ASM "Whitman" copies being sold as variants - legal?

[ASM-completist]

If Marvel tested their price($.30/$.35) "variants" in the newstand market ONLY, then wouldn't it be reasonable to presume that the diamond logo copies were sold in the direct markets and not exclusively in the Whitman bags? I mean wasn't the diamond logo created to distinguish the comic from its newstand counterpart anyway? Why would Marvel "test" this new diamond logo copy by ONLY packaging it in the Whitman bags? Unless I have screwed something up(always possible), it seems only logical to me that the diamond log copies MUST have been sold in direct markets.

 

Am I off my rocker?

[joe_collector]

Am I off my rocker?

 

Yes, because all the comic store dealers and distributors I've spoken received the same copy (it wasn't called newsstand then) as the other vendors. So logically, comics stores could have inadvertently gotten a 30 or 35-cent variant, assuming the printer/distributor screwed up and sent some through the wrong channel.

 

The key element is, that although the Direct market existed in theory, the "different coded" Direct issues really didn't come into effect until 1979, when Marvel had to do something about returns. Pre-1979, there was not a "Diamond Direct Sale" cover format in mainstream use.

 

The only stickler is the presumption by some, that "select" comic stores might have been given Diamond issues pre-1979 as a "test case" for the new Direct Comic design.

 

Due to this, there are only two distinct possibilities:

 

1) 100% of the 1976-78 Diamond copies are from Whitman multi-packs.

 

2) The majority of the 1976-78 Diamond copies are from Whitman multi-packs, with a few being from these "test case" comic stores.