Lazyboy

The marketplace reflects only what is currently available for purchase, not what exists. The easily visible marketplace (eBay being the largest part) is only a small fraction of that. The nature of direct distribution means that copies that went unsold when the issue was new are still available in the marketplace from people who want to sell them. I can go to my LCS and buy a 5, 10, or 20-year-old comic that they ordered new from Diamond. The nature of newsstand distribution means that the copies that went unsold when the issue was new were (supposed to be) destroyed. I can't go to any place that still sells newsstand comics and get a 5, 10, or 20-year-old issue. The marketplace will nearly always disproportionately skew in favor of Direct editions.

If a variant is 1:25, that does not mean that if there are 25000 regular copies there have to be exactly 1000 variants. But at least if that were true, it wouldn't be a claim based solely on current observation of a skewed marketplace. If you have any actual newsstand print or distribution numbers, I would very much appreciate it if you shared them.

You're confusing regular (non-enhanced) DM editions with newsstand editions. Newsstands got enhanced (foil strip) Phalanx Covenant copies and "Deluxe" editions after that. The regular/cheap editions were always more rare, but since they are DM editions and only 20 years old, they weren't returned/destroyed and have likely suffered minimal attrition. All copies were defaced with the barcode by that time anyway, although the DM and Newsstand boxes looked slightly different.

Even worse is people believing his numbers are accurate and then adding another layer of garbage by wrongly interpreting them as being applicable to individual issues when they are actually for the entire market, including everything without newsstand distribution. But, yeah, his numbers are highly questionable at best.

Could you please stop saying stuff like that? Incentive variant numbers are only relevant to Direct Market retailers when they are placing their orders for new books. Newsstands were not only not produced and promoted as special editions in that way, they weren't even distributed through the same system. What we can see now (which is mostly what is for sale in the market) will basically always skew in favor of Direct editions, even if greater numbers of newsstands exist. This is simply due to the nature of the different distribution methods. Regarding early Image newsstands, they are certainly a small portion of the total distribution, but that would be true even if there were 100,000 of them. The Image hype, leading to a huge number of copies being sold to comic shops, was insane.

Not from anybody who has been paying attention. This is nothing new. Everybody should realize that the publishers print whatever they want, for their own reasons. They make no claims about quantities.

That's great, but we aren't talking about Captain America Comics 1 here. When comparing it to an issue with multiple first appearances? Absolutely! Again, a reintroduction of a popular character certainly has significance, but Cap was a well-established character with dozens of prior appearances. I do not own any copies of X-Men 4 (well, not the SA version). And despite any significance early X-Men issues may have, they are basically unreadable.

No, I mean run fillers, not keys that haven't yet (or again, in some cases) seen a large price increase. I still buy/bought those.

Well, since it hasn't been already... I don't know if the boards ever met that ideal, but I know that I used to recognize the names in the Marketplace. Now (when I actually bother to look in there) I'm constantly thinking "Who the are you?" and "How do you have 700 posts and I've never seen any of them?" and other similar things. Yeah, as my knowledge of the hobby has increased, I've been buying less and less, for ever-decreasing amounts of money. It's been years since I've gone to a store to buy filler issues, not because I can get them cheaper elsewhere, but because I can get them much cheaper elsewhere.

Venom may be on the cover of 315, but it's certainly not a "Venom cover."

The first two have poor pictures, but all three look to be high grade. They may not be high enough grade for you, but only the first one looks like it may fall out of the high grade range (upon a much better viewing). But the one he posted before these three, with the torn bottom staple area (and much more)... Then again, that piece of junk sold for almost $50, which definitely says "heating up" to me.

Because Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch haven't been heroes for most of their existence, including as members of that team that Cap joined when he returned in their title? The issue also features the first Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, including the first Mastermind (yeah, yeah ) and second Magneto. Remember when Avengers 4 wasn't Cap's (who has never had his own series run for over 400 issues and never will considering how Marvel works now) first appearance? Not that his re-intro/148th appearance isn't significant, but come on.

That was the first slight topic shift, from a little while ago. Now it's the Image Newsstand Edition thread.

That would seem to be the likely explanation. There are a bunch of Marvels from around 2001-2009 where the covers (outside of the UPC box, of course) were at least slightly changed for the Newsstand edition. For example, Daredevil (v.2) 16-25 have an additional title (Marvel Unlimited Featuring...) and 16-44 have no issue numbers, Fantastic Four (v.3) 554-569 have a different layout.

Promotional content is just advertising with a special name, but whatever.