Marvel UK Price Variants 16 16

[themagicrobot]

Enjoy your meal. I'm at the early evening drinks stage and am still on the laptop because there's been nothing decent on TV for 17 years.

And to confuse the matter further Fantastic Four 116 was definitely a "giant" 25 cent issue (according to the spine) but has a 6p price printed on the cover, rather than an 8p price covered by a sticker. Perhaps looking through all the titles with a November 1971 cover date would find more oddities.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

10 minutes ago, themagicrobot said:

Enjoy your meal. I'm at the early evening drinks stage and am still on the laptop because there's been nothing decent on TV for 17 years.

10 minutes ago, themagicrobot said:

And to confuse the matter further Fantastic Four 116 was definitely a "giant" 25 cent issue (according to the spine) but has a 6p price printed on the cover, rather than an 8p price covered by a sticker. Perhaps looking through all the titles with a November 1971 cover date would find more oddities.

 

I've forgotten most of what I have posted here as it goes. A search of "November 1971" and I find....

On 1/10/2019 at 9:05 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I may as well post this here too - the suggestion was put to me recently that three of the nine known November 1971 double sized pence issues were priced at 6p in error, given that the other issues for that month were priced at 8p. That made sense, as the 8p price better reflects their worth as double sized issues when compared to the ongoing regular sized issues from December priced at 6p (and note that the US versions were 25c for November and 20c for December for all nine comparable issues):

 

The 6p November 1971 Double Sized Issues:

      

 

The 8p November 1971 Double Sized Issues:

          

 

Anyone who has purchased an ASM #102 or a Hulk #145 in the UK will probably have experienced the dreaded sticker residue. I had an 8p ASM #102 that had it and noticed a lot of Hulk #145's had it (the example above does, as does the Avengers).

A quick check on eBay shows this:

 

So it looks like the 8p price was actually considered the 'mistake' rather than the more logical 6p, given the number of official looking, consistent corrective 6p stickers out there. 

An interesting scrap of pence info, which has been sitting under my nose for years, and which may never be explained.

 

[themagicrobot]

So perhaps every possible variation of the subject of Marvel UK price variants has been covered and I'm doomed to have to read through the previous 75 pages of this thread forever? 

PS: Didn't inflation inflate in the 1970? The Treasury Editions jumped from 50p to a wallet-bursting 75p.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

8 minutes ago, themagicrobot said:

So perhaps every possible variation of the subject of Marvel UK price variants has been covered and I'm doomed to have to read through the previous 75 pages of this thread forever? 

You spotted the 25c UKPV spines Robot. Keep going mate. I thought I'd gone through the bottom of the pence nuance barrel twice over myself - if anyone can find anything new, I'm banking on it being you...

[Get Marwood & I]

20 minutes ago, themagicrobot said:

PS: Didn't inflation inflate in the 1970? The Treasury Editions jumped from 50p to a wallet-bursting 75p.

 

[Steven Coates]

Has anyone found UKPVs of Kid Colt Outlaw #130 - #132? The 3 issues were oversized at 68 pages and a 25¢ (US) cover price and might not have been printed for UK distribution.

I did find an ebay listing for #131 here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kid-Colt-Outlaw-131-Silver-Age-issue-Marvel-Western-1966/174486266138?hash=item28a031211a:g:c~kAAOSwy7pfjdnq

But the pence stamp looks to be post production.

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, Steven Coates said:

Has anyone found UKPVs of Kid Colt Outlaw #130 - #132? The 3 issues were oversized at 68 pages and a 25¢ (US) cover price and might not have been printed for UK distribution.

I did find an ebay listing for #131 here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kid-Colt-Outlaw-131-Silver-Age-issue-Marvel-Western-1966/174486266138?hash=item28a031211a:g:c~kAAOSwy7pfjdnq

But the pence stamp looks to be post production.

Steven, you can find the list of confirmed UK Price Variants here...

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/blogs/entry/4904-marvel-comics-uk-price-variants/

...and you will see that pence printed UKPV copies do not exist for issues 130-132:

 

I assume that you have placed the 'British' copy from the eBay listing on the GCD as below:

 

That is not a British copy Steven, that is a cents copy with a UK price stamp on it - and not even a standard Thorpe & Porter distribution one at that.

I would advise that you take that copy down from the GCD as it will fuel the kind of misunderstanding that I have spent the last four years trying to correct.

If you check my journal page here...

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/blogs/entry/5028-john-morlars-journal-summary-page-or-how-to-tell-a-uk-price-variant-that-you-dont-love-her-anymore/

...you will find a hopefully clear explanation of what is a UKPV and what is not (see the 'How to tell a UK Price Variant' bit).

Any questions let me know, but please do remove that GCD entry and any like it. A comic must have a printed UK price, and be part of the original US print state, to be called a 'UK Price Variant' (or any other descriptor that the GCD insist on using in place of the now fairly universally recognised one).

Thanks.

[Steven Coates]

Quite right, Steve. I had added the image to the GCD, but when following up with specific issue information, verifying  and cross checking, I realized there was a strong possibility the 3 issues did not have UKPVs. Which is why I posted here, I knew you would have the correct and current information.

[themagicrobot]

Perhaps this particular issue of Kid Colt was found under a bench at T&P towers and released into UK circulation with a higher price many months after it should have been. They didn't waste any issues if they could help it did they? Bit unprofessional though to cross out 9d and sell it for a penny more...

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by themagicrobot

[Get Marwood & I]

16 hours ago, Steven Coates said:

Quite right, Steve. I had added the image to the GCD, but when following up with specific issue information, verifying  and cross checking, I realized there was a strong possibility the 3 issues did not have UKPVs. Which is why I posted here, I knew you would have the correct and current information.

That's OK Steven, we all love our comics don't we - thanks for removing the picture.  

The GCD is a great resource, referred to by many, so any inaccuracies should be removed where possible - I'd get rid of the shell too if you can, as it implies the book exists and an image has yet to be uploaded:

I take your point re the 'current' bolded in your post, but this is one book that won't be turning up, trust me.

[themagicrobot]

Why if there are UK price variants do we still see cents copies with ink stamps?  I  can't see comic book readers of the time in a queue to buy copies of this reprint book causing T&P to call for extra stock.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

9 minutes ago, themagicrobot said:

Why if there are UK price variants do we still see cents copies with ink stamps?  I  can't see comic book readers of the time in a queue to buy copies of this reprint book causing T&P to call for extra stock.

Maybe they took delivery of their officially requested UKPV books and still took on the unsold US cents copies too (at probably cheaper rates than the printed UKPVs). They were popular at the time, so the story goes. And maybe some Marvels found their way into the DC shipments too...

[Steven Coates]

When a variant cover is added to the GCD, it automatically makes a cover sequence. Which was what I was editing when I posted my question on Sunday past. It can take some time to go through the approval process. It is gone now.

Further to hand stamping, it was fairly common here for newsstands to apply a date to the cover of newly arrived comics. I hated it at the time, but I find the information handy now to help confirm on-sale dates. Was date stamping a common practice in the UK?

If anyone has any UKPVs with "on sale" dates stamps, please let me know,? I'm curious to understand the duration the distribution to market took.

 

 

[Garystar]

On 2/22/2021 at 8:47 PM, themagicrobot said:

Why if there are UK price variants do we still see cents copies with ink stamps?  I  can't see comic book readers of the time in a queue to buy copies of this reprint book causing T&P to call for extra stock.

 

When I did some research for Marvel distribution I found that Until March 1969 Marvels were generally UKPV with stamps generally only appearing during gaps of no UKPV. However in April 1969 UKPVs restarted (after a year and half gap when only T&P stamps appeared) at 1/- price, however unlike previous periods of UKPVs there is an abundance of stamped copies also. I speculated either;

·         There were reduced numbers of UKPVs which meant T&P needed to fill the gap with stamped cents copies

·         Demand had increased to the extent that T&P needed more supply

·         World Distributors had taken over distribution of UKPVs and T&P stamps were in competition? (I can’t find when World Distributors took over from Thorpe and Porter).

[Get Marwood & I]

14 hours ago, Steven Coates said:

When a variant cover is added to the GCD, it automatically makes a cover sequence. Which was what I was editing when I posted my question on Sunday past. It can take some time to go through the approval process. It is gone now.

Thanks.

14 hours ago, Steven Coates said:

Further to hand stamping, it was fairly common here for newsstands to apply a date to the cover of newly arrived comics. I hated it at the time, but I find the information handy now to help confirm on-sale dates. Was date stamping a common practice in the UK?

I've not detected any systematic evidence of this on UKPVs myself, no, for any of the seven publishers. I've seen date stamps on UK stamped cents copies, but those are the dates applied by the US newsstands who failed to sell them. 

14 hours ago, Steven Coates said:

If anyone has any UKPVs with "on sale" dates stamps, please let me know,? I'm curious to understand the duration the distribution to market took.

We discuss the possible timings to the UK market in my distribution thread here:

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/471133-a-brief-review-of-the-first-official-uk-distribution-of-us-published-comics-in-19591960/

There's some anecdotal evidence and personal recollections but nothing concrete. My plotting exercise for the DC Thorpe & Porter price stamps started well but ended inconclusively in the later stages and once Marvel and Charlton titles were overlaid. The timings may have differed for UKPVs and the stamped distributed copies of course as the UKPVs were printed to come here straight away whereas the stamped copies only came here once they had failed to sell in the US. 

[Get Marwood & I]

19 hours ago, Garystar said:

 

When I did some research for Marvel distribution I found that Until March 1969 Marvels were generally UKPV with stamps generally only appearing during gaps of no UKPV. However in April 1969 UKPVs restarted (after a year and half gap when only T&P stamps appeared) at 1/- price, however unlike previous periods of UKPVs there is an abundance of stamped copies also.

Odd isn't it, why these would exist alongside pence printed UKPV copies:

 

19 hours ago, Garystar said:

I speculated either;

·         There were reduced numbers of UKPVs which meant T&P needed to fill the gap with stamped cents copies

·         Demand had increased to the extent that T&P needed more supply

·         World Distributors had taken over distribution of UKPVs and T&P stamps were in competition? (I can’t find when World Distributors took over from Thorpe and Porter).

I wonder could it have been that the unsold US copies were cheaper to buy and import than the printed UKPVs were to solicit and import, and that the unsold cents copies were not sufficient themselves to satisfy the UK's needs. So the distributor took all the returns and supplemented them with printed UKPVs to satisfy the UK demand rather than request the right amount of UKPVs? The unsold copies were, after all, second hand. 

That said though, and as I noted earlier, the stamped copies must surely have taken longer to arrive in the UK than the printed UKPVs. Taking these two as an example...

 

....the 15c one was printed to go to the US newsstand, where it would have remained for a period before being returned as unsold. The shilling copy would have been ready to ship to the UK straight from the printers, beating the cents copy by at least whatever the US shelf life period was. So unless the UKPVs sat around for that period to end before being added to the unsold cents copies, they must have arrived in the UK first, no?

In theory, this would mean that the UKPV would arrive in the UK and sell out, and the stamped cents copy would arrive later to fill the gaps in the collections of those who missed the UKPVs. 

Doesn't sound right, does it 

[Albert Tatlock]

I think this has been posted before, but I make no excuses, as it is quite a nice copy, and it has the printed in USA Miller stamp.

This needs an explanation. Why would Millers have thought it necessary to add this information? Would it have mattered to the prospective readership of the day?

If I had been consulted at the time, I would have found it a matter of supreme indifference as to whether the mag had first seen the light of day in Sparta, Illinois or in Outer Mongolia.

Maybe other theories could be devised, but I suspect the involvement of those nitpicking jobsworths, sorry, stalwart defenders of our shores, Customs & Excise.

Are these stamps only to be found on the first Miller arrivals? What would be the latest to have a stamp instead of the indicia with printed USA origin info?

[Get Marwood & I]

15 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

I think this has been posted before, but I make no excuses, as it is quite a nice copy, and it has the printed in USA Miller stamp.

This needs an explanation. Why would Millers have thought it necessary to add this information? Would it have mattered to the prospective readership of the day?

If I had been consulted at the time, I would have found it a matter of supreme indifference as to whether the mag had first seen the light of day in Sparta, Illinois or in Outer Mongolia.

Maybe other theories could be devised, but I suspect the involvement of those nitpicking jobsworths, sorry, stalwart defenders of our shores, Customs & Excise.

Are these stamps only to be found on the first Miller arrivals? What would be the latest to have a stamp instead of the indicia with printed USA origin info?

Cor, is that your copy Albert? Mythical that book is, at Marwood Towers! 

Read this post if you would:

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/411881-marvel-l-miller-co-uk-distribution-variants-may-1960-~-september-1961/?do=findComment&comment=10932285

And as for the 'PRINTED IN USA', bound to be a legal thing isn't it, given the obliteration of the US indicia opposite it....

 

[Albert Tatlock]

2 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Cor, is that your copy Albert? Mythical, that book is:

This has resided in my collection since time immemorial, and has just been dredged up from the furthermost recesses.

I had forgotten all about it, and it is not logged in the list I made of my Marvels in the 1970s, probably because I did not at that time consider Westerns mainstream enough.

I have just read through it, and nothing in it rings a bell, so either I did not deem it worthy of five minutes of my time back then, or those neurons which once held the sensory impressions have been overwritten or washed away by C2H5OH. I incline to the latter.

[Get Marwood & I]

2 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

This has resided in my collection since time immemorial, and has just been dredged up from the furthermost recesses.

I had forgotten all about it, and it is not logged in the list I made of my Marvels in the 1970s, probably because I did not at that time consider Westerns mainstream enough.

I have just read through it, and nothing in it rings a bell, so either I did not deem it worthy of five minutes of my time back then, or those neurons which once held the sensory impressions have been overwritten or washed away by C2H5OH. I incline to the latter.

Here's mine:

Now, while you're showing off, have you got one of these Albert?:

Or is it the only one in Englandville?