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Dell UK Price Variants
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271 posts in this topic

Another one shilling Lassie here, with Timmy ready for action while Lassie holds his hose in his mouth. 

474753914_Lassie53(April-June1961)1Shilling.thumb.jpg.081c692d3fe760592d56e96a87ed4f9b.jpg

Talk about exciting adventure! Arf!

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14 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Evening :)

Here's a nice Ellery Queen from the Four Color files:

1362315530_FourColor1165ElleryQueen(March-May1961)1Shilling.thumb.jpg.cb156a5d7b569f838ac3e840be218d61.jpg

 

Whoever was responsible for adding the one shilling price to these later FC UK copies never quite made their mind up how to go about it.

In order, we have:

Four Color #1164 with a 15c US price in an ellipse and a separate one shilling UK price in a circle:

634719173_FourColor1164WantedDeadorAlive(March-May1961)1Shilling.jpg.5dbd6a2c19dedeb890c1e555295c247c.jpg

Then Four Color #1165 with just a one shilling UK price in a circle covering where the 15c US price would otherwise be in its ellipse:

2092254833_FourColor1165ElleryQueen(March-May1961)1Shilling.jpg.3a7f60375b1da4a43bfdefd8d5065880.jpg

Then Four Color #1200 with a 15c US price in the Dell stamp box and a separate one shilling UK price outside it in a circle:

1900266077_FourColor1200Hennesey(Aug-Oct1961)1Shilling.jpg.962fda908b896a8a094b98f00e880a43.jpg

And then Four Color #1236 with just a one shilling UK price in the Dell stamp area with no circles or ellipses in sight:

182161046_FourColor1236TheKingofKings(1961)1Shilling.jpg.753e7bdb264049ae2ef4a1eac78327b9.jpg

 

Make your mind up! :grin:

 

They do seem to be a bit haphazard. Seeing the time period was so short, no consistency at all. Interesting though.

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8 hours ago, Gnasher said:

They do seem to be a bit haphazard. Seeing the time period was so short, no consistency at all. Interesting though.

I think so, yes. I like all this kind of thing. I'm never 100% sure how some of the variant pricing was done. You hear of 'overprinting' prices, prices being added by hand. Here's a few examples of what I mean.

This Canadian 75c price variant looks like it was printed over the original 60c price, which you can still see:

1970941234_FightinArmy16960cPriceVisibleon75cCopy.jpg.0b6e24bb624f6970c2acc5de19de3e51.jpg

 

Then there's these two copies of Mandrake - the 12c copy still shows the 10d price and the 10d copy shows a block of colour obscuring the 12c price. God knows which order they were printed in:

1409581393_Mandrake1012cvisible10dpriceCrop.jpg.bd01a0ce3d64c1addfb99e7b468c9289.jpg 1176191734_MandrakeTheMagician10(November1967)10dCrop.jpg.52b1bd42388ae5030bc8af62d132a211.jpg

 

I can never work out whether Charlton UK price variants were printed with a blank price box into which a UK price was manually added - as these two seem to indicate (note they are in different positions):

ch1.jpg.6a466812adea8ea89273c457e12df8a6.jpg ch2.jpg.c94020b62442bb7415a96c23af0693c8.jpg

 

But others are consistent and look to be printed at the same time as the cover.

You can see on some early Marvels where the US price was scratched out and replaced with the UK price - often bits of the US price still show:

5pfprice.jpg.a2cf8f490aa09423b1f87217841f5552.jpg  

 

I've got loads more examples. Maybe there were many different ways of doing it. Going back to Dell, why place the UK price over the US one on one issue and not the next? 

782660319_FourColor1164WantedDeadorAlive(March-May1961)1Shilling.jpg.01a47ad57725de954fc7d0a905ecae09.jpg 1086467755_FourColor1165ElleryQueen(March-May1961)1Shilling.jpg.5b5775d4d4705ebcf3cf5b7e79d6106e.jpg

 

As I often say, we may never know. Fun to speculate though. 

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15 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

I think so, yes. I like all this kind of thing. I'm never 100% sure how some of the variant pricing was done. You hear of 'overprinting' prices, prices being added by hand. Here's a few examples of what I mean.

This Canadian 75c price variant looks like it was printed over the original 60c price, which you can still see:

 

 

Then there's these two copies of Mandrake - the 12c copy still shows the 10d price and the 10d copy shows a block of colour obscuring the 12c price. God knows which order they were printed in:

1409581393_Mandrake1012cvisible10dpriceCrop.jpg.bd01a0ce3d64c1addfb99e7b468c9289.jpg 1176191734_MandrakeTheMagician10(November1967)10dCrop.jpg.52b1bd42388ae5030bc8af62d132a211.jpg

 

I can never work out whether Charlton UK price variants were printed with a blank price box into which a UK price was manually added - as these two seem to indicate (note they are in different positions):

 

 

But others are consistent and look to be printed at the same time as the cover.

You can see on some early Marvels where the US price was scratched out and replaced with the UK price - often bits of the US price still show:

 

 

I've got loads more examples. Maybe there were many different ways of doing it. Going back to Dell, why place the UK price over the US one on one issue and not the next? 

 

 

As I often say, we may never know. Fun to speculate though. 

The Mandrake example of reverting back (if thats what they did?) is particularly interesting, whay would that be? .

It does pose the question, particularly with  Charlton, was the price printing done over here by the distibutors?,

As you say, we'll never know for sure,. Good points raised, nonetheless. (thumbsu 

Good eye, btw, for spotting those.

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On 11/15/2019 at 7:28 AM, Gnasher said:

It does pose the question, particularly with Charlton, was the price printing done over here by the distributors?

Maybe. Given that the Marvel Millers have UK indicias as well though I think that's unlikely. Sending US copies over with or without price / indicia details for the recipient to add them or overprint them seems overly awkward to me. Better surely to just give the US printers their instructions and to receive the finished product? 

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13 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Maybe. Given that the Marvel Millers have UK indicias as well though I think that's unlikely. Sending US copies over with or without price / indicia details for the recipient to add them or overprint them seems overly awkward to me. Better surely to just give the US printers their instructions and to receive the finished product? 

But Charlton's the extra cost of setting up the presses to accomodate that? We're talking about real cheapskates. lol 

Just to reiterate, we'll never know. 

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18 minutes ago, Gnasher said:

But Charlton's the extra cost of setting up the presses to accomodate that? We're talking about real cheapskates. lol 

Just to reiterate, we'll never know. 

Don't knock it Bob. That Charlton printer could turn out cereal boxes too you know :bigsmile:

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On 12/15/2019 at 7:53 AM, gth_09 said:

I found this today, hope this helps :)

DG 48.jpg

It sure does @gth_09 ! :)

The GCD date sits outside of my current research so that is very interesting, thank you (worship) (any chance of a shot of the indicia page?)

I'm not sure why I didn't get the flag to say you had posted so sorry for not responding sooner.

I'm due a refresh of the current Dell pence position as it goes. Here's another new one, Four Color #1134, which I forgot to bid on recently:

204106417_FourColor1134TheRealMcCoys.jpg.f6b1570487b723986b6dc72e3528ba5e.jpg

 

These two bring us up to 215 confirmed pence copies now. Thanks again gth_09 for posting your find :)

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4 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

It sure does @gth_09 ! :)

The GCD date sits outside of my current research so that is very interesting, thank you (worship) (any chance of a shot of the indicia page?)

I'm not sure why I didn't get the flag to say you had posted so sorry for not responding sooner.

I'm due a refresh of the current Dell pence position as it goes. Here's another new one, Four Color #1134, which I forgot to bid on recently:

204106417_FourColor1134TheRealMcCoys.jpg.f6b1570487b723986b6dc72e3528ba5e.jpg

 

These two bring us up to 215 confirmed pence copies now. Thanks again gth_09 for posting your find :)

Here's indicia for Dell Giant #48 as requested :)

20191224_065405.jpg

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On 11/13/2019 at 12:03 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Another one shilling Lassie here, with Timmy ready for action while Lassie holds his hose in his mouth. 

474753914_Lassie53(April-June1961)1Shilling.thumb.jpg.081c692d3fe760592d56e96a87ed4f9b.jpg

Talk about exciting adventure! Arf!

I'm not a veterinarian but "Lassie" by definition is female.

I do know however, that in the movies there was a male dog named "Pal" (in drag) that played the role of "Lassie".

 

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Afternoon :)

I'm still in two minds about this Beatles copy (I posted it earlier in the thread) and whether it should be included in the Dell Giant UKPV numbers. Sitting way outside the defined date range as it does it just doesn't feel right at the moment so I'm going to exclude it until I hold a copy in my hands, compare it to the US cents copy and decide on its concurrency (of printing):

774318635_BeatlesDellUKCGC.thumb.jpg.0773dfa3d9453a06f856630f8a4612d5.jpg

One thing I missed last time is the CGC label's use of the word 'frontispiece'.

frontispiece.PNG.4481ef14526e0324813d7c9b81238545.PNG

Whatispiece? hm

frontispiece2.PNG.e20c5b4a336269da6264c11cdfc9b383.PNG
 
I've never heard that word before in all my comic years. 
"Frontispiece"! :)
 
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16 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Afternoon :)

I'm still in two minds about this Beatles copy (I posted it earlier in the thread) and whether it should be included in the Dell Giant UKPV numbers. Sitting way outside the defined date range as it does it just doesn't feel right at the moment so I'm going to exclude it until I hold a copy in my hands, compare it to the US cents copy and decide on its concurrency (of printing):

774318635_BeatlesDellUKCGC.thumb.jpg.0773dfa3d9453a06f856630f8a4612d5.jpg

One thing I missed last time is the CGC label's use of the word 'frontispiece'.

frontispiece.PNG.4481ef14526e0324813d7c9b81238545.PNG

Whatispiece? hm

frontispiece2.PNG.e20c5b4a336269da6264c11cdfc9b383.PNG
 
I've never heard that word before in all my comic years. 
"Frontispiece"! :)
 

Don't know if this is any help, a copy off Worthpoint, with magnification  to x300 you can read the details in the 3rd picture, Steve.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/beatles-1964-complete-life-stories-uk-1852435816

GCD doesn't have it listed along with the other Giants, but as The Beatles #1, though in the publishing details list the brand as  a Dell Giant, so it is confusing.(shrug)

https://www.comics.org/issue/1324856/

Everyone knows what Frontispiece is!

 

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13 hours ago, Gnasher said:

Don't know if this is any help, a copy off Worthpoint, with magnification  to x300 you can read the details in the 3rd picture, Steve.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/beatles-1964-complete-life-stories-uk-1852435816

GCD doesn't have it listed along with the other Giants, but as The Beatles #1, though in the publishing details list the brand as  a Dell Giant, so it is confusing.(shrug)

Cheers Bob. I've got quite a few images of various copies, including internals, in the files. I'd like to hold a copy in my hand though to compare paper stock etc. Just need a low grade low priced copy to surface!

13 hours ago, Gnasher said:

Everyone knows what Frontispiece is!

Wasn't it a Davison episode of Doctor Who? hm

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I haven't posted here for a long time. The main reason for that is that I haven't found any new examples for as long as I can remember despite daily searching. I picked up an upgrade for this Dell Giant (I collect those) but other than that it has been slim pickings:

1948651247_DellGiant32BugsBunnysBeachParty(1960)2ShillingsCopy.thumb.jpg.06d9fcc6f8917f78b44b2e03397d7b5c.jpg

I'm reasonably confident that the books I've captured and summarised here and over at The Pence Palace are it now, and that it's highly unlikely that any new Dell UKPVs will surface. That said, the Flintstones Giant that was posted earlier in the thread is the only example I have ever seen. Had they not posted it, I would assume it was never produced as a UKPV. So there is always hope that another example or two may surface.

What is clear though is that the books are becoming remarkably scarce now. I've exhausted all the dealers as far as their stock goes and it's now a case of waiting for individuals to sell to them or pop them on eBay. There's no real value in the majority of them really, and I'm not stockpiling them or anything - I just pick up the odd clean copy if it's priced right alongside the Giants. But they're slowly dying out, as all things eventually do. Shame really, isn't it.

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On 9/20/2020 at 1:29 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I'm reasonably confident that the books I've captured and summarised here and over at The Pence Palace are it now, and that it's highly unlikely that any new Dell UKPVs will surface.

In the four years or so that I've been posting pence blathery here I've noticed how the Universe often likes to produce a new UKPV more or less immediately after I have tentatively posted that no more will likely be found. She's at it again, the Universe, and here is Four Color #1179, The Swamp Fox, to bring us up to 67 FCs and 216 Dell UKPVs:

1406556006_FourColor1179TheSwampFox.thumb.jpg.84142263064e9c39b1949237aa2b1700.jpg

That's the first new pence copy for almost a year.

I like the Universe, and the little games she plays :bigsmile:

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