Cpt Kirk

Great find. I wish you could have found that many copies of the DC Universe variants of Adv of Superman 521 and Superman 113. If you did, I would be more than happy to pay $200 for the Adv of SM 521 and $100 for the Superman 113.

thanks Mysterio. You beat me to the answer on that one. And I'm very flattered to be referred to you as "grand master". However, I beg to differ on that title. The grand master is Jerome.

Apparently a copy of Secret Orgins #1 was found with the Waldenbooks survey included. See following link for description: http://www.megalextoria.com/forum2/index.php?t=msg&goto=281300&

thanks for adding that info David. That's really awesome.

Nice! Those are very hard to find with the letter still intact. For anyone interested, following is a copy of the letter that the comic book shops received and also a copy of the letter you would have received if you won the raffle from sending in the survey. I give credit to the guy who founded "Comicbooks for Kids" for providing these letters. Here's a link to his site, which is dedicated to providing comic books for kids in hospitals. https://www.comicbooksforkids.org/

thanks!

So I drove about three hours to visit some comic book shops in the Knoxville Tennessee area. The hope was that I would find some variants that are missing from my collection such as Mark Jeweler inserts, DC Universe logos, or newsstand variants. I’m only missing a few variants, so it is getting pretty hard to find them. I was starting to kick myself about making the trip because I looked in three different shops that had an extensive selection of back issues, and all I found was a few DC Universe variants that I didn't already have duplicates of. But on the last box of the last shop, I saw a barely noticeable insert in a Superman 418. Lo and behold, it was the "Waldenbooks" survey variant that I suspected might exist in the title of Superman, but had never seen after 6 years of searching in shops and ebay. I immediately thought “this trip was totally worthwhile!” (Insane… I know.) For DC comics, I know of only four reader surveys inserts (by insert, I mean something was inserted into the comic book instead of printed on the regular pages). The first survey I'm describing was inserted into all direct sales issues of Superman 424, Action Comics 584, and Superman 1 (1987 series), so it is very easy to find. It was called the "Man of Steel contest" but they did ask you to identify your local comic shop (so I consider it to be a "survey" insert). Note that none of the newsstand variants of those comic books contained the contest insert. Each issue contains a card that you could mail in to DC Comics. Winners were randomly chosen to receive a copy of the Man of Steel Special Edition. Photos below are from Adventures of Superman 424. The second survey is also pretty easy to find, and it occurs in some issues with a cover date of March or April 1978. They can be found on ebay and MyComicShop, with some prices being reasonable and other prices not so reasonable. Examples include: Action Comics 481, Adventure 456, Detective Comics 476, Batman 298, Super-Team Family 15, Jonah Hex 11, Justice League of America 153, Weird War Tales 62, Firestorm 2, Flash 260, Super Friends 11, Superman 322, Aquaman 61, Black Lightning 8, Ghosts 63, Sgt Rock 315, Secrets of Haunted House 11 and Wonder Woman 241. If you look at the newsstand feature of Mike's Amazing World of DC website, any issues with a publishing date the same as the issues above would potentially contain this survey. Photos below are from Batman 298. The third survey is much more difficult to find and it has only been found in three comic books as far as I know (Justice League of America 249 released Jan 3rd, 1986, Batman 394 released Jan 10th, 1986 and the recently found Superman 418 also released on Jan 10th 1986). I call this insert the “Waldenbooks” survey variant because several of the questions in the survey pertain to Waldenbooks. If you returned this survey, you would get a free number one edition of “Crisis on Captive Earth”, which was never released (so I’m not sure what readers got when they returned this survey.... you can google "Crisis on Captive Earth" to see what happened to that project.) If anyone has an idea of what DC sent to people who did the survey instead of "Crisis on Captive Earth" I would love to hear about it. I seem to recall seeing the alternative giveaway, but my feeble mind cannot recall it right now. p.s. I am guessing the reader survey itself exists in other issues sold during those same weeks, but I’ve yet to find them. If anyone knows of other issues with this survey, please chime in . Photos below are from Batman 394. The fourth survey is the rarest of them all, in my opinion. It is a survey that has only been found in direct sales issues of Superman Man of Steel 19 and 20. The dealer that sold it to me said he had cases of these two comic books but he guessed only one comic book in each case contained the survey. If you filled out the survey, you would get a free music tape. If anyone has knowledge of what music tape was received in response to the survey, that would also be great to know (I personally have no idea what music tape was received for sending this survey in). Photos below are from Superman Man of Steel 19. I suspect the fact that people would get a guaranteed prize if they returned the third and fourth surveys mentioned above resulted in most of the surveys being pulled from the comic books (and thus hard to still find them intact).

Nice work SammyB. p.s. Thanks for not finding another one that I need!

I'd like to challenge anyone to produce newsstand variant of the following Rebirth Issues: Batman 30, Detective 963, Superman 30, or Action 986. Rumor is that they exist, but I've yet to see a single copy. I personally believe the last Rebirth newsstand issues were Batman 29, TEC 962, Superman 29 and Action 985. If you find one, please don't hesitate to send me PM. I would glady pay $25 for each

Yes, I hate to see another new one pop up... but what the heck. It is very interesting to me that new ones keep popping up; even though some of us have been searching for 10 years now. For whatever it is worth, I would gladly pay $100 if someone else can produce a Superman 113 DCU and sell it to me.

I was collecting comics long a few years before the first "direct sales issues" and I have a complete collection of all direct and newsstand issues for Batman, Detective, Superman, Action and JLA except for 3 very recent newsstand issues. These observations are not data driven, but I would like to share them anyway: 1. In the late 1970's and first half of the 1980's, you could just as easily find your comic books in drug stores as comic book stores. Rather than go downtown to a local comic book shop, sometimes it was just easier to go by the nearby drug stores and find comic books on racks near magazines. If I couldn't find my comics there, then I would go down to the local comic shop. What's my point? It seems like direct market and newsstand issues were common everywhere in the first half of the 1980's. If you check ebay and the census, you will get general confirmation that direct sales and newsstands are all readily available. If anything, the first year of direct sales issues can sometimes be a little harder to find. By the way, it seems funny to me that Mile High Comics has higher asking prices for those early newsstand issues when it is actually the direct sales issues that are harder to find. 2. By the late 1980's and certainly 1990's, you just about had to go the local comic shop to be sure to get your comic books. Waldenbooks and some newsstands carried them, but by then most people were getting there comic books at their local comic shops. I would occasionally have to run a Waldenbooks if my local comic shop blew it and missed an issue. 3. I think the closure of most Waldenbook Stores between 2005 and 2010 also was a significant event. At that point, only Barnes and Nobles and a few newsstands carried newsstand issues (hit or miss, I might add). Thus, some newsstand issues after that time are really hard to find, especially in the less popular titles (for me, the tough title to find newsstand issues was Detective Comics #800 and up). Great topic, by the way.

Thanks for the thoughtful and academic analysis Valiantman.... great job! As near as I can tell, when you get to the year 2005 and up, the ratio is 1% or less newsstand to 99% direct. Some newsstand issues are nearly impossible to find but I've managed to find all but 3 newsstand issues in the titles of Batman, Superman/Adv of Superman, Detective and Action Comics from the original series, New 52, and Rebirth. I've gone so far as to get some of them from friends in Venezuela and Germany. Out of approximately 1900 possible newsstand issues in those titles, the only three I haven't seen yet are Detective New 52 #4 and #9 and Superman New 52 #8. I'm sure those three will show up eventually on ebay... just a matter of time. If anyone has seen one of those, I would love to hear about it. By the way, DC just recently stopped producing newsstand issues of the mainstream superhero comic books. I believe the last ones they made were dated October 2017 (examples include the Rebirth issues of Batman 29, Superman 29, Action 985 and Detective 962). I understand they stopped making Marvel newsstand issues a few years ago. This is truly the end of an era. It will be interesting to see if prices for newsstand issues go up over time due to rarity. My personal opinion is that most collectors simply don't care. So if only 1% of the collectors care (and it is probably less than that) then the supply should still exceed demand. The exception might be in the title of Batman, where there seem to be more completionist collectors.

Yes, I have a similar pack like that and it contains Steel 29 DCU and Cyber Force 4. The Steel 29 DCU is not very common.

I agree the 000 newsstand is really hard to find. It seems like I've looked at 100 copies of the newsstand issue, but I finally found another one. So I have a spare. If anyone needs it, send me a PM. thanks Kirk

Thanks for chiming in. I didn't realize Books A Million carried newsstand issues..... I thought they sold Direct Sales issues like 2nd and Charles does now.

Does anyone know if DC stopped making newsstand issues? The last ones I saw were Batman 29, Superman 29, Detective 862, and Action 985. I checked several Barnes and Noble stores, and the last ones to hit their newsstand came out on 22 Aug 2017. Also a friend of mine says a newsstand in NYC stopped carrying newsstand comics recently. I'm wondering if DC threw in the towel and stopped making them. If they will no longer appear on newsstands, that signifies the end of an era.

Crazy? ....no doubt about it. And, OK.... $250!

You rock, mysterio!

While you are out looking, please see if you can find another Adv of Superman 521 with DC logo. I'd gladly pay $200 for it.

awesome. Thanks for sharing!

You left out "obsessive nutcases". That's me.... it seems crazy to want to chase down all the variants in any given title (like jeweler variants, 2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th/7th printings, newsstand variants, RRPs, misnumbered variants like the golden-age Superman 75 and Action Comics 223, DC Universe variants, mall variants of Adv of Superman 443, Superhombre variant of Superman 409, etc) but I can't help myself!

Thanks for weighing in!

Has anyone noticed that the super-rare Whitman variants of DC Comics from the month of June 1980 seem to come from Canada? Those rare Whitman variants include Action 508, Batman 324, DCCP 22, Superman 348, LOSH 264, Flash 286, JLA 179, Superboy 6, etc. The following link contains a great description of them: https://comicbookinvest.com/2017/01/12/whitman-dc-variants/ Over the years, I've been able to buy at least 2 copies of Action 508, Batman 324, Superman 348, and JLA 179. I believe every single seller was from Canada. Since those are extremely hard to find, I'm wondering if Whitman packs of those issues were only sold in Canada (or something else weird happened, which makes them hard to find). I have a friend who chases the Whitmans, and he had the same observation about the Canadian connection.

nope! The challenge is now on to find a second one, so that we will know that this is truly a variant.

The newsstand version with 000 in the indicia is pretty hard to find.