Label Update for Spawn 1 1

[ComBD]

Hello CGC, and anyone else who peruses this thread!

I'm creating this thread because the label update thread hasn't had a CGC response since 2015, and the changes I'm requesting are quite wide, a simple note within the books when being submitted wouldn't fix this problem for years. This has been on my mind for quite awhile now, and I finally realized that hopefully you guys can fix this. There are many things I collect, but two of the main things are Spawn and Blue Beetle. We all know that most of the early Spawn books were heavily overprinted for the direct market, what most people don't know is that they also printed books for the Newsstand, only ONE percent of what was printed for Direct. This means on a book such as #1, where there was around 1 million printed, there are only around 10,000 Newsstands. Now I know for #1 CGC has started to recognize the difference, however this difference is not only limited to number 1. Newsstands were printed from issue 1 through 112, and then 117-137. The Newsstand counterpart only becomes more rare as the print run decreases, combined with the fact that companies printed less and less newsstands as time went on. For example, Comichron indicates that for issue 137 (the final newsstand) there were 34,735 Direct units, this would mean that there were only around 3400 Newsstands printed IF Image was still printing Newsstands at 1% which they most likely were not.  The whole point of this is that the CGC census is incorrectly displaying data unless you separate the two, for a book such as Spawn #98, there is only 9 on the census, so only one of them may be newsstand. That makes a huge difference, and would greatly help collectors like myself if we knew how many newsstands were actually on the census. With all that said, here are the specific label updates I am proposing in the event that a Spawn comic has a UPC, I will start with Spawn 2, even though you may already be labeling those.

Spawn #2-63, 65-100, 106-112, 117-137 - Label: Newsstand Edition
There are two different UPC editions for the following books, one with a sticker, and one without - Spawn #64 (only book with the UPC on the back, the sticker version has the barcode on the front) #101-105 - Label for those with a sticker: Sticker UPC Newsstand Edition; Label for those without a sticker: Newsstand Edition

This means that the books on the first line should have two different designators on the CGC census (Direct and Newsstand Edition) and the books on the second line should have three different designators on the CGC census (Direct, Newsstand Edition, and Sticker UPC Newsstand Edition)

The market needs to see these updates from CGC, it will help establish a true rarity of these books over the years. We, as collectors, know that they are very rare but it isn't being quantified.

Please consider updating the early limited series' for Spawn as well, the complete info on which books have Newsstand can be found at the SpawnWorld link below. I also hyperlinked an article from 2015 that goes into more detail about the Newsstand differential and has info from Chuck from Mile High Comics. Lastly, I hyperlinked the Monthly Sales page for August 2004 to show the assessed order of Spawn #137 which supports my statistics above.

I'm begging you all as a true fan and collector of these books... do them justice.

Sources: SpawnWorld, WordPress Article on Newsstand Editions, Comichron - Spawn 137

Edited May 28, 2019 by starwarsftw

[Brittany M.]

1 hour ago, starwarsftw said:

Hello CGC, and anyone else who peruses this thread!

I'm creating this thread because the label update thread hasn't had a CGC response since 2015, and the changes I'm requesting are quite wide, a simple note within the books when being submitted wouldn't fix this problem for years. This has been on my mind for quite awhile now, and I finally realized that hopefully you guys can fix this. There are many things I collect, but two of the main things are Spawn and Blue Beetle. We all know that most of the early Spawn books were heavily overprinted for the direct market, what most people don't know is that they also printed books for the Newsstand, only ONE percent of what was printed for Direct. This means on a book such as #1, where there was around 1 million printed, there are only around 10,000 Newsstands. Now I know for #1 CGC has started to recognize the difference, however this difference is not only limited to number 1. Newsstands were printed from issue 1 through 112, and then 117-137. The Newsstand counterpart only becomes more rare as the print run decreases, combined with the fact that companies printed less and less newsstands as time went on. For example, Comichron indicates that for issue 137 (the final newsstand) there were 34,735 Direct units, this would mean that there were only around 3400 Newsstands printed IF Image was still printing Newsstands at 1% which they most likely were not.  The whole point of this is that the CGC census is incorrectly displaying data unless you separate the two, for a book such as Spawn #98, there is only 9 on the census, so only one of them may be newsstand. That makes a huge difference, and would greatly help collectors like myself if we knew how many newsstands were actually on the census. With all that said, here are the specific label updates I am proposing in the event that a Spawn comic has a UPC, I will start with Spawn 2, even though you may already be labeling those.

Spawn #2-63, 65-100, 106-112, 117-137 - Label: Newsstand Edition
There are two different UPC editions for the following books, one with a sticker, and one without - Spawn #64 (only book with the UPC on the back, the sticker version has the barcode on the front) #101-105 - Label for those with a sticker: Sticker UPC Newsstand Edition; Label for those without a sticker: Newsstand Edition

This means that the books on the first line should have two different designators on the CGC census (Direct and Newsstand Edition) and the books on the second line should have three different designators on the CGC census (Direct, Newsstand Edition, and Sticker UPC Newsstand Edition)

The market needs to see these updates from CGC, it will help establish a true rarity of these books over the years. We, as collectors, know that they are very rare but it isn't being quantified.

Please consider updating the early limited series' for Spawn as well, the complete info on which books have Newsstand can be found at the SpawnWorld link below. I also hyperlinked an article from 2015 that goes into more detail about the Newsstand differential and has info from Chuck from Mile High Comics. Lastly, I hyperlinked the Monthly Sales page for August 2004 to show the assessed order of Spawn #137 which supports my statistics above.

I'm begging you all as a true fan and collector of these books... do them justice.

Sources: SpawnWorld, WordPress Article on Newsstand Editions, Comichron - Spawn 137

I'd send this in an email to me, and I'll send this on to the graders: brittany@cgccomics.com

If you need a question answered by someone at CGC, it's best to contact us directly: 1-877-662-6642

[ComBD]

6 hours ago, Brittany M. said:

I'd send this in an email to me, and I'll send this on to the graders: brittany@cgccomics.com

If you need a question answered by someone at CGC, it's best to contact us directly: 1-877-662-6642

Thank you for your timely response! I sent the email, please keep me updated! I'd love to know when this goes through so that I can start submitting some of my own collection in regards to these books.