Shoutout to the old guy at the comic shop who proved me wrong about variant covers

I was at Midtown Comics in Manhattan last Saturday flipping through the new releases. This older collector, probably 70, told me the 1992 Spider-Man #1 gold variant actually had a print run of only 500 copies. I laughed and said no way, everyone knows it was way more than that. He pulled out his Overstreet guide from 1993 and showed me the exact number. $475 for a near mint copy back then. I felt like an idiot but it was cool. He even had one in his bag and let me hold it. Made me realize I don't know half as much as I think I do. Anyone else had an old school fan drop some crazy stat on you like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

beth2761mo ago

Honestly I gotta disagree a bit here. Those old Overstreet guides were always off on modern print runs, especially for variants that weren't officially documented yet.

samk771mo ago

Overstreet just never kept up with the crazy variant culture after the 90s bubble popped.

mary_nelson711mo ago

Wait, I gotta gently push back on that. The early Overstreet guides actually had better info on 90s variants than most people give them credit for, they just missed the unannounced store variants that were flying under the radar back then.