Who has the 1st, 2nd and 3rd highest graded Pep 22?

[The Black Hand ®]

I'll tell you one thing....it's not me. Anyone here on the boards? Any scans? Let's exclude the Church copy for the time being. Anyone know where these copies are buried?

[143ksk]

Geppi, Anderson...?

 

I have the 128th highest

[Kakapo]

I may buy one of those light switch covers from ebay, would that count?

 

CGC Census, he say: 1 7.5, 1 6.5(restored), 1 4.5, 1 2.5, and 2 2.0s (one blue, one purple). That's depressing.

 

Therefore buying the light switch cover might technically get you into the top ten...

 

How many Pedigree copies are there other than the Church? And I assume, with no evidence whatsoever other than that it's not a 9.x, that the 7.5 is not the Church copy. That would make 4 decent-looking copies, one of which is restored.

 

...and then I remembered that Metro has a "VF+ Call" - that sounds far too ominous for me to ever pick up the phone. That makes 5 decent copies then.

[Durden08]

I know the restored CGC 6.5 copy you mention is for sale on investmentcollectibles.com website. Not sure of the whereabouts of any other copies.

[The Black Hand ®]

Geppi, Anderson...?

 

I have the 128th highest

 

At least you have one and a nice one at that. Think of all the poor souls out here who don't and probably never will. I'm willing to pay a fair price for a vg copy, but I won't pay stupid money for decaying paper.

[Kakapo]

So to answer the original, interesting question, since no one has owned up to having the top 3, the best guess would be:

 

1st: The owner of the Church copy - has anyone seen this/have an idea of grade?

2nd: Metro's "Call" VF+

3rd: The owner of the blue 7.5

and then Investment Collectibles dawt com's incredibly reasonably priced PLOD 6.5 in 4th place.

 

Is there a copy in the museum in Baltimore?

 

I'm surprised that 2 of the 4 are on the market, even if one of the prices is a secret and the other is astronomical. Arguably if the price is high enough, the owner isn't really trying to sell it, more show it off - and I can understand that.

 

I agree with Mr Hand's comment above, too - I'd go lower than VG myself, but I'd want one that wasn't actually rotting in the mylar. I have a Piracy 1 that is literally flaking away in the bag. Not the world's wisest investment.

[143ksk]

I believe that the Chuch copy is the one pictured in Gerber. Geppi bought it several years ago as reported in CBM. I don't know what Metropolis is asking for the 8.5 (why don't you do your best BSD voice and call and ask them? ) and I was told the 7.5 was available in Chicago last summer for $75K. That's all the info I have on those three books

[The Black Hand ®]

Wow, thank's for the info. If I had 75 grand to burn, I wouldn't spend it on a 7.5, possibly on the Church or Reilly, but It would be a stretch. I love Archie, but not that much.

[adamstrange]

Last I knew, copies #1 and #3 were owned by the same person. I prefer not to mention names for owners unless they have publicly announced it.

[Kakapo]

Due to the magic of Google, which actually led me to an old thread here from 2005, Bob Beerbohm says there was indeed a Reilly copy of Pep 22 (the collection had 1-53 as well as Archie 1-15). I take it that that copy is not the 7.5 slab, meaning it's raw and is out there somewhere.

 

But being a Reilly copy it's bound to be pretty nice, even if it predates his joining-up and was probably one he got to read. That makes 3 nice raw copies (Church copy, Metro's 8.5, Reilly copy, in probable descending order of grade) and 3 slabs in 4.5 or higher. That also means there is a good chance that the 3 best existing copies are raw, simply because they are going to sit for decades in the collections of some people who have neither need nor desire to sell.

 

And if the 7.5 is someone's undercopy, well that would explain why it was offered for sale. Thanks Mr Strange!

 

Going off on a little bit of a tangent, I was wondering what became of the unfortunate Mr Reilly. According to previous threads here (no other websites seem to pop up when I search for "Tom Reilly San Francisco Pedigree"), he was in the Navy and killed in a kamikaze attack. From www.abmc.gov and http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/j2ee/servlet/NGL_v1 I could only find two Thomas Reillys who were killed in 1945: Thomas A., who was 37 years old, and Thomas F. of the Naval Reserve (no age given), whom it says entered the service from New York, but he is listed as MIA/Buried at sea. So perhaps neither of those two was the comic collecting Tom Reilly of California.

 

I apologise for having so much time on my hands today. There's nearly 3 feet of snow outside and I am trapped at home.

[The Black Hand ®]

Sorry about all the snow, but thank's for all your good research. I can't help but feel that there are a lot more Pep 22's out there waiting to be found. That there are still a lot of hidden collections owned by little gray haired ladies that haven't yet been found by major comic dealers and bought for pennies on the dollar. The search will go on.

[HouseofComics.Com]

For some reason I don't remember the kamikaze part. You might start searching a little earlier than 1945.

[The Black Hand ®]

That's what I heard too, that is was near the end of the war and he died when his ship was struck by a Kamakazi pilot. I always assumed it was true, but I'm pretty gullible.

[nearmint]

Matt Nelson's pedigree article mentions the kamikaze attack, and that it occurred sometime in 1945. Notified of their son's death, Reilly's parents stopped buying comics, leaving the collection in Tom's room, which they sealed for 27 years.

[tth2]

Matt Nelson's pedigree article mentions the kamikaze attack, and that it occurred sometime in 1945. Notified of their son's death, Reilly's parents stopped buying comics, leaving the collection in Tom's room, which they sealed for 27 years.

I wonder if the facts dug up from actual research will reveal this to be just a story dreamed up by a marketer or the real thing.

[Kakapo]

Curiouser and curiouser...I've searched military burials in the US and burials/memorials overseas, which should be everyone. This is easier for British casualties because there's only one website to search. There are over 1700 Reillys (first name and middle name fields left blank) buried in US military cemetaries from the Civil War all the way up to veterans who have died very recently. 56 were named Thomas and served in WW2. 22 had the middle initial T and served in WW2. Only a couple of Thomas Reillys who died between 1941 and 45 and were buried in the US served in WW2. None of them fit the "facts" as we suppose them to be. There are 48 Reillys buried overseas or MIA and listed on memorials overseas. 5 were named Thomas and none of the 48 have the middle initial T.

 

If we are 100% certain he was from California, the lone match is this chap:

Thomas E. Reilly

Private, U.S. Army

Service # 39080025

US Infantry

Entered the Service from: California

Died: 2-Jul-42

Missing in Action or Buried at Sea

Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery

Manila, Philippines

 

Wrong service, wrong date, right name, right home state, right ocean. But kamikaze attacks didn't begin until 1944, and as an infantryman he was more likely to be MIA on the Philippines themselves than killed at sea.

 

Here's the man mentioned in my previous post:

Thomas F. Reilly

Seaman, First Class, U.S. Navy

Service # 8111716

United States Naval Reserve

Entered the Service from: New York

Died: 11-May-45

Missing in Action or Buried at Sea

Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial

Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Joined up from completely the wrong side of the country, but everything else fits.

 

So there's something wrong with the original story, but I'm now out of ideas other than asking Bob Beerbohm, whose comic store supposedly bought the collection. It is a great story, it would be unfortunate if it turned out to be fictional. Most pedigree stories start with "well, there was this nerd, see..."

[whetteon]

Assuming the enlisted Tom was still young enough to be living with his parents, which of the two men above are 21 or younger? Perhaps the story TOLD to Bob Beerbohm was incorrect? Or perhaps the way he remembered it when relaying the story was incorrect. Reminds me of the telephone game.

[The Black Hand ®]

It would be nice if we could get someone like Matt or Bob on to talk about this. I know military records can be really screwed up sometimes, names can be mispelled, etc.

[nearmint]

Matt Nelson's pedigree article mentions the kamikaze attack, and that it occurred sometime in 1945. Notified of their son's death, Reilly's parents stopped buying comics, leaving the collection in Tom's room, which they sealed for 27 years.

I wonder if the facts dug up from actual research will reveal this to be just a story dreamed up by a marketer or the real thing.

 

That would surprise me. I don't remember much marketing going on in the 70s when collections were discovered. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but even the concept of a pedigree comic book collection didn't come along until Chuck discovered the Church books, five years after the Reilly books came to market.

 

By the way, a bird just whispered in my ear that that Pep #22 CGC 7.5 is undergraded.

[The Black Hand ®]

Matt Nelson's pedigree article mentions the kamikaze attack, and that it occurred sometime in 1945. Notified of their son's death, Reilly's parents stopped buying comics, leaving the collection in Tom's room, which they sealed for 27 years.

I wonder if the facts dug up from actual research will reveal this to be just a story dreamed up by a marketer or the real thing.

 

That would surprise me. I don't remember much marketing going on in the 70s when collections were discovered. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but even the concept of a pedigree comic book collection didn't come along until Chuck discovered of the Church books, five years after the Reilly books came to market.

 

By the way, a bird just whispered in my ear that that Pep #22 CGC 7.5 is undergraded.

 

By the way, my wife just whispered in my ear that if I ever thought of selling off a duplex to buy that book, she'd perform a surgical castration.