Another unrecognized pedigree (by CGC): Slobodian

[namisgr]

Below is a listing from Marnin Rosenberg of Slobodian Marvels, less the Daredevils that were sold directly as a set by the Slobodians. Of special note are the earliest FFs in ultra high grade, which were described already as being spectacular by the good Captain in the "would Captain Tripps" thread. Given the remarkable quality of many of the earliest and hardest-to-find Marvels, this collection would seem to be on par with many of the recognized pedigrees.

 

[fantastic_four]

Excellent!

 

If you scan any more, feel free to use a higher resolution, i.e. dots per inch (dpi). You can e-mail them to me at ruddj@comcast.net and I'll host them since that would make them too big to fit as attachments on the boards. I only mention this because it's hard to read the details in this scan; on some of them, I can't tell whether the grade says NM+ or NM- due to the blurriness of the lower resolution.

 

Does anyone know some of the higher CGC grades on these books? Wonder whether the FF #1 copy has been slabbed...

[namisgr]

Excellent!

 

If you scan any more, feel free to use a higher resolution, i.e. dots per inch (dpi). You can e-mail them to me at ruddj@comcast.net and I'll host them since that would make them too big to fit as attachments on the boards. I only mention this because it's hard to read the details in this scan; on some of them, I can't tell whether the grade says NM+ or NM- due to the blurriness of the lower resolution.

 

Does anyone know some of the higher CGC grades on these books? Wonder whether the FF #1 copy has been slabbed...

 

Captain Tripps mentioned in the Golden State pedigree thread that the FF 1 was slabbed originally as a 9.2, and may possibly have been reslabbed as a 9.4.

 

The only two of those Slobodian books I owned that were slabbed were the spidey34 (CGC 9.0) and DD5 (CGC 9.4).

 

Thanks for the offer to post higher res images of these catalogs. Being limited to 150 kb attachments, I'll take you up on it.

[Aman619]

I remember reading that ad in CBG and shaking my head at the preposterous prices. And, thinking that the grading mustt be inflated, and not to take a chance... I mean, who knew!!?? Who knew theyd end up as some of the best copies ever?

[tth2]

Wasn't CGC's reason for not granting pedigree status to the Slobodian collection because significant parts of it weren't original owner, but in fact were acquired by Calvin as back-issues? Perhaps if it were presented to CGC again today, it might get "collection" notation (e.g., Nick Cage, Dallas Stephens) rather than pedigree?

 

Has anyone who's spent time talking with Steve Borock ever gotten him to spell out CGC's criteria for what is a pedigree?

[acesilver]

Weren't some of the books later found to be restored?

[aardvark88]

Calvin put together the collection. There were originally 3 raw uber hi-grade AF #15 from what I heard.

[inconceivable]

Thanks for the list. After I wiped my drool off my face I noticed some of the issues are "FREE"? Is that correct and how did that work?

Thanks.

Dan

[tth2]

Weren't some of the books later found to be restored?

 

Good point, I think there were a few posts in some earlier threads about Slobodian books coming back as restored. But to be fair, I have also seen listings for lots of CGC'd Slobodian books that were not restored.

[Captain Tripps]

I'm almost 100% sure the reason CGC didn't pedigree the collection was because some of the books, which obviously weren't purchased off of the newsstand, were included with the runs Calvin did in fact purchase himself and presented to CGC as all original owner books. Because they could not make the distinction as to which books were indeed bought off the newsstand or later included in the runs, they nixed the whole collection (I disagree, but what can you do).

 

I cherry picked the best copies from the collection (Marnin got them from the guy who bought them directly from Slobodian), and believe me, these are killer books. I bought many early issues of FF, ASM, Incredible Hulk, the whole Surfer run, and a few otherb titles, but mostly FFs and Spideys.

 

After originally purchasing them in April, 98 (I think it was 98!!), I went back for more (FF 1 plus later issues of ASM & FF to try & complete the runs).

 

The prices were high, but totally justified as these were unbelievable, high grade books with killer pages. I think I posted some of the early FF grades (1 9.2, 2 9.2, 3 9.0, 4 9.6 & 5 9.4) but some of the later issues, on FF & Spidey, were just as

nice. The ASM 26 is also 9.6 (forgot to mention in my other post).

[Timely]

A friend of mine bought many of the Slobodian DC runs directly from Calvin. I wonder if he still has them?!?

 

Timely

[jimm94]

I asked CGC's Paul Litch about the Slobodian books at the WonderCon dinner. He confirmed that they do not recognize it as a pedigreed collection due to the presence of non-original owner and restored comics. He was very complimentary about the overall quality of the collection.

 

There is no doubt that the comic hobby is very fortunate this collection became available. Many, many drool-tacular books!

[dolphinsrwj]

a few months back i bought fantastic four#88 cgc 9.2 slobodian copy from metropolis and it looks more like a 9.4-9.6.the ones i have seen are very sharp books.

[tth2]

a few months back i bought fantastic four#88 cgc 9.2 slobodian copy from metropolis and it looks more like a 9.4-9.6.the ones i have seen are very sharp books.

 

PCE always complained that some of its Slobodian GLs (in the teens and 20s, if I recall) which came back as 9.2s, were all severely undergraded by CGC.