Set Description:
The TOP CGC Daredevil Frank Miller Era Collection currently updating and tuning up through the end of 2024...tune-up time!
Hard to make this much better unless any of the 3 missing 9.9s appear or new ones graded.
If you want Frank Miller era CGC set listing with a current census complete with SS data, comparisons to prior years census, a newsstand variant explanation, each comics valuation, the writers and artists, the storyline, with more fun history and trivia, well this Set Description it is the only one you will ever need to follow or challenge within Daredevil 158-191 issues, the First Frank Miller Daredevil era set.
It now also includes the two Spectacular Spiderman and the two What If issues Frank Miller wrote that ties into this era, now making 37 comics in this set. Also note DD 162 was removed from this a few years ago as it was not a Miller story. EVERY ISSUE IN THIS SET IS WHITE PAGES and 9.8 graded or better !!! *** Well one newly SS copy just got downgraded to an OWW grading...so I am working on a new replacement... NOW REPLACED!
This set holds 9 copies graded at 9.9. I know of no Signature issues at this lofty grade.
12 issues have 9.9. copies, with a total of 36 copies graded 9.9. I hold copies in 9 of the slots, with two copies of the 181 issue, which has 6 total 9.9s, five WPs and one OWW copy. I overlooked my chance to get the solo #188, ops, and want the solo #177 and one of the two #189s. Almost every DD issue graded 9.9 in this set will need at a minimum, $3000 to own it. I am sure some more 9.9s are out there, especially with CGCs "new" grading and many in the 180-191 still new in boxes hidden away according to urban legend...
Oh, I forgot, there is another 9.9WP copy, a solo Spectacular Spiderman #27. I have never seen it for sale.
This set also holds al 34 slots with individual 9.8WPSS copies, signed by Stan Lee, Klaus Janson, Roger McKinzie, Ed Hannigan and or Frank Miller. I have a few more in the system getting SS by Frank Miller and others as he began his new convention and autograph/sketch career. A few other SS copies are held quietly in my set at the 9.8 grading level even though I list a higher graded 9.9 issue for the registry. I try to show those 9.8 SS covers in those 9.9 issue slots in the reverse (back of the comic) photo gallery section.
There are very few Sketches seen upon comics within this set registry, and I use the SSK abbreviation (my simple version of a signature series with a SKETCH=SSK) issues are rare, but I do have one, a Sketch DD headshot on my DD 187 by Klaus Janson. Thank you Rich Henn (and Klaus Janson) for that.
Prior notes...
My Overall Census as of October 2017:
As of this date, I have 6 issues that are graded 9.9WP. Numbers 173, 181, 182, 184, 186, and 190. All are White Page copies of the best structure.
This set registry has 12 issue numbers with a 9.9 grade: issue 161, 173, 175, 177, 181 (6 copies now), 182 (2), 184 (10), 186 (6), 188, 189 (2), 190 and 191. There are 35 total comics within these 12 numbered issues that have this 9.9 grade. One more, a Spectacular Spiderman 27 also has a solo 9.9 issue. The value of these Mint comics has ranged from $600 to nearly $3000 dollars. This number of 9.9 copies has NOT changed in nearly 2 years!
Some of these issues I have bought or witnessed sold, some I have never seen on the market. I have never had one of my own personal DD CGC submissions EVER get a 9.9 grade. I thought I had it at issue 189 within a PGX grading, so I submitted it to CGC and the CGC folks disagreed... It was very very pretty...
The balance of my set, the remaining 31 issues, are graded 9.8. By my last count there were about 16,000 plus DD Miller Era issues graded at this 9.8 level, all page colors. The census today seems to grow at about 400 new 9.8 comics per year within this set.
And a intro thought about page colors. These issues are getting old enough to start dropping from WP into the OWW color spectrum, especially if the comic is improperly stored or in a hot locker. Don't expect every newly slabbed issue used for a SS attempt to get an automatic repeat WP designation. They don't. Look and plan carefully.
The same thought can be applied to a re-grading (after a SS) of a older 9.8 comic into our modern world. With modern pressing, and CGC's own in house restoration unit, even the slightest un-pressed corner touch may downgrade your precious 9.8 investment to a 9.6 grade and a loss. I have had it happen nearly a dozen times now, and it ruins your whole day. So if you use a prior slabbed 9.8 comic, inspect them very very carefully (or have a pro do it) before you pop that baby for a SS and the re-grade.
Wow, and all of this is a long way from when I was 12 years old buying comics!!
***From the newstand on the corner of Ventura Blvd and Valley Vista Drive, Sherman Oaks, CA.*** That makes me a REAL "Valley Boy".
In about 1966 the three of us became friends and comics became our summer escape. We all worked odd jobs to purchase our marvel comics, we were not DC fans. Our parents hated comics so we shared them in our tree-house. We each had our favorite, with ASM, Thor and Avengers our first picks. Since we were a few years late in getting number one issues, we had to beg a ride to the nearest comic book store which was in N. Hollywood, where I bought my Avengers #2 for $10 bucks....because I didn't have the $15 for number a #1 !!! Wow. But I picked up an Xmen #4 with the last 3 bucks in my pocket!! LOL. I had it SS by Stan Lee and graded a few years ago.
The ONLY thing I regret is we never took care of the comics like I do today. Within a few years I had nearly 1000 issues, and they finally got bagged and boarded ONLY after I decided to switch to Playboy instead of X-Men or Silver Surfer, and only to organize my modern room better. And my folks still hated them.
I finally settled on Daredevil as my main collectable...which originally was from my description comments I used in my set 1-310 regarding "getting the girl but never keeping her". This seemed to be the classic Daredevil and Me!
You have to understand this was a young man thing...
Meanwhile Frank Frazetta and Jim Steranko could only distract me so much, Hugh Hefner did the rest. Thanks Hugh. Wish I had bagged and boarded those Playboys too.
In College I actually submitted a report on Investing in Comic Books for a business class (based on investing in Howard the Duck #1, now worth over $1k in 9.8WP), and got an A. That was in 1979. I should have bought 10 copies.
My first CGC grading of my own personal comics was in 2008 and it showed me for every 15 comics I had collected only one would grade at 9.8, a few at 9.6, and the rest between 8.0 and 9.4. Bags and boards folks. Bags and boards.
So by the time I wanted to collect this group of Miller Daredevil comics, most of them had to be purchased as very visual high grades or actually 9.8 graded issues. This Frank Miller era was the high point within the Daredevil collecting world. No other era (except some key issues within the silver age, or my Walking Dead sketches copies) have accumulated value as quickly as these issues in this set. Very rapidly I also discovered a White Page issue was a far better investment than a OWW or lesser issue, So over the last 5 years this collection has been slowly completed...with many doubles ...as I looked everywhere as an DD addict for the best one(s).
If you throw in the rarer "Newstand" variant you will have to try to complete almost TWO sets.
And getting the rare Stan Lee signature, or even the hard to get Janson signature has been overshadowed by the recent Frank Miller signatures, and now he attends select conferences and is even doing sketches! But his price is steep, even rock bottom deals will cost you (now) $150 for Miller, $100 for Stan and $30 for Janson. Miller's sketches are over $1500 each! A few other artists and writers are equally hard to get at any price. So with the Signature copies, you now have THREE sets to complete.
Then toss in the popularity of the recent Netflix TV series, the value of Daredevil Miller era comics has risen anew. This has also dragged up the value of Elektra, Punisher, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and other Marvel heroes leading to a new "Defenders" TV series...although it has nothing to do with the characters in that original Marvel comic.
So in the meanwhile my comments on each issue attempt to explain, with a bit of history, the storyline of Daredevils world.
And I am always looking for a few better issues, I am NOT done yet!.
...to the dedicated readers I have included a pretty accurate Price Range of what each issue will cost you at the 9.8WP grade in June, 2017, with the last known CGC Census count for each at 9.8, with some SS and 9.9 counts and comments too.
Finally, the Mathematical NUMBERS for Maximum CGC points. And I am way to tired tonight to do all the numbers again, so basically, my set can be beat. ...But, you are going to have to work at it hard AND be very lucky. It will take a number of 9.9's in the Key issues to score enough points to move past me.
Unrelated and related, the value of Newstands Variants. These issues are surely harder to collect in high grade. I am trying to isolate and make a separate set, AND I have decided to try NOT to use these for SS candidates, unless copious copies abound. My individual sets explain each individual issue.
I also have photographed each comic over my visits on different color construction paper, blue labels on blue paper, yellow labels on yellow paper, etc. This just highlights the label and makes it easier to see. I say visits as I live in the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific, and my set is locked up in the USA. I visit it and my kids and my comics once a year.
Finally, the Netflix series has done very well and Daredevil is very popular again. Maybe this has also driven Frank Miller out of seclusion, but nevertheless his attendance at Conventions doing signings and sketches has also stimulated the characters popularity and Daredevil comic book values.
I am both an investor and a collector, and I do have a hard time at moments determining which is which. But this set is truly a labor of love, and these written details support my study of the character and collecting. I do hope you enjoy reading through all my written babbling and it gives you information you can also use in your own collecting or investing world!
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or 9.9 copies I don't have for sale...Smile.
Matt Holly
A Real Valley Boy
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