Need help identifying books from the "N D" collection.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Another one currently on Comiclink. There seems to be a number of high grade late Flashs in the Cape Cod collection:

 

[Arty]

And for all of you following this thread, I will post a more detailed origin of this collection as soon as I confirm a few more facts, and hopefully obtain the original master list. The facts that I've gleaned about this collection have me pretty excited, and I hope to share the information with all of you soon.

 

Can't wait

 

I wonder if this one could turn into a "real" pedigree? These are easily recognisable, quality seems equal to the most GA pedigrees.

If there is enough quantity, is there anything that can stop it being one?

 

Another interesting batch of books is "SN" collection. Have seen a lot of books with that marking.

[adamstrange]

Another interesting batch of books is "SN" collection. Have seen a lot of books with that marking.

 

Cookeville (Tenn). Grades are pretty mixed as is page quality. There were some very nice books in the collection.

[Timely]

One More:

 

 

West

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Here is the promised information on the Cape Cod or "ND" books.

 

The Cape Cod collection was uncovered in August 1997 by comic dealer Rick Semowich of NY. He drove to Cape Cod, Mass to view the books after receiving a phone call from a man whose father left him several hundred comics as an inheritance. The original owner’s son had apparently already received an offer from another comic dealer, but he wanted to call around to see if he could get a better price. Upon his arrival at the son’s home, Rick walked into a living room full of vintage golden age comics laid out in neat piles for him to inspect.

 

Mr. Semowich was astounded at the overall condition of the books, which featured covers dripping with gloss and displaying excellent levels of preservation. Structurally, the vast majority (70% or so) were of pedigree quality as well. After several hours of negotiation, the two reached an agreement on the collection and Rick took home over four longboxes of golden age comics.

 

The total count, by Mr. Semowich’s recollection, was a whopping 889 books, NOT the original 200 I reported. He also believes he still has the master list somewhere in his office, but has been unable to locate it to date. The 1997 Overstreet Guide value of the collection was approximately $100,000.

 

The collection was then broken up and sold mostly through private channels. Rick sold five very high grade late Flash Comics (several of which have already been posted on this thread, including the gorgeous # 92) through Comiclink for a whopping $10,000 (above guide at the time). Small parts of the collection also sold to a handful of individual collectors.

 

Within a few weeks though, word got out about the collection and a private collector snatched up the majority of the remaining books, an amount close to 500 or so of the original 889. It is believed that many of the high grade samples we see in the thread today were subsequently sold from out of this large batch of 500, a hundred or so presumably to Metropolis later in 1997. Mr. Semowich sold off small batches of the leftover books over the next couple of years, most of these being mid to high grade teen humor, romance, and offbeat titles.

 

Mr. Semowich, in hindsight, felt the collection was of pedigree quality but did not pursue obtaining marketplace acceptance of it as such. The fact that most of the books sold very quickly following their discovery, in largely private sales, and with a significant portion going directly to one collector, probably doomed their chances of being recognized by the marketplace for their extraordinary quality.

 

Some notes concerning this collection:

 

- Identification: Most of the books can be identified by a the letters "ND" written neatly on the front cover, often in the title’s logo or somewhere unobtrusively toward the top of the front cover. Some also possess a check mark in pencil on the front cover, sometimes in conjunction with the "ND", sometimes without, though its hard to identify which books that possess a penciled check mark might be Cape Cod books as the master list is still AWOL.

 

Mr. Semowich also believes the ND stood for the name of the drugstore (or other venue) where the books were purchased, as they did not match the initials of the original owner or anyone else in his family. Perhaps someone familiar with the Cape Cod area and its history could offer us some possible candidates from the era?

 

- Condition. The majority of the books averaged VF condition or better, with high levels of gloss and excellent paper quality. Many are 9.0 or better (as the samples posted in this thread will attest to). They were stored, unread, in a closet for over fifty years by the original owner who purchased them directly off the newstand (or local drugstore). Mr. Semowich said many of the individual issues compared favorably to Church copies for levels of preservation & structural superiority. Indeed, in some cases, the Cape Cod copy represents the Best or 2nd Best known copies thus graded by CGC.

 

- Contents. The collection spans the years from 1945-1950, including many of the major super hero titles of the era (DC & Timely) as well as crime titles (Murder Inc., Inside Crime, etc), some teen humor (Nellie the Nurse, etc.), Fiction House titles (Wings & Fight Comics) and others. Titles were not collected in large length, (for instance, there wasn’t a complete run of Detective Comics from 1945-1950, though there are individual issues), at least that is what I am led to believe. Without the master list, it is impossible to provide more complete information on titles, issue numbers & grades. I will keep corresponding with Mr. Semowich in hopes he does come across it in the near future.

 

- My personal input: I believe this collection, even if never officially deemed a pedigree, deserves a fair amount of recognition by the marketplace. The post war era between 1945-1950 is one of the most difficult to collect in high grade....circulation, particularly for super-hero titles, was way down, and fewer choice copies as a whole survived from this era then from the five years previous. The fact that the Cape Cod books show up at or near the top of the census for many individual copies attests to the collection’s pedigree-like quality. I believe as more and more ND books are identified, collectors will better appreciate their superior quality and excellent representation in the Census.

 

A word of thanks to the following people who all contributed in piecing together this little blurb of info:

 

- Mark Haspel of CGC (who pointed me in towards Rich Semowich as the original discoverer of the Cape Cod books).

 

- Rich Semowich (for patiently answering all my questions and providing the bulk of the information in this post).

 

- And the following folks who provided little tidbits here and there (Stephen West of CGC, Stephen Fishler of Metro, Bill Hughes & Matt Nelson).

[adamstrange]

Very cool, JT!

 

Thanks for tracking this down!

[nearmint]

Mr. Semowich also believes the ND stood for the name of the drugstore (or other venue) where the books were purchased, as they did not match the initials of the original owner or anyone else in his family. Perhaps someone familiar with the Cape Cod area and its history could offer us some possible candidates from the era?

 

I think it's more likely that "ND" are the initials of the magazine distributor that the comics came from, much like many of the Larsons have "ON" for Omaha News pencilled on the front cover. Perhaps the "D" in "ND" even stands for "distributor". Would be interesting to find out what magazine distributors were active in the Cape Cod area from 1945-1950.

 

And it's West Stephan at CGC, not Stephan West.

[ciorac]

Very nicely done JTMF!

[lou_fine]

JTMF;

 

Very interesting and highly informative.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share this story with all of us.

[Timely]

Nice job! I saw a cape code book 2 months ago that indeed had a check mark next to the "ND".

 

West

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Nice job! I saw a cape code book 2 months ago that indeed had a check mark next to the "ND".

 

West

 

Sorry for the butchering of your name West....maybe I'll just stick with Timely.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

One More:

 

 

West

 

BTW, is that not one of the nicest 8.0s you've ever seen?

[Timely]

One More:

 

 

West

 

BTW, is that not one of the nicest 8.0s you've ever seen?

 

Front cover is great but the back cover has LARGE moderate sun shadow tanning that looks bad.

 

West

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Front cover is great but the back cover has LARGE moderate sun shadow tanning that looks bad.

 

Maybe the closet the original owner stored them in had a window?

 

I didn't realize you guys deducted for that sort of stuff, especially on a GA book.

[lou_fine]

Front cover is great but the back cover has LARGE moderate sun shadow tanning that looks bad.

 

Maybe the closet the original owner stored them in had a window?

 

I didn't realize you guys deducted for that sort of stuff, especially on a GA book.

 

Yes, I also thought that it was only minimal deductions for clearly visible defects such as off-center covers and sun shadows. I thought the massive deductions were usually reserved for nearly invisible structural defects such as non-colour breaking creases.

[ciorac]

Nice job! I saw a cape code book 2 months ago that indeed had a check mark next to the "ND".

 

West

 

Will CGC start noting Cape Cod on the labels?

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Nice job! I saw a cape code book 2 months ago that indeed had a check mark next to the "ND".

 

West

 

Will CGC start noting Cape Cod on the labels?

 

I doubt it. I don't think I can make any sort of a convincing case for a pedigree unless the original master list turns up. Even then, its probably an uphill battle.

[adamstrange]

Front cover is great but the back cover has LARGE moderate sun shadow tanning that looks bad.

 

Maybe the closet the original owner stored them in had a window?

 

I didn't realize you guys deducted for that sort of stuff, especially on a GA book.

 

Yes, I also thought that it was only minimal deductions for clearly visible defects such as off-center covers and sun shadows. I thought the massive deductions were usually reserved for nearly invisible structural defects such as non-colour breaking creases.

 

[FFB]

Nice job! I saw a cape code book 2 months ago that indeed had a check mark next to the "ND".

 

West

 

Will CGC start noting Cape Cod on the labels?

 

I doubt it. I don't think I can make any sort of a convincing case for a pedigree unless the original master list turns up. Even then, its probably an uphill battle.

 

Even without a master list, aren't the books with ND in the familiar -script pretty easy to identify?

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Nice job! I saw a cape code book 2 months ago that indeed had a check mark next to the "ND".

 

West

 

Will CGC start noting Cape Cod on the labels?

 

I doubt it. I don't think I can make any sort of a convincing case for a pedigree unless the original master list turns up. Even then, its probably an uphill battle.

 

Even without a master list, aren't the books with ND in the familiar -script pretty easy to identify?

 

I don't think its just a matter of identification. A comprehensive case needs to be assembled and presented to CGC regarding the collection and its contents. One particular problem will be that a large portion of the collection has remained in one private collection, and only one or two people have been exposed to those books.

 

However, based on the books presented in this thread, we do have a good starting point.

 

Maybe I'll just PM Steve Borock and ask him what else CGC might need to consider the collection as a pedigree.