Among surviving newsstand copies of Balder The Brave #1, the market area that received the $1.00 cover price newsstand copies was a restricted area representing less than 10% the population of the total North American newsstand market. Only those newsstand copies of Balder The Brave #1 that were taken home and preserved by collectors would survive today in the highest grades. By contrast, newsstand copies were treated as reading material with no staff training to handle the books with any semblance of care, and they were then sold to the general public unsold copies were returned for credit and typically pulped/recycled forward.

When their orders arrived, the comic shop staff handled the books with extreme care to preserve their condition, and then the comic book collectors who shopped there typically preserved their purchases in plastic bags with backing boards. The comic shop owners ordered direct edition copies of Balder The Brave #1 at a discount to cover price, but on a non-returnable basis (the graphical logo was to tell non-returnable copies apart from their returnable newsstand counterparts).

As collectibles, direct edition copies are already at a disadvantage compared to newsstand copies in the highest grades, because direct editions were extraordinarily well preserved as the distinct type sold in specialty comic shops.

Marvel balder the brave