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new star wars variant or error printing?

Started by comichunter,

41 posts in this topic

comichunter

comichunter

Posted
Posted

well for all those variant hunters out there like myself. here is a new twist.

 

i have been collecting for over 20 years, and am pretty familiar with comics, although i do not post as much here as some of you.

 

here is a star wars comic missing both the price and the issue number on the comic yay.gif

 

new variant or error printing?

 

I would assume it is an error printing. , but since in all my years of collecting, i would assume it is one of a kind. So do the variant listings out there have to be changed? or is CGC have to change their qualifications for variants. Do any of you have a Star Wars 1 like this? I would be curious to know?

 

anyway here is the scan, let me know your comments.

 

After so many printings, is it really surprising that Marvel made a mistake along the way? I would imagine that this one comic came was printed when they switched the press, between going from the 30 cent to the 35 cent price change, I don't know.

 

Your comments? Time to change the list for variants? Is this comic a variant or an error in printing? My though would be an error in printing.

 

no price and no number.

 

more on this!

 

Frank 919538-starwarserror.jpg

919538-starwarserror.jpg.f1df1435e7c4aa33878b4a91bc37a329.jpg

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cosmic-spider-man

cosmic-spider-man

Posted
Posted

cool.gif Cool find Frank I hope it turns out to be the real thing let us know when you get it. I hope I am wrong but if that is the only scan you got it is a good chance someone has just photoshoped the price and issue number out frown.gif

I just won one of those SW #1 with the 35 cent diamond that had the bar code on ebay and it turned out to be fake. Someone cut a bar code off something else and glued it on the SW #1 and even after I got it, it took me a while to figure out it was fake. foreheadslap.gif

919587-Untitled-4.jpg.0daeaa8a161cee004a68d72c0cf1e869.jpg

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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Posted

Amazing how much interest you can generate with a little kid and a bottle of White-Out. boo.gif

 

If you enlarge the scan, you can see white material, either physical or image manipulation, covering the issue and price. Prepare to be disappointed.

 

P.S. Even what is supposed to be the "STAR WARS" written above it looks freaky, like it's hand-written or something.

919602-asm_129_new_sm.jpg.8bec7af6302a4ecdb124171954ab94b8.jpg

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comichunter

comichunter

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Posted

good point about the white out, but.... i guess he would have to white out the whole UPC area too, right?

 

I mean no box square 30 cent price comics had that blank did they? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

 

the only ones i have seen with a UPC blank has been the diamond price reprints? tonofbricks.gif

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted
good point about the white out, but.... i guess he would have to white out the whole UPC area too, right?

 

Yep, but I really don't know what's up with that book. But something is not right, as is clearly evident from the image, and your chances of getting a real variant are less than 0%.

 

Sorry. sorry.gif

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
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grin.gif I think I seen that ASM #129 some where before 893whatthe.gif

 

27_laughing.gif

 

Amazing Spider-man 129 - First Punisher - RARE 25-CENT VARIANT!

 

I purchased this comic right off the newsstand in downtown NY (during a trip) and dutifully filed it away in my collection. Only later, when I started attending ComicCons, did I start noticing that the cover price was different, and featured a 25¢ notation, rather than the standard 20¢ I kept seeing on display. At the time, I really didn't think much of it, and since dealers didn't have a clue and really weren't interested in helping me out, it became a curiosity in my collection.

 

I have some bills to pay and have decided that the pleasure of owning this book doesn't outweigh financial responsibility, so I'm putting it up for auction. The condition is VF/NM, and with the regular 20¢ edition selling for over $500 in this condition, I hope you will recognize the incredible scarcity of this 25¢ variant, and bid appropriately. Please read below for a history of this particular comic, along with my conversations with Marvel regarding its origins and veracity.

 

 

 

I had a the good fortune of hitting a Marvel ComicCon in NY during the late-70's, and decided to take the book along and see if anyone at Marvel knew what was up. I showed the book to a few Marvelites (including Stan the Man) and none of them had any ideas, but Sal Buscema did point me in the direction of a gentleman at the Marvel Display, a Mr. Sol Brodsky. Apparently, Mr. Brodsky handled operations and circulation, and was a long-time Marvel employee.

 

When I showed him the comic, his eyes lit up, and I'll do my best to relay what I remember of our conversation and Mr. Brodsky's replies:

 

"I never thought I'd see one of those again. You see Stan was real worried about the proposed 25¢ price increase, so he wanted to make sure he wasn't stepping into a landmine. He talked to me about doing some market research, but as our department consisted of me and a secretary, we didn't have the manpower or procedures in place. We agreed on a compromise, whereby we would print up a few of the higher 25¢ issues, distribute these to nearby newsstand vendors and do a quick tally of any customer resistance. It was pretty basic, and at lunch, I'd head down with a few stacks of books, give them to the vendors and then check the stands and ask if anyone complained."

 

I then asked Mr. Brodsky how many copies of these were produced, which months/issues and which newsstands:

 

"I can't really remember which issues, but we stuck to the popular series, and along with this Spidey, I think we used an Avengers and maybe a Conan issue from the same time. We did this for 3 consecutive months, and couldn't have printed more than a hundred copies, and maybe not that many of the last issue. By that time, Stan had decided to go ahead with the 25¢ jump, and even decided to post an apology in the various letter pages. And like I said, we wanted to keep it small, so we only used 3-4 newsstands that were in walking distance of the Marvel offices. I think we gave the vendors some free Marvel stuff to go along with the test."

 

Now I have never seen another of these ASM 129 25¢ issues, and with approximately 100 copies printed, it's not surprising. I've also never seen these fabled Avengers or Conan 25¢ variants either, but using Mr. Brodsky's comments, it's pretty easy to narrow down which ones they may be.

 

Amazing Spider-man 129 was a February 1974 issue, and Marvel went 25¢ across the board in May. So the other possible 25¢ variants would be the subsequent March and April issues, or Avengers 121 and 122, along with Conan 36 and 37. Obviously, the ASM 129 is the only key issue in the bunch, but if you bought comics near the Marvel Offices in downtown NY, then checking for these ultra rare books might be worth your while.

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted
JC

Can't remember but was that post rolled out on April 1st???

 

Yep, that was my April Fools Joke for all the variant collectors. The bidding was quite heavy there for awhile, and there was a thread about it on here.

 

Then some insufficiently_thoughtful_person turned on the lights. tongue.gif

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