Garystar

4 minutes ago, Garystar said:

Import Duty = Custom Fee = VAT. If you get hit it will be 20% of total cost i.e. goods + postage. 

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. 

43 minutes ago, localmemelord69 said:

Thanks for your response. You're right. In the customs declarations form, the sender wrote "volumes" and "manga" instead of explicitly stating comics or comic books.

I've yet to pay VAT and recieve the package so i'm unsure on why i was charged. I'm guessing that they thought it contained DVDs or something of that sort but i wouldnt know until i get the customs charge label. When you claimed your packages, did you share a commodity code or links to the government website where it shows comic books to be zero-rated? In other words, what did you say?

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. 
 

47 minutes ago, localmemelord69 said:

Luckily, I wasn't charged any import duty or any another custom fees, only VAT

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.  

2 hours ago, yrag9591 said:

I seem to remember that Alan Austin’s Price Guide referred to those issues as ‘nd’ as opposed to ‘ND’.

You are correct. From his 1975 guide;

I found Spider-man #128 and 129 (not water damaged) in a news agents in Swindon.

11 hours ago, Malacoda said:

Hi Gary, when you did this, did you find examples for every issue of every title for the last 28 months of T&P?  I've only taken one swing at it so far, and immediately  found examples for most of them (e.g.  out of 27 possible Thors, I found 21 immediately, out of 28 possible Hulks I found 21).  I wonder if you found the whole lot?   

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. 

On 5/11/2021 at 12:21 PM, Malacoda said:

while we're here, does anyone else have any evidence that the following were or definitely were not distributed in the UK: 

TTA 62, FF 80, Nick Fury 14, Silver Surfer 10, Cap 113, 115, 116, 117 Fury 13, Doc Strange 179, 181, Tower of Shadows 4,5,6,7,8 & COTL 12,  Chamber of Darkness 3,4,5, Am Adv 1 & 2, Astonishing Tales 1 and Conan 2 and 7. 

Much appreciated. I mean....very much!!!

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. 

Talking to myself here. 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?

44 minutes ago, Malacoda said:

Superb.  So the dual PV/CS issues don't really give us a problem, as they are basically distributed as normal and then distributed some more later.  This little beauty, however, was non distributed and then presumably some johnny-come-latelies turned up, in unknown quantities but through normal distribution channels.  Tremendous.  In my spreadsheets, I have four levels of 'distributedness' but this means.....I have to add a new colour to my table. Good God. And other people think they've got problems! 

Can we deduce that about this Conan #2? Marvels cover dated December  1970 were being stamped by T&P 5p so could it not have been distributed with all the other December Marvels?

I don’t think we’ve any evidence that UKPVs (in Sterling) were contemporary whilst the stamped (decimal) were back issues and imported post decimalisation feb 71 - or have we? It would explain why there are two different types?

16 minutes ago, themagicrobot said:

Perhaps it depended if Gladys or Ethel was doing the stamping. This comic is cover dated Dec 1970 and priced in sterling.

 

Perhaps because it’s double sized and T&P didn’t have 10p stamp yet??????

just a thought.... just. 

9 minutes ago, themagicrobot said:

Just Aug 1970 for dual pricing? Explain? Any images to see if we're talking about the same thing? Marvel UKPVs were in Sterling well into autumn 1971 as has been noted way back in this thread or another, Stamps would only be decimal after Feb 1971.

Daredevil #67 VFN (8.0) MARVEL ( Vol 1 1970) 

Leading up to decimalisation 5p and 10p coins were in circulation and I believe many items were duel priced to get people familiar with incoming change. 
Marvel T&P stamps were 5p from this point on. 

29 minutes ago, themagicrobot said:

Decimalisation was Feb 1971 and didn't T&P have dual price stamps for a while?

I think marvels only had duel pricing for one month - aug 1970. After that UKPVs were in Sterling, stamps in decimal. 

1 hour ago, Malacoda said:

Yup and your April 13th date is looking pretty good. Shaken but not stirred.  Subby #39 was on sale 6/4/71 yet has no stamps, and there definitely were Subby stamps for 37 & 38, but that's the only upset so far. 

There is a subby 39 with T&P stamp on eBayUK now (not sure how to do links on phone) search sub mariner 39 vg+.
This sits correctly with comics released before 13 April having stamps. 

21 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

23 minutes ago, Garystar said:

No the latest I have seen is July 71. November 71 is the double sized month when I’m sure there are no stamps. The period Aug to Oct 71 I don’t believe there are any stamps but....... maybe???

OK, I'll have a scout about

From what @Malacoda has input it’s looking like July 71 is when Marvel distribution moved from T&P to World Distributors. If so then we won’t find any stamps after that date. 

32 minutes ago, Malacoda said:

That's amazing.  So you have an absolutely crystal clear memory of buying SS 10 (and we all have some memories we know are 100% correct) via a channel that must have been normal 'high street' distribution but have never seen another copy.  So you know absolutely that it happened once, but only once. It certainly does reinforce the idea that leftover cents copies were distributed, particularly to seaside towns, as US returns long after publication. The fact that it was over 3 years after publication indicates it had a very strange journey.  I don't suppose there's any chance that one of the 3 you have left is...the one?

Absolutely 100% sure as SS made such an impression on me. I also got Cap America #122 at same time. Went back couple of days later and got Avengers 73, cap 123, iron man 20, 21, Sgt fury 73 and x-men 64. They must have had a steady supply because a few weeks later I had a friend who was going to same location and got him to get me a few comics - he came back with Surfer 12 and 13, DD 60 and FF 96 which weren’t there when I looked. They were all in new condition. I no longer have any of these originals, they would have been read till they fell apart and then sold as I got better condition copies. 

18 minutes ago, Malacoda said:

So you're assuming that the July cover dated UKPV's went to World and the CS's went to T&P?

More of a hypothesis. If all of July’s had gone to the one distributor you would have expected them all to follow same pattern. That there is a clear difference based on a date (13 April release) at least makes this plausible. 

9 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Is that the latest example you have seen - November 71?

No the latest I have seen is July 71. November 71 is the double sized month when I’m sure there are no stamps. The period Aug to Oct 71 I don’t believe there are any stamps but....... maybe???

3 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

I agree.  I think TTA 62, FF 80, Nick Fury 14 and Silver Surfer 10 are The Unfindables.

In May 1973 I went into a holiday gift shop, the ones that sell buckets and spades and all kinds of tat, in Cornwall. They had a rack of Marvel comics, I was familiar with the characters from UK reprints but had never seen real American Marvels before. I bought four, I read the two Thor issues (172 and 173) and then read Silver Surfer #10 - I was instantly hooked and began collecting that day. I have no recollection of how they were priced - UKPV, T&P stamp or some other method. What I can say is I have always had a fondness for SS#10 and have bought many over the years (now down to three and have the surfer image literally tattooed on me) and look out for it in shops, marts and ebay - in nearly 50 years of watching out for this comic I have never seen a UKPV or T&P stamped issue.

2 hours ago, Malacoda said:

Right, agreed, but then where do you get mid July from?  It's the 'mid' I'm querying. 

I believe mid July arises because July is the phase over month; Marvels cover dated July that were released mid April, on or before 13 April, have T&P stamps, those released after 13 April only exist as UKPV.

4 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

 

@Garystar - does that look right? Our only unknown is to what extent the T&P stamped copies extend beyond the 1971 examples you plotted

It looks right if you are saying this is generally the pattern because as we have seen there is phasing during cover months e.g. Nov 64, Aug 65, Nov 67 some titles are UKPV some are stamped.

I believe there are no T&P stamps post July 71, there are certainly none from Nov 71 onwards (cover dates).

@Malacoda As @Get Marwood & Isays I plotted the main marvel titles from first distribution to oct 1971 primarily to see if there was a pattern in T&P numbers. I noticed that during the first two periods of UKPVs there were very few stamped Marvels - not none but very few. However during the third period of UKPVs starting April 1969 this pattern was broken and there were an abundance of stamped copies alongside UKPVs. 

1 hour ago, Malacoda said:

Avengers seems to have escaped both (though maybe I just didn't find any, this is a first search). 

I’d have to refer back to my spreadsheet however Avengers actually missed a cover month with no October issue - might explain a blip in any pattern. 

3 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

(Gary, your spreadsheet was missing a FF#32 too - I haven't been able to find one

Glad I could help. 

Following on from @Malacodathoughts regarding missing 1966 issues on page 68, I thought I'd tabulate them by release date. However if anything this may confuse rather than clarify our thinking. As Malacoda says during the three month period there is no cover month with no UKPVs and only September release month has no UKPVs. I'm not sure what if anything this tells us, perhaps one of the others can see something;