Avengers #77 Newstand Price Error Variant

Marvel Comics, March 2004.

The direct edition of Avengers #77 was sold with a 50¢ cover price shown in both the UPC box and also in a large circle just underneath the title to the left. The rarer newsstand edition was priced $2.99 US and $4.25 CAN but without a circled price:

However, there seems to have been a printing mix-up at some point as a few newsstand editions, with the correct UPC price of $2.99 US/$4.25 CAD, also have the 50¢ circled price but with a different coloration to the circle plus they lack the black outline on the 50¢ lettering.

It is thought that the error copies were available only to a very small number of outlets, including a number of military bases outside the US, so these are pretty rare variants.

It is difficult to calculate the precise number of error variants but it is likely to be a very small number given the newsstand market was 10% or less of the total distribution at this time and also given that the error variant was only a small proportion of that. There is also anecdotal evidence that a number of error copies were returned, either due to the error or were simply unsold, so those would likely have been fed to the great pulping machine.

At the time of writing, only 16 Newsstand Error Variant's have been graded by CGC, all high grades (mostly 9.8 NM/MT).

Soon after the error variants were discovered, similar error variants were also discovered for the X-Men (Uncanny) #77 Newsstand Edition, however, these remain the only two error variants discovered so far from Marvel's marketing campaign between 2002 and 2004 where a number of comics were reduced to 9¢s, 25¢s and 50¢s.