mosconi

And the last 15 issues in the run ...

I've finally been able to complete my CGC Spidey 1-30 run! It's been an attempt for all white pagers, no marvel chipping, nice spine wraps, in a gradual descending grade order (a few may still need to be adjusted). It's been a fun and rewarding journey with many awesome board members helping along the way! The run starts with a Green River book, one of my favorite pedigrees ...

What a gorgeous book!! The spine wrap and centering look flawless

It's really interesting to read and learn the history of these letters and codes! So your thoughts are these were written by the distributor and not the drug store employees who put them out for sale at the store? All the "B's" appear to be written by different hands, so there was definitely some type of classification system in place for the books. But if the distributor was writing a letter "B" for the Briscoe store, would they not also have been writing other letters on books for the various stores they shipped to besides Briscoe? You would then have a different letter written on every book for every store in the distribution area. Or maybe it's a distributor code written by the drug store employees representing the name of the distributor that unsold copies would be returned to? It would be a fun mystery to solve and maybe Retroheavy can add more thoughts. Very cool collecting story!

I feel once he completely analyzes and understands the amount of color touch and significant bleeding throughout this cover, and the subsequent amount of hacking and damage that will need to be administered to remove it, he will have wished he never cracked open this book

It's an awesome cover!

And one that got away

Great thread Frisco! Love to hear about the history of these pedigree collections and the owners behind them The deep vibrant colors on these books is truly impressive

From what I've learned over the years, the "B" may very likely represent the distributor code for a specific national or local Distributor which unsold books could be returned to by the newsstand dealer. I've seen handwritten books with "ON" and "PB" on the cover which represent Omaha News and Publishers News. It's a very interesting topic with a lot of information still to be discovered

Fantastic eye appeal and no marvel chipping! Congrats

Very cool and interesting books Wonder how many serious collectors in Mexico were keeping these in nice condition back in the day?

Just like those ComicLink stickers and their sticky residue on slabs, it could have been easily cleaned off with a little Goo Gone adhesive remover

Lovely 33 is a classic cover

To my understanding, PP can also place a hold on the funds in the sellers account and once proof of shipment (tracking #) is entered in the system by the seller and proof of delivery is confirmed via the tracking #, then the funds get released into the PP sellers account.

Yeah, that was an interesting and informative article. Confirms many of my thoughts regarding CGC 9.6 and higher grades in "normal distribution" Newsstand vs Direct.

I'm not as interested in the print run information, although that can be a factor. I'm more interested in the survival rate of high grade CGC 9.6 copies or higher, between the two methods. For example, you could have 100 Direct Edition copies printed that have all "100 graded CGC 9.6" or higher due to the better handling/storage methods employed, while a 100,000 Newsstand print of the same issue where only "10 have graded CGC 9.6" or higher. Therefore, I'm not as concerned about rarity of print run, but rather rarity of high grade survival in CGC 9.6 or better...

To me, the most important question is when did "high grade" Newsstand copies begin to become more difficult to find in CGC 9.6 or higher grade in comparison to Direct Edition copies? Can we pinpoint a specific year that this began to occur? Or can we just say that Newsstand copies will always be considered harder to find in 9.6 or higher when compared to Direct just because of the fact that they were more poorly handled and many times stored on spinner racks, haphazardly in convenience/book/drug stores, thereby easily bent and manhandled, and just generally not treated as well as the Direct copies in comic stores?

The L and CCA stamp are a great accomplishment Now how do we get Spidey's whole foot to show up?

I recall there was a topic called "Warehouse List" many years ago but I can't seem to find it anymore. I don't remember all the books on the list but I do know ASM #33 was definitely on it...

The color strike and whiteness of that book is stunning! Looks like it was just plucked off the newsstand

Yup, don't see 9.8 pedigrees everyday I have to stick with my more affordable 9.2's and under, if you can call them affordable

Fantastic Spidey pedigree books!! And @Frisco Larson, you are absolutely right, these peds do come at a premium that makes them quite expensive to collect!!

I do love the Spidey pedigrees

That book has amazing eye appeal! Fantastic pick up and a gorgeous black cover