Cpt Kirk

You could probably start a new thread about this topic and call it "Second Printings that Look Like First Printings" So yes, there is an 2nd printing of Action 654 and Superman 44. They each have a Lynx ad on the back cover instead of the Capcom Viper ad, and the fine print at the bottom of the indicia will usually say something like "Second Printing". If I had more time, I could post some photos to show the differences. As near as I can tell, these 2nd printings came out in 3 packs in the early 1990s and were sold at stores like Kaybee Toys and Toys R Us. The covers of the 1st and 2nd printings are usually identical, so you can only find them by looking at the back covers and the indicia. The date of the reprint can be figured out by looking at the ad on the back covers (for example, Superman 44, Action 654, and Adv of Superman 467 all came out in June 1990 originally, but the 2nd printings all have Lynx ads on the back cover, which is the same Lynx ad that came out on the back covers of all DC comics dated Aug 1991. Other examples of these 2nd printings include Superman 463, Action 660, Superman 51, Superman 52, Justice League 36, 37, 45 and Justice League Europe 6 and `10. .

now that is odd. I've seen hundreds of DCU's, thousands of newsstands, and I've paid close attention to anything that had a sticker on it. I've never seen anything like this before.

tell me about it. I've got about 1500, and it was no small feat to have all in VF except about 10 of them

Divad and RockMyAmadeus: I admire and concur with your analyses. I can add following: There just can't be that many fanatics like me that try to collect both the newsstand and direct market versions of their favorite titles. If you want to get really nutty, try to find all your newsstand issues in high grade (of the 1500 or so newsstand issues I've collected, there's only about 5 that aren't VF... which is really tough to do because those newsstand issues tend to get beat up on the newsstand). If you are one of those fanatics for DC newsstand issues, feel free to send me a PM as I would love to hear about your experiences. So if you have a rare newsstand issue and you want to sell it, you would need to be lucky enough to find the right buyer to get the premium. There just can't be that many buyers out there, because it is a crazy and difficult pursuit. I have, in the past, paid a premium for some very hard to find newsstand issues. Examples include issues in the range of Detective 800 thru 881, Batman 630 through 713, Action 850 through 904. I've regularly paid prices around $50 to get them from sources like Mile High Comics, and friends in Europe and South America (where they were more easily found). For me, this was more of an academic pursuit to prove that they all existed and to have the satisfaction of having all the different variants of the titles I collect. Between Batman, Detective, Superman/Adv of Superman, Action and Justice League of America, I've found every single newsstand issue except Detective 868. I'd gladly pay $50 for that one if in nice condition.

Good point Carl -- Those Whitman variants had the bar codes blacked out so that sales clerks would not accidentally scan that bar code when ringing up the cost of the Whitman packs. Similarly, the DC Universe symbol was placed on reprints of DC Comics so that the 20-pack bricks and 2-packs would not be scanned incorrectly by a sales clerk. That was one of the reasons why I thought maybe that 457 2nd print newsstand issue may have come in a pack of some sort. But who the heck knows. The only thing we know for sure is that they are hard to find.

Guys -- There's something very odd about the Batman 457 2nd print newsstand. I have every single Batman, Superman, and Action comics newsstand (as well as all but one newsstand version of Detective Comics). I've seen thousands of newsstand issues over the years but I have never seen a case where a bar code had a black mark across it, and we know that at least 3 of the 12 newsstand copies of Batman 457 2nd print have that black mark on it. It make me wonder if that copy was a printing error or made for a pack where they wanted the bar code to be blacked out. I've never been able to find anyone that knows where it came from, and we might never find out. Surely the Bats 457 is one of the holy grails of variants. As for the regular 1st print newsstand issue, I agree that the 457 is plentiful but the 000 is hard to find. Over the years, I've probably found 100 copies of the 457 newsstand issue but only about 2 or 3 copies of the 000 newsstand issue. Perhaps the newsstand ones were pulled from distribution before most of them got out there. Kirk

To answer your questions of which ones might be most valuable and/or hardest to find: After years of searching and watching want lists from my friends, here is a listing of ones that I think are hard to find. By no means is this list complete, but if you find any of these, you can consider yourself to be fairly lucky! To get some of these, I've paid bounties of $100 and up. If anyone finds an Action 705/706, Adv of Superman 530, Superman 95/117, or Superman MOS 49, please let me know as I still have outstanding bounties out for those variants. I know for sure that Action 705 and 706 exist. Action Comics 686 2nd print, 705, 706, 715, 718 Adventures of Superman 499 3rd print, 518-519, 524, 530 (might not exist), 531-532 Batman 516, 517, 524 Batman Adventures 18 Batman & Robin Adventures 1 Batman: Shadow of the Bat 38 Detective Comics 680, 682 (regular copy with orange background), 685, 691 Flash 117 Impulse 10 Justice League America 86, 107 Legionnaires 25 Robin 4, 14 Showcase '94 3 Steel 17, 23 Superboy 2, 30, 32 Superman 77 3rd print, 95 (might not exist), 96, 98, 117 (might not exist) Superman Man Steel 42, 49 (49 might not exist) Wonder Woman 92, 106 Have fun looking! Cpt Kirk

That is true. I know of two other copies of the Spring Hill Mall variant that you found. Jerome has one, I have one, and now you have one.

Thanks for posting the photo of "The Parks" variant. Now there are 10 known variants (i.e., the ones shown above, plus the "North Shore Square" and "Westgate Mall" variants, which I do not have). p.s. I sent you a PM. I would love to know where you found "The Parks". thanks!

wow. Nice job. You found the needle in the haystack!

Jim -- Thanks for the insight. We would probably have to write the GL #79 off as a mistake or a very rare exception, unless someone proves otherwise. Since thousands of National Diamond inserts were found in Marvel comics by Mycomicshop but not a single one in a DC comic book, the odds seems pretty safe to say that the NDS insert will not normally been seen in a DC comic book Kirk

thanks for the confirmation, Stonguy!

Many moons ago, I wrote an article on the old collector's society boards about Mark Jeweler variants in DC Comics. I am repeating that article on these new boards with some updates and corrections for reference. The Mark Jeweler variant is simply a comic book that contains a Mark Jeweler advertisement that was inserted into the centerfold of the comic book. For the first few years that they appeared in DC Comics, the ads were printed on a heavier-than-normal cardboard paper and in later years the ads were printed on thin, slick paper. I would say they only occur in approximately 5% or less of any given issue, which makes them pretty hard to find. When I started looking around the internet for information on DC Comics that contain the Mark Jeweler variants, I was surprised to see how little information seemed to exist on the topic. I believe I’ve found almost every single version of the Mark Jeweler variant published in DC comics. I am providing the following in-depth description of these inserts in order to share the results of my research. I mostly collect Batman, Detective, Superman, Action, and Justice League of America. I’ve spent a great deal of time looking for the Mark Jeweler inserts in those titles and researching the topic (more than I care to admit!). Between those five titles, I believe that 692 issues could contain the insert between the cover dates of August 1972 through July 1986. So far, I have been able to confirm the existence of 594 issues containing the insert. Of those 594 issues, I actually have 521 issues containing the insert in my collection. As near as I can tell, the very first Mark Jeweler inserts were inserted into DC Comics with the indicia date of August 1972. Awe4one (an expert in Mark Jeweler inserts) agrees. I have in my possession a copy of House of Secrets 99 and Action 415 (both dated August 1972) and GI Combat 155 (dated Aug/Sep 1972), each containing the earliest known version of the Mark Jeweler insert. Jeweler inserts continued to appear in DC Comics up to and including issues with a July 1986 cover date. From August 1972 through July 1986, the only months for which I’ve been unable to find a Mark Jeweler variant have been May 1973, March 1975, and April 1975. Actually, no DC issues were released with an indicia date of solely May 1973, so I don’t think inserts were produced for that month. Furthermore, I believe that they may not have made jeweler inserts for March and April 1975 issues. I have some evidence to back up that statement. Mycomicshop has had thousands of issues with jeweler inserts, and they have never seen a comic book from March or April 1975 with the insert. I also found a run of about 15 comic books from the same collection that had star-shaped stamps on the covers (a star-shaped stamp often appears on jeweler variants -- it was a practice by military PX's to stamp the comic books after selling them). In that run, all the comic books except the one from April 1975 had the jeweler insert even though the April 1975 issue had the star-shaped stamp on it. (See image below for example of the star-shaped stamp and photos of the jeweler insert inside Detective 472). I have an insert from every month from August 1972 through July 1986 except for May 1973, March 1975, and April 1975. If you have an issue containing the jeweler insert from one of those months, I would appreciate you letting me know. It appears to me that Mark Jeweler inserts were never inserted into DC's square bound giants. This was confirmed when I found a run of jeweler variants from the same collection, and all but the 100-page giant in that collection contained the insert even though the 100-pg giant had obviously been bought at the same location as the other jeweler variants (due to the star-shaped stamp on all of them). I believe Mark Jewelers inserts were also not normally inserted into Dollar Comics and the 52-page and larger giants such as JLA 139 thru 157 and 250, Batman 300, Green Lantern 100 and 200, and Superman 400. Notable exception: Awe4one, Flaming Telepath and I all found a jeweler insert in JLA 149. I also believe DC did not place a jeweler insert in any of the over-sized issues that contained free comic inserts (e.g., JLA 193 with the All-Star Squadron insert; Batman 353 & Detective 520 & Superman 377 & Action 537 & JLA 208 with Masters of Universe inserts; Detective 544 & Superman 401 & Green Lantern 182 with Flash Force 2000 inserts; Batman 387 & Superman 411 & JLA 242 & Green Lantern 192 & Action 573 with Mask inserts). Notable exception: I found a copy of Action 509 with the Radio Shack insert (which added 16-pages to the comic book) but it also contained a Mark Jewelers insert. Thus, at 64-pages, Action 509 is the largest comic book I've ever encountered that contained the insert.I don’t know whether or not the Mark Jeweler insert was placed into all the other non-giant or non-oversized issues that were published from August 1972 through July 1986, or if the inserts were instead targeted for only certain titles or issues for any given month. I personally believe that they were placed in almost all non-giant issues (for the five titles I collect, I've found evidence that at least 85% of non-giant issues contain the insert.... for the title of Superman, I've found at least 90% of the non-giant issues contain the insert). Starting with issues dated October 1980, direct sales copies (i.e., copies that were made mostly for comic book shops) were distinguished from newsstand copies. At that time, DC Comics started marking newsstand copies with bar codes in the UPC box on the cover, while direct sales copies did not have bar codes but instead had symbols and/or catch phrases in them. I believe the Mark Jeweler inserts were only placed in newsstand copies. I have never seen a direct sales copy with the Jeweler insert inside for issues dated October 1980 and newer. In other words, don't bother looking for an insert if the issue is a direct sales issue. This makes sense to me, since I understand the advertisements were targeted for newsstands that were close to military personnel (instead of the direct sales audience). For DC Comics, I have so found approximately 30 different versions of the jeweler inserts. I have photographed each version and I will attempt to post those photos in the future. The following photobucket page shows a few of those photos:http://s1336.photobucket.com/user/kwticknor/slideshow/Mark%20Jewelers%20variantsMy system for describing the different versions of jeweler inserts is to describe the primary colors on the first page of the insert and to also add the alpha-numerical code that appears near the bottom of the order form on most of the inserts. There doesn’t appear to be any pattern or reasoning behind the numbering system used on the different versions of the variant (it would be interesting to talk to the people who designed the inserts to find out if there was a pattern to their numbering system). Following is a listing of the types of inserts I have found (if a month is followed by question marks, then I haven’t seen the insert associated with that month): Aug 1972 = black with rstuvwx and black rst; Sep 1972 = black with rstuvw; Oct 1972 = black with rstuv and black rst; Nov 1972 = black with bcdefgh; Dec 1972 = black with bcdefg; Jan 1973 = black with bcdef and black bcdefghij; Feb thru Jul 1973 = black with abc; Aug thru Sep 1973 = black with 222; Oct thru Dec 1973 = black with 333; Jan thru Jun 1974 = blue with 444; July 1974 = blue with 555; Aug 1974 thru Feb 1975 = blue with 666; Mar 1975 = ???; April 1975 = ???; May thru Jul 1975 = blue with 777; Aug thru Sep 1975 = blue with 888; Oct thru Nov 1975 = blue with 88; Dec 1975 thru Aug 1976 = brown with 999; Aug/Sep 1976 =brown with 99 (found in Hercules 6); Sep 1976 thru May 1977 = red with 111; Jun thru Jul 1977 = red with 1; Aug thru Sep 1977 = red with no number; Oct 1977 thru Nov 1978 = green with 111 (and also green 11 in Oct 1978); Dec 1978 thru Jul 1979 = blue with 222; Aug 1979 = blue with 333; Sept 1979 = blue with 222 (identical to Dec 1978 thru Jun 1979); Oct 1979 thru Apr 1980 = blue with 333 (identical to Aug 1979); May thru Jun 1980 = black with 4; July 1980 thru Feb 1981 = black with 444; Mar thru Oct 1981 = black with 5; Nov 1981 = blue with 66; Dec 1981 thru July 1982 = blue with 6 (wtih Feb 1982 also containing blue 66); Aug 1982 = black with 555; Sep thru Oct 1982 = black with 666; Nov 1982 thru Aug 1983 = gray with 77; Sept 1983 thru Aug 1984 = blue and gray with 88; Sep 1984 = red and gray with 99; Oct thru Nov 1984 = red and gray with 999; Dec 1984 thru Apr 1985 = red and gray with 99 (identical to Sep 1984); May thru Jun 1985 = purple with CCC; Jul thru Sep 1985 = gray and black with AAA; Oct thru Nov 1985 = purple with BBB; Dec 1985 thru Jan 1986 = purple with CCC (identical to May thru Jun 1985); Feb 1986 = gray and black with AAA on card (identical to Jul thru Sep 1985); Mar thru May 1986 = blue and gray with EE on card; Jun 1986 = gray and black with G; Jul 1986 = purple and gray with D. By the way, if the indicia date of the issue covers two months, then the version of the insert that appears in the issue is unpredictable. Sometimes the issue will contain the insert for the first month listed in the indicia and sometimes will contain the insert for the second month listed in the indicia Sometimes it might contain neither. GI Combat 155, Flash 223, and Hercules 6 are examples. GI Combat (Aug/Sep 1972) contains the same insert that appears in other issues dated of Aug 1972. Flash 223 (Sep/Oct 1973) contains the insert that appears in other issues dated of Oct 1973. Hercules 6 (Aug/Sep 1976) contains neither the Aug 76 nor the Sept 76 insert but instead has a “brown 99” insert. I checked publication dates of these issues, and it also provided no prediction as to what insert would appear. When looking for inserts, I should also mention that some issues contain slick advertising inserts that are not Mark jeweler inserts. Thus, when looking through a stack of comic books from the top or bottom, a book might appear to contain a jeweler insert but on closer inspection you will find that it does not. When these non-jeweler inserts appear in a book, they are in every single issue of that book so they are usually not variants and they don’t add anything to the value of the comic book (in my opinion). Following is a listing of those inserts and the issues that they appear in: Atari insert appearing in various 1981 thru 1983 issues such as Batman 340, 343, 346, 357, Detective 498, 518, Superman 375, Action 515, 521, 524, Green Lantern 156; Hostess and Saturday morning cartoon insert appearing in December 1981 issues such as Batman 342, Detective 509, Superman 366, Action 526, Justice League of America 197 and Green Lantern 147; Mask insert appearing in Batman 397, Superman 421, Justice League of America 254, and Green Lantern 204; Sword of Atom comic book insert appearing in Justice League 228 only; Jemm comic book insert appearing in direct sales issues of Batman 375 only (i.e., not in newsstand issues); Baseball products insert appearing in newsstand issues of Superman 375 only (i.e, not in direct sales issues). I believe most of these issues also have a variant that contains a Mark jeweler insert. Furthermore, if a Mark jeweler insert appears in any of these issues, then these other advertising inserts will not be found in that issue. Examples in my possession include Batman 340, Batman 342, Batman 343, Batman 357, Superman 366, Superman 375, Justice League 228, Action 515, Action 521 and Action 526 which contain a Mark Jeweler insert but do not contain the slick non-jeweler insert at the same time. All DC Comics issues dated May 1984 also had a regular one page Military Diamond Sales ad in them (not affiliated with Mark Jewelers). This included both newsstand and direct sales copies. However, newsstand issues from that month can also include the slick centerfold ad (for example, Batman 371, Superman 395 and Action 555). I have a handy spreadsheet which shows each month that the Mark Jeweler variants appeared in Batman, Detective, Superman, Action, and Justice League of America comic books. The sheet shows issues that I have in my possession, plus a listing of issues for which I have reasonable evidence that a Mark Jeweler variant exists. If you would like a copy of that spreadsheet, feel free to email me at the address shown below. Pricing of DC Comics Jeweler variants: In general, I think that people don’t usually pay a whole lot more for Jeweler variants because there isn’t a whole lot of demand for them. I usually buy them for about the same price as guide and sometimes as much as 20% more than guide if I really want the variant. If priced more than 20 percent above guide, they seem to not sell quickly. When priced about the same as guide, I believe Jeweler variants will sell quicker than the same issue without the variant. If anyone has any Batman, Detective, Superman, Action, or Justice League of America comic books with the Mark Jeweler inserts, I'd love to hear about it so that I can add the information to my database. Feel free to send me a PM or contact me at kwticknor@aol.com.Kirk Ticknor

I just typed "National Diamond" into the search engine on Mycomicshop and only Marvel and Archie Comics showed up. If they've never seen a DC comic book with an NDS insert, then it is pretty likely that those NDS inserts were never placed in DC comic books.

I have more than 600 DC comic books with Mark Jewelers inserts, but never have I seen a DC comic book with a National Diamond Sales (NDS) insert. So can anyone produce evidence of an NDS insert appearing in a DC comic book?? I have seen a Military Diamond Sales ad (but not insert) in DC comics (example is Action 555 and most other issues dated May 1984)

I just noticed that Superman 51 (1987 series) is another comic book where they had to move "by Ordway and Janke" up higher on the front cover when the newsstand UPC appears on the cover.

Stickered DCU's: Green Lantern #59 (page 27 of this thread). Plus TEC 690, SM MOS 42, and Superman 104. That's all I've ever seen.

Thanks for sharing this great info. Yes, there is a stickered and non-stickered DCU variant of Superman 104 (I have them both). I also have the stickered and non-stickered DCU variants of Superman MOS 42 and Detective 690. I think there is another stickered DCU variant shown earlier on this thread as well. I've personally seen a thousand or more DCU variants after years of searching. Of those, I've only put my hands on 4 stickered DCU variants, so they are truly hard to find.

Good job. Yes, that one is harder to find than most.

Well done. That Batman 516 is among the hard to find.

Update: Now the only newsstand issues I haven't found are Detective 868 and Action 895 (I'm almost sure they exist, since there are about 1300 newsstand variants in the titles of Action, Superman, Detective and Batman, and I've found all but two of them) Update: Thanks to Georg in Germany, the Action 895 newsstand variant has been found. That means that out of about 1300 newsstand variants in the titles of Action, Superman, Detective and Batman, and I've found all except for Detective 868.

Yeah I know about a dozen buyers that will easily pay a premium for a high grade newsstand copy. I never have a problem selling a high grade copy of Batman 497 or Superman 75 for that reason. I think I sold 20+ copies of Scooby Doo 12 Newsstands in 2 days. If it wasn't for Barnes and Nobles and Books a Million I often wonder if they newsstand contract would be completely abandoned now. I can chime in on this. I was buying newsstand and direct sales copies back in the late 1980's, and I managed to buy just about every single newsstand issue of Batman, Detective, Superman/Adv of Superman, and Action Comics. I remember plucking newsstand issues off the shelves at our local drug store. I still buy new newsstand issues from Barnes and Nobles. The fact is, a 9.8 newsstand is very hard to find. Just the process of putting them on a rack or display shelf normally creates tiny dings on the comic book. If you are trying to find back issues of newsstand issues, the problem gets even worse when trying to find them from the last 10 years or so. That's because they are really hard to find, let alone in high grade. Trying to collect a complete run of newsstand issues in any given title is not for the feint of heart! Here's the other thing. The first year or two of direct sales comics from the early 1980's are also pretty hard to find in high grade. For one thing, they are now almost 40 years old (yikes!). Also, the earliest direct sales comics are a little harder to find, because the majority of comic books at that time were newsstand issues instead of direct sales. Finally, when they first came out in the early 1980's, most shops did not stick the new comic books directly into a bag and they were not handled as carefully as they are today. p.s. If you really want a challenge, try to collect the Mark Jeweler variants in high grade. It looks to me like there was only one comic book with the jeweler insert for every 30 to 50 regular copies. These were only sold in military PX's from the early 1970's thru mid 1980's, and not exactly handled with care. So getting a 9.8 jeweler variant is almost impossible. The highest graded jeweler variants that I've ever seen in a CGC case were 9.6's, and those were super rare.

Yes, you got it right. Direct sales issues start with Batman 328 and TEC 495 (all DC issues starting in October 1980 have a direct sales version and a corresponding newsstand version). I believe the first DC comic that came out as a direct sales version was Superboy Spectacular #1. UPDATE: Thanks to Georg in Germany, an Action 895 newsstand variant has been found and he sent me a scan for proof. Now out of 1300 issues of Batman, Detective, Superman/Adv of Superman, and Action Comics from , the only newsstand variant I have never seen is Detective 868. Please let me know if you ever find one! My email address is kwticknor@aol.com (yes, people still have aol, dang it!) regards, Kirk Ticknor

There is a pretty lengthy thread on these Walmart packs on collector's society. And yes, I have opened quite a few of these packs, especially since they only cost $5. So the top comic book in each pack is a special edition (not the newsstand version, even though the front comic book in this pack looks like a newsstand edition). Each of those special edition comic books has the words "special edition" added to the title in the indicia. The other two comic books in the pack are just regular direct sales versions of random comic books. I appears as if those two direct sales comics were overstock, and someone decided to sell them off in these packs. I think it would be interesting to find the persons who had the idea to produce these packs, and get the rest of the story. By the way, these packs came out in two waves. The packs you have shown on this thread are from the most recent wave, and each comic book on top is a rebirth issue. These packs seems to be very easily found in most Walmart stores. The first wave came out around April or May of 2016, and they were much harder to find in my opinion. Bottom line: These packs contain more dratted variants!

Nice!