Are some of you really buying error print books for big bucks? 1 1

[BA773]

I cannot get it... i know, there is a market for everything but... seriously!?

Are some of you buying them? If yes im interested to know why you like them and why you agree to pay so much for them? 

Notice: The 2 books listed on the picture are RAW. 

[DougC]

I have a very difficult time believing there are not shenanigans afoot with this book from 1992 suddenly becoming uber collectable as of January 22 2024 due to an artists name mistakenly printed.

[Ken Aldred]

Sandman 8 error / editorial variant, Spider-Man 1 McFarlane Blue Lizard variant. There’s been an appeal of these for a long time.  Just as scarce price variants attract one sub-group of collectors; completists, obsessives, someone who simply likes a book that’s different in some way, any way, even if it’s minor to a larger audience.

It’s an established way that some collect comics, not really that absurd.

Edited March 25 by Ken Aldred

[Chip Cataldo]

[Robot Man]

Not moderns, but yes, I have paid up for some double cover and even out of register GA books. 

[Qalyar]

Errors are not created equal.

Some errors are one-offs: double covers, misbound wraps, that sort of thing. Prices on these are all over the place, because they're not really a consistent collectible. They're just sort of neat to own if you're otherwise interested in the underlying book. I've got one, for example, with a double cover, half the wraps duplicated, and the other half missing. I paid over a hundred times the base value of the book (but the base book is dollar bin fodder, so...). It's probably not worth that on the open market though, because it's not a title anyone cares about.

Some errors are still errors -- they weren't produced intentionally -- but they affected enough books that they're sort of viewed as an accidental variant (although CGC doesn't always agree). That's the world of the green cover Fantastic Four #110, the Secret Wars #1 blue Galactus, the Sandman (v2) #18 blue panels, and the Sandman (v2) #19 page order error. Prices here tend to depend on how many copies are in play, whether the error is something truly striking, and whether people care about the book in general. Blue Galactus and copies of Sandman 19 with the binding error aren't hard to find or especially valuable, for example, but the blue panel copies of Sandman 18 are a considerable rarity (estimates are < 1000 produced) on a popular book and so command appropriately high prices.

Finally, there are "error" books that aren't really errors per se, in that nothing went unexpectedly wrong in the production process, but something either went wrong in the development process or the publisher just decided that something needed to be changed. This is the world of the Sandman (v2) #8 Karen Berger Editorial variant (actually a ~600 copy unmarked 2nd printing, and not originally intended for distribution), the TMNT (IDW) #1 "orange wash cover" (actually a ~400 copy unmarked 2nd printing), the Elric #1 error edition (actually the 200 copies remaining from a defective first printing that was otherwise pulped), and -- regarding the matter at hand -- Detective Comics #643 with Mark Badger's name in the cover box.

For Tec643, what happened is that Mark Badger had been tapped to produce the cover art. However, his cover (you can see the OA at CAF here) ultimately wasn't used, which is frankly a crime, because even uncolored, it was way better than what we got. At some point, however, the slug for the direct market edition (to replace the newsstand UPC) had been prepared with the names of all three creators: Milligan, Aparo, and Badger. Eventually, someone realized that since Badger's cover went unused, he didn't actually contribute anything to the book, so the slug was modified and Badger's name removed. In non-comic book collecting terms, the Badger copies would be deemed "first printing, first state" copies and the Badger-less ones "first printing, second state". Are they worth hundreds of dollars? Well, a lot of people are certainly hoping so. I'm not sure what the long-term prospects are here, and a lot comes down to how many of these exist. Now that this has come to people's attention (although it's hardly new news), there are suddenly a lot of them listed on ebay and elsewhere, which makes me suspect that -- although rarer than the second state version -- they're not actually all that rare. 

[wombat]

On 3/25/2024 at 11:45 AM, Qalyar said:

Errors are not created equal.

Some errors are one-offs: double covers, misbound wraps, that sort of thing. Prices on these are all over the place, because they're not really a consistent collectible. They're just sort of neat to own if you're otherwise interested in the underlying book. I've got one, for example, with a double cover, half the wraps duplicated, and the other half missing. I paid over a hundred times the base value of the book (but the base book is dollar bin fodder, so...). It's probably not worth that on the open market though, because it's not a title anyone cares about.

Some errors are still errors -- they weren't produced intentionally -- but they affected enough books that they're sort of viewed as an accidental variant (although CGC doesn't always agree). That's the world of the green cover Fantastic Four #110, the Secret Wars #1 blue Galactus, the Sandman (v2) #18 blue panels, and the Sandman (v2) #19 page order error. Prices here tend to depend on how many copies are in play, whether the error is something truly striking, and whether people care about the book in general. Blue Galactus and copies of Sandman 19 with the binding error aren't hard to find or especially valuable, for example, but the blue panel copies of Sandman 18 are a considerable rarity (estimates are < 1000 produced) on a popular book and so command appropriately high prices.

Finally, there are "error" books that aren't really errors per se, in that nothing went unexpectedly wrong in the production process, but something either went wrong in the development process or the publisher just decided that something needed to be changed. This is the world of the Sandman (v2) #8 Karen Berger Editorial variant (actually a ~600 copy unmarked 2nd printing, and not originally intended for distribution), the TMNT (IDW) #1 "orange wash cover" (actually a ~400 copy unmarked 2nd printing), the Elric #1 error edition (actually the 200 copies remaining from a defective first printing that was otherwise pulped), and -- regarding the matter at hand -- Detective Comics #643 with Mark Badger's name in the cover box.

For Tec643, what happened is that Mark Badger had been tapped to produce the cover art. However, his cover (you can see the OA at CAF here) ultimately wasn't used, which is frankly a crime, because even uncolored, it was way better than what we got. At some point, however, the slug for the direct market edition (to replace the newsstand UPC) had been prepared with the names of all three creators: Milligan, Aparo, and Badger. Eventually, someone realized that since Badger's cover went unused, he didn't actually contribute anything to the book, so the slug was modified and Badger's name removed. In non-comic book collecting terms, the Badger copies would be deemed "first printing, first state" copies and the Badger-less ones "first printing, second state". Are they worth hundreds of dollars? Well, a lot of people are certainly hoping so. I'm not sure what the long-term prospects are here, and a lot comes down to how many of these exist. Now that this has come to people's attention (although it's hardly new news), there are suddenly a lot of them listed on ebay and elsewhere, which makes me suspect that -- although rarer than the second state version -- they're not actually all that rare. 

Great write up. Appreciate that information.