| Slot: |
Action Comics 683 |
| Item: |
Action Comics #683 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
0230981030
|
Owner Comments
Of all the Doomsday cameos I enjoy this cover the most. The realism is amazing and the moon is haunting in the background! I really enjoyed all four cameos of Doomsday punching his way out of containment. There have been a couple of these on eBay asking over $3K... I don't understand what is driving that asking price (or if anyone will ever pay it) but it makes me glad I got mine long ago.
On 25 May 2020 an eBay auction of this book ended with a final price of $210.37 with 48 bids (9 bidders), another 9.8 ended on 1 June 2020 for BIN $249.99 so I guess these two sales answer the three thousand dollar question posed above.
The second image is of a piece of original art I picked up in a ComicLink auction. I chose to put it with this book because it is first in the gallery and I wanted this original piece of art to also come first when viewing this set. If I am correct, this piece pre-dates even these Doomsday cameos.
The top half of the image is the page, and the lower half is a blowup of the stamp that is on the back of the artwork. If you look closely at the artwork you can see where this stamp is located, just above and on the reverse side of Dan Jurgen's signature. Aside from the image being super-cool, the stamp on the back says 'Special Projects Dept' and has the date 3/22. I can only assume this may be 3/22/1992 but I am not 100 percent certain. The project name is 'Style Guide/Doomsday Model Sheet' so I am (again) assuming by the date and the facts concerning the way it is referred to that this was done to ensure all artists drew Doomsday consistently throughout all of the titles, and must have been done before the story hit shelves. Janice Walker is currently Senior Art Director at DC and I am pretty sure the initials 'MC' are for Mike Carlin. If you are reading this and know anything else about dating this piece I'd love to hear from you. The information on the edge of the page is actually light blue like pretty much any other original comic art page but comes out closer to gray/black in pictures.
Here's the info from the ComicLink listing:
DOOMSDAY STYLE GUIDE
Section: For Sale / Original Comic Art / Miscellaneous / DAN JURGENS
Primary Artist Name: DAN JURGENS
Secondary Artist Name: BRETT BREEDING
Dimensions: This art is executed on standard 11" x 17" art board and has an image area of approximately 11" x 9".
Item description:
Illustrated by the Famous Superman Killer's Creator
ComicLink Comments:
Doomsday was created by Superman artist/writer Dan Jurgens in 1992 and first appeared in Superman: Man of Steel #18. He's the creature that famously killed Superman in the best-selling "Death of Superman" saga that culminated in Superman #75. When DC decided to kill Superman, long time fans realized it would not stick, but the general public was completely sucked in by the story and sales jumped to over a million copies. It was the first time in years that many people bought a comic book and it touched off a whole new era of collecting. The aftermath of the "Death of Superman" was huge, with sales on subsequent issues going through the roof. Doomsday became an important part of the Superman mythos following this huge event, and the character has returned several times over the years. He even kills Superman in the high profile 2016 movie, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 683 Second Printing |
| Item: |
Action Comics #683 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2095335003
|
Owner Comments
This is one-third of the first copies of this book to ever achieve 9.8, all three were graded on 7 April 2020 and were from my own submission!
Of the three, I added this one to this set because its certification number is lowest... if these books were identical triplets this one entered the world first!
This book was the last of the four Doomsday cameo second printings that I needed graded 9.8 and was a grail of mine for quite some time. I always looked at the four cameo books as their own small set within this set and their second printings are an even cooler set within the set within the set. I already owned Adventures of Superman 496 and Superman: Man of Steel 17 second printings in 9.8 and had no problem finding them already graded. The other two were a different story though; there was only one Superman 73 and zero Action Comics 683 second printings in 9.8 so I knew I'd be doing some hunting if I wanted them. Relatively early in my efforts, I was really happy to get a Superman 73 second printing back 9.8 from one of my own submissions (I only paid $6.79 for that one raw!).
I had previously submitted two copies of this book (I paid $99.95 and $20.00 for those) but the best I got back was a 9.6, which previously occupied this slot. I had considered resubmitting it but was afraid it may not upgrade, or worse, come back lower. I instead decided to hang onto it while looking for other raw candidates. The 9.6 was still the highest graded at the time so it wasn't the worst book in the world!
Almost immediately after getting the 9.6 back I found the three that are now 9.8’s in three separate listings from the same seller on eBay. The seller sold comics but I would not consider them a comic book dealer because they dealt in many other things as well. It was just very fortunate that I found these listings because these copies were each in lots of 8-10 books and were not listed as anything special among them. I only found them because I was so disappointed in my book coming back 9.6 that I was feverishly (yes, feverishly) going through listings looking for other copies. In fact, in the listing pics all I could see was the very clean spine of the book sticking out from under another book... when I spotted the roman numeral I quickly bought the first lot for $30.00 and then checked the seller’s other listings. They had two other lots that also each contained a copy of this second printing, so I bought them as well. I communicated with the seller and they checked their stock for a few other books I needed but I had no luck there. I also explained what I had planned for the books and they assured me they would be packed well, and they were. When they arrived the AC 683 second printings were the gems of the bunch! It looked like whoever owned them put them straight in bags and boards when new.
I was confident two of the three were 9.8’s but the third would be close. I sent all three through CCS and am obviously ecstatic that all three came back 9.8. It's kind of crazy if you think about it... in one day the census went from zero to three 9.8's of a book over 27 years old when graded. I'm glad I found them and not someone just interested in making a buck.
This book proves that persistence can pay off and that there are still some really good books out there waiting to be found after almost 30 years… you just have to want to find them bad enough.
I included a picture of all three of the 9.8’s in the second picture. Check out the sequential certification numbers… pretty cool! When I got the three raw books looking as good as they did, I promised a friend of mine a 9.8 if I got more that one because I knew that he also really enjoyed this book. I've since sent that book off but will be keeping the other two.
I have included a picture of all four of the second printings of the Doomsday cameos in the Adventures of Superman 496 second printing picture slot… check it out!
|
| Slot: |
Action Comics 684 |
| Item: |
Action Comics #684 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
0958766015
|
Owner Comments
I always felt that the art on this cover seemed almost separate from the rest of the series. The lines seemed lighter and it has more of a colored sketch feel to it. I'm not saying that I don't like it, just that it feels different from the rest of the books in this series continuity-wise.
I really like the Metropolis sign in the background and the fact that it indicates Doomsday is getting closer to those closest to Superman!
This is one of the first books that I had already graded 9.8, and originally registered when I started this set. I can't say exactly when I got this book but I would have gotten it off of eBay as that was pretty much the extent of my collecting at the time. I didn't really expand my searches to places like ComicLink or My Comic Shop until I started to more aggressively work on completing this set.
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 684 Second Printing |
| Item: |
Action Comics #684 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2028182023
|
Owner Comments
"There can be only One..." Kurgan
... at least for now. This was the first Action Comics 684 second printing graded, and it is a 9.8! This was also my first experience having a one and only book from this set. I spotted this on eBay and worried over it for five days until the auction was about to close. I had been looking for raw copies and was watching about half a dozen different ones when this popped up for sale. It seems relatively easy to find raw but one can never tell the condition until it arrives in the mail. Needless to say, I felt that paying a premium for this book was worth alleviating myself from the continued search for a raw example that may or may not grade at 9.8. I ended up bidding what I thought was a ridiculous price thinking it would sell for around $120.00 - $160.00. I ended up winning it at $304.01... worth it!
Books like this confuse me. When I started this set I only meant to collect the Doomsday storyline from the cameos up to Superman 75 (all variants but not the later printings), as well as the Adventures of Superman 500 (all variants) and the Platinum TPB. When I had those, I registered my set only to find out it also included the Funeral and Reign stories as well as a ton of subsequent printings, DC Universe logo variants, etc... I had only begun! My confusion is that I have a hard time understanding how, after all these years, that at least one each of all of these books hasn't already been graded. It also blows my mind that this one ends up being graded just to be sold, rather than kept in a collection. That's just crazy in my opinion!
Confused or not, I'm really happy to have it!
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 684 Third Printing |
| Item: |
Action Comics #684 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
1218701020
|
Owner Comments
I had my eye on this on eBay for quite awhile as the listing ended and was relisted multiple times. I had been waiting for the price to drop but it never did. It ended up that my Wife surprised me with an early Father's Day gift budget and I was able to make offers on this one and also a Superman 74 fourth printing. I made what I thought were fair offers on both to different sellers and they both accepted within an hour of each other. I am really happy to have gotten this book for what I feel was a fair price of $275.00, even if it still wasn't cheap. I have had a pretty nice raw copy sitting in the queue for awhile waiting for it's turn to be sent to CCS and CGC. I may still send it in to see how it does but for now I can rest easy with this book in my collection.
When I took the second picture it was the only place in the World that you could see all three of these printings together graded, let alone all in 9.8 with white pages. Only time will tell how long this stays the case.
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 685 |
| Item: |
Action Comics #685 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2032265017
|
Owner Comments
I won this book on eBay for $62.00 which I think is pretty good considering there were two others listed at the time with buy it now prices over $150.00. My set was at 52 percent when I bought this book, I also had 20 books at CGC and 11 others sitting on my shelf waiting to be submitted after those came back. This was one I did not have, either at CGC or on the shelf, so I was looking for it. I'm glad to have gotten it for a good price!
The book in the second image came with the one that started it all... this reprint was included with the TPB my Mom sent me back in 1992. After finally getting all of my stuff out of storage and driving it cross-country, I submitted this book to CGC via CCS. Grade date on this book is 19 November 2018... 25 Years, 10 months, and 26 days from when I first freed it from the shrink wrap, and well before I would have considered myself a collector. My Mom, having passed in 2012, may have been looking over the grader's shoulder when this one was graded!
I think Action Comics 685 is a great homage in the wake of Superman's death.
|
| Slot: |
Action Comics 685 Second Printing |
| Item: |
Action Comics #685 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
0191861004
|
Owner Comments
From the 'NO ONE CAN KILL SUPERMAN!' collection.
I had found several raw copies of this book but had no luck finding any worthy of submission. I also did not have one ready to submit when I was able to get the copy you see here. Even more exciting than getting this book at all, was the fact that I was able to get the third printing at the same time fo finish up all three printings of this book.
I really love this cover and think it was a great idea to use Supergirl to recreate the cover of Action Comics #1 during this storyline while Superman was presumably dead.
|
| Slot: |
Action Comics 685 Third Printing |
| Item: |
Action Comics #685 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
0191861005
|
Owner Comments
From the 'NO ONE CAN KILL SUPERMAN!' collection.
I was able to get this copy as well as the second printing at the same time from one very awesome fellow collector. At the time, I had a raw copy that I had very high hopes for waiting to go in with my next submission. When I got the chance to buy this book, my raw copy immediately came out of my submission stack to make space for other books. I have commented before on how I enjoy the title color changes on the various books and this one is no exception. This book has title colors that are more earthy in tone, which is different from the rest in the set, but they work very well with the art.
In the second picture slot I have included a picture of all three printings together… very cool!
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 686 |
| Item: |
Action Comics #686 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
1335515003
|
Owner Comments
I liked the black border on all of the Funeral for a Friend books and the way they were numbered across the top. The black border does make high grade copies very hard to find though, especially of the later printings which are hard enough to find to begin with! As I said in my set description, if I only knew then what I know now... I would have done a much better job of collecting the later printings when they were sold new. That definitely would have saved me a lot of time and money but it wouldn't have been as fun as it is to be on the hunt for them now!
I won this book on eBay for $87.00.
This version of Supergirl visually reminds me of Helen Slater as Supergirl, particularly the colors of her suit as they appear under the night sky of this cover. I attached a signed photo I have of Helen Slater as Supergirl that I got about 20 years ago for comparison. I don't know if this similarity was intentional, a mistake, or maybe it's just my imagination. Either way, I think it's kinda cool.
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 686 Second Printing |
| Item: |
Action Comics #686 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.4 |
| Cert #: |
2101154003
|
Owner Comments
“e·nig·ma - noun - a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.” Dictionary
This book is from my own submission and replaced a 9.6 Restored Label book that I had submitted previously.
I decided to add the restored book and one other, at a time when I was down to my last two empty slots before being at 100 percent completion. I had one last criterion that I required myself to meet before I could add those and that was that I had to have another raw copy of the same book submitted to CGC before doing so. I had this book submitted when I temporarily added the 9.6 Restored Label. While working on this set, I collected and gathered raw books from many different sources. As a result, I had several books that I submitted return with color touch restoration, this was a huge (and expensive) learning experience. The other restored book, Superman 76 second printing, has now been replaced with a 9.8 Universal Label book that I submitted myself, and which I personally opened from its collector's pack ensuring it had not been altered! Now that I have this 9.4 Universal Label book, I plan on resubmitting the 9.6 for restoration removal and regrading. Even if it comes back lower it will be free from alteration, which will be cool.
Now onto the 9.4 you see here... I bought this book raw for $125.00 on eBay knowing that it would probably grade right about where you see it here. When it arrived, I felt that it was one case where the book was even better looking in person than what was shown in the listing. I still didn't think it was 9.8 material, but I stuck it right back in the bag and board and mailed it off to CCS immediately. I'm glad it graded where it did. Although it's a gamble buying raw books I think this was a good price considering what people seem to be asking for the graded copies of this particular book.
Now onto this printing overall... I opened this description with the definition of enigma and that is how I see this book right now. Last year the lone 9.8 of this book in the census at the time sold for around $800.00... about a year later there are now four 9.8's and this book is no longer anywhere near the rarest graded DC Universe logo book in this set. When my 9.4 was graded there were three CGC copies on eBay that popped up in this order; an 8.5 listed for $249.99, a 9.4 for $499.99, and finally a 9.8 for $3,000.00. These seem to be serious cases of people attempting to take advantage of others. As I built this set I witnessed it with flippers winning an item only to re-list it for double the price, and this same mentality seems to be present here, except it's much more than double.
Enigma... can a modern book multiply in the census by 400% while sellers simultaneously ask increasingly escalated and ridiculous prices for it? Maybe the answer to that question is in my description for Action Comics 683 where there were listings asking over $3K for that book while two recent sales barely broke $200.00. We will have to see what the future holds for this book... I believe it is definitely worth more than $200.00 but will it continue to be an enigma? Will sellers continue to feel free to ask what seem to be completely unreasonable prices trying to cash in on the few people that really love these books while the census continues to grow? I say love these books because someone paying such a premium for a book with this type of data available is definitely buying with their heart and not their head.
As much as I personally love these books I have to keep a little bit of my head in the game. Yes, it would be nice to have a 9.8 of this book (or whatever your goal is) but it would be no fun looking at it and remembering that you got completely taken advantage of when buying it. I much prefer transactions when both the buyer and the seller are reasonably happy.
Enjoy my 9.4... I believe I paid a fair price for it raw and am glad I can say I submitted it myself and am pleased with the grade. You can't ask for much more that that in this hobby!
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 687 |
| Item: |
Action Comics #687 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2054669016
|
Owner Comments
From my original raw collection (second copy).
I picked this book up for $60.00 BIN on eBay. It was just two days after I won Superman 74 third printing so I was going to take a break for awhile. At the time I had been seeing the first printings from the set going for around $120.00 BIN on average. I also had a copy of my own submitted to CGC at the time. Even with the submission pending this price seemed really good to guarantee a 9.8 for this set.
A week after buying this book my submission went into scheduled for grading and moved pretty fast into finalized shipped, at which time I found out that my submission of this book was also graded at 9.8! I'm pretty happy about that because that book was one of several from my original collection that also received a 9.8. I've included both books in the second picture.
|
| Slot: |
Action Comics 687 Collector's Edition |
| Item: |
Action Comics #687 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
1261119002
|
Owner Comments
These die cut covers were my first introduction to multiple covers for the same book. I liked that only the S of that particular Superman imposter was showing through. The fact that there were four new Supermen was pretty intriguing at the time. In this case, The Eradicator was a pretty ruthless Supes that took no prisoners!
I got this book off of eBay for $39.99, which I think was a very fair price. I remember feeling like I had struck gold when I found the whole raw set of these four die-cut covered books in a Comic Book Shop in Savannah, Georgia in 1993. It was so fun back then to travel to different places, and find new stores to explore, looking for treasures.
I included a cool Eradictor figure in the second slot. This is from the early days of DC Direct, and is from The Return of Superman line. I remember my Wife and I picked up the entire set at a Comic Book Shop in the mall in Oceanside, California. These were pretty hot at the time and we just got lucky by stumbling in when they had just been put on the pegs.
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 688 |
| Item: |
Action Comics #688 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2041066005
|
Owner Comments
From my original raw collection.
When I started the real work on building this set in CGC 9.8 this is one of the books that I had in my long boxes from the '90's. I sent this in with a stack of 20 books and ended up with 14 9.8's! Not too bad for hanging onto these for all those years. Also not bad considering that when I originally got these books back in the '90's I had no intention of ever sending them to a third party grader, I just wanted the nicest looking copies I could find.
I was never a huge fan of Guy Gardner, or his bowl cut, but I think that it was a great idea to include as many DC characters in this storyline as possible to illustrate the impact of these events throughout the entire DC Universe. Very nice vibrant cover!
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 689 |
| Item: |
Action Comics #689 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2041066007
|
Owner Comments
From my original raw collection.
To me, this cover has a strange science fiction vibe to it. It isn't one of my favorite covers but I do like the mysterious aspect of it. It would be really cool to have an actual floating chair like that!
Who is watching the Supermen? Or rather... ‘he awakes!’
This was also one of the books from my original collection of this set. You don't see it come up very often so I am glad that I took care of it and that it came back 9.8!
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| Slot: |
Action Comics 690 |
| Item: |
Action Comics #690 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2110952007
|
Owner Comments
The Man of Tomorrow Makes His Move!
This book replaced a 9.6 that was from my original raw collection. This set was already 100 percent complete but this book was the 90th book to reach at least 9.8 (I have one 9.9) out of the 98 total books in this set. I was really excited to be able to break the 90 books graded at 9.8 mark. It was also the second to the last first printing that I needed in 9.8 from this entire set. The last first printing I need as of this writing is Adventures of Superman 498, which is ironically how I ended up adding this book.
Over the last couple years working really hard on this set I have never seen an Adventures of Superman 498 first printing pop up for sale anywhere. As far as books from this set go, it’s not a rare book at all but I guess the people that do have it are hanging onto it. On 22 December 2019 I posted a WTB post on the CGC forums looking for a 498 first printing graded 9.8. I ended up finally getting a reply on 31 January 2020 from a member that had just bought a collection of 1700 ‘90’s era raw books. He had a really nice copy that he offered to submit for me. I asked him about a few other books I needed at the time and he also had this Action Comics 690. The Adventures of Superman 498 looked incredible and seemed to be a sure thing while we were not as certain about this book coming back 9.8.
I agreed to buy them both if they came back 9.8 and he submitted them for pressing and grading. On 23 April 2020 we finally got the grades and this book earned a 9.8 while the 498 received a 9.2 with no grader notes! This was good news mixed with bad but I am going to look at the glass half full… as much as I hoped to finish out all four printings of Adventures of Superman 498 in 9.8, it is also pretty cool to finish out the entire Reign of the Supermen all in 9.8. On the really bright side, as of this writing, this book makes a total of 10 (all labels) 9.8 copies of Action Comics 690 while there are a total of 23 (including one Qualified) 9.8’s of the 498 first printing; this book is actually more than twice as rare and I’m really glad to have it! Sometimes things work out a certain way for a reason and when I do add the Adventures of Superman 498 first printing in 9.8 it will be in good company!
Many thanks go out to KryptoSpidey for his help with this book.
Update - the Adventures of Superman 498 first printing was finally added thanks to the help of another board member... check it out there!
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