Newsstand copies of Spider Man 252? 1 1

[lostboys]

I'm looking for this book in a 9.6 and I'm noticing that all the available 9.6s on Ebay are newsstand versions.

Isn't that bass ackwards?...or am I missing something here?

I'm under the impression that newsstand versions are harder to find in high grade.

I want the copy with the Spidey logo in the corner.

Teach!

[the blob]

Vastly more 252 newsstands were printed. This issue was a BIG DEAL at the time if my 12 year old self can remember. I am going to venture to guess unlike most months, where 50% of the newsies went unsold, nearly every copy of this book was hunted down by collectors in comic shops, newsstands, wherever they could be found (shadroch's tales of thor 337 would indicate similar things happening) and preserved... I dimly remember both 252 and Thor 337 going up on my LCS walls for ungodly sums like $15-20... Which could get you a real SA key in 1983/4. What I do not know is if 252 was underordered by shops/was a suprise (like shadroch says 337 was). So.. all the hype on ebay about these common newsstand books from the 80s is just that when it comes to books that were hot when they came out, but may have not been anticipated by comic shops. Your regular book that took years to get hot because some character developed and half the newsstands went unsold and many of the others got trashed on the rack.. different story.

Mind you, my 12 year old brain also remembers my LCS putting Thor 333 up on the wall, pushing Dracula/Thor and maybe Bill Sinkw for silly money. Dracula was probaby a favorite of older customers who maybe would have spent the $? Does anyone remember that book being hot for a minute or was that all my local shop trying to push a worthless book?

[lostboys]

Wow!

Thank you, sir, for the lesson.

I'm gonna wait patiently for the comic shop version.

 

[mr_highgrade]

Amazing Spider-man #252 actually came out 37 years today. I remember beacuse it was my birthday. And yes, it sold out immediately at LCS. That had to be the first time that most LCS were only allowing one copy per customer of any book. Sure enough three weeks later I snapped up whatever I could find at the newsstands.

Edited February 3, 2021 by mr_highgrade

[jcjames]

1 hour ago, mr_highgrade said:

Amazing Spider-man #252 actually came out 37 years today. I remember beacuse it was my birthday. And yes, it sold out immediately at LCS. That had to be the first time that most LCS were only allowing one copy per customer of any book. Sure enough three weeks later I snapped up whatever I could find at the newsstands.

 

[jjonahjameson11]

12 hours ago, the blob said:

Vastly more 252 newsstands were printed. This issue was a BIG DEAL at the time if my 12 year old self can remember. I am going to venture to guess unlike most months, where 50% of the newsies went unsold, nearly every copy of this book was hunted down by collectors in comic shops, newsstands, wherever they could be found (shadroch's tales of thor 337 would indicate similar things happening) and preserved... I dimly remember both 252 and Thor 337 going up on my LCS walls for ungodly sums like $15-20... Which could get you a real SA key in 1983/4. What I do not know is if 252 was underordered by shops/was a suprise (like shadroch says 337 was). So.. all the hype on ebay about these common newsstand books from the 80s is just that when it comes to books that were hot when they came out, but may have not been anticipated by comic shops. Your regular book that took years to get hot because some character developed and half the newsstands went unsold and many of the others got trashed on the rack.. different story.

Mind you, my 12 year old brain also remembers my LCS putting Thor 333 up on the wall, pushing Dracula/Thor and maybe Bill Sinkw for silly money. Dracula was probaby a favorite of older customers who maybe would have spent the $? Does anyone remember that book being hot for a minute or was that all my local shop trying to push a worthless book?

There was a minor article in ComicCollector quarterly magazine (published by the same folks who published The Comics Buyers Guide) which stated that orders for ASM 252 and Thor 337 were only 3-4% higher than previous issues of their respective titles.  The article was published shortly after ASM 252 and Thor 337 became 'hot' issues.

[the blob]

30 minutes ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

There was a minor article in ComicCollector quarterly magazine (published by the same folks who published The Comics Buyers Guide) which stated that orders for ASM 252 and Thor 337 were only 3-4% higher than previous issues of their respective titles.  The article was published shortly after ASM 252 and Thor 337 became 'hot' issues.

337 I could understand, walt simonson was not a big deal and Thor was constantly introducing new characters nobody cared about, but if shops were told in a preview spidey would be getting a new black costume you'd think they'd bite ... OTOH, I feel like around then spidey was maybe a little bit "down" (obviously he was still big, he had 4 titles, but I remember regularly getting spideys of that era in the 3/$1 box (including a 239) at my shop, so it seems like he had overstock he couldn't sell for cover price or $1) so maybe shops were not viewing it as a speculation book yet ... all eyes being on x-men, byrne books, frank miller and whatever else (NTT maybe)

[the blob]

39 minutes ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

There was a minor article in ComicCollector quarterly magazine (published by the same folks who published The Comics Buyers Guide) which stated that orders for ASM 252 and Thor 337 were only 3-4% higher than previous issues of their respective titles.  The article was published shortly after ASM 252 and Thor 337 became 'hot' issues.

Back of the napkin calculations, there may be 2x as many 252 newsies out there as directs if they sold out at the newsstand... and if they showed up at the newsstand after they showed at the comic shops, is it possibly extra were printed to meet the likely demand (shadroch or someone who actually owned a shop at the time probably knows). ... as a kid I know most of our new spideys were bought at the newsstand despite a nearby comic shop (my older brother did most of the buying).

Depressing I had no interest in comics in 1988-90, one of my best friend's brother was an assistant editor, part time inker, part time letterer at marvel and got all the comics he wanted free. I never bothered asking for him to hook me up.

Edited February 3, 2021 by the blob

[the blob]

That sent me off on a tangent looking stuff up -- crazy world back then. my friend's older brother worked at marvel for a while, starting as an intern in high school and then was hired as an assistant editor/occasional inker/occasional writer/occasional penciller/colorist, etc.... I assume he was in college at the same time? All very confusing. A few years later he goes on a long vacation and another brother, who was in high school doing an internship, was allowed to fill in for him for like A MONTH as an assistant editor/jack of all trades. So Marvel had 17 year old unpaid assistant editors in 1988! Marvel had a program with our high school, I feel like such an insufficiently_thoughtful_person not having tried to intern there, we all did internships our senior year (I am surprised pointone did not as we were in the same school and he was a fantastic artist) .... of course, all that access to free comics would not have gotten me newsies, so maybe off topic

[WoWitHurts]

2 hours ago, the blob said:

Back of the napkin calculations, there may be 2x as many 252 newsies out there as directs if they sold out at the newsstand... and if they showed up at the newsstand after they showed at the comic shops, is it possibly extra were printed to meet the likely demand (shadroch or someone who actually owned a shop at the time probably knows). ... as a kid I know most of our new spideys were bought at the newsstand despite a nearby comic shop (my older brother did most of the buying).

Depressing I had no interest in comics in 1988-90, one of my best friend's brother was an assistant editor, part time inker, part time letterer at marvel and got all the comics he wanted free. I never bothered asking for him to hook me up.

252 definitely sold out on the newsstand I bought from. 

[Morganmi]

14 hours ago, the blob said:

337 I could understand, walt simonson was not a big deal and Thor was constantly introducing new characters nobody cared about, but if shops were told in a preview spidey would be getting a new black costume you'd think they'd bite ... OTOH, I feel like around then spidey was maybe a little bit "down" (obviously he was still big, he had 4 titles, but I remember regularly getting spideys of that era in the 3/$1 box (including a 239) at my shop, so it seems like he had overstock he couldn't sell for cover price or $1) so maybe shops were not viewing it as a speculation book yet ... all eyes being on x-men, byrne books, frank miller and whatever else (NTT maybe)

This is my memory also. While Spiderman 252 was pretty hyped up the spider-man series as a whole was probably in one of his least popular periods with X-men, etc. and some of the edgier comics being more popular . That all changed after 252 and Secret Wars which was a huge success brought Spiderman to the top again. Thor 337 was defiantly a surprise at the time as Thor was in an even more unpopular period and nobody expected the Beta Ray story and art  to be so awesome. Dosn't suprise me at all that there are more nice newstands of these than normal as they were snatched up by comic store owners (who under ordered) in bulk from regular stores because they new they could sell them for 5$ or more in a month or so 

[N e r V]

I was a bit older than some turning 21 in 1984. This was the big one, two punch at the time with Thor #337 in 1983 and Amazing Spider-Man #252 in 1984. In the Buyers Guide words it was here we go again with ASM #252 right after Thor. I don’t remember anything like it unless you go back to Howard the Duck #1 in 1976. There were hot books before HTD #1 too but things cooled between 1976 to 1983 unless you count the new X-Men series taking off and Miller’s Daredevil run. Neither of those series became hot though with books right off the newsstands. I also remember people debating at the time that the Spider-Man costume would only remain hot if he kept it which most fans doubted at the time. No one knew they were only partly correct as Marvel simply decided it was to good to get rid of but they couldn’t kill off the iconic red costume either so both ended up as fixtures.