Spawn #350: The Heaven and Hell of Signed Graded Comics in 2024
Jim Lee buys back his OA for Wolverine #50 and Mezco's TMNT 4-pack is 2X!
Hello, and welcome to the sensational sixth issue of Collectibulls - your monthly tracker of the hottest new collectibles across the pop culture world.TL;DR: This newsletter is not investment advice.
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Spawn #350 Signed + Unsigned Graded
COMIC BOOKS
This will be an interesting debate amongst collectors of signed graded comics and I wanted to dive into this because it’s the first time I’m seeing the new CGC x JSA Authentic Autograph labels on a book that were signed and sent to retailers.
WHAT IS IT: Spawn #350 from Image Comics, a historic issue of Spawn that sets up a new jumping on point for readers, but also any comic that hits 350, let alone an independent comic, is reason to celebrate. I posted about it in the first issue of Collectibulls.
WHY IS IT: Signed copies of Spawn #350 Variant Cover G aka The Thank You Cover, were sent to comic book retailers who ordered 25 copies or more. Just one, not 4 if you ordered 100. They were delivered to stores ungraded.
RAW COPIES: Signed but ungraded are in the $400 range. This is already moving up in price slightly from 1 month ago. We don’t know how many of these exist.
CGC SIGNATURE SERIES: There will never be one. Todd did not sign in front of a CGC Signature Series facilitator aka CGC witness any of these so that pure SS Yellow Label will not be seen on these books. If he did, that will cause a bit of a stink like I’m sure the unsigned ones are creating right now. So there will never be a copy of this unless someone is going to crack open the unsigned CGC ones and have Todd sign in front of GGC.
CGC x JSA AUTHENTICATED AUTOGRAPH: The majority of these signed retailer incentive copies are being graded under CGC’s new JSA label which we announced before. This means instead of getting the dreaded CGC Qualified Label aka The Green Label (reserved for Hulk #181’s with the Marvel Stamp cut out of them), they will run the signature against a database of signatures and confirm it is an authentic one and give it this new CGC x JSA label. 9.8’s are going for $1,000 on secondary now that they are getting returned from the grading process. The cost for this is $25 for CGC + $25 for JSA = $50 per book.
CGC UNSIGNED: These are now being found on secondary and selling for $3,800 and up! How are these getting out there? Extremely rare.
I’ll always find it amusing that Todd, thinking he was doing a nice thing for retailers, would cause all this craziness in pricing and finger pointing. I am also amazed that Spawn is still being published. This piece from a few years ago on Comichron:
Spawn #300 led both the unit and dollar sales charts, priced as it was at $7.99. It was the first time Spawn had led the Diamond charts since Spawn #100 in July 2000. By our count, Spawn has led Diamond’s charts 21 times since Spawn #1 debuted in first place; click to see the chart from June 1992, which has just been added to Comichron.
🧛🏻 Original Retail: $125. Increase: 2,940%
Wolverine #50 Original Jim Lee Artwork
ORIGINAL COMIC ART
This original art auction for the inside back cover of Wolverine #50 (the January 1992 Volume 2 issue, has also been used as the cover of Wolverine Omnibus #3 and even a variant for Wolverine #1 of the newest volume) just sold for $40,000.
Not that special as Jim’s original art goes in that range especially his X-Men art with a cover for crazy numbers. Some examples:
Jim Lee’s Wolverine #24 original art cover sold in April 2022: $144,000
The classic cover to The Uncanny X-Men #268 - where we find out for the first time that Wolverine and Captain America (and somehow The Black Widow too) fought together in WWII - for $300,000 in November 2020:
What is special about that Wolverine #50 OA is that the winner of the auction was Jim Lee himself! The original ComicsLink listing that ended on June 5 was a no-reserve auction that started at $1. Jim was able to win back his original - something he swore he would never do - and he has now posted the original on Instagram and why he bought it: to restore it.
The original ink he used has faded over time and instead of coming back and drawing the X-Men comic for reals, he decided an OG art restoration was the next best thing.
You can follow him on Twitch to see how he restores it:
What does this do to the original art if he wants to sell it again? He is the original artist and most likely if this ever does hit auction again he will be able to fetch 2-3X the price he paid. Most likely more.
Do you think Jim Lee will come back and draw the X-Men again before he retires?
Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
🤟🏻 Original Sale: ?. Increase: ∞%
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ONE:12 Deluxe Boxed Set
ACTION FIGURES
Mezco’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ONE:12 Deluxe Boxed set is moving up in price as they sold out quickly, and hitting secondary sales of $800! These versions are 17cm tall with different body types and a ton of extra accessories. If I was looking for a modern set of TMNT figures (and didn’t spend all my cash on the other ones from Super7 and NECA) I’d be looking at this box set for sure because these look very Eastman and Laird-ish to me.
Alongside Mezco, Nickelodeon has been very liberal with their TMNT license (like Hasbro is with Transformers) with Playmates, CultureFly, Funko, Hasbro, Iron Studios, Mattel, PCS Collectibles, Super7, Tomy and Zen Monkey all producing toys and collectibles during 2024; the brands 40th anniversary!
🥷🏻 Original Retail: $400. Increase: 100%.
⚡️Collecti-News
High-net-worth Gen Zers and millennials likely to invest in collectibles - Morning Brew
I love watching these Sideshow Behind the Scenes videos: Making a $700 Mace Windu Star Wars Statue - Sideshow
20 Popular 90s Toys That Sold Like Crazy Back In The Day - Retro Dodo
DC Drops Artist Francesco Mattina's Variant Covers After Alleged AI Use - Gizmodo
Superman Set Photos Reveal New Details About David Corenswet's Suit - CBR
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Bandai’s trailer for its Comic-Con 2024 exclusives giving massive FOMO vibes!
My vote is that Jim Lee will draw X-Men again but as a crossover event with the JLA.