Price Variant Club 32 32

[Pantodude]

On 2/5/2021 at 12:01 PM, fastballspecial said:

his new collecting group entering the hobby the last few years has shown some interest in them.

That's the weird part.  UK variants are technically in the same boat as Canadian price variants.  The reason given for lukewarm reception of UK price variant in years past was nostalgia-based.   That is, that most collectors are American, and they didnt recall reading books with pence covers, so prefer the cents version.  That is too funny.  You think Americans were reading the Canadian price variants as kids/teenages/adults back in the day?  Of course not.  Canadians did.  So the nostalgia argument is baseless to explain premium given to Canadian but not UK price variants.  It's been completely irrational to this point.  Interesting.   Collectors likely -- incorrectly-- thought UK price variants were foreign editions (like the Spanish, Italian, German, etc. ones).  It didnt help that even CGC incorrectly referred to these books as "editions" for years!   But now, last year or so, label says "U.K. price variant".  So the times are finally changing.  That it took us collectors this long, as a group, is kind of sad.  I like to think of myself as sophisticated.    [Edited to  refer only to Canadian price variants...a boo boo to refer to 35-cent variants]

Edited February 9, 2021 by Pantodude

[PeterPark]

35 cent price variants are not foreign editions. They are real price variants. The foreign editions you talk about are not true price variants (or at least, I haven't seen any foreign edition price variants yet) but are still cool to collect despite being much more common than America 30 and 35 cent price variants.

Edited February 6, 2021 by PeterPark

[rakehell]

On 2/3/2021 at 1:27 AM, PeterPark said:

The UK variants aren't price variants, just foreign editions. There is probably a thread for them back there someplace.

Have to correct you there. The UK Pence Price Variants are true price variants because they were printed with the regular (& price experiment) cents copies. The inside pages are from the same print run & they all have US cents indicia. The only differences are on the cover. There are a dozen or so threads on this & they all agree on this point.

 

On 2/3/2021 at 1:27 AM, PeterPark said:

They are nowhere near as rare as the 35 cent variants

True, but only just. The pence variants were printed at an estimated 2-10% of the original print run. 5% is the accepted average.

[PeterPark]

7 hours ago, rakehell said:

Have to correct you there. The UK Pence Price Variants are true price variants because they were printed with the regular (& price experiment) cents copies. The inside pages are from the same print run & they all have US cents indicia. The only differences are on the cover. There are a dozen or so threads on this & they all agree on this point.

 

True, but only just. The pence variants were printed at an estimated 2-10% of the original print run. 5% is the accepted average.

I am curious where you saw that consensus. From everything I have ever seen about price variants, where they are printed has nothing to do with the fact that all foreign editions have one price. I would point to cases where the newsstand printing and the direct printing do not have the same price, which has happened several times, but only during a 5 month stretch of 1999-2000 were newsstand copies printed with multiple prices ($1.99, $2.29, $2.49) and only in those cases would two of those qualify as price variants. Foreign editions have a different price because they are sold in another country, not among the same issue with multiple prices. If there were UK variants of 9p and 10p then you would be golden, but I haven't heard of anyone finding a foreign price variant yet.

As for print runs, 30 and 35 cent price variants were sent to individual market areas. What do you believe the % of the print run composed of price variants to be?

[Pantodude]

18 hours ago, PeterPark said:

I am curious where you saw that consensus. From everything I have ever seen about price variants, where they are printed has nothing to do with the fact that all foreign editions have one price. I would point to cases where the newsstand printing and the direct printing do not have the same price, which has happened several times, but only during a 5 month stretch of 1999-2000 were newsstand copies printed with multiple prices ($1.99, $2.29, $2.49) and only in those cases would two of those qualify as price variants. Foreign editions have a different price because they are sold in another country, not among the same issue with multiple prices. If there were UK variants of 9p and 10p then you would be golden, but I haven't heard of anyone finding a foreign price variant yet.

As for print runs, 30 and 35 cent price variants were sent to individual market areas. What do you believe the % of the print run composed of price variants to be?

Hi.  I made a boo boo up top (now corrected) refering to 35-cent verions when I meant to focus on Canadian price variants.  Anyway, your focus on one vs two prices on the Canadian price variants appears to be irrelevant.  The Canadian variants were sold in Canada.  The UK variants were sold in the UK.  Americans were not reading Canadian price variants when they came out, just like they were not reading UK variants.  That is what many folks fail to comprehend.  Canadian price variants and UK price variants are  both technically known as Type 1A price variants. See http://jonmcclurescomics.com/history.html; see also our very own thread by Get Marwood & I, https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/blogs/entry/4904-marvel-comics-uk-price-variants/.   

Now that we can agree (hopefully) that they are the same beast, it makes sense to compare the rarity of Canadian vs UK variants relative to the their regular US cents counterparts.  The Canadian Price Variant Comics Price Guide, see https://www.cpvpriceguide.com/,  estimates that only 2% of surviving issues printed during the 1980s are Canadian price variants.   How does that 2% survival rate compare to UK price variants?  UK price variants are actually more scare than that.  See, for example, https://rarecomics.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/pence-price-variant-issue-guide-marvel-dc/#:~:text=That's 1-2% of total,variants (when they exist).   And here on the boards, the following thread too:  https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/430258-silver-age-pence-vs-cent/#comments.

Concrete examples abound.  Take TTA27.  There are only 20 UK price variants in total on the CGC census, compared to 1,095 for the regular US cents version, or 1.8% as many, which is consistent with the consensus estimates that only 1-2% of early SA Marvel printruns were UK price variants.  This isssue thus appears to be rarer than Canadian price variants (compared to their respective regular US cents version).    

The relative scarcity is even more pronounced with JIM83.  Only 27 UK price variants in total, compared to 2,035 regular US cents version, for a paltry 1.3%, so apparently much rarer than the 2% survival rate attributed to Canadian price variants.  The same is true (in that 1-2% range) for many early SA keys, including Spideys, IH, FF, X-Men, TOS, TTA, etc.  Even the more recent Howard the Duck #1 and Eternals #1 shows this relative scarcity on the CGC census.  

The important thing is not to mischaracterize UK price variants as something different than Canadian price variants.   Hopefully I answered your questions.  Anyway, thanks for being an inquirng mind!  

Edited February 9, 2021 by Pantodude

[PeterPark]

15 hours ago, Pantodude said:

Hi.  I made a boo boo up top (now corrected) refering to 35-cent verions when I meant to focus on Canadian price variants.  Anyway, your focus on one vs two prices on the Canadian price variants appears to be irrelevant.  The Canadian variants were sold in Canada.  The UK variants were sold in the UK.  Americans were not reading Canadian price variants when they came out, just like they were not reading UK variants.  That is what many folks fail to comprehend.  Canadian price variants and UK price variants are  both technically known as Type 1A price variants. See http://jonmcclurescomics.com/history.html; see also our very own thread by Get Marwood & I, https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/blogs/entry/4904-marvel-comics-uk-price-variants/.   

Now that we can agree (hopefully) that they are the same beast, it makes sense to compare the rarity of Canadian vs UK variants relative to the their regular US cents counterparts.  The Canadian Price Variant Comics Price Guide, see https://www.cpvpriceguide.com/,  estimates that only 2% of surviving issues printed during the 1980s are Canadian price variants.   How does that 2% survival rate compare to UK price variants?  UK price variants are actually more scare than that.  See, for example, https://rarecomics.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/pence-price-variant-issue-guide-marvel-dc/#:~:text=That's 1-2% of total,variants (when they exist).   And here on the boards, the following thread too:  https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/430258-silver-age-pence-vs-cent/#comments.

Concrete examples abound.  Take TTA27.  There are only 20 UK price variants in total on the CGC census, compared to 1,095 for the regular US cents version, or 1.8% as many, which is consistent with the consensus estimates that only 1-2% of early SA Marvel printruns were UK price variants.  This isssue thus appears to be rarer than Canadian price variants (compared to their respective regular US cents version).    

The relative scarcity is even more pronounced with JIM83.  Only 27 UK price variants in total, compared to 2,035 regular US cents version, for a paltry 1.3%, so apparently much rarer than the 2% survival rate attributed to Canadian price variants.  The same is true (in that 1-2% range) for many early SA keys, including Spideys, IH, FF, X-Men, TOS, TTA, etc.  Even the more recent Howard the Duck #1 and Eternals #1 shows this relative scarcity on the CGC census.  

The important thing is not to mischaracterize UK price variants as something different than Canadian price variants.   Hopefully I answered your questions.  Anyway, thanks for being an inquirng mind!  

I cannot follow your point. Going off your McClure link, you are posting about type 1a variants in a type 1 variant thread saying they are the same thing. Canadian and UK editions are foreign editions: "Cover Price Variants intended for foreign distribution with limited regional distribution, published simultaneously with standard or regular editions. The indicia and all aspects of the book, except for the cover price and sometimes the company logo, are identical to regular U.S. editions. One example is the Marvel Pence Price Variants, with the Marvel All-Colour Comics cover banners. Other examples include the Canadian Gold Key and Whitman Cover Price Variants."

This thread is not about foreign editions, which are variants of the issue and have a different price than regular domestic editions but are not test market price variants which this thread is about. I do not refer to Canadian variants in any previous post, except under the umbrella of foreign editions. 

If you thought I was making the point that Canadian editions are price variants and UK editions are not, I see why you made your points, but this stance was never considered by me. Both are foreign editions.

I hope this clears it up for you.

Edited February 9, 2021 by PeterPark

[Pantodude]

2 minutes ago, PeterPark said:

I cannot follow your point. Going off your McClure link, you are posting about type 1a variants in a type 1 variant thread saying they are the same thing. Canadian and UK editions are foreign editions: "Cover Price Variants intended for foreign distribution with limited regional distribution, published simultaneously with standard or regular editions. The indicia and all aspects of the book, except for the cover price and sometimes the company logo, are identical to regular U.S. editions. One example is the Marvel Pence Price Variants, with the Marvel All-Colour Comics cover banners. Other examples include the Canadian Gold Key and Whitman Cover Price Variants."

This thread is not about foreign editions, which are variants of the issue and have a different price than regular domestic editions but are not test market price variants which this thread is about. I do not refer to Canadian variants in any previous post, except under the umbrella of foreign editions. 

I hope this clears it up for you.

All good.  I was initially responding to blowout's question, "Are UK price variants really that rare?", when you chimed in, and this detour sort of got a life of its own!  Interesting stuff.   But I believe it is now generally incorrect to refer to Canadian and UK price variants as "foreign editions."  They are simply price variants (type 1a to be sure), as they were printed as part of the original print run along with the regular-price US version.  That is why CGC changed the label comment to "price variant."  

[PeterPark]

Just now, Pantodude said:

All good.  I was initially responding to blowout's question, "Are UK price variants really that rare?", when you chimed in, and this detour sort of got a life of its own!  Interesting stuff.   But I believe it is now generally incorrect to refer to Canadian and UK price variants as "foreign editions."  They are simply price variants (type 1a to be sure), as they were printed as part of the original print run along with the regular-price US version.  That is why CGC changed the label comment to "price variant."  

Price variants, albeit perhaps technically only colloquially, refers to test market price variants. What CGC does may change as they better learn what they are doing. I have a CGC-graded 35 cent test market price variant of Eternals 14 where the variant is not noted. That doesn't change what the book is. If you want to talk 1a variants, that is a different thread, as you point out. The confusion about what is and what is not a "price variant" (again, used colloquially) refers most often to test market (price variant) and not (foreign price) variant, where the parentheses denote the disambiguating allocation of the word price. 

[Namtak]

Does drugstore hand remarked price count??

[PeterPark]

4 hours ago, Namtak said:

Does drugstore hand remarked price count??

I would refer to search this thread for "sticker variant" which has been discussed at length. You didn't just update all your 25 and 30 centers to 30's and 35's.....did you?

[Namtak]

8 minutes ago, PeterPark said:

I would refer to search this thread for "sticker variant" which has been discussed at length. You didn't just update all your 25 and 30 centers to 30's and 35's.....did you?

Im aware of the price variant your talking about i dont have one, uk variant,i have some even first print Killing joke but being in Montréal its canadien price variant that i have and seen more frequantly like this one i submited to cgc and received a month ago

[PeterPark]

43 minutes ago, Namtak said:

Im aware of the price variant your talking about i dont have one, uk variant,i have some even first print Killing joke but being in Montréal its canadien price variant that i have and seen more frequantly like this one i submited to cgc and received a month ago

This is a foreign edition. Test market price variant were released in the United States to test higher prices in select markets prior to the adoption of the price increase. The "variants" I was referring to were a board joke about comics released around the same time where someone put a sticker with a higher price over the original printed price and should those count as legitimate variants. Since the stickers could easily be produced and made to resemble them, they are not considered variants, just regular US versions with a sticker on the cover. UK versions are foreign releases as well.

[JoshuaM]

Hi all.

These two came back from their trip to CGC finally. The Star Wars is definitely the most "beat up" comic I've sent in lol.

[rakehell]

On 2/8/2021 at 7:06 PM, PeterPark said:

I am curious where you saw that consensus. From everything I have ever seen about price variants, where they are printed has nothing to do with the fact that all foreign editions have one price. I would point to cases where the newsstand printing and the direct printing do not have the same price, which has happened several times, but only during a 5 month stretch of 1999-2000 were newsstand copies printed with multiple prices ($1.99, $2.29, $2.49) and only in those cases would two of those qualify as price variants. Foreign editions have a different price because they are sold in another country, not among the same issue with multiple prices. If there were UK variants of 9p and 10p then you would be golden, but I haven't heard of anyone finding a foreign price variant yet.

Sorry for the delay. Broadband problems.

Anyway, the main qualifier for me has always been the indicia. All of the Marvel price experiment variants that were also printed as UK pence price variants were printed with three different price points. For example, Star Wars #2 was printed with a standard 30c, a price experiment 35c & a UK 12p. The inside pages of these books were all run off the press at the same time, and, crucially, all of them (including the UK 12p) have a 30c indicia.

Now, if I'm being pedantic, it follows that the 35c & the 12p have a different price on the cover than they have on the indicia. This means that the cover price varies from the price stated, hence they are price variants. The fact that they were intended for distribution in a foreign country is secondary to the facts of their origin (to me at least).

With reference to foreign editions in general, these UK & Canadian (& later Australian) priced comics are another thing altogether. Other foreign editions (EH, La Prensa, Lug, Marvel UK, what have you) were printed in whatever country they were intended for, in whatever format they were used to printing their comics & sold domestically. They have no US pedigree other than a transfer of content through a licensing agreement, while the CAD, UKP & AUD were all part of the initial USD print run. It's worth noting here as well, that Marvel (Atlas) were the first to do this in the early 60's, but these variants were also printed by DC, Charlton, Dell/Gold Key, Archie & Key (did I forget one? Sorry Marwood).

On 2/8/2021 at 7:06 PM, PeterPark said:

As for print runs, 30 and 35 cent price variants were sent to individual market areas. What do you believe the % of the print run composed of price variants to be?

OPG lists Star Wars #1, 35c variant as "1500? copies printed". Not sure how many 30c were printed in total (no UKPPV for #1), but if you take an easy math guess at 300,000 copies, that would put the % for the 35c variant at 0.5%. There is no question that these are the rarest variants out there, but if you extend the analogy to Star Wars #2, a 5% average would put the total for UK pence price variants of #2 at 15,000. Still pretty rare.

In fact, I just looked at the census. Standard 30c - total 1427. 35c variant - total 124. Reprint - total 145. UK 12p - total 1. Looks like I need to get a couple of mine graded.

Thanks for the discussion. 

 

[PeterPark]

11 hours ago, rakehell said:

Sorry for the delay. Broadband problems.

Anyway, the main qualifier for me has always been the indicia. All of the Marvel price experiment variants that were also printed as UK pence price variants were printed with three different price points. For example, Star Wars #2 was printed with a standard 30c, a price experiment 35c & a UK 12p. The inside pages of these books were all run off the press at the same time, and, crucially, all of them (including the UK 12p) have a 30c indicia.

Now, if I'm being pedantic, it follows that the 35c & the 12p have a different price on the cover than they have on the indicia. This means that the cover price varies from the price stated, hence they are price variants. The fact that they were intended for distribution in a foreign country is secondary to the facts of their origin (to me at least).

With reference to foreign editions in general, these UK & Canadian (& later Australian) priced comics are another thing altogether. Other foreign editions (EH, La Prensa, Lug, Marvel UK, what have you) were printed in whatever country they were intended for, in whatever format they were used to printing their comics & sold domestically. They have no US pedigree other than a transfer of content through a licensing agreement, while the CAD, UKP & AUD were all part of the initial USD print run. It's worth noting here as well, that Marvel (Atlas) were the first to do this in the early 60's, but these variants were also printed by DC, Charlton, Dell/Gold Key, Archie & Key (did I forget one? Sorry Marwood).

OPG lists Star Wars #1, 35c variant as "1500? copies printed". Not sure how many 30c were printed in total (no UKPPV for #1), but if you take an easy math guess at 300,000 copies, that would put the % for the 35c variant at 0.5%. There is no question that these are the rarest variants out there, but if you extend the analogy to Star Wars #2, a 5% average would put the total for UK pence price variants of #2 at 15,000. Still pretty rare.

In fact, I just looked at the census. Standard 30c - total 1427. 35c variant - total 124. Reprint - total 145. UK 12p - total 1. Looks like I need to get a couple of mine graded.

Thanks for the discussion. 

 

You're conflating type I and type Ia variants, according to McClure. Yes the variation is in the price, but the difference is whether that price is for domestic or international distribution, regardless of whether or not you with to recognize that. It is inherently a variant composed only of the domestic allocation. Of course there need to be translations for markets of a different language. Foreign editions (that is, copies printed for international distribution) may have minute differences such as cover price and may have been printed at the same time as the test market variants, but it doesn't make them the same animal. I can, of course, agree that there are different forms of international release, as some are produced abroad and some here, but that is an aspect particular to each market, or over a given period. I don't know the answer to this because I haven't checked, but do you know if they Australian Marvel variants from the 90's have regular domestic indicia?

The issue was not whether UK cover price editions are ostensibly rare or not but in comparison to the test market price variants, they are more common. It's worth noting that since they were distributed in a different market, their means to return to the "population" of regular bronze age comics for sale requires crossing an ocean and surviving. Since the demand for these books is not as great, many copies continue to sit in stores or collections where they have been for years.

The CGC census isn't relevant when books have little market demand. It is clearly very misleading can not be used for population estimates.

The issue was just that this thread is about test market price variants. It was not anticipated at the time it was made that anyone would think foreign editions qualify and the discussion about those books is best kept to the thread(s) dedicated to them.

Edited February 11, 2021 by PeterPark

[rakehell]

On 2/11/2021 at 8:24 PM, PeterPark said:

You're conflating type I and type Ia variants, according to McClure. Yes the variation is in the price, but the difference is whether that price is for domestic or international distribution, regardless of whether or not you with to recognize that. It is inherently a variant composed only of the domestic allocation. Of course there need to be translations for markets of a different language. Foreign editions (that is, copies printed for international distribution) may have minute differences such as cover price and may have been printed at the same time as the test market variants, but it doesn't make them the same animal.

This is an old debate & one that we won't resolve here. It is valid to hold the opinion that UK priced (& CAD & AUD), US produced comics are foreign editions, because they are produced for a foreign market. However, it is also valid to hold the opinion that, because they were part of the same print run as the US cents copies and have a common US price indicia, they are true price variants; the price they vary from is the same US cents price that the test market variants vary from.

On 2/11/2021 at 8:24 PM, PeterPark said:

I don't know the answer to this because I haven't checked, but do you know if they Australian Marvel variants from the 90's have regular domestic indicia?

Not sure about this one either. Marwood is the expert (or an expert). Read through this if you have time - 

 

On 2/11/2021 at 8:24 PM, PeterPark said:

The issue was not whether UK cover price editions are ostensibly rare or not but in comparison to the test market price variants, they are more common.

I think I said that.

On 2/11/2021 at 8:24 PM, PeterPark said:

It's worth noting that since they were distributed in a different market, their means to return to the "population" of regular bronze age comics for sale requires crossing an ocean and surviving.

Surely that makes them even more rare in the US.

Another note on rarity: It's worth mentioning that the UK pence price variants began in the early sixties and included most of the key Silver Age Marvel books. They are arguably the first true variants produced on a large scale & some of them are very rare indeed. My Girl Pearl #7 anyone?

 One copy known to exist. Of course, now that I've mentioned it another one will pop up somewhere.

On 2/11/2021 at 8:24 PM, PeterPark said:

The issue was just that this thread is about test market price variants. It was not anticipated at the time it was made that anyone would think foreign editions qualify and the discussion about those books is best kept to the thread(s) dedicated to them.

I've looked back through the earlier pages of this thread & I can't find any mention of it only being for test market variants. I'm not the only one to post UKPPVs in the thread, nor was I the first. Most of what I have posted has gotten several likes.

Anyway, thanks again for the discussion.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by rakehell
extraneous images

[Get Marwood & I]

5 hours ago, rakehell said:

On 2/11/2021 at 8:24 PM, PeterPark said:

I don't know the answer to this because I haven't checked, but do you know if they Australian Marvel variants from the 90's have regular domestic indicia?

Not sure about this one either. Marwood is the expert (or an expert). Read through this if you have time - 

All 'Marvel Australian Price Variants' have US indicia details and interior contents. Only the covers were printed with AUS specific prices and differences. I summarise those differences in my journal summary entry here (pictures at the end) for those that don't want to read the whole discussion thread:

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/blogs/entry/4916-marvel-australian-price-variants/

5 hours ago, rakehell said:

I've looked back through the earlier pages of this thread & I can't find any mention of it only being for test market variants. I'm not the only one to post UKPPVs in the thread, nor was I the first. Most of what I have posted has gotten several likes.

I tend to go with the wishes of the OP and the majority contributors in a thread - if they would rather this thread be about domestic US price variants only, I'm OK with that. No point upsetting people.

5 hours ago, rakehell said:

This is an old debate & one that we won't resolve here. It is valid to hold the opinion that UK priced (& CAD & AUD), US produced comics are foreign editions, because they are produced for a foreign market. However, it is also valid to hold the opinion that, because they were part of the same print run as the US cents copies and have a common US price indicia, they are true price variants; the price they vary from is the same US cents price that the test market variants vary from.

I like the way you put that Robert. It's OK to hold opinions that differ, as long as they can be backed up with rational thought.

Like you, I favour the term 'UK/Canadian/Australian Price Variant' as it is the best and shortest group of words that I can think of which satisfy the salient factors which, for me, are to recognize their variant status (they are a small subset from the original print state and, therefore, a 'variant' in the correct sense of the word) and secondly to distinguish them from the locally produced publications and reprints of the countries that they were distributed to. There is more to it, more to say, but my arguments were sufficient to compel CGC to move away from "UK Edition" and, whilst they are by no means the be all and end all of comic categorisation, it shows that a professional organisation with growing influence in the industry were prepared to listen to a rational thought process and act on it by changing their systems. If we all get behind those terms, and understand the production status of the books in question, then surely that's a good thing, no?

I accept the term is not perfect in that it encroaches, for want of a better word, on the 'purity' of the US price variant scenario. I understand that logic and thinking and have said so in my threads. When I first joined here my first pence thread was called "Marvel First Printing Pence Priced Distribution Variants". What a mouthful, trying as it was to cover every base. So I distilled it somewhat, to something more manageable. I accept that some dislike it and that it's simply not possible to come up with one short descriptor that will satisfy everyone. So I go with the best I can come up with, and justify it when challenged.

For me, as long as everyone knows what the production status of these books was (i.e. they are not / were not reprints) then I'd prefer if we didn't get too uptight about a descriptor which is pretty much physically accurate in every sense. 

In a nut shell, the UK, Canadian and Australian priced copies were:

• Printed at the same time, in the same place, and by the same people as the US copies
• As a result of plate changes, they have small cover differences including but not limited to a non-US cover price
• This makes them variants - they vary in appearance from their majority US cousins
• The salient difference is the price - this makes them a price variant
• Because price variants exist in other forms, we have to add an additional descriptor to differentiate them
• In the case of the UK copies, UK is that additional obvious descriptor - hence 'UK Price Variant'

So, in respect of the same original print state books, we have the following in existence at different points in history:

• US copies
• US Price Variants (30/35 and the 1999/2000 ones)
• UK Price Variants
• Canadian Price Variants
• Australian Price Variants

Everything else, not being part of the original print state, is by definition a reprint or a locally produced publication.

'Spider-Man Comics Weekly', a UK produced title, may share a cover to an Amazing Spider-Man US original comic, but it is it's own thing - a UK local publication. CGC were calling UK Price Variants of ASM, and UK produced Spider-Man Comics Weeklies, 'UK Editions'. They were calling two different things by one misleading title.  This is why I and others challenged them. This is why they changed their labelling approach.

If we call UK Price Variants "Foreign Editions" then we lose completely the fact that they are part of the original print run. We have to link them to their majority US counterparts. 

[Get Marwood & I]

One last point, on the rarity comparison. In my experience, it fluctuates wildly and I would only make a comparison myself where variants exist for the same issue. There are a bulk of UK Price Variants for which I have seen only a handful of copies - some at the beginning of their existence (1960) and some at the end (1981). On the flip, many UKPVs in the middle are plentiful. Nothing groundbreaking there really, just an observation. 

[Get Marwood & I]

Here we go - all printed at the same time, in the same place:

                           US Copy                                             UK Price Variant                                         US Price Variant

Lovely! 

[Get Marwood & I]

Morning guys 

I posted here yesterday in support of the UK / Canadian / Australian discussion because I was mentioned a few times and thought I may as well contribute a few thoughts of my own. In the absence of any invitation to the contrary however, it is a club after all, I personally am going to assume that this thread is for US domestic test price variants only - notably the 30/35 cent Marvel variety. I see a bit of a clue in the opening post, and will abide by it from this point.

There are more than enough threads about the other books to find and contribute to if that's your thing, and you'll certainly be more than welcome to pop in, show off and chat in any that I have created. The 30/35 cvs are mythical things of beauty, I have owned many in my time, and it's only right that they have a thread here all to themselves.

Have fun!