1st commercially successful variant?

[Aweandlorder]

They are marketed as such. Buy 100, get one variant. Aircel did this without warning. They didn't solicit it as buy 20, get a variant. Buy 40, get 2.

 

So?

It was a variant, it was a diff cover, it was limited in print, and it hit the stores and sold at a premium almost immediately.

To me, that registers and behaves just as a current variant does nowadays. Certainly a trend way ahead of its time

The MOS and ASM21 variants came out later and although were a commercial hit, they did not sell at a premium nor were they limited in print run as most retailer incentives do nowadays

 

MOS #1 was published on 6-17 (collector's edition), or 6-24 (regular edition), whichever is accurate according to the USCO. Adventurers #1 was published a month later, 7-14.

 

So, yes, MOS #1 was published before Adventurers.

 

And yes, the "silver ink" "collector's edition #1" carried a bit of a premium.

 

And, your question, which was the "first marketed variant" doesn't work with Adventurers #1 which, as Shadroch notes, was a surprise. It wasn't marketed, nor was it a "commercial success", because it was never figured into the ordering equation.

 

"Commercial success" means that it sold well, and made money for the publisher. Because Adventurers #1 variant wasn't marketed and wasn't known until the copies actually arrived, there is no way to determine how many "extra copies" sold because of it.

 

That it achieved value as a collectible does not mean that it made Adventurers #1 more of a commercial success than it otherwise would have been. That value means nothing to the publisher, and has nothing to do with commercial success.

 

Which title was a commercial success that had a variant which brought immediate premium? Does that work better?

But yeah, you nailed it - it achieved value as a collectible and was distributed at the same time as the first issue. Whether it was a 1:100/50/25 which was announced to stores at the time or not, isnt really the point here. It was distributed to stores on a limited basis, which in turn saw interest in selling it to the public, which made it skyrocket in price. Whether it resulted as a retailer incentive, or marketed as such doesnt change the fact that it achieved the same result.

 

So, what you really meant was "what was the first variant that carried a premium on the aftermarket"...?

 

.. Of a commercially successful title (thumbs u

Which also had a different cover than original, not just diff price/print error/color scheme, cause otherwise we wouldnt leave here all day

[Lazyboy]

If you keep changing the question every time you post, eventually somebody might say the Adventurers 1 variant matters somehow. (thumbs u

[RockMyAmadeus]

If you keep changing the question every time you post, eventually somebody might say the Adventurers 1 variant matters somehow. (thumbs u

 

Yup.

[tth2]

If you keep changing the question every time you post, eventually somebody might say the Adventurers 1 variant matters somehow. (thumbs u

[joe_collector]

No doubt it is a variant., but was it commercially successful? The Man of Steel #1 variant covers were available at regular discounts and initially sold for regular price. Shop owners ordered extra copies of Man of Steel because of the multiple covers .

 

But then it's no longer a true variant.