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Mark's Jewels list?

Started by GeeksAreMyPeeps,

80 posts in this topic

Jaydogrules

Jaydogrules

Posted
Posted
Does anyone know if a comprehensive list exists of which comics had a Mark's Jewelers insert?

 

This has all the information u need to know.

 

http://www.awe4one.com/NDS-MJ%20Inserts/Insert%20webpage.html

 

Some of them are extremely rare as they were only distributed to servicemen stationed overseas. That means that the surviving copies may have seen a conflict or war, and were managed to have been kept safe by a serviceman who made it a point to pack it up and bring it home.

 

That's why if u can find a high grade one that's inside a key book expect to pay a premium. Anywhere from 15-25%. The ones with the "star stamps" are particularly desired as they establish the "overseas provenance".

 

-J.

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rjrjr

rjrjr

Posted
Posted
Does anyone know if a comprehensive list exists of which comics had a Mark's Jewelers insert?

 

This has all the information u need to know.

 

http://www.awe4one.com/NDS-MJ%20Inserts/Insert%20webpage.html

 

Some of them are extremely rare as they were only distributed to servicemen stationed overseas. That means that the surviving copies may have seen a conflict or war, and were managed to have been kept safe by a serviceman who made it a point to pack it up and bring it home.

 

That's why if u can find a high grade one that's inside a key book expect to pay a premium. Anywhere from 15-25%. The ones with the "star stamps" are particularly desired as they establish the "overseas provenance".

 

-J.

 

Not to dismiss the service provided by our country's military men, but there were not a whole lot of conflicts between 1970 and 1990 that would have depleted the population of these Mark Jeweler books. Additionally, some of the largest military bases (Ramstein/Kaiserslautern for example) are not on the front line and were available to servicemen, dependents of servicemen, and civilian contractors. You're overstating the significance of conflict and war on the population of these comics. Some of the most avid comic collectors I ever met are servicemen.

 

Some of the comics may be rare, but not because of any of the reasons you are stating.

 

 

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted
Does anyone know if a comprehensive list exists of which comics had a Mark's Jewelers insert?

 

This has all the information u need to know.

.

 

Except the comprehensive list that he was asking about.

 

But, good info, and awe4one is a board member.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

In any event, until proven otherwise, I'm going to say "all standard comic books printed at World Color in Sparta, Illionois" from 1971-ish to 1992-ish" have a Mark Jeweler's/NDS insert variant.

 

That covers all Marvel, DC, Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, and Western/Gold Key. Maybe Archie, but maybe not.

 

That includes everything, so assembling a complete set probably isn't possible anymore. After all...how many Mark Jewelers Sgt. Fury #137s exist?

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

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Posted
hm I've never seen an Archie with a Mark Jewelers insert. I'm wondering if that's because Archie's overall readership demographic skewed younger than other publishers and those readers wouldn't be the ones potentially purchasing from this advertiser?

 

Possible. I've never seen an MJ Archie, either, but I've learned that ruling stuff out only makes me look dumb when they're found, so... ;)

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Garlanda

Garlanda

Posted
Posted
Does anyone know if a comprehensive list exists of which comics had a Mark's Jewelers insert?

 

This has all the information u need to know.

 

http://www.awe4one.com/NDS-MJ%20Inserts/Insert%20webpage.html

 

Some of them are extremely rare as they were only distributed to servicemen stationed overseas. That means that the surviving copies may have seen a conflict or war, and were managed to have been kept safe by a serviceman who made it a point to pack it up and bring it home.

 

That's why if u can find a high grade one that's inside a key book expect to pay a premium. Anywhere from 15-25%. The ones with the "star stamps" are particularly desired as they establish the "overseas provenance".

 

-J.

 

Not to dismiss the service provided by our country's military men, but there were not a whole lot of conflicts between 1970 and 1990 that would have depleted the population of these Mark Jeweler books. Additionally, some of the largest military bases (Ramstein/Kaiserslautern for example) are not on the front line and were available to servicemen, dependents of servicemen, and civilian contractors. You're overstating the significance of conflict and war on the population of these comics. Some of the most avid comic collectors I ever met are servicemen.

 

Some of the comics may be rare, but not because of any of the reasons you are stating.

 

 

Concur with rjrjr. As a veteran who's packed up gear to bring back from combat, I find it extremely unlikely that anyone would have bothered to bring a comic book back from Viet Nam pre-1972, if any were even shipped over there to sell (Based on the timelines, those hypothetical issues would've been National Diamond Sales, not Mark Jewelers, but still). Otherwise, any newsstand copy of any regular-sized comic distributed from June 1973-June 1991 could have one. I haven't found one in anything but a Marvel, but that's just my experience.

 

There wouldn't have been any comics sent for sale in Grenada, Beirut, Sinai, or any of the other 80s hotspots, just because of the way the Exchanges operated. The vast majority of input on Marks Jewelers emphasizes Germany, which still requires that someone pack up the books and ship them home from Europe. I guess there would've been some distributed in Korea and Japan as well, since there were large US populations there at the time, but most of those stations are "unaccompanied," meaning you don't get to take your family. I've picked up a few MJ from pawn shops and antique stores near bases in the US, one of which included the star stamp.

 

Lots of servicemembers settle near where they were stationed when they got out, so if they brought comics with them and wanted to sell them they'd most likely do so near a base. Further, most of those bases in Germany were Army and Air Force, so a community near one of those bases that was big in the 80s-90s would be a good place to look, as opposed to Navy or Marine Corps. Ft Bragg, NC, Ft Campbell, KY, Ft Hood, TX, would be good Army bases to look near; I don't know much about Air Force Bases. I picked up a Daredevil 131 with an MJ insert in the general vicinity of Ft Campbell several years ago, and it's now encapsulated as a 9.2. It's one of the nicest bronze-age key MJs I've come across:

http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/GetImage.aspx?c=2112555&t=Full&f=Obv&cb=OS8xNi8yMDE0IDk6MTk6MjMgQU0%3d

 

 

 

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Dale Roberts

Dale Roberts

Posted
Posted
In any event, until proven otherwise, I'm going to say "all standard comic books printed at World Color in Sparta, Illionois" from 1971-ish to 1992-ish" have a Mark Jeweler's/NDS insert variant.

 

That covers all Marvel, DC, Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, and Western/Gold Key. Maybe Archie, but maybe not.

 

That includes everything, so assembling a complete set probably isn't possible anymore. After all...how many Mark Jewelers Sgt. Fury #137s exist?

 

This sounds right. No reason they wouldn't make them all available. I would suspect even if they weren't sent overseas and if none made it back, there would be copies from the bases stateside which survived. I know a guy who has 15 centers with inserts. But they are very tough.

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Jaydogrules

Jaydogrules

Posted
Posted
Does anyone know if a comprehensive list exists of which comics had a Mark's Jewelers insert?

 

This has all the information u need to know.

 

http://www.awe4one.com/NDS-MJ%20Inserts/Insert%20webpage.html

 

Some of them are extremely rare as they were only distributed to servicemen stationed overseas. That means that the surviving copies may have seen a conflict or war, and were managed to have been kept safe by a serviceman who made it a point to pack it up and bring it home.

 

That's why if u can find a high grade one that's inside a key book expect to pay a premium. Anywhere from 15-25%. The ones with the "star stamps" are particularly desired as they establish the "overseas provenance".

 

-J.

 

Not to dismiss the service provided by our country's military men, but there were not a whole lot of conflicts between 1970 and 1990 that would have depleted the population of these Mark Jeweler books. Additionally, some of the largest military bases (Ramstein/Kaiserslautern for example) are not on the front line and were available to servicemen, dependents of servicemen, and civilian contractors. You're overstating the significance of conflict and war on the population of these comics. Some of the most avid comic collectors I ever met are servicemen.

 

Some of the comics may be rare, but not because of any of the reasons you are stating.

 

 

lol I wasn't attempting to imply that war and conflict would be a primary reason for their scarcity. I was merely waxing hypothetically on how much more it would have taken for these particular books to survive, even if it simply meant a potato-peeling serviceman rolling up his book, stuffing it into a duffel bag and bringing it stateside. All indications are that they were only available at bases overseas. I believe it is that kind of potential provenance that makes these particular examples interesting to a lot of people. "Every marvel book Published" from A date to Z date may have them, but good luck finding a particular one with the insert on any given day. And finding them raw in big keys in decent condition (especially the earlier NDS books) is like winning the lottery, hence the apparent premium paid for them. (thumbs u

 

-J.

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Dale Roberts

Dale Roberts

Posted
Posted
I've also noticed that while they appeared in both Marvel and DCs (and other publishers), in my collecting/dealing life I've had about 100 MJ Marvels and about 10 MJ DCs.

 

I think I have had about the same. If anything, more DCs. I know I have had a lot of JLAs in particular.

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W16227

W16227

Posted
Posted
hm I've never seen an Archie with a Mark Jewelers insert. I'm wondering if that's because Archie's overall readership demographic skewed younger than other publishers and those readers wouldn't be the ones potentially purchasing from this advertiser?

 

Possible. I've never seen an MJ Archie, either, but I've learned that ruling stuff out only makes me look dumb when they're found, so... ;)

 

I will check tonight - not that I am an expert -but I bought a collection that belonged to a serviceman. He collected everything - and there are a ton of the books with inserts (including IM 55 in great shape and an ASM 122 in midgrade).

 

He has a ton of archies that I had my son bag/board - so I never really looked. If they were in the archies - this set would have them.....

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

The real problem with these inserts is that, if they gain any real market traction, people will simply take them from a common issue, open up the staples, and there you go: variant.

 

Other than ultra high grade (9.6+), it would probably be unnoticeable.

 

Hopefully, then, these don't become valuable, so people don't fiddle with them out of greed.

 

To those interested: I would get them, now, before the above scenario has a chance to come to pass. Yes, I understand the paradox.

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W16227

W16227

Posted
Posted
The real problem with these inserts is that, if they gain any real market traction, people will simply take them from a common issue, open up the staples, and there you go: variant.

 

Other than ultra high grade (9.6+), it would probably be unnoticeable.

 

Hopefully, then, these don't become valuable, so people don't fiddle with them out of greed.

 

To those interested: I would get them, now, before the above scenario has a chance to come to pass. Yes, I understand the paradox.

 

 

hard to say about that - how hard it is to detect married pages and covers now? --- would be similar except easier to find the specific insert (as opposed to finding a decent replacement cover). If the staples did not line up -even more noticeable as the inserts are very solid and opening the holes up would be really noticeable.

 

 

 

 

 

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JayT

JayT

Posted
Posted

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4778161&fpart=1

 

To add to the locations, you could possibly look for large Navy installations of servicemen coming home. This is discussed in the Bronze age forum on the topic, but while not as big or country club opulent as Air Force or Army bases in both Germany and Northern Italy, there were Navy bases in Sigonella, Naples, Gaeta (along with a very small submarine service base in Sardegna), and not to mention Nato assets that had Americans forces, and all the books I bought for several years had the inserts. A lot of these servicemen would have relocated to Norfolk, Hawaii, San Diego, or installations like Camp Lejune in North Carolina, very large Marine bases that still employed a lot of Navy personnel. While not large in number, Marines also provided security at Navy installations (as they did on Naval Ships and Consulants).

 

As I said in the other thread, while obviously talking about a very small group of people at a very specific time, kids in my elementary school, and even high school kids used to ritually tear these inserts out of their comics, for reasons that seemed normal then but I can't really recall why now (probably for no other reason that just seeing each other do it).

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Jaydogrules

Jaydogrules

Posted
Posted
The real problem with these inserts is that, if they gain any real market traction, people will simply take them from a common issue, open up the staples, and there you go: variant.

 

Other than ultra high grade (9.6+), it would probably be unnoticeable.

 

Hopefully, then, these don't become valuable, so people don't fiddle with them out of greed.

 

To those interested: I would get them, now, before the above scenario has a chance to come to pass. Yes, I understand the paradox.

 

These things have definitely gained traction especially the last few years. I don't think it would be very hard for CGC to detect that staples have been fiddled with, and even more so that an insert has been added. If they can spot a married cover or centerfold in a low grade GA or SA book, this would be no different, and would probably be even easier. Plus the earlier inserts were coded. (thumbs u

 

-J.

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