Warlord

On 2/8/2022 at 9:49 PM, CGC Mike said:

I see a few people have mentioned they felt the scans were poorer quality than the first round.  When I click on these images twice, I get a larger scan that looks to be a nice, quality scan.  I always view the boards at 125% I don't know if that makes a difference or not.  So, I would like some feedback regarding the scans.  

This round I can't get an image that's as clear as the first round.  Two clicks gets a large image, then you can zoom in using software.   Could be some hidden surprises that you can't be sure about this way.   But.... everyone is looking at the same scans, so it's a level playing field. 

On 2/7/2022 at 8:26 PM, pickycollector said:

There seems to be an increase of interest for Superman Man of Steel #18, was there any announcement re Doomsday?

Dunno about that, but the CW Superman & Lois show made reference to Doomsday right before they revealed that the newly appearing super-villain was

There were many similarities to Doomsday as they were dropping clues, ultimately leading up to Lois telling Clark to "not go all doomsday on me".  

I graded everything "ebay NM".  I think that should be spot on for all five comics, so I've got what, 0 points?

On 2/7/2022 at 10:29 AM, valiantman said:

I thought we had gotten things back on track pretty well. 

I added one person to my Ignore list during the conversation, that helped improve my enjoyment of the thread!  The Ignore feature is your friend!

I snagged two of the DC Collector's Packs recently.   Most often such finds are sealed (and I like to keep them that way), but these two sets came my way already unsealed.  So it's a bonus that I've been able to examine the contents of these two great sets.  I thought I'd share what's inside.  Maybe @Cpt Kirk has previously posted these (I know he's done some pack-opening in the name of research) so these might be repeats in this thread.   But I don't recall seeing them, so at a minimum it's been a while. Of course, because they were already unsealed I don't know what comic should be in the front of the pack - if anyone has a sealed pack, please clue me in.

Here's a look at the Green Lantern Collector's Set "The Last Green Lantern"!

Front, back/contents, back of the box:

Green Lantern #58, #59, #65, #66, #67, Annual #4 (Direct Sales edition, not DCU)

On 1/17/2022 at 1:03 PM, awakeintheashes said:

Found this today…

That wasn't half price - I hope you had them adjust the price down. 

Why not?  Count me in.

On 1/16/2022 at 11:20 PM, paqart said:

I did check completed and sold copies but the numbers are too small to be of any use. For many modern comics, there are zero sold newsstand copies for the 90 day window you see by default when looking at the sold history. For instance, for Supergirl #1, there were 25 sold direct first printings, 5 sold direct second printings, 0 sold 3rd printings, and 0 sold newsstands. For Catwoman #53, there were 15 direct first printings, 3 direct second printings, and zero newsstands. Detective #817 had 7 sales of direct first printings and 1 sale of a newsstand first printing. Wonder Woman 219 had 9 direct first printings, 2 direct second printings, and 1 newsstand first printing (which I bought).

You're putting in a lot of effort!  Thanks for the info. 

On 1/16/2022 at 11:17 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Add completed as some may not be currently listed, did not get relisted , and did not sell. 

Yep, good point!

When you say that you checked for available copies on ebay, are you only checking/counting those that are currently for sale?   I'd want to check Sold copies as well if I wanted to understand the quantities of any issues that are moving through ebay.

On 1/3/2022 at 12:30 PM, Warlord said:

Nope

Nope, I don't have any information on this variation.  It does adhere to the same Bat-logo variation that we've seen with other Bat issues from the mid-1990s.   We can see that the Direct edition has a UPC code, so there's no reason that a newsstand version, if it existed, wouldn't also have a UPC code.   The Bat-logo suggests this was a multi-pack issue, and the theory presented above makes sense to me.  Here are the two versions side by side.

 

BTW, I compared the indicia in both issues and did not identify any differences.

UPDATED 1/6/2022!   Thanks to @Talapas1 for the War Devil find!

DC issues WITH DC Bullet or Batman Logo UPC Variants

Action    693, 694
Adventures of Superman    507
Batman    502
Batman Adventures    14 1st print, 14 2nd print, 16 1st print, 16 2nd print, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 29 (all with Batman logo)

Batman and Robin Adventures (Batman and Robin silhouette) *new* - I decided to add this one to the list

Batman Forever - The Official Comic Adaptation - Prestige format (Batman logo) *new*
Batman: Riddler - The Riddle Factory  (Batman logo) *new*
Batman: Two-Face - Crime And Punishment  (Batman logo) *new*

Batman-Spawn: War Devil (Batman logo) *new*

Catwoman    4
Detective    669
Flash    85
Justice League America    83
Justice League International    58, 59
Legionnaires    9
Looney Tunes    1
Robin    1, 2
Showcase '93    12
Star Trek    55
Star Trek The Next Generation    55
Superman    84
Superman The Man of Steel    28
Wonder Woman    81

On 1/4/2022 at 3:21 AM, fett said:

many thanks for the info-had never seen them bagged like that before-so ALL with blank UPCs came in these bags? I am aware now that these so-called Whitmans were actually just the early direct market experiments. 

IMHO all the Marvel comics with blank UPC boxes were sold in multi-packs.  There were also multi-packs in the 1977-May 1979 timeframe that contained Marvel comics with UPC codes, but per my counting that was less than half of the issues.  The common denominator is the price box where there was either a large black diamond/box, or a starburst, or a small black diamond/box.  

On 1/3/2022 at 9:38 PM, OtherEric said:

How many have both?  I know about a Star Wars that has both, but can’t remember the user.  11, maybe?

Yes, Star Wars #11 has two versions - one with a blank box and one with a UPC.  No other title ever had the printing/reprinting frenzy that went on with Star Wars, so you won't find this situation outside of that title.

On 1/3/2022 at 6:06 PM, Warlord said:

Whitman variant from their Comic Pac 3-packs.  Most (many?  I should count) of the Marvel Whitman variants have a blank UPC code box.

 

 

By rough calculation, almost 230 issues out of about 380 Marvel Whitman variants have a blank UPC box.

Nope

On 12/30/2021 at 12:48 PM, Brock said:

This looks like it might be related to the DC Universe variant packs, so I wonder if it was part of the same program from DC, for distribution to Wal-Marts, Costcos, etc.

Batman/Spawn War Devil was published in 1994, which is when the DC Universe variant editions began (I think?). But before the "DC Universe" logo was used in the UPC box for these books, DC published a number of Batman books for these packs with variations on the Bat logo, like your copy here. It may be that the War Devil release slightly preceded the DC Universe program, or that Image objected to having "DC Universe" printed on the book. Certainly the 2-pack that @Talapas1 found resembles the packs from that program.

But let me call in the real experts here... @Cpt Kirk @onlyweaknesskryptonite @Warlord @bellrules

Nope, I don't have any information on this variation.  It does adhere to the same Bat-logo variation that we've seen with other Bat issues from the mid-1990s.   We can see that the Direct edition has a UPC code, so there's no reason that a newsstand version, if it existed, wouldn't also have a UPC code.   The Bat-logo suggests this was a multi-pack issue, and the theory presented above makes sense to me.  Here are the two versions side by side.

On 12/27/2021 at 7:26 PM, Lpgk said:

you're right it was Dane Whitman, but I think we can safely assume he's BK in the future. 

Yes, and the after credits scene really should remove 99% of any remaining doubt.

On 12/21/2021 at 9:30 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Superman #123 2nd print  although this is a direct edition  it is dated April of 1997 and opposite of it is Superman #118 DCU from December 1996. still searching as you never know what may turn up. 

Awesome stuff!

May 1997, not April, for that Superman #118.

On 12/14/2021 at 4:22 PM, littledoom said:

What if 18 wiped off eBay 

What's the news behind that?

From a couple months earlier, we see an intact 3-pack with the Super-Heroes flap.

Contents:
Action #503
Superman #343 (middle)
Superman #342

This pack mimics the contents of the newly found 3-pack with the same three titles and is from about two months later.  This type of 3-pack had no flap, so no trimming here!

Contents:
Action #507
Legion of Super-Heroes #263
DC Comics Presents #21 (middle)