What customers?
I'm not a dealer. I'm a buyer. I pay more for high grade newsstand because I remember the newsstand.
I remember being in the grocery store with my parents as a pre-teen and seeing bent-to-heck comics.
I know the unsold copies got sent back, shredded and recycled.
Why would I tell sellers that I will pay more for something that I could get for the same price if I just shut up?
Because I'm not the one telling them. The market is.
To win newsstand books, I have to bid higher than other buyers of newsstand books.
Sometimes I win. Sometimes they outbid me. Either way, newsstand matters.
I grant you that if it matters to you, then whether or not you pay more for them works for you.
I am one for whom it does not matter, and I will not pay more.
ALL of my collector friends feel the same way. We have seen newsstand versions go for less than direct versions in BIN and auctions.
Since the track record is spotty at best, why pay more when it probably does not matter in the end?
I'm not telling you not to do it. I'm saying that enough don't do it so as to render any real long term price difference negligible to non-existent. I apologize if my differing opinion offends you. But sometimes a little perspective from the other side of the coin can be a good thing. Notice how I am not poo-pooing yours, or trying to get personal about things.
-J.
Several years after this thread first started, it is really apparent that newsstand does matter. It is obvious that there will always be collectors who want newsstand variants. More and more as time goes on. They may want them in high grade, but so does every comic collector lol. If you went out and bought a bunch of high grade key newsstands back when this thread started, you'd be laughing all the way to the bank in 2020. I came into this hobby too late ... but there's still opportunity out here