I have a few of the marvel masterworks in hand. While the variant editions have the seqeuntial release number on the spine, the indica still indicates the volume numbering by title. I understand that some discussion was given as to which way to list them as. I have to say this can be very confusing for the non-variant owners. It has been my understanding that the indica is the final say on everything, why is this made into an exception? I also see that this does not apply to the new softcover editions, which show the same numbering scheme. I.E. the standard editions are numbered as individual titles and the variant editions still have the "legacy" numbering, however, again the Indica also follows the same rule of 1)individual title 2) volumes numbered by title

Could you give an example using one or two of the books you have? IE - what do the cover and indicia say and where do we currently have it listed? Thanks!

This garnered some heavy conversation way back in the day, and CCL decided to list these all together under one title. We don't want them listed in two separate areas, once for the regular books and once for the variants, and since the series started out in sequential numbering it was decided that we would continue listing them that way. Is this the best solution? It depends on your point of view, but that is what was decided and there's no reason to change it now.

Prepare for an info dump:

CCL put a lot of thought into how to list the Masterworks hardcovers and decided to list them all in one title as they started off with and continue to have (on the variant covers) continuous numbering.

CCL made the call on this a while back. Whether it was the right answer, I'm not 100% sure of, but it's the way those books are set up now. By the by, there are 72 issues, 87 covers with 37 up for sale.

A little more history - when the Masterworks first started coming out in the late 80s they were sequentially numbered regardless of title. Then, they weren't published for several years. When the title returned, Marvel re-published all the original collections but with numbering based on the title. Once they got past the original run and started creating all new collections they have put out variant dust jackets continuing the sequential numbering.

So, under the original printings and continued numbering (and the way CCL chose to go)...

Title: Marvel Masterworks
#1 - The Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1
#2 - Fantastic Four Vol 1
#3 - X-Men Vol 1
#4 - Avengers Vol 1
#5 - Spider-Man Vol 2
#6 - Fantastic Four Vol 2
.
.
.
#117 - Avengers Vol 8
#118 - Journey into Mystery Vol 2


Two further points:

1) The indicia of my fifth printing of the first Marvel Masterwork reads "MARVEL MASTERWORKS VOL 1: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN."

2) Thunderstruck notes in his post "I also see that this does not apply to the new softcover editions, which show the same numbering scheme." He's right by the way. The new softcover editions are broken out by title. However, while they are doing the sequentially numbered variants, the indicia were separate titles from the start. Also, it's a bit apples and oranges since the new softcover publishing history is significantly less convoluted than the hardcovers.

So, yes, there is a bit of an exception to the rule here on the newer Masterworks. However, the exception is actually based on the rule for the original 27 collections that are sequentially numbered in their indicia. It didn't make a lot of sense to put the new version of the first Amazing Spider-Man Masterwork in a completely different title when there were already seven printings of it under the original indicia.

Furthermore, I just started a conversation with the Approvers on how to make the listing of Masterworks easier to understand an consistent in presentation. Once we have it all sorted, I'll update all of the ones in the database and (hopefully) fill some of the holes along the way.

Sounds good to me. Thanks for the history lesson. :)

Thank you, That is all I am truly asking for. To give a great example of what brought it to the forefront is: I have Amazing Spider-Man Volume 7, I could not find the corresponding item in the listings. It turns out that it was not listed. After much delving into I discovered the corresponding number would be 44. However going by the volume itself in hand there was no way of knowing that, hence the confusion began. If it helps anyone, I look at this numbering as being near identical to a name change (X-Men changing to X-Men: Legacy) as the most recent example. I thank all involved for their time. I do understand as it has taken a considerable amount of time just to enter my 12,000+ back issues and hundreds of HC & TPBs, and I have yet to go through and grade them. by the way, i don't know how accurate it is, but thanks to ALL involved in creating the grading tool, it is AWESOME!