Pedigree Comics' World's Best X-Men Auction Ends Tomorrow Night, Thursday September 9th! 0

[Captain Tripps]

Pedigree Comics' World's Best X-Men Auction ends tomorrow night, Thursday, September 9th beginning at 7:28 pm EST. The auction began on the night of Monday, August 30th as a separate event on the Pedigree Comics website (www.PedigreeComics.com). The first lot (Amazing Spider-Man # 4.5) ends at 7:28 PM EST on Thursday, September 9th and the last lot (X-Men Annual #15 9.8) ends at 11:30 PM. There is no Buyers Premium on any of the lots in the auction and every listing has no reserve. Every book is CGC graded and the minimum bid is only $20 for this auction. You can bid on all of the high grade comics in the Auction Listing right now (almost 600 books). Just go to the Pedigree Comics website and click on the Auction banner.

The brand new X-Men consignment contains a complete run of over 500 issues between Giant-Size X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #544 plus most of the Annuals and is easily the nicest and highest certified group of Bronze Age X-Men ever offered for sale! EVERY issue is at least a CGC certified 9.8, with many 9.9's and 10.0's, including a complete 9.8 run of CGC Signature Series signed Paul Smith issues!! Amazingly, every issue in the collection that is not a 9.8 is a 9.9 or a 10.0!

The consignment comes out of Washington state and the CGC Registry Set and Award Winning collection of Steve Nelsen, an X-Men and Wolverine enthusiast and collector who is well known on the CGC boards under his handle, worldsbestcomics. Here is his story:

“Whenever a comic collector was introduced to Steve Nelsen, worldsbestcomics on the CGC Boards, they would frequently ask, “Do you have the world’s best comics?” And he would smile and reply, “I have some of them.” Boy is that the truth.

I’ve enjoyed reading comics my whole life but I didn’t really begin collecting comics until the new X-Men launched in 1975. I focused on bronze and copper Marvel books because that is what I enjoyed and could afford. But I also enjoyed Valiant books and silver age Disney books and sketch covers.

I collected coins with my dad when I was a kid and he taught me to appreciate high-grade items. I remember when CGC first started grading comics. There were a lot of dealers and collectors who scoffed and treated them as a novelty. But I remembered how professional 3rd party grading from reputable companies like NGC had changed the coin collecting market and I believed the same thing would happen to comics. So I began focusing my collection on high-grade CGC books, especially mint grade books when I could find them.

I was always very picky about the condition of my comics, even before CGC, so many of the books in my CGC runs were submitted from my personal collection.

I had always planned on selling my books around 2025 but there is so much demand for them now that I felt the timing was good. I have bought a lot of books from Pedigree Comics over the years and I felt selling my collection with Doug would make the process more enjoyable; more of a celebration of a lot of fun work and wise decisions.

I really enjoyed finding visually superior books, digging out rare variants and getting difficult signatures so there are a lot of books in these two auctions that will be particularly appealing to discriminating collectors and completists. Some examples besides all the mint books include “The White King”, a gorgeous and simply brilliant white copy of Giant-Size X-Men 1 that looks mint; 9.8 copies of the first appearance of Alpha Flight and The Hellfire Club (and, well, everyone since every book in the run is at least 9.8); the first (and only?) complete 9.8 run of signed Paul Smith X-Men issues; the first, and highest graded, copy of the super rare “Bone Claws” Wolverine 145 error variant; a 9.8 copy of the Wolverine 1 Campbell variant, and some very hard to find 9.8 2nd prints and newsstand editions that are far more valuable than the first prints.

But, it would be wrong to gloss over and fail to mention all the mint books. There has never been an auction with this many (36 in all!) CGC-graded 9.9 and 10.0 X-Men and Wolverine books, including key issues like Wolverine Limited Series #1 (1982), Wolverine #1 (1988), Wolverine #1 (2003) and the first appearance of Gambit in X-Men Annual #14. This a rare opportunity to upgrade even the very best X-Men and Wolverine collections."

All 500-plus issues are featured in the auction and are offered with no reserve amount. As an added bonus, EVERY book has white page quality (save for just a couple) with none less than off-white to white. There are many great issues and iconic covers included in the run and almost every book is the single highest or highest certified copy to date. Here are some of the highlights:

Giant-Size X-Men 1 9.8
Uncanny X-Men 173 9.8 (CGC Signature SERIES)
Uncanny X-Men 179 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 180 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 184 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 186 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 188 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 196 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 197 10.0
Uncanny X-Men 207 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 266 9.8
Uncanny X-Men 303 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 306 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 311 9.9
Uncanny X-Men 316 9.9 (Foil Edition)
Uncanny X-Men 317 9.9 (Foil Edition)
Uncanny X-Men 318 9.9
X-Men 96 9.8
X-Men 99 9.8
X-Men 100 9.8
X-Men 101 9.8
X-Men 101 9.8 (CGC Signature SERIES)
X-Men 105 9.8
X-Men 107 9.8
X-Men 109 9.8
X-Men 114 9.8
X-Men 120 9.8
X-Men 121 9.8
X-Men 129 9.8
X-Men 130 9.8
X-Men 131 9.8
X-Men 132 9.8
X-Men 133 9.8
X-Men 136 9.8
X-Men 141 9.8
X-Men Annual 14 9.9

In addition, the auction features a brand new group of high grade, high end, CGC certified Silver and Bronze Age Marvels and a couple of DC's from the recent MegaCon show in Orlando. These books were just recently added to the Auction Listing this past weekend. Here are the highlights of the MegaCon books:

Amazing Spider-Man 3 4.4
Amazing Spider-Man 62 9.4
Amazing Spider-Man 136 9.6
Amazing Spider-Man 197 9.8
Avengers 19 9.2
Batman 232 9.6
Daredevil 1 4.5
Detective Comics 400 9.6
Fantastic Four 112 9.4
Flash 132 9.8
Flash 136 9.4 (Western Penn)
Giant-Size X-Men 1 9.0
Incredible Hulk 181 8.5
Mystical Tales 1 9.0
New Mutants 98 9.6
Silver Surfer 3 9.6 (CGC Signature SERIES)
Special Marvel Edition 15 9.6
Tales of Suspense 54 9.6 (Pacific Coast)
Thor 337 9.8 (Canadian Price Variant)

Please make sure to check out the upcoming Grand Auction featuring the second part of the World's Best Collection, the Wolverine issues, starting on October 4th.

If you have any questions or comments about the the World's Best X-Men Auction, please contact Pedigree Comics' CEO and President, Doug Schmell at (561) 422-1120 (office) or (561) 596-9111 (cell) or at DougSchmell@pedigreecomics.com. For any financial related and consignment payment questions, please contact our CFO, Lisa Shapiro, at LisaJoy@pedigreecomics.com and for any technical related questions or concerns, please contact our Web Master at WebDesigner@pedigreecomics.com.