didn't read a lot of Thor back in the day.
I bought that same issue from a dealer for a whopping 75 cents. lol
great video, nothing really to add as I am currently facing the opposite putting my walking dead run together, seems any issue under 100 is at LEAST $10 cdn lol
I almost started putting a IDW turtles run together before I saw THOSE prices sheesh, who knew modern filler issues could get so expensive!
I've seen tons of Marvel New Universe books in $.50 bins around here.
Cool to see someone talk about this subject.
After my real collection got stolen and sold, I started collecting only comics that were worthless - usually if they were LESS than the cover price I would collect them. Also, I speciallized in "number zero" comics. It turned out to be a super fun thing to do.
Radio Shack comics were the ones I ran into the most - my ideal worthless comic, just a total advertising to kids piece of crap. But yeah, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, and lots of actual real comics are such stinkers they're less than their original cover price. Black LIghtning number one was worthless, which I always thought was kind of unfair - he's a pretty cool hero.
Another fun thing is getting the ones with yard sale prices written across them in marker. Oops! That one can now earn a place in my collection.
I was sort of surprised how well it satisfied my little urge to collect things. It's not the monetary worth - at least not entirely.
I have a bro who collected ALL of those little plastic NFL helmets, by buying them from a vending machine. It took him years to get them all. He has them in a little shadow box display, and it's gotta be one of the coolest collections I've ever seen. He has the divisional and pro bowl helmets in there. Unbelievable. Beautiful.
I didn’t buy the old Valiant books at cover price but I’d grab them from bargain bins because there were some very good stories among the titles. Oddly enough I think I only found 1 Ninjak during that period but plenty of Archer & Armstrong.
No Image comics made this list? A lot of their early titles were overprinted garbage. I have a huge collection because I enjoyed them, especially Stormwatch. Maybe they are so worthless that they aren’t even mentioned anymore.
I have a collection of 50k comics of assorted publishers that I bought between 1975 and 2005 that I’m now looking at parting with. From collector to seller and I’m clueless, so thanks for the videos. I like to understand what I’m doing before I do it.
Haha about Valient! I remember around the mid-00s, picking up an entire run of HardCORE (or however it was spelt) for like 5 cents a pop off of EBay.
Some good art work in those xforce comics. Forget keys and read fun books.
I started to collect Valiant in the 90’s but stopped pretty quick after reading a few. Still have them lol.
Love the Blackest Night shoutout. What an event that was!
Greg Capullo drew X-Force 15-25, before moving on to Spawn & Batman. One might say those are worth collecting, especially if you can get them on the cheap
Oh neat!
#25 is also the Fatal Attractions crossover issue, and there are a couple of others that are parts of crossovers or have gimmick covers in the run that people definitely cherry pick. That applies to pretty much every nineties X-Men spinoff.
That’s before he became incredibly amazing and super talented (he had to crank out thirty issues of spawn to get his chops. Now he’s untouchable! His Batman is definitely dope and top five of definitive artists for Batman.). You can look at old capullo stuff and can’t tell the difference between him and Tony Daniel at that time. His pre 1996 artwork doesn’t have the flair that his latter work does.
Capullo's first comic was Cable vs Deadpool- A must buy. Then a few X-Cutioner's Song. Which I liked that crossover. The SHEILD and War Machine vs X-Force was kind of cool- but no Cable. Cable came back in #25 and that issue was cool. Cable stuck around for a bit, but the issues were merely ok. Then Cable left and....well- who cared about X-Force again with the exception of a pair of random Deadpool appearances?
@@cheeseburger12 X-Force definitely petered out without Cable, but I’ve gained an appreciation for the eighties and nineties X-Men spin-offs lately and started chasing them down. Even Excalibur!
10:45 I always say "They're not 'worthless', they're just 'worth less' than you think".
Valiant, Defiant and most Image books at the time are good for kindling.
I really enjoyed this episode keep up the work 😁
This channel is so underrated.
Maybe Thor's OG costume was in the laundry?
Couldn't agree more with X-force. I tried to shift mine during the height of the boom & was shocked at the total lack of intrest. No clicks or anything. Then I went back and read a few. It was painful. I remembered them being pretty good but it was all style over substance & the style had worn out its welcome.
I know this video is about comics, but watching made me think of about ten years ago I found a mint copy of the original 1979 Advanced D&D player's handbook in a bargain bin, for maybe 2 bucks. It didn't have any marks or wear and tear of any kind. Needless to say, I picked it up lol.
Anyone else here made a score like that in a bargain bin? I wanna hear about it!
Hot damn! Good find!
Venom: Lethal Protector 1 Gold in a $1 bin. DC Comics Presents 47 in a $1 bin.