Spawn #1 Newstand Variant worth having graded? 0

[StreetPreacher]

I've had some free time during the good old 'lockdown', so decided to look up a few of my old books on Ebay.  I was a teenager in the 90s, and was one of the suckers who thought that the new comics I was buying might actually be worth something some day! 

Of course, at the time I wasn't aware that the main reason older comics were going up in value and becoming collectors items is because fans in the Silver and Bronze ages actually tended to buy just to read, and in many cases didn't even bother holding onto books after they'd read them a few times, let alone preserve the dimestore comics in mylar bags with cardboard backings to keep them in pristine condition

So yes, I'm one of the kids who has a single opened copy of Rob Liefeld's 'glorious' X-Force #1, and another half dozen copies still sealed in their original bags with the playing card etc...  And does anyone need a sealed copy of "Robin II"?

I also have pretty much every variant of Jim Lee's X-Men #1 cover, including the extremely pretentious fold out gatefold version... 

I also found half a dozen copies of Uncanny X-Men #281 that I needed so badly that I remember begging my dad to drive me to the comic store across town which was the only place that had it in stock...  I still can't quite remember what all the hype was surrounding Uncanny #281, but I remember my group of friends deciding we had to buy multiple copies because it was going to be worth a fortune some day!

I actually still admire McFarlane's Spider-Man #1 cover series, but had to settle for just the basic green, and an already opened silver embossed variant, that seemed like a prize at the time...  I never could afford the still sealed variant displayed on the wall of my local comic book store..  Its funny, but at the time we would tend to judge our friends level of coolness by the quality of the books they had pinned to their bedroom wall

While looking through my old comic collection I also noticed just how many of the characters were rebooted in the 90's!  And now I realize that was most likely done so Marvel could release an entire lineup of NEW #1 ISSUES of everyone's favourite characters!   So now all of the 90's comic investment speculators had the chance to grab #1 PREMIERE COLLECTORS ISSUES of new comic books, and everyone knew just how much money a #1 comic would probably be worth in 30 years!  So LUCKILY I was SMART enough to grab a few NUMBER #1 COPIES of Younblood, Deathlok, Deadly Foes of Spiderman, Deathstroke the Terminator, Robocop, Ghost Rider Rides Again, The New New Warriors, Pitt, Savage Dragon, Sleepwalker, Wildcats.  And it was a GENIUS move to support the entire launch lineup of IMPACT! comics...

Anyway long story long, I did notice that one of my copies of McFarlane's "Spawn #1" has the UPC code on the cover, while my other copies don't have anything else on the cover...  I guess I must have just grabbed one copy off the rack from my Becker's corners store, and then bought few more copies (as an investment...) when I was able to travel to the actual comic store.   So is it worthwhile to have this copy professionally graded and preserved in one of those plastic slabs?  The only imperfections I see are 1 or 2 nearly imperceptible white stress marks near the spine.  And I didn't even notice it until I looked at the Scans, but there also seems to be some sort of light white line which you can see just below Spawn's left glove...  At first I thought it was some sort of scratch, but as far as I can tell there isn't even a physical indentation of the paper where the white line appears...  Not sure if it was a printing issue, or if the cover scraped against something at some point.

I was trying to cross reference all of my books with sold listings on Ebay, but some issues have so many different variants and multiple printings that it' hard to be sure exactly what you have on hand! lol.   Like I thought I had the first appearance of Deadpool in New Mutants, but for some reason I must have ended up with a worthless second printing!     

Edited May 19, 2020 by StreetPreacher
Scans Added

[silversurfer275]

looks like a really nice copy but a copy like this is better keeping raw tbh

Edited May 19, 2020 by silversufer27

[theCapraAegagrus]

8.5 range, so nope.

[Deadpoolica]

9.0

[StreetPreacher]

2 hours ago, silversufer27 said:

looks like a really nice copy but a copy like this is better keeping raw tbh

Thanks for the honest opinions guys!  

So it sounds like the hassle and expense of having it graded wouldn't justify the increase, or I guess even a potential reduction of its market value... 

My only other question, is there actually a market for a 'raw' book in this condition?  I guess I should just do my own research on ebay and see if/what they're selling for...  The UPC code doesn't do anything for me, so if it's in demand then I'm happy to just hold onto my direct copy for posterity  

I never really became a serious collector, and actually assumed that the direct books were more desirable since they don't have an 'ugly' UPC code blemishing the beautiful cover art!  I hadn't even considered the fact that Newstand copies are considered variants, and were often printed in lower quantities making them more rare and desirable.

[theCapraAegagrus]

11 minutes ago, StreetPreacher said:

Thanks for the honest opinions guys!  

So it sounds like the hassle and expense of having it graded wouldn't justify the increase, or I guess even a potential reduction of its market value... 

My only other question, is there actually a market for a 'raw' book in this condition?  I guess I should just do my own research on ebay and see if/what they're selling for...  The UPC code doesn't do anything for me, so if it's in demand then I'm happy to just hold onto my direct copy for posterity  

I never really became a serious collector, and actually assumed that the direct books were more desirable since they don't have an 'ugly' UPC code blemishing the beautiful cover art!  I hadn't even considered the fact that Newstand copies are considered variants, and were often printed in lower quantities making them more rare and desirable.

I'm sure someone would pay a few bucks for it. Maybe $10-20?

[silversurfer275]

2 hours ago, StreetPreacher said:

Thanks for the honest opinions guys!  

So it sounds like the hassle and expense of having it graded wouldn't justify the increase, or I guess even a potential reduction of its market value... 

My only other question, is there actually a market for a 'raw' book in this condition?  I guess I should just do my own research on ebay and see if/what they're selling for...  The UPC code doesn't do anything for me, so if it's in demand then I'm happy to just hold onto my direct copy for posterity  

I never really became a serious collector, and actually assumed that the direct books were more desirable since they don't have an 'ugly' UPC code blemishing the beautiful cover art!  I hadn't even considered the fact that Newstand copies are considered variants, and were often printed in lower quantities making them more rare and desirable.

Around 50 bucks for sure

[CJ Design]

The only reason i sent mine in was I thought it had a 9.8 shot,...got a 9.6...I'm OK with that as I paid 0 for it.

Edited May 19, 2020 by CJ Design
add

[StreetPreacher]

On 5/19/2020 at 4:41 PM, CJ Design said:

The only reason i sent mine in was I thought it had a 9.8 shot,...got a 9.6...I'm OK with that as I paid 0 for it.

Yeah, that was the only reason I was considering having this copy evaluated.  I bought this off the rack when it came out, so I'm only into it for cover price, and was surprised to learn the UPC variant was in more demand.  

[William-James88]

On 5/19/2020 at 1:42 PM, theCapraAegagrus said:

I'm sure someone would pay a few bucks for it. Maybe $10-20?

More than that for sure.

[William-James88]

On 5/19/2020 at 1:28 PM, StreetPreacher said:

I never really became a serious collector, and actually assumed that the direct books were more desirable since they don't have an 'ugly' UPC code blemishing the beautiful cover art!  I hadn't even considered the fact that Newstand copies are considered variants, and were often printed in lower quantities making them more rare and desirable.

FYI, it's not that they are printed in lower quantities, especially when there was a time that newstand copies were the norm. It's that the newstand versions went by different distribution rules and the ones not sold had to be destroyed. And thus, it's less likely now that you find a stack of mint unsold newstand copies in a warehouse compared to finding such a stack of direct market versions.