Pedigree Comics

[BucOne-migration]

 

Hi,

 

I was wondering if fellow board members wished to shed some light on buying

pedigree comics. I was contemplating buying a few high grade comics such

as 9.4/9.6 versus a lower grade 9.0/9.2 pedigrees. I'm wondering if the prices

for the pedigree comics being relatively the same as the higher grade comics

is worth the price.

 

[Benchwarmer-migration]

From what I've learned so far, all pedigrees are not the same, so I guess it would depend on the book and the particular pedigree.

 

 

[Poe]

Honestly I've never really understood paying a premium for one comic in 9.6 with white pages over another copy of the same book in 9.6 with white pages just because it came out of some large collection.

[Mio]

It depends on the pedigree/book. Some are known for exemplary over gloss/PQ etc. while others just happen to have contained a lot of well preserved books with no distinguishing feature. The Northford books are nice, but often suffer from cream to off-white pages. White Mountain books most often have white pages and Gaines copies have the added 'coolness' feat of coming directly from the publisher's private stash.... so, again, it depends.

[Guest Grails]

If you are interested in the back story/history of a certain pedigree then sure, its worth the premium. Would you rather own a Shelby Cobra or Shelby's Cobra? Some pedigrees have a unique and interesting history and some collectors choose to capture a piece of that.

[Flash105]

I would just like to own a cobra.

 

But for me it is also part of the allure. I'm sure there is more than one person who thought, wouldn't it be cool to reassemble the Church or Pacific Coast collection in full. Then others think wouldn't it be cool to get one book from each of the great collections. And that leads to enough of those people that it requires a premium to obtain them.

 

Remember, George thought it was very cool to own Jon Voight's LeBaron and Brett Favre's F-150 just sold for 35K on ebay.

[Ares]

Does interior pages really matter when the book is slabbed?

Its not like you can see them

[musicmeta]

Honestly I've never really understood paying a premium for one comic in 9.6 with white pages over another copy of the same book in 9.6 with white pages just because it came out of some large collection.

 

I feel the same way. If they both look the same, it doesn't make any difference to me if it's a Pedigree or not.

[seanfingh]

The Northford books are nice, but often suffer from cream to off-white pages.

 

They are Northlands.

[nochips]

The Northford books are nice, but often suffer from cream to off-white pages.

 

They are Northlands.

 

Northfords were brought to market by Showcase New England. Northlands came from Motor City comics...

[seanfingh]

 

I humbly redact. Did the Northfords have PQ problems like the Northlands?

[nochips]

I humbly redact. Did the Northfords have PQ problems like the Northlands?

 

I do not know, never owned one myself. Lots of 50s stuff from what I have been told.

[peewee22]

Does interior pages really matter when the book is slabbed?

Its not like you can see them

 

Pages matter. Always have always will.

[Guest Grails]

Does interior pages really matter when the book is slabbed?

Its not like you can see them

 

Absolutely. Slabbed books don't have to stay slabbed forever.

[Mio]

Does interior pages really matter when the book is slabbed?

Its not like you can see them

 

Absolutely. Slabbed books don't have to stay slabbed forever.

 

Yep, PQ is important. It's one good way of measuring the decay of a book. If a book is graded in 2009 with CR-OW pages, I would not want to buy it in the same slab in 2025; I'd want it cracked for a PQ review.

 

And re the earlier point, many of the Northford books I have seen have CR-OW pages. I have one with OW and another with CR-OW myself.

[adamstrange]

The Northford books are nice, but often suffer from cream to off-white pages.

 

They are Northlands.

 

Northfords were brought to market by Showcase New England. Northlands came from Motor City comics...

 

Metro brought the Northfords out. As I understand it, Dan knew of the books but was unable to conclude a deal.

[adamstrange]

I humbly redact. Did the Northfords have PQ problems like the Northlands?

 

I do not know, never owned one myself. Lots of 50s stuff from what I have been told.

 

The range of PQ is definitely a mixed bag from tanned/tanning to white. Apparently the books were stored in different parts of the house. An example of one of the nicer ones:

 

[tth2]

I humbly redact. Did the Northfords have PQ problems like the Northlands?

I`ve never heard that the Northlands had PQ problems. They`re not the whitest books in the world, but they`re no Mohawks either.

[thehumantorch]

I like the idea of owning books with a history. Where did the book come from, who owned it? I'm willing to pay a premium for a pedigree book but not a large premium.

[VintageComics]

I'd be wary of PQ designations.

 

I have cracked out light tan to off white page 65 year old CGC book (Big Apple ped to be exact) and the light tan was a tiny 1-2 millimeter strip on the edge of the book....the rest of the pages were creamy white or off white, super supple and would pass for a new book otherwise.

 

I was so disappointed about the PQ that I cracked and resubbed the book twice.

 

The mixed PQ designations simply show that the page quality is not uniform but they do not describe quantitatively how much is off white and how much is not.

 

As far as pedigree books and are they worth it? I made a post about this in another thread.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2940784&fpart=1

 

I haven't read the entire thread completely but I think there are two main advantages to a Pedigree.

 

Backstory/provenance. Very desirable to own an artifact with a story behind it and a lineage. It's a beautiful thing to us nostalgic types.

 

State of Preservation. This is one of the prerequisites for a collection to receive pedigree status by CGC. If you have never held, smelled or opened and felt a book from a nice pedigree collection you owe it to yourself.

 

There are some that are better than others and within a certain pedigree you will have some copies that outshine others...but once you see a fine example of a pedigree book you will never ever look at a non pedigree book the same way.

 

Take the time to inspect a nice Church or O'reilly/San Fran book. Stephen Ritter had some raw SF books that were utterly mind blowing.

 

You've never quite seen a snow white, fresh-and-bright-as-the-day-it-was-printed 70 year old book until you see one of these.

 

Unless you invent a time machine you'll never see another like it again.

 

This is why the big boys throw silly money at these books.