Cpt Kirk

I agree it is @awe4one. And it appears as if @Get Marwood & I has got a great handle on it. I don't collect Marvel MJ's. But if you are interested in DC MJ's and want to know more, I'm your guy.

Shown below in one place are all known DC Universe (and DC bullet/zero hour) variants for Superman Man of Steel. I was able to obtain them all thanks to @onlyweaknesskryptonite, @archivist, Jerome Wenker, and others. The DC Universe variants of SM MOS 20, 39, and 50 are all very hard to find. @archivist found the SM MOS 50 DCU variant in Germany (go figure). Note that there are two copies of SM MOS 30 and 42, because there are two different versions of each variant. SM MOS 30 has one variation with nothing in the indicia and another variation with "Collector Pack 1st Printing" in the indicia even though the front and back covers are identical. SM MOS 42 has a non-stickered DC Universe variant, and a stickered DC Universe variant (the stickered issues are discussed earlier in this thread). The two variations of the SM MOS 30 DCU variant indicia are shown side by side in this photo.

Interesting find with the date stamp... I've never seen that before. By the way (and off topic), Composite Superman was one of my favorite villains back in the day. I recall first reading about him in World's Finest #223 (100-page giant). Man those were the days. My best friend next door had a bunch of those 100-page giants, in spite of the super-steep price of 60 cents per giant-sized issue. He loaned some to me for a summer vacation, and the giant sized issues were handy for long car trips.

I've been looking for DCU's since 2010, and Jerome Wenker had been looking for them since the mid-2000's. The number of previously undiscovered ones has definitely slowed down to a dribble in the last 3 or 4 years. But you can almost be sure there will be some more popping up from time to time (it is asymptotic, so I suppose a mathematician could figure out the theoretical number of years it would take to find them all).

I agree none have been found from Dec 1995. You can add Adv of Superman 531 and Justice League 107 to your list of Jan 1996 DCUs.

The closest I've seen to a straight long run is in Detective Comics. There's a DCU (or DC bullet or zero hour) UPC variant for every issue from 669 (Dec 1993) through 704 (Dec 1996) with the exceptions of issues 692 (Dec 1995) and 693 (Jan 1996).

This makes me wonder how many DCU variants exists. I know @revat has published the comprehensive list earlier in this thread, but I don't think anyone has added them all up to see how many there are. Thanks to @onlyweaknesskryptonite, @archivist , @LikeEmScanned, , and others on this site, I've been able to get all of the known DCU variants in the titles I collect (namely, Batman, Detective, Adv of Superman, Action, Superman, Justice League, and Superman Man of Steel). In just these 6 titles alone, I count approximately 200 DCU variants if you include the "stickered" ones as well. Unrelated, but if you really want to go nuts, try to collect all the DC Mark Jeweler variants. In just the titles of Batman, Detective, Superman, Action and JLA, I believe approximately 690 of those variants exist (I've found them except for 20 of them).

wow... how in the heck do you know this? I'm impressed.

Agreed. Even though MOS 63, Action 728, and Adv of Superman 541 are all just barely within the dates (i.e. cover date of Dec 1996 or earlier) where a DCU variant could exist, we have never seen one.

No copies of Action 728 nor Adv of Superman 541 (including those within the pack) have ever been found with the DC Universe logo on them.

I've never seen this stamp on more than 1,000 jeweler variants. So I don't know. But here's another theory. There are reprints of Batman 237 and 241 listed on Mile High Comics website (none in stock). Many years ago both reprints were called "National Book Store" variants on the Mile High website many. I assumed that "National Book Store" was just a second-hand store like Goodwill or some other second hand shop. So this stamp could belong to "National Book Store"... in other words, the second hand retailer. The Batman 237 reprint is now called "Goodwill". Per Jerome Wenker (one of the godfathers of variant collecting) these Batman reprints were made for the Philippines. Since Jewelers were mostly sold in military PXs, I wonder if that has something to do with it. p.s. I love @Get Marwood & I's cat. Maybe he has the answer but just won't say.

I have a few of these packs myself. I think I got one of the uncommon DCU's out of this pack. Thanks for sharing the photos!

What is it about the death and funeral series? I'm somewhat blown away that I started this thread back in 2013 and it continues to get postings to this day. To everyone who contributed, I say

One bow for each set of comic books. Unbelievable what you have done there.

Wow... Please keep us posted on the results. I would love to hear how much a 9.6 2nd print newsstand goes for these days.

And I think the other trend is that the really rare DCU's are commanding crazy prices while the others are getting very hard to sell for even just a few bucks now that most of the variant nuts like me have found them all except the super rare. The craziest prices seem to occur with the Death of Superman DCUs in 9.8 or above. Since most came in packs that were sold in toy stores, it is very unusual to see a DCU in 9.8 or above.

Warlord - You are a true variant scientist. I am pretty sure I opened the Batman pack with same results, but I've never opened the Green Lantern pack. Thanks for sharing!

Two of the holy grails in one pack... congrats. It seems to me that the many of the toughest DCU's to find came in those two-packs. There must have been fewer of them than those 20-pack bricks.

Thanks for thanks for posting that image.... that's a great cover. I don't know about you other guys, but every time someone posts a rather obscure DCU variant like this one, I think to myself "Oh , there's another previously undiscovered DCU variant that I need to have!!" Luckily I found out I already have this one after a quick check of my DCU database.

Good theory on the two pack. Your Batman & Robin Adventures 17 is by far the latest DCU we know of for now. Until now, issues with cover dates of Dec 1996 like Detective 704 and Superman 118 were the latest known DCUs. But it does now make me wonder what other oddball ones exist like this Batman & Robin Adventures 17.

The Uncanny Onlyweaknesskryptonite does it again.

wow... That one is hard to find in really high grade, let along 9.8. It is a beauty. Congrats.

If anyone needs to know that a particular newsstand variant exists among the DC Comics titles Batman, Detective, Superman, or Action Comics exists, feel free to contact me. I found them all from the time they started with October 1980 until they ended with cover dates of October 2017. I don't believe there were any issues in those titles where a newsstand issue was not produced during that time period. Along those lines, I found all newsstand variants of all the Millennium editions of those 4 titles except Action 252. If anyone ever sees that one, I would love to hear about it. I suspect that just like the JLA #1 Millennium edition, it was never produced in newsstand format and the one newsstand version that will be found will have a newsstand sticker on it.

How does she get that swimsuit on?

awesome. My records show I originally bought the original TEC 359 comic book (probably in the early 1980s) in VF for $4. Just dumb luck because back then I didn't really care about condition as long as the comic book was complete. I was just trying to complete the run.