George Brent

Great idea about a list of holy grails for newsstands  --though we should exclude cases where nobody has ever seen a newsstand copy (e.g., Wolverine #74  --I have every issue of the 2003 series from #40 through #90 in newsstand except #74, and I remember 2-3 years ago someone posted that he'd never seen a newsstand copy of #74, so there is a good chance it never came out as a newsstand).    Rare + pricey would fit the bill for a holy grain, imho (so, Ultimate Fallout #4 definitely qualifies).   

On 3/22/2024 at 8:55 PM, fastballspecial said:

Actually at one point one boardie had a sizable reward for an ASM 694. I scored this ASM below last year I know all never
see another copy.

That is a good one, I found a copy back in 2015 from a vendor who had stashed a bunch of newsstands, but I haven't seen one since   --well, just checked eBay and there is an allegedly "NM" copy selling for the bargain price of $199, but the pics show a bunch of spine bends/etc., looks more like a VF- copy.   

I wish I had a fairy tale description of how I stumbled upon all those in someone's garage sale, but the fact is I got them over a few months from a variety of places and by being proactive, persistent, and very lucky.     

Re: the specific issues, I recall seeing at least 4-5 newsstand copies of AF#15 over the past few years, so, yes, that's rare, but nothing like ASM #694, I've only ever seen the copy I've posted plus one more (but in F/VG condition).   Kind of a mystery for a non-key issue, whose surrounding issue #'s have had plenty of newsstand copies floating around  --and more than a few folks know about this, there were some relevant discussions 2-3 years ago on this forum (can't recall if it was this Topic or another one).

On 1/28/2023 at 8:01 PM, justadude said:

I haven't seen many either. I knew the Spawn ones were valuable. These are probably worth hanging onto then. Thanks for the info!

I confess ignorance Re:worth of Spawn's with stickers.   Quite some time ago I got a bunch of Spawn newsstands in the #130's (#137 is the last with a newsstand barcode printed on the cover) and the #138 had a barcode sticker on it, but I thought nothing of it.    Does anyone have more details on Spawn issues of that era with stickers?     Thanks

On 7/21/2022 at 10:02 PM, mr_highgrade said:

What's the the average grade on those bad boys? 

I'd say NM- to NM/VF.  Plenty of NM's,  a good amount of VF+'s, a few F's here and there, but, overall, not bad at all   --must have been a store not too heavily frequented.   

A steal at $75.

On 6/4/2022 at 3:45 AM, Beastfeast said:

I guess I should ask this: How do you even value the Spawn 133?  I'm not seeing a sale in this grade, ever.  

Newsstand Spawn's in the 130's have gone for ~$80-100 in the VF-ish range on eBay, I would not sell this 9.8 #133 for less than $350 or so.   

On 6/3/2022 at 4:15 AM, Beastfeast said:

First find of this particular book and I'm not familiar with the sticker on the back.  Did the distributor always sticker the back of newsstands, too?  

Not always  --but, judging by the $6.70 Canadian price listed on the front sticker, it's almost certain you'll see a newsstand barcode if you remove the back sticker.  

On 5/11/2022 at 9:29 PM, divad said:

 Because you think some scuzz-ball comic shop (insert comic book fat guy from The Simpsons here) was a better environment than a newsstand, pharmacy, drug store, quick-stop shop, family market or bookstore? This is a myth created and exploited by comic stores, distributors, and resellers,

You bring up a very good point here, so, having frequented lots of comic shops and pharmacies/drug-stores/supermarkets/etc. in several states in the late 80s and through the 90s, yep, I can say with certainty that, indeed, copies were handled much more carefully in comic shops.  

On 5/11/2022 at 7:28 PM, Cpt Kirk said:

Mile High Comics makes the same mistake quite often.  I think there's loss of credibility when that happens.   No DC comic books had DE until October 1980.   Good example:  Batman 327 (two different versions listed in Mile High's site even though there are no DE's.   

I think the other funny thing is that Mile High always charges more for the NE's than the DE's, even though the DE's are harder to find for the first few years.   whoops!

Well, you are talking about the company that hyped their occasional 50% off sales (back when their "regular" sale was 35%) as a unique opportunity for awesome deals --in the meantime, they have pretty much all their issues on eBay for 50-60% off all the time, but they don't publicize that.   Chuck's non-comics volunteer work is admirable, but I have to often cringe at the lack of sincerity of his sales pitches (and, yes, offering non-existent direct edition issues for sale is a credibility problem for the man who basically spread the word first on newsstand scarcity ~15(?) years ago).   Btw, I think higher prices for even early (79-85) newsstands actually make sense, but only for higher grades, as one would still expect the direct edition copies to have survived in higher numbers for higher grades due to the environment they were sold in. 

On 5/10/2022 at 9:59 AM, mr_highgrade said:

77-83 is obviously very common, if anything post 2000's shows up in 9.8 it will definitely peak my interest. 

The 1977 reference throws me off :   for Marvel the start of direct editions was approx. mid-1979 and for DC past Jan. 1980   --if Heritage is calling pre-1979 issues "newsstands", I suppose they are technically correct (b/c everything in that era was "newsstand"), but misleading in terms of newsstand vs. direct scarcity difference in high grades. 

On 4/26/2022 at 3:25 PM, littledoom said:

Not great for overall value but it’s not worthless. All versions of Ultimate Spidey 1 sell for at least $10+

I've stumbled upon many a newsstand-looking copy and each time compared the last five digits in the barcode to those in pics found either on MHC or MCS and it always matched some type of "KB Toys" special or "Checkers" or other.   I have not been able to find a pic of a copy that is the true newsstand version of this, if anybody has it, can you please post?    Thanks

On 4/15/2022 at 8:41 AM, ADAMANTIUM said:

That daredevil is a good one!

Lots of good ones, actually, great find!   

Nice!   Those last Savage Sword's (with #235 being the last issue in the series) are tough to get in high grade  --though I have no clue what the newsstand ratio was, but it certainly is not in the 1/100 ballpark, given what I remember when I was looking for it on eBay, in fact, the two copies MCS has available now are both newsstands  (I did manage to find a very nice newsstand copy on eBay, still sealed in its subscription bag and I plan to keep it that way when/if I ever sell it).

The classic revivalist neo-postmodern expressionistic "villainess' right leg" theme looks undeniably better in newsstand.