sfcityduck

Why?

Jack Kirby is wincing in his grave.

Chuck was the luckiest comic collector/dealer ever. Within a few short years he found the greatest stash of GA comics ever (MH), followed up by the greatest stash of comics ever (MH2). Those are the top two discoveries ever. Bar none.

This thread is my favorite thread of those I started. It would be even better if Bill rejoins us. Hope we see him again. Just great seeing his post!

Some of the books I thought were worthless that I ended up selling for maybe more than I paid for all those late 70s and 80s comics I was buying: Kept the 2 and the 0. Not even submitted. Never found a 1. I ended up buying the box set archive because I like the Usagi stories. Just unread drek to me. Bought because I lived in Oregon and was a Dark Horse completest. I liked Concrete, but who cares about Masque? On the other hand, my Byrne FF run are all killer quality basically pristine unread or read once. But, I'm not even sure they are worth submitting to CGC. I thought they'd be worth something. I'm a GA collector. So let me know if you have any GA you want to get rid of.

I'm amazed at the books I sold and the books I kept. Who knew that Albedo would be worth something? Who knew that I should not have sold Moonknight? Who knew that Predator had an audience? Who knew that Byrne was not king? I could go on and on.

What have you got? GA, SA, BA? P.S. Don't sell to that Bird guy, he called you an Old Guy!

OG? His hair is dark as night!

Great story! I'm hoping you know that probably the best Archive project of them all is dedicated to Barks from Fantagraphics: A must have if you want to keep your comics healthy and be able to read in bed with a bowl of greasy popcorn!

I'm good with a split title on the labels. But, I think of them as Mile Highs.

I hope that FedEx envelope means you're mailing it to me! LOL! That's a great looking copy of a hard book to find in decent grades.

I don't think Chuck was telling any stories about Edgar Church. He was just selling incredible books at incredible premiums. They sold themselves. I'm guessing you saw them early in the process, so I feel potentially foolish having this discussion. The point was that the books were an indicia of quality for other books from the same collection.

The best of them all! Four Color 263 which features a Barks cover, a Barks 1 pager, the monumental 24 page "Land of the Totem Poles," and the equally monumental 24 page "Trail of the Unicorn", then another 1 pager, and another 1 pager! 52 pages of Barks art! Two his best loooong stories! Maybe my favorite comic book. Was part of my dad's collection given to me as a kid. Very hard to find in high grade. Kids must have loved it.

I don't want to call it jealousy or competitive feeling because I don't know Chuck and my experiences buying from him in the late 70s and early 80s were all very good. But, let's face it, Chuck was the luckiest dealer in the history of comic collecting. First, the MH/Church books and then the MH II books. He hit the lottery twice. And by the second time around he'd figured out how to hold on to the winnings and make it work long term. If I were Chuck, I'd still own every book. Chuck is basically the anti-BangZoom on that front. But, if not for him, we'd not see the market we see today. It's the Mile High collection to me and I can't think of a more apt name given that is what it has driven prices in this hobby to become!

Me too. Which is why I just bought a foreign title I had paid no attention to and barely knew existed based on the CGC announcement. A GREAT Carl Barks cover that does not exist in the U.S. (pieced together from interior panels) for one of my absolute favorite Four Color stories:

To try to get acceptance for the WDC&S "subscription variants" I put a WDC&S 137 from my group up for auction. Heritage gave it a nice write-up and it out performed the equally graded file copy by a 62% premium and the guide by a factor of about 14x - which is really good for a duck book. Never going to be called a pedigree, but to my way of thinking just as good: Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #137 (Dell, 1952) CGC NM 9.4 White pages. A subscription copy in Near Mint is a remarkable find indeed! This has an address printed on the back and a different ad from the one that appeared on newsstand editions. Yet it has no subscription crease! Tied with one other copy (which only has off-white pages) for CGC's highest-grade for the issue, this is just the fourth certified copy that we have ever encountered, and is quite possibly the nicest copy of #137 in existence. Carl Barks provided the cover art, and a Donald Duck story and art for this impressive duck-filled issue. Huey, Dewey, and Louie appear. Overstreet 2018 NM- 9.2 value = $215. CGC census 11/18: 2 in 9.4, none higher. This census topping copy from the same collection, however, under performed versus the file copies. I guess some folks don't like date stamps: The only two of those duck books I ever auctioned. Taught me the value of a good write-up.

I have. I cannot confirm the back story. There are Reilly candidates, but none match the wartime valor angle.

So what do you want to call the Cosmic Aeroplane collection? C'mon, all pedigrees have an OO, only a few are named after the OO.

I do agree that provenance, a term I view as more accurate than lineage or pedigree, can add to a comic's desirability. There's something cool about owning a book that used to be owned by a comic industry figure, a notable comic collector or dealer, or even just someone who was famous for some reason (actor, musician, sports franchise owner, etc.). Knowing the chain of ownership can be cool. I'm not sure it adds a ton of value. It may be important to make sure that the title is clear. I can envision a situation where there could be disputes in the future about clear title to valuable comics, if that's what you are cryptically alluding to. Worth noting that all comics, not just "recognized" peds, have had an original owner at some point. Sometimes that can add value for a non-ped. The highest grade comics I have found in the wild were duck comics all owned by a single guy. He kept them in great shape. Amazing things like high grade Four Colors and even WDC&S subscription variants which topped the census over file copies. Not enough to ever be a pedigree and no really big books other than for duck collectors. Just really great copies. And all of the WDC&S had his name and address on them. Which is cool because they came from my home state. An affinity for residents of that state, but probably not others. I keep my eye out for those books. Adds value to me, probably not others. Just like how pleased I was the day I bought a nice copy of an early 60s Avengers which had the name of the owner of local LCS when I was growing up stamped in it. We were on the West Coast, the comic was sold out of NY. Just a fun thing that I would pay more for. But, again, not of general value.

I think that is the backstory for the Mile High pedigree. The story of Edgar Church is somewhat depressing and uninspiring. But the story of how Chuck Rozanski transformed comic collecting is a fascinating part of comic collecting history. Which is why, for me, the Mile High pedigree will always be that, not Church.

Interesting! Wonder if we'll soon see if it comes to market. I guess I should also correct myself: The top three graded and selling Action 1s are all non-peds 9.0 white, 9.0 cream to off-white, and 8.5 white. Looking at them, I'd rank them 9.0 white, 8.5 white, 9.0 cream to off-white.

Again, the cynic in me just views everything said by comic publishers, especially Timely/Marvel, as puffery. The fact they said that there were already 10,000 members, just makes me think the membership cards started with the serial number 10000. Found another interesting set that sold on eBay back in 2016: Handwritten envelope and a membership card numbered 13034. This might support your view that they handwrote when they ran out of type writer ribbon or it might suggest they were both typing and handwriting addresses. Thinking about it, I really doubt that Goodwin (cheap as can be) would have staffed up and bought a bunch of typewriters to send out badges.

I noticed in a 2017 thread on this topic here that "Detective35" bought the Von Hake set from Harry Matesky's collection. He said Harry had "upgraded" the membership card. I think that means that the Von Hake membership card was in Harry's collection and must still exist. It would be helpful to know that membership number.

I interpret that ad the opposite of yours. The cynical attorney who questions witnesses in me views the statement as a classically obtuse way of saying that badges have not yet shipped but will ship soon. It's a recognition of shipping delay. I really doubt that there was an earlier differently designed badge, the best evidence being that none of have ever appeared, and it would have been an unncessary, expensive and delay inducing change. As to your other points, can you post a pic of the house ad in CA 4? I'd read that CA 4 had the right badge pictured. Your question about the Charter and Gold Certificate of Merit is a really good one. I have a vague recollection of reading about them previously. Hakes might know the answer. I'll look around when I have time.

Bill, I'd join the chorus that would like to ask you about your collecting days. To folks here, you are more famous than your talented family members. You amassed a LOT of comics. You mentioned you were the youngest in your immediate crowd. I'm curious if you went to any of the Cons in NYC and if there were other serious collectors your age that you hung out with or bought/traded books with? When we think about the early 60s comic collectors most of us think of older guys like those you mentioned and Don Thompson and Lupoff etc., but I know that there were some other teens like you who also had serious collections. Just curious if you ran across those other "youngsters" and bought and sold with them. And, on the theme of this thread, if you ever heard of Dave Wigransky or of his collection coming up for sale, I'd be ecstatic and surprised. (Some say the full 5,000+ collection was bought by an early mail order dealer named Bill Thailing.)