Gold Key UK Price Variants 2 2

[Get Marwood & I]

Postman Pat, Postman Pat, 

Postman Pat and his black and white cat.

Crashed his van into a tree and received multiple but, thankfully, non life-threatening injuries

 

Anyway, madly successful Golden Key activity lately. It's been very enjoyable. I'll get around to posting them all soon. Two more just this morning to add to the 18 () that arrived in the week 

And another Teen Confessions hiding there!

[Get Marwood & I]

Believe it or not, there are some nice painted covered pence priced Ripley's out there 

Is she playing the piano here do you think? 

The Golden Key Coffers have swollen to unprecedented levels recently. Shame no one gives a  isn't it. 

[Get Marwood & I]

Evening all 

I managed to get both BK 58's.

A lovely glossy cents copy and a shabby pence one. Seems about right. Here they be:

  

So, the differences are:

• Price
• Bottom right cover dressing

Inside...

The same ads and indicia details:

 

The US copy has the FUN CATALOG at the centre (and is pleasingly firm to the touch as a result), the UK copy doesn't.

Good job, given the lack of cover blurb I suppose:

 

The back covers are the same:

 

So what do we learn here?

Well, apart from the obvious, we learn that my camera phone takes terrible pictures.

See you next time for more 'pointless posts about Golden Keys' 

[ADAMANTIUM]

17 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

 

So what do we learn here?

Well, apart from the obvious, we learn that my camera phone takes terrible pictures.

See you next time for more 'pointless posts about Golden Keys' 

 There is a point! it's fun!  

[rakehell]

14 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

The US copy has the FUN CATALOG at the centre (and is pleasingly firm to the touch as a result), the UK copy doesn't.

Similar to the Mark Jewelers inserts that seem to fetch a premium for some strange reason?

Plus also, do all of the cents copies of BK 58 have the insert/corner blurb?

This rabbit hole has many dark and winding passages... 

[Get Marwood & I]

8 hours ago, rakehell said:

Similar to the Mark Jewelers inserts that seem to fetch a premium for some strange reason?

I do like a Mark Jeweler Insert. Nice and firm those books, especially the cardstock ones. But no, these Gold Key FUN CATALOGs aren't really like those Robert. The NDS / MJI's ran for many years and were placed in a small % of newsstand copies targeted at US military bases. The FUN CATALOGs appeared once annually for 3 years running it seems (1972-1974). 

8 hours ago, rakehell said:

Plus also, do all of the cents copies of BK 58 have the insert/corner blurb?

Yes, they do for BK 58 but there are some US priced Gold Key titles that have US copies with and without the FUN CATALOG blurb. None of the UK price variants have them which makes sense as the catalogue was for US buyers only. In each case, the pence copy is missing the blurb - another Boris example below:

8 hours ago, rakehell said:

This rabbit hole has many dark and winding passages... 

I've been down all the pence ones... 

[rakehell]

Grabbed this last week.

A close-up on the important bit - 

Boris looks so suave with his pence bubble. 

[Get Marwood & I]

16 minutes ago, rakehell said:

Boris looks so suave with his pence bubble. 

Noice 

I picked up 3 more Star Treks yesterday at the fair. Two 6p's and an 8p. I'm up to 82 of the confirmed overall 120 UKPVs now. They're getting quite hard to find lately, the Golden Keys of Penceville, especially in high grade.

[rakehell]

17 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

They're getting quite hard to find lately, the Golden Keys of Penceville, especially in high grade.

Makes me think they may have been an even smaller proportion of the overall run. Either that, or the yoof read them to death.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 12/3/2019 at 7:57 AM, rakehell said:

Makes me think they may have been an even smaller proportion of the overall run. Either that, or the yoof read them to death.

To be honest, I've been buying them all up for years and have three warehouses full of them Robert. When I've finished pimping them to oblivion I'm going to flood the market and make a gazillion. 

[rakehell]

2 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

To be honest, I've been buying them all up for years and have three warehouses full of them Robert. When I've finished pimping them to oblivion I'm going to flood the market and make a gazillion. 

I thought I was the only one doing that...

[Get Marwood & I]

[Kevin.J]

Just found a couple of boxes of GK books in one of my rooms today, I will have a look through them this week, I know I am complete with most of the major titles, havent a clue how many are Pence issues 

[Get Marwood & I]

2 minutes ago, Kevin.J said:

Just found a couple of boxes of GK books in one of my rooms today, I will have a look through them this week, I know I am complete with most of the major titles, havent a clue how many are Pence issues 

I haven't found a new pence GK for about 65 years. Let me know if you find any of the 'missing' issues:

I say 'missing' in inverted commas as I don't believe there are any really. Which means you should find one Kevin.

[Kevin.J]

11 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

I haven't found a new pence GK for about 65 years. Let me know if you find any of the 'missing' issues:

I say 'missing' in inverted commas as I don't believe there are any really. Which means you should find one Kevin.

Just had a quick look at your link, I dont collect cartoon books, so Star Trek, Karloff and Ripley with be the only hope, I do have loads of the cartoon stuff but not sat in my collection, that stuff is maybe loft or garage ready for my missus to sort when I am toast

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, Kevin.J said:

Just had a quick look at your link, I dont collect cartoon books, so Star Trek, Karloff and Ripley with be the only hope, I do have loads of the cartoon stuff but not sat in my collection, that stuff is maybe loft or garage ready for my missus to sort when I am toast

That would make a good Agatha Christie style will reading scene.

"And to the missus I leave a sht load of cartoon books in the loft" 

[Get Marwood & I]

Morning 

A nice package arrived today from Pat with this lot in it:

It's a lovely thing isn't it, a gaggle of Golden Pence Keys 

And very uncommon to find them in such bright, clean shape too. A few more ticked off the list and a few upgrades. What's not to like.

I'm not far off a full set now of pence copies and the continuing absence of those issues missing within the potential date run are more or less now cast in cement as gaps by design.

Normally when I say that a new one appears. Wouldn't that be lovely 

See ya.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

These are nice clean copies actually - not structurally high grade but uncommonly bright and white 

This one's quite appropriate for the weather:

 

And looking through the files this previous copy always makes me chuckle. Something about Clouseau's face:

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

A rare event this morning, a new Golden Key 

Over at the Pence Palace (notes 10 & 11) I speculate about the gap patterns and conclude that Tweety & Sylvester #51 should exist as a pence copy - here's the old table, arrowed to show:

On-off, on-off....

Sure enough, up she pops finally in a grotty eBay lot:

I won't be bidding on this one, at that price, but it's nice to know that my theory was right and to see this missing piece of the jigsaw finally fall into place. I'm sure another copy will turn up one day for me to snaffle (not far off a full pence set now).

That makes 121 confirmed Golden Pence Keys now - splendid 

For the small group that care, or as they're sometimes otherwise called, 'Marwood & I', that's a cool thing indeed. 

See ya. 

[Get Marwood & I]

Afternoon Goldies 

I don't post many updates in this thread as it's clear few people are interested. Which is fair enough. This here post is likely to be the last GK update but not out of any petulance triggered by that lack of interest I should add. No, this is more more because I have finally found the missing piece of the Gold Key Pence jigsaw and our research for that publisher may therefore be at an end.

Here it is, finally, Tweety & Sylvester #42, priced seven pee:

Yay!

This book is the second from last book that I needed to find, to be able to state with near 100% confidence that there will only ever be 122, or 123 Gold Key Pence copies.

Let me explain. Take a look at the updated table for the known 8 pence titles (click to enlargivate - it's in two sections):

From cover date March 1973, when the pence copies commence, a pence copy can be found for every issue of every title except Star Trek all the way up to June 1974 with the exception of Road Runner #35, the first eligible issue in that title, which I think is likely to exist, or may have just missed the opening printing event cut. From July 1974, eligible pence copies begin to show as absent.

Ignoring Star Trek again, all the other seven titles from cover date December 1973 have a month on / month off pence existence pattern. Each missing pence month is either the result of there being no US copy produced to mirror, or because no pence copy has been found. The overriding pattern is a month on / month off pence copy appearance position. Accordingly, I feel I can say with some confidence that, Road Runner #35 aside, every pence copy has now been found. The pattern is striking, clear and consistent and strongly implies intended design. 

There is always a fly in the ointment though, and that fly is Star Trek which is the only title with an out of sequence pattern (compared to its pence peer titles). Star Trek seems to have its own unique two on / one off pence pattern, in the latter stages, for reasons unknown. But that title has been researched exhaustively by others as well as me so I believe the pence numbers are correct.

Obviously, I will keep looking, but I suspect that we may find that 122 is the final figure with only RR#35 possibly pushing it up to 123, which would be a nice sequential number wouldn't it.

As ever, I prepare myself for the Universe to correct me instantaneously! 

If you are reading, and care, I hope this made sense.

See ya!