Cpt Kirk

Here is Detective 504 MJ. Both the regular and inverted versions of the jeweler variant are shown. The inverted one came from Belgium (it was originally sold in a military PX)

yes, I have seen them inserted incorrectly in the past. When that happens, it is usually a fluke because other I have also found the same comic book with the insert installed correctly.

Ok. Here we go: 1. I wonder who put those kids up to posing in their Mask "jammies" and what those kids are doing now? 2. If a comic book received the Mask mini comic book, then every single issue of that comic book (both direct and newsstand) contained the insert. In other words, if the insert is missing then it was removed from the comic book and the comic book is not complete. Examples include Batman 397, Superman 421, Justice League of America 254, and Green Lantern 204. 3. If a comic book received the Mask mini comic book, then they never attempted to add a Mark Jeweler advertising insert on top of it or instead of it (they probably didn't want to interrupt the flow of the Mask comic book with a jeweler insert, or something like that)

by the way, who in the H-E double hockey sticks orders something like that in 1986 and then never opens the mailer?

Well, if you really want to be nutty like me, here's what you do: 1. Keep the mailers sealed. 2. Buy near mint unsealed copies of the books that are contained within the mailers. Then you have one of each. And you can show your like-minded friends (all 2 of them) the comic book in the sealed mailer, and then show them the unsealed comic book as well.

Oh yeah.... I remember calling the 900 number and voting to kill him off! lol.

a little geezing here.... I remember the excitement in my LCS when this series came out originally. So I was super happy to see the alternate ending recently published. It was fun to read.

p.s. If you could find another jeweler variant of that Witching Hour #60 (good luck on that), you might even see that same stapling defect on another copy. A good example is the jeweler variant of Justice League of America 122. The jeweler insert of that comic book has the cover stapled onto the comic book after the insert was already stapled into the centerfold (go figure how that would happen). I've seen 3 copies that all had the double set of staples on them. In other words, I believe all jeweler variants of JLA 122 have 4 staples in them. If one didn't know better, they would guess that someone just stapled an insert into the comic book to make it look like a jeweler variant.

It is authentic. The key is that little "88" code in the lower right hand side of the insert. Almost all inserts that appeared in issues with cover dates of Nov 1975 have that code on the blue matted paper stock.

I too have never seen a stickered DCU variant in a 20 pack. I have seen them in 2-packs. Furthermore, I found a Superman 104 stickered DCU in the Superman Greatest Foes pack.

Great find. And I'm glad I don't recognize that song, and there's no way I'm going to hit the "play" button. That's the last thing I need going thru my head on a Monday...

First of all, that's a really awesome collector's item you have there. I hate to say it, but I remember 1988 very well. There was a lot of excitement associated with the "new" Superman that was released in 1988. I have no idea what the value of that press kit would be other than to say I would gladly pay $200 for it. If someone with a Worthpoint account could report the final sales price of the ebay auction, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks for pointing that out. Here is something to consider about those Adv of SM mall variants. They are so extremely rare (many of the ones I have are the only known copy). We know of 18 mall variants but I bet there may many, many more of them that were made but have not yet been found (and perhaps some of them will never be found.... I think they only made about 200 copies for each mall).

Nice job getting that Dollar Comic in 9.8. Yes, I count that comic book as a variant, but I can imagine that we could have an entire thread on what constitutes a variant vs a reprint.

Awesome. That's exactly the feedback I was looking for. p.s. The number of modern variants is crazy. If we didn't count variants that have been produced after the variant explosion that occurred with the New 52, then I think the Adventures of Superman mall variants would be the clear winner for most variants of a DC Comic book.

I'm not sure I've gotten a response to the original question of this thread. Was there ever a DC comic book prior to the New 52 that had more variants than Adventures of Superman 443? For Adv of SM 443, we now have 20 variants if we count the 18 mall variants, plus the newsstand and CPV versions. The only ones that seem to come close in my mind are as follows: Batman 251 (there's the Mark Jeweler variant plus at least 13 of those city variants that were recently produced) Batman 608 (one newsstand version plus 11 variants to include the super-expensive RRP and Burbank variants) Batman 414 (2nd thru 7th printings, newsstand, and CPV for a total of 8 variants) Superman 75 (fifteen variants by my count - 2nd thru 4th printings, newsstand versions of all those printings, stickered newsstand versions of some of those printings, Millennium and Millenium newsstand versions, deluxe in poly bag, platinum in poly bag, and a couple variants that were recently produced)

Now there's a great example of what can happen when 3 or 4 Mark Jeweler enthusiasts are all going for the same comic book.

Thanks! Much appreciated. It is the first time I've seen the bat symbol placed over the bar code (very similar to the way they placed some DCU stickers over the bar codes)

Great find! Can you tell what was behind the sticker? For example, was it a direct sales bar code or newsstand bar code?

Welcome to the party! and the insanity...lol! I've been doing this for 12 years and there were times when I thought I had every single DCU in the titles of Batman, Detective Comics, Adv of Superman, Superman, Action Comics and Justice League. But have since found out thru these boards that I'm missing a Detective 693 and Adv of Superman 523. If you find one of those in FN or better, please let me know. The regular and newsstand editions of those comic books are worth next to nothing, and you will probably find the DCU variants of those issues for 3 or 4 dollars in a back-issue bin (or your big brother's closet). But they will be worth more than a few hundred dollars to you if you give me a chance to buy them.

yes, I think the 515 regular DCU is harder than the embossed. But with a little patience you can find it for sure.

Thank you! Your encouragement means a lot to me. And yes, those June 1980 Whitmans are great examples. I love that you found the Legionnaire one in the wild.

p.s. I love the variants that weren't produced to be "rare". Great examples are these mall variants, 2nd prints from the 80's and 90's, and Mark Jeweler variants. I stopped collecting modern variants (unless the cover is really attractive or unique) because they are manufactured to be "rare". I question the value of something that is manufactured to be "rare" ... of course some of those items become quite valuable but I'm not sure they will hold value over time.

Well, my friend, if someone wants to try to compile a larger collection of Adv of Superman 443 Mall variants, they better bring their wallet and some patience. For example, when my friend Jerome Wenker retired from collecting, I flew to Minnesota to buy his three mall variants (he had the only known copy of the North Shore Square mall variant). I've had to offer bounties of $300 to $500 to convince people sell their copies to me. If we figure that each of the 15 mall variants would cost $300 each on average, then someone would have to pay out approximately $5K to get that many. I often ask myself why I would try to keep adding to this collection because I feel like they may be next to worthless one day (however, recent auctions of these variants keeps proving me wrong). For the record, I also collect all issues of Superman comic books going back to the Golden Age. I feel like my high-grade Superman 14, 17, 21 and 24 are much better investments. When it comes to chasing variants, I fully realize that it is not an investment. Instead for me it's all about the chase, pride of ownership, and the fun of comparing notes with fellow variant collectors.... I just question myself from time to time... lol. p.s. A new mall variant seems to surface about once per year. I wonder how many of these things were made. My guess is somewhere about 50 or more. I've only seen 18 so far after searching and offering bounties for them for more than 12 years.

I carefully checked my Batman 531's. The DCU version of the glow-in-the-dark edition does indeed have the glow-in-the-dark stuff on the cover, just like it's non-DCU counterpart. And the DCU variant of the Standard edition is not glow-in-the-dark