How to tell which printing you have?

[DonC]

Do they mean something? Probably. Do they mean something that would effect your enjoyment of the comic or it's value? No.

[ArnoldoAAD]

those are obviously used by the government to track you reading habits

[Brandon Hanvey]

The barcodes are mostly used in Point of Sale systems. It is used to help retailers track sells and inventory by scanning the barcode with a reader/scanner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_sale

Diamond even has a system for comic retailers.
http://www.comicsuite.com

[ArnoldoAAD]

The barcodes are mostly used in Point of Sale systems. It is used to help retailers track sells and inventory by scanning the barcode with a reader/scanner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_sale

Diamond even has a system for comic retailers.
http://www.comicsuite.com

LIES!

you work for the government dont you

they are everywhere!

[Gam3r]

Ha, believe it or not I realise their usual purpose Brandon, just like Arnold lol but cheers anyway :-)

I take it the answer is no then....

Well is there anywhere you can find out if a variant is 1:100 or 1:200 etc without researching online ie is there any similar give away such as the last number in barcode for this?

[DonC]

I don't know where you're getting this "last number" thing, but the answer to your question depends on the publisher. Dynamite and IDW usually publish all of their variant covers somewhere inside the book. Usually the inside cover. Marvel and DC usually have ads there so they don't have the room to list their variants.

[iaremarc]

facepalm

People that still think there is any potential future financial gain with modern comics crack me up.

Its all about supply and demand dude. Golden and Silver Age comics are valuable because the supply is so low. Very few people back then ever bothered to take care of their comics, let alone actually bag and board them. So because of that the vast majority of them have been destroyed over the decades. Near mint condition Golden Age comics are VERY VERY VERY rare. Action Comics #1 is worth a million dollars precisely because there are estimated to be less than 100 copies of it even still left in existence, and only nine copies have CGC graded at 9.0 or above. NINE copies.

That isn't going to happen with modern comics. Today everyone bags and boards and takes good care of their comics. With your new Batman #1, there are going to be literally thousands upon thousands of people who have it slabbed at 9.8 or better condition. Therefore it is not going to be worth much of anything at all.

That's not to say that every modern comic will be worthless. Some indie comics have low print runs and therefore will always be in low supply, and these will be the comics that will actually be valuable in the future. Nothing from DC or Marvel will ever be worth much ever again though.

I think it could be taken into account that the human population is growing exponentially. Even though large quantities were/are printed, only so many are true first prints. Not saying that this would make them worth a thousand dollars, but they definitely have value.

[Brandon Hanvey]

Typically the bottom longer number of the barcode is the ISBN number while the short number which usually is above and to the side above is the price.

[thwhtGuardian]

They used to post pertinent publishing data, like which printing it was, on the bottom of the title page of the comic or sometimes on the last page. It's been a while since I stopped caring about those kind of things so I couldn't tell you if they still do that but that would be your answer.

As for rarities of variants I don't DC books list those, you'd need to look online for that information. Diamond would be my guess.

[Alex6166]

I overheard the sales clerk talking about how the last number on the barcode indicates the printing number. I got a Batman #3 as a second printing and that's what it had on it.

[OptimaX]

how can I tell what print they are?

At the last (non advertisement) page you'll find the credits with the date of printing. If you have a 2nd (or higher) printing it would mention "2nd printing" next to that date. If there is nothing next to the date of printing, you'll have a first print.