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| Below is a complete list of all the 1977 Marvel comics which had 35 cent variant covers. Once again, much of the information included was first gathered by Jon McClure, and was published in several issues of Comic Book Marketplace. As with the 30 cent variants, it is believed that there is a 35 cent variant for every book Marvel published for five months prior to the actual price increase to 35 cents. As far as I know, however, this has not been proven, for certain. For example, only recently has a copy of Scooby-Doo 1 been found, and only one Western book and one copy of a Sgt. Fury issue have been discovered. The purpose of the variant versions was to test market-resitance to the increase. In fact, an ebay seller recently produced a letter from Sol Brodsky documenting that the 35 cent copies of Star Wars 1-4 were authentic and part of Marvel's marketing research (thanks to Dan Cusimano for the letter). |
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The situation with 35 cent variants is much more simple than with the 30 cent variants from the year before, and can be summed up in one word: RARE. There are few of the vagaries which are present among the 30 cent variants. For instance, all 35 cent variants have price logos identical to the regular issues, with the exception of the actual price. Therefore, they are much less conspicuous than the 1976 variants. More importantly, the 35 cent variants are truly scarce. At the time I initially wrote this, I had found well over four hundred 30 cent variants in my searches, but had only come across four 35 cent variants. Currently, I have found thirty-four 35 cent variants, but this was due solely to the good fortune of coming across a single collection, the original owner of which went out of his way to buy them off the newsstand in 1977. It is commonly accepted that the 35 cent variants not only comprised a much smaller percentage of the overall print run than did 30 cent variants, but were also distributed in primarily six cities in the U.S. Consequently, they are incredibly difficult to discover. |
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In addition, there are a few key issues among the 35 cent variants, a fact which contrasts greatly with the situation with the 30 cent variants. The most obvious example of this includes the first four issues of Star Wars. These issues have been well known to collectors since the movie's release in 1977, largely due to the fact that dealers hoarded the books on a large scale. Soon thereafter, collectors realized that there also existed a 35 cent copy of Iron Fist 15, which featured the new X-men, thereby attracting much collector interest. For the most part, though, the 35 cent copies languished in regular back-issue bins for almost 25 years. Most collectors were oblivious to the their existence, while those who were aware of them did not understand their significance, purpose, scarcity, or value. The Holy Grail of 35 cent variants is without doubt Iron Fist 14. This variant escaped large-scale notice for years (as did the rest of the variants) because the 1st appearance of Sabertooth was not particularly note-worthy until a decade or so later. As with most 35 cent variants, there are likely fewer than 20 copies known to exist. In actuality, there are significantly fewer copies known of each issue, but Iron Fist 14 is so sought after by collectors, that several copies have been found during the past 4 years. Combine this with the fact that X-men collectors view this as a key book and the popularity of the recent X-men movies and you can see how several copies have sold for between $1,000 and $2,000. Update 4/04: Recently, a collector has discovered over
80 35 cent variants in his original-owner, off-the-newstand, collection. Included in this lot are many previously discovered issues. He is currently
posting scans of these issues on the CGC Forum and, as he does, I will be adding them to the list. This is a pretty amazing
find, and promises to fill in many missing holes. So check in often and see what shows up.
Update 7/18/04: I've been remiss in updating some recent finds, which have been added to the list today. The most recent books to be checked off the list are Marvel Super Action 2 and, as of today, Kid Colt Outlaw 218. At this point, I think it's safe to say that every possible book exists as a 35 cent variant. It's just a matter of time before this collective effort concludes. I hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am.
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