Ask the community for help and advice here
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katdancing Posts: 9
7/27/2018
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I'm pricing my Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi and noticed there's a "Gold Cover Variant" - but it's hard to tell from the thumbnails what the difference is (color?) and no info any where else that I saw. How can I tell if it's a standard issue ($3) or Gold Variant ($8) ?
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solarno Posts: 166
10/26/2018
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BasementComics wrote:
Hello, I have two different copies of Adventures of Superman 467. One is colored blue up at the top but the other is purple.
I have found conflicting but interesting info on this issue. There were definitely two versions of this issue printed, a newsstand edition with a barcode and a direct edition with an ad for Action Comics in place of the barcode. The newsstand edition would have been sold at grocery stores, book stores, newsstands, etc., where as the direct edition would have been sold specifically through comic book shops. Both can be seen here: http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=365863
Based on other pics strewn about the internets it appears that the direct edition has two very different color qualities, either purple top with vibrant, redder colors, or a blue top with muted, more natural looking colors. I've only found images of newsstand editions with the blue top. I did happen across this cool listing for the original color guide print of this cover which shows a blue top: https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1327782.
My theory is this: When they were printing the covers for this issue they ran the newsstand editions first. At some point after they switched plates to run the direct edition covers there was a 4-color mix issue and the magenta plate was printed too heavy resulting in later copies having a much redder tint to it.
To answer your question regarding one being considered a variant, it depends on what your two covers are...
If you have one with a barcode and one without then you could argue that you have a variant. Historically newsstand and direct editions have not been considered variants as they are the same artwork from the "same" print run. But collectors are more and more viewing them as variants as they are actually different print runs with different circulation numbers (though finding exact numbers is near impossible). The printing house would have had to stop the presses to change the printing plates for barcodes or no barcodes. It is by technical definition an intentional variant. I also noted that the newsstand edition carries a publication date (Jun 90) on the cover in the price box while the direct edition replaces that with a UK price of 50p and moves the pub date to below the issue number. Like the barcode box, this would also require different printing plates and therefore qualify it as technically a variant.
If you have two without barcodes then that comes down to probably more of a printing error. I would not classify that as a variant as it is not an intentional change. I personally would say that a blue version of the direct edition should be more desired as it is closer to the colors intended by the artist but that probably does not affect the value. That is unless someone can determine the circulation ratio of the blue to purple direct editions.
Cheers!
Jim
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BasementComics Posts: 784
10/26/2018
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Thanks Jim.
I did check first about newsstand but both have the same logo. As near as I can tell, they are all the same (I even looked at the publication info to see if maybe one was a 2nd print). I really appreciate the detail.
Donald
solarno wrote:
BasementComics wrote:
Hello, I have two different copies of Adventures of Superman 467. One is colored blue up at the top but the other is purple.
I have found conflicting but interesting info on this issue. There were definitely two versions of this issue printed, a newsstand edition with a barcode and a direct edition with an ad for Action Comics in place of the barcode. The newsstand edition would have been sold at grocery stores, book stores, newsstands, etc., where as the direct edition would have been sold specifically through comic book shops. Both can be seen here: http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=365863
Based on other pics strewn about the internets it appears that the direct edition has two very different color qualities, either purple top with vibrant, redder colors, or a blue top with muted, more natural looking colors. I've only found images of newsstand editions with the blue top. I did happen across this cool listing for the original color guide print of this cover which shows a blue top: https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1327782.
My theory is this: When they were printing the covers for this issue they ran the newsstand editions first. At some point after they switched plates to run the direct edition covers there was a 4-color mix issue and the magenta plate was printed too heavy resulting in later copies having a much redder tint to it.
To answer your question regarding one being considered a variant, it depends on what your two covers are...
If you have one with a barcode and one without then you could argue that you have a variant. Historically newsstand and direct editions have not been considered variants as they are the same artwork from the "same" print run. But collectors are more and more viewing them as variants as they are actually different print runs with different circulation numbers (though finding exact numbers is near impossible). The printing house would have had to stop the presses to change the printing plates for barcodes or no barcodes. It is by technical definition an intentional variant. I also noted that the newsstand edition carries a publication date (Jun 90) on the cover in the price box while the direct edition replaces that with a UK price of 50p and moves the pub date to below the issue number. Like the barcode box, this would also require different printing plates and therefore qualify it as technically a variant.
If you have two without barcodes then that comes down to probably more of a printing error. I would not classify that as a variant as it is not an intentional change. I personally would say that a blue version of the direct edition should be more desired as it is closer to the colors intended by the artist but that probably does not affect the value. That is unless someone can determine the circulation ratio of the blue to purple direct editions.
Cheers!
Jim
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