themagicrobot

I know it is becoming folklore that UK price variants made up 5% to 10% of total production. I think I may have put that guestimate myself into a fanzine in the 1970s just based on the sizes of the two countries. I was particularly puzzling if ASM 72 might be slightly more common in the UK as it would have had the (whatever that number was of) regular UK price variants plus 12 cent copies sold here at the time too. Or did they for some reason publish less than the usual number of UK price variants and the regular order had to be topped up with cents versions. Speculation speculation. As for Alan Class comics here Ka-Zar seems to be one second further in time than the ASM cover. I didn't know he and the Sabretooth could fly/climb skyscrapers.

Here's a friendly looking monster.

A Sinister Tales arrived in today's post. Once again the rest of the family didn't share my excitement as I ripped open the envelope. I can never recall what treasure I may have purchased on a random whim days earlier which all adds to the anticipation. PS: Wouldn't it be great to know exactly how many UK price variants were printed. This particular comic has our price variants and 12 cents issues with T&P stamps also available it seems.

No doubt you produced a similar image yonks ago but this is the first time I recall seeing a dual price stamp like this particular one. Especially as by the time this comic reached our shores and was placed on sale we would have been using decimal currency for a full year. Ethel strikes again?

Drat. In that case I was overcharged back in 1977. I'll see about a refund tomorrow when I can remember where I actually bought the comic from. PS: I need to check out this from Al's Wiki page "In 2001 Milgrom was fired from Marvel Comics when it was discovered he added hidden slanderous comments against then Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras on page 28 of the comic book, Universe X Special Spidey."

Today's question that has no answer. Why is DC Special 29 only 12p when earlier issues were 25p and also 60 cents and presumably had the same number of pages?? Perhaps Ethel goofed again.

And could it be that the Double Double comics were purchased from the States as job lots of comics that had already been returned there rather than T&Ps supplies of the regular fresh copies destined for the spinner racks? Some of the T&P hardback annuals (that come with comic covers intact) have UK price ink stamps suggesting they may have travelled a bit.

The whole reason for the Double Double books existing remains a mystery to me. Why not sell 4 comics for 4 shillings rather than only get 2/6 for them? There must have been some logical reason. It can't be down to the dates of the issues as no one seemed to worry if the small print showed a comic as being from a year ago back then. Perhaps the covers were spoiled in some way? Maybe with Ethel making a pigs ear of the ink stamp? PS: It did happen elsewhere. In Australia there were rebound Disney Whitman comics "bought as waste paper from the USA" Elsons Presents comics were "returned/remaindered copies which were literally pulled apart and glued back together with a new cover".

Alan wasn't really into comics was he? Just think what we would have done if we'd had access to all that ACG, Archie, Charlton, early Atlas inventory.....

I want to know what happened to the million discarded covers for the Double Double comics. Perhaps they are still in boxes in the attic of the old T&P factory waiting for some enterprising person to frame them and sell them on eEEbygumbay.

Either #26 was late and arrived in a shipment after #27 or... Or the lady sitting to the left of the lady sitting on the right hadn't yet been issued with a new stamperer. (Why do I assume it was women doing the stamping? And how many were there? Two? Twenty?). And alternate stamps are available for those who prefer the more familiar.

I look forward to a good one. It's been a slow weekend here in Lockdownville. PS: Here is a phantom price stamp on a phantom horseman.

OK. Here's another important question. Why would a comic from 1965 and a comic from 1967 be priced in decimal currency and passed off as new years after they were first published? New-old stock? I guess everything was recycled and nothing was wasted. T&P certainly wasted no returns, using them up in Double Doubles and even hardback Annuals. Incidentally have you noticed that the Double Double books aren't as tall as Silver Age comics. They have been trimmed to disguise the fact that you were actually buying well-fingered dog-eared returns,

Here's a question I don't know the answer to and I guess it matters not in the great scheme of things but what was the month/year when the T&P stamp became less in-your-face and shrank to the point that you needed to search for it on busy covers?

Steve I'm surprised you don't have OUR version.

One day I'll post something appropriate to the title of this thread. Until then, don't get Sick. It was a poor man's Cracked which was a poor man's Mad. Sick was however the only magazine I've ever seen that got cheaper as the years went by.

I never saw any Red Circle comics on a T&P spinner rack, and god knows I spun a few of those in my time. But I do have some circa 1973/1974 Red Circle Sorcery comics in my collection. (Tried at the time but couldn't give them away...no one had heard of them...) I believe I bought them on my saturday visits to London...possibly Soho back in the day.

My boxes are neat and tidy but only 3 are catalogued. Today I am mostly reading Iron Man

Albert at least you have the space to spread things out. Are those boxes catalogued so you know what is in each one? Or not? I was going to ask if you could check if my memory was correct and 1967 Marvel King sized annuals cost 1/9d. I recall going to the newsagents with my half a crown pocket money and suddenly finding I could buy two normal comics or just the one annual. Just found these images though. Later Tower comics went up to 1/9 too it seems.

You asked what was the lowest decimal T&P stamp I had seen. In terms of positioning on the cover I would say this one.

Even https://ausreprints.net/cover/series/7595/5/1/200/50 don't have a copy of your particular Spooky. (Published in 1970 so obviously sold here after Feb 1971 when we went decimal)

And as this forum is obsessed with covers of comics, then for anyone who hasn't seen it https://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/ is the place to find covers for comics that don't actually exist but really ought to.

Perhaps Laff wasn't imported by T&P as 2/6d seems expensive for July 1959 when an issue of Wildcat was only 1/6d in 1964. But those days I much preferred spending 1/6d on an 80 page giant.

I am the same, I don't collect American comics but I have quite a few (thousand) I have acquired over the years. PS: Here is how not to store/sell your comics