fastballspecial Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 Different strokes for different folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awakeintheashes Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 A very knowledgeable boardie provided the below info that, while a guess, makes sense as to the three different prices. The $1.99 was for standard distribution throughout the US. The $2.29 is the Canadian newsstand. The $2.49 is a "book market", Barnes & Noble type effort. As we know now, much of the "book market" has had "higher" cover prices for their newsstand books, which bled over into the whole newsstand by the early/mid 00's. I am of the opinion...educated guess, here...that that is the genesis of those price differences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 A very knowledgeable boardie provided the below info that, while a guess, makes sense as to the three different prices. The $1.99 was for standard distribution throughout the US. The $2.29 is the Canadian newsstand. The $2.49 is a "book market", Barnes & Noble type effort. As we know now, much of the "book market" has had "higher" cover prices for their newsstand books, which bled over into the whole newsstand by the early/mid 00's. I am of the opinion...educated guess, here...that that is the genesis of those price differences. Canadian Newsstand? No. Not a chance. 1. It has an explicitly U.S. price. 2. The regular version was priced at 1.99 US/2.99 CAN 3. Canadian Newsstand editions were long gone at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awakeintheashes Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 A very knowledgeable boardie provided the below info that, while a guess, makes sense as to the three different prices. The $1.99 was for standard distribution throughout the US. The $2.29 is the Canadian newsstand. The $2.49 is a "book market", Barnes & Noble type effort. As we know now, much of the "book market" has had "higher" cover prices for their newsstand books, which bled over into the whole newsstand by the early/mid 00's. I am of the opinion...educated guess, here...that that is the genesis of those price differences. Canadian Newsstand? No. Not a chance. 1. It has an explicitly U.S. price. 2. The regular version was priced at 1.99 US/2.99 CAN 3. Canadian Newsstand editions were long gone at this point. Ah, I see. Thanks for the info. Well, the book market scenario makes sense and would explain one of the higher prices. Any guess as to the other? I've been digging for sources to find some type of solid information but haven't found anything outside of a few guesses yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 On 19/12/2016 at 4:37 PM, Marwood & I said: Guys, This information has been touched on in other threads, but none of them seemed to go anywhere and most of them included lots of pointless bickering. So here's my own attempt to clarify the existence of Marvel newsstand price variants. Back in the day when I was an ASM Completist, I collected the following books: As you can see, as well as the usual $1.99 Direct Editions, three Newsstand versions exist for each ASM numbers 10, 11 and 13 at $1.99, $2.29 and $2.49. I never found an issue 12, but I think Marvel skipped that one as it was a double sized $2.99 special issue. So it looks like Marvel did a similar test market exercise to the 30 / 35 cent variants unless anyone can identify another reason as to why they would produce three different Newsstand prices for the same issue. Being an ASM Completist, I never went too much further to see if the price variants existed for all titles, but the few scans I kept from online sources seem to indicate that they do. Here are all nine Spideys: I'm a little surprised that there is not more definitive information out there about these, given the amount of collectors who go after price variants. So, does anyone have any more examples to add, or additional information? Is anyone interested in hunting them all down? My days are done, but it would be a great pass time for a 30 / 35 cv collector who had achieved the set and was looking for a new challenge.... Onwards! Whatever happened to this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 There are more of them out there - here's a few lifted from the interweb: Is somebody going to put a pretty table of them together or do I have to do everything around here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 Talking of pretty tables: I'm getting nostalgic, sniff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 6 hours ago, Marwood & I said: Whatever happened to this? Complete lack of information and general lack of interest, probably. Mostly the complete lack of available information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 29 minutes ago, Lazyboy said: Complete lack of information and general lack of interest, probably. Mostly the complete lack of available information. I'm going to have to put a chart together aren't I Lazyboy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 22 minutes ago, Marwood & I said: I'm going to have to put a chart together aren't I Lazyboy. A complete list/chart of the issues would be nice, but still wouldn't explain why they exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted March 10, 2017 Author Share Posted March 10, 2017 3 minutes ago, Lazyboy said: A complete list/chart of the issues would be nice, but still wouldn't explain why they exist. That's true. But the more you bang on, the more chance there is of an answer being flushed out. The truth is out there..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted March 24, 2017 Author Share Posted March 24, 2017 Does anyone want to talk about price variants tonight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_highgrade Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 I love newsies. I have a couple of long boxes going back to the 80's through present. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 17 hours ago, mr_highgrade said: I love newsies. I have a couple of long boxes going back to the 80's through present. Indeed. Newsstands are the originals you might say Mr HG. Where it all began.... Now, look through those boxes of yours for Oct 1999 ~ Jan 2000 Marvels, and see if any have single $2.29 / $2.49 prices. And then get in touch with Marvel for me and ask to speak to the 'Clerk in Charge of Historic Price Variants'. I can never get hold of that guy.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted May 19, 2017 Author Share Posted May 19, 2017 Hello Friends of Obscure and Unexplained Price Variants! I thought this thread was worth a bump, if only to see if it draws out any new eyes or information on these price variants which remain stubbornly under the radar. To recap, during the months of October 1999 and January 2000 Marvel produced newsstand copies with three different prices – the ‘regular’ price of $1.99 and two variant prices of $2.29 and $2.49. Here’s a pretty chart for the Amazing Spider-Man issues, and I posted full scans of all the copies of earlier in the thread: The reason I think it’s worth resurrecting is that I feel these variants could be the modern equivalent of the 30 and 35 Cent Variants. Given how prolific and cherished they are, I find it odd that there is such a lack of interest in these more recent examples. Maybe it’s because they are of a later, perhaps less cherished period in comic history? According to the DC Indexes website there are over 50 titles for October 1999 alone: http://www.dcindexes.com/features/newsstand.php?publisher=marvel&type=cover&month=10&year=1999&sort=alpha At a rough average of 50 titles per month, that’s 200 issues over the four months if every title had the treatment. If all had an additional $2.29 and $2.49 copy that would be approximately 400 price variants (over and above the regular priced Direct and Newsstand editions). There are two aspects to this investigation – what exists, and why they exist. Now I’m close to running out of pence things to investigate, I may look at starting to build up a library of what exists on this front. I would imagine it would be hard going, but it’s something to pass the time. Meanwhile, if anyone has any Marvel newsstand comics dated Oct 1999 to Jan 2000 with single $2.29 / $2.49 prices, please post them here so I can add them to the list. And if anyone knows for sure why these variants exist – there is some speculation earlier in this thread – I’d love to hear it. All good fun! mr_highgrade 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_highgrade Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 I am going to do a little digging tonight on those long boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted May 19, 2017 Author Share Posted May 19, 2017 11 minutes ago, mr_highgrade said: I am going to do a little digging tonight on those long boxes. Sooper! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gradejunky Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 Awesome thread! I am a DCU variant hunter and these books now have me interested to do the same with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted May 22, 2017 Author Share Posted May 22, 2017 On 2017-5-19 at 3:16 PM, mr_highgrade said: I am going to do a little digging tonight on those long boxes. Did you find anything @mr_highgrade ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_highgrade Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 10 hours ago, Marwood & I said: Did you find anything @mr_highgrade ? Still digging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
