Does anyone know what the letter in front of a written arrival date represents? 0

[mosconi]

Really curious, as I've seen various hand written letters in front of arrival dates and do not fully understand what they mean.  My ASM #13 has a "P" written as does a copy from Straw-Man's ASM #22 (hope he doesn't mind me posting it).  They look almost written by the same hand too.  My ASM #48 has an "R" written arrival date on the back cover.

What do these letters represent?  Is it an abbreviation or initial for the name of the distributor to which the newsstand retailer will return unsold copies?  If so, interested as to what distributor name would the P and R represent??  Or is it a special internal code used by newsstand retailers for something totally different?  And are these letters sometimes used to identify pedigree copies as well?  Really appreciate any and all information you fellow boardies may have on this topic!

ASM #48 back cover...

Edited June 17, 2020 by mosconi

[mosconi]

Anyone out there that can shed some light?

[rjpb]

While I'd suspect the P may be some sort of distributor code, the R on the back cover of the ASM #22 looks to be referencing the return date, as it is a month later than the front cover date, and would coincide roughly with the next issues arrival. 

Either a store employee or the distributor driver to pull outdated comics and magazines off the rack in preparation for or when the new ones were dropped off. The back cover date coding in effect acting like an expiration date, though it appears usuallypeople would just yank magazines based on time elapsed since the arrival date, or when a new issue arrived, not concerning themselves with cover dates, as whether a magazine was issued weekly, monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly would have affected the pull date. 

 

[mosconi]

1 hour ago, rjpb said:

While I'd suspect the P may be some sort of distributor code, the R on the back cover of the ASM #22 looks to be referencing the return date, as it is a month later than the front cover date, and would coincide roughly with the next issues arrival. 

Either a store employee or the distributor driver to pull outdated comics and magazines off the rack in preparation for or when the new ones were dropped off. The back cover date coding in effect acting like an expiration date, though it appears usuallypeople would just yank magazines based on time elapsed since the arrival date, or when a new issue arrived, not concerning themselves with cover dates, as whether a magazine was issued weekly, monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly would have affected the pull date. 

 

Thanks for the response!  The "R 2/15" date actually belongs to the back cover of ASM #48 which has a front cover date of 5/67.  Could the R also represent a distributor's name?

[shadroch]

I don't think its an industry wide code, just something a particular dealer or newsstand did.

[mosconi]

1 minute ago, shadroch said:

I don't think its an industry wide code, just something a particular dealer or newsstand did.

Gotcha, so the R and P are probably the initials to a distributor's name so the retailer would know where to send the unsold books back to?  I assume some newsstand retailers did the letter coding if they had multiple distributors to keep track of, while other newsstands may have only had one comic distributor and didn't need to do it?

[shadroch]

It might be the initial of the person who signed them in, or who actually stocked the shelf.They might be the buyer of the book denoting where and when he bought the books.

I don't think you will get a definitive answer but I hope you do.

[rjpb]

21 minutes ago, mosconi said:

Thanks for the response!  The "R 2/15" date actually belongs to the back cover of ASM #48 which has a front cover date of 5/67.  Could the R also represent a distributor's name?

Ah, I misread that (what I get for skimming). In that case a Feb. arrival date would make sense for a May cover date. My understanding is that by the 1960s, local distribution was a monopoly in most regions of the U.S., some large cities being exceptions. These distributors would in turn receive periodicals from the printers via national distribution companies ( which were often identified as part of the cover art, IND, ANC, etc.). It's never been clear to me if the letters one finds on old comics regarded as distributor marks are put there by retailers signifying local distributors (if more than one), or local distributors signifying what national distributor would be responsible for returns. 

Edited June 16, 2020 by rjpb

[mosconi]

14 minutes ago, rjpb said:

Ah, I misread that (what I get for skimming). In that case a Feb. arrival date would make sense for a May cover date. My understanding is that by the 1960s, local distribution was a monopoly in most regions of the U.S., some large cities being exceptions. These distributors would in turn receive periodicals from the printers via national distribution companies ( which were often indentified as part of the cover art (IND, ANC, etc.). It's never been clear to me if the letters one finds on old comics regarded as distributor marks are put there by retailers signifying local distributors (if more than one), or local distributors signifying what national distributor would be responsible for returns. 

Thanks for that info!!  Very interesting, so the letter may represent a local distributor or possibly the national distributor.  Or as shadroch noted, could even be the initial of the stocker who placed the books on the newsstand for sale!  May never know the absolute truth but still very intriguing to me 

Edited June 16, 2020 by mosconi

[shadroch]

Over in the Golden Age forum, a thread about the Lamont Larsen collection was just bumped, and the original post deals with this subject. Its a good read, if not very definitive.

[mosconi]

5 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Over in the Golden Age forum, a thread about the Lamont Larsen collection was just bumped, and the original post deals with this subject. Its a good read, if not very definitive.

Appreciate it shadroch!  Going to go over and check it out!

[mosconi]

2 hours ago, shadroch said:

Over in the Golden Age forum, a thread about the Lamont Larsen collection was just bumped, and the original post deals with this subject. Its a good read, if not very definitive.

That was a great article on the Larson pedigree collection!  Came to find out that some of his books had written on them PN and ON, representing the distributors Publishers News and Omaha News.  Very cool story and so informative