Silver Age pedigree thread 3 3

[namisgr]

Rocky Mountain pedigree.  I'm not aware of this collection having very early SA books, but it did have continuous runs of many popular titles in exceptional high grade, nearly all with white pages.

This issue is an example.  Tough to find in the highest grades owing to the dark brown part of the cover, the Pacific Coast copy was only graded 9.2.

[Silver Surfer]

Love that issue.

[LovetheLizard]

On 5/22/2024 at 11:33 PM, Ghost Town said:

I’m sooo jelly of your #6. I only found out about the northland books after most had already been sold.

[LovetheLizard]

[adamstrange]

On 5/24/2024 at 10:54 AM, Hepcat said:

Which collection would you say has the nicest comics from the 1958-64 period including non-Marvel titles?

White Mountain has the best combination of quantity, quality, and keys.

[adamstrange]

On 5/22/2024 at 11:33 PM, Ghost Town said:

Mic drop.

What a stunning array of Spideys!

[adamstrange]

White Mountain

[adamstrange]

Newsboy

[Ghost Town]

On 5/24/2024 at 7:54 AM, Hepcat said:

Which collection would you say has the nicest comics from the 1958-64 period including non-Marvel titles?

This website has a nice breakdown of various pedigrees and their key books.

https://itsalljustcomics.com

The link to the specific page gets an error message when I tried to post it here. But click on the link that says:

"Existence and Grades of Silver Age Key Books From the Major Pedigree Collections"

Lots of good info there.

[Hepcat]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:41 AM, Ghost Town said:

This website has a nice breakdown of various pedigrees and their key books.

 

"Existence and Grades of Silver Age Key Books From the Major Pedigree Collections"

 

Lots of good info there.

On 5/25/2024 at 1:18 AM, adamstrange said:

White Mountain has the best combination of quantity, quality, and keys.

I see though that White Mountain has a pronounced lack of key DC comics. Bethlehem, Mohawk Valley, Savannah and Western Pennsylvania are all much better for those.

Edited May 25 by Hepcat

[namisgr]

There are some sweet pre-1961 DCs that have been slabbed as from the White Mountain collection.  But with the collection having come to market in the 1980s, it's possible that a lot of the material has either never been encapsulated, or was done so without full attribution.  Here's two that I once owned and got slabbed that had the mothball smell and splash page dating characteristic of much of the pedigree.

   

Edited May 25 by namisgr

[Hepcat]

Mmmmm, love those Mystery in Space mags! That #62 is much nicer than my own.

[namisgr]

On 5/25/2024 at 12:18 PM, Hepcat said:

Mmmmm, love those Mystery in Space mags! That #62 is much nicer than my own.

There were lots of really nice copies of Adam Strange MIS books in several pedigrees, including the White Mountain, Slobodian, and Bethlehem collections.

[adamstrange]

On 5/25/2024 at 11:51 AM, Hepcat said:

I see though that White Mountain has a pronounced lack of key DC comics. Bethlehem, Mohawk Valley, Savannah and Western Pennsylvania are all much better for those.

The height of the DC Silver Age started in 1956 and ran through 1963.  No single DC pedigree matches up to the level of quality and completeness of some of the Marvel pedigrees.  The people who collected and cared for copies off the newsstand grew astronomically in that time, and that is reflected in the Census for 9.0+ copies.

It should not be a surprise that there is no pedigree collection that includes all the DC keys in high grade.  The Bethlehem collection probably has the greatest representation, but only sometimes are those at the highest state of preservation.  The Newsboy included the greatest single set of Showcase Comics, but little in the way of superhero keys beyond that, with the rest of this small collection consisting of war and adventure.

I don't consider Mohawk Valley to be a pedigree because of the tanned covers and low page quality of so many of the comics.  The Savannah collection is similarly enough of a mixed bag for all of the early issues that I don't consider it a pedigree either.  WP has very little in the way of 10 cent DCs prior to 1961.

 

[adamstrange]

On 5/25/2024 at 12:06 PM, namisgr said:

There are some sweet pre-1961 DCs that have been slabbed as from the White Mountain collection.  But with the collection having come to market in the 1980s, it's possible that a lot of the material has either never been encapsulated, or was done so without full attribution.

Jerry Weist brought the WMs to market, partly as a dealer and then in his role as Consignment Director for Sotheby's.  He started in 1985 and was mostly selling to established collectors, with Bob Overstreet and Gary Carter getting first looks at the books.  While CGC has missed on attributing some, the comics do have distinguishing marks and usually denoted correctly when slabbed.

[Hepcat]

Gary Carter was a legendary DC collector and key player in early comic fandom. Whatever happened to his collection anyway when he stepped away from comics circa 2000?

[DanCooper]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:43 PM, adamstrange said:

It should not be a surprise that there is no pedigree collection that includes all the DC keys in high grade.  The Bethlehem collection probably has the greatest representation, but only sometimes are those at the highest state of preservation.  The Newsboy included the greatest single set of Showcase Comics, but little in the way of superhero keys beyond that, with the rest of this small collection consisting of war and adventure.

I don't consider Mohawk Valley to be a pedigree because of the tanned covers and low page quality of so many of the comics.  The Savannah collection is similarly enough of a mixed bag for all of the early issues that I don't consider it a pedigree either.  WP has very little in the way of 10 cent DCs prior to 1961.

You are right about the Mohawk Valleys. That would have been THE DC Silver Age collection if the page quality was there.

Western Penn did have the pre-1961 key DCs. Problem is, most of that sold in the 1980s and pre-CGC and probably has gotten lost over time. Linmoth/Tom H. posted in the past how he heard about the collection in the 80s through Comic Buyers Guide ads. He even mentioned a high grade WP Green Lantern 1, that he sold through Sotheby's in the 90s that wasn't noted as Western Penn. Western Penn gained traction as a pedigree in the early CGC days.

Honorary mention, even though it isn't a recognized pedigree or noted on the CGC label as a "from the collection", but the David N. Toth DC Silver Age collection that Heritage auctioned off 15+ years yielded some incredible high grade DCs from that tough late 1950s-1960s period, but lacked some of the big Marvel keys to be considered for a pedigree.

Would love to hear more of the back story on that collection Buttock mentioned, that yielded the Tomahawk and the 9.4 Showcase 22 and 9.6 Showcase 13!

[adamstrange]

On 5/24/2024 at 12:17 PM, Hepcat said:

Incidentally, does anyone else have any pedigreed Archies, ACGs, Charltons or Silver Age funny animal comics? I have several Bethlehem Adventures of the Fly and a couple Northland Adventures of the Jaguar, but I can't remember seeing any others. I'd be particularly intrigued by pedigreed copies of the Space Adventures with Captain Atom, Gorgo, Konga and Reptilicus/Reptisaurus titles.

There are WM copies of the highlighted titles, along with other Charlton sci-fi issues.

[adamstrange]

Northland contained ACGs.

[Ghost Town]