themagicrobot

In the States Drugstores etc did indeed tear off the title from covers to get refunded on unsold copies. Comics were too cheap to bother sending back. They shouldn't have done but the stores often tore the rest of the cover off and sold the coverless comics at half price. There still appear to be many old/key coverless comics sold on eBay USA. I've never witnessed comic covers here with the logo neatly cut like that. Surely it would be too time-consuming for the newsagent to do that. Other posts here seem to agree that T&P comics were sold to the newsagents non-return and so remained on the spinner racks until eventually sold. However I heard a rumour that T&P reps would sometimes credit unsold issues as the only way to persuade the newsagent to buy a further batch of new releases.

Regarding Timely in 1958 perhaps they used up some inventory for Strange Tales etc but Stan must have still been churning out new scripts for Patsy and Hedy and the Westerns. It couldn't be a one man operation as there were artists to pay, accounts to deal with, ads to solicit and there must have been others dealing with layouts and design of the books. Not to mention whoever dealt with licensing/despatching the material being reprinted in black and white over here. Stan may have been busy but he must have had help. He was no Alan Class.

@Malacoda Off you go then...otherwise I'll have to post something about yawn....Young World Publication/Gold Token comics. I'm sure any issues with a T&P stamp will be the rarities.I recall seeing them in stacks in Bookshops, Toy Shops and Department stores in 1964/1965. Perhaps they were issued in batches rather than monthly (weekly?) like "real" comics? There were One Shilling Super Mags and Half Crown Giant Super Mags. Oddly the Action Series cost 1/3d for the first 8 issues and from No 9 onwards the price was reduced to One Shilling. Not often do things like that happen. bigger yawn.

The Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen on the rack in the photo is No 84 cover dated April 1965. I was only flicking through that issue a few weeks ago whilst sorting my Lois Lanes (as you do). If the film was a Childrens Film Foundation production then the chances are I would have watched it at the local flea pit on a saturday afternoon (after first visiting the market to get my second hand comic fix). Sometimes I'd have to walk home from the Cinema having spent my busfare on something like Amazing Spider-man No 33.

The amount of low to mid grade 1960s Marvels and DCs that have reached stupid prices in just the last 12 months amazes me so I'm pleased I'm old enough to already have most of what I need. On various threads here people talk about "dreck" comics. Anyone care to name and shame some titles/publishers considered "dreck" that are still currently in the dollar boxes so we can all be amazed when those titles start being bagged/boarded/slabbed/hoarded in the future. Or are some comics (Charltons?) so unloved by the masses or produced in such quantities that they'll never have any value even when they are as old as Golden Age comics are now?? Another thought. Will current comics have a reasonable value in a decade or two owing to the much smaller print runs or is every comic produced these days carefully stored away unlike my 1960s comics purchased, swapped between friends and read to death. PS: I don't consider this title "dreck" but was still amazed to see it selling unslabbed for £20 - £30.

There are dozens of "rear view" covers aren't there. Here's one more.

But of course even when I was writing the above I knew you'd knew/know.....

I always loved the really odd looking UKPV prices on the 1965 Annuals. They looked like one sixth rather than how we actually wrote down the price 1/6 that even Thorpe and Porter were confused and stamped the majority if not all to make sure the newsagents knew what to charge. PS I actually learnt something new about comics 3 minutes ago. There were Canadian variants of the 1965 Annuals with blank inside covers. Who knew?

I'm hesitent because this thread is under Silver Age Comic Books and I don't want to be sent to stand in a corner. And I'm hesitent to post anything in the future because you have said everything that can be said about UK price variants previously (although navigating around here to find it isn't user friendly). I spent years buying mostly the magazines. Loved the black and white Hulks and Howard the Duck. Also Bizarre Adventures. And I think I still have full runs of the Warren magazines. I have the Epics but like everything else they are in an annonymous box and if I suddenly get the urge to read something these days I have to buy another copy. I think the first 10 Epics at least had a 75p price. And just because I can here is an image that isn't a Silver Age comic or even a UK price variant.

Am I posting in the correct thread? You tend to move around and I have to navigate around threads about how much comics are worth. Funny how everyone wants to buy cheap but sell high.

In my case it was the third FF annual that did it for me. Every week we went to my Grandparents. Every week I could barely wait. There was a shop further down the street with a spinner rack full of the most colourful comics I'd ever seen. Far more interesting than the weekly UK comics I was used to. My Grandmother would give me Half a Crown (If I was lucky my Grandfather would give me Half a Crown too) and I would be off. It usually took me ages to spin the spinner and decide what to buy. Up until that day the spinner had only contained DCs. This particular week there were Marvel comics too and I was hooked for life... In 1965 the world was a great place and no one I knew had died. I've still got that comic (complete with the odd UK 1/6 price) and it transports me back to a world long-gone.

Why if there are UK price variants do we still see cents copies with ink stamps? I can't see comic book readers of the time in a queue to buy copies of this reprint book causing T&P to call for extra stock.

Why did Len get to import the likes of Pep whilst T&P were selling The Fly and the Jaguar produced by essentially the same company. And why did Len get his hands on a small selection of Marvel/Atlas westerns (and oddly Amazing Adventures)? Perhaps because he'd previously produced his own versions of some of those titles?

I thought they were supposed to cost 1/6d (or even 1/9d or 2/-) not 10d?

I have renamed Emmerdale time as eBay time. I can have a peaceful half an hour saying "I'm just looking" whilst the others fry their brains with the mad antics of a village of crazy people and criminals. Five days later another parcel appears and I get "I thought you were just looking?" I'll change my ploy to "Doing important resarch for the good of the Interweb".

Yes no one in the States has easy access to comic book cover plates.....although Israel Waldman owned a few.

Another comic that T&P thought as it didn't sell at the original price why not increase the price and try again!

You missed one. The printing plates are a nice thing to own but heavy and expensive postage!

Regarding "their distribution in the UK" I wonder what area of the country they covered? The fact that they were competing with T&P and no doubt newsagents would only need one company or the other perhaps Miller concentrated on London and the south. That would explain why I never ever saw any Harvey or Archie comics in my neck of the woods (the Midlands) in the 1960s or any Charltons until Miller closed down and T&P began distributing them. I did often see Miller's own comic books (probably remaindered stock) whenever on holiday at the coast be it East coast or West Wales from 1964 right up to the late 1960s. Bought some "new" Marvelmans. Mystics etc from a spinner rack in 1967.

Thorpe and Porter used other names too. They called themselves General Book Distrubutors for their Adult stuff, They were Brown and Watson for hardback annuals. They were Williams or Warner Williams and Top Sellers for the childrens stuff that was licenced/printed here and in various other european countries (including Double Duo).

Perhaps this particular issue of Kid Colt was found under a bench at T&P towers and released into UK circulation with a higher price many months after it should have been. They didn't waste any issues if they could help it did they? Bit unprofessional though to cross out 9d and sell it for a penny more...

Yeah me too. Could someone produce "bootleg" bound comics? Perhaps it would be the ideal way for me to dispose of most of the cr*p I've accumulated. I could tout them round the newsagents. Six Image or similar modern rubbish comics but with an image of Spidey/whoever is hot on the cover. PS It seems T&P already tried repackaging their old Classics Illustrateds.

So is this still the Thorpe and Porter thread ?? Spotted these under T&P at the Grand Comic Database. Possibly 1980? Never seen them. Are they supposed to be like the Double Double comics only all with the same content. Or ??

So perhaps every possible variation of the subject of Marvel UK price variants has been covered and I'm doomed to have to read through the previous 75 pages of this thread forever? PS: Didn't inflation inflate in the 1970? The Treasury Editions jumped from 50p to a wallet-bursting 75p.