DanCooper

I took a look at the Heritage and ComicConnect auction archives to see what auction history the book has had. Heritage's archives looks to have three CGC copies/sales (a 3.5, 4.0 and an Apparent /restored 6.0) ComicConnect had a CGC 3.5 and the BIG enchilada of all - the Mile High 9.6 below! Interesting that the last time the book showed up in either auction in any grade was nearly a decade ago - 2013.

For the Golden Age aficionados - the "#1" of Action Comics: (OH, the WHITE PAGES!) And, hopefully, one day CGC will start grading dealers!

HA! That's OK Mick. A high grade collector like yourself, who has been involved with many pedigree collections over time, may lose track of which pedigree copy is which! The collector was Fred K. from California. Fred bought the Mohawk Valley lot from Sotheby's that had an unusual combination of a high grade Adventure 247 (I believe it eventually graded out to a CGC 9.2 years later) along with a run of Brave & Bolds from around issues 37-62. Fred was only interested in keeping the Adventure 247 and sold the Brave & Bolds at that San Diego Comic Con. Nice guy Fred, who was buying a bunch of high end Silver Age at high prices back then. Like many, did not stay long and left the hobby. Probably the reason you are remembering Big Dan Greenhalgh of Showcase New England fame, is because I believe it was at that same San Diego Con that Dan intentionally tore in half a high grade copy of The Shadow #1 (DC one - 70s Kaluta) in front of you after you were discussing it with him! Ahhh, the characters and collections we have met over time, in this hobby of ours!

Hi Mick! Didn't you also have the Mohawk Valley copy of BB 52 at one point? See here: https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/87136-brave-and-the-bold-collecting-thread/?do=findComment&comment=6216888 The only reason I also remember it fondly, I was at the San Diego con when you got it from a collector, who had bought a Mohawk run at Sotheby's, and it was like the soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima in victory!

The "Microsoft Copy"?? Gotta love these marketing gimmicks! It wasn't good enough that this was already the Bethlehem copy and in its defined pedigree slab/label as such! Heritage does the same thing. There was a thread recently in Comics General on a "Kane Collection" and it's provenance/story. Not much further info came out of that. I don't mind the additional historical info. It's great to know the origin/provenance of a book, but these auction houses don't provide any additional background. I don't get physical copies any longer of auction catalogs, so I don't know if it these are expanded upon there.

This one?

https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/453388-why-isnt-captain-america-100-white-border-title-variant/#comments

I don't know when you started this Showcase quest you are on, but the Newsboy Showcase 17 was up for auction in November 2020 and sold at Heritage for $26,400. It also sold originally at Heritage in 2009 for $9,560.

You will probably enjoy the hunt and thrill of putting together the Showcase run in 9.0+ from issues 25-104. These issues will take some digging, but should be obtainable if you stick with it. Showcase 1-24 in 9.0+ is going to be a totally different story. It's going to require time, patience, resources and luck to complete. First, on the resources side. The current Overstreet guide value for the Showcase 1-24 run in 9.0 is around $272,000. That would probably be what dealers are willing to pay for those issues, if they could find them in CGC 9.0. Showcase 4 and 22 in 9.0 would probably be near that figure alone together, if found in 9.0. On the time, patience and luck aspects - if a long time, high grade DC collector's collection comes to market in the next few years, that could be an opportunity to get a bunch of issues in grade together. The problem is, in the last 30 years or so, I've only seen two collections that have produced a run of early Showcases in grade. One was the Bethlehem collection, which yielded some high grade copies (a Showcase 4 in CGC 9.0) and the other was probably the definitive early Showcase collection, that Mike Goldman of Motor City Comics found in the early 1990s, dubbed the "Newsboy Collection". The "Newsboy Collection" had Showcase issues 1-8, 10-17 and 20, all in high grade. It took Mike about 15 years to let go of them (as a dealer no less!) and that was in 2009 at a Heritage auction. The "Newsboy" yielded the high grade Showcase 4 in CGC 9.6. Some issues, from that original run, have appeared in Heritage auctions over the last couple of years, but that amounts to another decade plus of waiting for an opportunity to obtain. Hence, the time and patience angle. Also, prices for these "Newsboy" issues were up there - (i.e. Showcase 13 - $38,400 in CGC 9.2, Showcase 17 - $26,400 in 9.0, Showcase 15 - $16,800 in 9.2, Showcase 1 - $10,200 in 9.0, to give examples of recent high grade Showcase prices compared to guide) One suggestion, on the Showcase 1-24 part of the run, is to lower grade standards to 8.0 (or even 7.5). It will still take some time, patience and resources, but would probably produce a more realistic time frame to complete the run and have at least VF copies and above. It would still be a complete Showcase run that would be hard to beat! I wish the best on this endeavor! It will be enjoyable watching the hunt here!

Hi. This (see link) is what CGC posted on Baltimore a couple of weeks ago. I imagine if they were doing on site grading, that would have been highlighted there. Backlogging and turn arounds, on the home front, are probably preventing doing any on site grading for now https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/10729/baltimore-comic-con/

Sorry to carry on the Carvel conversation in this Addams Family comic thread, but.... The very first Carvel store was in Hartsdale, NY - just a stones throw from the infamous Fantazia/Danny Dupcak comic/baseball card shop of the 1980s. Both were on the same block (Central Avenue)! Legend has it that Tom Carvel got a flat tire on his ice cream truck at that location and decided to sell the ice cream on the truck while it was melting. The melted, soft ice cream was a hit and sold fast, so he decided to open his first Carvel at that Hartsdale location where he got the flat tire. When life deals you lemons, you make lemonade...or soft ice cream...or Eastern Color File copies!

Yes, I've been called a real Dumb B****** many, many times in my life!

Always good to re-post Valiantman's/Greg's tremendous research list of CGC 9.9/10 data whenever one of these "in the wilds" 9.9/10s come up in conversations like this: http://cgcdata.com/cgc/cgc99/

This was the article in Scoop, from July 2004, when the collector beat Ian to punch and finished her DC collection: A private collector in the northeastern United States has accomplished the astounding and unprecedented feat of assembling a complete collection of every comic book ever published by DC Comics. For those of you who have trouble visualizing the enormity of the task, that's over 30,000 individual comic books! Amazingly, with the exception of a small handful of items toward the end of the quest, this collection was achieved the old-fashioned way with a lot of legwork and mileage, scouring comic shows and stores large and small from coast to coast. Almost no Internet usage was involved in assembling this amazing collection. The collector, who has chosen to remain anonymous at this time, started on the road to this accomplishment in 1970, when it was decided on whim, to accumulate all the back issues of all the DC superhero comics. Subsequently at the San Diego ComiCon (as it was then known) in 1987, with the superhero titles virtually completed, the collector had reached a crossroads. "What do I do once my primary collecting goal has been achieved?" was the basic gist of the discussion, a situation many collectors have faced. At the urging of the staff of the now-defunct Sparkle City Comics, the collector chose to expand the parameters of the collection to include all of the comic books ever published by DC. For 5 years, until its dissolution in 1992, Sparkle City served as the main conduit, funneling vintage DC Comics into the collector's hands. With their heavy annual show schedule, the company was able to easily connect with other dealers and private collectors throughout the country in order acquire needed items. A dedicated band of fellow collectors and other supportive dealers also actively participated in the hunt over the years. It was common practice at the beginning of a major convention for the hunters to congregate at the Sparkle City table for copies of the latest want list update, before fanning out into the dealers room. In early 1992, Mike Wilbur of Diamond International Galleries and Alan Grobman (both then of Sparkle City) entered the ranks of the select few who have personally seen the collection. They spent three weeks that winter at the collector's house. Day after day, from morning until after midnight, they flipped through a seemingly endless succession of boxes, as they checked, verified and toke notes. Complete runs of Action, Adventure, All Star, Batman, Detective, More Fun, Sensation, Superman, and other titles both well-known and obscure passed through their hands as the weeks progressed. From early rarities like Big Book of Fun Comics and New Fun Comics up through the Golden and Silver Ages to then-current titles, the main core of the DC collection was there. All that remained at that point was to finish filling in the fringes with the rest of the war, western, romance, mystery, and humor titles. Ongoing new releases were covered through a long-standing arrangement with a local comic shop. "It was an almost surreal experience," Wilbur said, "just box after box of books that most collectors can only dream of seeing." Among the more esoteric items in the collection is the two-volume set of Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, published by DC in 1978. With a print run of only 35 copies, these books contain stories left over following the infamous "DC Implosion." Printed for copyright purposes, these were distributed internally to creators whose work it featured. The collector's copy was acquired from The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's publisher Bob Overstreet. Included with the books is a cover letter to Overstreet from then-DC Editor Mike Gold, detailing the information for the Guide. "I remember [the collector] spent a lot of time visiting when we were still down in Tennessee," recalled Overstreet, "I sold [the collector] an Action Comics #1 and a few other things." The almost final book in the collection was the romance title Girls' Love Stories #56, a nothing-in-particular issue of a nothing-special title that was simply frustratingly difficult to locate. Acquired in late 2002, this was thought to be the end of the long road, until the discovery of the obscure Golden Age DC comic, the Fat and Slat Joke Book. Once this additional piece became known, a copy was acquired within a couple of months, in early 2003. Since the assembly of the collection was primarily a labor of love and not a search for glory, the collector had chosen to avoid the limelight. However, in light of the historical importance of the achievement, the collector did acknowledge to Scoop that "The First Complete DC Collection" was a reality. The collector would like to extend personal thanks to Joe Vereneault of JHV Associates, Alan Grobman, Gene Carpenter of All-American Comics, fellow collector Mike Dalessandro and Wilbur, with special mentions also going to Joe Mannarino, John Verzyl of Comic Heaven, Mike Goldman of Motor City Comics, Ron Pussell of Redbeard's Book Den, Harley Yee, Richard Evans of Bedrock City Comics, Rob Ronin, Michelle Nolan, and Nostalgia Zone of Minnesota for their assistance, support, and encouragement.

What's on your newsstand? - June 1962: http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?type=calendar&month=6&year=1962

As Bruce mentioned in his intro, he was part of the Sotheby's grading committees back in the 1990s (pre-CGC era). Bruce was a strict (and accurate!) grader back in the day as evident by his grading of the White Mountain copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 when Sotheby's auctioned it off (see below - "Edwards" grade of "94". CGC eventually graded it 9.4). A heckuva nice guy also! Welcome back to the boards and the States, Bruce! (PS - Carter is still around living life in Coronado)

This 9.2 Showcase 8 in today's Heritage's auction was in last June's Heritage auction and sold for $31,200. When it was listed last June, Heritage also noted the following in the description: "Please note that there is a very small chip out of the bottom left corner of the CGC holder that does not affect the integrity of the book." That note has been omitted from this auction, this time. The copy is from the high grade Showcase run that Mike Goldman (Motor City Comics) discovered in the 1990s (dubbed the "Newsboy Collection" and the same collection that produced the Showcase 4 in CGC 9.6) When Heritage originally auctioned off the Showcases direct from Mike in 2008 (THIRD time's a charm at Heritage!), I remember the boards here pointing out the front cover creasing and that the book wasn't a 9.2 in the best light or days.

So RARE to see a full head shot of The Flash on a Showcase 8! Most copies get cut off at the edge. This one is right on!

Fascinating discovery in relationship to the Comics Code Authority affiliation! (thanks again for sharing this, Albert!) I don't know if anything has been written on how the Comics Code Authority actually monitored/reviewed things after the Code went live in early 1955. I know Heritage Auctions had some Code Authority historical documents in an auction this past November, but I don't know if any of the literature addressed monitoring/reviewing books. From the looks of things, the dates on the card/books seemed to indicate a short time prior as to when the books were received/reviewed by the Comics Code Authority versus when actually on the newsstands (about a week or so prior. Example - the Showcase 4 is dated June 29th, 1956 on the splash page stamp. Newsstand date is around July 5th, 1956) I don't know how CGC would treat the CCA provenance or file copy status. As alluded to earlier, Silver Age "file copy" status comes under great scrutiny, based on all the bogus Marvel/DC file copies that Fantazia (Dupcak) flooded the market with in the 1980s-90s. If the Showcase 4 checks out with no restoration on it, and having the rest of the books you purchased from Darvin as examples with CCA notes and stamps, that could give your Showcase 4 extra value for provenance (even if CGC won't recognize it as a file copy or CCA affiliation). Still, a great story and find! Thanks again!

Very interesting backstory. Thanks for sharing. I imagine Leonard Darvin was still at the Comics Code Authority when you met him at the Seuling show. What other books did you pick up from the CCA's files? Can you post an example of one of the index cards you mention, if you have one? Thanks again for posting and replying.

Cool book. Do you mind sharing the backstory on how it was acquired and is there any further documentation of its Comics Code Authority provenance/roots?

Hi Tim, Thanks for pointing out that the original article got disabled from Medium. Hopefully, this archived one will work (and stay!). The unfortunate thing is it looks like the pictures from the original article may be missing from this archived one. Here is that White Mountain article (below) Thanks again, Mike https://web.archive.org/web/20201spam2533/https://medium.com/the-history-of-collecting/the-making-of-the-white-mountain-pedigree-of-silver-age-comics-7430c7f3ef51

Hi Kaitlin! And welcome to the boards! It's a RARE treat to get a family member talk about a legendary collector! Thank you. In the book "Comics Between The Panels" (by Steve Duin & Mike Richardson) your grandfather is not mentioned by name (this was in 1998) but in writing about the White Mountain comic collection, the following story was relayed that Jerry Weist told when your grandfather was interested in first selling his books - "The owner of the books, Weist soon learned, had inherited the collector's passion from his father, who hoarded antique cars. The son emulated the father: he was really meticulous. He placed his comics into these metal storage boxes back in the '50s. Even as a kid, he never cracked the spine. The comics never went into bags." It looks like collecting ran in your family with both your grandfather and great grandfather! And we, as a hobby, have to thank them for the care they took in preserving things! True custodians! Again, welcome to the boards!

Of the Big 3 comics auction houses (Heritage, ComicConnect and ComicLink) only ComicConnect has used the extended bidding process. Their terms: "Any new bid placed during the final 3 minutes of a given auction lot will extend the lot's end-time in an increment of 3 minutes from the time the bid was placed" Heritage is traditional style auctioneer back and forth bidding ComicLink is technically ebay-style bidding (last bid when clock runs out) ComicConnect is a concept I first saw used in comics auctions by Jon Warren in the 1990s, with his American Collectibles Exchange auctions. It was a concept used by some various collectibles outlets conducting auctions, in the pre-internet era of phone auctions

With all due respect (and I know you are a passionate collector!) Sugar and Spike #1 can't compare to Showcase #1. Sugar and Spike #1 is a book. A great book that is, to a great series! But, Showcase #1 spawned the Silver Age and is more than a book: Showcase 4 (First Silver Age Flash and the beginning of an era/history/Silver Age) Showcase 6 (Challengers and it's Kirby/Fantastic Four connections and eventual series) Showcase 9 (Lois Lane and the main purpose of the Showcase series to create a new series) Showcase 15 (Space Ranger and a mainstay in Tales of the Unexpected #40 forward) Showcase 17 (Adam Strange and a mainstay in Mystery in Space #53 forward) Showcase 22 (SA Green Lantern and gets his own series) Showcase 27 (Sea Devils and get their own series) Showcase 34 (SA Atom and gets his own series) Showcase 37 (Metal Men and get their own series) And the Showcase issues through the 12 cents/1960s era - Spectre, Creeper, Hawk & Dove, etc. I don't think Sugar & Spike can compare, but this is what make conversations/debates on these here boards GREAT!