Mark Jewelers inserts... 18 18

[Microchip]

On 5/23/2024 at 9:31 AM, ADAMANTIUM said:

130point.com

[ADAMANTIUM]

Averaging about $60 a book after sale with Texas tax, is neither bad for buyer nor seller. I understand some are raw and or vg condition, only a few of the whole.

I won't ask profit, but if I had the $13,000 and already owned an asm 1 or af 15 then I'd have liked too buy it, deep thoughts after the fact is hard! haha

One of those daydreams 😂 

I hope it went well for all parties though!

Edited May 22 by ADAMANTIUM

[trademarkcomics]

On 5/22/2024 at 4:27 PM, Microchip said:

Offer price accepted ?

Yep. They're gone...

 

Pretty happy the set stayed together though. The guy said they are going right into his collection and he's super happy. 

[ganni]

On 5/23/2024 at 11:50 AM, trademarkcomics said:

Yep. They're gone...

 

Pretty happy the set stayed together though. The guy said they are going right into his collection and he's super happy. 

[Cpt Kirk]

Here's something that I'm guessing no one has put together.... the entire run of all known Mark Jeweler variants in the title of Batman.   I was lucky enough to recently get a copy of Batman 247 from an ebay seller in the UK, which was the last known one that I did not have in my collection. Like the impressive Amazing Spider-Man run described above, the average grade is astounding (I would say average grade of the entire run is 8.5 or better).   The lowest graded ones are a couple of vgFN's (namely Batman 243 and 246, which can be seen below).   I'm convinced that there should be a jeweler variant of Batman 245, but I have yet to see one after 12 years of looking. In those 12 years, I've looked at more than 300 copies of Batman 245.   The only other issue that should have an insert but I'm pretty sure it was skipped was Batman 390.  I believe the 390 doesn't exist because I've also been looking for that one for years.  I also bought two different large runs of jeweler variants and the Batman 390 that was in those runs did not contain the insert (whereas all the other issues in those runs contained the inserts).

If someone offered me a Batman 245 jeweler variant in FN or better to me for $500, I would gladly buy it.   I thought the $1400 price I paid for the CGC 8.5 Batman 251 was crazy until I sold my vg+ undercopy of that same Batman jeweler variant for approximately $700.

For your viewing pleasure, the following images show the first ten known jeweler variants of Batman (these are all pre-100-pager issues).   These all contained the thicker "card board" inserts and if you look carefully at the bottom right corner of the insert shown in the photo below, you will see the alpha numeric code associated with each insert.   The Batman 243 insert is the one on the bottom and the Batman 253 insert is on the top (all of them are stacked sequentially).  

 

 

 

Edited June 25 by Cpt Kirk

[Cpt Kirk]

So with the Batman 247, I'm only missing 6 Mark Jeweler variants in the titles of Batman, Detective Comics, Superman, Action Comics and Justice League of America.  Namely, Batman 245 & 390, Detective 470 & 548, Action Comics 579, and JLA 107.   Of those 6, the only one that I know exists for sure is the JLA 107 because I lost a bid on a vg- copy (it went for $91 dagnabit!).   The rest remain elusive.  I think the Batman 245 and TEC 470 should exist but I can't say for sure.

[workingdog]

Recent pick-up from C-Link ....

[Cpt Kirk]

On 10/10/2012 at 12:02 AM, Shark said:

Here's a question for you guys:

 

Is there a complete list of ALL of the comics that could have contained a Mark Jewelers insert? Or does such a list even exist?

I went back to the beginning of this thread and saw the question as posted above.   I've been tracking these jeweler variants for years and I don't think anyone has every compiled a listing of all DC comics that could have contained the insert (I could get pretty close to having a comprehensive list... but I think I will wait until I'm retired before I take on that mission).   I do know the following for DC comic books:

1.  The MJ inserts never appeared in any square-bound giants.

2.  They rarely appeared in saddle-stapled giants but there are exceptions.

3.  For all non-giant issues, I believe every single DC title that had a cover date of August or Aug/Sept 1972 contained the insert.

4.  None ever appeared in issues with cover dates of March, April or Mar/April 1975 (odd that only those two months were skipped).  MyComicShop has been selling thousands of them over the span of more than 15 years but I've never seen a single issue sold with those cover dates.  I also bought a run of star-stamped Justice League of America issues from issue #'s 97 through 135, and none of 100-page giants nor the #117 dated April 1975 contained the insert.  Recall the star-stamp indicated that it was solid in a military PX.   Of that run, all the issues between 100 and 135 contained the insert except for the 100-pagers and the April 1975 issue.

5.  The last issues that contained the insert had cover dates of July 1986, but the issues with July 1986 cover date that were released in the last few weeks of that month did not contain the insert. 

6.  To make matters worse, I believe some of the later issues from Aug 72 throught July 1986 may have been either accidentally or purposely skipped.   Examples include Detective Comics 548 (Mar 1985) and Batman 390 (Dec 1985).   I believe that to be true because I bought runs of comic books that had jeweler inserts but the TEC 548 and Batman 390 within those runs did not include jeweler ads.   But... to be fair... I don't know if that was a fluke so I keep looking.   For example, I bought a large run (approx 100 issues) of Superman jeweler variants but the Superman 327 from that run was missing the ad, but I have found at least 2 other copies of Superman 327 that contained the advertising insert.  

7.  So the challenge is this... there must be more than 1,000 issues of DC Mark Jeweler variants.   But the variables above would make it very challenging to produce a definitive list of the jeweler variants.  

So....jeweler variants of Detective 548 or Batman 390?   Are they the missing links?   

 

Edited July 7 by Cpt Kirk

[Microchip]

I'd never seen one of these, and had to get it.   I think the grading may have been on the harsh side of things.

 

 

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 7/7/2024 at 5:31 PM, Microchip said:

I'd never seen one of these, and had to get it.   I think the grading may have been on the harsh side of things.

 

 

 

Maybe @nepatkm has, but again 🧐 🆒 nice grab!

[The Man Without Beer]

The signature series book recently came back from the "Wolverine's 50th" signing which happened to have 3 contributors to one of my favorite Daredevil issues. Just before I got that back,  I picked up another Mark Jewelers copy with the same grade & pq.  I have not seen any Mark Jewelers notes on GPA sales & these are the only 2 MJ copies of this issue I have seen so far.

[Spidey 62]

I don't believe I'm allowed to show it (it's graded by the other guys) , but I have an ASM 238 MJ.  Also have about 30 others raw.  Small but growing sub-collection. 

[Pitboss]

On 7/7/2024 at 11:07 PM, Spidey 62 said:

I don't believe I'm allowed to show it (it's graded by the other guys) , but I have an ASM 238 MJ.  Also have about 30 others raw.  Small but growing sub-collection. 

Just crop the label out and you can show it.

[scburdet]

I leave it to those willing to search this thread for my original & other posts, but this Fear 23 is just back from CGC. The Fear run I bought +2 decades ago so far yielded the following graded MJs. The other issues were just regular editions. This in the running for the top cover from the Morbius Fears. Definitely one of the quirkier sets I have.

#20 - 7.5 (a small BC stain away from grading closer to the other ones)

#22 - 9.4 (signed by Ron Wilson)

#23 - 9.0

#24 - 9.2

#26 - ungraded

[Cpt Kirk]

I just received this jeweler variant today.  It is Action Comics 579.   It was the last jeweler variant that I needed to find in the run of Action Comics after searching for 12+ years.  I was beginning to believe it did not exist.   But I kept looking.   I recently asked a seller of an Action 579 if his copy on ebay was a jeweler variant.  The answer was "no" but he was buying some long boxes that he thought contained jeweler variants, and he would let me know if he found any.  He was disappointed that this Action 579 was the only one he could find.   Me... I was thrilled that he found even one (it has been 3 years since I've been able to find a jeweler variant that I didn't previously think existed).

So now I have found every single jeweler variant that could exist for Superman and Action Comics.   There are 158 of them in Superman and 157 of them in Action Comics.   

Now that this Action 579 has been discovered, there's only 4 of the possible 690 jeweler variants in the titles of JLA, Batman, Detective, Superman and Action Comics that I haven't been able to find yet (namely, Batman 245 & 390, Detective 470 & 548).  If you find one of those, I sure would like to hear about it on this thread.

 

 

 

Edited July 30 by Cpt Kirk

[OtherEric]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:05 PM, Cpt Kirk said:

I just received this jeweler variant today.  It is Action Comics 579.   It was the last jeweler variant that I needed to find in the run of Action Comics after searching for 12+ years.  I was beginning to believe it did not exist.   But I kept looking.   I recently asked a seller of an Action 579 if his copy on ebay was a jeweler variant.  The answer was "no" but he was buying some long boxes that he thought contained jeweler variants, and he would let me know if he found any.  He was disappointed that this Action 579 was the only one he could find.   Me... I was thrilled that he found even one (it has been 3 years since I've been able to find a jeweler variant that I didn't previously think existed).

So now I have found every single jeweler variant that could exist for Superman and Action Comics.   There are 158 of them in Superman and 157 of them in Action Comics.   Now there's only 4 of the possible 890 jeweler variants in the titles of JLA, Batman, Detective, Superman and Action Comics that I haven't been able to find yet (namely, Batman 245 & 390, Detective 470 & 548).  If you find one of those, I sure would like to hear about it on this thread.

 

 

So, if that's the last issue with a Jeweler's insert you needed, would you say the issue comes with an Asterix?

(Sorry, I'll see myself out...)

[Cpt Kirk]

On 7/29/2024 at 11:12 PM, OtherEric said:

So, if that's the last issue with a Jeweler's insert you needed, would you say the issue comes with an Asterix?

(Sorry, I'll see myself out...)

I hate to say it, but there really does need to be an asterisk.  For example, Action Comics 452 has two different versions of the jeweler inserts.   One of the inserts is predominantly blue with the code "88" on the bottom right hand corner of the centerfold, and the other insert is predominantly brown with the code "999" on the bottom right hand corner of the centerfold.  Who knows how many other issues are like that.   Me... I'm not going to worry about trying to chase that down more of those anomolies!  

To make matters worse, my Action Comics 452 with the brown insert is only a FN-.   So now I have to keep an eye out for jeweler variants of Action 452 so that I can try to get a copy that is at least VF.... gol-blammitt!!! 

[aszumilo]

Picked up an Avengers 181.  When I got home, I discovered it as an MJ insert copy.

Spine split on upper the edge about 2 inches.  Spine and first wrap are split.  PQ is tan and has some slight water staining.  Only paid $3 for it.  My first MJ

    

Edited August 11 by aszumilo

[Silver Surfer]

On 7/7/2024 at 8:38 AM, Cpt Kirk said:

I went back to the beginning of this thread and saw the question as posted above.   I've been tracking these jeweler variants for years and I don't think anyone has every compiled a listing of all DC comics that could have contained the insert (I could get pretty close to having a comprehensive list... but I think I will wait until I'm retired before I take on that mission).   I do know the following for DC comic books:

1.  The MJ inserts never appeared in any square-bound giants.

2.  They rarely appeared in saddle-stapled giants but there are exceptions.

3.  For all non-giant issues, I believe every single DC title that had a cover date of August or Aug/Sept 1972 contained the insert.

4.  None ever appeared in issues with cover dates of March, April or Mar/April 1975 (odd that only those two months were skipped).  MyComicShop has been selling thousands of them over the span of more than 15 years but I've never seen a single issue sold with those cover dates.  I also bought a run of star-stamped Justice League of America issues from issue #'s 97 through 135, and none of 100-page giants nor the #117 dated April 1975 contained the insert.  Recall the star-stamp indicated that it was solid in a military PX.   Of that run, all the issues between 100 and 135 contained the insert except for the 100-pagers and the April 1975 issue.

5.  The last issues that contained the insert had cover dates of July 1986, but the issues with July 1986 cover date that were released in the last few weeks of that month did not contain the insert. 

6.  To make matters worse, I believe some of the later issues from Aug 72 throught July 1986 may have been either accidentally or purposely skipped.   Examples include Detective Comics 548 (Mar 1985) and Batman 390 (Dec 1985).   I believe that to be true because I bought runs of comic books that had jeweler inserts but the TEC 548 and Batman 390 within those runs did not include jeweler ads.   But... to be fair... I don't know if that was a fluke so I keep looking.   For example, I bought a large run (approx 100 issues) of Superman jeweler variants but the Superman 327 from that run was missing the ad, but I have found at least 2 other copies of Superman 327 that contained the advertising insert.  

7.  So the challenge is this... there must be more than 1,000 issues of DC Mark Jeweler variants.   But the variables above would make it very challenging to produce a definitive list of the jeweler variants.  

So....jeweler variants of Detective 548 or Batman 390?   Are they the missing links?   

 

The 390 looks like a Canadian copy?

[Cpt Kirk]

On 8/13/2024 at 3:33 AM, Silver Surfer said:

The 390 looks like a Canadian copy?

Good point my friend.... so there's no way the Batman 390 shown above could contain a jeweler variant.  I've never seen nor heard of a Canadian price variant containing a jeweler insert.  That makes sense since the Mark Jeweler ads were inserted into comic books that were to be displayed at US Military PX's.