RockMyAmadeus

The Death of Superman was ridiculous. It was precisely the type of story aimed at 8 year old boys, with 8 year old reasoning. Nothing was explained, there was no buildup, there was no backstory, this guy just decided to show up and wallop Superman, and 7 issues later, Supes is dead? Stupid. If I was 8, I would have thought it was the greatest thing ever, just like I thought the Poseidon Adventure was the greatest movie ever when I was 8. The only clever part was the decreasing number of panels per book. That was kinda cool.

Really? I had no idea. I thought you could always base market value off of one sale, and I always assume that when someone gives an example, that is the definitive, end-all final word on market value...and that, contrary to my correct understanding of the word "example." When I checked eBay, I carefully averted my eyes, so I wouldn't see any other sales. Really? You don't say. (If I really wanted to be a wiseacre, I'd post examples as links for each word in that sentence, but it takes too much work, and I'm busy.)

So I asked experts on this question, three 19 year olds. All three of them said "that's not the character on Arrow" when I showed them the Long Bow Hunters miniseries. I then showed them the Green Arrow books. Same response. When I said "same name, same character" the response was - nope, different guy. Now THAT makes sense. We're getting old, aren't we...?

Why is it #1, instead of #32? Because Quasar #32 already existed as a separate publication. And they couldn't just solicit "Quasar #32" to newsstand dealers, because it was a DIRECT ONLY title, and the #32 would have confused vendors. Because of mail restrictions, they couldn't just take a Direct only title and issue a random issue (or three) to the newsstand, just because they may have wanted to. Once you go Direct only, you can't go back (at least, not easily.) So, they named it "Quasar Special", and since it was the first issue...they called it #1. They *could* have named it "Quasar Special #32", but that would also have confused newsstand vendors who did NOT follow this type of stuff. A first issue of a title they were not carrying already made much more sense.

Sounds like a reasonable explanation actually. Almost makes me put a foot in my mouth. Hmm. So a newstand copy in existance of Quasar 30-31 would destroy this explanation basically, right? No.

They aren't errors...at least, not technically. Several Marvel books during this 1991-92 period were Direct-only titles, including Quasar. Another example is Doctor Strange #28, which was a Direct-only title at the time, and crossed over with Ghost Rider, which was not. What they did instead was to print a "Doctor Strange/Ghost Rider Special #1" and release THAT to the newsstand: And to make matters MORE confusing, they also issued a DIRECT version of DS/GR Special #1 as well" So, direct market buyers could buy both DS #28 AND DS/GR Special #1, while newsstand readers could only buy DS/GR Special #1. Same thing with Quasar which was, at that point, a Direct-only title, but was crossing over with newsstand titles like Avengers. So newsstand readers didn't miss any part of the story, you have Quasar Special #1. "But", you may object, "That copy of Doctor Strange as a UPC on it, and not standard artwork! That means it was newsstand, too!" Not true. Marvel was in the process of dropping Sparta and moving all their printing over to World Color, in Montreal. During this time, a lot of "errors" crept in, including Direct-only titles (like Alpha Flight and Doctor Strange) getting UPCs instead of artwork. You will never see a "direct" edition of Doctor Strange #28, because they never printed any. You will also never see a "direct" edition of Alpha Flight #81...same reason.

~ ahem ~ As I asked earlier, why is there no movement on Green Arrow? That would include things like Long Bow Hunters, the first mini, the first regular series, etc. The last mini sold on eBay sold for a whole $5.50 yesterday. A set of Longbow Hunters and TWO sets of the mini sold for a whopping $4 on the 29th. The Grell series....zip. Apparently, ancillary, supporting characters are much cooler than title characters.

So, can someone explain why there is absolutely zero movement on Green Arrow, then......?

I thought you only sold to addicts? Clearly, "fatchocobo0" has a stronger addiction to chocolate than comics....

That may have been another price guide, sounds like CVM.

fatchocobo0 Made an offer for my Spiderman #20 at $250, accepted it, then was informed that the "import charges to the UK were too expensive, and I won't be paying for this, sorry." (Semi-related....you ever wonder if the dinks who get reported here are members who don't have the guts to step up to the plate and say that's them...? )

It's hard to argue against that big, beautiful appearance on the cover of #18. It does make quite the impression.

Not reprints, how so? They are simply a comic with a different logo where the UPC or direct image would be placed. As far as I know there were no DC Universes only comics. The Man of Steel 18 had a roman numeral V which makes it a 5th printing. That's a reprint. Yes it is, along with Adventures of Superman #499 3rd, Action #686 2nd, Man of Steel #20 2nd, Adventures of Supes #498 4th, etc, as explained above.

Yup, hopefully Ween learns his lesson: stick to BINS instead of auctions. Some of you guys a crazy as sh*t. Again, this is not my auction. I though people post here to discuss collecting comics that are undervalued or rare. The DC Universe UPC box printings are both. Again, very niche market for them, much like price variants. The ones that do command some money are the books that are already valuable, like MOS #18. I don't think this particular one that sold will ever be worth more than it's 1st print counterpart. The DC Universe books aren't reprints, unless they are second or later printings. The earliest ones are reprints (GL #36, for example), but most of them were printed at the same time, for the multi-packs and collector's packs. When the crossover from UPC box art to "Direct Edition" occurred in late 1993, DC wisely remembered the problems Whitman had had over a decade earlier, and chose "DC Universe" instead of having a UPC code on the cover which might inadvertently get scanned.

Impulse appears in Flash #91.

Just the idea of Gaiman and Buckingham's 25 and 26 seeing the light of day after...TWENTY...YEARS....of waiting is enough to thrill me to my socks.

That makes no sense, especially in this era of ultra low printruns. If there's demand...print it up. They need to be able to show something to keep printing them. I understand that they've taken that to ridiculous heights, but it wasn't so in the olden days, and those books therefore have legitimate validity as collector's items. Remember: it's not what was highly treasured when it came out that has value (think: Beanie Babies; Tickle Me Elmo, etc.) but that which was considered trash and discarded en masse.

Think I gots me a couple-two-three . . . Just love this place. And I just found a nice copy that I had too. The search list keeps getting longer and longer. I like that WW cover. I've got a nice copy tucked away too. Good to see it getting some market love! This was a to find in NM/MT, but I found one a few years ago and got it signed. Other tough Wonder Woman (2nd series) books to find in NM/MT include #10 (gatefold cover), early Bolland covers (lower print runs?), and some of the early Byrne issues, around #101-117 (paper stock). Though, the prices don't reflect the difficulty in finding these books in uber grade at all. I find that the Hughes WW books command higher prices even though they are not as difficult to get a hold of. Over the last few years, I've noticed the Hughes covers selling for a lot more than they used to (sorry, no scientific data). Some of the tougher Hughes issues are #151, #152, #167, #186, #188 due to the black covers. And there you have it. I wonder where you get all of your comics from. I walk from place to place, meet people, get into adventures, and buy comics from strange people in dark places, very dark places. Best story of the week.

That's about right. I'd go with 100,000 copies for the second, but as we all know, second printings are far, far, far less common on all of these than the firsts. "Second printing??! EWWW!!! No one wants THAT!!" was conventional wisdom for years and years and years. You might as well have tossed it in the trash. I remember being suckered into buying a Batman #436 second printing...when I realized what it was, I was PEEVED!

Yup. Can you IMAGINE if the ENTIRE COVER had been a hologram....?? It would have been AWESOME for ALL FOUR!

Spidey #361 was 207th for DIAMOND. Diamond, at the time, was not the whole of the comics industry, though they certainly comprised a huge chunk. Diamond accounted for perhaps 40% of the entire market at the time. We're still missing the other distributors (notably Capital) and the entire newsstand sales. It does provide a decent proportional slice, though, and you can see on the list the next year's worth of Amazing climbing steadily up the list (including #365 at #14.)

If that is the sales figure for the year that may or may not tell us much about sales for #361. That could have been a particularly strong or weak month, no way to know. I do know that I've seen relatively few second prints compared to firsts, so I would be very surprised if the numbers were even close to half the regular print run. I'd guess no more than 20-25% myself. Correct. At most. PS. To add to my statement above, Carnage *absolutely* helped the numbers for later issues of Amazing, which propelled #365 into the top selling book for its month, beating million+ sellers like Spawn, X-Men, etc. I take it back...#365 *may* have had a million+ print run. It's doubtful, but possible. If so, it would be the only time in the run's history.

Posting this here, as it is relevant: Why are we taking this for grail when he said there were 3 printings? Emberlin is mistaken. Not only did the book NOT go to 3 printings, it did NOT sell 750,000 copies. Common sense has to be used: 750,000 copies sold would mean that there were roughly 900,000-1 million copies printed, because the newsstand always returns *something,* Amazing Spiderman has *never* even come CLOSE to printing a million copies of ANY issue. And if they had printed a million copies, there would have been plenty of copies in circulation to more than cover demand...which means they wouldn't have gone to a second printing. It must be remembered that this book was printed and on the stands in February of 1992. Now, granted, there had been crazy printruns....at the time, they were printing a million copies of Jim Lee's X-Men...but in February of 1992, McFarlane was long gone, and Amazing had simply been chugging along. Carnage was simply another character which took the comic buying public by surprise, which resulted in sellouts (read: not enough copies to go around) and an immediate second printing of not only #361, but #362 as well. Immediate second or more printings always means that they didn't print enough in the first place. They probably sold around 350,000-400,000 copies, which is nothing to sneeze at, but not anywhere near 750,000, which would have been more than the entire print run plus another 35% or so. Look at the numbers: the numbers for two years had been in the 350,000 copies sold range. The SOO printed in #360 (which would have covered up to about issue #356, so only a few months before #361) shows a sell-through of 340,000 copies, on a just a bit less than 500,000 total print run. Nothing would much have changed going into #361. And so, not only did you have unmet demand (which means they didn't print enough copies) and a sellout for #361, but you also had the same situation for #362, and both went to a second printing shortly after #363 came out. INCLUDING the second printing, total copies for #361 probably sold in the neighborhood of 500,000 total copies. Then, the next year, the SOO in #375, you see a big jump...and this makes sense, considering in that year you had the madness of Carnage, PLUS the 30th Anniversary hologram covers, which were also a huge hit. It was a big year for Spidey, and orders steadily increased throughout the year, in concert with the general ramp up in the entire industry. It would be another full year before print runs got totally ridiculous, and this was reflected in Amazing Spiderman as well (which is why copies of #375 are EVERYWHERE.) For reference: http://www.comichron.com/titlespotlights/amazingspiderman.html

I hate you and love you, all at the same time.