Cpt Kirk

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Yes, I've opened several of those packs. Just as you said, they contain the 5th thru 7th printing of BM 414. But it is very difficult to tell which is which until you open the pack. The 6th and 7th pack are identical. The 5th printing (which says "3rd printing" in the indicia) has a different back cover, so you might be able to discern a difference if you pry on the pack at little bit to see the back covers without opening the pack.

I don't think I've got that list but I do have a list of almost all Superman and Batman packs (2 packs, 3 packs, 10 packs and 20 packs)

You might have the 5th printing of BM 399. The 5th printing is different from 1st printing as follows: inside back cover = Ironsword, back cover has NEC ad; The 5th printing is identical to BM 399 4th printing except the printing number is not specified in the indicia.

p.s. The earliest publisher newsstand sticker that I can recall was the ones that appeared on 2nd and 4th printings of Superman 75 (Jan 1993 death issue). Even earlier was the "DC bullet" stickers that were placed on pack reprints of Batman 414 thru 416 (Dec 1987 thru Feb 1988), but those were not newsstand stickers.

Here's my thoughts: It must be one of two things: 1. The sticker looks like it was printed by DC's publisher. They used this sticker to create copies for regular newsstands (as opposed to comic shops). But these stickers normally didn't show up until after the year 2000. Therefore, .... 2. It could have been printed by a second hand retailer.

If you are going to have hundreds (or even thousands) of comic books, I suggest Mylites+ and acid-free backing boards (half backs should be fine for comic books that aren't too expensive). They aren't cheap (probably 20 to 30 cents per comic book depending on how many you buy), but I recommend mylar because the regular poly bags eventually get yellow and wrinkly. After changing the cheap bags for about the 3rd time, I went with Mylites in the mid-1990's for everything. 20+ years later they still look perfect and I'm really glad I made that move.

You are right on the money. I have ten thousand comic books, and half of them are variants. It wasn't like that until the New 52 came along. When it did, the number of variants shot through the roof.

good point!

I don't know why DC chose Batman 414 to make so many printings. But what I do know is this: Most of the additional printings that occurred in Batman comic books from issue #397 through #497 came from 2-packs, 3-packs and, toward the end, 20-packs. Most of these packs were produced during the crescendo of popularity, speculation, and hoarding that occurred during the early to mid-1990s. Packs containing reprints were sold in stores like Kay-Bee Toys, Toys-R-Us, and Costco to meet that demand. I also remember an explosion in the number of comic book shops at the time. Batman 414 just happened to come out during this hey-day and was included in several different packs.

I love that question. I am a completionist on only 5 titles, but I have found just about every single variant of every single issue of those 5 titles (namely, Batman, Detective, Superman, Action Comics and Justice League of America). Those variations include direct sales, newsstand, additional printings, variant covers, Mark Jewelers variants, etc. I've stayed away from foreign variants. Of those titles, following are some of the issues with the most amount of variations: Adventures of Superman 443: There are 12 known variants with different mall symbols in the UPC box (for a total of 15 variations if you also count direct, newsstand and Canadian variants). Batman 415 and 416: If you count direct, newsstand, Canadian, and 2nd thru 6th printings, you have a total of 8 variations (just one less than Batman 414) Following is a listing of other in-run issues with 4 or more variants (if you count both direct and newsstand editions) Batman 1 Batman 298 Batman 302 Batman 307 Batman 352 Batman 356 Batman 357 Batman 362 Batman 394 Batman 397-399, 401-403, 409-411, 423 Batman 457 Batman 491, 492, 497 Batman 500 Batman 515, 531, 532 Batman 535, 608, 619, 655, 676, 677, 681, 686, 700 Detective 27 Detective 38 Detective 225, 327, 359 Detective 474 Detective 519 Detective 561 Detective 659, 660 Detective 675, 682, 694, 702, 704 Detective 854, 871 Superman 1 Superman 322 Superman 379 Superman 409 Superman 418 Adv of SM 497, 498 Adv of SM 500, 505 Adv of SM 539 Action 1 Action 252 Action 481 Action 484 Action 495 Action 526 Action 683, 684, 685 Action 695, 700, 726 Action 844, 858, 890, 900 Justice League 217 Justice League 249 Furthermore, many New 52 and Rebirth issues in the titles above contain more than 4 variants. In the case of Batman (Rebirth) #50, there were more than 100 variants (yikes!)

None of these variants are super hard to find. It just takes some time and persistence. The 1st printing direct and 1st printing newsstand issues are really easy to find (very common).

Yes, you must look at the indicia. But it is a more complicated than just that. The printings were not all labeled correctly in the indicia, so you also have to look at the date that the ads originally appeared in the first printings of DC Comics in order to actually figure out the order of the release of these comic books. You can see that they finally figured out the correct order of printings when they made the 6th and 7th printings. Here's what the what appears in the UPC box, indicia, and back cover ads for each of the comic books shown above. Printing order: UPC box on cover: Indicia and back cover ads: 2nd printing Barcode multipack reprint edition, copy right 1989 DC Comics, back cover = WWF 3rd printing DC Bullet sticker over barcode third printing c 1989 DC comics inc, back cover = WWF 4th printing Bat Symbol in white box Second Printing, DC Multi-pack, back cover = TSR AD&D 5th printing DC Comics Aren't Just for kids third printing, Inside BC = WWF, back cover = NEC 6th printing DC Comics Aren't Just For Kids 6th Printing, back cover = TSR Unicorn 7th printing DC Comics Aren't Just For Kids 7th Printing, back cover = TSR Unicorn For whatever it is worth, I have the original 3-packs that all these comic books originally came from. I had to open those packs to determine what printings were contained in each pack.

thanks guys. After I created the posting, I was afraid that "right to left" might be confusing. Your labeling above is correct!

Ah yes, great point! I remember it well (but not well enough to mention it on my posting above). Thanks!

Shown here are nine variations of Batman 414 (up until the recent explosion of Batman New 52 and Batman Rebirth variants, Batman 414 had more variants than any other Batman comic book that I can think of). The variants shown from right to left are 1st printing direct, 1st printing newsstand, Canadian price variant, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th printings.

Wow... this seems like a significant find. I wonder if the Superman 50 2nd print newsstand and Batman 457 2nd print newsstand came in a similar pack? That might explain why some of the BM 457 2nd print news copies have a heavy black mark through the code, so that a sales clerk would not scan the comic book bar code instead of the pack bar code.

amazing to see a white cover from 1943 in NM+ condition.

Update: Of the 5 titles I'm collecting (Batman, Detective, Superman, Action and Justice League of America), I think that 692 issues could contain the jeweler insert. I have 630 of those issues in hand and there are 32 other issues that I know contain the insert but I don't yet have in my collection. Of the 692 possible issues, I have found 96% of them. Remaining are 30 issues for which no one to my knowledge has ever seen to contain the insert. If you collect these inserts in DC comics, please feel free to send me a PM to compare notes.

It is hard to imagine any die-hard Batman fan not having at least all issues from #163 up... so many great and sometimes corny stories!

thanks Mark!

Here's some suggested additions: Batman 1 (two versions: one version has "No .1" on cover, other version has "No 1” on cover”) Batman 4 (two versions: one version has black 10 cents on cover, other has blue 10 cents) Superman 1 (there was a variant of Superman 1 that contained an ad on last page stating "Action Comics 14 on sale now" versus a copy with ad stating "Action Comics 14 on sale June 2nd") Superman 14 Work Book (some consider this workbook to be a variant of Superman 14 because it contains the same stories as Superman 14, along with puzzles and problems) Superman 28 overseas edition: Not pictured below, but Jerome Wenker told me a friend of this actually has this in hand Action Comics 32 (two versions: one version has 15 cents in Canada below 10 cent cover price, other is blank below 10 cent cover price) Action 223 (two versions: one version has 223 on the cover and the error variant has 233 on cover). Error variant is extremely hard to find. Here's scans of the Batman 1 variants: Here's Batman 4 variants: Here's scans of Superman 1 back covers with different dates of release for Action Comics 14: Here's scans of Superman 14 regular cover and Work Book cover: Here's scans of the two versions of Action Comics 32: Here's a scan of Action 223 regular, 223 error, and 233 regular covers:

Well I am really glad you found these and brought this info the boards. To me, you have lent some valuable insight as to what was happening to the B&N comic books that did not sell. And you have un-earthed some comic books that people have been looking for a long time, myself included.

For sure. I think it is interesting to know what happened to the Barnes and Nobles overstock. I did not realize until now that they actually got shredded. I'm guessing no one has every found a large stash of newsstand issue like this before.... very unusual. I wish we know more about it.