So I went to http://comics.org/series/3345/covers/ looking for a certain THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN issue and saw , not only something that reminded me of a (Self-hating comment ~ spectacularly nerdish/what the Brits call " anorak/trainspotter/saddo/spotty/Billy No Mates "-y , I guess??) subject that I have meant to post about , but something else new to me !
Said GCBD page shows capsules of TAOS #424 (#1) through 456 . Many though not all of the covers shown have newsstand and UPC versions shown side by side , as Fans Of A Certain Age will recall . Well , three ishes have THREE covers shown ~ #s 429 , 439 , and 441 have THREE covers shown ~ Comics shop versions at 75 cents always , but newsstand versions at both 75c and one dollar !!!!!!!!!!!
It's not a " Brit/Canadian price " thang ~ In all of these cases , the newsstander carries only the indicator for the Yankee dosh demanded , it's the cs copy which bears as well the John Bull and True North tariff .
I have long thought that it was interesting that , after the UPC code became the standard , Fandom Assembled apparently decided to steer away , generally , from making distinctions between newsstand and comics shop versions of comic books that were otherwise identical , (besides any other type of price/distribution area indicators) . A " gentlefan/person's agreement " , say ???
On a certain level it interesting that the GCBD page DOESN'T have every issue up in both comics-shop and newsstand versions ~ Isn't it conventional wisdom (I've certainly convened it !!!) , " no modern/comics-shop era copy of any generally distributed Big Two meat and potatoes super-hero title is rare " ?
The presence of the three alternate-priced issues here would presumably indicate that the two different prices scheme ran for , at least , 13 issues !!!!!!!!!
Really , considering how certain Bronze Age fans go on and on about the alternate test prices Marvels of the mid-70s , why haven't I heard about this one before ? (Perhaps these were not " tests " in the same sense , yes .)
There was a poster at the old CBG board (Canadian , " Frank " , think his name was , used version o' Gyro Gearloose lightbulb-haidded (I'm listening to old country music now !!! Cal Smith , Kitty Wells) assistant as avatar , Archie fan) whom I recall commenting that , coming from a coin-collecting concept , he found comics fans' general ignoring of slight print differences in copies of comic books odd . Frank walked/talked , had specialty of collecting Canadian-distributed newsstand copies of Archie regular comic books (Not digests ) .which had some slight price-field (IIRC) variation , which only some Canuck copies had , not consistently ! It may have been listing a distinct loon price against only printing the States' one...He had a standing order to put such copies with the different Canadian mark aside . I joked to him , " Someday , your heirs will have the ' Mile High of the Twenty-First Century ! " !!
I'm not going to bother to count whether the posted Comics.Org TAOS copies favor newsstand copies more than css . Even I have some limits...
From a collecting standpoint , I have wondered whether , someday , say...collectors of toy/merchandising titles such as GI JOE or BARBIE who come more from a place of collecting those franchises rather than being comic-book collectors might notice the difference between UPC and cs copies of that era and decide to try and either collect both printings or only collect one version ! Then...chaos will reign !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm not going into the question of the DIFFERENT UPC seals on cs and newsstand copies in the post-those being added to cs copies era . Nor the question of , as the side-by-side copies posted show , whether the distinctly different level of strongness of shade/tone reflect the actual copies , if you had them right in front of you (#439 is a particularly good example of this...) or if that's just a difference in the cameras/other equipment or even the tweaking of the images some posters may have committed in the putup...
I'm...not !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So there .
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Would this have been suitable for a Blog post back in the day , BTW ?
...Y?:-(
Your continued ignoring of the rules of grammar and punctuation along with your attempt at a breezy, hipper-than-thou writing style is not conducive to comprehension or discussion. If you would reign in those tendencies and refrain from answering questions with more questions while acting as if you have all the answers, you might provoke more attention and conversation. As it is, your train of thought is so often derailed, it's difficult to know at which station to meet you.
Speaking for myself, I enjoy your posts a lot more on the (rare) occasions when you post in clearly understandable sentences. You often say you don't have time but I can't believe it's faster the way you usually post. If nobody but you is enjoying the way you usually post and if it takes longer then why do it?
On the subject of your thread, I never got into variations in covers. If the story inside is the same I don't see the point. I think most/all fans tend to ignore the price variations as insignificant. Even if it makes something rare, if nobody cares about it it will not be valuable. This is why comics older than and just as rare as Action #1 or Amazing Fantasy #15 will never be as pricey. It's the "demand" component of supply and demand.
...I do recall that the test Marvel price variations of the mid-70s get a lot of fan luv/attention - As you said , it's a ? , really , of what the " market wants " , not to be Ayn Rand/Ronald R....
In the 90s when Marvel put out those 99c titles , there were newsstand variants of those which were 48-page flip cover versions , for $1.95 , which offeredtwo different titles , on on either side (Over The Edge and Fantastic Four Unplugged , say...Though that may not be one of the actual pairings , this is by memory...)