Get Marwood & I

You never know - the fact that the other parchment books have printed AUS prices - Morbius example below - gives me hope that there may be a printed AUS price under the SOV #13 sticker

Trouble is, if both are stickers, that could be a DE with a sticker on the back in error, or a copy that should have had a sticker on the front, or someone peeled it off.... The CGC qualified grade is used as follows: The 'defect' in this instance is the application of an after the original printing event sticker which, to be fair, CGC may not have seen any direct evidence for to confirm whether it was official or not. We obviously think it was official, so you could argue that CGC have labelled that copy incorrectly as the book is 'as it should be'. CGC's decisions are often open to interpretation in this area though. What I'm interested in myself is what is under the stickers and that alone will determine in my mind how I record this book in the APV records.

I will. Have even The US Direct Edition has an internal regular DE UPC and the US Newsstand has a picture UPC - which in itself is odd, as picture UPCs are normally found on Directs! We must find an AUS copy and start peeling. None on eBay that I can see. I'll buy the first one I do though

This book definitely needs more attention - here's a quick visual summary: And here's the only example I have seen of the interior UPC of a Direct Edition: ...of which the indicia says $2.25 per copy despite the cover saying $2.50! What on Earth happened with this book! What are the chances that every extant copy is a printed Direct Edition and that both the US and AUS 'newsstands' are stickered directs? For the time being, I'm not counting it as an APV until we've confirmed both front price and back UPC are stickers and, crucially, what is underneath them. I'll have to buy one

....unless the UPC barcode is a sticker of course We need a copy of this book in hand to firstly confirm that both cover price and back cover UPC are stickers on the AUS copies and then to remove them to see what printed price / UPC are underneath. If the AUS 11 UPC is a sticker over a US 08 barcode we're in trouble - but the fact that the CGC example seems to say the UPC on the back of the US copy is a sticker makes me wonder. Live investigation. All good fun

Check out the CGC label wording Gary - attached to back cover:

Actually Gary, I think I've cracked it! @A ROM Curator The AUS newsstand has a price sticker and an '11' barcode: The US newsstand has a price sticker and an 06 barcode: So the sticker on the AUS copy probably does mask an AUS printed price. The reason for the sticker is that they got the price wrong (hence the US correction too). Have I got that right Gary? I'm posting on the spot.

It's difficult to be 100% sure isn't it Gary. The US version appears to have a sticker on the US newsstand copy (unstickered DE 25c cheaper): But regardless of the US position, the wonky placements on these two AUS copies certainly indicates a sticker to me: What would be cool - bearing in mind the US scenario - is if there is an AUS printed price under the AUS sticker (i.e. they repriced it higher). Yep. It could easily be a reprint or locally produced book. I've seen similar scenarios with UK priced books which, on the face of it, appear to be variants but which turn out to be later local reprints when you look inside. Example here: If we find that the indicia of the AUS priced ID4 TPB indicates that it is a price variant, I'd still be minded to record it separately from the 'proper comics' though.

I did a little bit of research on this at the time @valiantman and then forgot about it. Using Mike's Comic Newsstand's cover date list for December 2013, I populated the following table by gathering images from online: All the above books have December 2013 indicias I believe but five different 'Display Until Dates'. The latest ones - 12/10/2013 - are theoretically the final Marvel newsstands and I've found six so far (at the bottom of the table). These are the other books that could have a December 2013 newsstand copy but for which I haven't found a copy of yet: Captain America: Living Legend #2 Cataclysm #0.1 Daredevil #32 Daredevil: Dark Nights #5 Deadpool #18 Deadpool Kills Deadpool #4 Fantomex Max #1 Fearless Defenders #10 Hunger #4 Indestructible Hulk #15 Infinity #5 Infinity: Heist #2 Infinity: The Hunt #3 Kick- 3 #4 Marvel Universe Hulk: Agents of S.M.A.S.H. #1 Marvel Universe: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 Marvel: Now What #1 Mighty Avengers #2 New Avengers #11 Painkiller Jane: Price of Freedom #2 Punisher: The Trial of the Punisher #2 Superior Carnage #4 Superior Foes of Spider-Man #4 Thor and the Mighty Avengers #1 Thor: God of Thunder #14 Thor: God of Thunder Halloween Comicfest #1 Ultimate Comics X-Men #32 Ultimate Comics X-Men #33 Uncanny Avengers #13 Uncanny X-Force #13 Uncanny X-Men #13 Venom #42 Wolverine #10 Wolverine & the X-Men #37 Wolverine Max #12 X-Men Legacy #18 X-Men: Battle of the Atom #2 Young Avengers #11 Some of them may join the final group. I'll keep an eye out occasionally and see if I can fill the table over time. In the meantime, these six at least are in the running for joint 'last ever Marvel newsstand' (click to enlarge) if the 'on sale date' is indeed the determining factor:

Superb Marvellous colouring.

I get that and you may be right. My work has two components - fact and speculation. The facts are the books confirmed, for which images are captured. The speculation is - hopefully - educated hypothesising but, of course, no one knows what will turn up. Solicit / on sale dates do indeed often help / work as indicators of what might exist (see my DC UKPV thread for a great recent example) but sometimes they don't. Only time will tell and there are enough people in the hunt now to spot one if any of the books exist. I'd love to see a Nova #1 turn up myself but my gut says no. And it's a big one! My gut that is. You too mate.

Thanks for the clip - it does say 'trade paperback' I see. I posted the book a few pages back and said I was unsure what to do with it. As you know, I separate the (Conan) magazines from the comics and I'm minded to keep trade paperbacks separate too. Also I have not seen inside and, for all I know, it may indicate a local / separate printing. Do you have a copy in hand to confirm Gary? I only have multiple images lifted from various sources but no interior / indicia shots.

Yes, I don't currently count those in my APV figures - see my spreadsheet key below (stickered): My thinking at the moment is that a book has to have a physical printing difference to be counted as an APV. That is why I do count the stickered copies that have printed AUS barcodes (i.e. they forgot to amend the US price / issue box) - these are noted as 'US/APVBC' in my key. I'm open to discussion on this but my overriding thought is that a stickered US copy is too easy to manufacture. A printed variant barcode, less so. So I am aware of the four books you mention and I do believe that they are authentic in as much as the stickers were probably 'officially' manufactured. Comics are littered with mistakes like that with official after the production event corrections. I prefer to treat them as a subset of which I am aware, rather than promote them to full APV status. For a book to be classified as a variant it has to have a printed difference - that principle underpins all my variant research activities. Otherwise I could argue, for example, that UKPVs with Thorpe & Porter price stamps are UKPVs as the UK stamp is 'official'. So I don't include these four as they have AUS price stickers but no printed differences: (We did agree that the GR/Blaze #13 was a sticker didn't we - I don't have one in hand?) I do include this one as it has an '06' variant AUS barcode along with the correcting AUS price sticker:

I don't have images of any of those back cover barcodes either I'm afraid Gary, just the fronts confirming the AUS prices. I haven't made a list of any others as yet. Sale prices like these will likely bring more examples out of the wood work though:

Here they are (click to enlarge):

Great, thanks. It's an '07' as expected, and completes the illustrative table that I posted earlier in the thread:

That'll learn me Hello Gary. Thanks for the input - I'll reply to each point in your post separately, shortly

....I've been waiting for ages for someone to post an ASM #358 APV on eBay with a back cover scan. Finally got one and it's one of those damn listings on which you can't zoom in / magnify the images! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Amazing-Spiderman-358-and-359-1992-Rare-Australian-Price-Variants-Marvel/284033889452?hash=item4221bd34ac:g:bx4AAOSwwZBfeV1t Why does that always happen!

I mentioned the Spidey titles in the above post. Take a look at this snapshot: Those that have been following will know that I put together an ASM APV run over ten years ago when I was in Spidey completist mode. I can say categorically - even at the risk of angering The Universe - that ASM #409 does not exist as an APV. I can also tell you that, currently, only 8 of the 29 in scope March 1996 cover date titles have APVs. There was something going on that month it seems. If we look at the four core Spidey titles we see all four are missing their March 1996 books. So you can hopefully see the circumstantial evidence to support the case for marking Spider-Man (1990) #66, Spectacular #232 and Spidey 2099 #41 as 'NOAUS'. Spidey is and was at the time one of the most popular characters in the MU and is / was arguably the character with the most 'collectors'. So add that to the mix and you would expect these issues to have surfaced by now if they were made wouldn't you? So I'll likely mark those accordingly soon. I won't stop looking for them, but I don't expect to find them.

Afternoon. Rainy one A little insight into how difficult it can be to assess which issues may or may not have APVs. Two Barbie titles - both appear fully in the first AUS wave, both have a maximum of 35 APVs out there: If you think about it, it's unlikely that many kids bought their Barbie APVs off the Australian newsstand and then loving kept them for future uploading to eBay. I can understand that for Spider-Man, which is why pretty much all Spidey title APVs have revealed themselves, but it would take a fairly unique young lady shall we say (dare I say that) who would have kept them all. The Barbies that I have captured and documented are almost without exception the only copies that I have seen after a long and extensive search. So they are clearly out there in very limited numbers. This could of course mean that all 35 issues for both titles may have been made as APVs. They're so scarce that we may have to rely on that one or two dedicated collectors revealing their hand in one go. But you know me, I like to look at the patterns. Look at the huge area of white for both titles for issues 26-35. Only one copy known, right at the end, Barbie Fashion #35, the price of which is obscured by a price sticker: For Barbie singular, how likely is it that issues 11 to 25 would appear (less just issue 20) and then nothing from 26 to 35? We have numbers 1, 3 and 4 and then nothing to #11. And for Barbie Fashion we have 1-6 but nothing from 16 to 35. There are a couple of other observations I could make but, in essence, it's impossible to say what may or may not be out there. So these two titles alone account for 41 of the 100 issues that are in the 'may / likely to exist' bracket. Now if events follow their normal course, the Universe will see to it that someone will now proceed to post all 70 issues on eBay. That's what tends to happen whenever I post like this. Which is why I'm doing it!

I know Stephen, I'm just thinking out loud really. Despite being one of those who have championed the greater understanding of pence copies I've always retained a slight niggle in my mind that the term "UK Price Variant" impacts the purity, for want of a better word, of a price variant of a book priced with the same currency. There's no question anymore about what pence copies are and how they were produced if you're prepared to look, and it can often be difficult to arrive at a nomenclature that satisfies all. There's just something about that 'distribution' word that appeals to me though and I just felt like discussing it. Anyway - new Dell UKPV over the road if anyone's paying attention.

Probably due to the Miller to T&P distribution handover Antoni. Must have confused everyone

Nice copies. Did you buy anything?

Twas a 'freak over-sized bison' with a covering to make it look like a monster. Morgan Yancy up to his old tricks again. I aint 'Kiddin' ya pardner

You might be right Kevin. Let's discuss it further at the next Annual UKPV Appreciation Society gathering shall we? I've booked the usual broom cupboard.