bergdoll

It's only risky ion the context of the other books out at the time. In and of themselves, - great books. Contextualized with all the other options at the same time - less so. Everyone is happy to tell you about the time they bought 25 copies of ASM 300. The entire New Universe... not so much. Anyhow - I don't want to be a thorn here! My original interest was more in the lifecycle of the modern pricing. I think they tend to move up, and then either fall or stabilize. Even books like X-Men 94 seem pretty stable for the past 10 years or so in mid-grade. Needless to say - at cover price, those would be GREAT! haha!

Um....hold the phone... what issue is that Robin Hood in the bottom picture???

I'll have a few to post shortly!

I just walked to a local shop an grabbed 4 Catwoman 23's at cover. We'll have to see how that pans out. As for Conan's, Howard's, and Dazzlers. Buying at cover would have been quite risky - because these are just examples of books that "hit". Most of these became sought-after shortly after release, saw an up-curve, then a leveling or decline. That said, there are certainly some moderns I think are good long-term. I'm happy to have a little stash of Catwoman 23's.

I think it would be interesting to track moderns over time - so few of them sustain their brief flight into the double-digits. Even when they do - you see them often being discounted a few months or years later. Obviously, a book like Waking Dead #1 is an exception, but I sincerely believe it will also eventually fall. Going way back (and showing how old I am). I remember two books specifically from my youth: Conan #1 and Howard the Duck #1.... heck, I even remember how Dazzler #1 had a bit of a spike. I think the DC 3D covers are neat, but I also think that we will see their prices come down pretty quick in about 6 months.

That's my go-to resource for Whitman books rarity. I'm thinking more of a way to track the sealed 3-packs. I have a number of un-opened ones. Fortunately, my flood was a clear-water over-flowing washing machine and only went about 1cm deep. The insurance was awesome. Put my entire basement (including 25,000 comics) into a secure, environmentally controlled storage facility while they repaired the basement - took everything up to 4 ft in drywall and completely rebuilt my basement. It took almost a year though. Word of advice all - raise your comics OFF the floor my a couple inches. Saved me thousands and thousands. Valuable stuff to main floor or a safe. Today I scanned a bunch of Whitman books into the database and will be posting on my blog about them shortly (www.funosphere.com) - if it's okay to post a URL here - if not, I guess I'll find out shortly.

Hello all, I had a flood in my basement (thank goodness no comics were harmed!) and it's been a blessing and a curse. Obviously, it was annoying to have all my comics moved into storage while they rebuilt my basement, but the good news is that I have been able to revisit all my comics as they return. Which brings me to the Whitman question. How do folks around here catalogue any unopened 3-packs/4-packs they have? I'm trying to create/maintain my 3-packs for he sake of creating want lists, knowing what I have etc. and am trying to see what sort of system might work. My collection is not huge on these, but I do have a dozen or so. I have "categories" that I've roughly developed based on the top of the packs: Marvel Packs - I only have one of these at the moment.Green top and called "Marvel Multi-Mags" ($99 cents) Character Pack - where are three books are the same character or title: Star Wars, Black Hole, Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Donald Duck Orange Top - where the top is ... orange. Except this category has the "Comic-Pac" and the "Comic-Pack!" variety in my collection (89 cents and $1.09). Clear Top - the ones with no writing on the top. (which I also believe to be the ones where the rare books were. I don't have any 3-packs of all rare books, but one of my packs is an US #178). These have sub-categories: "3 Comic Value" ($1.09) "Fun-Pac 4 for 59 cents" "Disney Favorites" ($1.09) "Cartoon Favorites" ($1.09) - also could be called "gumball machine" as that is the image on the front. So those are the ones I am working with at the moment to try and get some sense of order for that I can put into a database. Does anyone have a system they use? It would be cool is we had a way to call the packs (if for no other reason than we could more easily identify those middle books!)

Just had some great luck with a long box of odds and ends. Some great Whitman's - including one of the elusive WRC&S that has been annoying me by being HTF. Love the super-hero scans above. Those are wonderful books.

Okay - I got us off-track, I suppose I have a responsibility to get us back on-track. I've seen this 3-pack several times and it seems common to find these issues as individuals or even in the 3-pack. The #4 differs not only in it's rarity, but also the fact that it lacks the UPC barcode - which, if you had a chance to read my post that I linked to, is a big deal with me. In my Whitman collecting, I consider ANY non-barcode 35 cent and above Whitman to be a bit of a great find: The Star Wars Whitman/Marvel pack also lacks the barcode, but has a place for it. Something that I assume has to do with the books being sold on the newsstand as well - something that we see again in the Gladstone/Disney/Marvel books (where things get even more confusing as more cooks enter the kitchen) What I really find odd is that the rare Bug Bunny has a barcode. I have no theory in why that one does. All my rares (and I am a long way off from the 42) are barcode-free.

I appreciate the sentiment and hopefully my apology is okay. Although I have been registered for many years - I'm not here as much, but that's no excuse. I really apologize everyone.

I'm sorry everyone! I am not here all that often as I only really collect a few odd things. My intention was really not to offend or do anything improper and I hope you can forgive this faux pas on my part. I am in fact very interested in Whitman books and made the mistake of assuming these being available would be of interest to others here - incorrectly. Hopefully, you can forgive this error and the other posts I had earlier are both evidence and somewhat redemptive in showing that I am a collector of these books (the "appreciation" part). Sorry again - it was not intended to be an idiotic move - but was.

Edited because I was in error for posting!

A couple of nice copies of two of the rarer books. Tom and Jerry 332

I love the books! I also find the newspaper image on the bottom right funny.

We always considered the "Black Diamond" price box books to be reprints. The only ones I can remember are the Micronauts 3-pack which did not get released at the same time as the newsstand books. It came out significantly later. It *may* have been printed at the same time, but it absolutely did not get distributed to my area at the same time. It's a bit of time since I experienced this, but I seem to think the Micronauts pack came out some time around the time Micronauts #12 or so was on the newsstand. Now I want to re-read those books! I remember this because the early Micronauts were books that were hard to find - then the Whitman packs came out and we were able to get them and we were all crazy about them. The Star Wars books were probably the same idea. They were reprinted or special printed for Whitman 3-packs and the price box was there to prevent them from being confused with the newsstand books. As for when they were printed? I have no idea. Maybe they were all printed at the same time, but released at different times?

They are really great books. Plenty of fond memories there for me too! This thread did make me look at my poly bags in a bit more detail and I have come to the conclusion: Post 1975 with no UPC barcode is what brings the comic into the harder-to-find category. In some cases it makes them very rare while in other cases it just makes them slightly harder to locate. That's mostly opinion, but I would suggest that at the very least, all rare Whitmans are common in regards to the absence of the UPC barcode. Edit: The Bugs Bunny #221 seems to be an exception to the above observation. Otherwise, it hold true thus far - all the rares I have seen do not have UPC codes.

I've never seen any information on print runs for the Whitman/GK books. They are really the same books with different cover logos. After a some time scanning, I started getting some information together and making some observations on the comics that I have - specifically the ones I have that are still in the poly-bags. It was intended to just be a quick article and mostly scans of my books, but seems to have morphed into something a bit more time-consuming. So... without further ado, I present my PART ONE of my Whitman Comics. http://www.funosphere.com/styled-12/styled/page256/ I hope that the article is useful - more importantly, I hope it sparks some conversation and some additional observations from those of you that have any sealed 4-packs or 3-packs. I'll follow the above page with another where I go through some of my individual Whitman books. I have a few of the rare ones - with doubles of Woody Woodpecker 191 and the Tom and Jerry 332. I would like to trade these for other rare books. Does anyone have a spare Black Hole #4 or a Battle of the Planets 7 that they are interested in trading? My Woody Woodpeckers are in very good shape and the Tom and Jerry is a very decent copy as well (just not as good as the Woody's).

Haha! Doug's website is very retro. It's like being on an old BBS System in that regard. However, I personaly think he is probably the best comic dealer out there. His prices are fair, he has a lot of stock, and he completely accomondates the "odd" collector - those of us that want very, very specific books (such as logo colour variants, Canadian Priced books, etc, etc). Comics (and related to Whitman books) has often been a hobby of "manufactured" rarity - platimum editions, convention editions, and other stuff I consider "gimmicky" What is odd, is that true scarcity, differences in covers, and price variations are only just starting to get any interest. Such as the Whitmans and this thread. This is so much different from coins and stamps where even a paper change can move a value by thousands of percentage points. For example, the most valuable Canadian stamp is just that - a different paper. I also have one Canadian stamp that has slightly different perforations that bring it from $2 to $900. Of course, if we looked at slight variations in comic printing - it's called trimming! haha! That said, logo changes, price changes, and newsstand vs. Direct are all areas that fascintate me and are a big part of my collecting. It seems to be catching some traction - so get those deals while you can!

Hey! I found that I also have two copies of Tom & Jerry #332 My "rares" Woody Woodpecker 191 (2 copies) Tom & Jerry 332 (2 copies) Looney Tunes 332 Huey, Dewey, and Louie 66 My "somewhat rares?" Uncle Scrooge 179, 180 Donald Duck 222 My "scarce" Uncle Scrooge 181 Battle of the Planets 9 (CGC 9.4) I also have a lot of "satellite" rares. Those books that aren't listed as rare, but sure seem to have given me a lot of effort in getting - like Donald Duck 223 and basically books 2-3 issues on either side of the "rare" ones. Okay - scans are done. Time to publish them and do some sort of write-up of my own based on my childhood memories and the few packs and books I have in my hands.

Hello again, I started scanning all my Whitman's and have a nice, but not extensive collection of them. About 100 or so books it seems - with about a dozen "packs" (3-packs and a couple 4-packs). There are some interesting observations that I'll post with the scans and let everyone know when that's ready. Meanwhile, I did write a short essay on Uncle Scrooge price-varients (I collect Canadian price variants, any cover variant, and such for Uncle Scrooge especially). If interested, here's a link to it: http://www.funosphere.com/styled-12/styled/styled-9/page12.html There's also a price variant thread on Archie comics - as those variants are still being produced! (or, were at least until a little while ago). Let me now any thoughts you have on the above essay and I'll try to do a "Adventures with the three-pack" essay soon. The three-packs were how I really started collecting comics when I was younger and many of the Whitman's I have are actually comics I bought off the rack in those three packs! Of course, I opened all of mine. More on all that in the article when I get time to compile the info and scan the books.

Great thread - I need to pull my Whitmans, scan, and post. I have 2 copies of Woody Woodpecker 191 - still rare?

Well. I haven't read the entire thread, but I certainly know art that I WON'T be buying in the future. As one of my favourite artists - I cannot tell you how disappointing this thread has been to this fan. I guess I dodged a bullet last year at the local show - I was going to ask for a sketch.

I had to take these with my camera - my scanner is not very good. Hopefully, the reflection doesn't take away from the ability to see the grade. I need to get a fancy-pants scanner. If you want super-size images: Check out this place: Download large copies here.

I'm going to have a struggle finding any of these in boxes, as I'm north of the border and we get Canadian editions, but not variants here. That said, something I "can" add to this discussion is some feedback on the 3-pack books. I was a collector in the late 1970's and I can say with certainty that the 3-pack of Micronauts #1-3 can out in the same month as Micronauts #12. It may be that they were sitting in a warehouse for while, but I do remember that #1 was selling at a slight premium at this time ($6 I think) and the pre-packs were something I bought several of to sell off at a tidy profit! As a kid, this was cool and helped me afford several other books. The big difference was the diamond price as opposed to the box price. This may lead to some idea of how these books "may" have been marketed in the past. 3-packs were very popular in the late 1970's and sold via toy shops, and retail chains. As an example, 30 cent books in the 3-pack would have been less desirable than 35 cent books. Why? With 3 35cent books, you are over $1 in "value", but the 3-packs of the time could be priced at 99cents. Because of where I live, I never pulled a price-variant off the newsstand. Does anyone here have that experience? At any rate, if someone does have some extra price variants that they are selling, I'd be interested in a PM. I'd like to "get a start" on these - so if you are sitting on some that you ended-up with extras of, let me know and maybe I can buy some off you? The lists that are on the earlier pages of this thread are very useful. Thank-you for those.

I collect Canadian priced comics - they are easier to find here in Canada However, it is important to make the distinction between Canadian priced books and US price variants. What is the history of the US ones? Canadian priced books have existed for many, many years and continue to this day. Here's my page on Archie's: http://web.me.com/bergdoll/comics/page5/page5.html I know the Uncle Scrooge and Star Wars books were intended to be used as market research tools - but I don't know too much about the others. Some look to be over-prints and some look to be from poly-bags, and some look to be newsstand editions with a different price on them!