Slide from Newsstand Rarity Discussion & Estimates; discussion below.
shooter-quote-direct-market
This slide is part of my post entitled
Newsstand Rarity Discussion & Estimates where I have collected quotes and graphics related to the discussion of relative newsstand rarity over the years, compared to direct edition copies. In this slide, I am discussing a quote from Jim Shooter where he links out to the writings of Chuck Rozanski:
“In the mid to late 1970’s, the comic book Direct Market started to evolve. The story of its origins is told better than I could ever tell it, starting here: [ this links out to Rozanski’s “Evolution of the Direct Market Part I” ]. I differ from Chuck Rozanski’s accounts only in details, which are in the big picture, of no consequence. To wit, I believe that I was present for his first meeting with President Jim Galton and, in fact, played a part in making that meeting happen. … ”
— Jim Shooter, Comic Book Distribution Part III
What is particularly interesting to me about the link Shooter shared here, is that one of the parts is an estimation by Rozanski of newsstand sales figures for the 1980’s. But the whole multi-part read is a very interesting one, and it is clear to me from reading it that Rozanski is an industry insider with lots of great information that he has generously decided to type up and share with collectors. As the owner of the largest comics retailer in the country (according to the Mile High Comics website), with over 10 million comics in inventory, Rozanski also took a step not all other retailers have done: breaking out inventory between newsstand and direct edition. That presumably gives Rozanski a wealth of internal information/data about newsstand versus direct edition rarity.