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Mark Jeweler variants in DC Comics
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145 posts in this topic

The thing about these inserts is you don't ever know if a comic with the insert exists or not.  There no definitive catalogue of which comics had them or not.  Makes the search more interesting but also makes it even more frustrating as well.

Jim

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10 minutes ago, awe4one said:

The thing about these inserts is you don't ever know if a comic with the insert exists or not.  There no definitive catalogue of which comics had them or not.  Makes the search more interesting but also makes it even more frustrating as well.

Jim

.....and on the flip side, you can make a construct of one in an issue that 'doesn't have one'. The pgx graded ASM 121 was the worst one I ever saw......

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13 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

.....and on the flip side, you can make a construct of one in an issue that 'doesn't have one'. The pgx graded ASM 121 was the worst one I ever saw......

Well...that's immoral.  Don't get me started. :smile:

Jim

Edited by awe4one
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1 minute ago, awe4one said:

Well...that's immoral.  Don't get me started.

Jim

Shall I dig out the 121 pictures? Looks like a 4 year old made it lol

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11 minutes ago, awe4one said:

Well...that's immoral.  Don't get me started. :smile:

Jim

 

:roflmao:

58c419d09a7b5_121MJI.PNG.43bc1ea705384b7e144ac379654646c8.PNG.5a0ca283ee98fd31de9030f8b78d2976.PNG

Edited by Get Marwood & I
Low ceilings
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1 hour ago, awe4one said:

I have a Black Magic #8 (Mar '75) with the insert.

Jim

yes, good point and thanks for pointing that out.  I've got Black Magic 8 jeweler variant too.   The Black Magic 8 is dated Feb/March 1975 even though the cover says "March" with the square box around it.    It was released at the same time as other issues that only had Feb 1975 in the indicia (for example, Action 444, for which I have a copy with the jeweler insert).

I have to give a shout out to "Mike Amazing world of Comics" for the newsstand feature of that website.   It really makes looking things up like this very easy.

I should have said "We will never see a DC containing the jeweler insert if it has an indicia date of solely March 1975"

Edited by Cpt Kirk
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1 hour ago, Get Marwood & I said:

 

:roflmao:

That was a great thread back in 2011.  I recall seeing when I was first trying to figure out DC jeweler variants.  I was amazed at the info that was compiled by Jim, and I thought "Since no one has done that for DC jeweler variants, then maybe I need to do that".   I believe I have the most complete database for inserts in Batman, Detective, Superman, Action and JLA.  I've found anywhere from 96% to 94% of all possible inserts for those titles.  For example, in the title of Batman I'm only missing evidence of the jeweler variant on Batman 245, 283, 324, 326, 376 and 390.   Would love to hear if anyone every finds those, and I'm glad to share my database with anyone who wants it.

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20 hours ago, Cpt Kirk said:

That was a great thread back in 2011.  I recall seeing when I was first trying to figure out DC jeweler variants.  I was amazed at the info that was compiled by Jim, and I thought "Since no one has done that for DC jeweler variants, then maybe I need to do that".   I believe I have the most complete database for inserts in Batman, Detective, Superman, Action and JLA.  I've found anywhere from 96% to 94% of all possible inserts for those titles.  For example, in the title of Batman I'm only missing evidence of the jeweler variant on Batman 245, 283, 324, 326, 376 and 390.   Would love to hear if anyone every finds those, and I'm glad to share my database with anyone who wants it.

I tried to get enough DCs to expand on the MJI inserts but frankly never was able to get enough of them to feel comfortable putting them on my website.  When I was stationed overseas, MJIs were plentiful when going to local shows but most all were Marvels.  DCs were harder to find.  I guess Marvels sold much better than DCs.  Even when I bought a ton from a local German dealer who bought overstock from AAFES back in day, almost all his stock were Marvels.  No DCs to be found. Which makes your quest pretty damn impressive. :applause:

Jim

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23 hours ago, awe4one said:

The thing about these inserts is you don't ever know if a comic with the insert exists or not.  There no definitive catalogue of which comics had them or not.  Makes the search more interesting but also makes it even more frustrating as well.

Jim

Nice seeing you post Jim! :hi:

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On 6/12/2018 at 1:25 PM, awe4one said:

I tried to get enough DCs to expand on the MJI inserts but frankly never was able to get enough of them to feel comfortable putting them on my website.  When I was stationed overseas, MJIs were plentiful when going to local shows but most all were Marvels.  DCs were harder to find.  I guess Marvels sold much better than DCs.  Even when I bought a ton from a local German dealer who bought overstock from AAFES back in day, almost all his stock were Marvels.  No DCs to be found. Which makes your quest pretty damn impressive. :applause:

Jim

Thanks Jim.   I'm up to 610 MJs in the titles of Batman, Detective, Superman, Action and JLA.   Always willing to share my list with anyone and would love to see what others have found in these titles.  My email address is kwticknor@aol.com

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On 6/11/2018 at 4:36 PM, Cpt Kirk said:

That was a great thread back in 2011.  I recall seeing when I was first trying to figure out DC jeweler variants.  I was amazed at the info that was compiled by Jim, and I thought "Since no one has done that for DC jeweler variants, then maybe I need to do that".   I believe I have the most complete database for inserts in Batman, Detective, Superman, Action and JLA.  I've found anywhere from 96% to 94% of all possible inserts for those titles.  For example, in the title of Batman I'm only missing evidence of the jeweler variant on Batman 245, 283, 324, 326, 376 and 390.   Would love to hear if anyone every finds those, and I'm glad to share my database with anyone who wants it.

Shortly after this post a Batman 283 jeweler variant popped up on ebay and I managed to win it.  Now I am down to 5 Batman issues that should have the insert, but I've never seen them:   namely 245, 324, 326, 376 and 390.

There are about 40 issues among the titles of Batman, TEC, Superman, Action and JLA for which I know there's a jeweler variant but I don't have it in my collection.   So I'm doing an experiment on ebay.  So far I have asked about 200 different sellers of those individual issue if they copy of one of those issues contains a jeweler insert.  For example, I asked Quality Comix if their issue of Batman 288 contained an insert.  Of the 200 asked so far, I found one issue that contained an insert.   I try to hit each seller only once so as not to be a pain in the neck.  I'm amazed at the number of sellers out there.  It seems like only roughly half of them know about the existence of the Mark Jewelers advertising inserts.

Edited by Cpt Kirk
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I just browsed this thread for the first time, so forgive me if I missed something, but would every issue containing the MJ insert have the star on the cover? I know my Batman 309 has both insert and star. On the other hand, I have a World’s Finest 216 that has the insert, but I don’t remember ever noticing a star.

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On 6/28/2018 at 12:48 PM, Paul_Maul said:

I just browsed this thread for the first time, so forgive me if I missed something, but would every issue containing the MJ insert have the star on the cover? I know my Batman 309 has both insert and star. On the other hand, I have a World’s Finest 216 that has the insert, but I don’t remember ever noticing a star.

Thanks for bringing this up.   I have about 700 DC issues with the jeweler insert, and it seems like only 10 percent of them have a star.    Mark Jewelers expert awe4one says he's seen lots of comic books with the star on them, but they did not have the insert.   The star was something that AAFES (i.e. military) store clerks seemed to place on the comic books when they were sold.  So the presence of a star is a good indicator that the comic book would contain the insert (I believe the inserts were made exclusively for military PX's overseas, and therefore if it had a star on it there is a decent chance it had the jeweler insert since quite a few PX's are overseas).

Edited by Cpt Kirk
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On ‎6‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 8:47 PM, Cpt Kirk said:

Thanks for bringing this up.   I have about 700 DC issues with the jeweler insert, and it seems like only 10 percent of them have a star.    Mark Jewelers expert awe4one says he's seen lots of comic books with the star on them, but they did not have the insert.   The star was something that AAFES (i.e. military) store clerks seemed to place on the comic books when they were sold.  So the presence of a star is a good indicator that the comic book would contain the insert (I believe the inserts were made exclusively for military PX's overseas, and therefore if it had a star on it there is a decent chance it had the jeweler insert since quite a few PX's are overseas).

No.  Not all comics with the inserts have a star stamp.  But if you see a star stamp on the comic then there's a good chance the comic has an insert.  Real good chance.  And it not just a star stamp. If I ever get to the collection, I'll post pics of other stamps that were used.  Usually with the name of the base they were bought.

Jim

Edited by awe4one
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1 hour ago, awe4one said:

No.  Not all comics with the inserts have a star stamp.  But if you see a star stamp on the comic then there's a good chance the comic has an insert.  Real good chance.  And it not just a star stamp. If I ever get to the collection, I'll post pics of other stamps that were used.  Usually with the name of the base they were bought.

Jim

yes I encountered the same thing.   Some of them from Japan seemed to have a unique stamp.

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20 hours ago, AbdulAlhazred said:

FWIW, After looking through my small run of Justice League books a few times, I finally noticed that the 190 has the MJI. Anybody else? I can't find one for sale anywhere.

 

Yes, I have a JLA 190 with jeweler insert.   Thanks for letting me know.  In that time frame, they can be hard to find.   

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I think the reason you can't find the ones in the 1973 editions is that comics were in a weird price transition. Marvel especially. I was 14 years old and an avid collector of Marvel, but I was a Kirby fan first and foremost so the Forth World series was the holy grail for me. I bought all 4 titles: Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, Mister Miracle and Forever People each month and had a complete collection beginning in 1970 and ending in early 1974...I remember the price jump from 15 to 25 cents and then back to 20 was very controversial back then. Believe it or not, but 25 cents an issue was a big jump for those days and for kids like me that cut into the comic budget, big time....Marvel sales plummeted and they cut their stories from 19 to 18 pages and lowered the price down a nickel. DC kept theirs at a quarter and added reprints as filler. It was okay, they were mostly golden age Simon and Kirby stories that kids like me could never afford ( even back in the days before comics crossed the magic 500 dollar mark that a good copy of Action 1 or Batman 1 went for...) My friends and I just had to hustle a little harder at the paper route or now a few more lawns to come up with the cash....Kirby comics couldn't be missed! :)

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