Overlooked and Potentially Undervalued Long/Mid-Term 2 2

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

I have a question regarding the $2.50 variant. Is that on most of the Valiant books or only on the Visitor vs. Valiant? It's been a while. I have several $2.50 books and I'm curious. Thank you.

 

There are a handful of them. I believe X-O #43 or 44 also had a $2.50 version, the Destroyer #1 also had a $2.50 version. I can't think of the others off-hand.

I don't think there are X-O newsstand price variants, but there are a few Bloodshots.

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

I have a question regarding the $2.50 variant. Is that on most of the Valiant books or only on the Visitor vs. Valiant? It's been a while. I have several $2.50 books and I'm curious. Thank you.

 

There are a handful of them. I believe X-O #43 or 44 also had a $2.50 version, the Destroyer #1 also had a $2.50 version. I can't think of the others off-hand.

I don't think there are X-O newsstand price variants, but there are a few Bloodshots.

 

My mistake; there is an X-O. From the Valiant Fans price guide (http://www.valiantfan.com/guide):

 

Bloodshot #30 (Direct Edition is $2.25)

Bloodshot #31 (Direct Edition is $2.25)

Bloodshot #32 (Direct Edition is $2.25)

Destroyer #0 (Direct Edition is $2.95)

Visitor vs. the Valiant Universe #1 (Direct Edition is $2.95)

Visitor vs. the Valiant Universe #2 (Direct Edition is $2.95)

X-O Manowar #43 (Direct Edition is $2.25)

 

Besides the premium Gold, Platinum, Red, or mailaway books, there is also a Magnus #57 error variant where some of the pages are bound out of order. It's supposedly more valuable than the regular edition, but whenever I try to grab a regular copy to fill that hole in my collection, it ends up being the error issue.

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

So any with $2.50 cover are htf variants?

The newsstand versions only seem to fetch a premium when the cover price is different than the Direct Edition. I couldn't tell you why though. Maybe the price variants were more limited, but I doubt it was like the Marvel Bronze age variants where they had a limited distribution to test the market. All of the Newsstand Editions for the vValiant books have the same price.

[FormerReader]

So any with $2.50 cover are htf variants?

 

As GeekareMyPeeps said, no. Only the ones he listed are hard to find and carry a premium.

[Escaflown4]

I have:

Shadow man 42

Eternal Warrior 42, 48

Mirage 18

Magnus 49

X-O 50-O, 50-X, 51, 52

Harbinger 40

 

All are $2.50

 

Sorry, none of those are price variants.

[Escaflown4]

So any with $2.50 cover are htf variants?

 

As GeekareMyPeeps said, no. Only the ones he listed are hard to find and carry a premium.

 

There are some newsstand editions that carries a small premium. Magnus #64 comes to mind. I remembered I came across a small batch of them and they sold for higher than the direct editions.

[spreads]

So any with $2.50 cover are htf variants?

 

As GeekareMyPeeps said, no. Only the ones he listed are hard to find and carry a premium.

 

There are some newsstand editions that carries a small premium. Magnus #64 comes to mind. I remembered I came across a small batch of them and they sold for higher than the direct editions.

 

I think a lot of them have some premium, in other words a common book that might only sell for 50 cents to a buck would now sell for 3-5. Same could be same for Image newsstand books. I wouldn't say either are really that rare, or valuable, but carry a slight premium because they are actually rarer.

[valiantman]

That's correct. Valiant books with "NEWSSTAND SALES" in the UPC box instead of "DIRECT EDITION" do carry a premium.

 

Valiant had a limited attempt at newsstand sales, only for a few titles, and for less than two years. They were probably a combination of "experiment" and "last-ditch effort" to get additional sales for some of those titles.

 

Right now, newsstand books are about 3 to 5 times the price of the direct editions, but that is about $5 most of the time because the direct editions (in that time period) are still $1 books. Most of the Valiant newsstand books have the same cover price as the direct editions.

 

The ones with cover price differences are probably the earliest attempts at Valiant newsstand, which might be the reason for their additional premium values... or it might be because a different price is slightly more collectable than just a different UPC.

 

Valiant newsstands are definitely tougher than 5 times their direct edition counterparts. It's unclear if unsold newsstand books were destroyed as expected, or if they're just sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting to be discovered.

[fastballspecial]

It is fun finding those and the higher grade they are the easier you can sell them.

 

I have never had a problem selling those fast when I find them. I would keep some EWs, but they never had any.

[mysterio]

On 3/12/2015 at 10:18 PM, valiantman said:

That's correct. Valiant books with "NEWSSTAND SALES" in the UPC box instead of "DIRECT EDITION" do carry a premium.

 

Valiant had a limited attempt at newsstand sales, only for a few titles, and for less than two years. They were probably a combination of "experiment" and "last-ditch effort" to get additional sales for some of those titles.

 

Right now, newsstand books are about 3 to 5 times the price of the direct editions, but that is about $5 most of the time because the direct editions (in that time period) are still $1 books. Most of the Valiant newsstand books have the same cover price as the direct editions.

 

The ones with cover price differences are probably the earliest attempts at Valiant newsstand, which might be the reason for their additional premium values... or it might be because a different price is slightly more collectable than just a different UPC.

 

Valiant newsstands are definitely tougher than 5 times their direct edition counterparts. It's unclear if unsold newsstand books were destroyed as expected, or if they're just sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting to be discovered.

I found a few Valiants with UPCs in a collection today, maybe a half dozen in three long boxes worth. So A UPC alone isn't enough, it has to say newsstand within the UPC?

[ygogolak]

On 3/12/2015 at 11:18 PM, valiantman said:

That's correct. Valiant books with "NEWSSTAND SALES" in the UPC box instead of "DIRECT EDITION" do carry a premium.

 

Valiant had a limited attempt at newsstand sales, only for a few titles, and for less than two years. They were probably a combination of "experiment" and "last-ditch effort" to get additional sales for some of those titles.

 

Right now, newsstand books are about 3 to 5 times the price of the direct editions, but that is about $5 most of the time because the direct editions (in that time period) are still $1 books. Most of the Valiant newsstand books have the same cover price as the direct editions.

 

The ones with cover price differences are probably the earliest attempts at Valiant newsstand, which might be the reason for their additional premium values... or it might be because a different price is slightly more collectable than just a different UPC.

 

Valiant newsstands are definitely tougher than 5 times their direct edition counterparts. It's unclear if unsold newsstand books were destroyed as expected, or if they're just sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting to be discovered.

So these are post-Unity books?

[Dogsupreme]

Very interesting thread.

Speculation on books can be a tricky thing.

On VALIANT until the 1st movie comes out its iffy for me. I never cared much for the VALIANT universe and it depends if a mass audience will also accept it. If the movies are good then I am sure the comics will spike but I don't have long term confidence. But if they can be had for cheap, why not?

My collecting habits have changed to buying up 1st appearances of little known or obscure characters from MARVEL and DC.

I used to be able to pick up BLUE BEETLE from Charlton #1 for next to nothing just 3-4 years ago. Now its exploded.

Here are some books I recommend if you can get them cheap and in high grade:

POWER PACK #1-Laugh if you will but then BIG HERO 6 was a nothing title also. The title itself screams DISNEY. I will almost bet they are developing it in secret. Right now you can still find #1 for less than $10. I still find them in the wild for $1-$2. I pick up all I can.

GREEN LANTERN #141-This introduces the OMEGA MEN. With GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY a big hit for Marvel, this maybe DC's intro to its cosmic universe.

 

[Martin Sinescu]

8 hours ago, ygogolak said:

So these are post-Unity books?

Yes. I've got a few newsstand copies of Bloodshot around the early 30's which puts it at 1995.

[ygogolak]

21 minutes ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Yes. I've got a few newsstand copies of Bloodshot around the early 30's which puts it at 1995.

Just looked up what Chuck had for that series. Looks like it starts at #30 and goes to #34. Thanks.

[valiantman]

19 hours ago, mysterio said:

I found a few Valiants with UPCs in a collection today, maybe a half dozen in three long boxes worth. So A UPC alone isn't enough, it has to say newsstand within the UPC?

The ones that are newsstand sales have to say "newsstand sales" in the UPC box.

Edited May 23, 2017 by valiantman

[fastballspecial]

39 minutes ago, valiantman said:

The ones that are newsstand sales have to say "newsstand sales" in the UPC box.

Its not as easy as many discuss. I very rarely find one of these copies better then VF. Most I have are VG to Fine 85% of the time. I might go months without finding one. Its almost as fun as finding a 35 cent variant when I find one of these in NM.

 

[mysterio]

3 hours ago, valiantman said:

The ones that are newsstand sales have to say "newsstand sales" in the UPC box.

Thank you! Do you know why some books would have had covers with and without UPCs for direct sales? 

[valiantman]

15 hours ago, mysterio said:

Thank you! Do you know why some books would have had covers with and without UPCs for direct sales? 

As far as Valiant books go, there were only direct editions for a few years and those had no UPCs.  Other publishers were putting artwork in their UPC boxes at that point.  Once the UPC became the standard for direct editions, Valiant added them.  When Valiant experimented with newsstand sales, they made the note "newsstand sales" in the UPC box.

There are only a couple Valiant (related) books that exist with both a UPC and no UPC.  Acclaim did some "blister pack exclusives" for Turok: The Empty Souls and Turok: Tales of the Lost Land, which do not have a UPC.  Those have turned out to be extremely rare, since not all blister packs included either book... and the target market was not comic shops.  They're probably similar to the Whitman Pre-Pack Only books.

[mysterio]

1 hour ago, valiantman said:

As far as Valiant books go, there were only direct editions for a few years and those had no UPCs.  Other publishers were putting artwork in their UPC boxes at that point.  Once the UPC became the standard for direct editions, Valiant added them.  When Valiant experimented with newsstand sales, they made the note "newsstand sales" in the UPC box.

There are only a couple Valiant (related) books that exist with both a UPC and no UPC.  Acclaim did some "blister pack exclusives" for Turok: The Empty Souls and Turok: Tales of the Lost Land, which do not have a UPC.  Those have turned out to be extremely rare, since not all blister packs included either book... and the target market was not comic shops.  They're probably similar to the Whitman Pre-Pack Only books.

Thanks for the info. I thought I had a few that were both with and without UPC, but I apparently hallucinated. 

[ComicConnoisseur]

What about this? Seems the upcoming Justice League movie is going to be more of a comedy like the 80s series.