Rare Comics
By Bill Alexander, Overstreet Advisor, U.S.-published comic book cover price variant specialist and historian (Contact by email), October 2022
“Now is a great time to buy key CPV books in high certified grade at incredibly low bargain prices.”
In April 2022 the comic book world witnessed an all time record high sale of a CPV. Marvel Two In One Annual 7 CGC 9.9 sold for $15,000.00 making it the first CPV to sell over $10,000.00. The book had previously sold in April 2016 for $770.00.
Currently the sales prices seen with direct editions, newsstand editions, and Canadian price variant editions are way down from what they were selling for in June of 2020 and in certain cases selling for 50% less today. Between January 2020 and June 2020 the market exploded and key books in certified high grade doubled and tripled in what they were selling for. Unfortunately in late June of 2020 the market started to crash and prices steadily began to spiral back downward. The unbelievable prices people were paying simply were not sustainable!
Due to the market crash of June 2020, now is a great time to buy key CPV books in high certified grade at incredibly low bargain prices. Some key CPV books in the top 100 CPVs of this price guide dropped in guide value this year due to the current comic book market.
Something I have noticed that I would like to point out is that Marvel Age #2 cover month dated May 1983 pre-dates Alpha Flight #1 by three months and features the 1st preview appearance of Puck and Marrina. Indicia photo below:
Both Puck and Marrina appear on the front cover of Marvel Age #2 as well as inside the book. I hope someday that CGC treatment of Marvel Age preview appearances gains labeling notation (currently their label note is blank for this issue).
I also would like to point out what is currently happening in the comic book market with Newsstand Edition versus Direct Edition. Newsstand Editions in certified 9.8 grade are selling increasingly for more and more than their direct edition counterparts (mainly seen with certified 9.8 grade copies with white pages). On July 28th 2022 on Heritage Auctions an Amazing Spider-Man 300 CGC 9.8 newsstand edition copy (1st full appearance of Venom) sold for $18,600.00 versus an Amazing Spider-Man 300 CGC 9.8 direct edition copy that sold on June 17th on Heritage for $5,040.00.
Direct Edition:
Note that this incredible Newsstand Amazing Spider-Man #300 sale above happened some months before it was announced to the hobby by CGC that they would begin labeling Newsstand Edition books on labels. It remains to be seen the extent of the long-term positive impact this exciting announcement will have.
When newsstand copies are also signed under CGC Signature Series prices can soar even higher:
Source: https://comics.ha.com/itm/modern-age-1980-present-/the-amazing-spider-man-300-newsstand-edition-signature-series-marvel-1988-cgc-nm-mt-98-white-pages/a/40196-81011.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515
I might also mention that I noticed Heritage Auctions currently now states "Newsstand Edition" along with "Canadian price variant" in their descriptions when listing CPVs in their auctions, such as this example:
I applaud Heritage Auctions in doing that, and hope that other auction houses can do the same. Mentioning Newsstand Edition in addition to Canadian price variant means that these auction items can come up in searches for "newsstand" as well, when they did not before. That can potentially increase the number of bidders finding CPV listings and in turn increase awareness in the hobby about CPVs, especially as other auction houses hopefully also start to follow this practice.
Finally I want to share some of my $1.50 cover price Archie Digest CPVs, which are all dated September 1988 except for New Archies Digest #3 from October 1988, and notice what you see in place of a bar code box:
Based on seeing these in the marketplace mixed in with large newsstand collections, I feel almost certain that all the above were available for sale on newsstands as part of a Test Marketing. The above are each part of the "quadruplets" that were published for each of these digests ($1.35 cover price with logo, $1.35 cover price with bar code, $1.50 cover price CPV with logo, and $1.50 cover price CPV with bar code). More examples likely exist dated September 1988 and October 1988 among Archie digests.
Regular-size Archie Comics "quadruplets" also exist from September and October of 1988 (as we first reported in this article linked here). As with the digests presented above, I've also found these comics in listings mixed in with newsstand copies, suggesting to me that they were part of a Test Marketing. In my experience of many years looking for these I've seldom ever seen them and have only been able to confirm a handful of the total I believe should exist from 9/88 (and 10/88 for AGSM). Outside of these two months, no other Archie Direct Market 95¢ CPVs have yet to be discovered, as far as I am aware. At the time of our 2019 article I had confirmed four, and have since confirmed one more. Below are all five I have confirmed to date.
In my experience trying to find them, these Archie logo CPVs are probably the rarest Archie by far that I know of (even rarer than 15 cent variants in my own experience) so I would wager they were published at most likely a 1% or less print run and looking on eBay today none are seen. They are truly like finding a needle in a haystack, and also probably the shortest test-marketing ever done, only over a two month time period (thus far I have not found any outside of this window but if you were to find one please contact me).
With all that has evolved with CPV and Newsstand edition awareness over the past few years, I find it amazing. May all your holes in your CPV want lists be filled!
Bill Alexander