Qalyar

Setting (mostly) aside the speculation issues, I feel the original question here was "how did comic collecting get to be the way it is?" It's obvious that it didn't have to be this way; both coin and stamp collecting have been historically driven mostly by rarity rather than any alternative aspects (although there are exceptions in both hobbies). Honestly, there are a number of factors, but first and foremost is that "run collecting" has always been a minority approach to the comics hobby (and to sports cards, for fundamentally the same reasons). Why is that? First, complete runs of the top-line titles are enormous. One of the largest US coin sets that is commonly collected is the mid-tier-value Standing Liberty Quarters. There are around 120 coins in a full set of SLQs, including the varying mintmarks and other major varieties. In contrast, the first series of Detective Comics is 881 books not counting any sort of variant covers, direct market/newsstand printings, or other shenanigans. Action Comics first series? 904 books, again not counting variants or other distinguishable printings. Even The Incredible Hulk goes to 474 just on the base issue numbers. Before slabbing, a complete run of SLQs will fit in a book-sized binder. A complete run of Detective Comics or Action Comics (again, not including any variants -- just one book per issue number) would fit in ... four long boxes. After slabbing? The SLQs will take up a good sized cabinet drawer, perhaps. Nearly 1000 slabbed comics? Just on space alone (ignoring the value of some of those books), you probably need to consider a custom storage solution. And that's one title. I conservatively estimate that a full collection of "Batman books" would be north of 3000 books before accounting for variants in any form. But beyond that, a lot of people are interested in comics because of specific characters, and those characters don't always have parity with titles. The Increbile Hulk 181 is pretty much the archetypal example of that. Let's say you love Wolverine but don't find Hulk incredibly (see what I did there?) compelling? You'll absolutely want IH181 (and maybe IH180), but there's no way you're going to shell out for the rest of the series. Of course, if you're just a huge (heh...) fan of the Green Guy, you'll probably want that book, too. In principle, at least, key issues have broader or more lasting appeal. Now, obviously, that's more true for long-established keys than for whatever book has a tenuous connection to the next film release or that introduces a new character without established staying power.

Book presents beautifully. Really fresh inks on this one! But I'm going to be slightly more pessimistic and go 9.0/9.2 here, because I think the size of that spine tick near Lilith's right hand is going to bring this down more than normal. CGC's in-house grading often seems to consider the size of a defect as almost more influential than its severity. And the third picture shows that defect actually extends into the front cover in two directions both of which extend further into the cover than the other spine tick (in line with her elbow).

And then after writing all that, I found the answer: This was from one of the three "Amalgam Comics 3-Issue Collector's Sets". This one had JLX, Doctor Strangefate, and Legends of the Dark Claw.

There's some indication that at least some of these blank box books were intended for distribution via specific outlets (Barnes and Noble is often cited as a possibility) that wanted their own barcodes rather than using the normal ones everyone else does. Rather than print specific store variants, blank boxes were produced instead, with the idea that the stores would apply their own UPC stickers. But if course that didn't always happen. Now, it's equally possible that this was a multi-pack book like DC Universe stuff, until more information arises one way or the other But broadly speaking, that's the two ways books like this came into existence.

Just missing Blood on the Moon for the whole mini series. Pretty nice copies there, too. Obviously some spine ticks on Red Rider especially, but a lot of times these show up as pretty serious beaters.

I'm not a big fan of the "press everything" approach, but sometimes there's an obvious defect that is likely to respond well, and also likely to make a big impact on numerical grade AND eye appeal... and it's somewhat hard not to pull the trigger there I would have this book pressed.

Although that may press out, at least somewhat. Depending on how that looks afterward, a 9.0/9.2 is plausibly within reach here.

Agreed with the consensus here. If your goal is to turn this book into cash in the near-term, sell it raw with full disclosure. As for how CGC would consider this book... the Frankencorner isn't really even "restoration", since it's incorrect. My guess is that they wouldn't actually give the book a grade bump for it (or, if so, not a good one), so you'd be looking at a 1.0 or 1.5 blue label if you cut the added corner out, or maybe a 1.5 or 1.8 purple label as the book stands now. But if you're selling it raw, that's a decision for the next owner to make. I don't see any reason why you'd want to limit options right now; who knows which state a potential buyer would prefer?

First, that's an awesome press kit. Second, to satisfy my curiosity about such things, can you confirm the included comic has a barcode at the bottom-left (with UPC 70989 31773)? From what I can see, it looks like that's just a normal newsstand copy, but weirder things have happened...

Honestly, the font differences are the easiest way to distinguish them. The convention release has "#1" in italics, and the graphic violence content warning at the top not in italics. The anthology printing has "#1" not italicized, but the content warning at top is in italics. The color balance is also different, but with the vagaries of comic color balance being what they are in general, I always look for other distinguishing features first.

Even kinda beat and detached at one staple, that's not the ugliest copy of that book I've ever seen. Especially if that spine isn't split, I bet you could get better than 20 bucks for that. Real nice pick for $2.

That's an amazing book, right there.

Couple more for your list: Legends of the Dark Crystal/Return to Labyrinth. Flipbook mini-comics that serve as previews of the Tokyopop manga of the same name. Two versions exist with very different covers; one previews Return to Labyrinth volume 1 and the other Return to Labyrinth volume 2. Both were distributed the same way, in three-film DVD box sets of Dark Crystal / Labyrinth / Mirrormask. Later runs of the box set include the volume 2 book, but as far as I know, they're not distinguishable without unsealing the box. Good luck. Babylon 5. This 8-page mini-comic was a pack-in with Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, but only in a limited number of Best Buy exclusive "special editions". Already a rare book, many copies are in rough shape from being shipped underneath the plastic case clips. A few were also handed out at conventions or via one of the series' fan clubs, so it's possible there are 9.8 candidates out there, somewhere (I'm pretty happy with my 9.4).

Big things you're going to want to hope for eventually include the Atari game pack-ins: Centipede Yars' Revenge: The Qotile Ultimatum Swordquest: Earthworld The Atari Force mini comics (Defender, Berzerk, Star Raiders, Phoenix, and Galaxian) And the He-Man pack-in. This one's particularly tough because effectively the same book (King of Castle Grayskull, with a mostly-purple cover) was ALSO the first toy line pack-in. The toy version has a red starburst FREE at the bottom right of the cover, and an extra centerfold page of ads. Most sites are terrible about distinguishing between these. MCS lists them both as "toy" pack-ins but does note the cover differences. Note that it is possible that a 3rd version (no FREE cover, but ad page included) might exist from a separate distribution channel. This whole series is poorly documented. Good luck! Some of these books may literally not exist in 9.8 condition. They certainly don't exist as 9.8 slabs. The best Centipede in the Census is a 9.6, but the best Yars' Revenge is an 8.0!

If there had ever been a time for DC to experiment with rekindling in-house distribution, I'd say the Death of Superman era was that time.

Well, especially with just one copy, that's not much to go on. The lack of a cover price means it must have had an alternative distribution method -- promotional giveaway, multi-pack item, or some sort of third party arrangement (like the actual BOMC books). BOMC was a largely American operation. I wonder if your oddball copy was intended for distribution via some sort of similar system in Canada? We may not know until more copies with clearer history emerge.

Wacky! I don't suppose that copy has any provenance that might offer a clue as to where it came from originally?

The first five are not necessarily unique per publisher/distributor relationship, though. You also see that with Image, where the Spawn EANs vary periodically. For these EANs that aren't based on an ISBN, there's a certain Wild West element going on. I still think, in light of that book with the printed Eastern News barcode, that these are all part of the same distribution program. Are all of these books reasonable close together in terms of their release dates?

In fact, I believe that EN sticker is Eastern News. You'll note that the stickered barcode -- 70992 30410 -- matches the barcode on the Eastern News printed copy (and what a crazy discovery book that is!). The change in the first 5 digits represents a change in (for comics) distributors. You'll note that the normal (e.g. non-deluxe cover) newsstand barcode still begins with the normal 61941. A similar situation occurred with various Image books (best documented with, but not restricted to, Spawn), where two parallel distribution systems for a short period of time resulted in newsstand copies with two different barcodes for the affected issues. It's impossible to tell so far whether they stickered some books for Eastern News distribution, then printed bespoke books once they got their production in hand, or whether the printed books came first and the stickers were used to make up the remainder of the shipment. What's interesting to me is trying to figure out just who was distributing these. Eastern News was a late-1920s/early-1930s distributor of nude magazines that was merged into Independent News in 1932 to avoid bankruptcy. Independent News got into comic books and ended up becoming Detective Comics Incorporated; eventually both entities co-existed under the National Periodical Publications umbrella. That's all well and good, but Independent News (much less Eastern) stopped existing as a going concern by 1970. As far as I'm aware, there wasn't any "Eastern News" comic distributor operating in 1994. So unless I'm mistaken about that, my guess is that this was part of an experimental effort by DC to re-launch in-house distribution (presaging what they've actually done recently). If that's the case, these probably went only to a couple of test-market retailers, making them likely quite scarce, and meaning that figuring out what other books may exist with this variant is going to be another ongoing forum project!

I'll be conservative with a 3.5, assuming in part that the paper break in the center spine will be deemed a "spine split" (even though it isn't the normal wear pattern for such things). Regardless, fantastic book. I've never seen these. I wonder what else got these Chinese reprints?

This is a 9th print, certainly. Congratulations, they've always demanded a surprisingly high price. 9th is arguably the hardest of the "numbered" printings, but the Book of the Month Club variant that looks like a 4th print from the front cover is a real ghost book.

I always thought that 2 and 3 had back cover shenanigans, but 1 did not. Also, I'll also go 4.0 here. I think there are two many physically large defects (spine, FCLR crease, BCUR crease) for this to come back 4.5.

Absolutely agreed. Although from the small stack of these I've put together so far, I have to wonder ... what on earth did the Brits have against square corners on these books? Was Logan running from the hounds of Tindalos over there or something? Much of this run hasn't even had the UK versions slabbed at all, so I could get top of census for the price of admission, but I'm sure there are some really sexy copies out there, waiting for me. Somewhere. In contrast, some day, it's going to bug me a little bit that only #4-7 come with MJIs, but that's probably down the road.

Well, these aren't Silver Age, but there doesn't seem to be a separate thread for Bronze pence copies. Some general corner wear (#2 is particularly bad, as you can see from the UL corner visible here) and a couple of these have folded LR corner tips that I've cunningly concealed by photographing them this way. And, of course, one book had to have a pretty bad stacking curl, and that had to be #6... but I think it's correctable; there's no evident color breaking. This is, in general, a fairly attractive run of better-than-midgrade books, which are miles better than most of the pence copies I've seen from this title.

I'm working on the Logan's Run MJI run (which comprises issues #4 through #7). Except for that discolored crease at UL, this newly-acquired copy of #4 at least presents well, but between that flaw, a couple color-breaking spine ticks, and a crunched corner that I'm subtly concealing in this photo, no one is going to mistake this for a high-grade book. The quest continues.