Cpt Kirk

Dang it!

Guys -- Wow.... thanks for the great examples and info. The wrinkles shown in the photos are very similar to the comic book creases I was thinking about. I would definitely leave this to the pros (my "how" question was more out of curiosity). Kind regards, Kirk

Dumb question... can moisture wrinkles be pressed or repaired in some fashion? If yes, how is it done?

When you lift a centerfold from one very old comic book and place it another, the difference between pages can be pretty striking and obvious. So I suggest you wait for a real Batman 5 to come along at a reasonable price. As the golden age collectors start selling off their collection due to age (I hate to say it), then there should be plenty of these on the market. I just don't see many younger kids collecting, so eventually the supply will exceed demand and prices should come down.

Heck no, dude!

In the title of Batman, there's almost too many great comics to mention from Issue 1 through 100. Of course they can get pretty pricey, so if you aren't after the major keys (like #1, #47, etc) then I would suggest the following as just examples: 1. Batman 15 -- great Catwoman story and an imaginary story where Japanazis win the war (photo shown below along with the very expensive #47 origin issue) 2. Batman 26 - story of Batman in the year 3000 where Batman and Robin's descendants defeat an Army from Mars where the martian leader tries to imitate Hitler. 3. Batman 41 -- cool Alien story In the title of Detective, I like the following that aren't too outrageous in price like first appearance of Riddler (TEC 140) and Joker (TEC 168), yet they have very interesting story lines: 1. TEC 138 - includes origin of Robotman in backup story 2. TEC 142 - 2nd part of the first Riddler story 3. TEC 144 - Batman on Kay Kyser's radio show 4. TEC 152 -- great Vickie Vale cover and story 5. TEC 155 -- great Vickie Vale cover and story (Mile High copy seen below) 6. TEC 167 - going back in time to see Cleopatra 7. TEC 190 - has more details on Batman's origin

Add Wonder Woman 241 survey variant (now on sale on ebay at $700, so it should be there for awhile to look at). So now you have: Action 481, Adventure 456, Detective 476, Batman 298, Super-Team Family 15, Jonah Hex 11, Justice League 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.

awesome!

If you don't mind bragging, which ones do you have? I also have the Mile High Action 71, and that's it.

well, it is somewhat unique. I slabbed it just to have it authoritatively documented as the Mile High. I bought it about 20 years ago (yikes!)

thanks dude. And thanks to the guy who dreamed up this thread.... it is thoroughly enjoyable.

Thanks dude.... I broke out that Mile High to smell it and touch it. I never plan to sell it, so why not break it out and enjoy the darn thing.

I know you said no words, but these demand explanation: 1. Batman 15 -- War cover with Batman and Robin manning a machine gun; awesome story where Catwoman falls in love with Bruce Wayne and Bruce spanks Robin (you owe it to yourself to check out this story, which can be seen in the Batman Archives books); also has another great story where Batman and Robin get to see an alternate future where the Nazis and Japanese win WWII and Batman/Robin get gunned down by the Nazis. 2. Batman 47 -- How could you not keep the first detailed origin story where Batman finds his parents killers?; plus another great Catwoman story called "Fashions in Crime" 3. Superman 20 -- war cover; the first Superman story contains a funny cameo appearance with Bruce Wayne and Grayson, which could be the first story where the three of them actually appeared together in a story after All Star Comics 7 from Oct-Nov 1941; also includes a letter column that talks about the employees of DC who went to serve in WWII; a great war story featuring Hitler 4. Superman 53 -- First detailed origin story showing the death of Superman's parents; great ads giving you the sense of the times; a story featuring "Superhombre" 5. Detective 155 -- Mile High copy with very sharp black cover (one of my favorite covers) with a great Vickie Vale story to boot; plus stories with Roy Raymond and Pow Wow-Smith, Indian Lawman

Just saw Sgt Rock 315 pop up on ebay, so we can say that one exists for sure. And the seller wants $400 for a vg copy, so it should be available for viewing for a long time (unless the price comes down substantially)

Yes, it gets pretty difficult finding newsstand issues after the year 2003. I have a feeling that newsstand issues start getting hard to find somewhere around the time of Waldenbooks' demise. I believe Waldenbooks was a pretty common place that people bought newsstand issues from. Now.... try finding all the newsstand issues in high grade, and it gets really nutty. Out of about 1500 newsstand issues, I've found all but 5 in VF or better (the other 5 being somewhere around FN).

Very interesting. thanks for chiming in!

I just found the Detective 868 newsstand variant. That means every direct sales copy of Batman, Detective, Superman/Adv of Superman, Action and JLA has a corresponding newsstand variant (I have all the direct sales versions in these titles, plus the newsstand variants in hand). I'm guessing no one else has ever been crazy enough to do this.

Wow... I just found the Detective 868 newsstand variant. That means every direct sales copy of Batman, Detective, Superman/Adv of Superman, Action and JLA has a corresponding newsstand variant (I have all the direct sales version in these titles, plus the newsstand variant in hand). I'm guessing no one else has ever been crazy enough to do this.

Update: I finally found the last newsstand issue I was looking for (namely Detective 868). I can now say with certainty that every single issue of Batman, Detective Comics, Superman/Adv of Superman, Action Comics and Justice League of America had both a direct sales version and newsstand version. DC first started making the direct sales versions (with corresponding newsstand versions) in October 1980. The first issues were Batman 328, Detective Comics 495, Superman 352, Action Comics 512, and Justice League of America 183.

Your graph does a great job of illustrating the situation. Thanks for posting it! p.s. It would be interesting to put actual numbers to the graph for popular titles such as Batman. I wonder if those numbers exist.

after having gone through thousands and thousands of comic books, I've can say the following with certainty: 1. Some newsstand issues from about 2001 through 2011 are extremely hard to find. They might be sitting in someone's closet, but the fact is that there are many newsstand issues from this time period that are just plain scarce. 3. As noted by many people above, scarcity does not mean they are valuable. I think there are very few fanatics out there who must have all the newsstand variants. 4 After 2011, I think some dealers and collectors started taking note of them, so there are more of them to be found. 5. The earliest years of newsstand issues (starting in 1980) are still pretty easy to find because many collectors (including myself) were still buying their comic books from the newsstand. So lot of newsstand issues were bought and preserved from that time period.