ASM 194- The Latest ASM Issue Blowing Up? 2 2

[kmfbaloo]

On 8/20/2023 at 12:14 PM, MAR1979 said:

Price in Diamond and line through Barcode indicates Direct Sale for Marvel Books cover dated June 1979 until they employed the Spidey face in UPC less then a year later.

What is Price in Diamond?

[kmfbaloo]

I see thanks for the info. So does this mean direct sales started in the late 1970s also?

[kmfbaloo]

On 8/20/2023 at 12:14 PM, MAR1979 said:

Price in Diamond and line through Barcode indicates Direct Sale for Marvel Books cover dated June 1979 until they employed the Spidey face in UPC less then a year later.

Sorry I posted this but did not quote so redoing it - 

I see thanks for the info. So does this mean direct sales started in the late 1970s also?

 

[MAR1979]

On 8/20/2023 at 3:21 PM, kmfbaloo said:

Sorry I posted this but did not quote so redoing it - 

I see thanks for the info. So does this mean direct sales started in the late 1970s also?

The first/starting month Marvel issued a Direct Sale and Newsstand editions for all regular sized comics books was the cover Date of June 1979.  To some this date is significant and to others it is not . Surprisingly @valiantman falls into the latter faction. But still he does recognize the date as being the first month Marvel did it for regular comic size line wide. For DC it's regular sized and digest books starting from cover date Oct 1980

Prior to June 1979 cover date Marvel's Direct Sales were in the form of Whitman distributed books nearly always in multi-packs. Search the CGC forums for thread called "are Marvel Whitman's a thing" or something thereabouts as I forget the exact title..

lastly see valiantman's video;

while not perfect, it's an indispensable primer and truly excellent effort.

Edited August 23, 2023 by MAR1979

[fishbone]

On 8/20/2023 at 3:14 PM, MAR1979 said:

Price in Diamond and line through Barcode indicates Direct Sale for Marvel Books cover dated June 1979 until they employed the Spidey face in UPC less then a year later.

what he said

[BigLeagueCHEW]

Direct edition is more scarce for 194 right? 

[DC#]

On 9/2/2023 at 9:55 AM, BigLeagueCHEW said:

Direct edition is more scarce for 194 right? 

Another expert may chime in here but sources I have read here and on other platforms have shown that roughly 10-15% of the total published volume in 1979 were direct.   But because of the non-returnable nature of direct, the survival rate of ASM 194 is more like a 30-40% direct and 60-70% Newsstand.    If true - not sure you could really say direct is really that much more rare.    But there is also no way a newstand deserves a premium for a 1979 ASM 194 

Edited September 3, 2023 by DC#

[NP_Gresham]

On 9/3/2023 at 3:05 PM, DC# said:

Another expert may chime in here but sources I have read here and on other platforms have shown that roughly 10-15% of the total published volume in 1979 were direct.   But because of the non-returnable nature of direct, the survival rate of ASM 194 is more like a 30-40% direct and 60-70% Newsstand.    If true - not sure you could really say direct is really that much more rare.    But there is also no way a newstand deserves a premium for a 1979 ASM 194 

Just the aesthetics of that ugly slash makes the newsstand more desirable. ‘Demand’ seemingly outpaces ‘rarity’ on this issue.

I would imagine the book still in a multipack might command a premium?

[DC#]

On 9/3/2023 at 10:11 PM, NP_Gresham said:

Just the aesthetics of that ugly slash makes the newsstand more desirable. ‘Demand’ seemingly outpaces ‘rarity’ on this issue.

I would imagine the book still in a multipack might command a premium?

I heartily agree that newsstands look better to my eye.   But 90 day GPA on 9.8s are $2895 on 4 Directs sold and $2724 on 5 Newsstands sold.     GPA hasn’t been tracking newsstands all that long on this one (since mid 2022 I think) but in general the market does not seem to care - at least not yet.  
 

I did go back and study GPA numbers a bit more.   Sales do not necessarily reflect census but it would appear that there are more newsstands in 9.2/9.0 and below and fewer newsstands in the higher grades.   That being said, it’s still not like an ASM 300 were it is probably closer to 1:50 ratio in favor of direct.     Just looking at prior 12 months sales on GPA for 194 the ratio is 1:1.4 on 9.8s in favor of direct.  Extrapolating that with census counts - it means there might be around 315 direct copies and 210 newsstand for the 9.8.   Which makes sense because both copies seem to be available all the time.  
 

Again, compare that to ASM 300 at a 1:50 and it would mean only 30 newsstand copies in 9.8 vs 1437 direct.   Hence the 3x-4x premium those copies generate 

Edited September 4, 2023 by DC#

[MAR1979]

ASM 194 is one of the mainstay books in the now growing viral scandal.  FMV hits already for many different higher population higher value comics that are now suspect.

Edited January 23 by MAR1979

[MAR1979]

On 1/22/2024 at 9:07 PM, wiparker824 said:

Kind of low for these books even if you add in CL’s 3% buyer premium. 

90 day GPA is $2688 for direct (8 sales), with the last sale being on HA 1/16 for $2760

90 day GPA is $2524 (only 2 sales) for newsstand with the last sale being on HA on 1/16 for $2640

Even so 4287881001 was the newsstand cert that isn’t on the list but is on the same submission as 4287881003 which is on the list and that’s the book that went for $200 more than the direct tonight.

 

Edited January 23 by MAR1979