Get Marwood & I

Yes, it went for £6,700 sterling before 22.5% BP which I thought was ridiculous for a copy in that shape. I've watched a few of these auctions live (online) and the pence keys run riot. People seem to lose their minds. Do you remember that auction I commented on in my pence thread last year, I think it was. You commented on that I believe. I only mention these things when I see them, but everything I'm seeing lately is nuts. Before lockdown I went to my first live comic auction and met with one of the well known UK dealers. He had a list with how far he was prepared to bid on most of the lots. Every single lot went way in excess of expectations. We were flabbergasted, frankly. Not just pence stuff mind, lots of US stuff in the piles. You wouldn't believe what I had to bid to get a pile of fairly low key books with one hidden pence gem in it (gem to me, that is - not a high worth book). It was an eye opening experience. You're a lucky boy Gad. Sell now, make a killing. In a few years, start a thread here about how you wish you hadn't.....

Cheers Reggie

There's a car in the picture? I'm still looking at....

Afternoon Goldies I don't post many updates in this thread as it's clear few people are interested. Which is fair enough. This here post is likely to be the last GK update but not out of any petulance triggered by that lack of interest I should add. No, this is more more because I have finally found the missing piece of the Gold Key Pence jigsaw and our research for that publisher may therefore be at an end. Here it is, finally, Tweety & Sylvester #42, priced seven pee: Yay! This book is the second from last book that I needed to find, to be able to state with near 100% confidence that there will only ever be 122, or 123 Gold Key Pence copies. Let me explain. Take a look at the updated table for the known 8 pence titles (click to enlargivate - it's in two sections): From cover date March 1973, when the pence copies commence, a pence copy can be found for every issue of every title except Star Trek all the way up to June 1974 with the exception of Road Runner #35, the first eligible issue in that title, which I think is likely to exist, or may have just missed the opening printing event cut. From July 1974, eligible pence copies begin to show as absent. Ignoring Star Trek again, all the other seven titles from cover date December 1973 have a month on / month off pence existence pattern. Each missing pence month is either the result of there being no US copy produced to mirror, or because no pence copy has been found. The overriding pattern is a month on / month off pence copy appearance position. Accordingly, I feel I can say with some confidence that, Road Runner #35 aside, every pence copy has now been found. The pattern is striking, clear and consistent and strongly implies intended design. There is always a fly in the ointment though, and that fly is Star Trek which is the only title with an out of sequence pattern (compared to its pence peer titles). Star Trek seems to have its own unique two on / one off pence pattern, in the latter stages, for reasons unknown. But that title has been researched exhaustively by others as well as me so I believe the pence numbers are correct. Obviously, I will keep looking, but I suspect that we may find that 122 is the final figure with only RR#35 possibly pushing it up to 123, which would be a nice sequential number wouldn't it. As ever, I prepare myself for the Universe to correct me instantaneously! If you are reading, and care, I hope this made sense. See ya!

No luck on Special War Series #4 - not a date stamp in sight

17th of August?

Mike's website is a great resource and I refer to it often in my own research. I've found the Charlton data to be less robust than, for example, the Marvel data however and the 'approximate' element devalues the reliability somewhat I feel. If we take the available facts in isolation, both SWS#4 and SS#6 have printed November cover and indicia dates. SS#6 makes reference to the availability of SWS#4 to its readership 'now'. That doesn't prove that they were available concurrently on the newsstand but it strongly suggests that that was the intention - why flag a book to your readers that would not be available for another two months? (hardly the teaser of the century is it!) In the absence of documentary solicitation records therefore, the only additional anecdotal evidence we can look to are personal recollections - and we know how faulty they can be after 55 years - articles in industry magazines / fanzines of the time, and cover date stamps. In my own Charlton research I have found instances where cover date stamps precede the 'on sale' dates on Mike's site. And I have found numerous errors on the site. That is not meant to sound critical - no one could produce a body of data that large without an error or two creeping in. I'm just noting a word of caution as to the use of the data as 'proof' unless there is something key here that I have missed. Returning to the 'approximate' on sale dates, one is September the 1st, the other November the 1st - two months apart. If there was a one month margin of error, and one was a month too early and the other late, all of a sudden they have the same on sale date. So for me, I don't currently see enough evidence to say one way or the other which came first. That's not to say that it doesn't exist of course, somewhere - it's just not posted here directly in this thread. Out of interest now, I'm off to look for date stamps. What else can we do on a wet Thursday morning in Blighty

Me too. I don't know about you Neil but there just something mystical about the variants. I find in life that wherever there is a large gathering of something, anything in fact, I'm across the road in a much smaller, sometimes solitary group. Any variant is a thing of beauty. I love my old cents copies. Without them we'd be nowhere. But there's something about those additional quirks that variants bring to the table, that additional journey, that extra printed dimension that has always appealed to me. Whether it's the price, different font, masthead, alternate interior, insert - anything out of the ordinary I just love. And that early period in the sixties where everything was so basic, uncontrolled and sometimes downright illogical. The age before computers and faultless - but somehow soulless - technical finesse. It's all there - the starting out, with an almost casual disregard. Nostalgia, long since forgotten or lost procedures. Elements that just cannot be explained due to the passing of time and lack of curation at the time, leading to endless speculation 60 years later. How did they do it, why did they do that. Brilliant. And as I've said many times before, if you love comics, if comics are in your blood, how can you look at this book with its totally out of place 9d cover price, open it and see its stark, bold alternate indicia, and not thrill your own pants off? I will never understand why some people who love comics, don't love comics.

I've seen some amazing (heh, heh) UK auction results recently Gad - look at this one from earlier this year: That can't be higher than a 2.0 and yet with 22.5% premium on top that's nearly $12,000 of your Earth dollars. And it's not an isolated example, either. I surf the auctions looking for the Charltons, hiding in groups usually, but can't help but watch the big guns reaping in these huge results. It's like tulip fever except with comics.

I knew I remembereded it right And Hulk is always exuberant, Panto

Nothing Reggie, I just wanted to post the gif

Love it Very nicely rendered bum there Winterboy. And MJ's aint bad either!

1-4 only Gary, may be Millers...

That's what I meant - both books are cover dated the same so if Sarge Steel #6 is saying to look for him in his own title 'now' then that could only be SWS #4 which, handily, to the kids that went to look for it, was titled Judo Master on the cover.

It would be odd to reference a character in 'his own title' if that title's cover didn't actually include his name wouldn't it. It says on sale now though, not forthcoming, which ties with them being available at the same time.

#89 is quite late in the run to be the second appearance of Judo Master isn't it? I would've thought the number would've been much Hi-yah!

Found it, but it looks like I've lost the folder with the Epic stuff in it https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/411880-marvel-uk-price-variants/?do=findComment&comment=10971642 Have to start again...

Yes, right thread. I've been toying with making just one ongoing one actually. I've lost track of them all myself. It was probably a bad move to make one for each UKPV publisher on reflection. Epic has been mentioned in the thread way back if my memory serves. I can remember having it on an investigation list when I went to one of the London Fairs but I never found any copies and didn't take it any further. Have you got any copies Robot, to check the indicias, or are they lifted from the bay? I don't know what it is with magazines but, notwithstanding todays post here, I can never quite muster the same enthusiasm to investigate as I do for comics. Odd really.

I don't follow pricing that closely myself but there seems to be lots of recent evidence of an increase in interest and prices for Marvel keys in pence. I think a graded WWBN #32 sold for more in pence recently than any equivalent cents copy had ever achieved but I might have that wrong. Early silver age keys are doing really well based on the auction results I'm seeing and are realising very strong prices almost up to cents parity. So I would say it varies widely now - the ratio would likely be very high for the notable books, and very low for the run fillers. In a similar vein, I'm seeing evidence of huge price increases for UK produced publications which reprint key US material. My old copy of Out of This World #17, an Alan Class UK produced title which reprints AF#15 used to sell for anything between £20 and £70 up until very recently. Now there is a graded copy on eBay which has been bid up to £650 with days to go. Anything UK produced that reprints the first appearances of Marvel characters for the first time in a UK licensed publication seem to be on the rise spectacularly. Comics with significant Marvel content just seem to have gone nuts whether they are the US originals, UK Price Variants or foreign produced licensed reprints. Heady times we're in it seems.

1 down, 328 million to go