The Distribution of US Published Comics in the UK (1959~1982) 15 15

[themagicrobot]

I won the Lois Lane 83 with the 9d price sticker on eBay a few weeks ago for a cheap price because I wanted to take a closer look at it. It has a reduced sale price sticker but doesn't appear to have a 1/- ink stamp that I can see. Usually sale price comics were ones that had already been round the block and been returned to T&P. The seller in their infinite wisdom decided to back out from my purchase and refunded me and kept the comic. Once again my faith in human nature was sorely tested.

Edited March 18, 2023 by themagicrobot

[Malacoda]

On 3/18/2023 at 7:13 PM, themagicrobot said:

I won the Lois Lane 83 with the 9d price sticker on eBay a few weeks ago for a cheap price because I wanted to take a closer look at it. It has a reduced sale price sticker but doesn't appear to have a 1/- ink stamp that I can see. Usually sale price comics were ones that had already been round the block and been returned to T&P. The seller in their infinite wisdom decided to back out from my purchase and refunded me and kept the comic. Once again my faith in human nature was sorely tested.

Very interesting.  The fact that it has the unusual sticker AND no stamp can't be a coincidence. Maybe it was one-off bin-end put out ages late with some re-circulated returns. Imagine if we actually had to build a theory that included & encompassed ALL the mad randos. 

[Malacoda]

Speaking of which, have we seen this one before? 

[OtherEric]

On 3/18/2023 at 12:27 PM, Malacoda said:

Very interesting.  The fact that it has the unusual sticker AND no stamp can't be a coincidence. Maybe it was one-off bin-end put out ages late with some re-circulated returns. Imagine if we actually had to build a theory that included & encompassed ALL the mad randos. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory

[themagicrobot]

There just has to be some order in the universe but I've yet to see any. For example @Malacoda has a Marvel Tales for 1/6 but for Galactus sake that comic should have been sold for 1/9.

[Malacoda]

Here's another one for your collection, and, like your Lois Lane, please note that the 1/6 sticker does not mark down a previous 1/9 price as far as I can see. 

And still they come.....

[Albert Tatlock]

Another couple of Dells.

Wagon Train as a regular UKPV, the other one has a handwritten one shilling price, not in a childish hand, so presumably by the shopkeeper preparatory to laying it and its companions out on his shelf.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/18/2023 at 10:31 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

the other one has a handwritten one shilling price, not in a childish hand, so presumably by the shopkeeper preparatory to laying it and its companions out on his shelf....

...missing the fact that it already had a printed shilling price....

[Albert Tatlock]

On 3/16/2023 at 6:16 PM, Malacoda said:

That's a really cool find, Albert.  I mean, we know from countless anecdotal accounts (not least your own) that they were SOR, but there it is in print. The Smoking Gun. 

I would say that the 6d triangles are all smoking guns.

They suggest that the comics came in, were stamped 9d and were sent out, then later were returned unsold, with some of them, at least, recirculated at a reduced price.

The only other scenario would be that they were stamped 9d and not sent out, until after they had been repriced.

But why pay people to stamp them and then let them languish for months or even years in storage without any attempt to distribute them? I am sure that these were recycled after they failed to sell.

I wonder what is the oldest example of the triangle. Surely Pat Boone # 1.

But we do not know how long it was in storage for. Could have been only a couple of months, or over 10 years, until decimalisation.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:09 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

.missing the fact that it already had a printed shilling price....

But an easily overlooked one. I missed it myself until your post.

Better safe than sorry.

And maybe there were others in the same delivery with only a cents price which needed pricing up.

A job like that becomes just a blur, as we know from the frequent T & P stamping of already UKPV printed examples.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Albert Tatlock
add 1 line

[Redshade]

On 3/19/2023 at 12:46 AM, Redshade said:

I just saw this on a FB page and if for no reason other than to show that I am still of this mortal coil I thought that I'd post it here.

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by Redshade

[Malacoda]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:20 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

And maybe there were others in the same delivery with only a cents price which needed pricing up.

Without doubt, you're right. US comics with an actual printed pence price were still a rarity (or maybe novelty is a better word).  We're in 1961 here.  Supes & Bats are standing at the back of the JLA like parents at a school disco, Stan is writing a new resignation letter every week, Jack has returned to the Bullpen but is not happy about it (though you can say that about most years) and Martin Goodman is just wondering if he can get a round of golf in before lunch.

I didn't spot the 1/- either until Hawkeye pointed it out.  It looks like a design on the tail fin.  Newsy McNewsagent might also have written the price to remind him that this cost the astounding sum of one shilling, not ninepence (which itself was a price likely to induce a Cary Grant style double take). 

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/19/2023 at 12:48 AM, Redshade said:

I just saw this on a FB page and if for no reason other than to show that I am still of this mortal coil I thought that I'd post it here.

 

Nice. I love a stamp fight 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:20 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

And maybe there were others in the same delivery with only a cents price which needed pricing up.

I don't think so Albert, for Dell if that's what you mean, as the printed UKPVs ended in mid-1961 and the T&P stamped cents copies don't kick in until mid-1962. There appears to be a transition period which I'll post about one day in the Dell thread with a proliferation of a certain unbranded stamp type and of course there are lots of miscellaneous stamps and stickers to be found out there in numbers too low to indicate anything systematic. But I don't think Ethel would ever have had Dell UKPVs and cents copies in front of her at the same time. The same goes for UK shopkeepers I think, if extant copies with discernible UK markings on are anything to go by.

[Malacoda]

On 3/19/2023 at 12:48 AM, Redshade said:

I just saw this on a FB page and if for no reason other than to show that I am still of this mortal coil I thought that I'd post it here.

 

 

On 3/19/2023 at 11:57 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Nice. I love a stamp fight 

Not technically a stamp fight, but I've always enjoyed this one. A UK PV overstamped with Redshade's 6D stamp, but also scrawled on (re-priced?) with a biro at some point in between as well.  Steve, I associate this 6D stamp with Millers, which makes Redshade's Detective comic look like one that was distributed by T&P, not sold and returned to Millers by accident.  Or am I just making stuff up now? 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/19/2023 at 5:42 PM, Malacoda said:

 

Not technically a stamp fight, but I've always enjoyed this one. A UK PV overstamped with Redshade's 6D stamp, but also scrawled on (re-priced?) with a biro at some point in between as well.  Steve, I associate this 6D stamp with Millers, which makes Redshade's Detective comic look like one that was distributed by T&P, not sold and returned to Millers by accident.  Or am I just making stuff up now? 

 

Yes, it's an unbranded Miller stamp. I do like a Miller vs T&P stamped comic.

[Redshade]

On 3/18/2023 at 7:13 PM, themagicrobot said:

I won the Lois Lane 83 with the 9d price sticker on eBay a few weeks ago for a cheap price because I wanted to take a closer look at it. It has a reduced sale price sticker but doesn't appear to have a 1/- ink stamp that I can see. Usually sale price comics were ones that had already been round the block and been returned to T&P. The seller in their infinite wisdom decided to back out from my purchase and refunded me and kept the comic. Once again my faith in human nature was sorely tested.

It's probably my short-sightedness but I can't see a reduced price sticker but I can see the T&P 1/- stamp by Supes's left elbow.

[Malacoda]

On 3/20/2023 at 12:36 PM, Redshade said:

It's probably my short-sightedness but I can't see a reduced price sticker but I can see the T&P 1/- stamp by Supes's left elbow.

It was on the previous posting, so the Robot posted the 1/- stamp to illustrate the norm vs this....

[Redshade]

On 3/20/2023 at 5:10 PM, Malacoda said:

It was on the previous posting, so the Robot posted the 1/- stamp to illustrate the norm vs this....

 

My fault for not paying attention. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 3/19/2023 at 12:10 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

for Dell if that's what you mean, as the printed UKPVs ended in mid-1961 and the T&P stamped cents copies don't kick in until mid-1962.

Ta very much. This is the sort of info that would take forever to glean by myself, so my heartfelt gratitude for the advance footslogging that has made the trail so much easier to traverse.

Only sorry that the Wagon train I posted was not one of the remaining two that have proved themselves reluctant to emerge from the undergrowth, but one day, no doubt, they will be tracked down and given their 15 minutes of fame.