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Archie cover price variants! 15 centers exist 1962-1963
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198 posts in this topic

1 hour ago, PeterPark said:

The quality of some pictures isn't fantastic but here they are...!

Brilliant, thanks. Update to follow....

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Morning :)

The earliest known cover date for an Archie 15 cent variant is February 1962 and there are six titles in scope for that month:

  • Archie #125
  • Archie's Girls Betty & Veronica # 74
  • Archie's Joke Book Magazine #60
  • Archie's Mad House #17
  • Archie's Pal Jughead #81
  • Laugh #131

Of those six, I have confirmation of one - Archie #125 - and an anecdotal comment that Jughead #81 has been seen.

In my Charlton Canadian Price Variant research, it was suggested to me that the dates that the books were produced, or went on sale, may have a bearing on what may or may not exist. This was indeed the case and the concept was repeated in other research strands of mine. It can therefore be a mistake sometimes to assume a pricing experiment will follow a strict cover month window. Books are produced throughout a given month at various times and the cut off for such experiments were likely date driven, not month driven.

If we look at the 'on sale' dates from Mikes Comic Newsstand we can see the dates that each of our six books went on sale and, in theory, identify their individual production sequence. Here are the screen shots for all six:

86681122_Feb62-Archie125.PNG.1a152fb6d4598ea2fbb061f66f2d93af.PNG

437177559_Feb62-BV74.PNG.a73184e469ce5d01992daef2b361e931.PNG

634592208_Feb62-JokeBook60.PNG.2fb16dd1d8079f0298b8d1f78a3cc781.PNG

1938182518_Feb62-Jughead81.PNG.f20d1d491fe6fadf294050154da712a2.PNG

864093701_Feb62-Laugh131.PNG.4f6146ce58aed0d5bf1800da2dc8ca38.PNG

48172136_Feb62-MadHouse17PNG.PNG.c148afcbb63f858eb40a5361f789f940.PNG

 

Putting them in order, we get the following 'on sale' date sequence:

  • 9th November - Archie's Mad House #17
  • 16th November - Archie's Joke Book Magazine #60
  • 30th November - Archie #125 (15cv Confirmed)
  • 30th November - Archie's Girls Betty & Veronica # 74
  • 7th December - Archie's Pal Jughead #81 (15cv alleged to have been seen)
  • 7th December - Laugh #131

Speculating, the instructions to the printers would had to have come at some point - "print me X amount of copies of this book with a 15c price on please until further notice / X date". If the production date of the comics matched the on sale date sequence, then the key to whether a 15cv would be made would depend on at what point the instruction was received. If that instruction came after the equivalent production dates for our 9th and 16th November books, then that may explain why no 15cvs have surfaced for them.

In a similar vein, still speculating, then the 30th November and 7th December books should exist, given their ongoing subsequently confirmed variant issues.

Maybe!

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1 hour ago, 143ksk said:

Know I have some books to add to your list. I just have to take a look through the box...

Thank you :)

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3 hours ago, 143ksk said:

Three Samm Schwartz covers :)

IMG_8640.JPGIMG_8641.JPGIMG_8642.JPG

Thanks :)

Those copies bring us up to 78 confirmed price variants now:

607340222_CurrentConfirmedList20_07_20.thumb.PNG.06927f78a1b8e693218cc2d76e6828ca.PNG

 

Here is another 'complete' set while the hunt goes on for the missing books:

123421669_TalesCalculatedtoDriveYouBats.thumb.PNG.ae4961419a43ff6e08162d83f6c86bd6.PNG

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I was having an email discussion with Bill the thread owner this morning about the 'missing' Archie 15cvs - Bill was of the view that Archie #136 would not materialise. One thing I have been doing a lot lately is using arrival dates to help inform the printing order - and therefore the potential cut off points - for books with the same cover month which have missing variants.

Here is an example for April 1963, the last cover month that Archie 15cvs have been found to exist. If we look at the image below, we can see that Archie #136 has no confirmed 15cv (as per Bill's assertion) and Laugh #145 does:

Capture.thumb.PNG.217d52031f8b2a3fabfa7eb6faa38186.PNG

 

A quick scout around for arrival dates on copies of those books and we find:

Laugh #145 (confirmed 15cv) - arrival date February 13th:

1744220742_145(2).jpg.e51c288695d0256c431e5a936b0ea0ab.jpg

Archie #136 (no 15cv confirmed) - February 26th arrival date:

145607774_136(2).jpg.fbb09c9fa91df9680c74e1648f6dd958.jpg

Perhaps, therefore, Laugh was printed two weeks earlier than Archie and snuck in a 15cv before the production ended. Comics aren't all printed on the first day of the month of course, so it makes sense that there would have been an instruction to the printers to cease 15cv production at some point and that would likely have been date driven, not cover month driven.

It's all anecdotal of course, but adds to the likelihood that certain books will not surface as people like Bill, who have been looking for years, believes will be the case.

All good fun. 

 

 

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On 7/20/2021 at 10:31 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

I was having an email discussion with Bill the thread owner this morning about the 'missing' Archie 15cvs - Bill was of the view that Archie #136 would not materialise. One thing I have been doing a lot lately is using arrival dates to help inform the printing order - and therefore the potential cut off points - for books with the same cover month which have missing variants.

Here is an example for April 1963, the last cover month that Archie 15cvs have been found to exist. If we look at the image below, we can see that Archie #136 has no confirmed 15cv (as per Bill's assertion) and Laugh #145 does:

Capture.thumb.PNG.217d52031f8b2a3fabfa7eb6faa38186.PNG

 

A quick scout around for arrival dates on copies of those books and we find:

Laugh #145 (confirmed 15cv) - arrival date February 13th:

1744220742_145(2).jpg.e51c288695d0256c431e5a936b0ea0ab.jpg

Archie #136 (no 15cv confirmed) - February 26th arrival date:

145607774_136(2).jpg.fbb09c9fa91df9680c74e1648f6dd958.jpg

Perhaps, therefore, Laugh was printed two weeks earlier than Archie and snuck in a 15cv before the production ended. Comics aren't all printed on the first day of the month of course, so it makes sense that there would have been an instruction to the printers to cease 15cv production at some point and that would likely have been date driven, not cover month driven.

It's all anecdotal of course, but adds to the likelihood that certain books will not surface as people like Bill, who have been looking for years, believes will be the case.

All good fun. 

I did a little more digging on this, to see if I could find arrival stamped copies for the other April 1963 issues. Not an exact science, as I've said, but quite interesting I think if we assume that the 15c variants hit shops at the same time as the regular priced copies.

Here's a B&V #88 with a January 19th date...

850294174_bav88(2).PNG.921e7a6cf3c9a117869c16efada9cd68.PNG

...a Fly #25 with a February 10th...

1520964743_adventures-fly-25(2).jpg.a54b674e7f7ea8de4dc21fe99ddd01e1.jpg

...and a Mad House #25 with a cool January 31st (my birthday):

25crop.png.d1400a1d44465e890eb067e71a80a00f.png

Add those to the two examples in the quoted post and we get:

101510975_MadHouse25.thumb.PNG.7f689399ddd04adcd046dcbeba3001f4.PNG

  • Betty & Veronica #88 (stamped 19th Jan) - 15cv
  • Archie's mad House #25 (stamped 31st Jan) - no 15cv
  • The Fly #25 (stamped 10th Feb) - 15cv
  • Laugh #145 (stamped 13th Feb) - 15cv
  • Archie #136 (stamped 26th Feb) - no 15cv

So maybe Archie's Mad House #25 exists.....?

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I own the highest graded AMH 22 and I will be sending it in for a press and regrade soon.

I also have AMH 24 15 cent. Need to get it graded. 
 

always looking for any other AMH 15 cent variants anyone is interested in selling. Send me a dm if you have one. 

C55FE1A6-AFCD-44DC-899B-4358BB4D5A68.jpeg

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Afternoon :)

I found images of a further four Archie 15 Cent Variants to bring us up to 90 of the theoretical 113 maximum:

  • Archie #135
  • B&V #80
  • Laugh #143
  • Jughead #82

135.thumb.jpg.43993d566a4d215bcdf2b8c3ee966fc7.jpg 80.PNG.845b68968cbaa86a51621e14685f813e.PNG 143.jpg.91b42d32fae15af7e0485718f88ee109.jpg 82.PNG.0af3b28ac35a0644ff54b27bf1d7e635.PNG

90.thumb.PNG.5c6ba3680ff5d9f1a2d401d185681e81.PNG

 

I also found an image of a second Complimentary stamped Fly #25, too, so it looks like you couldn't give them away:

456979428_AdventuresofTheFly25(April1963)15CentVariantcwithstamp.jpg.957b7f5c008aa9cc6dfb4c412667c6f3.jpg 1219980736_AdventuresofTheFly25(April1963)15CentVariantcwithstampb.thumb.jpg.257d6cfb8f3b615005c8693b370a7588.jpg

Both stamps are upside down, note. Maybe the Fly was on the ceiling....

 

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