PNJ Comics 2020 Canadian Price Variant Market Report

By Paul Clairmont, Overstreet Advisor and proprietor of pnjcomics.com, October 2020

“People need to remember the distribution channels for these books was not speciality shops with owners wearing white gloves carefully laying them out for the fine art crowd to come and carefully handle. These books were stuffed into unforgiving newsstands and spinner racks in convenience stores and grocery stores with employees unloading them with the same care as tossing tin cans of corn onto a store shelf.”

The 4th Edition of the Canadian Price Variant Guide is about to be released soon and each year this niche market continues to build traction. More and more collectors are becoming aware of these variants and more private collectors are turning into private sellers and we are seeing more sales titles using the Canadian Price Variant distinction. Although many sellers are using incorrect descriptors to describe them, it’s not a perfect world and the learning curve does take some time.
 

I would have to say that with the growing interest it is important to make sure collectors better understand what drives prices with this area of comics. There is some confusion that all Canadian Price Variants are rare or scarce and that isn’t the right message. While this may be true with a few select issues in certain titles the real driving factor for scarcity of these books is high grade, I’ll use Near Mint- (9.2) as the standard starting point.

People need to remember the distribution channels for these books was not speciality shops with owners wearing white gloves carefully laying them out for the fine art crowd to come and carefully handle. These books were stuffed into unforgiving newsstands and spinner racks in convenience stores and grocery stores with employees unloading them with the same care as tossing tin cans of corn onto a store shelf. The exposure of being leafed and fanned through by the general public added to the cumulative damage of spine ticks, finger dents and dog eared corners. These “new” on the stand books were quickly dropped to Very Fine or lower standards which for the 1980’s, many dealers still called “mint”.

If we just use common sense from a business standpoint. The production and distribution of these books were for the Canadian market place which we can agree was 10 times smaller than the regular U.S manufacturing and distribution. Take into account that some of this distribution did seep into U.S markets for some unsold stock in Canada. That doesn’t change the fact that the books were treated in the same manner when crossing the borders and they didn’t survive in true high grade.
 

So, it can be said these Canadian Price Variants are rare and scarce in high grade. Not just in general. But these ratios don’t equate into equal premiums being paid. For instance. There might be 350 copies of the direct edition of Uncanny X-Men #185 graded CGC 9.8. Then there might be less then 5 copies graded CGC 9.8 of the same book but it is the Canadian Price Variant. The CGC 9.8 direct edition may have a fair market value of $75.00 USD but that doesn’t mean the Canadian Price Variant has a fair market value 70 times the value of the direct edition. It may translate into being worth 120-150% of the direct edition value.
 

What still drives value is the importance of the issue. Is it a key appearance, hot artist or key event? Then you can look at other key books that have Canadian Price Variant versions and they adhere to the ratio numbers and can bring 50 to 70 times higher prices in CGC 9.8 then the regular edition. Try to find the 1 copy of G.I. Joe #21 that is CGC 9.8. The owner is a hugely passionate CPV collector and that isn’t leaving him anytime soon I would imagine. Doug Sulipa has speculated it could be valued at $5,000 USD because it is so scarce and it’s a hot issue to boot!
 

This is a collecting area that doesn’t have a magic formula to predict pricing. But if you go with the common sense of demand, key or not, and scarcity in high grade. Having all these factors align will generally produce premiums over the direct edition counterparts. The other factor is the knowledge that these exist and generating that demand. One last thing, do your homework and research. This is an area that can be manipulated by both camps of collectors. The ones that don’t care and the ones that do care. Nothing is perfect and the information available is not always accurate either. Grading companies barely started recognizing these books and even when the market demanded it, they still gave a lot of pushback so the census numbers are likely not completely accurate as many of these Canadian Price Variants can be entombed in plastic cases with the wrong labelling. Could there be another CGC 9.8 copy of G.I. Joe #21 that is simply mislabeled as a regular edition and not a Canadian Price Variant? It could be possible. So collectors…go check your CGC 9.8 copy and if it says 75¢ then throw it away…. it’s garbage! (Just kidding… have it properly reholdered and acknowledged by CGC or whatever grading company you use)

Happy Hunting and Happy collecting!

2020 Canadian Price Variant Sales at PNJ Comics (USD)

Here are some recent sales highlights for Canadian Price Variants at PNJ Comics:
CPVGradeSale Price
Amazing Spider-Man #252raw VG/FN$80.00 USD
Blade Runner #1CGC 9.6140.00 USD
Blade Runner #2CGC 9.6140.00 USD
Captain America #286CGC 9.8 220.00 USD
Detective Comics #535CGC 9.4160.00 USD
Fantastic Four #286CGC 9.8 200.00 USD
G.I. Joe #21CGC 6.0282.00 USD
Heathcliff #1 CGC 9.4$160.00 USD
Hex #1CGC 9.6$135.00 USD
Jughead #325CGC 6.0115.00 USD
Secret Wars #1CGC 9.8 225.00 USD
Smurfs #1CGC 9.8 160.00 USD
Smurfs #2CGC 9.8 160.00 USD
Smurfs #3CGC 9.6105.00 USD
Spectacular Spider-Ham #2CGC 9.280.00 USD
Spectacular Spider-Man #90CGC 9.6265.00 USD
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi #1-4 SetCGC 9.8 $930.00 USD
Superman #1CGC 9.4195.00 USD
Thor 337CGC 9.0$135.00 USD
Thor 338CGC 9.8 Multiple sales of $99.00, $170.00, $150.00 and $165.00 USD
Thor 339CGC 9.6$95.00 USD
Thor 339CGC 9.8 Multiple sales of $106.00, $125.00 USD and $145.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #162CGC 9.8 $220.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #163CGC 9.8 215.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #164CGC 9.4120.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #165CGC 9.8 160.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #168CGC 9.8 225.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #171CGC 9.8 215.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #173CGC 9.6160.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #180CGC 9.8 150.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #184CGC 9.6$95.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #186CGC 9.8 150.00 USD
Uncanny X-Men #191 CGC 9.8 255.00 USD
Veronica #1 CGC 9.8 $200.00 USD

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