How much of a premium are we talking for newsstand issues v/s direct editions? 10 10

[Silver Surfer]

Love the topic, great discussion but we need to see more high grade copies posted (since they are so plentiful). 

[Cpt Kirk]

after having gone through thousands and thousands of comic books, I've can say the following with certainty:

1.   Some newsstand issues from about 2001 through 2011 are extremely hard to find.   They might be sitting in someone's closet, but the fact is that there are many newsstand issues from this time period that are just plain scarce.

3.   As noted by many people above, scarcity does not mean they are valuable.   I think there are very few fanatics out there who must have all the newsstand variants.

4   After 2011, I think some dealers and collectors started taking note of them, so there are more of them to be found.

5.   The earliest years of newsstand issues (starting in 1980) are still pretty easy to find because many collectors (including myself) were still buying their comic books from the newsstand.   So lot of newsstand issues were bought and preserved from that time period.

[valiantman]

On 4/15/2017 at 10:17 PM, Cpt Kirk said:

after having gone through thousands and thousands of comic books, I've can say the following with certainty:

1.   Some newsstand issues from about 2001 through 2011 are extremely hard to find.   They might be sitting in someone's closet, but the fact is that there are many newsstand issues from this time period that are just plain scarce.

3.   As noted by many people above, scarcity does not mean they are valuable.   I think there are very few fanatics out there who must have all the newsstand variants.

4   After 2011, I think some dealers and collectors started taking note of them, so there are more of them to be found.

5.   The earliest years of newsstand issues (starting in 1980) are still pretty easy to find because many collectors (including myself) were still buying their comic books from the newsstand.   So lot of newsstand issues were bought and preserved from that time period.

Good points, here's the "almost not completely wrong" graphic for your 5th statement:

[Cpt Kirk]

11 hours ago, valiantman said:

Good points, here's the "almost not completely wrong" graphic for your 5th statement:

Your graph does a great job of illustrating the situation.   Thanks for posting it!

p.s.  It would be interesting to put actual numbers to the graph for popular titles such as Batman.    I wonder if those numbers exist.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Cpt Kirk

[Cpt Kirk]

Update:   I finally found the last newsstand issue I was looking for (namely Detective 868).    I can now say with certainty that every single issue of Batman, Detective Comics, Superman/Adv of Superman, Action Comics and Justice League of America had both a direct sales version and newsstand version.     DC first started making the direct sales versions (with corresponding newsstand versions) in October 1980.   The first issues were Batman 328, Detective Comics 495, Superman 352, Action Comics 512, and Justice League of America 183.  

Edited April 19, 2017 by Cpt Kirk

[Lazyboy]

On 2017-04-18 at 8:38 PM, Cpt Kirk said:

On 2017-04-18 at 9:31 AM, valiantman said:

Good points, here's the "almost not completely wrong" graphic for your 5th statement:

Your graph does a great job of illustrating the situation.   Thanks for posting it!

That's a not-completely-terrible-but-overly-extreme illustration of the entire market, including everything without newsstand distribution, but completely useless for individual titles.

On 2017-04-18 at 8:38 PM, Cpt Kirk said:

p.s.  It would be interesting to put actual numbers to the graph for popular titles such as Batman.    I wonder if those numbers exist.

Of course the numbers exist... somewhere in the publisher's files. 

DC changed the way they mailed subscription copies almost 3 decades ago, which meant they no longer had to publish Statements of Ownership, which means we know very little about their numbers.

Even with SoO numbers and resources like Comichron, we can really only guess at newsstand numbers. There's a bit of a discussion about that here.

 

[Cpt Kirk]

18 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

That's a not-completely-terrible-but-overly-extreme illustration of the entire market, including everything without newsstand distribution, but completely useless for individual titles.

Of course the numbers exist... somewhere in the publisher's files. 

DC changed the way they mailed subscription copies almost 3 decades ago, which meant they no longer had to publish Statements of Ownership, which means we know very little about their numbers.

Even with SoO numbers and resources like Comichron, we can really only guess at newsstand numbers. There's a bit of a discussion about that here.

 

Very interesting.   thanks for chiming in!

[PhilipB2k17]

The fly in the ointment for this topic is that those who had subscriptions to various titles got a newsstand copy in the mail. So, not all Newsstand copies were sitting around on spinner racks for months, or on newsstand shelves. I was gifted a 2-year subscription to the X-Men, and got a newsstand copy in the mail each months (mid-80;s) that I literally never read. and just bagged up when it came. Why? Because it came out a few weeks after the direct sales copy, and I bought that one the day it came out. So, I have a 2-year run of early 80's X-men with both a direct and newsstand copy. Both sets are in great condition.

[HarrisonJohn]

I think in most cases the subscription copy would likely take a beating too? I had a subscription when I was a kid, and I didn't care about condition, but we had the slot in the door thing so it always ended up folded. I think they were just mailed in a brown piece of paper.

Edited April 24, 2017 by HarrisonJohn

[Jaydogrules]

43 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

The fly in the ointment for this topic is that those who had subscriptions to various titles got a newsstand copy in the mail. So, not all Newsstand copies were sitting around on spinner racks for months, or on newsstand shelves. I was gifted a 2-year subscription to the X-Men, and got a newsstand copy in the mail each months (mid-80;s) that I literally never read. and just bagged up when it came. Why? Because it came out a few weeks after the direct sales copy, and I bought that one the day it came out. So, I have a 2-year run of early 80's X-men with both a direct and newsstand copy. Both sets are in great condition.

Yes the numerous false narratives tossed around to make newsstands out to be much more than they are is simply mind boggling.  

-J.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Jaydogrules

[valiantman]

4 minutes ago, Jaydogrules said:

Yes the numerous false narratives tossed around to make newsstands out to be much more than they are is simply mind boggling.  

-J.

Translation:  "These grapes are sour!"

[Lazyboy]

1 hour ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

The fly in the ointment for this topic is that those who had subscriptions to various titles got a newsstand copy in the mail. So, not all Newsstand copies were sitting around on spinner racks for months, or on newsstand shelves. I was gifted a 2-year subscription to the X-Men, and got a newsstand copy in the mail each months (mid-80;s) that I literally never read. and just bagged up when it came. Why? Because it came out a few weeks after the direct sales copy, and I bought that one the day it came out. So, I have a 2-year run of early 80's X-men with both a direct and newsstand copy. Both sets are in great condition.

Even if all subscription copies were newsstand editions, subscriptions generally only accounted for around 2-4% of the distribution of an issue.

[valiantman]

Periodic check for Amazing Spider-man #300 on Ebay (April 24, 2017):

53 slabbed copies available

42 direct editions, average grade 9.23

11 newsstand editions, average grade 7.43

 

I found an old post from October 2010, it was:

52 slabbed copies available on Ebay

44 direct editions, 8 newsstands

Edited April 24, 2017 by valiantman

[Silver Surfer]

I'm a little shocked that there is zero discussion about Voldy's decision to now label Newsstand books. Is CGC far behind?

Edited May 9, 2017 by Silver Surfer

[cranky's]

I have stopped buying direct copies almost entirely.  Especially hate that little spidey face on every marvel book for like 20 years 

[Lazyboy]

6 hours ago, skrank said:

I have stopped buying direct copies almost entirely.  Especially hate that little spidey face on every marvel book for like 20 years 

Do you collect MAD magazine?

I assume you love this issue:

[cranky's]

2 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

Do you collect MAD magazine?

I assume you love this issue:

HA! (that is awesome)

[bluehorseshoe]

looks like the $3000 ASM 300 newstand 9.8 came off of ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222502378342?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

 

[DST]

19 hours ago, bluehorseshoe said:

looks like the $3000 ASM 300 newstand 9.8 came off of ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222502378342?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

 

I think the "error in the listing" was that it wasn't even a 9.8.  There were no pictures proving it was.  I even contacted the seller asking for a picture or serial number... something...but he wouldn't provide it. 

[mr_highgrade]

On 5/8/2017 at 10:41 PM, Silver Surfer said:

I'm a little shocked that there is zero discussion about Voldy's decision to now label Newsstand books. Is CGC far behind?

 CGC already started to list newsies on its label.