When exactly did Marvel start selling "direct edition" books? 1 1

[RockMyAmadeus]

28 minutes ago, divad said:

Thanks for a link to "zero results" whatever that meant to illustrate.

And that is not the answer to his question (you should take the time to read his post, instead of acting like a know-it-all.

cheers,

d

I'll make it easy for you. Here's his question:

Quote

I'm struggling to figure out whether there is such a thing as a direct edition copy of Amazing Spider-Man #192.

The answer to that question, which I've already given, is yes.

Maybe you should take the time to read his post, instead of trying to pick fights with people.

[RockMyAmadeus]

My apologies, Sweet Lou; there was no need for all of that. 

I hope I've answered your question...if anything was not clear, please, by all means, feel free to follow up.

Edited September 3, 2018 by RockMyAmadeus

[Sweet Lou 14]

1 minute ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

I hope I've answered your question...if anything was not clear, please, by all means, feel free to follow up.

Yes, thank you very much for all the insightful comments and the time you took to provide them!

Let me see if I can summarize:

• I should in fact consider the "blank UPC" issues up to and including May 1979 as direct editions in the same vein as the "diagonal line UPC" issues starting in June 1979.
• The Whitman packs were essentially packaging direct-edition books -- at least at Marvel, there were no Whitman-specific cover designs or print runs.
• The Starburst design was all about advertising "Still only 35c!" and had nothing to do with direct vs. newsstand.

On that last point, I was going to say "But Cap #233 is 40 cents" but some quick Google searching shows there may have been 35-cent and 40-cent versions of this book, and even the newsstand 40-cent version looks like a late-hour covering over of the price:

NOTE:  The above image was taken from Marvel.com, hence the completely blacked-out UPC code.  I am not 100% sure it can be trusted but it's all I could find in a moment's searching.

And now, a follow-up question:  am I right in my perception that direct editions are more rare before June 1979?  I've had no problem at all finding any Marvel book I want starting from when the diagonal-bar UPC was introduced.  But I really am considering giving up on finding a high-grade direct copy of ASM #192, just as I gave up similarly on finding a direct copy of X-Men #121 from the same month.

[RockMyAmadeus]

1 minute ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Let me see if I can summarize:

• I should in fact consider the "blank UPC" issues up to and including May 1979 as direct editions in the same vein as the "diagonal line UPC" issues starting in June 1979.
• The Whitman packs were essentially packaging direct-edition books -- at least at Marvel, there were no Whitman-specific cover designs or print runs.
• The Starburst design was all about advertising "Still only 35c!" and had nothing to do with direct vs. newsstand.

Correct on all points. Any "diamond" issues and/or blank UPC issues would be Direct market versions. I don't *think* there are any blank UPCs without diamonds of one sort or another, but things were hectic, especially in 1977. There are two "fat diamond" versions of Star Wars #11, for example, one with UPC code and one blank.

5 minutes ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

On that last point, I was going to say "But Cap #233 is 40 cents" but some quick Google searching shows there may have been 35-cent and 40-cent versions of this book, and even the newsstand 40-cent version looks like a late-hour covering over of the price:

NOTE:  The above image was taken from Marvel.com, hence the completely blacked-out UPC code.  I am not 100% sure it can be trusted but it's all I could find in a moment's searching.

And now, a follow-up question:  am I right in my perception that direct editions are more rare before June 1979?  I've had no problem at all finding any Marvel book I want starting from when the diagonal-bar UPC was introduced.  But I really am considering giving up on finding a high-grade direct copy of ASM #192, just as I gave up similarly on finding a direct copy of X-Men #121 from the same month.

That 35 cent Cap #233 does not exist. Marvel, on their website, frequently fiddles with images, and they can create confusion.

Some of the books printed with a May, 1979 cover date...like Cap #233, Marvel Two-In-One #51, and Daredevil #158...were printed right at the changeover of price, and had to be fixed "on the fly", so to speak. That's why they have that weird mark up like that. X-Men #121 and DD #158 *almost certainly* do NOT have any Direct market counterpart, while MTIO #51 and Cap #233 do...both of which are 40c. Can't rule anything out, but with the interest in DD #158 and X-Men #121 virtually since they were published, a Direct market copy, if it existed, would probably have surfaced by now.

If you look inside DD #158, you'll see a 35 cent cover mock up on the Bullpen Bulletins page...that version, like the Cap #233 above, also does not exist.

Direct editions before June of 1979 are, indeed, much harder to find than after. When Marvel went company-wide with the program, they started printing substantially more Direct market copies than they had been, and the Direct copies from before tended not to survive, especially in high grade.