the vynsane asylum

I think its crazy that you can find The Rocketeer's first appearance in Starslayer #1 & 2 for $10 on ebay.

You can also still get Squirrel Girl's first appearance (Marvel Superheroes Winter Special #8) for $75-150.

Are there any other hidden gems out there?

My dong is currently hidden in Rico's mom's bum - does that count?

Seriously though - I always consider the Walt Simonson Thor issues to be worth their weight in gold, yet you can find them for pennies. The only one I think that rates is the first appearance of Beta Ray Bill, which is likely a 5-6 dollar book at most.

Here's the first appearance of The Collector for less than $30 US.

https://www.ebay.com/p/The-Avengers-28- ... l/85472370

As a companion to ‘Books that cost a lot, but have no reason to’
I’ve going thru my master list on my phone figuring out why I can’t find certain issues in the cheap bins, and discovering ‘oh shit, that book is in demand and HTF!’

Well, this is the flip side of that. During my research on comicbookrealm, I’m finding some books are crazy expensive...but I own them and didn’t realize they were worth something.

Demon Annual 2.. Current “Value” $22. From the 1990 series I’m missing 40, 41, 45, 52, 53, 54, and I thought I needed both annuals. The issues are $4-5 each so shouldn’t be a problem. But I looked at Annual 2, which was from the Bloodlines Annual event back in the 90s where each annual introduced a new character (Marvel did something similar that year, I think both were in response to Image starting up their own universe and Dark Horse and Malibu getting in on the action. Basically tons of new characters were getting introduced, but I digress) This was the first appearance of Hitman. And I was like, “Bloodlines?? I’m pretty sure I bought all that shit back in the 90s.” So I looked in my trusty old notebooks and sure enough, I have this issue.

Gotham City Sirens . I’m missing issues 10, 18, and 24. Which are all going for a reasonable $5 each. But issue 1 is $50. The 2nd print of issue 1 is $45. I have both. Issues 2-7 are all in the $10-15 range. And some of the later issues(20,21 and the final issue 26) are also up there. Unfortunately, that means the issues I’m missing probably have more eyes on them and will make the hunt harder. But still, kaching on issue 1.

Zatanna. I’m missing issues 8 and 11 from her short 2010 ongoing. Which are $5 each. The series only lasted 16 issues. 13 and 14 are going for $10, 15 is at $35 and the final issue 16 is going for $50! I had to double check to make sure I had them. Noice.
But again, this makes the entire series more ‘in demand” since it’s run was so short, so the two I’m missing will be harder to find.

I’ll post more gems as my research continues.

I bought all of Gotham City Sirens as it came out because Paul Dini was writing it. Even though he only wrote 9 issues, I bought all 26 issues. It was a pretty good series and even introduced Harley's family.
I saw the price of #1 and the next few issues and was shocked. Glad I still have it.

New 52 Batman #1 is also around the $50 mark which shocked me for several reasons:
1. It's Batman
2. #1
3. Part of DC's New 52 relaunch.
The reason - The first appearance of The Court of Owls.

Those early Nu52 Batman issues are some of the very few Nu52 books I haven’t tracked down yet. Sometimes I regret having principles.


And bouncing off of JJ’ s Spectacular Spidey post in the other thread, here are some notable Spec Spidey issues worth something.

27 and 28 are the first times Frank Miller drew Daredevil. Going for $85 and $55 respectively.
64 is the 1st appearance of Cloak&Dagger. Goes for $90.
69 and 70 are the next appearances of C&D for $12 each.
81-83 was a Turf War story arc with C&D and the Punisher guest starring that go for $10-15.
90 is the aforementioned Black Suit cameo that goes for $30 (or $70 if you’re a jerk)
107 has the death of Jean DeWolfe for $12
116 and 119 were early Sabretooth appearances for $15ish
147 was an Inferno tie-in and the first app of Demogoblin for $14

I have the Frank Miller issues I'm glad to say.

147 was Demogoblin? Or the demonic Hobgoblin?

Hobgoblin possessed by Demogoblin. Inferno crossover.

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/The_Spec ... _Vol_1_147

I didn't realize the "Demogoblin" name came about until after the demon split off into a separate entity. And I figured the demon had a more demonic real name.

In my quest to re-catalog my entire collection on comicbookrealm, I’m up to the ‘M’s.

Just found an interesting factoid. If you had to guess what the most valuable issue of Marvel Comics Presents(the anthology series that ran from 1988-1995) was, what would you guess? The first issue? That’s always a safe bet for a series. Or maybe Issue 72, which kicked off Windsor-Smith’s Weapon X story arc? Hell, ANY of the Weapon X issues?

Nope. It’s a tie. Issue 175, the final issue, presumably due to a low print run and subsequent scarcity, and issue 19, which was the second appearance of...Damage Control! Who’dathunk?

I just found it interesting. Carry on.

I don't have a full run of MCP & sometimes that bothers me. Mostly not though. Would not have pegged those issues as the gold nuggets.

The amount of actual decent reads from MCP was pretty small. The early issues were good for giving characters without their own books a place to have a spotlight, but it eventually it devolved into whatever was the ‘hot’ character(Ghost Rider, Venom, etc) to just have another book to exploit. Fuckin’ 90’s Speculator Boom bullshit. And the final wind down was just...garbage. Characters you’ve never heard of before or since, by artists they pulled off the streets.

Tom Foolery wrote:In my quest to re-catalog my entire collection on comicbookrealm, I’m up to the ‘M’s.

And when I say ‘M’s. I mean the ‘m’s from my first notebook worth of stuff from my original collecting run 80’s thru 1995ish. So 1/2 of 1/3 of...I’m about 8% done...

Two things; First off, somebody here(I’m 95% sure it was vyn, but I can’t find any topic/thread or post about them and it was almost 20 years ago) sold me a dozen GIJoe books back in the early 2000s at a very reasonable price. I just found them in my book logs and they’ve appreciated in value to the tune of $266. So thanks for that! One of the many reasons you are and continue to remain awesome!

Second, in the margins of said notebook, I found where I had jotted down DC Comics Presents 26. I yelled ‘Holy Fuck!’ out loud. I don’t recall owning that issue. I am literally driving over to my parents tomorrow and going down into their basement to find that box, so that I can either confirm or be disappointed by whether I actually own that book. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but why the fuck would I have written it down otherwise?

I DO have it!! First appearance of the New Teen Titans! First Starfire. First Cyborg. First Raven.

Sweeeeeeeet