Need help on an Edgar Church book

[Transplant]

Here's my dilemma. I'm trying to locate the seller of my only Church book, Wyatt Earp 7 (Dell). I bought the book back in the eighties (no later than '91) in a paper catalog auction. In those days, for some of you younger folks, you would get a listing of books for auction. The bidder would write down a max bid for the book and mail it back, with a check for a % of the total. A few weeks later, you would get notice either that you owed money or were getting $ back, and whether you won any books. That's how I got this book. I do not have a copy of the catalog and it has been close to 20 years since I estimate that I bought this book. At the time, it was the most that I ever paid for a book. I was also probably still a high schooler. Thus, I didn't think to keep the catalog or get more pedigree proof than what I have below. Pedigree was important when I bought it, but after that, I had no need to prove the book's history.

 

Why I'm here. I want to send the book for CGC grading as it is just beautiful. Pages are white and it is nearly flawless. Any flaws are probably from storage since I've had the book. As you know, CGC has requirements for pedigree labeling that include a letter from the seller. I don't have that obviously. What I do have I've included below: a scan of the book, scan of the xerox page that accompanied the book and a close up of the signature on the xerox.

 

I remember a thread on here about the Church collection that mentioned a seller named Gerber unloading Church books via auction in the eighties. Try as I might, I can't locate that thread again. I remembered when I went to look at the signature recently. It seems to be a Gerber, but that could just be protection.

 

I know that a lot of you have been in the biz for a long time and might know who the signature belongs to. If so, I may be able to contact the seller and get some proof of pedigree. Once last thing. I did contact Chuck Rozanski and ask if he could say that the book was/wasn't on any inventory from the Church books. His response was that it wasn't in the '77 catalog for sale and therefore, he couldn't verify one way or another.

 

Any help is mucho appreciated. Oh. And just so this doesn't turn into a PGM thread, those are not color breaks at the top of the FC. They're reflections from the scan.

 

[G.A.tor]

sounds like you bought the book from a Comic Heaven auction that John and Nan Verzyl still hold to this day...contact him, he has a wonderful memory, and probably has copies of all his old auctions!...

that said, it is possible that cgc can verify the provenance of the book, without documentation...I bought 2 church books raw, recently, sent both to CGC and both were designated as church copies (no paper work, etc, but had obvious church markers)

rick

[jbcomicbox]

Ernie Gerber of the Gerber PhotoJournals is deceased.....check out the book in the PhotoJournal...is it a match? Also Chuck's Mile Ad does NOT include all the books....there was a pre-sale to the likes of Geppi, Snyder, Carters etc....jon

[nearmint]

If that's Ernie Gerber's signature on the xerox page that accompanied the book, then that's probably all CGC would need to verify the provenance.

[Transplant]

Thanks for the input. That Comic Heaven auction sounds familiar, I'll try that route. I was aware that Ernie Gerber died but I thought maybe there was another Gerber that I didn't know about. I'm not sure that's Ernie's sig on the xerox. Reading back in teh Journal today though, I noticed that was the method that Gerber suggests to verify a provenance of a Church book. That said, I have compared my book to the PhotoJournal a number of times. Wouldn't you know that once more was the charm. In the Guide, there just happens to be a pic of my issue (not all the photo covers in this series were shown). I looked REALLY close this time and, lo and behold, it matches. I had previously thought there would be no way to match it up as there are no real flaws on the cover. Then I remembered the color scuff on the left midway up. Sure enough, it's there in the Journal.

 

Thanks a lot. I'll keep you informed as this develops, if anybody cares.

[Comicdey]

yep, looks like the gerber photojournal copy to me too.

[nearmint]

I'm not sure that's Ernie's sig on the xerox.

 

I think it is. I think he sent me similar xeroxes when I bought the Action 86 & 87 Mile Highs from him.

[Transplant]

Called CGC today and got grades for a submission back in September. This was one of my first posts so I wanted to update it as a thank you to folks who helped. CGC told me today that the book did get a Church pedigree distinction. I couldn't be happier. As a provenance, I included the materials noted in the thread as well as a copy of the thread. I was such a noob.

 

Thanks again everybody who helped.

 

The grade? Well, I'm going to do a guess the grade post in the PGM section.

[Ivanko]

Congrats!!!

 

It got me thinking: Is there an original list of the Church books? That would sure make "hunting" a little easier.

[Transplant]

Semi-sort of. Chuck had a list that he published for sale. But he had already sold a lot of books before that list was published. Search around for Edgar Church or Mile High collection. This has been answered by folks with more knowledge than me.