The Western Penn Pedigree and What I Know 3 3

[linmoth]

Lost track a little. So after I saw the monkey and the electric eel we went to the living room and were watching the Twilight Zone and showing off books to each other. His brother was there and had some nice books but I really wanted to see the DC’s. Off to the comic room. Their house was an older home with a turret built on it and that’s were the books were. Start with the Church run of Pep and Shield Wizard. For some reason they had a fascination with MLJ. He handed me a stack of Pep comics and they were gorgeous Church books that ended up in the Gerber Photo Journal. Then along came CGC the books got graded and there was one that graded lower than the others. That’s the one I dropped out of the stack of mylars that he handed me. Oops!

Edited May 3, 2021 by linmoth

[thehumantorch]

[tth2]

4 hours ago, linmoth said:

Who had the balls to go up to the man when he walked out the door and ask “Hey mister you have any other books you want to sell”?

That should be the first question every person there should be asking! 

[linmoth]

So now I’m getting upset having to look at all of this historic comicbook goodness. I want the DC’s. But it’s not time yet. I have to sit through AF 15 NM/M, FF1 NM/M, TOS 39 NM/M, HULK 1 NM/M and DD 1 NM/M. Thank god the Avengers 1 were stolen  out of the collection so I didn’t have to see that. So now it’s time for the DC’s?

[tth2]

4 hours ago, linmoth said:

There are 5 pages of Daredevil later in the catalog but the 7 is listed on page 1!

Seeing that DD 7 listed there brings me great pain.  I had won the 2, 3 and 4 raw on eBay at nosebleed prices of 3X Guide and had struck up an email conversation with the lady who seemed to be running their auctions.  She asked if I would be interested in buying the 7 directly, but was asking something like 6X Guide, which at the time was just an astronomical price, so I passed.  

The 2, 3 and 4 were absolutely gorgeous.  The inks looked like they were still wet.

[tth2]

16 minutes ago, linmoth said:

Start with the Church run of Pep and Shield Wizard.

Thanks Tom, this is really interesting.

We always think of OOs as guys who just lived in their own little bubble obsessively buying books off the newsstand and preserving them well, but never seem to think of them as also being collectors who purchased books in the secondary market.

The father must have been well plugged into the collecting community if he had access to the Church runs of these books.  

And yes, we know from the CGC grades how pristine these books were. 

Was the Pep 22 in there, or had it already been sold separately? 

[linmoth]

Oh the DC’s the wonderful gorgeous books that predated that Marvel . Out comes Showcase 34, 35 and 36. Brave and the Bold 34, 35 and 36 and my favorite book that I really wanted to see Flash 123. Ye ha. Tim on the boards tth2 bought some of the books. Never pressed comicbook goodness! I worked out a deal to sell some of the collection in return for a discount on those beautiful DC’s that were still there. As I was leaving there was a table with books stacked 2 or 3 feet high. My friend said hey Tom take anything you want. There were 5-10 Metal Men #1’s and more that I don’t remember. I’m not into freebies. Great experience that will probably never happen again. More later!

[linmoth]

Tim, I was going to say that but the Pep 22 and the 7 were missing. My friend was the one who bought the Church books, not his dad or the OO of the collection. Hope that clears things up.

[linmoth]

So let’s fast forward a bunch of years when along comes CGC. I submitted a GL 40 from the collection that came back a 9.4 with white pages. I’m following the CGC board and I see a Western Penn pedigree wow what’s that? I called Borock and he tells me it’s a collection that originated in Western Pennsylvania that Tom Brulato and his crew have lobbied for a Pedigree. It appears that my friend sold a lot of the collection to Sparkle City who flipped it to Brulato and Ewert. I got in Borock’s ear and told him I know exactly where those books came from and I have many of the DC’s. I was told that he would have to get in touch with my friend to verify. He did I resubmitted the GL 40 and got the WP Pedigree designation. 
End of story hope you all enjoyed. Brought back a lot of great memories!

Edited May 3, 2021 by linmoth

[linmoth]

Maybe I’ll tell you what I know about the Pacific Coast Collectin!

[linmoth]

Tim, that was my friends wife! 

[HighVoltage]

5 minutes ago, linmoth said:

Maybe I’ll tell you what I know about the Pacific Coast Collectin!

Yes, please!

[DanCooper]

7 minutes ago, linmoth said:

End of story hope you all enjoyed. Brought back a lot of great memories!

GREAT STUFF, Tom!

So, how did the Friedlanders (Mike & Stu) come into play with the Western Penn collection and with the original father/son collectors?

[linmoth]

Mike, Stu and another brother who I don’t remember his name were all recipients of the collection. Their father made Michael split the collection among them. That’s what I remember being told. 

 

[linmoth]

From what I was told Michael was the one who made contact with the OO. He is the one I dealt with. From what I understand Stu has passed.

[tth2]

14 hours ago, linmoth said:

Out comes Showcase 34, 35 and 36.

Thought I'd supplement your narrative with pics.  I didn't buy the WP Showcase 34 because I already had another copy, so I don't have a scan of that one.  But here's the 35 and 36.

 

[tth2]

14 hours ago, linmoth said:

Brave and the Bold 34, 35 and 36

B&B 34 is not a particularly hard book to find in NM, but the WP B&B 34 is simply the nicest copy I've ever seen because of the color saturation of that wonderful electric blue cover and, most importantly, it is by far the best centered copy of this notoriously miswrapped book.  The 35 and 36 ain't too bad either!

 

[tth2]

13 hours ago, linmoth said:

Tim, that was my friends wife! 

Yes, Christi.  I decided to dig up some old emails to find her name.  Very nice lady.

[tth2]

Is anyone interested in seeing the WP Flashes?  I never acquired the 123, but I had many of the issues that came after it.

[DanCooper]

2 hours ago, tth2 said:

I didn't buy the WP Showcase 34 because I already had another copy, so I don't have a scan of that one.  But here's the 35 and 36.

I remember when Keith Contarino came on the boards, years ago, and said that he returned the Showcase 34-36 and Brave & Bold 34-36 back to Tom, because they were supposedly not high grade enough for Keith's tastes at the time!

I'm paraphrasing the conversation here, but I think it went something like this:

Keith: "I did a dumb thing and returned the Showcase Atoms and Hawkmans back to Tom because I thought they weren't high enough grade"

linmoth: "Keith, what were you thinking?"

Keith: "One of my biggest regrets in collecting"

tth2: "Keith, what were you thinking?"

Keith: "Ditto"

From the Heritage archives, here is the WP Showcase 34 (not mine)