Opinions on Bronze Age Marvel Whitman/Direct market variants?

[MCMiles]

I posted this in the BA price variant thread and didn't get a response so I thought I would try here.

 

Anyone ever done a study or comparison of Direct Sale (Whitman) Marvels versus the regular versions. I'm curious as to how the numbers compare and if the numbers are low for Higher grades.

 

A couple of years ago it took me about 200 ebay listings to track down a 9.0/9.2 X-men #118.

 

I just did a quick look through current listings and completed listings of ASM #172 because I have a certain interest in that book right now. Out of 75 current and completed listings over the last 30 days, only 2 out of 75 were Whitman variants. The grades of those two were 3.0 and 5.5.

 

I would imagine that 9.6 and 9.8 copies of these would be pretty hard to come by. Has anyone else ever studied these at all or have an opinion on them?

 

Any Spider-Man, X-Men, FF, etc. completionists out there that have any opinions on these

[Park]

Are the Whitman Variants the ones with a diamond around the price (?) and slash through the barcode?

[sckao]

 

Read this link for some background info...

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=770698&page=0&fpart=1

 

 

[MCMiles]

Read this link for some background info...

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=770698&page=0&fpart=1

 

 

Thanks, I remember reading that thread before. I think only Fastball made any real reference to the ratio of these "variants" that he had found when looking for them.

Most of that thread is on the dicussion of the books distribution and how they may or may not have been distributed. A lot of good info, but a lot of rehash.

 

I am more interested in finding out how much harder these are to find. I would say that they are probably much more plentiful than price variants, but think high grade copies are much more difficult to find.

 

It is too bad that CGC didn't recognize the difference when they started the census. Even though it may matter to very few people, IMO they are true variants.

 

[joe_collector]

The 30-35 cent Whitmans are much harder to find than the standard copy, but that's all relative, and most are pretty common. In high-grade the scarcity factor increases exponentially.

[sckao]

 

Actually, I meant that for Park...

 

I don't remember seeing any tracking info regarding price unfortunately.

 

 

[Park]

Actually, I meant that for Park...

 

I don't remember seeing any tracking info regarding price unfortunately.

 

 

Thanks sckao. I have been reading through and that gifflefunk is a chatty fellow. (thumbs u

[joe_collector]

Thanks sckao. I have been reading through and that gifflefunk is a chatty fellow. (thumbs u

 

A quite a BS artist.

 

One of my favorite quotes:

 

The story I've heard from a couple of places is that Diamond Dist. founder Steve Geppi was a huge Marvel fan and named his company in honor of the "diamond" that Marvel was using for marking Direct Sale books

 

The Shad slammed him down... HARD:

 

I've never heard that story.Let me just say that when Marvel adopted the diamond,Steve Geppi's company was known as Geppi's Comic World,and was one of about 25 authorized Marvel distributors.while he might have named his company after the diamond,Marvel certainly didn't use the diamond because of the company.

 

[jools&jim]

Thanks sckao. I have been reading through and that gifflefunk is a chatty fellow. (thumbs u

 

A quite a BS artist.

 

One of my favorite quotes:

 

The story I've heard from a couple of places is that Diamond Dist. founder Steve Geppi was a huge Marvel fan and named his company in honor of the "diamond" that Marvel was using for marking Direct Sale books

 

The Shad slammed him down... HARD:

 

I've never heard that story.Let me just say that when Marvel adopted the diamond,Steve Geppi's company was known as Geppi's Comic World,and was one of about 25 authorized Marvel distributors.while he might have named his company after the diamond,Marvel certainly didn't use the diamond because of the company.

 

 

But Geppi did name his distribution company after the diamonds used on covers of the the late '70s direct market marvels. What am I missing...?

[sckao]

Thanks sckao. I have been reading through and that gifflefunk is a chatty fellow. (thumbs u

 

A quite a BS artist.

 

One of my favorite quotes:

 

The story I've heard from a couple of places is that Diamond Dist. founder Steve Geppi was a huge Marvel fan and named his company in honor of the "diamond" that Marvel was using for marking Direct Sale books

 

The Shad slammed him down... HARD:

 

I've never heard that story.Let me just say that when Marvel adopted the diamond,Steve Geppi's company was known as Geppi's Comic World,and was one of about 25 authorized Marvel distributors.while he might have named his company after the diamond,Marvel certainly didn't use the diamond because of the company.

 

 

But Geppi did name his distribution company after the diamonds used on covers of the the late '70s direct market marvels. What am I missing...?

 

Yep... That's true.

 

http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/news/diamond_comic_distributors_celebrates_si

 

When a Baltimore, MD/Washington, DC-area distributor folded in 1982, Geppi – with the encouragement of other area retailers – filled the void by creating Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. (named after the small, black diamonds that were found, at the time, on specialty market editions of Marvel Comics’ titles). Though he started with only a single warehouse and 17 customers, Geppi’s understanding of what retailers expected from a distributor helped him draft an effective business model, the tenets of which still guide Diamond 25 years later: build success by showing customers the respect they deserve, and supplying them with the best products and services possible.

 

 

[comic_list-migration]

Thanks sckao. I have been reading through and that gifflefunk is a chatty fellow. (thumbs u

 

A quite a BS artist.

 

One of my favorite quotes:

 

The story I've heard from a couple of places is that Diamond Dist. founder Steve Geppi was a huge Marvel fan and named his company in honor of the "diamond" that Marvel was using for marking Direct Sale books

 

The Shad slammed him down... HARD:

 

I've never heard that story.Let me just say that when Marvel adopted the diamond,Steve Geppi's company was known as Geppi's Comic World,and was one of about 25 authorized Marvel distributors.while he might have named his company after the diamond,Marvel certainly didn't use the diamond because of the company.

 

 

But Geppi did name his distribution company after the diamonds used on covers of the the late '70s direct market marvels. What am I missing...?

 

Yep... That's true.

 

http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/news/diamond_comic_distributors_celebrates_si

 

When a Baltimore, MD/Washington, DC-area distributor folded in 1982, Geppi – with the encouragement of other area retailers – filled the void by creating Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. (named after the small, black diamonds that were found, at the time, on specialty market editions of Marvel Comics’ titles). Though he started with only a single warehouse and 17 customers, Geppi’s understanding of what retailers expected from a distributor helped him draft an effective business model, the tenets of which still guide Diamond 25 years later: build success by showing customers the respect they deserve, and supplying them with the best products and services possible.

 

 

So Gifflefunk is right and Joe Collector and Shad are wrong? Where did Gifflefunk say that Marvel used the diamond because of Geppi?

[shadroch]

I'm not sure what I could be wrong about.

 

Not the "I never heard that story before " part.

Nor the part where I said Geppis company was called Geppis World back when Marvel started using the diamonds.Nor the part where I said Marvel didn't use the diamonds because of Steves company.

 

If Steve renamed his company after the diamond,its a great story and one I'd never heard before.But tell me what I said in my post that was wrong?

[comic_list-migration]

So Joe Collector is wrong that you slammed down Gifflefunk HARD? That would make more sense.

[shadroch]

Lets just say JC may have interpeted my response other than the way it was meant. I can't say Gifflefunk is right or wrong,but I will say that I won't bet the house on something written in a fluff publicity peice 25 years after the fact.I didn't really use Diamond much until Marvel forced Comics Unlimited out of business and Diamond bought out Crown Comics,my secondary distributor.Until then,Diamond had very little presence in the Metro NY area that was dominated by Seagate( Phil Seuling)Comics Unlimited,,and a Conn. distributor who's name escapes me.Crown and Heroes World were bit players and Diamond,Bud Plant and Capital Cities were after-thoughts for new comics,but useful backissue and supply options.

 

To sum up.

Did Marvel use a diamond because of Geppis company- No.

Did Geppi change his companies name to Diamond because Marvel used the diamond on direct market books? That seems to be the story.

[jools&jim]

Did Marvel use a diamond because of Geppis company- No.

 

Agreed. But I still don't see where anyone, anywhere, ever claimed that Marvel used the diamond because of Geppi, instead of vice-versa. But whatever...

 

Did Geppi change his companies name to Diamond because Marvel used the diamond on direct market books? That seems to be the story.

 

It's more than a story, it's a fact. I worked for Diamond for almost 6 years, and actually interviewed Steve on that very point in the pre-internet era for a proposed "retailer handbook" (which included a brief history of the company) that never materialized. IIRC, Steve was also sub-distributing in the MD-VA-DC area in the late '70s before he officially incorporated Diamond in the early '80s. So it makes sense that the "diamond Marvels" he was selling would have a close association with both his retail and distribution businesses. And Geppi never changed his company's name: Geppi's Comic World and Diamond Comic Distributors were, eventually, two competely different companies owned by the same guy, both of which co-existed throughout the '80s and '90s.

[Stronguy]

I'm not sure what I could be wrong about.

...

But tell me what I said in my post that was wrong?

 

As presented by JC, you were wrong (or responding to the original statement incorrectly). However, this could just be JC missing the point.

[joe_collector]

I think I see the problem, as gifflefunk stated earlier (and may have been deleted/edited) that it was coincidental that the supposed Direct books used a "diamond" and that "Diamond" was the main distributor.

 

That's why Shad posted his comment that "Diamond" was not even in existence yet.

 

Sorry guys, my mistake.

[shadroch]

Re-reading that other thread,it certainly appears that something was either deleted or edited.Somebody bought up the supposition that the diamonds were because of Geppis company. That post is gone or changed.

[GACollectibles]

Maybe Geppi had 'em whacked.

[joe_collector]

I'm outta here.