Get Marwood & I

I think there are some more actually Ganni - I think I may have posted another example some time back but I'm not sure if it was an APV now. Will have a dig around later.

Something I've not noticed before, the absence of the CCA code on the AUS copy of X-Force #5: Must've fell off...

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/sworders/catalogue-id-srswo10449/lot-930b98aa-29db-49bb-8f41-ad4f00f22dde?utm_source=auction-alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=auction-alert&utm_content=lot-image-link @Ivan Ivanstein I thought you might like to see this picture from 1948 that I saw in the above linked auction - I'm not in it by the way

Not the best picture, but an AUS copy of Barbie #2 is hiding in this current eBay lot: 1,321...

Sorry Sharon, couldn't resist it. I lost my Dad two years ago now, and there isn't a day that passes where I don't think of him and miss him. Cherish them while you can

Do we need anymore help? The comics got here, that's enough for me*. Celebrate that *Not that I've ever torn the arse out of a research strand myself of course....

Again, I wasn't proposing that - I was just giving a list of operational things off the top of my head that might have taken up that length of time. There's nothing to disagree with really, as my position isn't stated one way or the other because I don't know (see my response to Albert above). Putting my "what do the comics tell us" hat back on, my usual, preferred hat, they tell us that they were printed about 3 months prior to their cover dates in the US. The anecdotal recollections of those at the time place the UKPV books in UK shops with cover dates aligned to calendar dates. If they are right, it took about 3 months from US production to arrival in the UK shops. The speculation as to what might have happened in that three month travel period is fun, but we don't know do we, precisely. I'm not sure we ever will. Personally, I think we've torn the arse out of this one now, at least until a smoking gun of historical operational record is unearthed. I'm still waiting for my 'who did what when' one page chart though, Rich, if you wanted something to do And look at these three lovelies, currently languishing on the bay (a second Prize Going Steady #5): If any of you attempt to outbid me on these mind, I will unleash the price stamp hounds

This recollection here from another thread caught my eye this morning: https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/71986-fantastic-four-collecting-thread/?do=findComment&comment=11849524

What if they made a conscious decision to wait for the cover dates to align with the UK calendar though? Lots of evidence of that being a consideration in the industry - the removal of the UKPV cover months in the sixties and the extension of the Australian Price Variant printed cover months by three months are just two. Maybe it was a consideration in the period we are discussing, and could help explain the reason why probable operational improvements did not seem to result in quicker production to on sale time frames. Or maybe they did manage to shave a month off of the delivery window over time, and books that used to go on sale after 3 months travelling at the end of a given month went on sale after only two months travelling at the beginning of the month. Either way, the same month, hence Gary's recollection that UKPVs of the time were on sale in the months of their cover date. And storing stuff does indeed add extra expense. But so does overprinting it. Something being inefficient rarely seemed to be a barrier to it actually happening if any of our speculations here hold water.

It wasn't a list of operational issues as such, more a list of the sort of things off the top of my head that had to happen for comics to get here, and which might account for the apparent trip time. My comment about the beginning and end of a month still being that same month keeps getting ignored. I wasn't old enough to recall cover date to calendar date alignment for the period. Others are saying it was aligned for the Marvel UKPVs. We can say when the comics were made by way of the US arrival dates. So they took two or three months to get here depending on the first / thirty first of January example scenario I outlined, if there was date parity. I don't know why it took as long as it did. No one does. But it seems it did. For a time. And it may have involved books being sat on, somewhere, to achieve that cover to calendar date alignment. Or it may not.

"So, Ronald, you want the beef, eh? Fifty baht!" "Aint paying that" "Oh, I think you will..." "Aint gonna" Fast forward 17 burger free months.. "35 baht! Final offer" "We'll take it"

Could've been worse I suppose. An album called "It's Electric Light Orchestra, You Silly Cow" would've been cool.

Quite a while based on examples like these: From the listing: "Top half of first 3 pages are completely cut. Came from a lot of the best remainder copies I had ever seen. That’s when they would cut off the top half of the cover so the book could not be sold"

Wouldn't it be a laugh after all this speculation if I was right, and we unearthed an old transcript. "Dave in accounts forgot to do the UKPVs and no one noticed for 17 months".

Hopefully with the staples removed. I wouldn't want a rusty silver age staple messing with me grapes Albert

....making things, to wipe yer arse..

So many jokes, so little time...

It is. He's referring to the mid-Seventies there I take it? One thing I note in all this is that it doesn't matter which model you speculate on, there always seem to be examples or rational arguments that undermine it. "Such returns as we received" implies few, yet we have full compliments almost of stamped copies extant. And what happened to the US sellers getting their refunds by way of defacing the comics? It's why I favour a mapped approach by date. If the standard approach was to tear off covers in the US, then that doesn't work with onward transfer to the UK. If the UK copies were undistributed copies, that doesn't fit with "selling well and some sold out". I suspect that all the anecdotal, written and recollected snippets that we are discussing here all may have been unique to specific periods, and / or publishers, not the whole of the 1959-1982 window.

Makes sense. My only thought was that in the cases where the data implies a near 50% overprint, that doubles all the associated post production costs - double the van capacity to deliver them etc - and then there is the cost of disposal. I'm no expert, but I would imagine it would cost a bit to pulp thousands of unsold (cover defaced) comics? If that is what happened of course.

If only there were a UK copy of that one Iggy Which reminds me, I must get back to Brent one day....

Good theories Rich. The answer might not necessarily have to relate to anything specific though - maybe they just stopped, had a break, and then started again. When you say "why did Marvel stop the PVs for 17 months?", you could just as easily say "why didn't DC start them?". Marvel made comics that were popular in the UK. DC made comics that were popular in the UK. So UK companies arranged to bring them over. Why were Marvel (Dell, Charlton, Gold Key) doing PVs for so long and DC not? Why would one opt for one model and one the other? People are different, they make different decisions at different times. Maybe there was someone in the office who thought the bosses decision to stop Marvel PVs for 17 months was just dumb. If the increase in (UK or US?) cover price was a point for discussing wholesale prices and volumes, they must have had quite a lot of discussions between August 1974 and March 1977: A few other thoughts Rich - we're talking about kids comics. I know business is business, but would two companies ever play hardball for 17 months about the price of kids comics? Would the US contingent not just set its wholesale price and then leave the UK distributor to price as they see fit? What would it matter to Marvel if T&P charged a shilling, two or three for the books in the UK? They've been paid and there was no returns. And at a possible 5% of the total print run, would the aggregate UK bound title compliment really be a 'small job'? Only the covers differed remember - the guts are all one long continuous production event. I would imagine any increased cost to the printer from producing UK copies would come from the outward distribution of them. Internally, a quick plate change for the covers and a separate area to collate / store them. Hardly an onerous additional operational burden, surely? Bread and butter stuff for printers who were (certainly later) likely used to producing comics with different cover dressings for a variety of reasons.

Is this for the US or UK Albert? I'd love to see anything else you can dig up if you can. I wonder where, when and how the US tearing off of covers and alleged pulping practice fits in to all this.

Yes, I tried to get them to recognise the 14 US price font variations but it was all too much for them. They'd probably miss the no price copy too, unless it was pointed out to them on the submission form. Too much money to be made elsewhere for them to focus on that level of accuracy I suppose.