Marvel Complementary Copy Variants - Do Collectors Care?

[comiconxion]

I just picked up a collection of 80's books from artist Mike Vosburg who worked at Marvel in the early 80's. He mentioned that he would regularly get Complementary copies of other books from Marvel. Some of them are stamped "Complementary Copy" or "Not to Be Sold,"

 

Personally, I find these pretty cool as they show they came directly from the Marvel offices. There couldn't be too many of these out there.

 

Do collectors put a premium on these? Do people care?

 

Below are a few examples from the collection:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nmtg9]

That's pretty cool. Never seen these before.

 

No idea if they would fetch a premium. It would be impossible to know when the stamp was added.

 

Maybe if you could prove a copy belonged to one of the major players, but even then I would think the provenance would bring the premium with our without the stamp.

[Silver Surfer]

I have a bunch of high grade FF's from the same era I will post. Did you get those from Greg Reece by any chance?

[comiconxion]

I have a bunch of high grade FF's from the same era I will post. Did you get those from Greg Reece by any chance?

 

No, these came directly from Marvel artist Mike Vosburg. There is a run of Byrne FF's in the collection, many of which have similar stamps; some additional X-Men, Spectacular Spider-man, and Dr, Strange as well.

 

Someone on eBay listed a Hulk Annual from the same era and claimed that 200 copies of each book were made. Not sure if they made the same number of every book, but it would make sense than no more than 200 of each were produced.

[valiantman]

That's pretty cool. Never seen these before.

 

No idea if they would fetch a premium. It would be impossible to know when the stamp was added.

 

Maybe if you could prove a copy belonged to one of the major players, but even then I would think the provenance would bring the premium with our without the stamp.

I agree. If the books are completely identical to regular copies, with only the addition of the stamp, then any significant premium in the market would invite counterfeiting of the stamp.

[Topnotchman]

I have had these over the years, I discounted them to find a buyer since they looked damaged compared to an unmarked high grade copy. Unless I missed something, I sold them for a buck or two.

[Aweandlorder]

Some of these are cool..

There are some that were specifically reserved to creators like this one:

 

I would compare them to A/P limited runs.. They wont usually add a premium but theres a niche market for these for sure

[Aweandlorder]

Also kinda related, every once in a while cbldf will auction out books from a famous creator's collection (Frank Miller comes to mind) some will be signed by them, some will be NFR and some will simply have a COA saying something to the effect that this book belonged to that person's private collection

[comiconxion]

For posterity, I thought I'd document the stamped Comp copies that came out of Mike Vosburg's collection.

 

Doctor Strange #48

Doctor Strange #52

Doctor Strange #57

Doctor Strange #58

Fantastic Four #232

Fantastic Four #234

Fantastic Four #235

Fantastic Four #237

Fantastic Four #238

Fantastic Four #240

Fantastic Four #250

Fantastic Four #251

Fantastic Four #252

Fantastic Four #256

Obnoxio and the X-Men #1

Spectacular Spider-man #58

Spectacular Spider-man #76

Spectacular Spider-man #78

US 1 #1

X-Men #150

X-Men #164

X-Men #167

X-Men #168

 

It should be noted that not all of the copies in his collection were stamped - only some of them.

[FlyingDonut]

I have a bunch from Don McGregor.

[Johncan]

I have a bunch that came directly from World Color Press in Sparta, IL. These comics were given away at the end of tours of World Color Press and at Cardinals' baseball games. The Cardinals had comic book giveaways in the 1970s because Sparta was close to St, Louis. I can try and post some of them.

[comiconxion]

I have a bunch that came directly from World Color Press in Sparta, IL. These comics were given away at the end of tours of World Color Press and at Cardinals' baseball games. The Cardinals had comic book giveaways in the 1970s because Sparta was close to St, Louis. I can try and post some of them.

 

Sounds cool. Love to see them.

[the blob]

These are not variants. They have an office stamp on them!

 

I used to see A LOT of these as a tween in NYC because that's where the Marvel employees were. It was pretty routine for some Marvel employees to take home as much stuff as they could (and Marvel was pretty generous) and then sell them to shops for cash or store credit.

 

Of course, that's a local thing, so it would take time for these comics to get around the country.

 

At some point I think they stopped stamping them as the shop I worked at p-t from 94-96 had a couple of comic co employees come in with their bags of free stuff to sell to the shop and I don't remember stamps on them.

[rjrjr]

Some of these are cool..

There are some that were specifically reserved to creators like this one:

 

I would compare them to A/P limited runs.. They wont usually add a premium but theres a niche market for these for sure

 

Is that a sticker with John Romita's name or was the white box printed on the cover? If it is printed on the cover, this is interesting and a variant. If it is a sticker, it is not a variant. Still interesting, but nothing I would pay for because of how easy it would be to make.

[the blob]

OK, I did not see them in 25 cent boxes with stickers like that. That's an extra level of neatness. I just saw the stamp quite a bit as a youngster and then later in cheap-o boxes in nyc.

[the blob]

I have a bunch of high grade FF's from the same era I will post. Did you get those from Greg Reece by any chance?

 

No, these came directly from Marvel artist Mike Vosburg. There is a run of Byrne FF's in the collection, many of which have similar stamps; some additional X-Men, Spectacular Spider-man, and Dr, Strange as well.

 

Someone on eBay listed a Hulk Annual from the same era and claimed that 200 copies of each book were made. Not sure if they made the same number of every book, but it would make sense than no more than 200 of each were produced.

 

I'm sorry, these comics were not being "produced". Marvel had stacks of stuff back in their offices that employees could have and they stamped them accordingly. True, maybe they would have approximately 200 copies of each issue that month stamped. Wouldn't surprise me if there were 150-200 employees working in, or checking into, the marvel offices back then between all the freelancers who worked in the city and such. A friend's brother was an assistant editor, a letterer, and, I learned later, an occasional inker, and I remember my friend asking if I wanted him to grab me any comics and I took a pass because I wasn't into comics anymore (this was like 1988). Also, my dim recollection is that DC people could also get some marvel books and Marvel people DC, but that is like third hand hearsay.

[the blob]

Also, if you were a kid and did the marvel office tour back in the early/mid 80s they'd let you grab a stack of comics. I cannot remember if the stack I grabbed had this stamp on them.

[gregreece]

I have a bunch of high grade FF's from the same era I will post. Did you get those from Greg Reece by any chance?

 

No, these came directly from Marvel artist Mike Vosburg. There is a run of Byrne FF's in the collection, many of which have similar stamps; some additional X-Men, Spectacular Spider-man, and Dr, Strange as well.

 

Someone on eBay listed a Hulk Annual from the same era and claimed that 200 copies of each book were made. Not sure if they made the same number of every book, but it would make sense than no more than 200 of each were produced.

 

I'm sorry, these comics were not being "produced". Marvel had stacks of stuff back in their offices that employees could have and they stamped them accordingly. True, maybe they would have approximately 200 copies of each issue that month stamped. Wouldn't surprise me if there were 150-200 employees working in, or checking into, the marvel offices back then between all the freelancers who worked in the city and such. A friend's brother was an assistant editor, a letterer, and, I learned later, an occasional inker, and I remember my friend asking if I wanted him to grab me any comics and I took a pass because I wasn't into comics anymore (this was like 1988). Also, my dim recollection is that DC people could also get some marvel books and Marvel people DC, but that is like third hand hearsay.

 

 

I can confirm the bolded part above as we bought an original owner collection from a Marvel letterer who routinely traded copies with a buddy at DC. In fact, ironically enough, he had multiples of almost every DC but only 1 each on the Marvels.

 

 

[Silver Surfer]

 

[Silver Surfer]