Marvel Direct Sale Issues

[Metarog]

I found this site that has cover scans of the direct sale Marvels from 1977-1979. Just in case anyone is interested.

 

Marvel Direct Sale Issues

[Dave_Hennen]

It's interesting to see which books were coming out on time. There's a whole year gap between Super Villain Team-up 14 & 15, five months between Machine Man 9 and 10 and X-Men was bi-monthly up to issue 112

 

Thanks, that's a cool link

 

dave h

[Aman619]

Its only a matter of time IMO before variant collectors start filling in runs of all varieties, and debating which are rarer etc. Maybe not the same 30 and 35 center variant guys....the next generation of passionate Varantistas

[FlyingDonut]

Its only a matter of time IMO before variant collectors start filling in runs of all varieties, and debating which are rarer etc. Maybe not the same 30 and 35 center variant guys....the next generation of passionate Varantistas

 

Dear God in Heaven make it stop please no more variants please please please no more....

[Aman619]

Donut - - what do you think? You have the pulse of the variant market... will the late 70s diamond direct-sales copies be considered rare and hence collectible at some future point? And if so, by current 30/30 cent collectors, or new guys seeking the next big thing?

 

I can see it...but Im not a variant guy...a little kinky, maybe - -but thats personal.

[Aman619]

and years later, will today's much rarer newstand editions also find collectors??

 

Or are the differences in the variant covers too generic and solely price related, but not a regional special price-test thing..

[underthebigw]

Donut - - what do you think? You have the pulse of the variant market... will the late 70s diamond direct-sales copies be considered rare and hence collectible at some future point? And if so, by current 30/30 cent collectors, or new guys seeking the next big thing?

 

I can see it...but Im not a variant guy...a little kinky, maybe - -but thats personal.

 

I know you asked for FD's opinion, but here's mine, for what it's worth. I think you've hit the nail on the head. I don't totally agree with the logic behind it, but I think BA completionists will eventually be hunting out every version of every possible issue (eg., newsstand, direct, Whitman, etc.) Over the past year, I've been increasingly contacted by such collectors through my site who have extensive questions regarding differences between these versions, especially where Marvels are concerned. Of course, I've directed them to the thread on this site from 4 or 5 months ago that dealt with this. Again, it won't be my cup of tea, but I don't see why comic collectors should be any different from coin, stamp or card collectors in this regard, especially when they specialize in and have a passion for BA books.

 

Now get ready for the backlash from the anti-variant crowd.

[Metarog]

I agree with S&B and moreover since information on variants is now fairly easy to obtain on the Internet more and more collecting of this type will flourish. At least in my case I was unaware of the many variants out there until I started researching a few years ago. Now you have collectors trying to find price variants, Whitmans, printing errors, etc. I would never have started collections of this type if I didn't know a complete set was possible... but with great information like S&B's site and forums like this one I now know what to look for. E-bay and online auction sites also facilitate the procurement of these comics. I don't think it will be possible for me to finish a 30 cent variant set and a 35 cent variant set will be next to impossible (Good luck Lighthouse) but a complete pre-1980 Marvel Whitman set is certainly attainable and a completist such as myself needs closure.

[Aman619]

..... but a complete pre-1980 Marvel Whitman set is certainly attainable and a completist such as myself needs closure.

 

Why will Whitmans be easier? I dont know much about them..

[buena_vista]

Ah, now here's the trick. Some (maybe all) of the Whitman books are REPRINTS!!! The books themselves were printed again months after the original. Check the ads in the books ( I seem to remember the Batman books in particular) and you'll see trade ads that are already offering subsequent issues for sale!

[Metarog]

..... but a complete pre-1980 Marvel Whitman set is certainly attainable and a completist such as myself needs closure.

 

Why will Whitmans be easier? I dont know much about them..

 

You can ask most any variant collector but compared to 30 and 35 cent variants Whitmans are quite plentiful. If you go into a comic shop with a fairly good back issue stock you will find some Whitmans but no 3* cent variants. You can ask Flying Donut, Lighthouse, SilverandBronze, Rob_React, etc-the Marvel variants are truly hard to find anywhere.

[underthebigw]

Ah, now here's the trick. Some (maybe all) of the Whitman books are REPRINTS!!! The books themselves were printed again months after the original. Check the ads in the books ( I seem to remember the Batman books in particular) and you'll see trade ads that are already offering subsequent issues for sale!

 

I used to think this as well, but have become a bit of a convert regarding this issue. I wish I could find the thread (I think it was a Star Wars thread), but plenty of people made convincing arguments that the Whitmans were not necessarily reprints, but were special printings made at the same time as the originals. I'm not sure about either position anymore.

 

For the person asking, conventional wisdom has it that those Marvels with the large diamond and the blank UPC box were Whitmans. However, even this isn't crystal clear. I believe that there may not be any differences between Whitmans and the earliest Direct Distribution versions. Anyone?

[Darthdiesel]

Paul, here's the thread

[Metarog]

I am resurrecting this thread to see if any forumites can help in the completion of the direct sales grid. I have been helping complete it for the past few months but most of my pic sources have dried up. Does anybody collect Marvel Whitman variants of the 70's? If so could you please send me any pics missing in the Direct Sales Grid. http://www.bipcomics.com/showcase/Direct/

I will send it on in your name and as usual 5 stars for all contributions.

[Kevin Boyd]

Geez... isn't there enough info for you in that Star Wars thread?

 

Check out the Mile High site, he has photo references of most of the whitman/direct sales/newstand covers and it was a lot of help when I was working on those postings in that other thread an eternity ago.

 

Kev

[Metarog]

That thread was very informative but it doesn't have any scans that I can see. I have checked Mile High but all the ones there are already in the grid. I just wanted to know if anyone collected these variants and/or if anyone had any issues that are missing on the grid. I know for sure that a MTU 75 exists and I assume these variants exist for all other issues in that series with the exception of Jan 1977, Jan-Mar, July 1978 and Mar-Apr 1979 which don't seem to have Whitman variants for most series. As you can see Amazing Spider-Man, Capt. America and Incredible Hulk are complete. FF is only missing 200 which probably doesn't exist since it was an extra large issue.

[Warlord]

How are those titles you named complete? Aren't the white background cells those issues for which scans are still needed? So, for example, FF200 isn't the only scan missing, but also FF178, 190, 191, 192, etc?

 

[Metarog]

Those are the issues with the cover dates I mention above. For whatever reason most titles do not have Whitman variants from Jan 1977, Jan-Mar 1978, July 1978 and Mar-Apr 1979. Although there are exceptions like Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars the vast majority do not have them. I also don't think that all these titles have Whitman variants for the whole run even taking the above mentioned gaps into consideration. I don't think I would have missed so many issues of John Carter and Daredevil.

[Kevin Boyd]

I was disappointed to find that all of my research on this subject on the boards was lost - I'm guessing it was probably on one of the boards where the threads are not archived.

 

You are going to find that every book published by Marvel before cover-date of June 1978 doesn't have a corresponding Whitman as the Whitmans were done in batches as they were needed by Whitman for distribution in their multi-packs - which were meant to having a longer shelf life (which is why many of the issues are missing the month of publication from the cover).

 

Marvel went to direct distributing in the summer of 1978 completely by the time that all August 1978 cover dated books were on the newstands (around May/June 1978 on the actual racks) so direct sales books exist for every Marvel title after that date. Some of the late July 1978 cover books made it. Chances are the ones that don't have a direct sales version were from the first week's printing for that month's books.

 

BTW they are not Whitmans by that point - there are Direct Sales and Newsstand copies. Whitman's orders were taken from the direct sales printings for all multi-packs after that time.

 

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Here's my summary from back on January 19, 2003:

 

Fact is that during the late 1970's Marvel was experimenting with the way their comics were (1) priced and (2) distributed/marketted.

 

Parts of the print runs were set aside for various regional pricing experiments (hence the LIMITED price variants) and to sell within different markets (Whitman packs, direct sales to comic shops, overseas distribution).

 

This experimentation continued into the next decade. As the 1980's began there were two types of comics printed - newsstand (UPC code and price and number box) and direct sales (price and number diamond and UPC with slash later Spidey head or DC logo). UK newsstand copies had the price in English pence on them.

 

As the Canadian dollar began to lose value compared to the US dollar and as the UK market was opening up for newsstand and direct sales comics there are also different newsstand variants that also exist in 1980's Marvel and DC Comics as the Canadian and UK newsstand copies have the price in those countries currencies rather than USD. Canadian and UK Direct Sales copies were identical to US direct sales copies as all three prices were listed.

 

Starburst was used for the "Still only 25 cents" box on the newsstand comics while on the Whitmans and direct sales copies the starburst outline is seen but is blacked in and contains the usual black diamond.

 

What is the original if both versions were printed at the same time?

 

Perhaps, aside from the Whitmans we should keep it simple:

 

Newsstand Version (US$)

Newsstand Version UK price (1960's -on)

Newsstand Version CAN price (early 1980's on)

Whitman Version (all sorts of variations per issue, no constant except for the black diamond price and number box)

Direct Sales Version (middle of 1978 on, bar code with slash or Spidey/DC logo, black diamond price and number box)

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=comicgen&Number=95712&Forum=All_Forums&Words=492&Match=Username&Searchpage=24&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=95591&Search=true#Post95712

 

 

Kev

 

 

 

 

[Metarog]

Thanks for the info. I knew that Whitman stopped doing these issues at some point in 1978 and you have now clarified this. I don't know if there are direct sale issues for all Marvels after July 1978... or at least if they do exist some are pretty tough to find. 5 stars for the great info. Doesn't anybody have any issues that the grid is missing? I thought for sure that some forumites collected these.