From: The 2023 CPV Price Guide for Canadian Price Variants (Type 1A) by Bill Alexander, Tim Bildhauser, Paul Clairmont, Jay Halstead, Greg Holland, Jon McClure, Jayden Mitchell, Benjamin Nobel, Conan Saunders, Doug Sulipa, and Angelo Virone  [ introduction, table of contents, all titles, other price guide editions ]

 

 = Stand-out value  

 

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This page: Transformers (#1-19) CPV Values [ Jump to: list of all titles in the price guide ]

✔️Accepted answer: Yes, Type 1A 95¢, and 1.00 cover price variants exist within the Transformers title.

✔️Accepted answer: There are Type 1A cover price variants for issues #1-19 of Transformers. Noteworthy cover price variant examples include #1, 2, and 8.

✔️Accepted answer: The cover price variant window in the 1980s was only open from October of 1982 to August of 1986 for Marvel (and September of 1988 for DC) which means that only those Transformers issues published within this specific window have Type 1A price variants. Newsstand copies from before the window opened were priced the same for the Canadian market as for the US market, whereas the closing of the window was the result of the merger of the two single-price newsstand batches into one big dual-price batch (i.e. with both US and CAN prices included) to cover all of North America.

✔️Accepted answer: The Transformers 1980s cover price variants were exclusive to the newsstand distribution channel (by contrast the well-preserved direct edition type sold in comic shops were not price variants). Within the newsstand distribution channel, the price variants were distributed only to a restricted geographic area within the larger North American newsstand market: that restricted area being Canada. Canada had one tenth the population of the United States in the 1980s. As a result, Transformers cover price variants from the 1980s are a dramatically more rare newsstand type, and collectors who care about relative rarity are keen to target the price variant version of issue numbers they seek for their collections of interesting and rare comic books.

✔️Accepted answer: Yes, by definition Transformers Type 1A price variants are first printings which were published simultaneously with the other types, on the exact same manufacturing equipment, at the same time, on the same paper, using the same ink, and with publication origin being the USA. The indicia, interior pages, and all other aspects of the variants beyond the cover price box are 100% identical to their regularly priced newsstand counterparts. The Transformers price variants, having originated in the USA as first print originals, were then shipped North to their destination market.

✔️Accepted answer: Yes, as seen in more detail in the Transformers price guide page above, the variant values represent a sizable premium over the values of the commonplace direct editions in the same grades.

✔️Accepted answer: We recommend lowering your grade expectations for all of the 1980s cover price variants, including those in the Transformers title. Remember, the price variants were exclusive to the newsstand distribution channel, which means they were treated as reading material, not as collectibles, by both the staff that handled them, and the typical buyers who as a general rule were members of the general public actually interested in reading the comics. Collectors buying comics from newsstands was the exception, not the norm. As a result, surviving copies in the 9.8 NM/MT grade tier can be exceptionally difficult to find among the Transformers cover price variants. A more reasonable grade to shoot for would be 9.0-and-up.