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

1 hour ago, Lazyboy said:
3 hours ago, paqart said:

One of these days I'll figure out why total strangers are so willing and eager to be disrespectful of each other.

That will probably be on the day after I figure out why some people have the need to produce numbers based on little to no relevant information and are so eager to share their *cough* insight :eyeroll: with everybody else.

Oh, and why those same people reject the wisdom of those with more knowledge of the subject.

This.

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7 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

All of these points are true, and all of these points can be the same at all times.

1. I am searching high and wide for newsstand copies. I believe they will have a significant market appreciation, the later the better.
2. The "rarecomics" site is garbage. Just garbage. There's data on there that is simply wrong on multiple levels.
3. People pushing newsstands are looking to line their pocketbooks. I see you, Chuck Rosanski, I see you, Benjamin Nobel.
4. There's absolutely no way to determine what a "print run" for a newsstand was. When I try to get a ratio, I think you can start at about 15% of the print run with that dropping to 1-5% by the end, but no one knows what the print run was. All numbers that are being thrown around are at best informed speculation. 
5. I think we can make informed speculation as to the number of newsstand copies made by counting the number of Barnes and Nobles and doing some anectodal thinking. If there were in 2017 (the last newsstand year) 627 Barnes and Nobles, it would go to reason that there would be at least 3,035 copies of an individual book - five copies per store - based on looking at a Barnes and Noble newsstand and counting the copies of a magazine, and probably double that, just to account for spillage and return.. Note that this number is ONLY a guess. That doesn't count any other outlets, but I think a 650 number, just as one that has come out there, is way way way low.
6. That doesn't mean that there are 3,035 copies of a book in existence - but I think the numbers that are put out there are really low. I think they're also put out there by people who are trying to make a buck. Are newsstand books - especially post 2010 - ridiculously hard to find? Yes. Should they have a premium? Yes. Are they being pumped by people who are shady at best? Yes.

:applause:

 

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3 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

5,650 were subscriptions (which have always been newsstand copies)

I'm under the impression that the opposite was true after a certain point in time.  I can't recall where I read it but there was a statement where Marvel said they filled subscriptions with direct versions....I want to say it was shortly after the time of the Moon Knight, Micronauts, Kazar "direct-only or sub" change....I thought it was a Bullpen Bulletin a year or two after the one I'm sharing below (which obviously predates the direct experiment on those titles).       

   BULLPEN_AUG81_COVER-DESIGNS.jpg

 

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4 hours ago, bababooey said:
9 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

5,650 were subscriptions (which have always been newsstand copies)

I'm under the impression that the opposite was true after a certain point in time.

Yeah, from what I've seen, subscriptions were generally filled using direct editions.

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4 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

Yeah, from what I've seen, subscriptions were generally filled using direct editions.

That's fair. Assuming that was the case that late in the game, that's still a print run of 15,000+ newsstand copies...keeping in mind that the SOOs report averages, not actual numbers, and even those numbers may not be correct.

15,000 sounds awfully low for continent-wide distribution, but it would explain why Marvel gave up newsstand distribution entirely. 2011 was the year they started winding it down, with 2013 being the end.

But it does put a nice dagger in the heart of the "1%" idea advanced by many. If the number printed was 15,000, and the Directs were roughly 64,000, that's a ratio of about 4.3:1...not even remotely close to the "100:1" figures being advanced by hucksters like Benjamin Nobel and others.

The idea that Marvel would only print 640 copies for continent-wide distribution. It's just :facepalm: worthy.

By the way...this is a picture of a single Barnes & Noble (Brooklyn) shelf from late 2013. Notice the number of copies for sale:

photo-13-1024x768.jpg

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I agree the 1/100 was just completely ridiculous. Sometimes I enjoy Chuck's stories and other times Id like to duct tape him.

That picture above though I think is a little high for copies.(or a large B&B?)
My local B&B I got newsstand copies at all the time until the end. 

All I ever got at most was 5 copies of any book. A lot of the time it was only 3 although it was mostly DC books. Not saying they
didn't have more copies, but having gone there for several months I can say somewhat their orders from store to 
store would vary to some degree.

I picked up a few Hulk books today and some others for $.50 each all from 98 and beyond. I just cant pass up high grade and
a cheap price on them.



 

 

 

 

Edited by fastballspecial
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14 hours ago, ygogolak said:
On 10/12/2019 at 4:07 PM, fastballspecial said:

I agree the 1/100 was just completely ridiculous. Sometimes I enjoy Chuck's stories and other times Id like to duct tape him.

I typically enjoy Chucks stories. Then you can also have fun determining fact from fiction.

I agree with both of you. Chuck is a born storyteller, and a font of information from the earliest days of retailing..."plus Church", which stands on its own.

BUT....BUT BUT BUT....you absolutely MUST verify what Chuck says against other information, and if you can't...you have to take everything he says with 17 large boulders of salt.

Beerbohm used to be the same way, but I think Beerbohm fell off the cliff mentally about 10 years ago. It's very sad.

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On 10/14/2019 at 8:24 AM, jsilverjanet said:
On 10/14/2019 at 8:22 AM, bababooey said:

It will probably be Spawn #1 since millions were printed 

Why stop at 1:1000....? Why not just say 1:1,000,000,000...? The bigger number is more impressive, and just as legitimate...

Spawn #9 was printed to the tune of perhaps a million, perhaps a million five. Perhaps. We don't know. We know the Cap City numbers were extraordinary (204,600) which placed it among the highest sellers ever at Cap City.

But it's absurd to imagine that Image only printed 1000-1500 copies for the newsstand.

Just completely preposterous. 

lol

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10 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Why stop at 1:1000....? Why not just say 1:1,000,000,000...? The bigger number is more impressive, and just as legitimate...

Spawn #9 was printed to the tune of perhaps a million, perhaps a million five. Perhaps. We don't know. We know the Cap City numbers were extraordinary (204,600) which placed it among the highest sellers ever at Cap City.

But it's absurd to imagine that Image only printed 1000-1500 copies for the newsstand.

Just completely preposterous. 

lol

And to this it’s impossible to disagree because that’s not a rare newsstand at all. 

Its funny how it’s described as such along with Spawn 1 news. 

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There were 500 or so borders locations in the USA before the bankruptcy. They carried newstand editions. I would check the racks for newsy versions of any hot book, but everything was always trashed, which helps explain 75-90% return rates. So add in another 2500-5000++ copies of certain titles going to borders to the analysis. 

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All I want to know is , " what's in the water?" Seems almost ever other thread I have been seeing as of late has had this same discussion going round and round... you know what you can not find in the wild? A definitive answer... so what will I do? Post some more debatable "rarity" Newsstand books! IMG_20190409_200523569.thumb.jpg.e7b2023bbcfbb201e225443343486388.jpg20191015_190451.thumb.jpg.ce38b5dd0e8926e289009b437e218934.jpg

yeah the adventures is lower grade, but they threw it in when I bought the 75 3rd for $2..

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1 hour ago, the blob said:

There were 500 or so borders locations in the USA before the bankruptcy. They carried newstand editions. I would check the racks for newsy versions of any hot book, but everything was always trashed, which helps explain 75-90% return rates. So add in another 2500-5000++ copies of certain titles going to borders to the analysis. 

Their(Borders) books were in horrible shape. I picked up a few, but many times they were too damaged to get any.

 

Edited by fastballspecial
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