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They just keep on coming. Here is a Northland early Marvel with "milky-white" pages and exceptional color preservation. Kirby appears to have done rush-jobs on many of these split TTA covers, but they are cool nonetheless. To digress for a moment, I purposely avoid the common rave "bone-white". Have you all taken a close look at bones? They typically have gray areas, and from the elderly have a distinctive yellow tinge. Many of my books look alot better than most bones, and don't deserve the besmirching reference.

Since we've seen only a single Diamond Run book on this thread, here is another (and my only example). My impression of the pedigree is that it consists of solid high-grade Marvel and DC runs, and is especially outstanding in the high-grade nature of its early Marvel keys, such as the NM AF15 that the Blazing One sold a couple of years ago. The color preservation on this HOS is only average, but man that first Spidey looked like a beauty.

Sounds like a great buy to me, COI. You got a book from one of the two best Silver Age pedigrees discovered so far. The book is a sensational copy. How much you paid for it is between you and your purchase!

Some of the most horrific examples of Bronze horror are undergrounds featuring the work of Richard Corben. Any other Corben horror fans out there?

Nochips, that's a beautiful TTA. While I've seen alot of GA Big Apple books for sale here and there, this is one of the few Silver Agers I've come across. Are there full runs of early Silver Age Marvels and DCs from the Big Apple collection? Anyone seen others, and are they as nice as this TTA? Enquiring minds want to know!

Flame, that is a gorgeous Northland Avengers. While I've got some late Silver Northlands that show a little loss of color whiteness, your book looks like a stunner. Did you get the certificate with Motor City's original grade?

the overhang was fine on this book. the biggest defect can hardly be seen on the scan. just underneath Giantman's left antenna, there is a crease running from the books edge into his temple. i pointed it out to Red because i knew he wouldn't be able to see it in the scan. not much wrong with that beauty and totally presentable it is OK to talk about my books after i sell them, isn't it?? When they look this good, you should talk them up all you want. Not the easiest book to find in tip-top shape, plus this original owner copy has great registration and excellent color preservation

Just to show that its not all about the plastic or the label, here is a raw White Mountain Strange Tales that I picked up in Baltimore from Harley. One thing you'd miss from this book if it were encapsulated is the smell - a distinct bouquet of mothballs, turned less noxious by time, mingling with the odor of fresh newsprint. A Chateau '66! Kirby and Ditko and Lee all in the same mag - Yum!

I bought a baker's dozen OO (later, PC) books from PCEI in the summer of '99 when the collection was first being listed. I had been looking for an FF12 for a long time, and the very first OO listing had one in VF++ for $800. With the next listing, I went for a dozen FFs and Journeys. Being less sophisticated a collector than today, and with less money committed to the hobby, I stupidly passed on many hard-to-find books in ultra high grade. I am hoping they don't also turn out to be once-in-a-lifetime! I will forever regret not shelling out for many more books from these early listings, but am grateful for being able to acquire the ones that I did for what stands now as an incredibly low price.

Three of these are freshly encapsulated, so here goes with a small set of PC Journeys:

The Curator books continue to astound with their awesome color and whiteness preservation.

To give one of my fave threads a bump, here is the White Mountain copy of Mad 29. I continue to be amazed at the relative inexpensiveness of the early Mad comics and mags. While the title was begat from Punch, it in turn begat National Lampoon, which begat Saturday Night Live, and so on. Is there a more important non-childrens' American humor title than this one? This particular ish has contributions from Wood, Wolverton, Elder, Davis, Kamen, and Don Martin:

Actually, Steve, I had 22 mostly bronze moderns and economies graded at the con, including about 15 books for which I am the original owner - they won't be posted here, but I did receive back my first ever 9.8!. After a 6 week wait, I received today another 20 books from standard tier from FL, including 6 PC books and the Mass JIM. I used Baltimore to purchase raw books from the late Silver-early Bronze period to upgrade weak copies and fill holes in my Marvel runs. I'm turning increasingly to buying big-ticket books already slabbed, as I've overpaid in the past couple of years for a few raw high grade early Silvers that didn't get the CGC grades I had hoped.

Agreed, Red. As you well know, some of the Green River books have very minor corner dings that keep them from getting the absolute top grades but, man, they have superior eye appeal. True for the other Silver pedigrees not named Pacific Coast or Curator as well. Keep postin' 'em, dude!

And lastly, a book that I've owned for 10 years and finally encapsulated. In terms of color preservation, the Mass pedigree is as fine a Silver Age collection as I have seen (although I own no Curator books for comparison). This one is missing a chip on the right edge, and looks incredibly fresh. Steve, I think you have made a tremendous purchase with that long run of Mass ST books, as the eye appeal on the books that I have seen is amazing to behold:

Just to prove that they can't all be winners, here is what is certainly one of the LOWEST graded Pacific Coast books in existence. Hey, what's a little chipping among friends! Needless to say, I think the crew in Baltimore were especially rough with this one. This ish is notorious for production flaws, and is one of the rarest Silver Age Marvels in high grade:

Thanks, Red and Steve, for the nice comments - the CGC game is an easy one when you're giving them a couple of Pacific Coast books to grade. Since I'm so wired from getting 40-some slabs back in a two day period, I'll use the energy to post a couple more fresh ones. Here is the first photo-montage cover that I can remember coming from Marvel, another PC beauty with perfect structure:

Had a slew of books slabbed in Baltimore, and finally got back a batch of standards from Sarasota to boot. So, although I've owned this book for 5 years, the casing is fresh. I apologize for the artifacts on the scan. For some reason, this mid-60s FF is very tough to find in extremely high grade, with only 1 9.6 entered in the census:

The Massachusetts pedigree was discovered by Marnin Rosenberg. It is an essentially complete run of Marvel, DC, and Gold Key comics from 1960-1975. Mass Pedigree story

Wanted to keep this thread going, so here is a small grouping of Bronze Age Winnies that are (gasp!) unslabbed. I especially dig the Big John Buscema cover on the 190. And just what the heck happens anyway when the Goddess of Death herself dies???

Just be sure you don't forget us - let us get a vicarious thrill from seeing that tremendous Mass collection run of ST!

Beaumonts, that's one terrific Spidey you have there. Outstanding color preservation and registration on a book with a classic story and cover! The Northlands before about 1968 have tremendous cover colors and fresh whites. The OO must have taken lesser care of the later books, because I've got about a half-dozen late Silvers from the collection that have light tanning on the interior and exterior of the covers.

Red, your pedigree clusters are way cool. The best I can do until getting back my long-awaited package from Sarasota is a gathering of "Don and Maggie Thompson" books. Admittedly, this is not the broadest or most reknowned pedigree to hit the marketplace. Still, the famous comic journalists did an outstanding job of preserving their collection, and the few books Maggie has parted with really are quite nice. They were auctioned by All-Star before obtaining "knighthood of the pedigree" from CGC, so I'll have to get them re-holdered one of these years.

Here is my newest, one and only Bowling Green book. Frankly, the only things I know about this pedigree are that it was the subject of a set of Sotheby's auctions, and Metro seems to have a bunch of them. This one was from an anonymous seller via Comiclink. In person, the whiteness of the cover is exceptional:

Your hockey cards sound cool. Any chance you've got Bernie Parent, Bobby Clark, Rick MacLeish, Dave Schultz or other members of the Broad Street Bullies from '73-'75? Besides comics, I collect Rock posters from the late '60s and early '70s. The artwork often is fantastic, and some of the shared bills are amazing (can you imagine the Grateful Dead and Miles Davis on the same night, for 3 bucks?). As with comics, I've got my favorite artists that are the focus of my collecting. Still have my coin and stamp collections from my distant youth - guess I was practically born to collect.