Cpt Kirk

yes! Plus went you put the deluxe Robin 14, TEC 682 and Batman 515 side-by-side, they give the appearance of "fading to black'

Batman 515 Deluxe DCU

It is Batman 515 deluxe. That one always reminds me of the "Back in Black" album cover from AC/DC.

Nice. I got this run of WWs (all DCUs) this weekend for a friend; plus this Carmen San Diego, which will be going to Mysterio.

LOL... it was me who bought it. I would have gladly paid $200 for it, but seller came down to $100 when I pointed out the flaws and informed him that it would be very unlikely that anyone would be nutty enough to pay $100 for a Adv of SM 521 DCU in that condition except for me. Seller told me that he just wanted to start at $400 to see if anyone would bite at that price. Seller was a great guy by the way, and I really appreciate him for selling it to me.

Well, Rock, you will only find out if you list it. If you start bidding at $500, I'm in.

Thanks for the info, Zillacat!

Rock -- Thanks for the input... your analysis makes a lot of sense to me. I agree that any DCU with cover date before Jan 1994 had to be a later printing. I wonder if anyone has recollection or some sort of date stamp on when those 20-pack bricks and boxed sets arrived in the stores? Here's what I know: 1. 20-pack bricks have copyright dates of 1993 and 1994 on the packaging (1993 for packs that contained DCUs with 1993 cover dates, and 1994 for packs that contained DCUs with 1994 cover dates) 2. 2-packs have copyright dates of 1993, 1994 and 1995 on the packaging (and the year of packaging seems to usually match the year of the cover date on the DCUs in the 2-packs. 3. I saw boxed sets with dates as late as 1996 and 1997 with DCUs inside them. That makes me think those DCUs were definitely made well after the original printing dates.

I hate to say it, but neither one appears to be very rare, so slabbing might not be good idea unless really high grade. Neither one is on want lists for my die-hard DCU friends, so that leads me to believe that they are not too hard to find.

OK, my eyeballs are still a little strained, but here’s what I got after checking approx. 200 DCUs, 50 spare/duplicate DCUs, several boxed sets, 2-packs, and 20-packs: 1. I found no other DCUs that resembled the Flash 96 DCUs. There might be others like it, but they are not common. I’ve concluded that Flash 96, with two different variations of back covers with the same DCU variant front cover, is a rare animal. 2. There are a few DCU variants that have something in the indicia regarding the print run, which makes them different than other DCUs. Most DCU’s are identical to their direct sales counterparts in every way (ads, indicia, etc) except for the DCU symbol on the front cover. Here’s the DCUs that I found with something different in the indicia: a. Significant: One version of the Superman Man of Steel 30 DCU (Feb 1994) says “Collector Pack First Printing” in indicia. However, I also have a Superman MOS 30 DCU that DOES NOT have “Collector Pack First Printing” in the indicia. I believe the copy that says “Collector Pack First Printing” came from a Superman boxed set (my copy came from one of those boxed sets … see photo below). I think it is interesting that none of the other DCU variants from that Superman boxed set have “Collector Pack First Printing” in the indicia. I believe the SM MOS 30 DCU that has nothing in the indicia came from a 20-pack. So Superman Man of Steel 30 is the only other DCU variant I’ve seen (besides Flash 96) that has 2 variations of indicia. In both variations, all the ads are the same. Here's SM MOS 30 DCU with "Collectors Pack First Printing" in indicia: Here's SM MOS 30 DCU within nothing in the incidia. Here's the boxed set that SM MOS 30 DCU with "Collector's First Printing" came from: b. Steel 4 (May 1994) says “second printing” in indicia. This probably came from a 20-pack and for some odd reason they put “second printing” in the indicia. This Steel 4 DCU has identical ads as the Direct Sales version of Steel 4. I haven’t found any Steel 4 DCUs without “second printing” on the indicia, so they all appear to be the same. Note: Shawn Laffey has one on listed on ebay and he states it has “second printing” in indicia. Mysterio has four copies of Steel 4 DCU with “second printing” in the indicia. Janet-Johnson on ebay also has one listed and it says "second printing" in the indicia. Here's photo again of Steel 4: c. All issues from the Batman Contagion boxed sets say “second printing” in the indicia: Namely Batman 529, TEC 695, Batman SOB 48, Robin 27, Catwoman 31, Azrael 15 from Contagion #1 set; and TEC 696, Batman SOB 49, Robin 28, Catwoman 32, Azrael 16, and Batman Chronicles 4 from Contagion #2 set. Note: I also found a TEC 696 from a 3-pack, and it also had “second printing” in the indicia. I have spares of these DCUs and they all have “second printing” in the indicia, so it appears as if the DCU variants of the Contagion comic books are all the same. Batman 529 with "second printing" in indicia I did notice a trend after staring at all these DCU variants: The Flash 96 (Dec 1994) 2nd print DCU variant has the same ads (i.e. Cyber Mall on back cover and a cereal ad on inside front cover) as Action 720 (Apr 1996) 1st and 2nd prints, BM 529 (Apr 1996) 1st and 2nd prints, and TEC 696 (Apr 1996) 1st and 2nd prints. Could it be that the print run dated Apr 1996 for the Contagion boxed sets that included the words “second printing” in the indicia also included a Flash 96 for some reason?

For sure.... I think Batman collectors tend to be a little more fanatical than others, so the prices sometimes get ridiculous. Heck, I paid $300 for a 9.2 jeweler variant of Batman 357 (I just couldn't stand having a gvg copy in the run, so had to upgrade).

The Adv of SM 518 seems reasonable... it is very hard to find, let alone in high grade. I agree with Aweandlorder.... the others seem high if they sell above $50... especially the Batman 511 (very common DCU).

Still in process.... it appears as if most of the ones I've seen with "second printing" and DC Universe in the UPC box do not have "first printing" DCU variants. I have much more info coming soon!

Following are photos of Batman 529, TEC 695 and 696 with 2nd print in indicia as well as the boxed Contagion sets that those comic books came from. Every comic book from those Contagion boxed sets had "second printing" in the indicia, similar to the Batman and TEC comics shown above. Note that I also found a copy of the 2nd printing of TEC 696 from a 3-pack, and it also had "second printing" in the indicia, identical to the copy that came from the Contagion boxed sets above This weekend I checked over 250 DCUs, some boxed sets, 2-packs, and 20-packs. More findings from that to follow.

what does this GL 36 look like on the front cover? Does it have a little roman numeral II and DCU symbol in UPC box?

So far I've got Steel 4, Batman 529, TEC 695 and 696 with 2nd print in indicia. The Batman 529, TEC 695 and 696 all came from Contagion sets. All the comic books that came in those 2 Contagion box sets had "second printing" in the indicia. More to follow....

Very nice. Which of these two DC Universe variants has the same front and back covers as the direct sales (1st printing) Flash 96?

I can hear it now.... it goes something like this: Boss: So Mysterio, I've noticed you have been at least 15 to 30 minutes late each day this week... what's up with that? Mysterio: Well, I've been busy checking the fine print at the bottom of several hundred comic books that have a funny looking "DC Universe" symbol on their front cover. Boss: OK.... totally understandable... let me know how it turns out.

Very interesting.... if you could let us know which issues you found with notes like this, it would be much appreciated.

thanks. I will give a report this weekend.

I would love to hear form another other DCU collectors like you, LikeEmScanned, Warlord, Revat, etc about which ones say "2nd print" in the indicia. Now I'm going through my inventory of all DCUs (hundreds of them, to see which have 2nd printing on them). I will report back on this forum.

Yes, the Looney Tunes 15 is truly rare... that is a great find.

You got that right.... Now I've got to check about 200 DC Universe variants to see if any others say "2nd printing" in the indicia. To LIttleRandR, all I can say is: 1. That was great detective work, and 2. Golblammitt!

Heck no!