Get Marwood & I

If I had a fiver for every time I'd helped a newcomer I'd have £500. If I had a fiver for every time they responded, I'd have a tenner.

They do exist, alas. Probably reporting your masking of arse as we speak....

Or a game show say like the Chase? With its own Beast. Same thing, surely?

It's rarely the problem that's the problem. It's the response to the problem that's the problem.

Hi Rube, Arch will hopefully clarify but don't take it personally that the mods haven't been in touch. That is normal. The process of removing a post or thread is documented but rarely followed in my experience. You are supposed to receive an advice to say that the post / thread has been moved to the 'Your Posts Removed by Moderators' forum: There only you and the mods can see it in full and you can cut and paste content to a new thread / post once you know what you did wrong. The advice should tell you what you did wrong. If you've had neither, ask Arch for them. Good luck.

Ahead of his time...could've made billions

Last post here today (unless someone asks a question). As I said earlier, there are 177 confirmed books so far. If a pence book exists for every issue of the 38 titles within the April 60 to July 61 date range that will total 416 possible books: By documenting the books by date side by side on a spreadsheet you can start to see patterns and gaps which can indicate whether books may exist. Here's an example: Five similar cartoon titles, all 'stopping' at September 1960. That could mean pence copies don't exist beyond that month, or do but in very scarce quantities. The chances of five titles not yielding one book beyond a certain date is small though, so perhaps the final number will be less than 416 if these titles were shelved together. I presented a similar scenario in my Marvel thread once however, and a book promptly turned up to debunk the speculation. Lets hope that happens again - the more books the merrier. Check your collections!

Got ya. Remember, I'm nowhere near as advanced on this publisher as Marvel, DC and Charlton etc. so I am learning as I go. I've read a few things online which say certain things exist, but they have no pictures. I like to stick to facts - I can speculate based on reasonable observations, but all my threads are fact based - this exists, here's a picture. Let's see how it pans out, as more copies come in. At 177 so far, I may yet attempt the set, if I can convince the wife to let me have more than 3% of available storage in the house. How many clothes do you need anyway? Here's two more that I've picked up:

And so, to balance with some positive comments: CGC cases look fantastic when free from NRs The signature series service is excellent The restoration check is excellent The preservation aspect is excellent CGC has without doubt energised the industry This free forum is excellent

It's the way of the world. I'm dealing with multiple institutions in relation to a deceased relatives estate at the moment. Each is painful in the extreme to deal with and categorised by inexperienced staff, often rude, inadequate resources and underfunded systems. It is a constant source of amazement how many major institutions do not have a process in place to manage the death of a customer. So I'm probably a little jaded here. I see this Newton Ring debacle as just another company trying to evade its responsibility. All they need to do is make a statement, that stands up to scrutiny. "This is the problem. We acknowledge your concerns. This is what we are going to do". Why is that so hard? And guess what - I'm the bad guy here. As I was the bad guy when I pointed out to the TV Licensing Company that sending threatening letters to a dead person, for who you have received a refund and account closure notice, is wrong and upsetting. It was my fault for not ringing them weekly to advise that she was still dead, and not therefore in need of a licence. True story. It's life. But it's wrong of me to front load this thread with emotive, unrelated comments. Lets stick to the 3 questions above which, I think, can be answered fairly and without feeling the need to strike out at bureaucracy in general as a result of having read this diatribe.

Here it is: Just looking at the current confirmed pence tally: Marvel - 3,017 confirmed pence priced variants (with very few more expected to be found) DC - 839 confirmed pence priced variants (all known copies believed to be recorded) Charlton - 384 confirmed pence priced variants (of a potential 832 issues) Dell - 177 confirmed pence priced variants (of a potential 416 issues) Gold Key - 88 confirmed pence priced variants (potential issue range to be confirmed) Archie - 20 confirmed pence priced variants (of a potential 48 issues) King - 17 confirmed pence priced variants (of a potential 24 issues) Which means I have evidence of 4,547 first printing pence priced US comics

Joking aside, we - the customers - are the underdogs.

This is how things can go nowadays. What irritates me, and its why I dived in, is watching good people banging their heads against brick walls when they have a valid complaint. It irritates me when people in power do not respond when there is a clear need to do so. So I will send this all up, once it's been seen by as many people as possible, and then leave it. One thing I've learned in life - give it your best shot, then leave it if the other side is not going to play ball and do the decent / expected thing. Certainly for a thing that is comparatively unimportant. But it is very important in context, hence this attempt. Some may see this as me trying to make a name for myself, jumping on a pedestal etc. It's not. It's me saying to a company, on behalf of a seeming majority, that they have an issue and they need to communicate to us. The reason I'm doing this is their fault, not mine. I'm just mobilising the thoughts many have expressed all over the place into one place. There's nothing to stop a member of the admin team making a statement here, on CGC's behalf. If they don't, off it goes to the top once we break 100 votes (which would be quite a feat for polls that I've seen down the years).

Cheers! See previous post for Turok I think I see what you mean. At the moment, I'm only distinguishing between the US Cents originals and the UK price variants which may have dual or single prices. If it has a pence price on the cover (9d, 1/- or 2/-) then it is one of the 177 pence variants I've found to date and features on the list accordingly. I've yet to see a 'variant of a variant' i.e. a third type for the same issue, if that is what you are getting at? So as a fictional example, if three different first printing copies existed for the same book, e.g.: Copy A - US Cents only Copy B - Dual US and UK price Copy C - UK only price ...then I can see the logic of a further split. Do you have any evidence of something like this? Remember, I need pictures or it didn't happen

Indeed. To be fair, the 'acceptable and normal' line came from, I believe, a response to one individual. What I think we need is an official response to all. This is not a witch hunt. It is a group of people expressing concern about the quality of a product they have paid for. Nothing more. In any walk of life, a company should respond when it's customers are unhappy about an aspect of it's service. My hope is that we will have so many people vote here, that it will be difficult to ignore when I send it to CGC. It is easier to ignore scattered expressions of discontent from multiple sources than one consolidated expression. So the more members that vote here, the more powerful the message will be when I send it. I would like to think that a company would listen to a large number of its own customers when they report their concerns jointly through the very online mechanism created for them by that company.

Our friend @pemart1966 posted about Turok Son of Stone in our 'Other Publishers Pence Variants' thread - see above - stating that he had seen a number 25. If my research is correct date-wise, number 25 should not exist: If it does, it will be a stand alone issue dated September-December (according to GCD). I'm always happy to be proven wrong - and have been before - but the current evidence seems stacked against it. Time as ever, will tell.

Yep. Not Australian at all. Threads like this will help spread the word / clarify I hope

One thing I found challenging with the Dell research is how to record books which are 'multiple month' cover dated. The Dells vary - some have multiple months on the cover like this (November to December on the cover and indicia): And some single months (June only on the cover, but April-June on the indicia!): And some have no cover date (this one just has a 1960 indicia): I decided to record each book against the first month where there is a choice. So our Porky #71 here is cover dated July-Aug and, accordingly, I've recorded him as July: It's a bit awkward, but the best solution so far. I don't really want to block out multiple months on the spreadsheet as it looks rotten (I tried it)

Four Color I record Four Color as one running title in my records but have to maintain a separate tab on my spreadsheet due to the fact that multiple issues have the same date. Here's two that I own: And here's the spreadsheet - the earliest book I've found is number 1087, 'Peter Gun' cover dated April-June 1960.... ....and the latest issue I have found is number 1236, 'The King of Kings', which is dated 1961: I've found 56 pence copies so far. You can see big gaps in the list and number 1236 seems to be a rogue as there are no copies prior to that all the way back to 1205 (that I have found). I suspect that there may be gaps, i.e. months where no pence books were solicited, but time will tell.

Cheers Gnasher - I've got that one recorded thanks. Full list of the Four Colors coming up shortly!

Dell Giants Here's a Dell Giant that I picked up recently - number 39, indicia dated 1960. Walt Disney's Merry Christmas: It has a 25c US price and a two shilling UK price. The indicia is identical to a US only priced copy that I have seen. Pence priced Dell Giants are really hard to find and I've only managed to locate pictorial evidence of just 4 of them: The comic historian Jon McClure has seen #42 according to his website but, in keeping with my research philosophy, it doesn't exist until I have proof. I've based the date range on the 'regular sized' books - April 1960 to July 1961 - but some books have only the year on them so it's hard to be sure what the earliest / latest books will be. You'll see in the chart above dates which I have lifted from other websites. The GCD lists #39 as December 1960, and that's what I originally had on my chart: But I have the book in hand now, and it's dated just 1960. So I will update the chart as and when I see the book myself. All good fun.

Let me correct you AJD - you are the Australian REPRINT Pence King! Mine are first printing price variants. The originals you might say! (I got that from Doctor Who. Good innit) P.S. Dells up - go looky

Hello! Another pence thread, to accompany Marvel, King, DC, Charlton and Archie - yaay! In this thread I'll be documenting the pence variants for Dell Comics - here's an example of a 9d / 10c dual priced beauty to whet your appetite: Back to the usual format this time, seeing as how the Charlton approach met with stunned indifference. And talking of differences, one difference here is that I've started this research relatively recently so it's nowhere near as robust as the other threads. I'm hoping other boardies, especially the Englanders, will dig deep into their collections and add missing copies as we go I currently have found evidence of 177 Dell pence printed price variants between the cover dates of April 1960 and July 1961 (more on dates later - Dell's are difficult to track). They live on a spreadsheet that looks like this: Supported by folders that look like this: With contents that look like this: Unlike my Charltons, I'm not actively collecting these books, so many of the images you will see are lifted from ebay and online. I have purchased several copies though to prove certain points. Here are the headlines: The earliest pence book I have found is cover dated April 1960 (the earliest pence book date - most start in May 1960) The latest pence book I have found is cover dated July 1961 (albeit Four Color #1236, 'King of Kings', is indicia dated 1961 and supposedly came out in December. More on that later) I have found 38 titles which have at least one pence book (Dell Giant and Four Color representing one title each) between those date ranges I have found 18 titles with no pence books between those date ranges I have found only three cover prices - 9d and 1/- (one shilling) for regular books and 2/- (two shillings) for the big ones The majority of books are 'dual priced', i.e. the UK versions have both US and UK prices on them. The US versions have, of course, only the US price As is the case with Charlton, DC, Archie etc the only difference I have found between the US and UK copies are the cover prices. Everything else, including the indicias, are identical. Marvel seem to be the only ones who made other changes to their books (indicias, missing dates, cover banners etc) Here is the list of the 38 titles with pence books: Title Potential Pence Number Range Confirmed Pence Numbers Total Adventures of Mighty Mouse, The 146-151 146 1 Andy Panda (Walter Lantz) 50-54 51 1 Bat Masterson 3-7 3-7 5 Bugs Bunny 72-79 73-74 2 Cheyenne 15-22 15-18 4 Colt .45 5-9 5-9 5 Dell Giant 28-47 32, 38, 39, 43 4 Four Color 1087-1236 56 Gunsmoke 20-27 20-27 8 Have Gun Will Travel 5-10 5-7, 10 4 Hi-Yo Silver, The Lone Ranger's Famous Horse 34-36 35-36 2 Huckleberry Hound 5-12 5, 6, 9, 11 4 Hugh O'Brian, Famous Marshal Wyatt Earp 11-13 11-13 3 I Love Lucy 27-32 27, 29 2 Lassie 49-54 49-53 5 Lawman 4-8 4-6 3 Lone Ranger, The 133-140 133-135 3 Looney Tunes 222-237 224, 226-227 3 Maverick 10-16 10-14 5 Mickey Mouse 71-78 74, 76 2 New Funnies (Walter Lantz) 277-284 277-279 3 Porky Pig 70-77 70-72 3 Quick Draw McGraw 2-7 2-3 2 Rifleman, The 3-8 3-7 5 Rin Tin Tin and Rusty 34-38 34-38 5 Roy Rogers and Trigger 137-144 137-139, 141-143 6 Ruff and Reddy 5-10 5-6 2 Sea Hunt 5-10 5-7 3 Spike and Tyke (M.G.M.s) 22-24 23 1 Tom and Jerry Comics 189-204 190, 192-195 5 Turok Son of Stone 20-24 20-24 5 Tweety and Sylvester 29-33 29-30 2 Wagon Train 5-10 5-6, 10 3 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 235-250 240-241, 244-245 4 Walt Disney's Donald Duck 71-78 73, 75 2 Walt Disney's Scamp 14-16 15 1 Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge 31 1 Walt Disney's Zorro 10-14 11, 14 2 Updated 23-Jul-18 Pence Total: 177 Here are the titles where I have yet to find a pence copy: If anyone has evidence of copies I've missed, please dive in

Here's a FF #1 from November 1996, lifted from Ben Nobles blog: https://rarecomics.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/aus-price-variants-australian-newsstand-editions/ It has a $3.95 AUS single price whereas the ASM of the same month (#417 above) is priced at $2.00 AUS I still haven't seen an AUS priced comic for a cover date outside of the original ASM date range that I started this thread with: Maybe I'm the King of Australia after all.... @AJD

I'm not sure either Gaard @Bumble Kitty - hope you don't mind my reposting your post here. Can you elaborate? Bumble Kitty said: I brought this up to Matt at CGC. I showed him a book I recently received and he told me they (meaning CGC) are aware of the problem. The problem is happening at Quality Control. Apparently, they have many different size holders and the operator is not choosing the correct size. He said the outer holder needs a little space to prevent the Newton "effect" from showing up. I told him the one book with the thickest holder does not have the Newton ring problem, which kind of confirms what he was telling me. He could not confirm that a change in personnel led to this problem, but he thought it could be the reason. Steps are being implemented to prevent this from happening with future books. He told me to submit my book (or books) for reholdering. I told him I plan to wait until Wondercon, as I did not have all of my "problem" books with me. Matt said CGC would honor the reholdering at that time. So it appears the Newton ring problem was possibly caused by someone who may not have been as experienced in choosing the correct outer holder size. If nothing else, nobody was charged extra for the "pretty" oily rings.