The 2021 edition of the free online guide caters to collectors interested in Canadian Price Variant (CPV) newsstand comics of the 1980s and 1990s, also known as “Type 1A Price Variant” comics. The guide’s new official website, www.cpvpriceguide.com, has seen substantial growth in hits this year, with total website traffic surpassing the one million hits mark, and monthly hits up over 100% year over year, according to historian and Overstreet Advisor Jon McClure who co-created the guide.
Back in 2010, McClure introduced the term “Type 1A Price Variant” in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #40 article “A History of Publisher Experimentation and Variant Comic Books” to describe this type of cover price variant. Collector interest in Type 1A Price Variant comics has continued to build, according to McClure, which led to this comprehensive price guide to Canadian Price Variant comics.
The first edition of this guide was released in 2017, by McClure, fellow Overstreet Advisors Doug Sulipa, Bill Alexander, and Paul Clairmont, and historian Angelo Virone, in collaboration with Benjamin Nobel of the Rare Comics Blog. Last year, Overstreet Advisor and Director of the International Comics Exchange, Jay Halstead, and Overstreet Advisor and Vice President at MyComicShop.com, Conan Saunders, joined the collaboration team.
This year they are joined by former CBCS International Comics Specialist Tim Bildhauser. “I am very pleased to join the CPV price guide team. This year we saw unprecedented CPV sales, some of which were record highs and others that are so consistent that they firmly established the fact that mainstream collectors have accepted and embraced CPVs as an unquestionably legitimate part of the hobby,” Bildhauser said.
“Back in 1997, I began sharing my research on Marvel cover price variants via Comic Book Marketplace issues #51 (September 1997), #55 (January 1998), and #66 (January 1999),” McClure said. “Three years later all of the 30¢ and 35¢ Marvel variants were listed in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. Those are Type 1 variants. I predict Type 1A price variants will be next in line to eventually enjoy the same visibility to collectors. But until then, our team continues to fill the void with our niche price guide covering thousands of 1980s issues where this type of variant exists.”
Together the collaboration team announced the release of their fourth edition, The 2021 CPV Price Guide for 1980s & 1990s Canadian Price Variants (Type 1A). The new 2021 edition of the guide features 99% picture coverage of the Marvel and DC variants, a robust market reports and articles section, and several new features. It has been published online at cpvpriceguide.com.
