The Death of Superman: The Beginning of the End

 

News segment from 1992. Gotta love the zany interviews

 

I remember the day Superman died. The comic store, which I frequented, was awkwardly packed with parents hoping to obtain a copy for their children. People who had never stepped foot into a comic store anxiously waited in line for their copies, which were limited to one per customer. Having a weekly account at this location, I simply removed my copy, which was waiting for me in the store folder. I almost felt sorry for those people waiting in line knowing many of them would leave empty handed. The evening news had made the country and the world aware of this monumental event and I had my piece of history lying on my car seat awaiting its home in the cardboard comic box in the closet.

I was initially pleased with the demand and knew the sky was the limit for my newest investment. Then it happened; the tidal wave of funeral for a friend issues, multiple crossovers and the four new super assholes who proved to be necessary for the series of postmortem books. I must admit, it was purely a business venture in purchasing these other issues, which I guess was a good thing because if I purchased them for actual substance, I would have gone into a deep state of remorse and depression. So, just as it seemed as the world would be moving on and Metropolis would look towards its next defender, guess what lying douche shows back up. Now he was more powerful than ever; able to destroy entire collections value in a single issue, proving that if there was a market, there was a way to milk it; and I…I got milked. I have the white bag comic to prove it.

So, for those of you who spent countless dollars and months buying what was to be series of comics celebrating a fallen hero and completing the Superman story line, you are not alone. I’m sure there are collectors out there willing to sell their entire Superman debacle along with an evening with their wives just to try and break even for their horrible choice in comic speculation. If you take anything with you from this point it should be the following, next time a major comic producer decides that a prominent character contracts Ebola or gets incinerated by an alien enema, take your hard earned money and buy some shares of stock in the company itself instead of a paperback book that will be cheaper to use as toilet paper twenty years from now. 

'The Death and Return of Superman' phenomenon explained in 17 minutes! A hilarious parody film by Max Landis. Starring Elden Henson, Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore et al. WARNING: contains strong language

 

In this section we'll present a realistic guide to the value of featured items. Gentleman Troy has put many hours into research going through old collectible price guides to newer ones. To no surprise he found Ebay to be the most accurate of all. Anybody can come up with values and numbers but just remember that in the end: "They're only worth whatever you can get someone to pay for them." For this very reason the prices fluctuate a lot! It's really hard to tell what a particular collector is thinking when buying something. An item could be worth $1 one day and three days later somebody will pay $25 for the exact same thing.

With that in mind, Gentleman Troy will show you the average item price then (if hot) and the average price now, which items are Worthless, which are Ok and which rare "gems" are actually a Win. We call it the WOW system, as in like "WOW what a waste!"

A quick guide to the 'Guide':

WORTHLESS: welcome to the club! You better like how this item looks or have a fond memory attached to it. It won't do anything for your pocket

OK: not what you thought it would be worth, but you'll get some 'change' out of it

WIN: the wait paid off! this is that rare exception you were hoping for!

Item Condition: NM: Near Mint, M: Mint. Anything bellow this won't be mentioned as it is most likely worthless. If you actually read those comics or opened that package, you're screwed.

CGC rating: CGC stands for Certified Guaranty Company. This is the biggest if not the only grading system accepted by collectors of comics and magazines. This company has been around for years and their reputation is impeccable. They can grade anyone's comics for a fee, but once graded (1 through 10), a particular book can triple its value!

The Death of Superman:

 The "Big One": Superman #75 Memorial Set NM/M sealed. Not worth much as you can see. $12.00 average. Back in early 1993 it was worth $75 - $100+! However, it didn't take long for the value to go crashing down after the return of Superman. By 1996 this book was worth $25

 

Superman #75 from left: 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st printing. You'll be lucky to get $1.75 for any of these. 3 million+ copies sold back in the day, at least half of those will plague the "collector's" market for decades to come.

 

 

Inside Superman #75 Memorial Set. From left: Pogs set, trading card, stamps, obituary, armband.

 

Funeral For a Friend 1 through 8 NM/M. If luck is on your side and you have a complete set you might be able to get $10-$25, if you add the JLA # 70 and Epilogue you might actually get $30 - $45 for the whole set!

 

Double Worthless! You have to pay someone to take these from you.

 

 

 'Doomsday' trading cards by SkyBox. One of many useless "collectibles" launched by DC to squeeze the pennies out of your wallet. A set of these cards is worthless. An unopened box might fetch you $25 on a good day.

 

 And the winner is...

 

Yes! We have a winner. If you ever even saw this Platinum Edition and could afford it at 1992 prices you made a wise decision (you didn't open it, did you?). Limited to 10,000 copies, this issue near mint to mint will score you anywhere from $75 to $200+ on average depending on the alignment of the planets that particular day. If you invest some cash and have it graded by CGC at 9.2 or higher you might be sitting on a small fortune of $350 to $400+. People are actually buying this one!..............for now

The 1990s presented us with one of the worst shams in pop culture history. If you're familiarized with the terms: "Collector's Edition", "Limited Edition", "Exclusive" then you know what we're talking about. As fans of the comic book scene and other 90s novelties and paraphernalia we couldn't help ourselves but to be mesmerized at the eye candy and seemingly valuable "junk." Flashy, prismatic, assorted and voluptuous were the order of the day. A lavish exploitation of everything from trading cards to toys to comic books and everything in between.

Comic book stores opened on every corner. A comic that came out one day would triple its value in a matter of weeks or even days in some cases! People who never even read a comic in their lives were all of a sudden invading news stands and collectible shops with a copy of Wizard magazine in their hand as their guide. If a person was lucky enough to know someone that worked at Toys R Us, they would have the advantage of procuring action figures which were limited to one per case before they even hit the shelves. It was madness! But we loved it. Worst of all, we bought it... literally.

The advent of Ebay ushered in an uncomfortable realization to most collectors. Items, which were so precious to us in the collectable realm, began to emerge as colossal failures as investments. Many of us were unaware of current prices and assumed that time would be a strong ally in escalating the values of our comics, cards and toys. Ebay provided us an immediate perspective of the true worth of our paraphernalia. The pricing prowess of Wizard guides past lost their reverence as the ultimate reality of the internet opened our eyes to the truth: our stuff had become virtually worthless.

We all fell prey to the greed of the collectable market, believing we held rare and uncommon items that would increase in demand and as the years ticked by; we were convinced that our acquisitions of these treasures would eventually produce profits. What we failed to grasp was the glut of items released by the expanding collectors market. The success of items from previous decades conjured up a false comprehension of what the potential was for profit in more recent times. This began the deluge of collectables. People hoping to get the next Action Comics #1 or Honus Wagner card instead procured such gems as Image comics, Beenie Babies and an immeasurable amount of Star Wars figures and bauble.

We invite you, the reader, to expand upon our blog. We hope to help create a brotherhood of downcast collectors; that we share our empathy, our dreams and ultimately our disappointment in what we held in such acclaim. We also hope that those of you with scarce stories of success will also add upon our accumulation of misery. It could be possible that there is some resemblance of a silver lining out there.

 

 Let's all point and laugh!