35 cent Variant List-Help wanted

[cosmic-spider-man]

I have been looking through 1977 comics looking for any mention of Marvel's price increse to 35 cent mostly Bullpen Bulletions and letter pages so far all I have found is this note at the end of the Bullpen Bulletion page in the November issues that year the month all marvels went to 35 cent. Don't konw if anyone is even interested but I thought I would post it .

 

[Darthdiesel]

inflation in 77 and 78 Now how long did that promise last to keep prices from going up before it went up to $0.40?

[FlyingDonut]

inflation in 77 and 78 Now how long did that promise last to keep prices from going up before it went up to $0.40?

 

40 cent prices cover dated April 1979.

[cosmic-spider-man]

Hear is something that might interest 35 cent variant collectors. I was looking at my 35 cent variants about a week ago and I noticed that the top edges of most of them had color marks, bands or had the whole top sprayed various colors well when I noticed this I thought maybe this would be a good way to tell which test city each of the variants came from and sure enough all my 35 cent variats from Toledo OH. had the whole top sprayed, the ones I got from Memphis Tennessee have either one or two thin color marks on the top left edge, the ones I have that came from Wilimington NC. have no marks at all and the ones I got from Tony Brock on ebay have about a one inch band of color near the middle of the top edge and I talked to Tony about them and he is sure they came from Tuscaloosa AL. he even has a friend form their who remembers buying them new and also says that his friend remembers Stan Lee coming to the University of Alabama and some one asking him why their comics were 35 cent, and Tony also pointed out to me that Stan Lee talkes about his visit to the University of Alabama in his soap box in the Sept. 1977 issues but he doesn't mention the price increase in the soap box.

Well I also talked to Jeff " finecomics" about this and he said the marks on the top edges of comics were for the distributors to know when it was time to pull old comics from the racks they would have 4 colors such as red, yellow, green and blue one for each week and when they got back to the first color all of those would have to be pulled from the rack and this makes good sense. I would like to get more info on this subject if their are anyone on here that knows how this worked for example was this a very comon practice as I know none of my Wilimington books had any marks on them, how many colors did they use 3, 4 or more did this vary? are their anyone on hear who actualy seen this done?

If I can figure out all the different distribution marks on 35 cent variants this should give us a very good ideal if their were six test city's like Donuts letter suggest or maybe more, so far looking through mine I am sure their are at least five and I am sure when I understand better how these marks were used I will discover more. This could also go a long way toward figuring out how rare these are. I sure would appreciate anyones input on this especialy if they have noticed any marks on the tops of their 35 cent variants different from the ones I have listed. Also like to hear from anyone with knowledge about the Distribution marks. Heck I would even like to hear anyone's opion on this What do you think?

 

[Darthdiesel]

Great research topic Terry! Maybe you can talk to Glenn and see how his books are marked from the Wilmington buy he made. I'll have to go home and check mine

[ShieldAgent]

Another great topic, Terry.

 

I have books that have the same marks, but I do have several, in my limited collection, that have none. This inlcudes the one from the Kansas seller, the two from the Pennsylvania seller, and the one I found in a Baltimore shop.

 

The ones I got from Tony, have the one inch band. The ones from Earl Shaw do not appear to be marked except one that has the whole top marked.

 

Hope that helps

 

Harry

[Stronguy]

Funny, all of mine are marked with a 30¢ cover price.

[ShieldAgent]

 

 

HA--we know you have the Avengers variants!

[cosmic-spider-man]

Hi; Harry

Thanks for the reply, It would sure be Cool to find out that Kansas or Pennsylvania was a test city but I bet those books originaly came from Wilmington NC. and the ones you got from Earl should all have the tops sprayed I looked through mine and they all do some of them are real faint but it looks like someone tried to color the whole top edges of all of them maybe a few got missed I also have a bunch more from a guy who said they came from Toledo OH. and they all have the tops sprayed also.

I have found one problem with this way of idenifying which test city 35 cent variants came from, it is likely that more than one city marked their comics the same way. I have already found two with the whole top sprayed of the same issue ASM #172 and they have two different colors one is red and one is yellow so they must have came from different test city's "the yellow one came from Toledo and the red one I got from someone in Idaho but it might have came form anywhere" but still if we know which color was used for each week/month in each city we should be able to tell where it came from unless their are two or more test city's that did not mark their comics at all like Wilminton NC. that would be a big problem

Anyway I would love to hear everyones thoughts on this as I may be way off.

[Metarog]

That's some great stuff Terry! Does anybody think one of the test market cities could be in Northeast Florida? I have found several in the Daytona Beach-Jacksonville area. Anybody from that area find any or could these be imports from Alabama? Just curious.

[cosmic-spider-man]

Hi; Roger Don't know haven't heard of any coming form their but it could be. Did the two I got from you come from their the Powerman 47 and Marvel team-up 59 I will take a look at them in the morning and see what kind of marks they have if any.

I need to go through all of mine and make a chart of all the different marks and colors on each and every one of them and maybe I can come up with a key and posibley figure out how many Test Markets their actually were but it might be a little harder than it sounds if I do figure it out I will post my results on hear but it may take a while and it may not even work but I will give it a shot and any help is appreciated the more samples we have the more reliable the chart will be so anyone interested post any info about distribution marks on your 35 cent variants color, type of mark and what issue it is on and if you know where they originaly came from that would be a big help to

[ShieldAgent]

Terry--

 

I will go through all of mine (easy for me as I do not have too many) and get you a list of where I got them and what the top looks like. Hope this may help you.

 

Hopefully others can do the same for you.

 

Harry

[Metarog]

Hi Terry, the Powerman came from Daytona Beach but the MTU came from Maryland I think. However, I had an Avengers 161 from St. Augustine and a beat up Defenders 50 from Jacksonville Beach. I have searched throughout Florida in the past year and that was all I turned up-although I have never searched west of Tallahassee. These could be transplants but I was just curious.

[cosmic-spider-man]

Thanks Harry and Roger

 

Hi Terry, the Powerman came from Daytona Beach but the MTU came from Maryland I think.

 

Roger I checked out the two I got from you today and I am sure that the Powerman #47 came form Memphis TN. because I have another one that came from their and they have almost identical markes on them in fact they must have been very, very close together when the distribtor marked them but the Marvel Team-up #59 has the whole top sprayed red and I have another one of this issue that has the whole top sprayed blue and I am sure it came from Toledo so the Marvel Team-up must have come from another test Market that I don't know of yet very cool maybe Florida, Pennsylvania, Kansas or Idaho or anywhere else wish I knew. .

 

I have attached a little example of the differences in the 35 cent variants Distribution marks it is a little hard to see because I scaned them in their bags so I would not damage them but I hope you can see them good enough. Hope I am not wasting my time in a futal effort but I am going to get to work on that chart now. maybe it will work out.

 

Does anyone know how often comics were pulled from the rack and what comics came out the first week of the month, second, third, & forth back in 1977.

 

 

[Metarog]

Great analysis Terry! Do you see any patterns among the titles? It has been theorized that some titles where only sold in 1 or 2 markets and that is why some titles are rarer that others. For example, do all the Westerns come from one market... how about lesser selling titles like Inhumans, Omega, 2001 and Logan's Run?

 

I'll check to see if I have any info on which comics came out in which week. I think I have this for some of the more popular titles. I'll post what I have tonight.

[cosmic-spider-man]

Hi; Roger

My two Westerns came from different markets the Kid Colt 220 has no marks so I think it must have come form Wilmington NC. and my Rawhide Kid 141 came from Memphis TN. and I don't know for sure but that Kid Colt 218 finecomics sold to Daffy on ebay came out of that Toledo lot that Earl shaw had " maybe Jeff can verify if it had the whole top sprayed" so that is a western in three different markets I think it will be proven that they were sold in every market eventualy

As for those other lesser selling comics I do have Logan's Run comic from 3 different markets I also have Inhumans from 2 different markets haven't got to 2001's yet, I think" and I may be wrong" but I think all the Test Market areas should have had every comic released their .

If you can help me with which books came out which week that would help alot even if it is just part of them. I bought comics back then but I just can't remember which came out first.

[ft88]

The ultimate 35 cent Variant as advertised in Marvel May 79 issues. I always thought that was nifty.

 

[cosmic-spider-man]

The ones I got from Tony, have the one inch band. The ones from Earl Shaw do not appear to be marked except one that has the whole top marked.

 

Hi; Harry

while going through my Earl Shaw 35 cent variants I also found a few that had no marks on the top edges and I thought maybe he had a few that did not come from Toledo so I pulled them out and I got to thinking would it be posible that some of them were upside down when they got sprayed by the distributor so I looked and the ones that did not have the spray on the top edge had it on the bottom edge. Would you check and see if yours are like this. Makes me think I should go back through and look at the bottom edge of all the ones I have that I think came form Wilmington I might have marked some of them wrong.

[Metarog]

Okay here is the info I promised. I don't have the info for all titles as my notes are incomplete but I am fairly certain this is how these titles come out at that time.

 

First week of the month:

Daredevil

Invaders

Marvel Super-Heroes

MTIO

Tomb of Dracula

 

2nd week of the month:

ASM

Capt. America

Dr. Strange

Eternals

Ghost Rider

Thor

 

3rd week of the month:

Avengers

Conan

Hulk

Marvel Tales

Omega

Powerman

 

4th week of the month:

Capt. Marvel

FF

Howard the Duck

Iron Man

Master of Kung Fu

Peter Parker

[cosmic-spider-man]

Great info Roger thanks I am sure this will help. I have my chart about half done now but it is so full of holes that I have not seen any paterns in it at all yet maybe when more of the holes are filled a patern will come out and let us know how many test markets their actualy were . I also already have a bunch that I don't know where they came from and I got a lot of them form Darthdiesel and Flying Donut do you guys have any ideal where they might have came from? FD I know that last batch came from TN. but the eairler ones I got form you do you know where they came from one I am really interested in is that Avengers 161 I got from you it has the whole top sprayed Green but the one I have from Toledo has the top sprayed yellow so it must be from a Test City that I don't know of yet ? Also Carl the Kull 22 I got from you has two Orange marks like the Memphis comics but I haven't seen another "and I have quite a few from their" with that color on them maybe another Test market .

On another subject I read on the Mile High website that in the 70's their were something like 500 distributors of comics if this is true and it turns out that 5 or 6 of them got the 35 cent variants to distribute in their areas this would mean that the total number of these variants would be around 1% of the total print run. I know that some distributors must have got a lot more comics than others places like Toledo and Memphis would have a lot more than say Tuscaloosa or Wilmington. What does everyone else think about this? were their actualy around 500 distributors of comics back in 1977?