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Superman: The Man of Steel #17 & 18 (Doomsday)
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Started by Brandon Shepherd,

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GM8

GM8

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Anyone know what the 4th and 5th prints are doing these days?

 

The 5th prints have come down quite a bit. I would say 1/3 to 1/2 off their highs. Raw 5th prints were going for 70-80 before the film, now they are 30-40.

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Brandon Shepherd

Brandon Shepherd

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Anyone know what the 4th and 5th prints are doing these days?

 

The 5th prints have come down quite a bit. I would say 1/3 to 1/2 off their highs. Raw 5th prints were going for 70-80 before the film, now they are 30-40.

 

I thought I saw a 9.8 4th of #18 go for $100 on a recent ComicLink auction. :sick:

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mysterio

mysterio

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Posted

 

Anyone know what the 4th and 5th prints are doing these days?

 

The 5th prints have come down quite a bit. I would say 1/3 to 1/2 off their highs. Raw 5th prints were going for 70-80 before the film, now they are 30-40.

 

I thought I saw a 9.8 4th of #18 go for $100 on a recent ComicLink auction. :sick:

 

4ths have always been tougher than 5ths, at least I don't see them as often.

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valiantman

valiantman

Posted
Posted

 

Anyone know what the 4th and 5th prints are doing these days?

 

The 5th prints have come down quite a bit. I would say 1/3 to 1/2 off their highs. Raw 5th prints were going for 70-80 before the film, now they are 30-40.

 

I thought I saw a 9.8 4th of #18 go for $100 on a recent ComicLink auction. :sick:

 

4ths have always been tougher than 5ths, at least I don't seem them as often.

That makes sense because 5th prints were a year or two after. 4th prints were still "in the original demand" timeframe.

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Brandon Shepherd

Brandon Shepherd

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This post is from 11/24/13

 

So which is more rare...... newstand or the 5th prints of Mos 18???

 

5th Print is scarcer. There were tons of first print newsstand copies printed.

 

I would like to have a high grade copy of the 5th print, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th prints too...

 

 

 

Three years later.

 

P1020121_zpscma1wxfz.jpg

 

After scoring the 4th and 5th in 9.8 earlier this year, I kept telling myself that I really didn't need the 2nd or 3rd print. Then, I saw a 2nd print, in a nice new holder, for a nice price and decided it was a good opportunity.

 

P1020122-vert_zpse0uo2crw.jpg

 

I want to like the 4th print the best, due to it being the most difficult to find in high grade with it's lower distribution numbers, but I really like how the 5th print differs visually from the rest of them. The "DC Universe" bar code variation really sets it apart, the enlarged #18 in the left corner looks just like the newsstand edition, and the distribution method of the book - collectors packs at Toys "R" Us and other retail stores two years after the release of the 1st print also set the 5th apart. This is also the only book out of the whole Death and Funeral sage to get a 5th printing.

 

Now, the blue and white title logo on the 2nd ain't bad, the clarity of the new holder really brings out the cover colors as well. I think the title logo coloring on the first print is the weakest in terms of complimenting the cover.

 

MoS #18 is just a great cover, the shattering logo at the hands of Doomsday, making his first "full appearance," shrouded in mystery, really sets the cover apart from the seven issues that make up the Doomsday/Death of Superman storyline. This storyline begins with this great cover, and is book-ended with the somber cover of Superman #75.

 

I love these books. :cloud9:

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RockMyAmadeus

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On 12/17/2015 at 2:06 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

Part of the reason that the DOS/FFAF later printings have market demand is because of the way they were made and distributed.

 

There were, of course, the initial reprintings based on immediate demand...the Superman #75s, for example...but several of the later printings, including the rarer ones, were made specifically for inclusion in the 2-packs, 3-packs, 20-packs, and storyline boxes.

 

original.png.jpeg

 

2- and 3-packs were nothing new at the time, but storyline boxes were a uniquely early 90's invention, and DOS/FFAF proved to be quite good sellers in that format. Also new, the "20-packs (later 10)" consisting of a single month's output that were sold at Costco and the like.

 

With the advent of storyline boxes, along with the traditional 2- and 3-packs, DC now had a way to get back into the traditional "newsstand" market, like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, and others, that had declined significantly in the preceding years. And, it clearly worked, because DC and Marvel continued the program through most of the mid-90's, before the crash's effects were felt completely, and sales could no longer justify these programs.

 

As a result of the storyline packs, DC had to have on hand a complete set to box (this was likely done by the same sub-contractor that assembled the 2- and 3-packs.) So, if they were out of, say, MOS #18 or Adventures #497....they sent an order back to the printer to print up another batch, adding the Roman numeral and different logo color, though that seems to have just been a quirk of someone making that decision at the time (the different logo color.)

 

There were also "unofficial" packs, which also contained later printings (mainly Adventures of Superman #498 3rd printing.)

 

(This, by the way, does much to dispel the myth that DC, Marvel, and other publishers don't warehouse books...they do, and this is an example of that.)

 

So, the only way to get these later printings, for the most part, was through these collector packs. Since the people who bought the "collector" packs were almost universally NOT collectors (they were simply interested in reading the story) and the packs/boxes were sold in mostly NON-collector venues, and since there was a near-universal disdain for later printings that persisted for at least another decade after the fact, a perfect storm of scarcity, attrition, and interest has resulted in the demand we see now, especially in high grade.

 

These items were not packed in any way that would prohibit damage. Though the boxes provided a measure of protection, it wasn't much, and any sort of impact to the box impacted the books as well. And, they weren't packed too tightly, and any movement resulted in rub to most or all of the books. The shrink-wrapped packs were no different, and had even less protection. Frankly, it's amazing any of these survived in high grade.

 

There is probably not a single store, in the 23 years this story has been in existence, that has ever owned multiples of any of the later printings, except by accident. They certainly couldn't order, say, the third printing of Adventures #499, for example, and why would they? No one wanted them. So, of course, they wouldn't have ever been in store stock, again, except by accident, and there certainly wouldn't have been any desire to preserve them in any meaningful way. So, the main source we have for high grade comics of the last 40 years...unsold store stock...was never a factor with these.

 

So, the only source for these later printings was in packs and boxes that people mostly bought to mostly read (and thus, damage), there was little done to preserve them, and quite possibly not a single person cared, if they even noticed...a situation that remained true for almost two decades.

 

It is therefore quite an accident of history that any of these survived at all, and a testament to the mentality of the collector that we have unopened boxes of these still lying around to this day (though they are rapidly disappearing as well.) For the last 25 years, the theory has been to save EVERYTHING, on the chance that something might click, someday, which is why anything even tangentially related to comics has been preserved.

 

Had these been books sold in the 1930's through 1950's, it's likely we would be talking about fragments of rumors. How many comics have come, gone, and disappeared into the ether, with not even a rumor of their existence?

 

To my knowledge, the DOS/FFAF boxes could contain any printings except the final printings of FFAF, which I *believe* (but would be happy to be corrected) were only available through the 2- and 3-packs. They are, of course, the rarest of the bunch (MOS #20 2nd, Action #686 2nd, Adventures #499 3rd [there is no second printing known of this book!] and Superman #77 3rd.)

 

This is unlike the situation with Bone, which was only reprinted to order, and was continually solicited throughout the 90's for "the latest printing" in Previews. As well, Bone #1 had a (reported) print run of only 3,000 copies, was an "Independent", and though it certainly achieved after-market notoriety, the near-constant availability of later printings, a base composed mostly of readers, rather than collectors, has created quite a divergent path between the two scenarios. You could always find "the latest printing" of Bone at a local store, and if you couldn't, you could simply ask for it to be ordered, and it showed up.

 

Now...high grade examples of Bone later printings are quite scarce...but there's really not too much demand on a collector basis for those books, and may not be.

Bump.

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Chillax23

Chillax23

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Brandon Shepherd said:

I like that you have the newsstand edition included.

But of course :) I love newsstand copies and will pay a premium for them - I think they should be a variant 👍

a newsstand Batman 497 in cgc 9.8 is one of my favourite books I own (even though it is a copper book). 

I am trying to reconcile whether I need the 5th print - given it was printed a couple years later..... but if I can grab for a good deal I will pull the trigger. 

I want to put together a 9.8 run of Superman 75 printings as well. 

Edited by Chillax23
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Brandon Shepherd

Brandon Shepherd

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On 1/18/2014 at 5:51 AM, joecgcmaniac said:

 

Or come to find out you were lucky not to pull the trigger on the book, especially since they just pushed the Batman/Superman movie back to 2016. Just like everything else D.C. attempts on a large scale, they'll either blow it, or it will completely fall apart, and instead of Doomsday as a villain, we'll get Lex Luthor once again. lol

You saw into the future!

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Iconic1s

Iconic1s

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On 1/8/2020 at 8:26 AM, NEED MO DAKKA said:

 

IMG_1821.JPG

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IMG_1857.JPG

 

 

 

For me, the best part about seeing these old packs still intact is seeing the price... $1.99!  They were practically giving these away begging someone to buy them and now we’re all going crazy trying to find them and willing to pay several hundreds times that for a NM example. If I only knew then...

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