Get Marwood & I

It's just my humour that you're not getting Stephen - Yorick and I get on fine and I'm sure he'll get the joke and laugh when he next logs on.

I'm up to 114 of the known 122 Gold Key UK Price Variants now. It's very slow work, picking off the last few remaining books. They are proving particularly stubborn which I suppose goes to show how comparatively scarce they are. My latest two acquisitions aren't in the best of shape, but beggars can't be choosers. Unless they successfully enter a new TV show called "Beggars Can Be Choosers", that is, where the winner gets to pick between low and high grade Gold Key pence variants. What? It could happen. That T&J #273 above is only the second pence copy I've seen in 4 years of looking. I missed the bidding on the previous copy by seconds, as I recall. The first Ripley's UKPV was also hard to locate - I finally managed to get a copy and then immediately found another. Always happens, doesn't it. I won't post the other one as it's in truly shocking condition and may fall apart if I try to scan it. Believe it or not!

I wouldn't call myself an expert but it looked like Dick G to me, Gan. Shall we look it up?

A few recent Dell arrivals... This Rifleman isn't particularly common, and the previous image in my files wasn't that great so I was pleased to pick it up: One of the two confirmed UKPVs for Tweety: And an upgrade: We could do with some rain, as it goes...

Thanks again, Bellrules, for posting confirmation of our final Charlton CPV book - I've updated the Journal page and here is the final issue summary:

Let's look at what we can prove, and what we know. We know that T&P distributed American comics in the UK with cover dates starting from 1958 because we have thousands of surviving examples As well as soliciting UK Price Variants with printed prices for some publishers for certain periods, we know that T&P also used a stamp to price cents printed comics imported to the UK We know that the price stamp was applied by hand, as we can see it moving around the cover on multiple examples of the same issue As well as the price, we know that stamp carried a number from 1-9. No higher number has ever been seen: We know that the stamp numbers appear sequentially, broadly in line with calendar / comic cover months, on a repeating cycle. We know this having plotted thousands of examples of the first four cycles for all the DC title arrivals: https://boards.cgccomics.com/blogs/entry/5149-thorpe-porter-price-stamp-numbering/ This clearly shows us that there was a purpose to the numbers. They would not be issue / monthly sequential by chance We see that the sequencing is not always precise - some monthly titles can have issues with stamp numbers that straddle one to two months. This is entirely to be expected given that the comics were unsold returns, finding their way back to base for onward distribution to the UK (a widely acknowledge likelihood, backed by documented recollections, common sense and the presence of US arrival stamps on UK distributed copies) We know that other publishers did not have any need for numbers on their branded UK distribution price stamps, making the numbering unique to T&P: We know that T&P dropped the numbering from their stamps around the time of decimalisation We can all have a good go at hypothesising beyond the above facts and try to imagine what T&P were doing, why and whether it remained consistent throughout the numbered stamp period. I think we have done that now - possibly to death - and unless any new information comes to light we may have to accept that we may never know. For me, the confirmed sequencing of the numbers is the salient discovery, matching broadly as it does to the comics themselves and their likely sequential shipments into the UK. I can think of many ways as to how the numbering may have assisted the T&P operation but they are all supposition in the absence of evidence. I like a bit of supposition but there are limits. For now, I'm satisfied that it existed, the numbering, that it had a purpose linked to the natural sequence of monthly publications, and that it helped T&P operationally in some way. It would be nice to know precisely how of course, but I have other areas of investigation that I'd like to explore now. So until anyone finds a smoking gun - a historic record, or account from someone who was there - I'm moving on to other things. Personally, I would love to see the thread go back to where it started - a review of the UK distribution of US comics for all publishers. @Malacoda Rich - one thing I'd love to see from you is a one-stop graphic / summary of the hiatus periods with your summary as to why you believe each existed duly recorded. I've lost track of it all now, in the discussion. It's your work that has discounted the previous shipping strike theories, so you should do the summary. I'd like to see that.

Thanks Albert. I like that.

So, where was I. @rakehell About a year ago, I spotted a lot of comics listed online by an auction house not too far away from me in Chesham. The lot had a couple of Charlton pence copies that I wanted, a few Dells but also a copy of Katy Keene #52 which, whilst obscured in the image, could have been the elusive pence copy I had been seeking since I started this thread four years ago: Trouble is, the lot also had a couple of Marvel keys so I knew it would go high if any comic bods spotted it. I decided to pop along for the hell of it, and calculated my highest price on the train ride there (what I would pay for the books I wanted plus what I'd maybe get by selling off the Marvel keys). When I got there, I found the pile just sitting on a shelf, had a look through, and there she was in all her 9d glory. I sneaked this picture: Even though it's 'just an Archie', proper comic enthusiasts will know what it's like when you find that comic that you've been looking for for years. The thrill is just wonderful and my heart raced a little as I pondered bidding, winning and taking her home along with her Charlton and Dell pence mates. Who'd have thought that a grown man could get that excited about a Katy Keene comic, 60 plus years after it was published? Anyway, the lot was midway through the auction so I registered, found a nice old seat (which turned out to be one of the auction lots ) and waited while books, paintings, furniture and bric a brac failed to set the place alight. About a hundred lots in, the dealers and regulars are looking at me with that 'novice' look on their faces, wondering who I am and why I'm there. Then the comic lot comes up. At this point, no lot has gone over a hundred quid. There's internet bidding and the comic lot opens at a few hundred to audible gasps. They're not used to comics, I thought, crossing my fingers. The online bidding gets to about £500 then stops. The auctioneer is a little flabbergasted and asks if that's it. I raise my number and suddenly I'm the most important person in the room. And clearly the only comic person there in person. Am I going to win.....? The pulses race. A bag of sand later, and I've lost even after bidding way more than I intended. Drat. I say drat, I was gutted. I pop over to the payment booth and ask the chap if he would give my number to the winning bidder, telling him I'm interested in the non-Marvels. I never hear from him. Fast forward a year to last week, and I see a few Charlton pence copies online that I'm after. Then a few Dells. Familiar, they are. I dig out the photo from the Chesham auction and, sure enough, they're the books from that lot. So I drop the seller a line - any chance you have a Katy Keene #52 with those books you've just listed? He's a little evasive at first, but then comes back and says no. I tell him that's a shame, thank him for looking, and mention what I was prepared to pay for it. The next day, I get this message from him: Once again, the pulses are racing. So, I make the deal, win all the other books I wanted and end up paying a fraction of my losing bid from the previous year. Here she is: How fantastic is that It just shows you, sometimes, books are meant to be with certain people. It took a while, but Katy finally made it to her new home, to sit happily alongside her 24 (of 25 known) other UKPV Archie mates: Brilliant. Of course, now that I have her the mystery is gone and she's just another comic in my collection. Only joking! Aren't I...... Four years and it's the only example I've seen. I know Marvel leads the way on pretty much everything, but some of these pence copies for the less collected publishers are like gold dust. I love them. And I love that I'm likely the only person on Earth collecting them. Five years ago we knew pretty much nothing about the pence copies for Archie, Dell, Charlton, King and Gold Key. I'm so happy that I decided to be the one to bring these books to wider attention.

That'll do! Thanks Bellrules. Job done

Hang on, let me check ....not there... ...not there...

that, Petunia. While we're waiting for Pat, I picked up this 10c copy for comparison to its 9d cousin: Aint never seen s' much distribution ink in moi loife. And it looks like a double cover too, doesn't it. Spooky effect. I'm going to do a post on The Fly too soon. Only the one UKPV, but lots of nice T&P distribution copies in the run: Nearly a full set, in fact Shame there isn't a pence copy of this one: I bought it anyway. "I should think so too"

Yes, I refer to the technical term for that in my post: weirdy. It's actually quite a good one. You'll like it as you know the first bit already from our old PM discussions....

I seem to run the lounge. Your card is in the post

You got that, foreigner...

I have Miller stamped examples for ten out of the twelve titles mentioned in the advert below now (the back cover of the Miller UK title War #5, dated 1961) Only Dick and Dag missing! Still no new Harvey 15c variants though....

The search function here isn't the best, but if you type out some key words in Google and follow them with the CGC site address, like so... ...you'll get better results than if you searched via the site. A few CGC threads below mention the words advertising / advertisement. And this too, from Heritage: https://comics.ha.com/itm/memorabilia/edgar-church-mile-high-collection-sale-listing-from-buyer-s-guide-to-comics-fandom-1977-/a/122119-13977.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

Tell me about it. I paid fifty quid for a Charlton pence copy the other month. True worth about three quid. But it was the only one I've ever seen in five years of looking and I'd actually made a mental note that it may not even exist. The seller got lucky that day, pricing his book outrageously. I could have bartered but just dived in on the BIN. There's no sense to it sometimes. No point trying to fathom the whys and wherefores of comic collecting. Although the way I look at it is if you have, say, 24 of a 25 book run that you're collecting, and the 25th comes up once in a lifetime, then you either pay too much, and have it, or baulk at the price, lose it, and then spend years wishing you'd bought it. If you can afford it, the pain of overpaying leaves you quickly. The pain of missing your opportunity however can stay with you a long time. A long time. A long, long, looooong time.

Books like this make me wonder what might have happened back in the day. It's already a shilling priced book, and every single copy that I have ever seen is stamp free, as you would expect. Except this one: So how does that book get into the T&P stamping mix? Did Ethel stamp anything and everything that was put in front of her? Maybe her fellow stamper, Doris - a keen fan of the western genre - brought it in to read in her lunchbreak and.... I've got quite a few examples of UK shilling priced publications with T&P shilling stamps on them in the files as it goes. I put them in order of preference the other day - this one just made the top three:

If at first you don't succeed...

Where, Eric, where?