JAMES JOBE

Hello, and welcome to the Stl Comics Marvel 35 Cent Variant Cover Gallery and Rarity Guide!

I'm very excited to see this project come alive! I'm not sure how long ago it was that Cosmic Spider-Man showed up on the Stl Comics Forum and recommended the collage you see above, but this has defnitely been a long time in the making.

Terry Hall (Cosmic Spm) had asked me if it was possible to use the collage image for a gallery of the entire 35 collection. I knew that I'd be able to do it, but I had so many projects lined up at that time, I didn't know when I'd actually get around to it. We then got busy with the 30 Cent Gallery, and I let it slip my mind for some time. We eventually finished that gallery, and that's when the 35 scans started pouring in! Terry supplied almost every scan used in this gallery, and Roger Perez hosted and posted all of them onto the forum. Harry Miller supplied the remaining pics.

Thanks guys for all the hard work. I think it has paid off!


Any questions or comments please contact: james@stlcomics.com

TERRY HALL

The Marvel 35 cent price variants

These comics are still shrouded in mystery.  Very little is really known about them by the people who collect them. It has been speculated that Marvel Comics back in June 1977 wanted to test the market to see if comic buyers would accept a five cent price increase. Much like the 30 cent variants from the year before Marvel released a 35 cent variant for every 30 cent comic they produced from June to Oct. 1977. This was a total of 184 different comics. These 35 cent variants were printed in much smaller numbers than the normal 30 cent counterpart and were believed to have only been shipped to only six distribution areas to be sold in those areas. The only thing about them that we know for sure is that Marvel did print all 184 possible 35 cent variants. All the other stuff has yet to be proven one way or the other.

How I got started collecting variants

My first experience with 35 cent variants was a Hulk #215 that I got from a friend back in 1981. I would have thought nothing of it if I had not had another one with a 30 cent price on it. At that time my collection was very small, and I was a teenager, so I was constantly laying my comics out on the kitchen table to admire my collection. I noticed right away that I had two Hulk #215's with different prices. I think I eventually decided one of them must be a reprint and forgot all about it until the late 1980's. I was always buying comics and read Comics Value Monthly on a regular basis. By this time they had a Star Wars #1 35 cent cover listed in it at a much higher price than the normal 30 cent one. One Sunday in 1987 I was at a flea market just a little North of Atlanta, GA. which I went to almost every week looking for comics and I found this Star Wars #1 with a 35 cent cover price. I was very excited and bought it. I was convinced I had the 35 cent variant Star Wars #1 even showed it to some of my comic collecting friends thinking I had a real valuable comic. Turns out all I had was one of those Diamond priced no upc reprints, and a few weeks later I noticed it said reprint in the indicia.

Fast forward to early 2003 I had just completed my ASM collection or so I had thought, and I see some auctions for ASM 30 cent variants from a guy named Charles Costas. He was sending copies of the article about Marvel price variants from CBM to anyone interested in his auctions. Up till that time I knew of the 35 cent Star Wars #1 but I had no idea that Marvel had printed 35 cent variants of every comic of that time. I wound up winning some of those 30 cent variants bidding against an ebayer named Darthdiesel. After those auctions Charles Costas sent me a list of variants he had available for sale and I bought several more. I saw some I really wanted, the "ASM 35's", but they were really expensive so I passed. As luck would have it just a short time later I found an auction on ebay with an ASM #169 35 cent variant and won it cheap. A week later I found another auction with an ASM # 171 & 172 in it and I also won it cheap. I knew I was hooked snce I now had three of the five ASM 35's. I was determined to get the other two and I didn't have to wait too long. A guy named Tony Brock listed a whole bunch of 35 cent variants on ebay in large lots and one of those lots had a real nice ASM #173 which I won. Now I had a bunch of other 35 cent variants. About that time I discovered the CGC Message boards and read everything I could about these variants how rare they were. At that time it was questioned if all of them even existed. Well, everyone on the CGC board was helping to prove the existence of all the 35's by posting all they found and it was a very exciting time to actually be collecting these. I eventually ended up buying, trading or talking with almost all of those guys, and it was a great experience. I would like to thank all these guys by their board names for their help in my collection:

Darthdiesel realitytrip warlord Lighthouse Joe_collector metarog

shieldagent 4Gemworks Flying Donut silverandbronze rob_react buena_vista

I hope I did not leave anyone out. :D

Thanks to you all, and all the ebayers I have dealt with in the last two years. I am now only three more comics away from having the whole 184 piece 35 cent variant set which I hope to complete soon.

My research and thoughts on the 35 cent variants

I personally have been buying variants for a few years now and I have probably handled more of them than anyone, at least over this last 2 years. While looking at all these examples of 35 cent variants I have noticed that most of them have marks on the top edges. I had no idea what the marks were for. While talking to a friend, " Jeff ", about these marks, he explained to me that they were distributor marks and that most all the distributors marked their comics so they would know when to replace old stock. They would not get returns from other distributors stock. When I found that out, I figured their must be a way to tell where each variant came from and while going through mine there was a correlation on where they came from and the marks on the top edge. As a result of charting these distribution marks I am sure that 35 cent variants were sold in 5 different markets and it is still possible that their may also be a 6th one which was suggested in a letter from Marvel that Flying Donut posted on the CGC message boards. It is also my belief that these 35 cent variants could not make up much more than 1% of the total print runs and that they are indeed very rare!  To date the most common 35 cent variant would have to be the Star Wars #1 which has 50 copies on the CGC census now. Probably the rarest are the Westerns (Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt), Flintstones and Scooby Doo #1's, and Sgt. Fury's which I only know of a few copies of each. So, if you are into Rare Comics and you collect bronze age Marvels, then these should top your list of most wanted collectibles.

Thanks

-- Terry A. Hall

:: Update - 3/3/08 ::

Update 1: After some major trades of very Rare 35 cent variants involving a Star Wars #2, Iron Fist #14 and a Scooby Doo #1 with Daffy06 and 4gemworks, I was able to get two of my last three 35 cent variants. With a rediculously large snipe on ebay I was able to pull in the last remaining issue I needed: a Kid Colt Outlaw #219. I was to be the first to complete the Marvel 35 Cent Variant set. I would also like to thank Harry Miller and Roger Perez who helped me complete those final deals and especially to Harry who had one of only 2 known copies of Kid Colt's 219 at the time and offered it to me if I failed to win the one on ebay. What a stand up guy.

---> Set completed on Sept. 29 2005



Update 2: Well, it has been 2 1/2 years since I completed the 35 Cent Variant set now and I still find myself looking for those hidden 35 cent variants on ebay but not quite as much as I used to. After all this time very few of the real tough 35 Cent Variants have shown up which only reinforces the fact that these are just plain RARE! I am still very much interested in discovering where all the Distribution Area's for these were and I am always happy to talk with anyone interested in or who may have any info or theories on where they were originaly sold back in 1977...

E-Mail Me! ----> terryhall at twlakes.net.


Hope to hear from you and good luck building your set.

Terry

ROGER PEREZ

Although I don’t personally collect these variants I do pick them up if I can find them cheap. They make great trade bait for 30 cent variant upgrades. They are a lot tougher to spot than most 30 cent variants since they all have a “regular” looking price box - no starbursts, circles or square price areas on this bunch. Another big difference between the 35 and 30 cent variants are the key issues in the set. Whereas the 30 centers don’t have any real keys this set has Iron Fist #14 and Star Wars #1-4 along with another title for Spider-Man completists-Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man that started after the 30 cent variants stopped.

When it comes to 35 cent variants we have two of the foremost authorities on the subject here at StlComics in Terry Hall and Harry Miller.

Terry is a great guy that has done some great research on 35 cent variant distribution and still has the only complete set as of this writing (Feb 2008). That fact more than anything illustrates how tough some of these variants are to obtain. I sold him a few variants and he actually traded me a 30 cent variant that I needed even though it was his only copy. Needless to say I consider him a friend and a goldmine of variant information.

Harry’s alter ego should be Mr. Variant. If Harry doesn’t have it or isn’t trying to get it then it probably isn’t a legitmate variant. He is also one of the most knowledgeable and determined variant collectors around. I would never have completed my set of 30 cent variants if not for Harry and his amazing “variant vision”. Mr. Variant is also one of the most helpful and approachable collectors you will meet and my best bud!

Of course, were it not for our host James Jobe none of these great variant galleries would have been possible. A big round of kudos go out to James and his great forum for showcasing all these great variants. We have "contaminated" James and he now has several different variants himself.

Enjoy the gallery and rarity index that has been compiled by Canickus and had input from all the Variant Mafia. Please post your ideas and observations on the STL Comics Forum. Let's talk variants!

Any questions or comments please contact: roger@stlcomics.com

HARRY MILLER

Love – Hate

Wow-time to update the 35 cent gallery already. My how things have changed.

It seemed as if we had just got the 30 cent gallery up when out of the blue, Terry, Roger and James decide to kick things into overdrive and get the 35 cent gallery up and running.

Terry Hall (a.k.a. Cosmic-Spider-Man) sent all of his scans of his 35-cent variants to Roger, who started hosting and posting. James then formatted every picture and put them up in the awesome format pictured above. Bravo dudes. I am still in awe.

As mentioned elsewhere, I started by collecting 30-cent variants. As I got down to my last 20 books or so, I started turning my attention to the 35-cent variants. My hope was to dig some up during my searches, and use them for trade bait to get the books I needed. Well, that strategy did not work. I finished the 30 cent run without trading one 35 cent variant for a book I needed. What started out as a complimentary search diversion, has hooked me into another torturous round of heartbreak collecting. When the 35 cent variant gallery went live, I was up to 125 unique 35-cent variants. At this writing, (Feb 08) I am down to ten more books to go.


Crazy???

I have heard this word too many times to describe all facets of variant collecting. At one time, I was glad I was not one of those guys. Now I find myself in the thick of things, but still struggle to understand the prices, mentalities, and sheer uphill battle of putting together a run of these things. Here is what keeps me going:

Terry Hall finished the run. Terry, you are my Hero.

Three others are at less than 10 books to go to finish the run.

What does this all mean? It means that it can be done. If it can be done, it is worth trying.


Some things I have noticed:

For five consecutive months every marvel comic produced had a 35-cent variant. Regardless of what you read elsewhere, every one has been proven to exist over a year ago. And most importantly, for the first time ever, all of the variants are pictured here for your reference. Again, we at STL Comics would hope that this gallery along with the other galleries at STL will become THE reference tool for future comic collectors. Long gone are the need for those never updated websites with “fishing” lists and no scans.

X-men books bring out the real nut-jobs and hoarders.

Star Wars books, have their own following of non-variant wacko’s that have tons of money.

Don’t get me started on Iron Fist 14…..X-men, nut-jobs, wacko’s, hoarders, tons of money….

Westerns and War (SGT Fury) are tough books for everyone.

Hanna Barbara books (Flintstones 1 and Scooby Doo 1) are also tough books to find.

Other than that, they are all rare, but the mainstream books surface all the time. It takes time, patience, and money.


A February 2008 update:

Due to the hard work and research of many people, STL is proud to bring you a rarity index to accompany our gallery. Craig Nickell should be given the credit for building the spreadsheet and driving the cause. I also want to thank those that gave their input and thank James for coding and hosting. We are constantly trying to make things better and more accurate, so we gladly welcome your comments.

Lastly, I would like to thank you for visiting this page and the STL site. Please come back often, join the forum, and talk to us about variants! Remember, this 35–cent variant gallery represents what is great about comic collecting in general. Some may think that variant collecting is on the fringe, but there are others who realize variant collecting is the essence of true collecting.


Any questions or comments please contact: harry@stlcomics.com

CRAIG NICKELL

I grew up an avid comic book reader and collector while I was in school in the 70s and early 80s. I remember biking to the 7-11, buying books off the spinner rack, and reading the great bronze-age classics like Cockrum and Byrne’s New X-Men, Frank Miller’s Daredevil, and Dave Steven’s Rocketeer. After graduating from college, getting married and having kids, I stopped buying comic books because of the demands of my new responsibilities and home budget constraints. Fast forward to a couple of years ago with my own kids in high school, some spare time, and settled in a bigger house with some extra storage space, I started working to complete some of the comic runs that I never finished as a kid. Searching for these books led me to the CGC website where I discovered a thread on Marvel price variants of the same books that I collected as a kid. That thread led me to this great website that James has put together with the variant mafia. I was hooked. Hard.

I started working on a set of Marvel 30 cent price variants. Why start with 30 cent variants instead of the 35 cent variants? Two reasons. The first reason was that the 30 cent variant set seemed easier to complete. Six people had already finished sets. The second reason was that I found Paul Merolle’s Marvel Price variant website. With information from Jon McClure, Paul put together lists of both the 30 and 35 cent variants. But to the 30 cent variant list, Paul added the extra column where he estimated the scarcity of each issue. His 35 cent variant list didn’t have this column. Even though Paul’s spreadsheet is several years old, I have found the estimated scarcity list to be uncannily accurate.

As most collectors who have completed or are working to complete the 30 cent variant set have experienced, when you get to the last 10 to 15 books, things slow down a bit. Painfully, achingly slow. Needing a new pursuit, I started trying to find some of the 35 cent variants. What frustrated me was that other than some commentary about how rare 35 cent variants are, I could not find an estimated scarcity list for 35 cent variants similar to the 30 centers to aid in my search.

Since I couldn’t find a list, I figured why not develop one. But how do you develop a list on books that are so elusive? Fortunately, some information is available that was not available a few years ago. First and most important, variant mafia members like Harry and Terry have years of experience chasing these elusive books down and know the provenance of many of the tough ones. Second, many people use CGC to third-party grade their books either to maximize their return in an auction or to register their copies in a CGC registry set. CGC makes available a census where collectors can look up the grades and number of books of each issue which have been certified. This census offers some clues as to the relative scarcity of each title. Finally, GPAnalysis is a company that tracks the sales history of CGC certified books and provides the information to subscribers via the internet. We utilized all of these resources to produce the 35 Cent Variant Analysis.

I want to thank Shieldagent (you are the don), James, Metarog, Cosmic Spider-Man, 4Gemworks, Darthdiesel, Flying Donut, and Strongguy for your help in putting the list together and especially for your help with my collection. From the start, developing this list has been a collaborative effort.

It is my hope that this list will help you in your 35 cent variant pursuit. It is also my hope that this information will help chase out more copies of each book. My friend, Shieldagent deserves to finish the set.

Some additional thoughts about the Marvel 35 cent price variant set.

With less than three examples known of each of the three Kid Colt issues, both Sgt. Fury issues, both Rawhide Kid issues, and both Hanna Barbara books, completing the set is a worthy challenge.

For many of these issues, high grade means a complete book. Fifty issues still do not have a single copy CGC certified over 8.5. Incredibly, Eternals 15, Incredible Hulk 212, Kid Colt Outlaw 218, and Power Man 45 have no certified examples.

CGC should be ashamed that its registry list is still missing ten of these issues.

And finally, the Overstreet price guide doesn’t have a clue about these books.


-- Craig Nickell