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Books you just cant find in the Wild
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4,477 posts in this topic

2 hours ago, BishopT said:

I’ve never seen one in the five or so years of getting back into collecting, in fact I’ve only ever run across one of the deluxe #100s (a newsstand edition) around here.

I know, and it's such a better cover than the deluxe edition! I couldn't let it go when I saw it!

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16 hours ago, Mapleleafvann said:

That very well could be.  I know I don't do as much digging as most, but still, I've never even seen a Punisher 100.  Hector has a mitt-full....I'm envious.

They are hard to come by. This was a collection I purchased from a sports card guy. Weirdest overstock of books I've ever seen. Multiple copies of some books and not others. This was one of the better books there were multiples of. Here some other highlights. Books not pictured are multiple copies of X-Men 160-183 (including at least 50 copies of X-Men 180 ??? )

Unfortunately most of the books were in bad shape (only one Tec871 looks possible 9.8). All the Punisher 100s look good enough to grade so I sent 3 in last week. 

 

The collection looked like it had been picked over before - All the New Mutants issues are there no 87 or 98.  That SW8 was the only Secret Wars issue. There were 3 Amazing Spider-man issues total.

 

2DE8A6EB-FB4F-4EE3-A5AF-522694D86813.thumb.jpeg.e578268b3a7c08872e69fbc3aa446c7a.jpeg

Edited by jsilverjanet
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On 4/16/2019 at 9:36 PM, fastballspecial said:

Its been several years ago. I found them separately and have only found one copy of 3, but 2 copies of 4. Again its been a long time
ago. At the time they sold very well.

Sly Cooper is just as hard in my opinion as I have only found one copy. Earthworm Jim is just as rare with only one copy of each issue
found in many many years of looking.

 

 

 

Never. Never. Only one copy each of EJ 1 and 2.

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I've pulled at least two of those Punisher 100's out of 50 cent bins here within the last 5 years or so. Pretty sure I threw one into a cheap sales thread here on the boards a couple of years ago as well. I recall at the time that I was surprised by how hard it was to sell the thing, considering I'd never seen them around. Can't imagine I got more than $10 out of it, if that. As always, my timing is impeccable.

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On 4/19/2019 at 11:24 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

By the way..a handful of these have been scattered throughout this thread, but in general, Marvel from 1992-1996, if they made an "enhanced" version usually made a regular version as well. The regular version was almost always cheaper than the enhanced, but they weren't very popular...shiny, sparkly, and foily ruled the day.

That makes the regular versions the "rare" ones, and some of them are quite tough to find. Examples are:

Thor #475

Avengers #380-382

Punisher: Suicide Run (Punisher, PWJ, PWZ)

Amazing Spiderman #388

Punisher #100

Wolverine #100

X-Men Phalanx Covenant

X-Men "regular" (as opposed to "deluxe" versions)

War Machine #1

Etc, etc, etc.

There are tons of them, and the cheaper, non-enhanced versions are much, much tougher to find..."tough" being a relative term, but the books from 1995-1996 are generally harder to find overall. They carried this program....to a much lesser extent...into the 00s (ASM vol 2 #25, for example.)

One interesting example: Guardians of the Galaxy #25, which had both a foil and a non-foil cover that featured the same artwork (the non-enhanced was often different art), but had the same cover price.

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33 minutes ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:
On 4/19/2019 at 10:24 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

By the way..a handful of these have been scattered throughout this thread, but in general, Marvel from 1992-1996, if they made an "enhanced" version usually made a regular version as well. The regular version was almost always cheaper than the enhanced, but they weren't very popular...shiny, sparkly, and foily ruled the day.

That makes the regular versions the "rare" ones, and some of them are quite tough to find. Examples are:

Thor #475

Avengers #380-382

Punisher: Suicide Run (Punisher, PWJ, PWZ)

Amazing Spiderman #388

Punisher #100

Wolverine #100

X-Men Phalanx Covenant

X-Men "regular" (as opposed to "deluxe" versions)

War Machine #1

Etc, etc, etc.

There are tons of them, and the cheaper, non-enhanced versions are much, much tougher to find..."tough" being a relative term, but the books from 1995-1996 are generally harder to find overall. They carried this program....to a much lesser extent...into the 00s (ASM vol 2 #25, for example.)

One interesting example: Guardians of the Galaxy #25, which had both a foil and a non-foil cover that featured the same artwork (the non-enhanced was often different art), but had the same cover price.

I believe that Valiant only had one example of this in their 1990s publishing, and I assume it "failed" so they didn't try again.

Shadowman #0 (1994) was available for the direct market in an all-chromium cover ($3.50) and a standard paper cover ($2.50).  Neither of them was available in a newsstand edition.  The non-chromium version still catches my eye when I see it in the wild.

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16 minutes ago, valiantman said:

I believe that Valiant only had one example of this in their 1990s publishing, and I assume it "failed" so they didn't try again.

Shadowman #0 (1994) was available for the direct market in an all-chromium cover ($3.50) and a standard paper cover ($2.50).  Neither of them was available in a newsstand edition.  The non-chromium version still catches my eye when I see it in the wild.

I still need one of those. I had actually purchased one from Mile High I believe but was sent the Chromium

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1 minute ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

I still need one of those. I had actually purchased one from Mile High I believe but was sent the Chromium

Their errors by confusing books do tend to fall on the side of "what's cheaper for them to replace" a.k.a. "maybe he won't notice". lol

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51 minutes ago, valiantman said:

Their errors by confusing books do tend to fall on the side of "what's cheaper for them to replace" a.k.a. "maybe he won't notice". lol

Yes, but then I complain and usually get the book for free, as the shipping to return is more expensive than the cost of the book. Not what I'm looking to do, but I'm not paying for something I didn't order.

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On 4/24/2019 at 8:06 AM, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

One interesting example: Guardians of the Galaxy #25, which had both a foil and a non-foil cover that featured the same artwork (the non-enhanced was often different art), but had the same cover price.

GOTG was a very, very odd gimmick. They tried the "textured foil" type "enhancement", the kind you sometimes see on toy packaging or kids' books, and it didn't work out very well. It just didn't look good on a comic. It was an interesting idea, but it just didn't translate well.

s-l1600.jpg

Plus, the non-enhanced version had that ugly, ugly pukey gray color. 

s-l1600.jpg

I don't think they ever used that gimmick anywhere else.

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11 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

GOTG was a very, very odd gimmick. They tried the "textured foil" type "enhancement", the kind you sometimes see on toy packaging or kids' books, and it didn't work out very well. It just didn't look good on a comic. It was an interesting idea, but it just didn't translate well.

s-l1600.jpg

Plus, the non-enhanced version had that ugly, ugly pukey gray color. 

s-l1600.jpg

I don't think they ever used that gimmick anywhere else.

It's the only one that comes to mind

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On 4/24/2019 at 8:06 AM, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

One interesting example: Guardians of the Galaxy #25, which had both a foil and a non-foil cover that featured the same artwork (the non-enhanced was often different art), but had the same cover price.

In the heyday of 94-96, the non-enhanced...especially the ones I listed above....was almost always the same artwork, just without the enhancements. That was the point: you could pay 50 cents or $1 more for the shiny, sparkly stuff, or buy the plain version for less. Punisher #100 was a rare exception.

s-l1600.jpg

s-l1600.jpg

 

Interesting side note: Marvel and DC rarely kept the coding straight for which was the "variant" and which was the "regular." Sometimes, as with War Machine here, the "foil" version was the "variant"....other times, the "regular" version was.

Edited by RockMyAmadeus
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2 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

In the heyday of 94-96, the non-enhanced...especially the ones I listed above....was almost always the same artwork, just without the enhancements.

For Marvel, yes. DC was more likely to have different art and less likely to give newsstands enhanced editions.

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10 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

For Marvel, yes. DC was more likely to have different art and less likely to give newsstands enhanced editions.

By the way...the point of the "enhanced" gimmick was obvious: to sell more copies of the same exact book to idiots (read: me) who had to have everything.

DC didn't make anywhere near the level of "enhancements" that Marvel did, and when they did, they were more likely to make a "special collector's edition" that was only available through special means (that is, could not be ordered.)

That aside, there's Robin II and III, Superman #75, and Batman #500. Any others?

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