Some ebay sales figures for first issues of UK comics

[stevezodiac]

In Deptford Market on Saturday I bought a large football encyclopedia for a measly 50p but when I got it home I noticed it stank of cigarettes. I have a remedy though, get some scented tumble dryer sheets from the supermarket. (They come in a box of about 25 for less than a quid) Place one of these sheets between any one of the pages and it absorbs the smells. I gave the book to my mate Steve yesterday at the Comic Mart and he couldn't smell the tobacco smoke. The sheets are dry so don't leave a stain.

[klakadak-ploobadoof]

Here are more results of recent ebay auctions. I have included descriptions of condition as provided by sellers:

TWINKLE NO 1 1968. Unsold warehouse stock. No Writing. Near Fine condition. Winning bid: £117.00

1st edition of TWINKLE Jan 27th 1968. No free gift. No tears, writing, or folds. The staples are not rusty and as new. Winning bid: £72.00

LOOK AND LEARN NO 1 JAN 1962 with FREE GIFT. Unsold warehouse stock. Very good condition. No writing. Small bit missing from very top of cover. Free gift unused. Winning bid: £20.00

RANGER NO 1 1968 with FREE GIFT. Unsold warehouse stock. Very good+ condition. No writing. Storage fold along edge. Free gift is untouched. Winning bid: £46.50

1st edition of DIANA, 23rd Feb 1963. No free gift. No tears, writing, or folds. Winning bid: £77.00

1st edition of TIGER, Sept 11 1954. No free gift. No tears, writing, or major folds. The bottom right hand corner has been folded back some years ago, and flattened. There are two staples, and the top one has suffered with a little rusting. The other is fine. In the centre pages the rusting is barely discernible. Winning bid: £925.00

1st edition of SWIFT 20 March 1954. No free gift was given away with this comic originally. No tears, writing, or folds. This is in very good condition. Winning bid: £175.00

1st edition of LOOK AND LEARN Jan 20th 1962. Includes original free gift. No tears, writing, or folds. The staples are slightly rusty in the middle, otherwise in very good condition. Winning bid: £13.50

COR!! NO 1 1970 Unsold warehouse stock. Very Fine condition. No writing. Rare newsagents complimentary copy. No Free Gift. Winning bid: £160.00

JINTY NO 1 MAY 1974 Unsold warehouse stock. Fine+ condition. No writing. No free gift. Winning bid: £18.00

JUNE NO 1 MARCH 1961 Unsold warehouse stock. Fine+ condition. No writing. Small closed tear to bottom cover margin. Staples slightly rusty. No free gift. Winning bid: £77.00

SCORE' n' ROAR NO 1 1970 with FREE GIFT Unsold warehouse stock. Very Fine condition. No writing. Football league Tables Free Gift. Winning bid: £171.00

JET NO 1 MAY 1971 Unsold warehouse stock. Fine condition. No writing. No free gift. Winning bid: £21.99

LION NO 1 FEB 23rd 1952 Unsold warehouse stock. Near fine condition. No writing. Staples a bit rusty. No free gift. Winning bid: £87.00

MONSTER FUN NO 1 1975 with FREE GIFT PLATE WOBBLER Unsold warehouse stock. Near fine condition but staples are rusty discoloration to staple area. No writing. Winning bid: £90.00

TRACY NO 1 OCT 1979 with FREE GIFT Unsold warehouse stock. Fine + condition. No writing. Slight storage fading. Free gift badge. Winning bid: £24.00

SHIVER and SHAKE NO 1 1973 with FREE GIFT JOKE BAG Unsold warehouse stock. Fine condition but staples are rusty discoloration to staple area. No writing. Free gift joke bag. Winning bid: £127.00

SCHOOL FRIEND NO 1 MAY 20TH 1950 Unsold warehouse stock. Fine condition. No writing. Staples rusty. Winning bid: £155.00

[philcom55]

That winning bid for Tiger no.1 is frankly astonishing, though it does suggest that the first appearance of a famous character (in this case Roy of the Rovers) is more important than the title itself. I suppose a similar example from America would be Detective comics no.27 which tends to be far more desirable to collectors than no.1.

- Phil Rushton

[Lew Stringer]

It's interesting that there's so little interest in early issues of Look and Learn. £20 for No.1 with free gift? Amazingly cheap compared to the other publications. I put issue 2 up on eBay a year or two ago starting at a fiver and it didn't go. (Excellent condition, no rusty staples.) I resubmitted it again and it went very cheaply. Can't remember the exact price but I think there was only one bidder.

I suppose this just proves that people are only interested in Look and Learn for The Trigan Empire, which of course wasn't in the early issues.

[Raven]

That winning bid for Tiger no.1 is frankly astonishing ...
- Phil Rushton

I thought issue one of Hurricane going for £511 was especially surprising ...

Was someone so keen to get the first appearance of Skid Solo?

[Earl]

I had much lower bids on most of those auctions and lost. I did win a Penny 1 from the same seller that was up at the same time.

Earl.

[bubbadog]

And this phrase "unsold warehouse stock" - what exactly is that supposed to mean?

Warehoused stock would surely tend to be stored in bulk.

Does this mean a glut of 1st issue comics over the coming months? Sadly, I suspect not

[klakadak-ploobadoof]

I would suspect unsold warehouse stock means unsold comics returned by newsagents to the distributor that survived going into waste paper.

As for more of those “unsold warehouse stock” 1st issues coming up over the coming months, the possibility is quite real. It has already happened recently with WHAMpire bat free gift from WHAM! No. 15 with quite a few of them offered on ebay over a relatively short period, all described as unsold stock. Bought one myself

[Kashgar]

I remember paying £60 for my complete collection of Hurricane and my first issue of Tiger cost me £12. This was a number of years ago of course when it was still 'Sabre Toothed-Tiger' and Hurricane was nought but a light breeze!

[klakadak-ploobadoof]

Nothing overly sensational, but here are some more recent ebay auction results:

Cheeky Comic No 1 1977, with Free Gift. Not a great copy. Heavy browning to edges. Free gift excellent, and unused - ideal for pairing with a better copy of the comic. Winning bid: £37.68

School Fun Comic No 1, with Free Gift, 1983. A good copy. Light browning to edges. All pages bright and clean. Free gift excellent, and unused. Winning bid: £10.60

Pippin 1st edition 24 September 1966. With free gift (puppet glove) which has never been on a hand. This is in such good condition, it's amazing. The staples are fine, there are no tears or folds, and no writing. Winning bid: £78.00

Romeo 1st edition August 31st 1957. No free gift. No tears, folds, writing, in very good condition. Winning bid: £165.00

Mandy 1st edition Jan 21 1967. No free gift. No tears, writing, or folds. Very good condition. Winning bid: £31.00

Boys' World 1st edition 26 January 1963. No free gift. No tears, writing, or folds. It has been well read, but is still in good condition. Winning bid: £8.50. There is another copy up for auction now, but the condition appears to be much worse, and it has zero bids so far.

Tina, 1st edition Feb 25th 1967. No free gift. No tears, writing, or folds. It is in good condition. Winning bid: £31.52.

[klakadak-ploobadoof]

First issue of Sparky with free gift, both looking high grade on Ebay photo, sold for £467.33 earlier this afternoon! It looks like one of our fellow forum members no longer holds the World record of paying the highest price for the number one with free gift

A few weeks ago I was delighted to win a copy of the first edition of Sparky (without the gift) for as little as 15 quid on Ebay! Surprisingly, I was the only one who bid on it. The cover looked spotted on the photo, but having received it in the mail I can say it can be easily graded as VG/FN.

[stevezodiac]

What did the first Smash! with free gift go for - anyone?

I found the free gift that came with the first new look Smash from IPC a set of codebreaker cards in a paper sleeve like so:

[blaing]

It sold for €575

[felneymike]

Meanwhile somebody got the first issue of the re-launched Wizard for £6.05 the other day. It doesn't have the free gift but does have the envelope it was in!

[klakadak-ploobadoof]

A couple of interesting ebay auctions ended earlier today:

Valiant No. 1 in flat clean condition, with both free gifts - Football League Ladder and the Pocket Rocket unused and complete, sold for £908.00.

Wham! No. 1 in fine condition, probably unread but without free gift sold for £90.00.

Not the first issues but still of some interest:
Wham! No. 3 - £36.50
Wham! No. 4 (first appearance of Frankie Stein by Ken Reid), Wham! No. 5 and Wham! No. 6 - £21.00 each.