The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide states that issues #1-9
were reprinted and that they should have the word reprint "in the upper
lefthand corner of cover or on inside or price and number inside a diamond
with no date or UPC on cover".
The problem is that not all Diamond issues are reprints. Much
like their Newsstand counterparts the Diamond printings of issues #1
through #6 have both original and reprint versions. This lack of
knowledge on the part of Overstreet has lead to many misunderstandings
in the collecting community. Issues after #6 are not reprints, but
are part of normal Diamond series which, as with all Diamond issues,
are the same printing as the Newsstand issues but with modified covers to denote
that these issues were not distributed through Curtis Circulation to newsstand clients.
The primary client for these Diamond issues was the Western Publishing Company
which distributed Diamond issues in their Whitman three-packs. Unlike Newsstand issues
which could be returned if unsold, the Diamond issues could not be
returned and the cover modification was Marvel's way of marking these issues.
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