Pacific Coast original catalog listings

[fantastic_four]

Namisgr sent me scans of the original catalog listings for most of the Marvel runs in the Pacific Coast collection. The scans he sent me are actually much larger than this, but I shrunk and compressed them to the point of being easier to read without scrolling around a lot, yet legible. Click the links below to see them:

 

Listing for the Spidey, Avengers, DD, and Silver Surfer runs

 

Listing for the Fantastic Four run

 

Listing for the Journey Into Mystery and early Thor run

[Moriarty]

What was the release date of the catalogue/collection?

[namisgr]

Pacific Comic Exchange posted the first books from the Original Owner/Pacific Coast collection in May, 1999, and followed with addtional monthly sales of the Marvels for the next several months thereafter.

 

The first listings were at relatively inexpensive prices, given the extreme high grade of most of the copies.

[Moriarty]

Thnx

[namisgr]

There are a few notable gaps in the Pacific Coast collection listings for the earliest Marvels from 1962. Not only were FFs 1-3 not listed, but there were no listings for Hulk 2 or 3, Journey 83,85, or 86, or Tales to Astonish 35 or 36. I always presumed that the collection is simply lacking these early Marvels, but do not know with certainty.

 

By early 1963, the collection covers just about every Marvel with fantastic structural preservation. Page quality is very good, although overall probably does not match a few of the other top Silver Age pedigrees.

[namisgr]

Here's one of the few unslabbed PC FFs, with a great Kirby montage cover:

 

[Captain Tripps]

 

Actually, the Pacific Coast early issues have phenomenal page quality, as good as other pedigrees not named curator. In fact, there isn't 1 PC book I have seen or owned that has graded lower than off white (the ASM 1 was cow but was graded early on when CGC was much tougher on page quality. I would bet it would be at least off white now, as the ASM 2 is a 9.2 White!!).

 

Obviously, I'm partial to this collection, but if you could seenn what I have, you'd understand

 

Love those pedigree stories and posts!!!

[namisgr]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge of this pedigree, Cap. What can you tell us about the "missing" early Marvels: Does the collection really lack FFs 1-3 and 7, Journey 83, Hulk 2,3 and some other books from late '61-mid '62?

 

I still think the PC books have lost a little more whiteness than some other Pedigrees, which is most readily apparent in the "white" parts of the front and back covers. This in no way is meant to disparage the phenomenal structure, flatness, or extremely good page quality of the collection.

[tth2]

Pacific Comic Exchange posted the first books from the Original Owner/Pacific Coast collection in May, 1999, and followed with addtional monthly sales of the Marvels for the next several months thereafter.

 

The first listings were at relatively inexpensive prices, given the extreme high grade of most of the copies.

 

A big to you and FF for posting these. At the time the collection surfaced, my recollection of my first impression was (i) there's no way the books can be this nice and (ii) the prices DID seem high for that time, even compared to the significant mark-ups that Marnin was asking for Mass books and what lots of dealers were asking for WM books. Perhaps one reason it felt this way at the time was that there was a bit of a correction in Silver going on, and prices were on a downward trend, even for NM. In retrospect, the JIMs in particular seem incredibly cheap, but that just reflects the fact that the Guide was always too low on pre-100 JIMs.

 

I've heard stories that the PC collection surfaced when the OO sold some of his books directly on eBay, which got purchased by Robert Roter, which then led to RR/PCE discovering that what he'd seen was just the tip of a huge freakin' iceberg! Any truth to this story? Anyone else heard this before?

[clarkkentdds]

I have some old PCE catalogs from that time period, but none cataloging any PC DC's ...Yet I know of some Pacific Coast DCs (I own some.) Do you have the original catalog listing the PC DC's? Thanks James!

[r100comics]

Huge thanks to Namisgr for both this and the Slabodian post (and to F.F. for hosting it). I cannot tell you how fascinating I, and probably many H.G. collectors, find this information.

 

For the record, this is how a few of the original P.C.E grades compare to the CGC grades the books have since received:

 

Journey Into Mystery:

#89 NM++ 3.5 = CGC NM+ o-w

#93 NM++ 3.5 = CGC NM o-w to w

#116 NM++ 3.3 = CGC NM w

 

Namisgr - please keep these amazing Pedigree catalog posts coming !

 

[Silver Surfer]

FF that's cool. I believe I own FF#73, 9.4 from the Pacific Coast Collection but it doesn't appear to be on that list.

[fantastic_four]

I have some old PCE catalogs from that time period, but none cataloging any PC DC's ...Yet I know of some Pacific Coast DCs (I own some.) Do you have the original catalog listing the PC DC's? Thanks James!

 

Thank Namisgr, he's the one who owns the lists and is scanning them.

 

I've heard that Pacific Coast is a near-complete collection of Silver Age titles across most--or perhaps all--publishers from the 1960s, which is why it is sometimes called the "Church collection of the Silver Age." Does anyone know if Roter got all of the titles from all of the publishers, or did he just buy a part of the collection?

[fantastic_four]

Namisgr sent me another list the other day, and I've been too busy to resize it until now...so here is is:

 

Pacific Coast Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, and Hulk runs

[r100comics]

Thanks for the update.

 

One quick observation....

 

Hulk 1

PCE NM- 9.2 = CGC 8.0

[Red Hook]

Can I put in a request for a list of the later issues of the Avengers? This is all great! Thanks!

[tth2]

Thanks! Interesting that the TOSs start only from 77. As we know from the scans in the CGC galleries, there definitely were earlier PC TOSs, and they are absolutely stunning!

 

I don't suppose some industrious person out there would want to try to correlate the PC catalog listed grades against known CGC grades? I imagine Tripps' collections in the Registry would be a good place to start.

[FFB]

Thanks! Interesting that the TOSs start only from 77. As we know from the scans in the CGC galleries, there definitely were earlier PC TOSs, and they are absolutely stunning!

 

I don't suppose some industrious person out there would want to try to correlate the PC catalog listed grades against known CGC grades? I imagine Tripps' collections in the Registry would be a good place to start.

 

GPAnalysis.com would be quicker if any of the issues has sold at auction since June 2002, as GPA lists pedigree books with a separate notation.

[rabidwolf]

Ive been lurking on these posts for a while and finally decided to join. Thanks for posting this info on the Pacific coast collection as I have been searching for these old catalogs for a while.

[rabidwolf]

Does anyone have a general idea of how many issues of each book weree in the PC collection. For example. Ihave a DD 5 in 9.4. I saw on the registry that captaintripps has a 9.8 of the #5 and I remember seiing a 9.0 copy of the DD 5 as well(I think on ebay a while back). I was just wondering how many full runs of each title the original owner had.