Get Marwood & I

Keep it up Eric, I like silly. As for the stamps, I added some more titles today and they all stop at different times. Early days, but they do seem to drift away randomly, rather than all stop at the same time as you might be forgiven for thinking would be the case. It's doing me mince pies in though, so I'll revisit it another time I think.

Why limit it to today?

It does seem quite chaotic, yes. I'm not sure I'll go any further with it if I'm honest.

This thread's gone right down hill

Well ask the other Eric then.

I thought this seemed familiar... @Pantodude

...great...panel....love it....when...they....use a series of....full stops....between....the...words....to.....indicate......they're....struggling....

How did I miss that

....and a new leader, with the faintest of unbranded 35p cover stamps, the July 1979 cover dated World's Latest! Finest, sorry

We have a tie.... Nice placement And this is hardly Unexpected...

Then you've come to the right place, Hack. I don't know anything about them myself, but I believe there are a few members here who are quite enthusiastic. Welcome to the Forum!

It's a nice book to have full stop, but the insert copies are extra special. Anything that is a first, original printing, but which comes with an added bonus or difference, will always get my vote. Hope you manage to get it

Have a read of Part Five here, Lips: http://www.awe4one.com/NDS-MJ Inserts/Insert webpage.html The insert came with the Mark Jewelers copies and is a first printing. Here's the CGC label from my old liberated copy:

Evening This post is dedicated to the memory of Kathy Thorn. Way back somewhere in the thread, I think I posted the June 1979 cover dated Superman Family #195 (May/June indicia) as being the latest DC that I could find with a T&P price stamp. I've done the earliest, you see, so it makes sense to get back to the latest. Here are three examples, priced 35p (one reduced to 20p): It looks like the super people are getting it on there, doesn't it, in that curtailed cover shot. Anyway, I plan to revisit all the ongoing DC titles at some point, from the point that DC UKPVs materialise for the second time, but here are the early results for just five of them (Action, Adventure, Batman, Flash and Superman Family) - click to enlarge: I used my original UK Price Variant tracking spreadsheet and added in where I found a cents priced copy with a T&P UK price stamp. So if you look at Batman as an example... Issue #296 does not exist as a UKPV, but has a 12p T&P branded price stamped cents copy in circulation Issue #297 is the first second wave UKPV, priced at 12p, and it also has 12p T&P price stamped cents copies in circulation (unbranded, this time) Issue #300 does not exist as a UKPV, being an oversize issue, but a T&P stamped cents copy does exist, priced at an increased 25p to reflects the US difference Issues 303-305 exists as 15p stamped copies, but not as UKPVs Issue #310 is the latest issue I can find so far for Batman with a T&P stamp What this early five title snapshot also shows us is: T&P stamped cents copies were in circulation for issues which were not solicited as printed UKPVs (makes sense, if they were unsold US copies) T&P were clearly happy to stamp higher cover priced cents copies at a higher UK price (but not solicit them as higher priced UKPVs) The stamped standard cover price increase (12p to 15p) predates / is not in line with the printed UKPV cover price increase (possibly due to arriving later in the UK) Additionally, there are issues for which I have yet to find a stamped copy in three of the five title runs and some titles appear to end their stamped copies earlier than others (Action seems to cease with the September 1978 issue whereas Batman and Flash carry on to April 1979. Of course, we don't know when the stamped copies came across and in what date order. One other observation - some stamps are T&P branded, others are not. If you look at these two for Batman #300 though, it strikes me that the 'T&P' may have been wearing out: So it may be that some of the 'unbranded' stamps at least were just the result of stamp degradation. Degrade my stamp! Back to Batman, issue #302 is missing from the group below as a stamped cents copy because I couldn't find one... ...but I did find this: Coincidence? You decide (Big Brother Bloke Voice)

That's probably why I don't have an example in the files, Albert!

Makes you wonder, doesn't it. And UKPVs most of them, too.

Nice! Here's a stamped FF#1 that I spotted online with a Marjorie Miller stamp: Probably....

Yes, I've actually got quite a few examples in the files as it goes. It was just a throwaway thought, really. One thing I've had on the back burner for ages is a sequential plotting of the various stamp types by date for DC, which I'll present something like this when its finished and tested: It's still a long way off completion, but one early observation, which I'll try to firm up, is that often when the price changes, the unbranded stamps appear for a short spell. So it might be that they used a standard price-only stamp until they got the branded ones made.

Lovingly caressed by Thorpe & Porter with an out of distribution sequence 10d price stamp..... ......and the OBLITERATOR stamp

Afternoon Way back on page four of this thread, over two years ago, I made my first entry regarding the distribution of Marvel Comics and noted that the stamped Thorpe & Porter copies began to appear during the first UK Price Variant hiatus: Thanks to @Malacoda Richmond's subsequent sterling (heh heh) work, we know now that that hiatus was almost certainly the result of the 1964 UK Government's decision to raise the import tax by 15%, and the old 'dock strike' theories have long been jettisoned, if only by our merry band of pence participants. The tables that I put together at the time, show the near seamless uniformity of the switch from printed UKPVs to stamped cents copies. Excluding annuals, Marvel had the following seventeen titles running during the October 1964~August 1965 UKPV hiatus window (click to enlarge / zoom in): The four Millie & Patsy titles have no UKPVs or stamped copies in evidence, and only RHK #43, TTA #62 and TGK #75 are currently missing from the other tiles as stamped cents copies. In most instances, the first stamped copies of each eligible issue have both 9d and 10d stamped copies in existence, indicating that the switch from 9d to 10d was almost immediate and that the tax increase was passed on straight away. To populate the tables above, I created the folders below and gathered as many images as I could of each applicable issue: Here's the Spidey lot: As a rule, only the issues that exist in the hiatus window exist - or perhaps should exist - as T&P stamped copies. So for Spidey, #17 was the last UKPV and, sure enough, issue #18 is the first of the stamped cents copies: We have 9d stamped copies in existence, but also a 10d (which looks like one of @Albert Tatlock's suggested Irish ones?): That pattern remains fairly consistent and you rarely get a stamped copy of the final UKPV issue turning up. Here is one example though - Kid Colt #119 which, despite being the final pre-hiatus UKPV, somehow found its way into the stamping pile (9d being right, given the timing): This is probably because KCO #119 is one of the later November cover dated first wave UKPVs. So, the principle is set that there will only be UKPVs up to the start of the first hiatus, followed by stamped cents copies until the hiatus ends and UKPVs return priced 10d, the new post-import tax rise price. One thing I like to do though, as you've all guessed by now, is to look for the quirks and renegades and the books that don't play ball. Over the last few years I've been saving any examples of stamped books cover dated before the first UKPV hiatus. In theory, the books that somehow made their way back into the system. Back to Spidey, we know that #18 is the first issue that should exist as a stamped book, but here are some examples that predate it: That's #2, 3, 11 and 12 - and all UKPVs, note. I wonder how they got back into the stamping system? Note that the last two have the UK price inked out. On this issue #6 example, Ethel used that wonderful obliterator stamp to hide the UK price: I love that stamp. And there's that non-standard 10d stamp again. Maybe that was the T&P 'repricing' stamp, given that it seems to appear predominantly on repriced issues? Anyway, I'm trying to find the earliest cover dated Marvel book that I can with a T&P stamp and have gathered quite a few examples, the earliest being the ASM #2 that I posted above - here it is again, in full: But I'm happy to say that I have now beaten that May 1963 date by some margin today, and with a Marvel 'key' - step forward Two-Gun Kid #60 - ta-dahhhhh! How cool is that! It's a UKPV as expected, is cover dated November 1962, and even has the wonderful obliterator stamp: Those stamps would put off 99% of buyers, likely reduce the value somewhat (who cares), but I LOVE IT. I haven't included annuals in this exercise, and there are a good few stamped copies out there, but only the undated Strange Tales Annual #1 could challenge the Kid for the title so far: Anyway, something to muck about with, on a quiet day in Blighty

Speaking as a collector of Charlton UKPVs, who could be investing those funds into 'hot' Marvel books, I concur. Vive la irrationality!