Rare Comics
By David Greer, CPV Seeker and founder of the ''Official Canadian Newsstand Cover Price V****** Thread,'' October 2024
“For what it's worth, I'll spill a couple things I've noticed over the last few years of searching out CPVs in the wild and at cons. These are my observations and YMMV...”
Hello everybody! Let me introduce myself as this is my first piece for the annual CPV Price Guide.
My name is David Greer, I've been collecting for well over 40 years and am a native of Montreal, Canada. I grew up in the south-western tip of the island in what was a more traditionally English part of the city, where many European immigrants settled upon arrival here.
My Mother and I opened a comic store in late 1988 and we stayed open until the card and comic implosion in 1994. Lets just say that there were a lot of comic collectors going back to the Golden Age around there. I've been lucky enough to have uncovered a couple nice collections and hope to find more.
I started collecting comics when cover prices were 50 cents, and many of the corner stores (we call them "depanneurs" here) and pharmacies had racks of comic books. As kids do, we scoured the area and knew who had what books coming in and when. Prices rose to 60 cents...then 75 cents. Well, in Canada at least.
Having more money and being able to travel around the city on my own seeking out comic shops and used bookstores, it became apparent that there were different prices on some covers, besides the direct market issues. We noticed it, though paid no mind. Soon after, when we really started buying back issues our thought process was the 60 cent covers were the ones to get if the direct copies weren't available. We avoided the weird 75 cent cover priced ones. Oh boy.
Finally we all started to understand what was going on, and all the science behind it. Having been active on the CGC chat boards for a quarter century now, we'd discussed CPVs and some good people were searching them out like bloodhounds and getting the info out. I'm proud to say I started the now legendary ''Official Canadian Newsstand Cover Price V****** Thread'' 11 years ago (when we were shunned for calling them variants!).
In all the years since, my comic collection has been completed and I have all the books I ever really wanted (I still have 8000 books or so). I still hit as many thrift stores, comic shops, used bookstores and cons as I can and do tons of bin diving. I'm looking now for pretty much one thing only: CPVs. Nothing like travelling to a town away from home here in Canada and digging through back issue bins where local collections have been purchased and put out, with tons of CPVs going unnoticed.
The majority of CPVs I find in the wild are solid midgrade, and if the issues aren't common and are priced correctly I'll pick them up. The high grade issues are out there still though getting harder to find, and dealers who picked up on the CPV craze over the last few years had started to price them up. What's really fun is finding a smaller key in a bin, it's a CPV, and it's priced as an American. Happens way more than one might think.
For what it's worth, I'll spill a couple things I've noticed over the last few years of searching out CPVs in the wild and at cons. These are my observations and YMMV.
One is that the CPV Blips are all really hard to find, in any grade, at all. I still have my original owner copy of Blip 1 still and it's pretty nice.... I have NEVER seen any issues of the rest of the run at all, anywhere. I never even saw subsequent issues of Blip on the stands so I don't know how many copies are still out there.
The late 95 cent DC CPVs are also not so easy to find. I have a great memory for comic book covers, and while digging I came across a number of those DCs I don't ever remember seeing (nevermind in CPV). DC Comics Presents, Firestorm, also all the really strangely priced annuals and specials. Circulation couldn't have been high on those issues to start with so CPVs are another level, though still relatively worthless. Dealers have also started to discount CPV keys more over the last couple of years and are more willing to deal on them, so that's good for the collectors and completionists. Whenever I pull out a stack of books from the bins, all have been happy to give me 20-25% off the total after asking nicely.
For as long as comic books have been collected, the thrill of the hunt is a huge part of it. Until the internet happened, if you wanted books and wanted to learn about books you had to put the legwork in and network organically. With the CPV sidequest, you have no choice but to literally get your hands dirty and search those bins. At the Montreal Minicon in December 2023, I taught my girlfriend what to look for and how to identify CPVs. She got the hang of it quickly as she's detail oriented and we had a blast scouring the floor in half the time. It can make for a really fun time for those who aren't necessarily in the comic scene if you've convinced them to go with you in the first place, and that's what all these shows are supposed to be about: fun!
That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and get out there and hit those bins! Actually, don't...leave them for me!
David Greer
About the author: David is a long time reader and collector who’s still seeking out the hidden gems in all the dark corners. He can remember exactly which store where each CPV was purchased though has trouble remembering what he had for supper yesterday.