2nd Prints/ Newstand Editions - Big Business

[ratchet]

I've seen some odd trends in the past happen in comic collecting. 2nd prints are now in demand. There was a time when 2nd prints were considered reprints and pretty worthless. That's not the case anymore as quite a few second prints are climbing in price.

The other, odder, trend that I see is what they are cooling the "Newstand" variant. The older comics that have a barcode on the front rather than the white box with a drawing (or direct editions) are climbing in price as well.

While the 2nd prints usually do have a lower print run I was always under the impression that the Newstand Editions are not rare.

This new kind of collecting is mind boggling. It's almost as if the new collectors are trying to create a demand that was never there before. I thought the reactionary market was bad - where a comic would suddenly shoot up in value due to a movie being announced - but this is even more odd to me.

Have you guys noticed these trends?

[bnmauney]

If memory serves, unsold newsstand copies were destroyed rather than returned to the distributors, which I believe could have made some of them scarce compared to the direct market editions. Regardless, I think many collectors are treating both them and second prints like variants. So, if you're a completist, which many of us are, then you have to have those, I guess.

[moon_knight1971]

bnmauney's right and so are you rachet. There were many more comic books stores up until 2000 so "newsstand" versions could be considered rarer. You also have the variants that had tattoos or Mark Jewelers inserts in them and you had the occasional price variants (.30 cent cover versus .25). What I'm seeing a lot of now is the variant and gimmick covers. This was extremely popular in the 90's and most of those books are pretty much worthless. In the end, all books are only worth what you'll pay for them.

[fazzyfaz]

I would say newsstand editions are also more difficult to find in high grade to begin with. Most places that sell those editions don't handle the books the same way you would hope a comic book store owner would. I pour over all the copies at my LCS to pull my 2 or 3 copies at best in any given title, I can't imagine a ton of gems coming off a spin rack or pawed over by the general public. As an aside, "Canadian Price" variants are becoming hot also.( the 75 cent copies Can vs. 65 cent US )

[Darth Madden]

Yikes, all this smells like another crash coming soon.

[ratchet]

Originally Posted by Darth Madden

Yikes, all this smells like another crash coming soon.

I agree - these aren't actual variants! It smells of collectors getting desperate to own something they consider "rare".

Canadian price variant... Ridiculous.

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by Darth Madden

Yikes, all this smells like another crash coming soon.

Without question! I give it anoher 5-7 years tops before we see a legimate crash in the variants market. You can see so many similarities to other markets that wound up crashing. The fact that the comic companies continue to produce more and more is the real warning sign. Some issues can now have anywhere from 15-20 variants. Star Wars #1 have over 125 variants, lol.

And this is exactly why I stopped buying variants a few years back. If the comic companies had stuck with just 1 or 2 variants per issue, it could have remained a stable market, but with the sheer amount of variants being produced now and the ridiculous price on many of them....well, the crash is coming. Make no mistake about it! And when it does, I will be there to pick up the ones I really want for dirt cheap.