• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Marvel October 1999 ~ February 2000 US Newsstand Price Variants
8 8

381 posts in this topic

A very knowledgeable boardie provided the below info that, while a guess, makes sense as to the three different prices.

 

The $1.99 was for standard distribution throughout the US.

 

The $2.29 is the Canadian newsstand.

 

The $2.49 is a "book market", Barnes & Noble type effort. As we know now, much of the "book market" has had "higher" cover prices for their newsstand books, which bled over into the whole newsstand by the early/mid 00's. I am of the opinion...educated guess, here...that that is the genesis of those price differences.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A very knowledgeable boardie provided the below info that, while a guess, makes sense as to the three different prices.

 

The $1.99 was for standard distribution throughout the US.

 

The $2.29 is the Canadian newsstand.

 

The $2.49 is a "book market", Barnes & Noble type effort. As we know now, much of the "book market" has had "higher" cover prices for their newsstand books, which bled over into the whole newsstand by the early/mid 00's. I am of the opinion...educated guess, here...that that is the genesis of those price differences.

 

Canadian Newsstand? No. Not a chance.

 

1. It has an explicitly U.S. price.

2. The regular version was priced at 1.99 US/2.99 CAN

3. Canadian Newsstand editions were long gone at this point.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A very knowledgeable boardie provided the below info that, while a guess, makes sense as to the three different prices.

 

The $1.99 was for standard distribution throughout the US.

 

The $2.29 is the Canadian newsstand.

 

The $2.49 is a "book market", Barnes & Noble type effort. As we know now, much of the "book market" has had "higher" cover prices for their newsstand books, which bled over into the whole newsstand by the early/mid 00's. I am of the opinion...educated guess, here...that that is the genesis of those price differences.

 

Canadian Newsstand? No. Not a chance.

 

1. It has an explicitly U.S. price.

2. The regular version was priced at 1.99 US/2.99 CAN

3. Canadian Newsstand editions were long gone at this point.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info.

 

Well, the book market scenario makes sense and would explain one of the higher prices. Any guess as to the other? I've been digging for sources to find some type of solid information but haven't found anything outside of a few guesses yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 19/12/2016 at 4:37 PM, Marwood & I said:

Guys,

 

This information has been touched on in other threads, but none of them seemed to go anywhere and most of them included lots of pointless bickering. So here's my own attempt to clarify the existence of Marvel newsstand price variants.

 

Back in the day when I was an ASM Completist, I collected the following books:

v2pv.PNG.1a4a97edf1fbcbcba8cdc41097e83be6.PNG

As you can see, as well as the usual $1.99 Direct Editions, three Newsstand versions exist for each ASM numbers 10, 11 and 13 at $1.99, $2.29 and $2.49. I never found an issue 12, but I think Marvel skipped that one as it was a double sized $2.99 special issue.

 

So it looks like Marvel did a similar test market exercise to the 30 / 35 cent variants unless anyone can identify another reason as to why they would produce three different Newsstand prices for the same issue.

 

Being an ASM Completist, I never went too much further to see if the price variants existed for all titles, but the few scans I kept from online sources seem to indicate that they do. Here are all nine Spideys:

58bad3f52cb43_v2101_99.thumb.jpg.f82dc62cc58053dd9cec0ba3e1e2bc64.jpg

58bad3f7a7625_v2102_29.thumb.jpg.5727775cbe84290410d43231e858de00.jpg

 

58bad3f9a196b_v2102_49.thumb.jpg.bec42ac52ae4b73ead7a038d2c1eb538.jpg

 

58bad3fb47056_v2111_99.thumb.jpg.4fad1122bb41a2abe8f0ae57ffe609dc.jpg

 

58bad3fe4bff8_v2112_29.thumb.jpg.3d306dce2e5362a7a49e8c8f232c2166.jpg

 

58bad3ffd0bf9_v2112_49.thumb.jpg.c393afb5ba1ebe4330620c042c36c0f9.jpg

 

58bad401b6e1a_v2131_99.thumb.jpg.b505280b3a2021ade5ae5a65f92767f0.jpg

 

58bad4038838e_v2132_29.thumb.jpg.024b342d1ea9cf866ae7a3f523d0cca9.jpg

 

58bad4053ccd0_v2132_49.thumb.jpg.d475d7113a3434cd4e1e4c37fe6c9300.jpg

 

I'm a little surprised that there is not more definitive information out there about these, given the amount of collectors who go after price variants. So, does anyone have any more examples to add, or additional information? Is anyone interested in hunting them all down? My days are done, but it would be a great pass time for a 30 / 35 cv collector who had achieved the set and was looking for a new challenge....

 

Onwards! (thumbsu

 

 

Whatever happened to this?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are more of them out there - here's a few lifted from the interweb:

58c2b4516eed3_2015-05-1620_31_28.png.250c2d64b8b069e12abc7a546cf6b7b5.png

30665829696_23.NEWSSTAND.GIF.139ea919fe5e3460c1e8c29c94039352.GIF

30665829696_24.NEWSSTAND.GIF.9c9eb10e928734cc99af51e4bf351f7e.GIF

86928513952_18.NEWSSTAND.GIF.5f7036aea92b8e4f4b0c67b615435c0e.GIF

97994586432_93.2_49.COVER.GIF.103ba18d34eb2c620e645a7714f0a5b5.GIF

97994586432_95.2_49.COVER.GIF.71e10e6d406d893ffa9bf4ca530d6913.GIF

 

Is somebody going to put a pretty table of them together or do I have to do everything around here? :wink:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

 

Whatever happened to this?

 

Complete lack of information and general lack of interest, probably. (shrug) Mostly the complete lack of available information. :frown:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

Complete lack of information and general lack of interest, probably. (shrug) Mostly the complete lack of available information. :frown:

 

I'm going to have to put a chart together aren't I Lazyboy. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

 

I'm going to have to put a chart together aren't I Lazyboy. 

A complete list/chart of the issues would be nice, but still wouldn't explain why they exist.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

A complete list/chart of the issues would be nice, but still wouldn't explain why they exist.

 

That's true. But the more you bang on, the more chance there is of an answer being flushed out. The truth is out there.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, mr_highgrade said:

I love newsies. :luhv: I have a couple of long boxes going back to the 80's through present.

 

Indeed. Newsstands are the originals you might say Mr HG. Where it all began.... :cloud9:

Now, look through those boxes of yours for Oct 1999 ~ Jan 2000 Marvels, and see if any have single $2.29 / $2.49 prices. And then get in touch with Marvel for me and ask to speak to the 'Clerk in Charge of Historic Price Variants'. I can never get hold of that guy....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Friends of Obscure and Unexplained Price Variants!

I thought this thread was worth a bump, if only to see if it draws out any new eyes or information on these price variants which remain stubbornly under the radar.

To recap, during the months of October 1999 and January 2000 Marvel produced newsstand copies with three different prices – the ‘regular’ price of $1.99 and two variant prices of $2.29 and $2.49.

Here’s a pretty chart for the Amazing Spider-Man issues, and I posted full scans of all the copies of earlier in the thread:

1.PNG.b29c079e355f09438c64b0c08cb2b32f.PNG

The reason I think it’s worth resurrecting is that I feel these variants could be the modern equivalent of the 30 and 35 Cent Variants. Given how prolific and cherished they are, I find it odd that there is such a lack of interest in these more recent examples. Maybe it’s because they are of a later, perhaps less cherished period in comic history?

According to the DC Indexes website there are over 50 titles for October 1999 alone:

http://www.dcindexes.com/features/newsstand.php?publisher=marvel&type=cover&month=10&year=1999&sort=alpha

At a rough average of 50 titles per month, that’s 200 issues over the four months if every title had the treatment. If all had an additional $2.29 and $2.49 copy that would be approximately 400 price variants (over and above the regular priced Direct and Newsstand editions).

There are two aspects to this investigation – what exists, and why they exist. Now I’m close to running out of pence things to investigate, I may look at starting to build up a library of what exists on this front. I would imagine it would be hard going, but it’s something to pass the time.

Meanwhile, if anyone has any Marvel newsstand comics dated Oct 1999 to Jan 2000 with single $2.29 / $2.49 prices, please post them here so I can add them to the list.

And if anyone knows for sure why these variants exist – there is some speculation earlier in this thread – I’d love to hear it.

All good fun! :headbang:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, mr_highgrade said:

I am going to do a little digging tonight on those long boxes. (thumbsu

Sooper! :headbang:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
8 8