The book is called THE STANDARD CATALOG
OF COMIC BOOKS (ISBN 0-87341-916-2), and is written by the same people
who edits and publishes COMIC BUYERS GUIDE. It is a little expensive
at $34.95, but it's worth it if you're a collector as it is a good price
guide and checklist, and for the fact that it's 1237 pages long.
Although, in most guides, they do tend to
miss certain variant comics and/or just plain inaccurate. I just
checked the 31st Edition to OVERSTREET'S COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE, which
is the latest version, and it still lists DARK HORSE #50 as having a Pérez story (see "Settlements").
Anyway, in addition to a summary of some
titles, SCCB also list, in some cases, Diamond Preorder numbers and
Capital City's order numbers. What I found very interesting is that THE NEW TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT TP
is quite rare! According to this book, Capital City only received and
shipped 2,500 copies (note this number does not include Diamond
Distribution).
Compare this number to some other, like ACTION COMICS #643 (Capital City: 35,100), BATMAN #400 (Capital City: 27,650), THE NEW TITANS #50 (Capital City: 18,750), PRIME #15 (Capital City: 14,450), CRISIS #3 (Capital City: 42,050),
CRIMSON PLAGUE #2 (Diamond Preorders: 23,680), and
WONDER WOMAN #168 (Diamond Preorders: 27,185).
I am saving the last bit for AVENGERS #1 (vol 3), which they listed the following:
AVENGERS #1 (vol 3)
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AVENGERS #1 (vol 3)
Circulation Statement: 166,903
Diamond Preorders: 194,439
Statement, filed 10/1/97,; avg print run 209,391; avg sales 163,342;
avg subs 2,704; avg total paid 166,046; samples 270; office use 125;
max existent 166,441; 21% of run returned
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The book was actually designed as a price guide, but I mostly find the
circulation statements more interesting than the actual list value.
Personally, I always think a value of a comic book is based on the
buyer's wants and needs (not dictated by a book). I disagree with some
of the prices on the catalogue - just like you'd find WIZARD's pricing
ridiculous.
The induction of Comics Guaranty LLC
(CGC) in the price guide, I find a little annoying. I don't believe in
CGC and I find the people buying them at extraordinary prices a little
crazy. For about $600 for a perfect "10"
SPAWN #1, you
can get a pretty cool three figures unique George Pérez artwork, or
heck, get yourself a new digital camera. Basically, the guide lists how
many comics were CGC'ed and what the highest number it got. For
instance, INHUMANS #1
there were 32 sent in to be graded and the best of the lot is a grade
of 9.6.
According to this guide, we're supposed to multiply 7 to its worth
(which is valued at $8), so a CGC 9.6 INHUMANS #1 should fetch about
$56.
As always, opinions expressed here are strictly my own. Buy this book, it's worth it!