1998 WHAT IF...? #108 THIRD APPEARANCE OF COSMIC CARNAGE. RARE NEWSSTAND VARIANT. GRADED CGC 9.6 WP. ACTUAL ITEM IN PICTURES FOR SALE.

Comicbookinvest website has data showing that in 1998, newsstand variants only made up 5-10% of the total printed comic books on the market. 

Newsstand variants were not sold to collectors inside comic book retail stores. They were found at actual newsstands, often displayed in spinner racks inside liquor stores, grocery stores etc and were typically printed on lower quality paper and were never bagged and boarded and often abused. Very few newsstand variants survived making them extremely SCARCE in high grade and many unsold newsstand copies were either returned to the publisher or destroyed.