• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Marvel Whitman Variant List

Started by fastballspecial,

128 posts in this topic

fastballspecial

fastballspecial

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Here is a scan of X-men 118 I just picked up dirt cheap. As you will notice this book is a Type 2 direct edition with a twist as it has the diamond with the burst emblem. This along with other type 2s are commonly called Whitman's due to the White empty UPC box.Febuary & Jan. issues of 1979. So far this issue is the earliest version seen for direct issue sale of X-men books.(I cant rem if Annual 3 came first and I am too lazy to look it up blush.gif This is the only copy I have ever seen of this book other then the one on the website.

 

I have found a few others on ebay the most common so far are the spiderman(ASM 189) books with 2 copies found of one so far. I have also seen one Hulk(232), one Avengers and one Iron Man copy. Other then that they are pretty hard to find. I am not too interested in the later issues that had slash marks thur the UPC only the blanks ones as they seem harder to find. Below also is a link to the Marvel Direct sale page. Id like to find out how many others have copies of these Blank UPC books.

Marvel Direct Sale Page

xmen118.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ShieldAgent

ShieldAgent

Posted
Posted
Here is a scan of X-men 118 I just picked up dirt cheap. As you will notice this book is a Type 2 direct edition with a twist as it has the diamond with the burst emblem. This along with other type 2s are commonly called Whitman's due to the White empty UPC box.Febuary & Jan. issues of 1979. So far this issue is the earliest version seen for direct issue sale of X-men books.(I cant rem if Annual 3 came first and I am too lazy to look it up blush.gif This is the only copy I have ever seen of this book other then the one on the website.

 

I have found a few others on ebay the most common so far are the spiderman(ASM 189) books with 2 copies found of one so far. I have also seen one Hulk(232), one Avengers and one Iron Man copy. Other then that they are pretty hard to find. I am not too interested in the later issues that had slash marks thur the UPC only the blanks ones as they seem harder to find. Below also is a link to the Marvel Direct sale page. Id like to find out how many others have copies of these Blank UPC books.

Marvel Direct Sale Page

xmen118.jpg

 

Hey Robert--

 

I was looking for some books for STL & Gifflefunk and found that same book in my box of stuff to sell. Mine is not as nice as yours in the scan, so that would make it worth less than dirt cheap.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted

this whole thread has made my brain hurt.

 

so my question is this:

 

aside from looking out for 30 /35 cent variants

 

I take it that I ought to be looking out diamond price logos and diamond/starburst logos? while this may not mean the book is worth more, it's soemthing worth sticking in a title in case someone is looking for it. could be the difference between something selling for $3 and gathering dust? i'll take the 3 bucks...

 

and once i have the diamonds separated, i need to go back to this thread to figure out what I have

 

it sure seems like I have a heck of a lot of these diamond variants in my collection. could it be that because I live in NYC where there have been a lot of comic shops since the mid/late 70s (I can think of at least 3 in my neighborhood that were around in 1977), there are more direct market copies floating around here?

 

anything else I need to know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fastballspecial

fastballspecial

Posted
  • Author
Posted
this whole thread has made my brain hurt.

 

so my question is this:

 

aside from looking out for 30 /35 cent variants

 

I take it that I ought to be looking out diamond price logos and diamond/starburst logos? while this may not mean the book is worth more, it's soemthing worth sticking in a title in case someone is looking for it. could be the difference between something selling for $3 and gathering dust? i'll take the 3 bucks...

 

and once i have the diamonds separated, i need to go back to this thread to figure out what I have

 

it sure seems like I have a heck of a lot of these diamond variants in my collection. could it be that because I live in NYC where there have been a lot of comic shops since the mid/late 70s (I can think of at least 3 in my neighborhood that were around in 1977), there are more direct market copies floating around here?

 

anything else I need to know?

Relax take a deep breath.

 

Use that website to help you out. You wont see much of a price variation yet on any of those direct books. I am looking for the White boxed ones just cuz I think they are neat and harder to find apparently.

 

Good Luck on the 30/35 cent search trust me from experience you have alot of competition now. Best chance is to find them locally as ebay has professionals scouring them 24/7 and they make it tough to grab one at any price. Though everyone once in awhile you will get a steal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fastballspecial

fastballspecial

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Here is a scan of X-men 118 I just picked up dirt cheap. As you will notice this book is a Type 2 direct edition with a twist as it has the diamond with the burst emblem. This along with other type 2s are commonly called Whitman's due to the White empty UPC box.Febuary & Jan. issues of 1979. So far this issue is the earliest version seen for direct issue sale of X-men books.(I cant rem if Annual 3 came first and I am too lazy to look it up blush.gif This is the only copy I have ever seen of this book other then the one on the website.

 

I have found a few others on ebay the most common so far are the spiderman(ASM 189) books with 2 copies found of one so far. I have also seen one Hulk(232), one Avengers and one Iron Man copy. Other then that they are pretty hard to find. I am not too interested in the later issues that had slash marks thur the UPC only the blanks ones as they seem harder to find. Below also is a link to the Marvel Direct sale page. Id like to find out how many others have copies of these Blank UPC books.

Marvel Direct Sale Page

xmen118.jpg

 

Hey Robert--

 

I was looking for some books for STL & Gifflefunk and found that same book in my box of stuff to sell. Mine is not as nice as yours in the scan, so that would make it worth less than dirt cheap.....

There is really only one key book from Feb 79 anyway its a Spiderman book. So far I have now seen 4. I would assume they are many more, but this all got started by Mile High trying to sell the same X book as a Whitman variant which I knew it wasnt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fastballspecial

fastballspecial

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Your comic graded at 9.4:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=32747&item=6534033017&rd=1

 

Notice that CGC did not recognize it as a "Whitman variant" on their label.

 

FYI -

Thanx for that. If you also noticed on the Marvel's Direct Sale website the picture of the 118 is a 9.6 slabbed book too so they are at least two nicer copies then mine which is probably a 8.5 to 9.0

 

I am in agreement with you they never will recognize them as you stated they arent ones. Wonder why Mile High comics is still trying to sell their copy as a Whitman variant? I tried to find it again and it is no longer there, feel sorry for person who bought it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted

by "looking out" for the 30/35 cent variants I meant looking in my own books because I have about 6,000 BA issues scattered throughout 75-100 boxes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gifflefunk

gifflefunk

Posted
Posted
I am in agreement with you they never will recognize them as you stated they arent ones. Wonder why Mile High comics is still trying to sell their copy as a Whitman variant? I tried to find it again and it is no longer there, feel sorry for person who bought it.

 

The entire line of early Marvel Direct Sale issues are commonly called Whitman editions. This is due mostly to the fact that Whitman was the largest distributor of direct sale books for Marvel between Feb. 1977 and Feb. 1979.

 

There appears to be some evidence that Whitman wasn't the sole distributor of these books (at least in 1977), but Whitman was most likely the controlling factor for the books published throughout 1978 and 1979. The "gaps" in the grids for Jan-Mar 1978, July 1978, and Mar-Apr 1979 strongly indicate that Western Publishings orders for books controlled whether or not Marvel ran a "diamond" edition.

 

And according to John Miller (at CBG) in two different e-mails, they do plan on calling these early direct sale editions "Whitmans" :

 

>

> I think we're going to go with "Whitman", which will streamline matters somewhat

> since we already have the architecture in our database set up for Whitman variants

> of DC and Gold Key comics.

>

 

...and...

 

>

> The plan is "Whitman" in our issue number identifiers, which require a single word;

> always to be followed by "Special markets edition" in our notes field. I worry that

> Special, while correct, isn't descriptive enough on its own; plus again in a SQL

> database each unique issue number must be "created" by hand. The Whitman

> numbers exist as options now in the database, though we had to add a lot of

> numbers not covered by the DC versions we already had.

>

 

So while it may not be 100% accurate in calling these "diamond" issues Whitman variants, it doesn't seem unreasonable to give them that label. Although I'm still waiting for a "smoking gun" to prove that some of the early "diamonds" were used by Marvel outside of their relationship with Whitman... the problem is, how can you show that one of these books was sold outside of a 3-pack? All the bagged sets that have turned up so far appear to have been put out by Western Publishing (Whitman).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted

it's amazing that someone who worked at marvel in the late 70s can't clear this up. i can't imagine everyone is dead who was involved in printing and distribution.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gifflefunk

gifflefunk

Posted
Posted

Here's the latest update from John:

 

The bagged Marvel piece is finished -- it is in CBG #1609, going to the printer next week. Thanks for all your help -- I am sure the feature will stimulate a lot of discussion.

 

Best regards,

John Jackson Miller

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stromm

Stromm

Posted
Posted

jist picked up another collection and these Whitmans were in it. Not sure how I am going to move them yet, but thought you all would want to see them

They came from Grafton WV. the Battlestar Galactica and Flash gordon are sealed, the Condorman 1-3 was/is in the original paper bag from Bowens Pharmacy, Experiment GA, the other 3 pack was too decayed to keep, but the comics were in great shape, lost in space 56, flash gordon 30, and buck rogers 12.

you can see the pics at this link

web page

here is the BG one.

battlestarpack.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

Posted
Posted

Posting for a customer:

 

"I read a thread on the Collectors' Society web site about Marvel Whitman variants that interested me tremendously. I wanted to post a request for someone who has a copy of the Spectacular Spider-Man #23 Whitman variant to post a scan of it on the site but apparently my firewall will not allow me to post anything and my knowledge of computers is so limited that I don't know how to disable the firewall in order to post my request. Could I impose upon you to please

make the request in my behalf?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing