Pedigrees, Mongrels and Such

[DavidTheDavid]

How do you like your comics? With some provenance and a tidy pedigree? A right old with little idea, if any, of its humble origins? Or you just don't care?

 

What about pedigrees that aren't CGC recognized? Do you give them much stock? Do non-recongized pedigrees add value? For that matter, do recognized pedigrees add value?

 

And lest you feel the Furies coursing through your fingertips, I didn't find any threads on this topic. Someone with better search-fu may uncover something, but alas, it was not I.

[Griff]

I like the story behind the book almost as much as I like the books themselves.

 

The Okijima Pedigree and the Mile High / Church Pedigree Stories in particular.

 

Others such as the Carson City or Circle 8 don't interest me as much.

 

As far as unslabbed books. I LOVE date stamps, OO names, and other things of similar nature that some would consider defects. To me it gives the book life. It tells the story of where it has been and who cherished it before it came into my hands

[miraclemet]

I like a back story to a book.

 

I have an Okajima, and would buy more... especially camp era Okajimas, there's no better pedigree story.

 

Do pedigrees add value? Sure, look at market history and you'll see that well regarded pedigrees are traded at a premium over non-premium version of the same grade.

 

But here's the tough thing to parse out. In many cases pedigree books (the good ones) present extremely well for the grade. Sharp colors (think just of the presses) well centered, nice white page quality... lots of stuff that would create a premium anyway for the grade.

 

So its some of one (great presentation for the grade) and some of the other (great back story and provenance).

 

There are some collections (Mendenhall, Seattle Drug Store, Southern Collection, etc) that are known, some of them are well regarded for their PQ or condition.... and those go for a premium (the high side of GPA) but they dont hit the pedigree highs of the regarded pedigrees.

 

There are also plenty of SA/BA pedigrees that arent any more regarded than non-pedigree books. This is due to them not being of exceptional quality (Savannah peds have some dodgy PQ (all the way down to CR-OW)) and there being a greater number of non-ped high grade copies available to the market.

 

[DavidTheDavid]

Okay, so what makes a pedigree a pedigree? Original owner? A selective collector of an owner? Lots of folks here have accumulated piles of comics, but those aren't pedigrees?

 

And are pedigrees a thing of the past? Collecting moderns, to me, seems a dodgy proposition at best. It's hard to imagine someone breaking out a slab of year 2000 and up slabbed 9.8s in 40 years time and making a splash with them.

[miraclemet]

Okay, so what makes a pedigree a pedigree? Original owner? A selective collector of an owner? Lots of folks here have accumulated piles of comics, but those aren't pedigrees?

 

And are pedigrees a thing of the past? Collecting moderns, to me, seems a dodgy proposition at best. It's hard to imagine someone breaking out a slab of year 2000 and up slabbed 9.8s in 40 years time and making a splash with them.

 

Pedigree Definition by CGC

 

Four parts to a Pedigree

1) Original Owner sourced from newstand or other retail distributor (noting from other collections)

2) Gold/Silver/Bronze era. Originally only Gold was pedigree, then it expanded to include Silver and recently Bronze.. will it ever go past that? No idea but doubt it.

3) A sizable collection. 1000+ books

4) High grade (average 9.4 or so)

 

[Brian48]

I've come to appreciate Pedigrees and in some cases, date stamps, but generally it never really factors into my buying decision. Regarding date stamps in particular, all things being equal, I'd rather have my book unstamped over stamped.

[DavidTheDavid]

Ya, so far, I haven't been that drawn to Pedigrees, though I did like picking up a Moondog's Dr Fate. Maybe because it let me feel like a good Samaritan while doing something selfish.

 

Mainly, though, I'm buying the book I want in the grade I want.

[Dr. Balls]

I've come to appreciate Pedigrees and in some cases, date stamps, but generally it never really factors into my buying decision. Regarding date stamps in particular, all things being equal, I'd rather have my book unstamped over stamped.

 

I love date stamps, and if it's a book I like that I want to keep (not flip), a date stamp will actually sway me into buying it.

[DavidTheDavid]

I've come to appreciate Pedigrees and in some cases, date stamps, but generally it never really factors into my buying decision. Regarding date stamps in particular, all things being equal, I'd rather have my book unstamped over stamped.

 

I love date stamps, and if it's a book I like that I want to keep (not flip), a date stamp will actually sway me into buying it.

So what's the appeal? They turn me off.

[Griff]

for me the appeal is imagining the book being put on the rack. the date stamp has an aire of tangibility in that regaurds

[Cat-Man_America]

Knowing the exact date and possibly the location where a book first appeared on the newsstand.

 

Personally, I think it brings the collector that much closer to the exhilaration that the original owner must've felt at the time of purchase.

[oakman29]

Knowing the exact date and possibly the location where a book first appeared on the newsstand.

 

Personally, I think it brings the collector that much closer to the exhilaration that the original owner must've felt at the time of purchase.

[catrick339]

Yeah, what they said,

 

A neatly penciled date or neat date stamp ads a certain aura of history for me, while not detracting much if any from the appeal of the book. The big ol' grease pencil dates, on the other hand, will sway me away from a book due to the general ugliness factor.