trademarkcomics

Ummm… https://www.ebay.com/itm/233504242823?hash=item365deffc87%3Ag%3A8~sAAOSwSJ9iHeaO&LH_BIN=1

Three things come to mind here: #1- The sellers you point out are mass sellers so they could simply be typos, #2- I would assume that if there was any question in the grader's mind about the legitimacy of the insert and whether or not it's original or married from another copy, they would simply not list it on the label rather than put "Married Mark Jeweler's Insert." and #3- CGC is not perfect.

After some investigating on Mike's Amazing World(love that site!), I found the book it connected to: Justice League #107. lol.

Received it. It's in great shape. But it has a major miswrap and I was wondering if anyone else has seen this? It has a back cover overhang that shows what looks like the edge of a cover to a completely different book. I found another CGC graded one to confirm that this was also on other 124s. Anyone wanna hazard a grade? Most of the wear on the book is from the overhang/miscut on the back. I just want to...I won't even think it...lol.

A CGC 7.0 just got listed...at $500!

Got 124!

I think I have one that was bound upside down. I know I have a few that were cut short at the bottom, not one that was cut short at the side though. Yet again proves that inserts and covers were cut before getting the final trim. Makes one wonder how many books which CGC has deemed as trimmed covers truly are and how many are simply miscuts.

You will give it to me now...

I have all of the Pizzazz variants, 30 cent & 35 cent price variants, I have a Bose wrap in my 262 and I have a CGC 9.8 of the #245 Bubblicious variant, but once you get past the MJI era, all I look for is newsstands(which I have an extensive collection of, including Australian price variants of 361-363). But inserts post-1992 just don't thrill me.

Now down to 10! Just got: Thanks to Marwood for the heads up!

That was a nice one! That issue is important to me because Tarantula was the villain in the very first ASM I ever bought at ten years old: #235. Plus it’s got Punisher’s second appearance at the end. Most of what I’m missing is right in that tough late 70s era when the staple positions are hard to read. #160, 167, 170, 171, 173, 174, 178, 181, 189. Other than those I need #124(which I mentioned above) and 220(which is hot right now due to Moon Knight). But yeah, 227 out of 238 now, or 95%. Not too shabby. I really appreciate you guys making me aware of the issues I needn’t search for, made things a lot easier. That was one reason I let you all in on my staple discovery. My wife was like “you let them know your trade secrets?”.

Make that 11. I just found 187, 190 and 192. I think he’s sold through most of them but I’ll see if he has those the next time I go in there.

I finally found one of the tougher ASMs: #134. I hadn’t seen one since I started this endeavor back in 2019. My friend who had recently opened his own shop came by a huge collection with Mark Jeweler inserts and he held all of the Amazings for me. It started me on this journey and now I’m only 14 issues away…

Be very careful with late 70's books. I have found that with some it is better to look at the top staple(you want it closer to the bottom of the character box than most of the run is) to discern if it may be a MJI than the bottom staple as a lot of the issues had high bottom staples. Like I said, there a many exceptions to the general rule of high bottom staples. What I do is run through the books available of the specific issue I'm hunting to get a general feel for where staple placement usually is, then when I see a staple is a different spot(or, better yet, compare to an actual Mark Jeweler issue), then I go for it. My percentage for being right is running about 80%.

That's awesome. More proof they aren't as rare as I first believed. A book from my childhood, if you ever want to sell it, let me know...

But then just below it you look at the blurb for the back story: "The Runaway SuperBABY". Comics were a bit schizophrenic in the early 70s...maybe the editors did a little too much LDS.

So true. I think I’ve seen about 10 Mark Jeweler issues with double covers and not one was a DC. I have two DC MJ books in my entire collection. Batman 251 in pretty bad shape, and Superboy 189 CGC 7.5(Jonathan Kent hanging on cover and one of the first DC MJ insert books). Violent!

One oddity I always keep my eyes out for is the Double Cover/Mark Jeweler combo. I have 4. A raw Silver Surfer(second series) #20 I picked up from my local comic shop(!), Amazing Spider-Man #281 CGC 9.4(My baby), and two I currently have up for sale on eBay: Tomb of Dracula #8 CGC 8.0 and a grail-ish book: G.I. Joe ARAH #21 CGC 7.5. While I once thought there could only be a handful of these in existence, after seeing multiple posted to eBay recently including two of two specific issues(Rom #52 and ASM #315*), I've come to the conclusion that while still very rare, they aren't the one-of-kind unicorns I once believed they might be. *One thing I've also found in my travels is that multiple covers are definitely more common for certain issues(Iron Man #55 and Amazing Spider-Man #361 immediately spring to mind). Obviously the errors happened intermittently and then were caught and fixed so that you simply won't ever find a multiple cover for many(if not most) specific issue numbers.

Don’t get me started on eBay search results…but there are some search terms for certain books I would NEVER search on my iPad while laying in bed with my wife.

A little pet peeve of mine when searching for these on eBay: Advertised as a "Double VARIANT". Because it's not only a Mark Jeweler Insert, it's also a newsstand.

I've seen all kinds of weird ones. Insert bound upside down, extra staples on the inside of the cover, half of the insert cut off at the top. A recent oddity I found was not a MJI: CBCS graded Canadian ASM #238 with two Tattooz samples "from the factory". Now how did the grader know the samples were from the factory? How easy would it be to buy a FF #252 and remove the sample then carefully place it in the sleeve? But hey, if I can get a premium for it, more power to me, right?

There are definitely exceptions however. Biggest one being ASM #238. Since it already has an insert(Tattooz), the staple is always up. Then there are other issues that have the staple up/down on both regular and insert versions. My theory is that when one machine was down they would run the books through the other, insert or not. ***So please don't hold it against me if you buy a book with the higher staple and it doesn't have the insert!***

Not in my experience. DC's staples are not nearly as reliable as an indicator. It seems to be a Marvel thing. No way I would have gotten as far with my MJI collection without noticing that. It happened totally by accident. I bought a book and noticed staple holes above where it was attached and realized it was a married insert. It was then I started noticing all MJIs had different staple locations. As far as not knowing everything when you're an expert. If Einstein lived in the stone age, he might not even have invented the wheel. What we know now took many many minds over many centuries.

Actually, that IS pictorial evidence. Most are not aware but I picked up on this little known aspect of MJIs; they apparently were bound by different machines(as were all books with inserts, Tattooz, Pizzazz, etc) than their regular counterparts. The bottom staples are often(but not always, there are definitely exceptions) higher up. If you don't believe me, try looking for a #124 with a staple in a different location than just under Spidey's foot(trust me, I have...). I took the pic you provided and compared it to a CGC graded copy.