Redshade

It was the Health and Safety man's day off.

Yes it's certainly a "G". An exumple of the lettarer (?) lotting his mind wandar. Anyway, the good news is that this is now declared a variant and is worth a million.

Good spot Garystar. My old eyes would never have seen that.

I've had an idea about just this for some time but have hesitated from further advocating this because (1) I don't, these days, have the long runs of comics needed to check this, and (2) to see if someone else had a similar idea. When did US comics start preprinting the colour-coded squares at the top of the pages? If this was 1964/65 this would have coincided with the expansion of Air Freight as opposed to the much slower sea shipping and thus a more regular delivery cycle. Whatever the reason for these colours (and I suspect that it had to do with the US distribution system) perhaps they were co-opted by T&P to sort out shipments instead of the numbered price stamps.

Plus the wodge taken by the packing and posting contractors. People do seem to get carried away in these auctions Albert. I think the fact that issue 80 (Introduction and Origin of the Doom Patrol) may have helped this lot to fetch what it did. Still too much for me.

Nice looking pair.

Oh I see why I couldn't find them. I was looking for a "collection" not individual issues, silly me.

Grading used to be so easy back in the 80s at comic marts. Just knock two whole points off whatever the seller said it was. Most " normally worn " comics are easy enough to grade, but in competitions like this I would expect there to be obscure and esoteric flaws that would not normally be seen 99% of the time in the real world, and are included just to to engender debate and argument. So, thanks for the shout Steve but not for me.

Never say "unlikely" in this hobby Malaconda. Your suggestion is as likely as any other, and is probably true. We've seen African (Kenyan) pence stamps on these pages before now.

A bit harsh don't you think Steve? The bloke's only trying to join in.

You'll have to remind me what Marwood's contention that the system broke down around 64/65 was. Was this when the numbers went haywire? Is that what you are referring to? Perhaps they found a new method of stock control? As to what that might have been I have no idea. Bar codes? Probably too early for that although perhaps that system - or something similar might have been in use in the freight business before it percolated down to retail in the same way that restaurants etc had microwave ovens a long time before they were available for domestic use? The comics would still have to be individually price stamped for the benefit of the retailer and customer but which number stamps they used no longer mattered. And then at a later date new price stamps arrived without a reference number on them, just the price and the T&P logo.

Well, I'd forgotten about that particular televisual entertainment. This must be when I first fell in love with Lesley Manville.

Yup! Exactly.

My view is that the numbers were used to differentiate the batches of comics that T&P received. (I know that I've said this before and I dare say I'll be saying it again). A newsagent would have preprinted order forms for his daily, weekly and monthly needs. I can imagine him writing the amounts needed for the various publications in a given cycle beside each paper/magazine on his order lists, "50 Daily Blurb, 2 dozen Weekly Blah" etc. These preprinted order forms would have blank spaces for miscellaneous items, "x dozen mixed US comics" for instance which the newsagent would order with his monthly stock and T&P would supply him with said US comics from their warehouse. The comics themselves would have arrived "whenever" to the warehouse because of the vagaries of sea freightage, with different titles and different months arriving in a random order. The order in which the comic titles/dates arrived at the warehouse would be immaterial to T&P as they would be stamped batch "6" for instance. When the newsagent ordered the next month, T&P would know that last month the newsagents got the "6" stamp comics and so would try to ensure that this month they received the "7" stamp comics so that they did not receive duplicate issues.

Not necessarily an SOR scenario Albert. It might 've been a box of 9d stamped books that were mis-placed and rediscovered at a later date in the warehouse/cupboard under the stairs, and restamped at 10d to conform to the then new price.

OFFER NOW CLOSED (I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DELETE POST).

OFFER NOW CLOSED (I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DELETE POST).

NEW LINK NOW WORKS. www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jordistcomics Golden Age Comics for Sale. Low grade funnies from 1937/8/9 Plus other eras. SPECIAL OFFER 3 FOR 2. Go to my ebay link and tap on "ITEMS FOR SALE". Special offer is 3 for 2. Buy any 3 comics and get the third (the cheapest) FREE. Also open to offers for big lots. UK or US/CAN Postage at cost. Paypal please. Thank you. www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jordistcomics

Thank you for this info, much appreciated.

www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jordistcomics I am a collector in the UK looking to sell my modest collection in the US without having to use ebay's GPS which doesn't combine postage to reduce the cost to buyers. For this offer I am running a 3 for 2 promotion. Buy 3 comics and get the cheapest free. I will only charge the postage and insurance quoted to me by Royal Mail (or your carrier of choice). Postage and any taxes, etc to be paid by the purchaser. Paypal only. Thank you for looking (and humouring me). NB Bigger discounts for bigger orders.www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jordistcomics www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jordistcomics www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jordistcomics

Can I link my ebay site here? I don't like the fact that ebay GSP does not combine postage to the US (I'm in the UK).

Greetings from England. This is my first post here. I know absolutely nothing about about Canadian comics and I am trying to identify these two (which I received in a lot of a couple of dozen 1937/8/9 US funnies comics. Does anyone have any info about these and are they worth anything? Thanks in advance. NB I don't know why they are out of sequence, that is not how I posted them but it should be easy enough to match the fc with the bc.

I wonder if this had anything to do with it? The fact that around this time air freight was taking over from sea freight would have helped logistics immensely. "An important event in the history of air freight occurred in 1945 with the formation of the International Air Transport Association. All-cargo airlines started to emerge, although it was still common for planes to carry a combination of cargo and passengers. Planes now had the capacity to travel further and faster, but the full potential of this for global trade wasn’t realised until decades later. Fast fact: In 1968 Boeing launched the 747 – the first aircraft wide enough to transport full pallets in its cargo hold. This was a big win for the air cargo industry! 1990s – The boom of the ‘express’ parcel It wasn’t until the 1990s that the idea of planes with the primary purpose of transporting cargo really gathered pace. This was thanks to the growth of express parcel carriers (such as FedEx, DHL and UPS), and the rise of the internet, which made air freight a much more accessible and reliable prospect for importers and exporters. Fast fact: Without air freight, the idea of ‘express delivery’ wouldn’t exist. When travelling by sea, shipments from China to the UK can take weeks or even months to arrive. Send the shipment by air, however, and you can cut this down to just a few days".

Perhaps they dug out old boxes from their warehouse and restamped them?