Marvel Price Variant from 1981 (listed in Overstreet) - Do they Exist?

[DarrenSmith]

Can anyone verify the following 1981 Marvel price variants exist?

 

Per Overstreet in the notes under Marvel Premiere there is the sentence "#57-60 published w/two different prices" This information has been in Overstreet since at least Overstreet #20. I have looked on and off for a couple years for these variants, but have not located any. (yes there are UK priced ones, but there are also UK priced ones before #57) Has anyone ever seen these or know any further information on them?

 

If you want to help look for these variants, here are the normal cover prices for these books, I have no idea what the variant pricing would be:

 

Normal Cover Prices:

 

#57 Direct = .50

#58 Direct = .50

#59 Direct = .50

#60 Direct = .50

 

#57 Newstand = .50

#58 Newstand = .50

#59 Newstand = .50

#60 Newstand = .50

[Darthdiesel]

Hello Darren - could they be Canadian Price variants? Similar to books like ASM 238 (1983) where the US rpice was 60 cents while the Canadian price was 75 cents:

 

 

Just curios...but my interest is piqued and I'll dig thru my stash and check my Marvel Premieres. from my recollection off the top of my head... this range may have the Diamond direct price logo and the regular newstand price logo, but I can't recall and price differences, however.

[DarrenSmith]

I do not believe they are Canadian issues, though I have not yet found any Canadian collectors who bought these when they were new. And I have yet to find any other Marvels from this period with different cover prices. Maybe a Canadian collector can chip in if they are reading this. For those without an Overstreet handy, Marvel Premiere #57-60 are the Doctor Who issues.

 

Does anyone have any Overstreet's before Overstreet #19 that can check if that comment is listed (it would be helpful to know when the comment appeared) I threw out all my guides pre #19 away many years ago. I believe the issues would have been first listed in Overstreet #9, 10, or 11.

[lou_fine]

Hello Darren - could they be Canadian Price variants? Similar to books like ASM 238 (1983) where the US rpice was 60 cents while the Canadian price was 75 cents:

 

 

Just curios...but my interest is piqued and I'll dig thru my stash and check my Marvel Premieres. from my recollection off the top of my head... this range may have the Diamond direct price logo and the regular newstand price logo, but I can't recall and price differences, however.

 

Darth;

 

Just a quick question for you. Since there are virtually Canadian price variants for all Marvel and DC books from the 70's and 80's, would they be worth less than the American versions, more than the American versions, or have no difference in value?

 

Any insight based upon your knowledge and experience would be greatly appreciated.

[ImageMask]

I do not believe they are Canadian issues, though I have not yet found any Canadian collectors who bought these when they were new. And I have yet to find any other Marvels from this period with different cover prices. Maybe a Canadian collector can chip in if they are reading this. For those without an Overstreet handy, Marvel Premiere #57-60 are the Doctor Who issues.

 

Does anyone have any Overstreet's before Overstreet #19 that can check if that comment is listed (it would be helpful to know when the comment appeared) I threw out all my guides pre #19 away many years ago. I believe the issues would have been first listed in Overstreet #9, 10, or 11.

 

That comment is not in 13 but shows up in 15. I can't locate my 14 but it's narrowed down to 14 or 15 now.

[DarrenSmith]

Lou_fine,

 

Could you fill in more info on your comment about virtually all Marvel & DC had Canadian Price Variants from 1970-1989? I am not aware of any from 1981 at all, not to mention two decades of them.

[Darthdiesel]

Darth;

 

Just a quick question for you. Since there are virtually Canadian price variants for all Marvel and DC books from the 70's and 80's, would they be worth less than the American versions, more than the American versions, or have no difference in value?

 

Any insight based upon your knowledge and experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

I am by no means an expert on this and will regurgitate what has been brough up on these boards before.

 

I believe that Canadian variants are probably from a smaller print run and I don't think Marvel did them for all issues during that time frame. Select titles as I have not seen Canadian variants for all Marvel titles across the board during a specific timeframe, but maybe that is possibly due to inexperience. Also I know that Marvel also made multiprice covers around this time with Canadian, US and UK prices all in the price logo box...

 

They should all be worth the same to everyone, but when advertised on eBay some variant collectors may fight over them just to have one. You know, it's like when there is a Whitman variant of a DC book; sometimes it fetches a little more than a regular DC copy...sometimes it fetches the same depends on who's looking.

 

As a seller, I'd hype up the fact that there are less of these than the regular more common American versions.

[underthebigw]

 

Darth;

 

Just a quick question for you. Since there are virtually Canadian price variants for all Marvel and DC books from the 70's and 80's, would they be worth less than the American versions, more than the American versions, or have no difference in value?

 

Any insight based upon your knowledge and experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

Actually, I don't think that's the case at all. JC or another Canuck can fill us in for certain, but my recollection is that during most of the early and mid-70's, the Canadian dollar was stronger than the US, so there was little incentive for Marvel to change the price (why would you lower the cover price). I think it was only during the early to mid-80's (I want to say starting '81 or '82), when this position flipped, that there were Canadian versions.

 

That's not to say that every book in Canada had the Canadian price. When I lived in Montreal from '82-87, all of the books sold in comic shops had US prices, in either the regular direct distribution or US newstand versions. Most actual collectors, as opposed to readers, would only purchase these.

[Bronty]

Agreed..... I think the time frame that this occurred was really quite narrow. The 60c books definitely had 75c canadian counterparts, but it didn't go much beyond that. There may be 50c/60c and/or 75c/95c variants, I don't know for sure since I don't collect variants... but the canadian variant books I can think of offhand, like asm 238, thor 337, new mutants 2, etc are all 60/75. I think that after that time, they just starting listing both prices on the cover to make it universal. I.e. "US 75c, Canada 95c"; both prices on the front cover.

[FlyingDonut]

There are definitely "odd priced" Canadian variants. I have, just sitting here, Amazing Spider-Man 275 with a $1.50 cover price, 259 with a 75 cent cover price, 241 with a 75 cent cover price, Daredevil 190 with a $1.25 price, and Fantastic Four 249 with a 75 cent cover price. I have had a couple 95 cent cover priced Amazings (271 and 272).

[DarrenSmith]

FlyingDonut,

 

Since you have a stash of Canadian Marvels, do you have any Marvels between Dec 1980 and June 1981 (the dates of Marvel Premiere #57-60) with a cover price other than 50 cents?

[DarrenSmith]

I just checked the indicas on issue #57-60 to see if they stated anything exclusive to United States distribution, but instead I found it says the Price is 50 cents in the U.S. and Canada. This shoots down the idea that they would be Canadian issues, unless of course they were testing parts of the Canadian Market to see if they would accept an increase in price (along the lines of the 35 cent variants did in the USA)

[aardvark88]

Not too many of the Canadian newsstand issues would have survived to now. They were usually bent on the retail spinner racks. Most Canuck collectors would have just popped into their LCS to grab the direct sales copies in nm which had both US $ & Canuck prices on the cover.

[Bronty]

 

I wonder why the ones that seem to show up most often are the 60c/75c ones

[shadroch]

Since its been several days and no-one has stepped forward with any information on this,perhaps they never existed. A little thing like this would be great evidence of copyright infringement were it to turn up in another price guide.As it seems to have made its way into the guide around 1984,the same time frame when several other guides were appearing in competition with Overstreet,this would be my guess.

At one point in the mid-80s,Dr Who was quite hot and I never heard anything about any variants on the Marvel Premeires.Even then,some people were collecting the Marvel price variants,though nowhere near as fanatically as today.The big variant of the day was the Superman logo JLA and Firestorm issues.

[DarrenSmith]

Since its been several days and no-one has stepped forward with any information on this,perhaps they never existed. A little thing like this would be great evidence of copyright infringement were it to turn up in another price guide.As it seems to have made its way into the guide around 1984,the same time frame when several other guides were appearing in competition with Overstreet,this would be my guess.

At one point in the mid-80s,Dr Who was quite hot and I never heard anything about any variants on the Marvel Premeires.Even then,some people were collecting the Marvel price variants,though nowhere near as fanatically as today.The big variant of the day was the Superman logo JLA and Firestorm issues.

 

This is one of my leading theories also, but would have to identify a few other items that appeared in Overstreet #14 that was not in Overstreet #13 that are incorrect and one reason I wanted to lock down which guide they appeared in first.

 

Also, since the notes first appeared in Overstreet #14 1984-1985 which was printed in 1984. I believe this date might be earlier than the competitor's price guides. Didn't they start to come out during the independant comic craze? Does anyone know what other guides there were 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 (either book or magazine form)?

[shadroch]

There was one that called itself The Official Comicbook Price Guide that was about half the size of Overstreet.

I believe Krause published a guide around this same time.

Comic Value Monthly came out around 1985. There was also a small guide that came in a collectors kit that included a couple of dozen comic bags and a few index cards.

[Kevin Boyd]

I believe that Canadian variants are probably from a smaller print run and I don't think Marvel did them for all issues during that time frame. Select titles as I have not seen Canadian variants for all Marvel titles across the board during a specific timeframe, but maybe that is possibly due to inexperience. Also I know that Marvel also made multiprice covers around this time with Canadian, US and UK prices all in the price logo box...

 

During the 1980's, as the gap between the US dollar and the Canadian dollar continued to widen, separate pricing for Canadian editions were introduced with comics that have a cover date of: OCT 1982 (some DC's cover dated SEP 1982 also have Canadian variants like Batman 363).

 

There are no Canadian price variants before these books that were published in the summer of 1982.

 

Direct Market versions include US, Can and UK prices.

 

Canadian Newsstand versions have only the 75 Cent price tag but are otherwise identical to the US newsstand version (priced at 60 cents).

 

Pricing fluctuates for Annuals and special issues.

 

If a comic was distributed to the newsstands in Canada there is a Canadian variant. So you are guaranteed to find variants of books like ASM, Avengers, X-Men, Captain America, Hulk, Conan, Batman, Superman, Action, Detective, Titans, etc.

 

Books that were direct only at that time will not have newsstand variants.

 

If you are interested in buying a bunch of Canadian price variants from me in a lot, I will bring some to Chicago on August 13-15 and you can make me an offer. Conditions will vary. PM to let me know your interested, if I don't hear from anyone then I assume no one is interested.

 

Kev

[Kevin Boyd]

Incidentally, I found some Canadian newstand versions of these issues - in particular Marvel Premiere 58 and 59. They are identical to the US newsstand versions in every respect and were priced at 50cents.