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How much of a premium are we talking for newsstand issues v/s direct editions?
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1,113 posts in this topic

44 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:
47 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

It’s crazy that newsstand copies are all the rage now.

Have to give Chuck some credit here for creating the market.

You know what's weird is that I would be surprised if Chuck sold a bunch of newsstand comics at his astronomical prices.  BUT there's a huge gap below his prices for the rest of to sell at more 'reasonable' prices and still make some small profit.

But in a world where everything is available at your fingertips and we're moving increasingly towards super collector/fandom, items that take a bit more effort to find are premium.

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1 minute ago, porcupine48 said:

Is he going to insurance burn his massive warehouse of junque?

Don't be silly Jim. Too soon after the roof leak. 

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3 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

Have to give Chuck some credit here for creating the market.

mmmmmm....

have to give chuck credit for hyping the market, not creating it, Remember, chuck was reacting to what he had been hearing already from others.

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11 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:
15 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

Have to give Chuck some credit here for creating the market.

mmmmmm....

have to give chuck credit for hyping the market, not creating it, Remember, chuck was reacting to what he had been hearing already from others.

From us, if I'm not mistaken . . . :bigsmile:

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1 hour ago, divad said:

From us, if I'm not mistaken . . . :bigsmile:

I was building my ASM run quietly under the radar, paying fairly small premiums at most, and then Chuck started his '100x value regardless' pricing thing. Then an ebay seller - The Comic Newsstand? - followed suit and it was game over. 

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It was 1986.  I was in my LCS and first learned about newsstand vs. direct market editions.  By this time I had been collecting by pull list for a couple of years.

My 14-year old brow furrowed.  Should I start buying the 20 or so titles I collected off the newsstand, in case in the future those editions become more collectible?

”There’s no difference,” the shop owner said.  I didn’t quite believe him, but thinking a pull list is just easier I put the notion to rest and never thought of it again.

True story!  Amazing sometimes what survives as a vivid memory.

Edited by Heronext
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In 1979 I started to buy at least one newsie for every title that I collected. As the years went on, I slacked off and bought them occasionally. Then in the early 2000's I started searching them out again. I sold a few 9.8's Copper/Moderns to a few private collectors for plenty of $$$.

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On 11/7/2017 at 8:52 PM, Cpt Kirk said:

I'd like to challenge anyone to produce newsstand variant of the following Rebirth Issues:  Batman 30, Detective 963, Superman 30, or Action 986.   Rumor is that they exist, but I've yet to see a single copy.   I personally believe the last Rebirth newsstand issues were Batman 29, TEC 962, Superman 29 and Action 985.

If you find one, please don't hesitate to send me PM.  I would glady pay $25 for each

I will amend my note about to say that I was able to find confirmation that the last newsstand issues in the Rebirth titles mentioned above were Batman 29, TEC 962, Superman 29 and Action 985

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On 9/13/2019 at 11:38 AM, THE_BEYONDER said:

Found these at a garage sale recently....

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From the few Star books I've looked for, I've generally noticed that the newsstand versions aren't as uncommon as the more "adult" Marvel titles. Realistically, these books would be more likely to be shopped by the target audience in newsstand outlets as opposed to LCS's where the direct copies would be available. 9.8's are a different story, sure, but just the general population I saw online made me feel that newsstands were pretty common among the Star line.

 

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One of the fun thing about the newsstand issues is that there are still a lot of sellers who don't realize that they have an uncommon newsstand issue in hand. Plus there's not a lot of collectors who care whether or not they have a newsstand issue  Therefore, with patience, many newsstand issues can be found or bought at a reasonable price without a lot of competition.   

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7 hours ago, Shoomanfoo said:

Trust me they all know now. I see the reflection in prices even if only 10 bucks or so...

problem is not everyone understands that the newsies from the 80s and way more common than mid 90s and 2000’s and still rep it as “rare newsstand” lmaoo

Exactly. Anything up to about 1993 is going to be common, outside of rare and unusual instances. It's not until 1994-up that they start to decline precipitously across the board.

You see an Alpha Flight #15 newsstand...? No premium. You see a Batman #588 newsstand...? Decent preimum. You see an ASM #694 newsstand...? Large premium.

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24 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:
8 hours ago, Shoomanfoo said:

Trust me they all know now. I see the reflection in prices even if only 10 bucks or so...

problem is not everyone understands that the newsies from the 80s and way more common than mid 90s and 2000’s and still rep it as “rare newsstand” lmaoo

Exactly. Anything up to about 1993 is going to be common, outside of rare and unusual instances. It's not until 1994-up that they start to decline precipitously across the board.

You see an Alpha Flight #15 newsstand...? No premium. You see a Batman #588 newsstand...? Decent preimum. You see an ASM #694 newsstand...? Large premium.

I would say though that generally given the nature of buying from a newsstand vs a comic book store, for HIGH GRADE desirable comics even in the late 80's/early 90's, there should be some material newsstand bump IMO.  Generally those books are readily available in both newsstand and direct, but I do think there was a higher likely hood of direct being sold in initially better condition and also a higher likelihood of condition preservation over these many years, resulting in far higher direct numbers in CGC 9.8+, even if there was little or no difference in initial print run.  Of course, the newsstand premium realized is still variable and dependent on so many factors....

Also a factor would be how the individual values ROI over absolute dollars.

 

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17 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:
On 9/17/2019 at 7:58 AM, Shoomanfoo said:

Trust me they all know now. I see the reflection in prices even if only 10 bucks or so...

problem is not everyone understands that the newsies from the 80s and way more common than mid 90s and 2000’s and still rep it as “rare newsstand” lmaoo

Exactly. Anything up to about 1993 is going to be common, outside of rare and unusual instances. It's not until 1994-up that they start to decline precipitously across the board.

You see an Alpha Flight #15 newsstand...? No premium. You see a Batman #588 newsstand...? Decent preimum. You see an ASM #694 newsstand...? Large premium.

Still a beautiful visualization of vague exactness...

direct_newsstand.png

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14 minutes ago, valiantman said:

Still a beautiful visualization of vague exactness...

direct_newsstand.png

The trouble I have with that graph is that the date on the right pretty much equates the 1996-1998's newsstands with the "whitman diamond era" directs.  I don't feel they're comparable.  The bottom axis gives specificity to equate the newsstand decline as approaching the same very small market share that the direct market had prior to 1978.  While the simplicity is nice the message should also be clarified since my assumption is that your graph is intended to reflect sales after returns not print runs, since newsstand print runs for a strong newsstand title like ASM were 50/50 as late as 1998 & direct was only 2/3rds of the print runs as late as 2002.   Just sayin'

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2 minutes ago, bababooey said:
44 minutes ago, valiantman said:

Still a beautiful visualization of vague exactness...

direct_newsstand.png

The trouble I have with that graph is that the date on the right pretty much equates the 1996-1998's newsstands with the "whitman diamond era" directs.  I don't feel they're comparable.  The bottom axis gives specificity to equate the newsstand decline as approaching the same very small market share that the direct market had prior to 1978.  While the simplicity is nice the message should also be clarified since my assumption is that your graph is intended to reflect sales after returns not print runs, since newsstand print runs for a strong newsstand title like ASM were 50/50 as late as 1998 & direct was only 2/3rds of the print runs as late as 2002.   Just sayin'

I don't know about all those details, but being a 20+ year Ebay customer in comics, it's pretty clear that what's readily available on the largest online venue for back issues tends to match pretty well with this graphic.  The graphic reflects more of "what is" and not "what was". Exceptions are probably everywhere, since I know for a fact that 1996 Valiant newsstand is tiny while 1996 Marvel newsstand is comparatively common.

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