Newsstand bait-and-switch, so it begins... 0

[FlyingDonut]

This is the same as buying 30 cent variants off of eBay in 1997. Same thing happened all the time.

[Ramses717]

From what I remember, the recent DC newsstands are a dollar more than their direct market counterparts. That’s a huge difference to me and newsstand should be acknowledged on the label. 

I was a big fan of the Batman new 52 newsstands. I picked up issues 7-50 at Barnes & Noble when they came out. I was so disappointed when only Batman 23.1 received a newsstand variant. 

Sadly, my local Barnes & Noble no longer carries newsstand copies. I’d have loved to get a Batman 50. 

[Lazyboy]

31 minutes ago, Ramses717 said:

From what I remember, the recent DC newsstands are a dollar more than their direct market counterparts. That’s a huge difference

No, it isn't. There have been many, many comics produced with the different editions priced differently since the mid-90s. How they are priced isn't relevant because they are already defined as the Direct edition and the Newsstand edition. Of course, there are rare exceptions.

[Joosh]

I’ve had to return a few books for this very reason. Nowadays I make sure the seller says the item in picture is what I get, be it in description or in messages. Even then I’ve still had it happen. Returns work for making it right but the added time and annoyance is irreversible. 

 

[valiantman]

17 hours ago, Illustrious said:

I've had the same thing happen, I purchased a copper-age 9.8 newsstand that was shown in the auction photos, and I got a direct edition instead. Luckily, the seller did have the original newsstand copy pictured and I sent back the direct edition and exchanged them with no problems. Now I message a seller directly and confirm it before I buy if they don't mention the UPC code at all in the item description/title.

Have you had any sellers "wise up" as a result of asking them to confirm?  As others have mentioned, it seems a little like asking someone selling a "brass ring" if the ring actually has the "14k" imprint like the picture. 

[valiantman]

10 hours ago, Ramses717 said:

Sadly, my local Barnes & Noble no longer carries newsstand copies. I’d have loved to get a Batman 50. 

I'm pretty sure it's not just Barnes & Noble... DC no longer makes newsstands.

[mr_highgrade]

18 hours ago, Martin Sinescu said:

The thing about this is, the longer they resist, the more that are going out with no distinction. Meanwhile, newsstands seem to be gaining more awareness in the marketplace. They could've sucked it up a few years ago and we'd already be a few years into having a more accurate census, but oh well. Their competition does actually acknowledge them already, but I'm not that hellbent on having it on the label that I would consider switching over anyway. Honestly, it's probably more to a newsstand collector's advantage that they don't distinguish it. I think the census numbers would be pretty shocking if they differentiated.

Valiantman, I remember a few years ago someone had a listing of 5 Batman 2011's, all 9.8's, and the main photo was a newsstand copy (the other 4 were lowly directs). The price was a little bit above FMV, but I considered pulling the trigger to get that specific one. A few hours of thinking and I checked the listing again: One had sold. I figured that was the NS and only the directs were left. 

CGC will make a distinction on newsies that have a different price tag.

 

 

[kimik]

They are still inconsistent with newsstand labelling even when you note it with your submission paperwork. In a recent modern group I had 4 Canadian newsstand books noted as such on the CGC submission form. Three came back with Canadian Edition on the label, but the fourth did not. 

[Joosh]

3 hours ago, valiantman said:

Have you had any sellers "wise up" as a result of asking them to confirm?  As others have mentioned, it seems a little like asking someone selling a "brass ring" if the ring actually has the "14k" imprint like the picture. 

I’ve kept to simply asking about the actual item pictured when possible, trying to avoid tipping them off. I did have to specify newsstand on an item with multiple available, much like OP’s situation. In that case the seller just stated they were all exactly as the one pictured and so I bought all 10. Sure enough they were all newsstand. Only a few were actually NM+ but I was happy.

[Lazyboy]

1 hour ago, kimik said:

They are still inconsistent with newsstand labelling even when you note it with your submission paperwork. In a recent modern group I had 4 Canadian newsstand books noted as such on the CGC submission form. Three came back with Canadian Edition on the label, but the fourth did not. 

That's a different issue. CGC acknowledged Canadian Newsstands right from the start. Their arbitrary, inconsistent acknowledgement of regular Newsstands is much more recent.

[Lazyboy]

21 hours ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Meanwhile, newsstands seem to be gaining more awareness in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, the "awareness" is not being spread by reputable sources with plain facts, but by cheap hucksters with misinformation.

21 hours ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Their competition does actually acknowledge them already

Yeah, but still in a half-assed way. I can't even imagine the purpose of the arbitrary cut-off date.

[FlyingDonut]

I'm looking for the weird $2.29/$2.49 price variants from 1999-2000. I can't tell you the number of books I've sent back because what I received was not what was pictured. People think they're interchangeable. I wouldn't put too much of a sinister plan on it - people are just lazy.

[WoWitHurts]

8 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:

I'm looking for the weird $2.29/$2.49 price variants from 1999-2000. I can't tell you the number of books I've sent back because what I received was not what was pictured. People think they're interchangeable. I wouldn't put too much of a sinister plan on it - people are just lazy.

I just think sellers don't care. I wonder what % of collectors seek out newsstand over other distribution channels.

[RockMyAmadeus]

2 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

23 hours ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Meanwhile, newsstands seem to be gaining more awareness in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, the "awareness" is not being spread by reputable sources with plain facts, but by cheap hucksters with misinformation.

Quote

Their competition does actually acknowledge them already

Yeah, but still in a half-assed way. I can't even imagine the purpose of the arbitrary cut-off date.

The first is on point, and the totally arbitrary nature of Voldemort's 2000 cutoff...there's nothing at all special about the year 2000 as it relates to newsstand distribution...as well as their unwillingness to research the nature of early UPC books (1976-1979) for which there is no direct edition, is yet another shortcoming. 

It would have been better not to acknowledge newsstand copies at all, then to acknowledge them from "1977 to 2000."

There's not just a lack of scholarly effort in this industry...there's open, aggressive hostility to it, because "don't you get in the way of me making $$$$!"

Such a shame.

[RockMyAmadeus]

What I will never understand is the resistance. Never will, in 10,000 years, outside of general human nature. 

[valiantman]

i just realized that CGC could easily and quickly improve their labeling by just hooking up a barcode reader for book identification when shipments arrive.  Newsstand vs. direct could be determined automatically most of the time.  Just one UPC column needs to be added to the database records.

[RockMyAmadeus]

3 hours ago, valiantman said:

i just realized that CGC could easily and quickly improve their labeling by just hooking up a barcode reader for book identification when shipments arrive.  Newsstand vs. direct could be determined automatically most of the time.  Just one UPC column needs to be added to the database records.

They could conceivably determine them for everything. Default would be Direct, while all newsstand...from 1976 to the present....would be scanned. 1993-up can both be scanned.

As a layman, how would that work? Wouldn't CGC need a master list of codes? 

[Joosh]

5 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

They could conceivably determine them for everything. Default would be Direct, while all newsstand...from 1976 to the present....would be scanned. 1993-up can both be scanned.

As a layman, how would that work? Wouldn't CGC need a master list of codes? 

The newer newsstand marvel books sometimes have the wrong title in the upc box. I wonder if the code would scan for the incorrect title in that instance.

For instance, my Morbius #1 newsstand from 2013 has “Spider-Man Limited” in the upc box. Would it scan as a Spider-Man book? 

[valiantman]

6 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

They could conceivably determine them for everything. Default would be Direct, while all newsstand...from 1976 to the present....would be scanned. 1993-up can both be scanned.

As a layman, how would that work? Wouldn't CGC need a master list of codes? 

CGC had to enter the details of every comic at some point, title, date, artists, appearances, etc.  For each book with a valid barcode, they would just have to bring up the database editor they already use by hand and click the barcode scanner.  It would add the official barcode to the database, a step that is only needed once.  Every time that book arrives after that one step, they could just scan the barcode to enter the submitted books. 

 

Right now, they do a lookup search for the books and sometimes pick the wrong one from the list.  Then we get those mislabeled slabs.  The barcode scanner could end those kinds of errors.

[valiantman]

32 minutes ago, Joosh said:

The newer newsstand marvel books sometimes have the wrong title in the upc box. I wonder if the code would scan for the incorrect title in that instance.

For instance, my Morbius #1 newsstand from 2013 has “Spider-Man Limited” in the upc box. Would it scan as a Spider-Man book? 

The CGC receiving system could easily show you which books have the same barcode, even for errors.  If both Morbius and Spider-man Limited had the same barcode issued by Marvel (by mistake), the CGC system could just pop up a message "Barcode conflict: select Morbius or Spider-man to continue."