By Benjamin Nobel, April 20, 2017
“This is just one more way for CBCS to help lead comic collectors into the future of this great hobby.” — Steve Borock, CBCS President
I would like to publicly applaud CBCS for their decision to identify the newsstand vs. direct edition difference on their labels! I hadn’t seen the news yet (from a couple weeks ago), when this afternoon a newsstand copy of Spawn #1 popped up on my eBay alerts… And I was surprised to see this on the label:
CBCS copy of Spawn #1 now denotes “Newsstand Edition” on the rare newsstand copies!
As you can see, it says “Newsstand Edition” on it. I looked up the serial number on the CBCS website and sure enough, it is there too in a lookup, it says “Variant: Newsstand Edition”:
Variant: Newsstand Edition
I did some searching and sure enough, found the following announcement from two weeks ago… it isn’t just Spawn getting this new treatment, it is everything until 2000 (not sure why they ended there… perhaps that will change eventually):
It says: CBCS is proud to announce that we will now identify the difference between Newsstand and Direct Edition variants on our label, for comics published from 1977 through 2000. This was a change made in response to the increasing number of requests that we’ve received over the past few years from customers and dealers alike. CBCS recognizes this trend as one of those collecting niches that has been overlooked for a long time, and we agree that the change is due. Given the growing number of passionate collectors who are starting to acknowledge and accept Newsstand and Direct Market variants as different copies of the same comic, we will now start identifying them on the CBCS labels. “We are always looking for ways to improve our product and our hobby, as well as give people what they want,” said Steve Borock, President of CBCS. “This is just one more way for CBCS to help lead comic collectors into the future of this great hobby.”
This makes two of the biggest three grading companies to denote the newsstand edition vs. direct edition distinction on their labels in a “broad” fashion… PGX has been denoting “Newsstand Edition” on their labels for a number of years now. CGC does break out newsstand comics, but currently does so only in limited special situations, as opposed to more broadly.
Here’s a zoomed out look at that CBCS-graded Spawn #1 newsstand edition, and then just to give PGX their due credit for being the first to label Newsstand Editions this way, a PGX copy:
With this move, CBCS has just given the rolling snowball of growing newsstand awareness a great deal more mass — this snowball is well beyond unstoppable now. I also like seeing the recognition that A) newsstand comics are “one of those collecting niches that has been overlooked for a long time,” B) acknowledgement of “the growing number of passionate collectors who are starting to acknowledge and accept Newsstand and Direct Market variants as different copies of the same comic,” and C) that this is an important move for “the future of this great hobby.”
Again, my applause to CBCS for this great decision!
Rare Comics 