bergdoll Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 (edited) Hey! I found that I also have two copies of Tom & Jerry #332 My "rares" Woody Woodpecker 191 (2 copies) Tom & Jerry 332 (2 copies) Looney Tunes 332 Huey, Dewey, and Louie 66 My "somewhat rares?" Uncle Scrooge 179, 180 Donald Duck 222 My "scarce" Uncle Scrooge 181 Battle of the Planets 9 (CGC 9.4) I also have a lot of "satellite" rares. Those books that aren't listed as rare, but sure seem to have given me a lot of effort in getting - like Donald Duck 223 and basically books 2-3 issues on either side of the "rare" ones. Okay - scans are done. Time to publish them and do some sort of write-up of my own based on my childhood memories and the few packs and books I have in my hands. Edited July 9, 2012 by bergdoll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogami Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 bergdoll, I will be reading it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggr1103 Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 I just found Doug Sulipa's website on Whitmans. Tons of info, but boy does it feel unorganized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 (edited) Haha! Doug's website is very retro. It's like being on an old BBS System in that regard. However, I personaly think he is probably the best comic dealer out there. His prices are fair, he has a lot of stock, and he completely accomondates the "odd" collector - those of us that want very, very specific books (such as logo colour variants, Canadian Priced books, etc, etc). Comics (and related to Whitman books) has often been a hobby of "manufactured" rarity - platimum editions, convention editions, and other stuff I consider "gimmicky" What is odd, is that true scarcity, differences in covers, and price variations are only just starting to get any interest. Such as the Whitmans and this thread. This is so much different from coins and stamps where even a paper change can move a value by thousands of percentage points. For example, the most valuable Canadian stamp is just that - a different paper. I also have one Canadian stamp that has slightly different perforations that bring it from $2 to $900. Of course, if we looked at slight variations in comic printing - it's called trimming! haha! That said, logo changes, price changes, and newsstand vs. Direct are all areas that fascintate me and are a big part of my collecting. It seems to be catching some traction - so get those deals while you can! Edited July 9, 2012 by bergdoll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggr1103 Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 I agree about the manufactured rarity of certain variants. While I'm not immune to the lure of a manufactured variant (I will be picking up ALL the WD 100 variants this week), I think its more fun to search out the more obscure variants. I primarily collect copper books and I love searching out harder to find 2nd or later prints of certain books. Much harder to find, typically have some variation to make them distinguishable, and for some even hold value for those looking to complete runs. I think its why I find this Whitman thread fun to follow. Is there an estimate on the print runs of Whitmans vs. the Gold Key books? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I've never seen any information on print runs for the Whitman/GK books. They are really the same books with different cover logos. After a some time scanning, I started getting some information together and making some observations on the comics that I have - specifically the ones I have that are still in the poly-bags. It was intended to just be a quick article and mostly scans of my books, but seems to have morphed into something a bit more time-consuming. So... without further ado, I present my PART ONE of my Whitman Comics. http://www.funosphere.com/styled-12/styled/page256/ I hope that the article is useful - more importantly, I hope it sparks some conversation and some additional observations from those of you that have any sealed 4-packs or 3-packs. I'll follow the above page with another where I go through some of my individual Whitman books. I have a few of the rare ones - with doubles of Woody Woodpecker 191 and the Tom and Jerry 332. I would like to trade these for other rare books. Does anyone have a spare Black Hole #4 or a Battle of the Planets 7 that they are interested in trading? My Woody Woodpeckers are in very good shape and the Tom and Jerry is a very decent copy as well (just not as good as the Woody's). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogami Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Still reading, bergdoll! I don't have anything to add as a collector/detective, only that as a kid, these were the comic books that I bought and loved and that it interests me going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) They are really great books. Plenty of fond memories there for me too! This thread did make me look at my poly bags in a bit more detail and I have come to the conclusion: Post 1975 with no UPC barcode is what brings the comic into the harder-to-find category. In some cases it makes them very rare while in other cases it just makes them slightly harder to locate. That's mostly opinion, but I would suggest that at the very least, all rare Whitmans are common in regards to the absence of the UPC barcode. Edit: The Bugs Bunny #221 seems to be an exception to the above observation. Otherwise, it hold true thus far - all the rares I have seen do not have UPC codes. Edited July 10, 2012 by bergdoll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggr1103 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 What's the deal with the marvel star wars books? Aren't they reprints? Why would they reprint those books when the other whitmans are considered to be of the same printing as their gold key/dc counterparts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 We always considered the "Black Diamond" price box books to be reprints. The only ones I can remember are the Micronauts 3-pack which did not get released at the same time as the newsstand books. It came out significantly later. It *may* have been printed at the same time, but it absolutely did not get distributed to my area at the same time. It's a bit of time since I experienced this, but I seem to think the Micronauts pack came out some time around the time Micronauts #12 or so was on the newsstand. Now I want to re-read those books! I remember this because the early Micronauts were books that were hard to find - then the Whitman packs came out and we were able to get them and we were all crazy about them. The Star Wars books were probably the same idea. They were reprinted or special printed for Whitman 3-packs and the price box was there to prevent them from being confused with the newsstand books. As for when they were printed? I have no idea. Maybe they were all printed at the same time, but released at different times? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 (edited) A couple of nice copies of two of the rarer books. Tom and Jerry 332 Edited July 12, 2012 by bergdoll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 (edited) Edited because I was in error for posting! Edited July 12, 2012 by bergdoll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicwiz Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 The appreciation thread I started was intended to get discussion going on Whitmans. I don't think it should be used to promote the sale of your books. As the original thread starter, I've refrained from saying anything until now, but would appreciate if you removed the last post. I think its in poor taste considering there are sections intended for buying/selling and trading comics, and to promote members eBay auctions. I PM'd you this, but am posting this for posterity in the event that others think it's a good idea to do the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chespirito Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 The two above are now available on the "e" site. I'm interested to see where they land in terms of price and interest. I'll make sure to update the info on how many looks and watchers I had. oh please do tell...tell us all about your goodies and all the stuff you have for sale.... or you can make The Non-Whitman-appreciation sales thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MK Ultra Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Someone that's been here 4.5 years should know there are forums to post what's for sale where. If they want to come by after the fact and say I listed these books and there were x watchers and they sold for $y, that would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shark Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 The appreciation thread I started was intended to get discussion going on Whitmans. I don't think it should be used to promote the sale of your books. As the original thread starter, I've refrained from saying anything until now, but would appreciate if you removed the last post. I think its in poor taste considering there are sections intended for buying/selling and trading comics, and to promote members eBay auctions. I PM'd you this, but am posting this for posterity in the event that others think it's a good idea to do the same. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I'm sorry everyone! I am not here all that often as I only really collect a few odd things. My intention was really not to offend or do anything improper and I hope you can forgive this faux pas on my part. I am in fact very interested in Whitman books and made the mistake of assuming these being available would be of interest to others here - incorrectly. Hopefully, you can forgive this error and the other posts I had earlier are both evidence and somewhat redemptive in showing that I am a collector of these books (the "appreciation" part). Sorry again - it was not intended to be an idiotic move - but was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Someone that's been here 4.5 years should know there are forums to post what's for sale where. If they want to come by after the fact and say I listed these books and there were x watchers and they sold for $y, that would be nice. I appreciate the sentiment and hopefully my apology is okay. Although I have been registered for many years - I'm not here as much, but that's no excuse. I really apologize everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicwiz Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 I'm sorry everyone! I am not here all that often as I only really collect a few odd things. My intention was really not to offend or do anything improper and I hope you can forgive this faux pas on my part. I am in fact very interested in Whitman books and made the mistake of assuming these being available would be of interest to others here - incorrectly. Hopefully, you can forgive this error and the other posts I had earlier are both evidence and somewhat redemptive in showing that I am a collector of these books (the "appreciation" part). Sorry again - it was not intended to be an idiotic move - but was. I interpreted it mostly as you getting caught up in the excitement. The community here is quite good at self-moderating any out of place selling, and things only really get heated when boardie's blatantly and repeatedly disregard the rules. I appreciate you respecting the request for removal and GLWTC (good luck with the collecting). (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bergdoll Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) Okay - I got us off-track, I suppose I have a responsibility to get us back on-track. I've seen this 3-pack several times and it seems common to find these issues as individuals or even in the 3-pack. The #4 differs not only in it's rarity, but also the fact that it lacks the UPC barcode - which, if you had a chance to read my post that I linked to, is a big deal with me. In my Whitman collecting, I consider ANY non-barcode 35 cent and above Whitman to be a bit of a great find: The Star Wars Whitman/Marvel pack also lacks the barcode, but has a place for it. Something that I assume has to do with the books being sold on the newsstand as well - something that we see again in the Gladstone/Disney/Marvel books (where things get even more confusing as more cooks enter the kitchen) What I really find odd is that the rare Bug Bunny has a barcode. I have no theory in why that one does. All my rares (and I am a long way off from the 42) are barcode-free. Edited July 13, 2012 by bergdoll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
