The comic book speculation talk finally got back on track with some good speculation ideas as well as very useful tips related to this hobby.

Maybe the guys are starting to feel embarrassed about having nothing for me to write about even though they are talking 24-7?

1. Comics heating up

2. Comic book speculation

Thank God that someone put out comic speculation ideas, although these discussion don’t last as long as the non comics topics, even though this is a comic spec community lol.

2.1 Heralds of Galactus

Sean is speculating that we will see one of Galactus heralds before the main event arrives. As such, he is picking up these for cheap

• Firelord (probably one of the more pricey ones) – Thor 225
• Airwalker – FF 120
• Fallen One – Thanos 11
• Terrax – FF 211
• Tyrant – Silver Surfer 81/82

My only question is that why wouldn’t Marvel just use Silver Surfer as the first herald?

2.2 Sandman

 

Sean made this recommendation and it is a pretty sound one:

“The show is getting developed for Netflix, if it is successful, eventually Daniel will be introduced and take over as Sandman. His first app as a baby ?is Sandman 22”

Currently, the book can be had on Ebay for $10. If Daniel is to take over, I would think a $50 price will not be out of the question.

Print run for this book is pretty small, compared to earlier issues of Sandman.

2.3 Will a VF copy for a media affect bronze age book cross 1k?

One of the discussion I started was continuing what I wrote here about Follow The Leader (FTL) approach. Basically, it is the observation that the number of VF graded early bronze age books crossing $1k has increased in recent years, after they have gotten some media attention.

In the past, I used to attribute such price movement as outliers because they affect only very popular characters’ first appearance books such as Hulk #181.

However it seems that the number of such books has increased to a point that it is beyond the popularity of particular characters. Below are some examples of characters that isn’t on the same level as a Wolverine or Ghost Rider but has crossed $1k for VF copies

• Amazing Spider-Man #101 – Morbius
• Jimmy Olsen #134 – Darkseid
• Green Lantern #87 in a year’s time – John Stewart
• Tomb of Dracula #10 – Blade

If these early bronze age characters can break $1k in VF after receiving some media attention, there is a real possibility that other books will perform in the same manner.

Bonathan Comics did us a great favor and listed his list of potential candidates below:

• Marvel premiere 15
• Luke cage 1
• Dr strange 1
• Shang chi
• Spidey 121 and 122
• Ghost rider 1
• Batman 251
• X-men 94
• Shazam 1
• Marvel spotlight 2
• Swamp thing 1
• Defenders 1
• The cat 1
• Marvel premiere 1
• All star western 10
• New gods 1
• Marvel feature 1
• Forever people 1
• Mr miracle 1

If you want a refresher on this investment thesis, check out my 3 articles

• Part one: introduction to this investment thesis
• Part two: applying this to more Marvel books
• Part three: applying this to DC books

2.4 Star Wars

With the rumors circulating that Lando might be getting his own TV series, here is a nice pick that was mentioned in the chats.

 

This is the book which depicts Donald Glover, the actor who played Lando in the Han Solo movie, for the first time in comics. According to Ross, this cover predates the Solo series that came out during the movie.

3. Tips and tricks

There was a useful discussion on trimmed books.

3.1 How to spot trimmed books

Trimmed books are not easy to spot if you do not know where to look. Below are a few quick ways to tell if your copy has been trimmed or not.

• Color of the edge – a trimmed edge will look whiter than other edges which has not been trimmed

• Color tanning inconsistency – if the inside of the comic has tanning, check to see that the tanning is consistent on all edge. If one particular edge is less tanned, it might be indicative of possible trimming

• Sean’s comment – I don’t quite understand what he meant so I just cut and paste his comment here: “the side should come to a point with the centerfold at the top of the point. If the cover and all the pages are flat and almost perfectly line up, it is suspect.” (Updated: the pics Sean later uploaded helped to explain a lot!)

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Conclusion

The discussion from these past few days have been pretty productive lol. That is not to say that there is no non-comic spec talk. We still want you to work for your spec ideas by reading through our endless chatter about almost everything you can think of!