Get Marwood & I

I haven't, no. Not enough hours in the day Mr Woogie!

I do, thanks Gary. I've updated the list - 3,023 confirmed copies now

Hope he has not been abducted by a tyrant from an alien dimension, they are pretty common hereabouts. If so, there will be a ransom demand, and if we don't pay up they will send him back. “Neigh!” (Translation: “Godammit, which one of you stupid fers paid the ransom!” )

Thanks DG - glad you enjoyed it. I added Barbie Fashion #25 to the list the other week so we're up to 1,319 now And at the risk of this turning into a full blown Barbiefest, here's a nice bagged #1: Conceived in the US, printed in Canada, sold in Australia! Wonder what the free gift was.

Hello I’m not sure if anyone will find this of interest but I’ve undertaken a review of the National Book Store reprints for Marvel and thought I would share what I have found. There are a lot of Filipino reprints out there as we already know, covering many US publishers. I have gathered examples for Marvel, DC, Gold Key and a few others over the last six months or so, and have created separate folders for the key types with National Book Store and Goodwill being the most prevalent. Here’s a nice National Book Store copy that I picked up recently in the UK – a reprint of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck #169 (US March 1976): It’s quite unusual to find a Gold Key National Book Store reprint in any instance, let alone in a UK sale lot. I do like the blank original price box with the stamped PHP price being placed nowhere near it Anyway, I thought I would start with the Marvel National Book Store set because I’ve owned a few in my time and they’re usually everyone’s favorites. They come from a particularly fertile period in Marvel’s history with variants of all descriptions doing the rounds at the time. Not that these NBS books are variants of course but I recall fondly the time when we all (in our Spidey completist group) thought that this ASM #157 was a misprinted 30 Cent Variant!: Those were the days I’ve gathered examples for these 26 Marvel titles so far, from various sources including this thread: Each title folder has the current known issues filed like so: And they are all plotted on the following spreadsheet (my usual capture one): Recording the issues in line with their original US cover dates allows us to see a number of things: The US cover date window for extant NBS reprint copies is 13 months, with copies from October 1975 ~ October 1976 currently recorded None of the 26 titles have more than 7 NBS issues extant (so far) For the 11 monthly titles, all the NBS issues exist within the same seven consecutive month window of December 1975~June 1976 (with one exception – FF#164 – see comment below) For the remaining non-monthly titles, that seven month window is broken, but each title again has no more than seven issues extant If we look at the spreadsheet extract of the 11 monthly titles, we can see a clear pattern indicating that a seven issue run may have been the norm / what was originally solicited with the Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers and Daredevil all having an identical date block. Of the 11 titles, only the Fantastic Four #164 breaks the monthly title date window but we can see that issue #165 is currently missing which raises the possibility that issue #164 was selected in error at the time of solicitation (click to enlarge): Or, perhaps, there was something about that issue that offended (we have seen examples of covers being altered – perhaps FF#165 has something inappropriate about it?) If the seven issue block theory is correct then we can potentially speculate which of the missing issues will surface and, theoretically, a likely maximum issue number. Quite interesting, and potentially helps the online search activities of those in the hunt. The non-monthly titles have a less consistent pattern and there is the possibility that a further example could materialize which could break the current 13 month overall window. But it does look at this stage like the seven issue maximum per title may be the overarching intention, with the monthly titles all following the same date block and the non-monthly ones breaking out where necessary to make up their number. I always wonder how the original negotiations would have gone back at the time of solicitation and logic suggests that our Filipino agent would have requested a specific number of books – “Give me 7 issues for 26 titles within this slot please” – something like that. We’ll likely never know how it went down. Either way, Marvel Spectacular appears an odd title to have selected, ending as it does with issue #19: My research is full of these kinds of oddities however, so nothing which appears superficially illogical ever surprises me. Of the 26 currently known titles, it’s interesting how many of the ‘Marvel…’ ones were selected with Adventure all the way through to Two-In-One making up half of them. Some quite high profile Marvel character titles are currently missing from the reprint roster and yet we have Marvel Adventure making an appearance, itself a US reprint title of the Daredevil that already features as a solo title NBS selection. Weird. So, that’s what this brief review has identified. I plan to undertake a similar exercise for the DC National Book Store examples that I have captured so far at some point – there are considerably more of them however (oddly, perhaps, that DC would outnumber Marvel?) so that may take a bit of time to complete. In the meantime, here are the Marvel National Book Store numbers that I can confirm exist: 98 examples so far then. If anyone reading has any that are not on the list, a picture here would be lovely. See ya

Rotten isn't it, that day when you decide to stop the weekly new comic shop. Lots of us have been there though Etriew, so don't feel too bad. Things change and it's just too expensive now for some of us to carry on collecting in the way we did back in the day when things were more manageable. I miss the chats with my comic shop guys more than the comics themselves - those largely unattractive, expensive moderns with their bazillion variants made it quite easy to stop actually - but it just didn't feel right to keep going back without buying anything. And I agree with your digital sentiments - comics are a physical thing, or nothing. I liked your video with the nephews by the way - typical of kids to be as interested in popping the bubble wrap as the comics inside isn't it Good luck with your comic exploits in the future, in whatever form they take.

Fancy selling your brothers fifty year old gift. I mean, I knew Lizards had cold blood but.....

Reserved because the first serving wasn't hot enough

Reserved for next Thursday week

Reserved for judgement

That's a nice one

Yes. See also '98% of my posts here.'

Yes. Just a different fold out back cover ad configuration. Same for the newsstand copy too - one of each:

Indeed. The hammer price doesn't surprise me at all - an auction format with a group thinking it may be their only ever chance....

The lot includes #25, the first Marvelman in the title which is exceptionally rare, as are most early issues. Here's a £525 eBay sale for a poor #26 alone: And here are some details regarding the scarcity of that issue: https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136928-Perhaps-The-Only-Copy-Left-Of-Marvelman-26-Sell-On-Ebay-For-4-000 If that issue is hiding in the lot - difficult to tell from the photo - then someone may have actually got a bargain.

@Albert Tatlock

Yes. The silly old duffers completely let the side down by not making exhaustive notes, didn't they Gary

Time to call the "Professor of Pence..." POP! It beats the Curator of Carp I suppose @Math Teacher (and it's maths over here, by the way) I can tell you a little about pence copies if you want - the background and all that - but only you can decide what you like. Comic collecting is a hobby, and meant to be fun. If it annoys you, or you don't like it, sell it. If money is no object though, and you're feeling adventurous, I would keep it because: It's cool, different, a talking point (see pictures below) It's comparatively scarce - especially in this nice condition Interest in early pence copies is growing, so the value may too You may one day develop completist tendencies, when you've finished your cents run, and a pence run might suddenly appeal - a way to keep the collecting going As for talking points, the book was indeed produced at the same time, in the same place etc as the cents copies (hence CGC changing their labelling from "UK Edition" to "UK Price Variant") - and it has three cool, UK specific physical differences: A pre-decimal UK cover price (duh!): An absent cover month (to take account of the US-UK shipping times, and increase UK shelf life): A UK specific indicia: Hang on to it, I would....

Found in Google images.... ...from here!

Got ya. Only the first three months - May, June and July - as those issues had the Miller only indicias with no US details. After that, the Miller details sat below the US indicia details, removing the need for any stamp. In practice, the stamp should only appear in these four: I have examples of the same book - one with an internal stamp, one without. So it was random anyway Albert.

I don't follow you Albert. What dost thou mean? What is this 'job at the other end' of which you spake?