Get Marwood & I

Here's a clearer one - a copy I used to own:

Could it be though, that newsagents and outlets ordered them as standard sale stamps from, say, an industry stationery catalogue and that's why you saw them in different areas? Maybe newsagents all used the same stationers? A set of 'Sale Price' stamps with various prices of the day would likely be an item that a stationers would stock for businesses like newsagents I would have thought. That's what I was thinking - I never saw any of these in London, and they are very few and far between on eBay. T&P was a big enterprise - surely they'd be much more common if they were a part of their sales process? Some other thoughts - why wouldn't T&P add their 'T&P' logo to the stamp, as they did with all their regular price ones? If T&P did stamp them, does the likely end to end process make sense: Newsagent fails to sell at 5p Returns it to T&P T&P stamp it with a 3p sale stamp Return it to newsagent Would a newsagent want to buy 'out of date' comics that didn't sell first time around, even at 50% off? I'm unconvinced Albert.

I knew it would end in Tiers Ken....

I thought this was going to be another virus thread. The Brits will understand.... @Ken Aldred

Today, as it turns out. Well, it's raining so... Unknown Worlds ran for 57 issues. Here are all the stamped examples I could find, added to Mr T's, for all 1-57 issues plotted over what amounts to 12 cycles of the 1-9 stamp numbering: Based on the monthly stamping event assumption illustration, with the first number one stamp representing a January 1960 'on sale in the UK' date, the issues run for 98 months, and: Issue #1 - Cover Date August 1960 goes on sale in October 1960 - a 3 month sequence (August - September - October) Issue #57 - Cover Date August 1967 goes on sale in February 1968 - a 7 month sequence (August - September - October - November - December - January - February) Or to put it another way: There is a 7 year period between the cover dates of #1 and #57 - 85 months inclusive There is a 7 and a bit years period between the plotted illustrative 'on sale dates' of #1 and #57 - 89 months inclusive So over a seven year period, for this title, the illustrative stamping events only deviate 4 months from the actual calendar monthly stamping cycle. Broadly speaking therefore, we can say that the shipments of comics to the UK, and their associated T&P stamp numbers, were monthly. Coolio in The Glasshouse or what?

I'm still waiting for the rant Albert ...

It's reminiscent of this....

...and another Flasher...

While we're on ACG, here's a cool one on eBay - it's a Silveracre book so you can't zoom in / enlarge it - but it looks like the original 9d stamp has been inked out and replaced with a 10d one: Got their money's worth didn't they, Thorpe & Porter

Thanks again, Mr T, for the spread of ACG photos I've added the missing Unknown Worlds issues to the 1-30 table, and it now looks like this: I also added any of yours which had a different number stamp - the vast majority matched. Interesting that your 6 and 7 were unstamped - I've not see a copy of either yet and all the examples online from UK sellers have been unstamped. Maybe those two missed the boat(s)? Anyway, the pattern holds true and I see that it continues to do so with the later issues you also provided, although I haven't tabled any of them yet. A job for another day....

Duncan McAlpine, coincidentally, has just posted a load of early stamped DCs on eBay. He must've read our thread All the Batman and Detectives matched those already captured on my sequencing table and he had a few BATB's which I added. Interesting which of his early ones have stamps and which don't - similar spread to Kevin's lot: He has two #26's, one with and one without - and still no stamped #27, possibly indicating that the 6 stamped copy is a late second cycle book and that the 28 (3) or 29 (2) are the 'first' true arrivals (highlighted below): I bet he's got some books squirrelled away. That would be a collection to go through wouldn't it.

I got the pm Mr T, cheers - will check it out later today I like the Charlies and the ACGs myself. Charlies are my favourites though. Well, the UKPV period books anyway. I was always a little disappointed that there were no ACG UKPVs - that would have been cool. I've seen that 10 stamp above before. I wonder how that found its way into the mix? This is my favourite ACG - I posted it earlier in the thread - stamp riot! There's one on the back too!

Indeed. Some of these old fanzines are eye openers Piper - you'd be forgiven for wondering if any of the contributors actually liked comics in the first place. The difference between my 8 year old mind and their 18 maybe....?

Sooper! I'll process that lot tomorrow Mr T and hunt for the unusual one (is it the 10 with no top?) Do they read as good as they look by the way?

Cheers Albert, that's my thinking too.

That's all right Kevin. They key for me is to see if you had any stamped books cover dated earlier than those currently captured and there aren't any in the photos. The ones with stamps have the same numbers as those I've captured with the exception of your World Finest 109 which is a 4 to my 5's. Thanks for digging them out mate Phew

Top man! So what you're saying, Kevin, is if there is a stamp, you've shown it. So taking your four Actions as an example, I can see that #260 (the one at the back) has a stamp, and the front three don't? And that would mean all four Batmans have no stamps? Is that right?

Have I overthought it?

I know, but #56 isn't the issue I'm focussed on Mr T - I stopped at #29. I just wanted to plot a series of stamp numbered books sequentially for the same title to see if their start (number 1) and end (number 29) cover dates would tally with sequential calendar months - and 1-29 of Unknown Worlds seem to, give or take a few months. The fact that they aren't a monthly title isn't relevant to the exercise - the exercise was to try to show that each use of a stamp was roughly separated by a calendar month. It's hard to put into words, but I think what I've presented does stack up. Probably! To make sure we're on the same page as to how I've plotted the books, if you look at the sixth cycle row you'll see #20 and #22 listed in the '4' stamp column. This is because I have examples of both books with a 4 stamp on them (click to enlarge): The sixth cycle is the most likely use of a '4' stamp on a book of that cover date and it is broadly in sequence with the surrounding issues. So the gap between the #1 '8' stamp of calendar month October 1960 and the #29 '7' stamp of calendar month June 1964 is illustrated as: 45 calendar months / 45 sequential stamp uses inclusive And the difference between the cover dates vs the stamp number dates when applied to that illustration is: Issue #1 - Cover Date August 1960 went on sale in October 1960 - a 3 month sequence (August - September - October) Issue #29 - Cover Date February 1964 went on sale in June 1964 - a 5 month sequence (February - March - April - May - June) So it shows, I hope, that the stamps were applied more or less monthly which was the purpose of the experiment. I think.

Good man!

They had a sense of humour, the artist A UPC would ruin that wouldn't it. I wonder why that never occurred to anyone from the off - put them on the back. Probably so as not to muck up the ads, as someone I think already suggested

How you getting on Gary? If Albert doesn't get his fix soon he'll eat his cap. And Kevin's wife is out of the picture until Wednesday. No pressure, but it's on you if the cap goes

Here's something to keep you occupied Albert, if you can zoom in and see the detail (click to enlarge): I happened to have quite a few stamped examples of Unknown Worlds in the files which extended beyond 1961. So I plotted the examples that I had between issues 1-30 in line with each stamp cycle. The purpose of the exercise was to see whether each stamp numbered shipment would follow actual calendar months - one shipment, one stamp per month. Unknown Worlds #1 is an August 1960 cover dated book with an 8 stamp. That places it at the end of the second 1-9 stamp cycle, i.e. the second use of the 8 stamp. If, for the sake of illustration, we say the first ever shipment went on sale in the UK in January 1960, then 54 stamps later we would arrive at calendar date June 1964 if we assume every calendar month had a separate sequential stamp. That 54th calendar month - June 1964 - would have a 7 stamp and the issue of Unknown Worlds that slots in is issue 29, cover dated February 1964. So, issue 1 and 29 plot as follows: Issue #1 - Cover Date August 1960 went on sale in October 1960 - a 3 month sequence (August - September - October) Issue #29 - Cover Date February 1964 went on sale in June 1964 - a 5 month sequence (February - March - April - May - June) What this possibly indicates is that there likely wasn't an exact match of stamp numbers to calendar months otherwise the sequence gap would have stayed the same. Alternatively, the sequence gap could be more similar than at first appears if, say, the beginning / end of the months were an element. Does that make sense? Anyway, it does seem to show broadly that each stamp more or less was plonked down a month after the last one doesn't it. Monthly shipments in line with monthly comics. Doesn't it? My head hurts.

This from a 1976 fanzine I was reading earlier... And they're just as popular today...

Gordon Blows.....