UPDATED: Comic price guides - the early years

Before Duncan McAlpine's enormous '90s price guides to British comics there were some earlier, less well-known publications. Updated in red, below.

Here's the earliest one...published by Alan Austin in 1975...this covers US comic distributed in the UK after 1959 (before this distribution was too sporadic or non-existent). For comparison purposes let's track the price of one issues in all these volumes to see how prices changed, let's pick the first appearance of Spiderman in Amazing Fantasy #15 (mint condition) valued at £15.

There was also this volume from 1976

These volumes seemed to go through a number of editions (hence why the purchase prices vary on these two volumes). This is the 4th edition and is undated. 

These volumes seemed to go through a number of editions (hence why the purchase prices vary on these two volumes). This is from February 1979 and Amazing Fantasy is up to £120. 

Chronologically next up is Denis Gifford's effort - although his effort is clearly focused on British comics and should be seen as a pre-cursor for his later catalogues

Alan Austin then came back in 1983 with an updated comic guide. Amazing Fantasy #15 is now up to £300

Now we can add 'The 1979 Ferret price guide' into the mix as well! I've shamelessly taken all these images from collector Frank Motler (who posted them on the 'London Loves comics' Facebook group). Good luck hunting these rarities down, I've certainly never seem them before.

UPDATED: Comic price guides - the early years

Before Duncan McAlpine's enormous '90s price guides to British comics there were some earlier, less well-known publications

Here's the earliest one...published by Alan Austin in 1975...this covers US comic distributed in the UK after 1959 (before this distribution was too sporadic or non-existent). For comparison purposes let's track the price of one issues in all these volumes to see how prices changed, let's pick the first appearance of Spiderman in Amazing Fantasy #15 (mint condition) valued at £15.

These volumes seemed to go through a number of editions (hence why the purchase prices vary on these two volumes). This is the 4th edition and is undated. 

These volumes seemed to go through a number of editions (hence why the purchase prices vary on these two volumes). This is from February 1979 and Amazing Fantasy is up to £120. 

Chronologically next up is Denis Gifford's effort - although his effort is clearly focused on British comics and should be seen as a pre-cursor for his later catalogues

Alan Austin then came back in 1983 with an updated comic guide. Amazing Fantasy #15 is now up to £300

Now we can add 'The 1979 Ferret price guide' into the mix as well! I've shamelessly taken all these images from collector Frank Motler (who posted them on the 'London Loves comics' Facebook group). Good luck hunting these rarities down, I've certainly never seem them before.

UPDATED: Price guide updates

Updates in red, below

I've looked before (here) at British versions of comic price guides. My previous post looked at the earliest guides that were published, today it's a look at two comic price 'magazines'.

Both were published by Duncan McAlpine as 'interim' publications in between his annual price guides.

I've known about the first update magazine (below) for a long time but I'd never even seen a copy until one popped up on ebay the other day.

Cover art is by David Braysher (coloured by Bryan Marks) - A4 sized, full colour cover but black & white interior pages. For your £1.50 you get 64 pages of updated price for comics, 20 pages of adverts, commentary from comic shop owners on the state of the market and a long list of first appearances. From the peak of the comic speculator boom you can re-visit such titles as Harbinger #1 and ask yourself why is was worth £65 at the time (having been worth £3 the year before).

The 2nd (and final) version of the price guide update looks like this...

Cover art is by Dave Dorman. Same sort of format as before but a few pages of colour art inside, a guide to grading comics and a Comic Speculator News section.

There's also an interesting advert on page 118...

...for signed & hand-stamped plus numbered editions of the price guides. I've never seen any of these before - can anyone share any images etc. of what these editions look like?  

UPDATE: Here's what one of the 'signed and hand-stamped' editions actually looked like...

It's currently for sale on ebay here

Charlie Adlard comic adverts

I looked (here) at The comic book price guide update for 1992/3...

...and I spotted this ad in it...

...and I wondered if this piece was by Charlie Adlard...

...as you can see the signature is a bit indistinct...

But then I looked at the sister volume (for 1993/94) to see if that could help me in any way...

...and I spotted this advert - which is also for TimeZone comic shop - and this time the signature is much clearer and is clearly Charlie's. It also convinces me the piece from the 1992/3 is also by Charlie Adlard - albeit with a slightly whited out signature.

I've looked at Charlie's (early) work before - check out all other instances on the blog here

UPDATED: Price guide updates

I've looked before (here) at British versions of comic price guides. My previous post looked at the earliest guides that were published, today it's a look at two comic price 'magazines'.

Both were published by Duncan McAlpine as 'interim' publications in between his annual price guides.

I've known about the first update magazine (below) for a long time but I'd never even seen a copy until one popped up on ebay the other day.

Cover art is by David Braysher (coloured by Bryan Marks) - A4 sized, full colour cover but black & white interior pages. For your £1.50 you get 64 pages of updated price for comics, 20 pages of adverts, commentary from comic shop owners on the state of the market and a long list of first appearances. From the peak of the comic speculator boom you can re-visit such titles as Harbinger #1 and ask yourself why is was worth £65 at the time (having been worth £3 the year before).

The 2nd (and final) version of the price guide update looks like this...

Cover art is by Dave Dorman. Same sort of format as before but a few pages of colour art inside, a guide to grading comics and a Comic Speculator News section.

There's also an interesting advert on page 118...

...for signed & hand-stamped plus numbered editions of the price guides. I've never seen any of these before - can anyone share any images etc. of what these editions look like?  

OK, so I've spotted a "signed and hand-stamped" edition of price guide #1

...so I'm still looking for examples of the "signed and numbered" versions of the guides. 

This is for sale here if you're interested

Comic price guides - the early years

Before Duncan McAlpine's enormous '90s price guides to British comics there were some earlier, less well-known publications

Here's the earliest one...published by Alan Austin in 1975...this covers US comic distributed in the UK after 1959 (before this distribution was too sporadic or non-existent). For comparison purposes let's track the price of one issues in all these volumes to see how prices changed, let's pick the first appearance of Spiderman in Amazing Fantasy #15 (mint condition) valued at £15.

These volumes seemed to go through a number of editions (hence why the purchase prices vary on these two volumes). This is the 4th edition and is undated. 

These volumes seemed to go through a number of editions (hence why the purchase prices vary on these two volumes). This is from February 1979 and Amazing Fantasy is up to £120. 

Chronologically next up is Denis Gifford's effort - although his effort is clearly focussed on British comics and should be seen as a pre-cursor for his later catalogues

Alan Austin then came back in 1983 with an updated comic guide. Amazing Fantasy #15 is now up to £300

According to my notes there was another price guide for 1979 (priced at 75p) but I can't seem to identify it - do you have a copy? Are there are other price guides that I've missed? Leave a comment here or on facebook.