Garystar

It’s not just foreign editions which use early drafts. Marvel Milestone XMen 1 has the beam, Marvel Milestone FF 1 has the figure at end of street.

If you compare rectangle logo box cent copies have marvel comicS group whereas UKPV have marvel comic group. The no price copy you have spotted would therefore appear to be intended as UKPV as the S is missing.

This week ComicTom’s hot comics included X-Men #50, I noticed the image he showed was a T&P - presumably that’s what bumped up the price;

Alan Moore and Brian Bolland did a promotional tour in UK signing copies of Killing Joke (they signed inside the book). The shop I went to was stand in line - get book signed - move on. Both Alan and Brian seemed pleasant enough with fans during this brief encounter.

No. Mine are unstamped cents. I too have these on my list as the start of ND. I only suggested MGC 32 as possible latest stamp as it has same time frame as the Special Marvel Edition you posted but I don’t think there will be one.

Doh! Went right over my head. Serves me right for reading late at night.

Google shows there is a Forbidden Planet shop in Cambridge - they are (probably) the biggest high street presence in UK for comics. I’d be amazed if they couldn’t get you any new comic you wanted. However their shops do not usually carry much in the way of back issues, especially not vintage stuff.

How can you tell this? I see what looks like a subscription crease but could it not simply be a regular T&P which some one has folded up to put in their pocket? I can’t imagine an individual sending the odd copy to T&P and I can’t imagine T&P getting stock via subscription. Puzzling.

There are no UK variants any more, Marvels stopped mid-80s and other publishers around same time with the introduction/popularization of Direct editions. You will only find American comics “off the stand” in specialised shops or on-line. There are UK compilations reprinting US material which you can find in news agents but you wouldn’t mistake these for originals. Google the town you are moving to and comic shop - if nothing where you are moving to there are on-line dealers who can provide you with whatever you want.

Although nothing like it was in early nineties new comics are easy to get, most towns of any size will have a specialised shop selling comics who can order in whatever you want. Alternatively dealers on line and plenty of eBay sellers. Pre-covid comic cons were common however, despite being called comic cons, very few comic dealers to be seen. The only all comic con I am aware of is in London every few months. Back issues - specialist dealers on line and eBay. High grade silver age is difficult to find in UK but if you’re patient you have a chance. Golden age - hardly worth looking in UK especially if you’re fussy on grade.

In case the thread goes of the rails, a bit more Alan Class Steranko;

It wasn’t just Alan Class......

Hadn’t realised £1 fees had gone however I had an offer from eBay for this W/E to sell for 2% plus 30p providing items sell over £30.

I’m in UK and you got a month longer than I did with PayPal. I was reluctant but I must admit for me the switch has been painless. I do agree though I think it may curb my buying, when you have that money sat in a PayPal account as opposed to a “real” bank account it does mentally make it easier to spend.

This seemed odd at first, a 5 month shelf life between release and cover dates. However looking at some of Marvels other reprint titles around the same time they also have a 5 month gap - Marvel Tales 32, Fear 5, marvels greatest comics 32 (might tie for last stamp) mighty marvel western 14 ... so this appears to have been deliberate.

Perhaps that’s why Fury is wearing gloves

What’s better than a Steranko Nick Fury SHIELD? According to Alan, two Steranko Nick Fury SHIELDs;

To contradict myself this isn’t the end of it, if the post office collect the duty, on behalf of C&E, they will often charge an additional administration fee.

I’m guessing that if the customs form said “VOLUMES MANGA” then the VAT officer had no idea what this actually meant regards to contents so applied VAT, I doubt the word MANGA appears in any VAT regulations. Refer to VAT notice Zero rating books and printed matter (VAT Notice 701/10) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/zero-rating-books-and-printed-matter-for-vat-notice-70110 Comics are periodicals and should be 0% VAT. If you are going to make a claim you would have to convince C&E that your package described as “MANGA” = Comics. Import Duty = Custom Fee = VAT. If you get hit it will be 20% of total cost i.e. goods + postage. If you are ordering comics from abroad it is a good move to always ask the sender to describe as COMICS on the customs form - they won’t be falsifying and avoids buyer getting hit for unnecessary VAT.

What was contents description on customs form? If it says something along lines of paper documents then you would have been charged VAT (including on postage) as not all paper documents are Vat exempt. Form needs to explicitly state comics or books to be exempt - if it does send them a photo of the custom form with your claim. I’ve had success claiming in past when the form stated comics but if it doesn’t you may have difficulty claiming. My only gripe with MyComicShop is they won’t explicitly put “comics” on their custom forms and I’ve been hit wrongly with VAT. Best of luck with your claim.

I too struggle to see the 5p stamps as being returns, as I postulated earlier - The first stamp with 5p was Aug 1970, if they were imported post decimalisation that’s 7 or 8 months backlog - that wouldn’t have happened would it? especially if these had already been on sale as UKPVs? Also bear in mind that many months prior to decimalisation goods were being priced in pence to get people used to the new money - 5p and 10p coins were introduced in 1968 replacing 1/- and 2/- coins. The question remains why do 5p stamps and 1/- UKPVs exist simultaneously.

You are correct. From his 1975 guide; I found Spider-man #128 and 129 (not water damaged) in a news agents in Swindon.

Malacoda, when I did this exercise it was to see if there was a pattern in the numbers on the top bit of T&P stamps. It was during this exercise it was noted that UKPV and stamps didn’t co-exist until the last period but then T&Ps abruptly ended July 71. As such I only did a sample based on Marvels major titles. If you want to pm me your email address I will send you my spreadsheet. (Boards notification system can’t accommodate attaching excel spreadsheets).

I think the ballast theory holds up. Collecting circa 73-75 whenever I came across a wrinkled comic in a shop it was invariably a cents copy priced by the shop. The wrinkled ones were never UKPV or T&P stamped. I still have my slightly water damaged Spider-Man #121 which I picked up in a caravan site shop in Tenby Wales.

Just checked mine and all of the above are cents unstamped in my collection. I’m sure we all have stories of finding the odd non-distributed issue in a newsagent, but these would have still been cents, with only a store stamp or sticker rather than a T&P.