Which GA Pedigree Has the "Freshest" Books?

[tth2]

Not being a GA collector, I`ve only seen a few GA pedigree books in person, the vast majority of them being Mile Highs (thanks RHG and Adamstrange!). Some of them were truly astounding in how "fresh" and "new" they looked (reflectivity of the ink, whiteness, etc.).

 

However, I`ve noticed recently a number of different GA pedigrees (mostly on Heritage) that feature the "White" page designation, and that generally look incredibly bright and fresh. In particular, the Vancouver books seem to be astoundingly fresh across the board, and we`ve seen Steve Carey show his incredibly fresh Central Valley books on these boards (actually, I guess I`ve seen a lot of them in person too, at the A-1 booth at SD last year).

 

From what I`ve seen, the candidates would be (in no particular order):

 

Edgar Church/Mile High

Tom Reilly/San Francisco

Vancouver

Central Valley

Spokane

Salidas

Carson City

Hawkeye

(If I`m missing any pedigree particularly notable for its freshness, please feel free to add)

 

I`m curious which pedigree folks here think have the highest degree of freshness on average, and to rank them if they can on that basis. And even among this rarified company, can people distinguish between them (e.g., are the Central Valley pages so much whiter and the covers so much glossier that someone would immediately know they are not MH`s) or is the difference relatively minimal?

[adamstrange]

Define "pedigree"

[tth2]

Define "pedigree"

Answer the question!

[EastEnd]

I think I read somewhere that the new pedigree book coming out later this year will rank the Gaines File Copies as having the highest average grade among the golden age pedigrees.

[stagedoorjohnny]

I think I read somewhere that the new pedigree book coming out later this year will rank the Gaines File Copies as having the highest average grade among the golden age pedigrees.

 

But when I think of "freshness", I'm thinking page quality more than techinical grade. I believe they are also ranking the average page quality of each pedigree as well in the upcoming book. Should be pretty cool.

[KingOfRulers]

Allentown should be added. Many of those books have OW pages. River City, Chicago, Rockford, Okajima, Ohio and Spokane books have lots of OW/W. Crowley has lots of OW/W too, but I think their page quality varies a lot more.

 

Mile Highs have good page quality, although I think many of the Dells and such fromt he 50's have not so great page quality (cream/offwhite). Reilly's have GREAT page quality too from what I've seen--largely OW/W. Salidas and Crescent City books have great quality too--many white pagers in there (although grades suffer as their not usually in the 9.0+ range). Its funny that these two smaller collections have some of the best page quality out of any of the pedigress out there.

 

Edit: Big Apple also has many white pagers. It might be the best of the major GA pedigrees in terms of page quality alone Not 100% certain though.

 

I think the better question is which pedigree does not have fresh pages? Most of them do. So just weed out the ones that aren't famed for page quality. Some of the not so great page quality pedigrees that I know of are Bethlehem (lots of dust shadows) and Mohawk Valley (many cream pagers). There's a couple more I can't think of right now.

 

Edit: Oh yeah. I remember now. Cosmic Aeroplane and Twilight pedigrees suffer from not so great page quality.

[EastEnd]

I think I read somewhere that the new pedigree book coming out later this year will rank the Gaines File Copies as having the highest average grade among the golden age pedigrees.

 

But when I think of "freshness", I'm thinking page quality more than techinical grade. I believe they are also ranking the average page quality of each pedigree as well in the upcoming book. Should be pretty cool.

 

Agreed, though I think you have to consider both when you're evaluating whether a book has a fresh, "like new" appearance. While there are some Gaines books with cream to off-white pages, most of them are off-white or better. There are also many Gaines books that grade out at 9.6 and 9.8 (grades that probably wouldn't be achieved if there were page quality issues).

 

Golden age Big Apple books from the forties also have terrific page quality and freshness (but not atom and silver age copies which have substantial page quality issues).

[adamstrange]

Define "pedigree"

Answer the question!

 

I seem to remember some guy on the boards arguing most convincingly that Vancouvers, Salidas, Central Valleys weren't pedigrees. I'm not sure exactly who he is but his initials were Tim Hui.

[The Black Hand ®]

Certainly not Crippen.

[sacentaur]

On average, Gaines copies probably achieve the highest technical grade across the board, but they just don't quite have that bold freshness to my eye that some other pedigrees do (and yes, I am an EC collector).

 

As an old-time collector, Church/Mile High will always probably rule the roost for me.

 

Riley/San Frans are great, but they've always felt a little stiff to my touch.

 

Vancouver, Central Valley, and Spokane are the three pedigrees that come to mind as just being eye-poppers.

 

Crippen, Crowley, and Rockfords just don't have it to compete with the elite.

 

Finally, there is a relatively unknown and small group of books, dubbed the New Hampshire pedigree, split long ago by Moondog and Metropolis, which are absolutely amazing (high grade, bone white pages); they would rank right up there with the best of them, trust me. What a terrible shame that some of the books were surreptitiously restored (very minor in every case that I'm aware of) prior to their release into the marketplace.

 

STEVE

[qualitycomix]

On average, Gaines copies probably achieve the highest technical grade across the board, but they just don't quite have that bold freshness to my eye that some other pedigrees do (and yes, I am an EC collector).

 

As an old-time collector, Church/Mile High will always probably rule the roost for me.

 

Riley/San Frans are great, but they've always felt a little stiff to my touch.

 

Vancouver, Central Valley, and Spokane are the three pedigrees that come to mind as just being eye-poppers.

 

Crippen, Crowley, and Rockfords just don't have it to compete with the elite.

 

Finally, there is a relatively unknown and small group of books, dubbed the New Hampshire pedigree, split long ago by Moondog and Metropolis, which are absolutely amazing (high grade, bone white pages); they would rank right up there with the best of them, trust me. What a terrible shame that some of the books were surreptitiously restored (very minor in every case that I'm aware of) prior to their release into the marketplace.

 

STEVE

 

Who did the resto? Moondog or Metro?

 

If I don't talk about Mile Highs, like everyone else then I go with Spokanes. White, white, white pages and covers.

 

I've never seen the Central Valley books, but I'd like to take a look at those to see how they compare.

[EJR]

I have never seen Central Valley books or Vancouver books either but as an old time collector with quite a few different pedigrees in my private collection over the past few decades, I would have to give the nod of freshest books to the Reilly collection with Church and Hawkeye copies right up there! Those Hawkeye All-Stars with their white pages were sure impressive to behold at the last Heritage Auction weren't they?

[tth2]

On average, Gaines copies probably achieve the highest technical grade across the board, but they just don't quite have that bold freshness to my eye that some other pedigrees do (and yes, I am an EC collector).

 

As an old-time collector, Church/Mile High will always probably rule the roost for me.

 

Riley/San Frans are great, but they've always felt a little stiff to my touch.

 

Vancouver, Central Valley, and Spokane are the three pedigrees that come to mind as just being eye-poppers.

Thanks Steve. I was hoping you`d be one of the guys weighing in. So if you flipped open some random books from the MH, Vancouver, CV and Spokane collections, do you think there`d be any noticeable differences between them in the page quality and if so, which do you think would stand out the most?

[tth2]

Those Hawkeye All-Stars with their white pages were sure impressive to behold at the last Heritage Auction weren't they?

They certainly were, and there`ve been some fabulous white paged Carson City books in the last few Heritage auctions, which led me to my question because so many incredibly fresh books from different pedigrees have shown up recently.

[lou_fine]

Those Hawkeye All-Stars with their white pages were sure impressive to behold at the last Heritage Auction weren't they?

They certainly were, and there`ve been some fabulous white paged Carson City books in the last few Heritage auctions, which led me to my question because so many incredibly fresh books from different pedigrees have shown up recently.

 

Tim;

 

It sounds as though you are almost doing some preliminary homework before you delve a bit more into the GA pedigree market. Especially now that you got your toes wet with the Church copies of Ibis.

[szelim]

Finally, there is a relatively unknown and small group of books, dubbed the New Hampshire pedigree, split long ago by Moondog and Metropolis, which are absolutely amazing (high grade, bone white pages); they would rank right up there with the best of them, trust me. What a terrible shame that some of the books were surreptitiously restored (very minor in every case that I'm aware of) prior to their release into the marketplace.

 

STEVE

Interesting. I read in the selling section that they also jointly acquired Guy Holcombe books. Do they often have such joint acquisitions?

[steelcity]

For the queston of pedigree related to page quality I would put Church and Spokane at the top of the list. If I had to choose between these two, I would say that Spokane books have the whitest pages I have ever seen!

[steelcity]

Palo Alto books also have very white pages, but the collection is not so diverse in terms of overall content. So, having seen many books from the Church and Spokane collections, I go (overall) with Spokane.

[sacentaur]

Who did the resto? Moondog or Metro?

 

I've always been happy with any/every book purchased from Moondog.

 

STEVE

 

[sacentaur]

Thanks Steve. I was hoping you`d be one of the guys weighing in. So if you flipped open some random books from the MH, Vancouver, CV and Spokane collections, do you think there`d be any noticeable differences between them in the page quality and if so, which do you think would stand out the most?

 

Personally I don't think there's a definitive answer...but if I was pressed to pick, I would give Vancouvers and Spokanes the "freshest" nod by the slimmest of margins.

 

STEVE