BA773 Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Share here the coolest upc boxes design! I start with Aquaman (1994 series) #60, the upc box is standard without drawing but is pink and frames in an emerald cadre, really cool. Topnotchman, KCOComics, Turnando and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BA773 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 On 13/02/2024 at 13:15, BA773 said: Share here the coolest upc boxes design! I start with Aquaman (1994 series) #60, the upc box is standard without drawing but is pink and frames in an emerald cadre, really cool. Full cover look like that! mysterymachine and kenaran 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post kenaran Posted February 13 Popular Post Share Posted February 13 AoS 444, works a bit better as a direct. Topnotchman, KCOComics, BA773 and 3 others 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BA773 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 On 2/13/2024 at 1:30 PM, kenaran said: AoS 444, works a bit better as a direct. Nice insertion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougC Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 I always like when art was added: grendelbo, BA773 and BuraddoRun 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BA773 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 On 2/13/2024 at 2:36 PM, DougC said: I always like when art was added: 423!!! Yes it was a cool time, however i never understood how the product was marketable without a visible barcode, is there someone who know how it worked? KCOComics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BA773 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 (edited) On 2/13/2024 at 8:50 PM, 666-6666 said: Direct Market books were non-returnable. Yes but what it change? I mean each product you buy deserve a barcode. Rice, milk, CD or comics everything have a barcode Edited February 13 by BA773 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenaran Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 (edited) There are a number of websites that get into this. The basic gist; The first group of 5 digits is for the publisher The second group of 5 digits is for the title Then things diverge for newsstand/direct. For newsstand there are 2 digits which are unique to the issue for a given calendar year. (last two of issue number, month number, counting up from first issue in January, that sort of thing) For direct, once they started having UPC codes, its an extra 5 digits. The general rule is that the first 3 are for the issue #, then 1 digit for the cover #, then 1 digit for the printing #. On some books with high cover or printing counts it starts getting a bit muddled. Newsstands were returnable for a partial refund. Not fully up on it but I think they could just return the cover. On pre-direct market it may have even been just the upper 1/4 of the cover with the title/issue# (plenty of those on ebay). Directs were not returnable, but were a bit cheaper up front. Edit: by cost, I mean cost or refund to the retailer. Edited February 14 by kenaran More info, and fat fingers BuraddoRun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BA773 Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 On 2/14/2024 at 4:08 AM, kenaran said: There are a number of websites that get into this. The basic gist; The first group of 5 digits is for the publisher The second group of 5 digits is for the title Then things diverge for newsstand/direct. For newsstand there are 2 digits which are unique to the issue for a given calendar year. (last two of issue number, month number, counting up from first issue in January, that sort of thing) For direct, once they started having UPC codes, its an extra 5 digits. The general rule is that the first 3 are for the issue #, then 1 digit for the cover #, then 1 digit for the printing #. On some books with high cover or printing counts it starts getting a bit muddled. Newsstands were returnable for a partial refund. Not fully up on it but I think they could just return the cover. On pre-direct market it may have even been just the upper 1/4 of the cover with the title/issue# (plenty of those on ebay). Directs were not returnable, but were a bit cheaper up front. Edit: by cost, I mean cost or refund to the retailer. Yes but it still dont answer to the asking how they could replaced the barcode by a design considering that every item avalaible to buy in a shop get a barcode? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenaran Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 They basically needed a way to differentiate the newsstands from the directs to prevent refund fraud. The direct market barcodes started at some point in the early nineties (1993?). My memories are a bit hazy as I was still in grade school in the eighties, may need an assist here. As I recall it most smaller shops (read as comic shops) didn't have barcode scanners until the late eighties / early nineties. Just a simple cash register, or even a pocket calculator. I mostly follow DC, for them it feels like any book that had a newsstand just left the box and filled it with something (text, promo, art) for the direct edition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wardevil0 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 On 2/14/2024 at 7:11 AM, BA773 said: Yes but it still dont answer to the asking how they could replaced the barcode by a design considering that every item avalaible to buy in a shop get a barcode? At the time comic shops were operating outside the UPC system with dedicated distribution (Diamond, Capital City, etc) and retail channels. All comics sold in convenience stores, book stores, grocery stores, etc. had a bar code. Comic shop workers had to manually enter the price per each. BA773 and kenaran 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 How about the DC Whitman variant UPC boxes? these may be the very first time a "creative" option was used... BA773 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 On 2/13/2024 at 1:41 PM, BA773 said: 423!!! Yes it was a cool time, however i never understood how the product was marketable without a visible barcode, is there someone who know how it worked? The vast majority of comic shops then did not use scanners at checkout (or at all). Some still don't. BA773 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 On 2/14/2024 at 6:35 AM, kenaran said: I mostly follow DC, for them it feels like any book that had a newsstand just left the box and filled it with something (text, promo, art) for the direct edition. For the vast majority of comics with dual distribution, the only thing that changed was the content in the box because that meant only the black plate needed to be changed during printing.. But there are some seemingly random issues that didn't have the box at all on Directs, as well as some publishers/titles that didn't have it. kenaran 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 On 2/14/2024 at 9:15 AM, Brock said: How about the DC Whitman variant UPC boxes? these may be the very first time a "creative" option was used... Well, sure, since that's only a few years after the beginning of bar codes on comics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BA773 Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 On 2/14/2024 at 4:15 PM, Brock said: How about the DC Whitman variant UPC boxes? these may be the very first time a "creative" option was used... His left leg iss really weird Brock 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
