The Brother Man Test
Finding the Best Price Guide for Black Comic Book Collectors
One of the first obstacles to Black Comic Book collecting I’ve experienced has been finding a reliable source to price and value Black Comic Books in my collection.
There are several reliable online resources as well as the renowned Overstreet Price Guide. However, I’ve learned that most of these platforms don’t have accurate information for our most coveted comics.
Several of these titles have not been added to these databases. Furthermore, values for our comics vary widely from platform to platform. Due in large part to low print runs and unconventional distribution (headshops, Black Bookstores, self-publishing, etc.)
In search of a trusted resource for my collection I performed an experiment I call the “Brotherman Test”.
The test is simple. I used each platform to find the Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline #1 (April 1990, First Printing) by Dawud Anyabwele and Guy Sims, and recorded the details each platform provided.
Brother Man: Dictator of Discipline
Published in 1990, Brother Man ushered in the era known as the Black Age of Comics (1990-1999). This era produced comics such as Static, Icon (Milestone, 1993) and Purge (1993).
It’s been my experience that platforms with close to accurate details for the price and value of this groundbreaking Black comic typically have similar titles in their database. Making it a valuable resource for Black comic book collectors.
However, this is by no means a sure thing and I still find myself uploading accurate information to these platforms manually.
The platforms I tested include: Cvrprice.com, Comicspriceguide.com, Gocollect.com, Comicbookrealm.com, the Key Collector app, Overstreetaccess.com
I’ve listed each of these platforms below with notes on what I found.
From my experience, a raw copy of Brother Man #1 (First Printing), in near mint condition (NM), goes for at least $50 and $85 or more graded. Also, it’s important to note that this first printing is very valuable and hard to find (HTF) due to low print runs and limited distribution. The purpose of this test is to see how close these pricing guides come to this benchmark. It’s also helpful to find CGC census data if available. The CGC records the number of books that were available in print and compares this to the number of books recently graded or sold. These records, showing the ratio of printed books to graded books, directly affect a book’s value in the market.
Cvrprice.com $40 Raw/FN
Covrprice.com reports the most recent sales data from eBay, CGC and other retail outlets. They report that the highest graded book sold was a RAW/FINE book valued at $40. Although I was looking for data on higher grades this estimation is accurate. It also makes no distinction between first,second or third printings.
Key Collector App $85 Raw/NM (High)
The Key Collector App is very popular and handy. Brotherman is available in their database. It’s hard to say how accurate the values are because they use a system called “dirty grading” which only gives a rough estimate for each book on a scale of “low, mid and high”. Their high estimate of $85 for Brotherman is comparable to RAW/NM copy. This is a fairly accurate estimate.
Gocollect.com
No Recorded Sales Data
I had high hopes for Gocollect.com because I enjoy their blog posts and how they report sales data. Unfortunately they do not have any reported sales data for Brotherman #1 although I was happy to see it was in their database.
Overstreetaccess.com
Overstreet Pricing Guide App
I was disappointed to see that Overstreetaccess.com had no information at all in their database. This is a brand new digital version of the popular printed book. Hopefully they will catch up to other platforms. Although it’s missing, I do prefer no information rather than false information.
Comicbookrealm.com
$2 (Only recorded value)
Comicbookrealm.com is a very old and outdated website and I wasn’t surprised that it did not have any real sales data. It reports that the current value of Brotherman #1 is only $2. Very inaccurate.
The Results
Based on the Brotherman Test, I’ve found that cvrprice.com to be the most accurate for my collection. Key Collector is a very good resource as well, however they do not report CGC census data. Also, their “dirty grading” system isn’t the most trustworthy approach.
With the CLZ collector’s app I’m able to sync Covrprice data to my collection for up to date values. But even with CLZ and Covrprice I am often the first user to upload certain titles and valuable information.
Here are some other familiar Black titles and their most recent, recorded sales data on CLZ/Covrprice.
Afroboy #1 9.0 $15; Fast Willie Jackson 9.0 $81; Purge 1 Raw/FN $3
The only way to guarantee these platforms improve is by Black Comic Collectors diligently reporting inaccuracies and manually recording information for hard to find titles. I personally plan to find a way to report sales data for our most valuable Black comics here on Blackcomixuniverse.com in the near future. Any information my fellow collectors can provide will be much appreciated.
