First appearance of Wolverine, ‘Incredible Hulk 181’ sells for price of car
When Nolan (Canova) and I discussed bringing some comic news to the PCR, I didn’t know where to start. The industry has changed so much in the last couple of years with Joe Quesada taking over at Marvel, let alone the last ten or twenty years.Then the answer was right in front of me in the current issue of Wizard (the most popular comic book price guide). The article was discussing Incredible Hulk # 181 that was CGC (Comic Guaranty LLC) at 9.8 and sold online for $19,100.
Whoa.
So, let’s review. Hulk #181 is the first appearance of the uber-popular X-men Wolverine and has skyrocketed to a list price of over $1000. Now, comic grading (which I’ll discuss more in a minute) has resulted in only one issue at 9.9 and two at 9.8. The X2 movie was awesome and the Hulk hits the big screen on June 20 but is the second or third best copy of Wolverine’s battle with the Wendigo and the big green worth the price of a car? Wolverine wore yellow tights and had whiskers on his mask for the love of Pete!
Like I said, the industry has changed. It’s not 1974 anymore and that “feral of fury” has become the most popular character in the X-universe. As with professional grading of sports cards, there is a “grade” up to the level of 10.0 (pristine). The problem lies with the art and story that becomes inaccessible once your comic is graded. Enclosed in a tamper-proof plastic case, the “professional grade” is maintained and the comic is essentially dead. I guess that’s why it’s being called “slabbed”.
Well Bub, I’d rather have nineteen thousand bones than a “slabbed” copy of Wolvie’s first appearance.
Continue reading – Part 2 HERE
NOTE: This was the first blog post I wrote for Crazedfanboy back in 2003 – BBJ, The Dispatch
