High grade specimens like the Caps you and Jimbo posted are the exception rather than the rule. The Cookeville collection was certainly large enough and vintage enough to qualify as a pedigree, but the vast majority of the copies I've seen are in the VG to VF range. In fact, Overstreet used the Marvel Tales #93 I posted earlier as an example of a VG+ book in the First Edition of his Comic Book Grading Guide.
Here's my only book from the Cookeville collection:
On the subject as to what constitutes a collection versus a Pedigree....according to Borock quantity was never the issue. I asked him specifically as to why the Williamsport collection was not considered a pedigree. There was a vast run of high grade books from the 50's with many books grading well above 9.0. They were bought off the stands by the father. Borock insisted that the #1 issues needed to be in very high grade. The early issues in the Williamsport collection (purchased by the father) were well read and the issues were given relatively low grades. The son continued to buy the books but never read any leaving a very high grade comic collection. Thus, Borock insisted, it's a collection and with the dearth of high grade 1's couldn't be considered a pedigree.