The Whitman Thread 15 15

[Brock]

On 7/11/2023 at 10:01 AM, MisterX said:

Batman 324 certainly seems to have become one of the more desirable Whitman variants out there. (Not my copy.)

Yes, I was watching that one too... it surprised me with that strong a finish for a book that looks about a VG+ 4.5, and not much pressing potential.

[bellrules]

On 7/11/2023 at 11:30 AM, Brock said:

Yes, I was watching that one too... it surprised me with that strong a finish for a book that looks about a VG+ 4.5, and not much pressing potential.

It’s a ghost. I’ve been coming across a lot of the rare Whitman DC books in the past month and zero Batman 324s. (Pics to come)

[Brock]

On 7/11/2023 at 1:37 PM, bellrules said:

It’s a ghost. I’ve been coming across a lot of the rare Whitman DC books in the past month and zero Batman 324s. (Pics to come)

You are a rare Whitman magnet.

[MisterX]

On 7/11/2023 at 1:30 PM, Brock said:

Yes, I was watching that one too... it surprised me with that strong a finish for a book that looks about a VG+ 4.5, and not much pressing potential.

An even more tattered copy sold for $196 USD a few weeks ago.

Batman 324 WHITMAN VARIANT Aparo cover Novick art Selena Kyle 1980 DC Comic | eBay

[Brock]

On 7/12/2023 at 10:11 AM, MisterX said:

An even more tattered copy sold for $196 USD a few weeks ago.

Batman 324 WHITMAN VARIANT Aparo cover Novick art Selena Kyle 1980 DC Comic | eBay

Yet in December, I picked one up on eBay for less than $60... it's pictured earlier in this thread.

I would note that all three came from Canada.

[bellrules]

On 7/12/2023 at 8:11 AM, MisterX said:

An even more tattered copy sold for $196 USD a few weeks ago.

Batman 324 WHITMAN VARIANT Aparo cover Novick art Selena Kyle 1980 DC Comic | eBay

It has a blown bottom staple. Noticed it last night when I went looking at completed listings. I think it’s tougher to find than DCCP 22

[MisterX]

On 7/12/2023 at 11:14 AM, bellrules said:

It has a blown bottom staple. Noticed it last night when I went looking at completed listings. I think it’s tougher to find than DCCP 22

Maybe these last two sales will shake a few more copies loose?

[bellrules]

On 7/12/2023 at 3:35 PM, MisterX said:

Maybe these last two sales will shake a few more copies loose?

Let’s hope. I know of a collector in Edmonton who has a 9.0. 

[bellrules]

Here are the rare DC Whitmans I found lately. 

[Warlord]

Picked up a (new to me) DC Whitman 3-pack for my collection!  I almost didn't notice that this was NOT the same as the 3-pack with Action 495, 496, and 497 which I already have and so I almost passed on it.  There are two overlapping issues, which I suppose accounts for my oversight, but this pack contains Action 496, 497, and 498. 

 

Action 496, 497, and 498

 

Action 495, 496, and 497

[Warlord]

In other DC Whitman collecting news, I visited a comic store for the first time and as luck would have it they were having a sale which included some extra inventory.  After shopping through tons of back issues, I was amazed to come away with quite the haul of Whitmans.  Typically I feel lucky if I spot even 2 or 3 Whitmans in a shop's back issue bins, but this time I came away with about 25 issues in mid to high grade! There were probably at least another 10-12 issues that I left behind because they were lower grade commons.   Here's a group shot of my finds! (with a handful of other issues mixed in that came from an ebay lot)

[Warlord]

Here's a close-up of the Super Friends #22.  This is a pretty rare issue IMHO and, although it needs pressed, this one is otherwise in fantastic high grade!

Edited August 6, 2023 by Warlord

[bellrules]

It’s been a great week. 

[Kevin.J]

[Warlord]

On 8/15/2023 at 1:09 AM, bellrules said:

It’s been a great week.

 

Hey, leave some out there for the rest of us to find!

[bellrules]

On 8/15/2023 at 8:42 AM, Warlord said:

Hey, leave some out there for the rest of us to find!

I’ll try.

[Brock]

I'm working my way through the Market Reports in the new Overstreet Guide for this year. As he often does, mega dealer Doug Sulipa commented on Whitmans and fat diamond Marvels, and I thought it might be worth noting here. He writes:

"CGC will also now be listing "Multi-Pack" editions on their labels, more correctly termed Early Direct editions (non-polybag editions, were 100% distributed thru Seagate only, as far as I know). This pertains to Marvel Comics from 2-12/1977, 1978 and 1979 (most with black diamond), which are often mistaken to be Whitman Marvel. In reality, only the plastic bag is Whitman. Once the comics are removed, they are identical to Marvel Direct editions. They are one and the same. There are approximately 400+ comics published thus in each of these years. with an estimated total of 1200-1300 existing in the period. The 1977 issues are usually scarcest, and typically command 50% over-Guide premiums, while 1978-1979 issues on average sell at about a 10-30% over-Guide premium. Since they are not broken out in the Guide, most collectors are not aware that they even exist. A few issues were not published as Early Direct editions in the period (three entire months if I recall correctly). That was probably a publisher oversite [sic] error, and they seem likely to not exist. Knowledge and statistics are still hard to find on these, with no detailed research on scarcity. CGC Census will help in the future. Some issues seems quite rare, with a few collectors having searched to find gaps in their collection for 5-10 year with little or no luck."

"DC Early Direct editions started in December 1978 (see Batman #306 for example) through to December 1979. Many of the December 1978 DC Comics were Whitman Logo Variants. Many might not exist as Early Direct editions. The Whitman Logo Variants of DC Comics exist from March of 1978 through to August of 1980."

I thought I'd share this as Sulipa has a lot of credibility on these kinds of issues, and was (as I understand it) an active dealer at the time.

[bellrules]

I would have to agree even though I’ve only seen anecdotal evidence of that. Found a picture online from a seller that was selling fantastic four and Thor books out of the UK and they posted a pick of the books they had. All unbagged large diamond books that were old store stock. 

[Warlord]

On 8/24/2023 at 8:19 PM, Brock said:

I'm working my way through the Market Reports in the new Overstreet Guide for this year. As he often does, mega dealer Doug Sulipa commented on Whitmans and fat diamond Marvels, and I thought it might be worth noting here. He writes:

"CGC will also now be listing "Multi-Pack" editions on their labels, more correctly termed Early Direct editions (non-polybag editions, were 100% distributed thru Seagate only, as far as I know). This pertains to Marvel Comics from 2-12/1977, 1978 and 1979 (most with black diamond), which are often mistaken to be Whitman Marvel. In reality, only the plastic bag is Whitman. Once the comics are removed, they are identical to Marvel Direct editions. They are one and the same. There are approximately 400+ comics published thus in each of these years. with an estimated total of 1200-1300 existing in the period. The 1977 issues are usually scarcest, and typically command 50% over-Guide premiums, while 1978-1979 issues on average sell at about a 10-30% over-Guide premium. Since they are not broken out in the Guide, most collectors are not aware that they even exist. A few issues were not published as Early Direct editions in the period (three entire months if I recall correctly). That was probably a publisher oversite [sic] error, and they seem likely to not exist. Knowledge and statistics are still hard to find on these, with no detailed research on scarcity. CGC Census will help in the future. Some issues seems quite rare, with a few collectors having searched to find gaps in their collection for 5-10 year with little or no luck."

I thought I'd share this as Sulipa has a lot of credibility on these kinds of issues, and was (as I understand it) an active dealer at the time.

Not sure I'd place too much weight on these comments when Doug can't even be bothered to get the fairly knowable numbers correct, or even close.  He references 1977-1979 and says there are 400+ "Direct" Marvel comics published in each of the years with 1200-1300 existing in the period.  He's way off.  I'm not writing an article so I'm not doing rigorous research but, by my quick counts, here are the rough numbers.

"...Marvel Direct editions. They are one and the same. There are approximately 400+ comics published thus in each of these years. with an estimated total of 1200-1300 existing in the period"

Nope, not 1200-1300.  More like 500-600 for Feb 1977 to Dec 1979 (400 for the Marvel Whitmans through May 1979 then, what, another 150/200-ish for June - Dec 1979 when Marvel is publishing real Direct editions for every comic?). 

1977: 190 Marvel Whitman issues

1978: 128 Marvel Whitman issues

1979 through May:  76 Marvel Whitman issues (June starts what we all know as the real Marvel Direct editions, so I haven't bothered to count those, I'll throw out a Sulipa-quality guess of 150/200-ish)

"A few issues were not published as Early Direct editions in the period (three entire months if I recall correctly). That was probably a publisher oversite [sic] error, and they seem likely to not exist."

No, he does not recall correctly. There were not a few issues that were not published as "Early Direct" editions (aka, Marvel Whitmans as I'll call them.). First, there were MANY comics that were not published as Marvel Whitman variants from Feb 1977 - May 1979. MANY! To name one large example, 29 issues of Master of Kung-Fu were published in this period and the title has ZERO Marvel Whitman variants.  Another pair of examples - Howard the Duck and Godzilla were published during most of this period and have only one and two variants, respectively.  Even the more popular titles have a few or many gap months. So, no, not a publisher oversight.  IMHO, it was the publisher printing exactly what Whitman ordered.

Second, there were NO months from Feb 1977 through May 1979 where Marvel Whitman editions were entirely skipped. There were, however, five months where it appears that Whitman ordered only massive quantities of their very popular licensed titles, but not the regular roster of Marvel owned titles.  Going by cover dates, here are the months where we saw ONLY licensed titles as Marvel Whitman variants:

1978 - Jan, Feb, Mar, Jul (Jan-Mar = Star Wars #7, 8, 9, Jul = Star Wars #13)

1979 - Mar, Apr (Mar-Apr = Battlestar Galactica #1,2,  Shogun Warriors #2,3)

The indication that Whitman went all-in on these issues can be see by the extreme ease of locating any of these issues today, and that they can readily still be obtained in sealed Whitman multi-packs as well.

Lastly, as a collector of Marvel Whitman variants, I don't think I'd agree with his blanket observation that 1977 issues are usually scarcest.  However, I may be one of those collectors he's talking about, because I've ordered some of these from Doug over the years.

Edited August 31, 2023 by Warlord

[bellrules]

A friend sent me a link to a LOSH 264 Whitman that was for sale at what I thought was an astronomical price. I go back today, and it apparently sold. I’m shocked!