Sealed Super Mario Bros 1/Nintendo Comic System 1 question

[gsims718]

Hi everyone,

I was curious about this sealed two pack I found, and heard the valiant boards might be a great place to ask.

I recently received this sealed two pack, one side has Nintendo Comic System in it, and the other has Super Mario Bros #1.

I have never seen a two pack like this before, and wasnt sure if it came from Valiant like this, or if this was sealed after market?

Thanks for any help!

[betterthanezra]

These we prepackaged not from Valiant but created for non traditional retail stores. These packs always involved a no price version of one of the three that exist. Super Mario #1 was usually always included in the packs.
Thanks for sharing if you are ever interested in selling this please let me know.
-Brian

[greg]

These we prepackaged not from Valiant but created for non traditional retail stores. These packs always involved a no price version of one of the three that exist. Super Mario #1 was usually always included in the packs.
Thanks for sharing if you are ever interested in selling this please let me know.
-Brian

Should we assume that the price of the pack is just the price of the Super Mario #1? ($1.95?)
There's only one price showing on the front or the back of the pack and it's $1.95. If the trade book came "free" with the purchase of Super Mario #1 for $1.95, that seems like an incredible deal.
Even if these were supposed to have a price sticker for some other price, it seems like these packs would have been rung up by cashiers as $1.95 or scanned on the barcode for $1.95 pretty often.
I realize the trade paperback is just reprints, so it could have been cheap to produce, but $1.95 for the pack seems far too low.

[ckb]

We have always suspected that the no-price TPB was used in bundles like this. I agree that the one pictured must be missing a price sticker or insert with some marketing and the bundled price.

[Sunlight on Snow]

Certainly nice to have a sealed copy like this without a price sticker on it.

[gsims718]

These we prepackaged not from Valiant but created for non traditional retail stores. These packs always involved a no price version of one of the three that exist. Super Mario #1 was usually always included in the packs.
Thanks for sharing if you are ever interested in selling this please let me know.
-Brian

Thank you for the info! Do you know which retailers might have carried this?

[ckb]

These we prepackaged not from Valiant but created for non traditional retail stores. These packs always involved a no price version of one of the three that exist. Super Mario #1 was usually always included in the packs.
Thanks for sharing if you are ever interested in selling this please let me know.
-Brian

Thank you for the info! Do you know which retailers might have carried this?

By "non-traditional" we usually mean "not comic book stores". In this case Valiant/Nintendo had deals with a number of mass market retailers, including Walmart and the regional similar variants. These books were produced in large numbers, but sold to non-collectors, so they end up beat to death or in the trash.

Decades later cases of this stuff still turn up in warehouses, and I personally have seen a palette or two of the VIABs for sale at the local "Odd-lot" store, which is "Building 19 1/2". Sometimes these do not fare too well in the warehouses, either.

[betterthanezra]

This very item has now been listed on Ebay by the seller for $1,999.99 and free shipping....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125062214035?h ... SwfSFhwPVC

-Brian