Captain Marvel Jr. 18 with Red Circle 4 Cover? 0

[Hirams_collectibles]

Hey everyone, I recently had a friend offer me a PGX 9.2 Captain Marvel Jr. 18. When I look at the book, it has a Red Circle 4 cover. My friend is telling me that what happened when they printed CMJ18 was that they ran out of covers and started wrapping them with Red Circle 4 covers. Would you guys be able to help me out in figuring out the history of this? Is this true? If so, does anyone know how to value this thing? Or is all of this just one big PGX mix up haha. Thank you for your help. HEre are pics: 

[Robot Man]

Most probably not true. The publisher of Red Circle bought unsold copies of many different company’s books. They then striped the covers and replaced them with the Red Circle covers. 

There are many different combinations of contents with that cover. 

[rjpb]

Rural Home publishing slapped this cover on a variety or remaindered issues from a number of different publishers. Most of the time the contents are from 1948-1954, indicating they may have done this for several years. CMJr. #18 came out in 1944, which seems early for the contents of one of these, but I suspect PGX getting the issue number wrong is more likely. Sometimes the title of the content book is stamped on the cover. Blue Circle #6, and Blazing Comics #5 and #6 have a similar history. Rural Home published original material briefly around 1945, and it is speculated the covers for these were printed back then, and later used for reselling remaindered books.

High grade CGC copies have been known to sell for a few hundred dollars, though likely for the novelty factor, otherwise they tend to sell about what a low grade copy of the interior might, though in my humble opinion, they really aren't worth any more than a coverless copy.

 

[rjpb]

I see that PGX has a 4/52 date for the contents on the label, which would make the issue #108, not #18, which is more in line with typical date range of the contents.

CMJr. 108 is about a $20-$30 book in lower grade. I can't really see buying a PGX slabbed copy of RC #4 with that as the contents for much more than that, even if it was given a 9.2 grade.

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Does anyone have any idea if these were sold at newsstands or in the secondary markets (discount stores etc.)?

Growing up back east we would occasionally come across some interesting finds in discount department stores. I remember one day going into a store with my brother and they had an open top table stacked with old comics all with their covers intact. They were still likely remaindered issues that had somehow slipped through the distribution system. Years ranged from the early to later sixties and we picked up some interesting Charlton books including monster giants and some Space Adventures. There were also copies of Iron Man #2 my brother picked up. At the Englishtown flea market there was a guy with multiple issues of the Marvel titles from 1965 up that he sold for 35 to 50 cents depending on the year. I picked up lots of TOS and Captain America there. At Collingwood Auction there was a vendor with stacks of books and magazines (tons of Harvey and those cheap monster magazines) we used to love to look at. I bought lots of Spirit magazines from there but back issues were way too pricey. The sources of this material was always questionable but always interesting.

None of this seems to exist anymore with the direct market. The only books I might think you would see like this are the Archie books which still go to newstands (I think) but I bet inventory control is better these days.

[Hirams_collectibles]

2 hours ago, rjpb said:

Rural Home publishing slapped this cover on a variety or remaindered issues from a number of different publishers. Most of the time the contents are from 1948-1954, indicating they may have done this for several years. CMJr. #18 came out in 1944, which seems early for the contents of one of these, but I suspect PGX getting the issue number wrong is more likely. Sometimes the title of the content book is stamped on the cover. Blue Circle #6, and Blazing Comics #5 and #6 have a similar history. Rural Home published original material briefly around 1945, and it is speculated the covers for these were printed back then, and later used for reselling remaindered books.

High grade CGC copies have been known to sell for a few hundred dollars, though likely for the novelty factor, otherwise they tend to sell about what a low grade copy of the interior might, though in my humble opinion, they really aren't worth any more than a coverless copy.

 

Thanks so much for this!