Get Marwood & I

You're posting clever, fresh and charming comic related retrospectives on a board that is largely stale, dull and obsessed with the non-comic related. Your posts evidence a love of the medium and a fondness for an artist who meant something to you. And me too. I wouldn't have started the thread in the first place if his work didn't mean something to me. You have a small but happy following here Reggie. A bit like the man himself, so rarely does he appear in collectors top ten lists. Keep it up. It's cool outside the circle.

Four patches, two Hulks. Hulk like.

Well done

It's a good theory but, as CJ Design noted above, why add the 'Option-D Spiderman' on the address sticker?

Definitely don't open it. You can pick up an ASM #252 any day of the week. This is different, potentially unique. I've never heard of a promotional version of this issue from Ralston Purina so my assumption is that it is a regular direct edition copy (I can just make out the Spidey UPC in your first image). Can you see any evidence through the envelope to suggest otherwise @XxSpideyxX?

This isn't you is it Kevin? (from my Charlton thread)

Talk away Geoff, talk away. In fact, I'll invite @Aman619 along and you can fight it out with him There's not a lot left to discuss about Marvel pence copies now so it'll keep the thread going as Kevin said I don't think so Kevin. One thing I do know is that red goes first with sun fade and, unless both sides sat in the sunlight, you rarely find a faded back cover too:

Here's another printing scenario Geoff, along similar lines @Pinkerton If the pence copy was run first in this instance below, with it's anecdotal print run of only 1-5% of the total run, how likely is it that the ink would have run out so soon? Cents first, deep colours... ...plate switch to pence, starting to fade... ...near the end of the run, ink running out... But as I say, I'm not a printing expert. Maybe the ink in the last copy is missing completely, not running out. Maybe that was first, they spotted the absence, stopped the run and added it. You can always speculate multiple ways I find...

Nice post Pinkerton - I like the way your mind works. That said, and I am certainly no expert on the printing process, here is an alternative possibility: The cents run begins first, and all is well: Half way through the cents run, a small piece of the plate breaks off, or the ink runs low, or an obstruction falls on the plate which causes a small area of red not to print: Then, a larger piece of the plate breaks off or the obstruction moves etc, eliminating the entire red area within the 'F': The plate is then changed to pence and continues unnoticed to its conclusion: There is a mix of full and half printed cents copies on ebay but every pence copy (that I have seen) has the error as you said. So the sequence above could be just as likely as the one you posited. I'm also not sure that the error would have been noticed, or even if it were, that they would have stopped the presses to correct it (anecdotal evidence suggests that the process was quick and dirty in them days and they were 'only kids comics' anyway) We will probably never know. I remain of the belief that the printing order varied down the years, i.e. sometimes pence copies were run first, perhaps to get them on the boat quicker, other times not. I also believe that it doesn't really matter. I see each run as one entity - it shouldn't matter which was first to be done - the pence and cents copies are all part of one end to end print run, one production request. It may well be that some early pence copies have deeper colour strikes - as CGC themselves have noted - as a result of being printed first, making them more visually attractive. But in the majority of cases, I find, the currency denomination overrides that aspect in the eyes of the average collector. I do enjoy the speculation though.

I'd love to see how they handle this one

I did a thread a while back asking, if it were proven that pence came first, would it actually matter? The general concensus, as I recall, was nay and thrice nay.

Yeah, I knew you knew I knew you knew I was. I knew that.

I know, I was kiddin Kevin. Post away mate, post away.

Interesting eBay lot here from DMcA - CGC didn't put "UK Price Variant" on the label and, if you look up the verification tool, they haven't listed it as a UKPV either. It is indeed the highest graded UKPV by default, as there are no other Country Variants on the census for this issue, but I'd be a bit miffed if I was Duncan that they've recorded it as a US copy: And some interesting 'what came first' commentary in the listing details....

Show off

That's cool Mikey - I like the 9d cover stamp It's not the usual Miller one, 3d dearer and missing the 'LM', but I have seen the format elsewhere before

It stays with you doesn't, reading some of those first comics. Good times.

Great trip down memory lane there Gary - it's nice to see some of these old favourites again

...I thought they might be interested in the US Price Font Variant work I did though, Overstreet, and it's link to my pence research. That would have made a cool article I think and may have appealed to both US and UK collectors. It's the way it is though. Look at all the work John did, especially on IW Super Comics. And barely a flicker of interest from anyone. Money, it seems, is all the majority can think about. Not all of course, we have a merry band here on the boards who appreciate the esoteric. For myself, I've always been a bit of a loner so it doesn't bother me that much if few pay attention. I have a moan every now and again, too often probably, as do others here who post largely under the radar (and in some cases have given up posting due to the lack of interest) but that's life isn't it. I like it outside of the circle though, truth be told. Always have. Night boys

John McClure kindly did an introduction for me to become an advisor a while back. I followed that up and never heard back from them (Overstreet). John was mystified as I recall. I'd have loved to have put something together but there you go. John has encorporated my research data into his own market report though which was nice of him, and for me to see in print. Maybe this stuff is just too niche for them, I don't know. It's important to us, but outside of a small group, few care alas.

How did we get from @Pinkerton's lovely post to pierced testicles? You lot are terrible