Will there ever appear a comic collection to surpass the Edgar Church pedigree??

[adamstrange]

There is no denying that the Mile High Pedigree is fantastic. Personally, I am more partial to the Crippen Pedigree than I am of the Mile Highs. I just recently sold 2 Mile High books, so that I could purchase more Crippen books. I now own only 2 Mile High books, and a couple dozen Crippen books. I am extremely impressed with the variety of comics contained within the Crippen Collection.

 

There is 50% more variety in the Church collection than the Crippen but there is a greater variety of Crippen books available for sale during the present season. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[Bronty]

There was more than an element of providence in his storage methods - the comics were in a basement in a climate beneficial to paper preservation, he basically piled them high unbagged and never touched them, and no-one else was interested in the collection during his lifetime. Until Chuck walked in....

 

Yup... the Church Pedigree is the result of the perfect storm of elements conducive to preserving newsprint.

 

BTW, do any of the Church books suffer from stacking curl? That is, NOT spine roll, but when there is a slight curl on the spine from being stacked? Unless every book in all the the stacks was PERFECTLY aligned, there'd have to be some books with stacking curl...

 

 

I remember reading that church alternated the spines, thus avoiding any signficant spine roll. I consider that to be pretty much self-evident anyway. You ever tried to make a 2 foot, let alone a 7 foot stack? The stack will topple over if you don't alternate the spines. So just the fact that edgar had 'em in 7 foot stacks pretty much guarantees he was alternating the spines.

Prove it with a demostration

 

SPOON YOU !!

[tth2]

BTW, do any of the Church books suffer from stacking curl? That is, NOT spine roll, but when there is a slight curl on the spine from being stacked? Unless every book in all the the stacks was PERFECTLY aligned, there'd have to be some books with stacking curl...

Stacking curl, indentations in books from the book on top not being perfectly aligned, etc. This is why so many Church books have been such great candidates for pressing.

 

I've really not seen these types of problems either. As far as I can tell it's often corner bends or minor bumps in handling, many of which may have occurred post Church, that make them pressing candidates. Church books are usually mirror flat.

 

The books were definitely not perfectly aligned as there are plenty of light dust shadows.

 

Again, Fishler and Verzyl can both offer more informed opinions, but I've seen hundreds of Church copies from the 30s through the 50s.

Seems hard to believe. When I went through periods of laziness and just stacked new purchases raw into foot high stacks for months at a time, when I finally got around to unstacking them and bagging and boarding them, the middle and bottom issues usually had slight indentations where there was a slight misalignment with the books on top, caused by the weight of the books on top. I can only imagine what would happen to books where the edges of books above were being pushed down into them with the weight of 7 feet of books for 30 years.

[pennynike1]

There is 50% more variety in the Church collection than the Crippen but there is a greater variety of Crippen books available for sale during the present season. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

 

What is the 50% figure based upon? Are you arguing that because there are more books in the Mile High collection that there is more variety? Just curious.

[The Black Hand ®]

I think there will be..... and soon.....within the next 5 years a major collection to rival the church collection will be discovered.

[trevorlsmith]

Any particular reason why you think this? Or is it just a blind hunch?

[adamstrange]

There is 50% more variety in the Church collection than the Crippen but there is a greater variety of Crippen books available for sale during the present season. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

 

What is the 50% figure based upon? Are you arguing that because there are more books in the Mile High collection that there is more variety? Just curious.

 

Yes.

[The Black Hand ®]

Any particular reason why you think this? Or is it just a blind hunch?

 

 

Just a blind hunch.

[mosconi]

I think there will be..... and soon.....within the next 5 years a major collection to rival the church collection will be discovered.

 

Warehouse find??

[Bronty]

Any particular reason why you think this? Or is it just a blind hunch?

 

 

Just a blind hunch.

 

I just can't see it. The quantity could happen, but the quality?

 

Or conversely, the quality could happen, but in that kind of quantity?

 

That collection was just a home run in every respect. I can see either the quantity or the quality happening (eg crippen was almost there quantity wise, vancouver and a few others there quality wise), but both? That's a hell of a tough row to hoe.

[Forbush-Man]

Any particular reason why you think this? Or is it just a blind hunch?

 

 

Just a blind hunch.

 

I just can't see it. The quantity could happen, but the quality?

 

Or conversely, the quality could happen, but in that kind of quantity?

 

That collection was just a home run in every respect. I can see either the quantity or the quality happening (eg crippen was almost there quantity wise, vancouver and a few others there quality wise), but both? That's a hell of a tough row to hoe.

 

Once again, Bronty, you've hit the nail on the head!

 

Odds are against a find ever hitting the quality & scope of the Edgar Church collection.......I just wish anyone else had found it.

[Bronty]

Any particular reason why you think this? Or is it just a blind hunch?

 

 

Just a blind hunch.

 

I just can't see it. The quantity could happen, but the quality?

 

Or conversely, the quality could happen, but in that kind of quantity?

 

That collection was just a home run in every respect. I can see either the quantity or the quality happening (eg crippen was almost there quantity wise, vancouver and a few others there quality wise), but both? That's a hell of a tough row to hoe.

 

Once again, Bronty, you've hit the nail on the head!

 

 

aw shucks

[ciorac]

I think there will be..... and soon.....within the next 5 years a major collection to rival the church collection will be discovered.

You are right, BH! And I mean to find it! I will give my fellow forumites first crack at them too!

[lighthouse]

One of the things that so many people forget is that many of the Church books have now spent more time away from the collection than they spent in it. It's been 29 years since the find...

 

Adjust your time frames forward, and you are talking about walking into some old lady's house today and finding a collection of books that start in about 1963 and run through 1984. Start talking about the value of the Mile High collection in 1977 dollars and projecting them forward, and you're talking about the likelihood of walking into a garage today where there are 22,000 comics from 1963 to 1984 that are worth $750,000 in current guide...

 

Frankly, that isn't even close to impossible...

 

Yes, the Church collection is worth far more than that today, by a factor of 50 to 100... but that adjustment comes from the whims of collectors over the years, and no one knows what the future will bring. You want to compare find with find, think about the possibility of finding a $750,000 collection from 1963 to 1984...

 

The fact is, had the Church books not been sold in 1977, the likelihood is they would have stopped being a high grade collection long before 1987, much less today. Chuck's rabid self-interest moved those books into the hands of the only two or three hundred people on the planet who would have actually taken care of them for the next 29 years.

[tth2]

Adjust your time frames forward, and you are talking about walking into some old lady's house today and finding a collection of books that start in about 1963 and run through 1984. Start talking about the value of the Mile High collection in 1977 dollars and projecting them forward, and you're talking about the likelihood of walking into a garage today where there are 22,000 comics from 1963 to 1984 that are worth $750,000 in current guide...

 

Frankly, that isn't even close to impossible...

That may all be well and good, but how does finding a collection of 22,000 comics from 1963 to 1984 come even close to surpassing the Church collection? There are actually several great ultra-HG pedigrees that run from the early 60s into at least the late 70s (and in the case of the Western Penn pedigree, it does run into the mid-1980s and later). Even if these collections had 22,000 books, no one in their right mind would say these collections rank even equal to the Church collection, let alone surpass it.

[Jeffro.]

A bit late to this party

 

Ever again? No, not a chance. Not a collection of that magnitude anyway.

 

I do wonder as I'm driving through my neghborhood, a neighborhod filled with houses built almost 100 years ago, just how many old comics are sitting in some of those basements and attics just waiting to be rediscovered.

 

Course, given the climate here in CT, they're probably all either brittle or moldy.

[pennynike1]

Adjust your time frames forward, and you are talking about walking into some old lady's house today and finding a collection of books that start in about 1963 and run through 1984. Start talking about the value of the Mile High collection in 1977 dollars and projecting them forward, and you're talking about the likelihood of walking into a garage today where there are 22,000 comics from 1963 to 1984 that are worth $750,000 in current guide...

 

Frankly, that isn't even close to impossible...

That may all be well and good, but how does finding a collection of 22,000 comics from 1963 to 1984 come even close to surpassing the Church collection? There are actually several great ultra-HG pedigrees that run from the early 60s into at least the late 70s (and in the case of the Western Penn pedigree, it does run into the mid-1980s and later). Even if these collections had 22,000 books, no one in their right mind would say these collections rank even equal to the Church collection, let alone surpass it.

 

Are you telling me that if a collection of Silver Age books, containing Mint (Yes I mean 10.0) copies of the entire line of the Great Marvel tiltes: Amazing Fantasy/ Spiderman, Journey Into Mystery/Thor, Incredible Hulk , Fantastic Four, Strange Tales, (you get the drift) would not surpass the Mile High collection? Even if there were only around 5,000 books in the collection. Although not surpassed in quantity, the Silver Age Collection (pennynike 1 for general reference) collection would be primo IMHO. Maybe thats just me. Of course the odds of finding a collection such I describe above is truly remote. Oh well.

[nearmint]

Are you telling me that if a collection of Silver Age books, containing Mint (Yes I mean 10.0) copies of the entire line of the Great Marvel tiltes: Amazing Fantasy/ Spiderman, Journey Into Mystery/Thor, Incredible Hulk , Fantastic Four, Strange Tales, (you get the drift) would not surpass the Mile High collection?

 

Yes.

[Bronty]

Adjust your time frames forward, and you are talking about walking into some old lady's house today and finding a collection of books that start in about 1963 and run through 1984. Start talking about the value of the Mile High collection in 1977 dollars and projecting them forward, and you're talking about the likelihood of walking into a garage today where there are 22,000 comics from 1963 to 1984 that are worth $750,000 in current guide...

 

Frankly, that isn't even close to impossible...

That may all be well and good, but how does finding a collection of 22,000 comics from 1963 to 1984 come even close to surpassing the Church collection? There are actually several great ultra-HG pedigrees that run from the early 60s into at least the late 70s (and in the case of the Western Penn pedigree, it does run into the mid-1980s and later). Even if these collections had 22,000 books, no one in their right mind would say these collections rank even equal to the Church collection, let alone surpass it.

 

Are you telling me that if a collection of Silver Age books, containing Mint (Yes I mean 10.0) copies of the entire line of the Great Marvel tiltes: Amazing Fantasy/ Spiderman, Journey Into Mystery/Thor, Incredible Hulk , Fantastic Four, Strange Tales, (you get the drift) would not surpass the Mile High collection? Even if there were only around 5,000 books in the collection. Although not surpassed in quantity, the Silver Age Collection (pennynike 1 for general reference) collection would be primo IMHO. Maybe thats just me. Of course the odds of finding a collection such I describe above is truly remote. Oh well.

 

It's not just 'truly remote', its absurdly impossible.

[lou_fine]

Are you telling me that if a collection of Silver Age books, containing Mint (Yes I mean 10.0) copies of the entire line of the Great Marvel tiltes: Amazing Fantasy/ Spiderman, Journey Into Mystery/Thor, Incredible Hulk , Fantastic Four, Strange Tales, (you get the drift) would not surpass the Mile High collection? Even if there were only around 5,000 books in the collection. Although not surpassed in quantity, the Silver Age Collection (pennynike 1 for general reference) collection would be primo IMHO. Maybe thats just me. Of course the odds of finding a collection such I describe above is truly remote. Oh well.

 

Yes, I am most definitely telling you that I would take the 22,000 Edgar Church collection over your 5,000 run of SA Marvel titles. As would 99% of all collectors would. Without a moment's hesitation and without any second thoughts at all.

 

You have to remember that Marvels are actually quite common, even in high grade except for a very few of the really really early issues. A large portion of the Church books, on the other hand, are simply not available in any grade, let alone high grade. To me, this is an absolute no-brainer.

 

You should also realize that a pure 10.0 Marvel collection is not anywhere close to reality, especially since you can't even consistently get 10.0 books off the printing presses right now.