By Doug Sulipa, Overstreet Senior Advisor, DougComicWorld.com,
October 2018
“Canadian Newsstand Cover Price VARIANT editions, were easily our #1 bestselling VARIANTS of the year.”
Canadian Newsstand Cover Price VARIANT editions, were easily our #1 bestselling VARIANTS of the year. Only about 2% of our issues in stock were High Grade Enough & Worth Enough to be worth sending to CGC; We Sold about 50 CGC Graded Canadian Newsstand VARIANT’s mostly in the $75 to $250 each Price Range; We sold about 600 RAW Canadian Newsstand VARIANT’s by ALL Publishers (Mostly VG to VF ranged copies) Mostly in the $5.00 to $50.00 each Price Range (150%-300% Overstreet Guide for most copies); These are NOT broken out & Listed in the Overstreet Guide, because there are too many of them, thus the need for this Guide;
I have been selling Canadian Newsstand Cover Price VARIANTS for nearly 20 Years & have Noted them in Overstreet Market Reports since around 2002; On this Site we currently only deal with MARVEL and DC Canadian Variants. About 75% of the 1980’s Marvel & DC Canadian Variants have an Overstreet Guide 9.2 Value of $3.00 to $5.00, but are quite Scarce in VF/NM or Better, thus even the slowest selling Titles have a Minimum Value of $10.00 for a Strictly Graded 9.2 example; Marvel & DC Canadian Variants having an Overstreet Guide 9.2 Value of $10.00 or Higher, are valued at about 150% on average (as a Stable starting Point) of the Current Market Value of a standard Direct edition; But, as the marketplace is so very Un-Informed and Misinformed, the actual real current value varies wildly from Overstreet Values standard Direct editions; (With Popular Titles & KEY issues Bringing 175% to 1000%; Slower NON Key issues From 150% to 200%);
The Most Undervalued Canadian Variants are the Dozens of MINOR KEY issues, that still have LOW Values in the Overstreet Guide (TV Comics like A-TEAM #1, Action #595, 598, Adventures of Superman #424, All Star Squadron #47, Alpha Flight #33, Amazing Spider-Man #253, 256, Avengers #263, BATMAN & Detective Comics with Top Villains, Top Covers (Neal Adams, John Byrne, Superman breaking Chains, Top Villains, Classic Covers, Captain America #275, 310, Daredevil #196,197,200, 232, Dazzler #33, Doom Patrol #1, Elvira’s House of Mystery #1,11, Fantastic Four #262, 265, 272 & MANY MORE);
The Scarcest titles as Canadian Variants are all the unpopular characters, Reprint Titles & all the Cartoon Series. Some collectors have started to Realize this and are picking up MARVEL STAR Cartoon Comics, Comics Based on Toys, and other Overlooked & Undervalued titles. [Some of the Most Valuable Marvel 30 & 35 cent Variants, have SKY HIGH Values even in Low Grade, as Completionists desperately need them to complete their sets]; Among the Hidden Rarity’s for Canadian Variants, keep watch of the Values for; BLIP, Droids & Ewoks (Star Wars related), Peter Porker, Smurfs & many others;
I am often asked how many of these exist, or how Scarce are they; To get a Ballpark Idea, I note the Following; Canadian Print Runs are 10% or Less of American issue quantities. Thus if 200,000 Printed, about 20,000 would be Canadian, of those 50% would have been Direct & 50% Newsstand. Approx. 75% of Direct editions still exist today in Collections & Comic Dealer inventories, but the Survival Rate of Newsstand copies is about 25% of the Original Print runs (because they mainly were sold to the General Public, thus mainly Non-Collectors); Thus in this example; 5% of the Print run of 200,000 copies would have been printed as Canadian Newsstand VARIANT Cover Price Variant editions, with about 2500 copies surviving thru to today (approx. 1.25% of the Original Print Run); thus they are about 50-100 Times Scarcer than a USA Direct Edition Printings. Because newsstand copies were sold to Non-Collectors, perhaps 90%, are Lower Grades (FA/G thru FN/VF); Only a Handful of these Variants have even been graded by CGC, perhaps because they have not yet realized some of them are Variants yet. In this example, of the 2500 copies surviving thru to today, about 10% Would be in Strict VF or Better (by CGC Standards), thus perhaps 250 Copies might exist in 8.0 to 9.8 Investment Quality Grades;
Many other Canadian VARIANTS Exist including; ARCHIE Comics & Digests (Giants from late 1950’s thru Mid 1960’s with 35 Cent Cover Prices; and 9/1982-4/1997 with Digest to 12/1997), ALTERNATIVE Comics (Many Uncharted), CHARLTON (2/1983-8/1984), Cracked magazine (Uncharted), DELL (6/1956-1-2/1961 = 15 Cent variant; Back Cover variants with Strips in place of Ads = Canadian?; Giants with 30-35 cent cover prices = Confirmed Canadian), GOLD KEY / Whitman (5-8/1968, 3/1972-4/1973, 12/1977-3/1978, 1-7/1984), HARVEY(1959-3/1974 Giants with 35 Cent cover prices), HAMILTON Pub (Vampirella #113 from 1988 = USA Editions Lists for $550 in Overstreet = Highest Priced Canadian Variant?), MAD (some 1964 & 7/1978-7/1979), Other MARVEL; (Marvel Mass Market Paperbacks with Canadian VARIANTS, some with Canadian Flag on cover; Spectacular Spider-Man #1 mag from 1968; Marvel 1960’s Annuals with, Blank back cover, Blank Inside front & Blank inside back cover), MODERN Publishing (1983 only? = VOLTRON Canadian Variants exist); WARREN (3/1977-3/1983); Whitman Variants of the Gold Key Comics (11/1971 thru 4/1980; Canadian Newsstand Variant cover price issues (4-8/1968 with 15 cent prices, 3/1972-4/1973 with 20 cent prices; 12/1977-3/1978 with reverse 30 Cent prices); Canadian Variants of Whitman Comics (75 cent cover price issues of 1984 Whitman Comics that are 60 cents in USA; These are Quite Rare in High Grade, with 9.2 copies worth $75.00 or more each);
Rare Comics 