By Jay Halstead, Overstreet Advisor and Director of the International Comic Exchange, November 2021
“I’ve always felt Spidey and Star Wars are the two easiest CPV’s to find, as it should be, as these were immensely popular titles during that time. But in high grade, most of the Star Wars CPVs are still extremely elusive.”
First, cartoon related books, Transformers and GI Joe specifically, are still nuts in high grade, and are one of the hottest segments of the marketplace right now. GI Joe 21 is still going nuts, impossible to find as a CPV in high grade, it would not surprise me if that became the top CPV over the next few years, demand is insatiable. Transformers #1, although far more common, is giving it a good run for it’s money though!
I’ll say it again and until a sealed case comes to market (which isn’t going to happen at this point), Swamp Thing 37 is impossible in high grade. Even 9.2 it is extremely elusive, anything higher basically name your price.
I watched numerous mid-grade copies this year on ebay sell in the mid-hundreds, which seems ridiculous, but not really considering how tough this book is to find not mangled. I personally have 4 copies, none above a 6.5.
Collectors are finally starting to understand how incredibly difficult Canadian Price Variant Elvira’s House of Mystery comics are in high grade and we’ve seen some very strong sales this year. Yes, there have been some horrifically low sales as well (lol because I missed them), because not everybody understands the allure Cassandra Peterson has on essentially any guy between 13 and 75, but every year these books sneakily hit higher and higher prices.
Issue 1 is quite difficult in grade, however you can find them if you look. The issues to really key on are 4 and 11, all-black covers and of course 11 is Dave Stevens with Elvira flying on a broom, which is a classic cover unto itself! Personally I’ve graded 3 copies of 11 as a CPV and the best I’ve got is a 9.4. It’s tougher than you might think and Elvira is simply not going away!
Another year passes and still there aren’t stock-piles of Batman 404-407 coming to market in 9.8 grade. It still blows my mind knowing full well how even I, as a 13 year old kid, could buy this book for years after it came out as it was seemingly in every dealer’s box back then (easily into the mid-90’s)!
How many of these were CPVs? And among the CPVs, where did all of these copies disappear to?
I’ll end my report on probably the hottest Canadian Price Variant of late 2020 and most of 2021, that being Star Wars 68! We saw a lot of copies change hands because frankly, Star Wars was heavily ordered almost all the way through, and well, it’s hot! Honestly I was surprised how many surfaced, but I guess it got to a point where people were ready to sell, and they felt it had maxed out. I’m not so sure. This is a book I’ve always tried to buy through the years, and luckily had some copies when things started to happen for it (due to the success of the Mandalorian TV show).
In case you didn’t notice, a 9.8 copy of this book sold for over $5k in March, and a 9.6 for roughly half of that. That constitutes hot for me. I’ve always felt Spidey and Star Wars are the two easiest CPV’s to find, as it should be, as these were immensely popular titles during that time. But in high grade, most of the Star Wars CPVs are still extremely elusive!
Jay Halstead
Rare Comics 