In the past, you may have heard about “Mark Jewelers Inserts” And thought to yourself, “what on earth is that?”. It’s not an unreasonable question, as they are somewhat rare.
Mark Jewelers was a jewelry store aimed towards Armed Service members offering rings, (Both Marital and regarding the military), and other random jewelry-related items. They would buy comic ads and would usually be printed on a nice cardstock with perforated edges to easily tear out of the book. The inserts are so thick, you can sometimes see them just by looking at the top of the book.
So, what makes these so special? The scarcity. These books were typically only stocked at or near shops on military bases. It’s said that even at the height of their print run, it was 5% or less of the market for main title books. This creates not only a printing scarcity, but it’s likely that most of these books didn’t make it off the base in good shape, or at all.
Pricing them can be tricky, But we would highly recommend picking them up if you ever find one! Check out our video on the topic for more information.