Matt Nelson

Actually the problem isn't money or even the writing. Gathering the stories from people involved became the most time consuming thing, requiring a lot of coordinated schedules and hours of phone conversations. This was no problem when Steve was still in the Air Force and Classics was just starting to grow. But once worldwide started, everything snowballed from there. Time got scarce. It only made things more difficult when we moved apart. I logged all of the original lists and CGC data years ago. About 1/3 of the stories are completed. The website is up. There is an end in sight, but there is still a lot of work to do. One advantage of the time lapse is that both of us now see new ways to streamline the book that will make it more relevant and well put together.

The advertising is a separate issue, but the completion of the book was never in question. We do have some fresh ideas that may kickstart the project. Stay tuned.

We handled all of your issues and in a professional manner. Your emails were derogatory. You are welcome to post them here if you'd like people to judge for themselves.

Yes, for us the winter was always slower, and a good time to catch up. Not so this time. Business is booming. I am working on getting the TATs back down as soon as possible. My main concern is and has always been making sure the work is top notch, so I can't rush things. A thank you to all who are being patient. Jeff, the upcharges you refer to are you running $2000 books through the modern tier, then getting upset when we bump you.

I get a lot of questions about QP. They go through the same process as full press books, but any defects that remain will not be removed. A QP usually removes most or all defects, depending on the grade of the book. Moderns are not the only candidates for pressing. In fact, the lower the grade, the more dramatic the improvement, so this is a good service for VG to VF. There is no prescreen option for QP books, but the value limit is only $200, so any high value books that would benefit from a screening don't qualify anyway. Just watch out for excessive tanning or weak spines and staples. I don't disassemble books for pressing, and frown upon anyone who does it for that purpose. All CCS books are carefully QC'd after pressing to ensure they are fully and properly pressed. This has been and always will be the case. The past month or so QP got backed up, but we are back to the 1-2 week turnaround.

It will definitely see print. Steve and I are constantly discussing it, but we just have not had the time to finish it. Business and personal lives suck up every available minute right now. What is left to do is write the last stories listed on the pedigree site. Easier said than done, because each one requires several phone calls, data crunching, drafts, picture layout, etc. After the stories are done, then I can write the front and back part of the book, which is basically the overview, compare and contrast of all the pedigrees. I scheduled work to resume on my end right after the NY show in October, but here we are two months later, and work has not slowed down at all. December may as well be July. Which I'm thankful for, but it's preventing me from putting time in to get the book done. I'm now pinning my hopes on January to March to devote to the book. One of my biggest pet peeves is not finishing something I start, so this will be done, come hell or high water. I had no idea writing this kind of book would be such a massive undertaking. Hang in there everyone, it will see print.

When I get home I can provide you with a couple Penn book scans. And don't you forget to add my Fight Comics #19 Church book either! Sure, email them to me. No promise as to what will make the book, but we'll add them to the database.

yes, bottomless and unshaved.

bring it on! Ponscon was just a blast, by the way. We really gave the boys a run for their money in football Saturday.

Hey Bob, good to hear you'll be at the NY show. There's several ways to look at that 3%...one is that the Windy City collection is huge, and many books in it would not rate CGC grading because of their lower value. Also, the collection was split up many years ago, and I'm sure a lot of them are not marked as Windy City anymore. And several of those that are worthy of grading are likely sitting in collections that haven't been touched in years. A collection like Gaines will have a very high % CGC graded, since most copies are extremely high grade and active in the market. Crippens will too since they just came out, and the family opted to have many graded for auction. San Frans were broken up a long time ago, but I'm assuming most had either the stamp or the arrival date, so they stand out. And most are incredible grade and the type of books that warrant CGC grading. Given the thousands that should be in the collection, 3% is kinda small.

Actually, we're building a database for this right now. We've cobbled together several thousand scans of pedigree books from various sources, and once the book is finished, go live with the archive on comicpedigrees.com. From that point, users will be able to sign in and upload any scans of pedigrees to the database. There are many, many little details to be ironed out, but that is the jist of it. Eventually the original lists may be up there to serve as a checklist, so there is a goal to shoot for. In essence we'll be re-assembling each collection! And this is just a part of the plans we have for the website in the future. Once the book is out, the website will pick up from there and move forward with live data for the pedigree collections.

Hi everyone! Now that Stephen Ritter and I are here together in Dallas, Worldwide is off and running and the new year is upon us, we’re both racing to the finish line on our Pedigree book. First off, let me give a big Thank You to everyone for being patient, and especially to our advertisers whose support has, and will make this project a success. When I started this back in 2003, I had no idea how much of an undertaking it is to write a book. Stephen and I work on the book only in our spare time, time which seems to be continually shrinking day to day. So going forward, we decided now would be the perfect time to start an official pedigree thread to provide updates, ask research questions, and create a place for everyone to post thoughts, comments, etc. To start off, we pose these five questions below to anyone reading. Feel free to either respond here, or contact us privately if that is your prerogative. My email is matt@comicpedigrees.com, and Stephen’s is Stephen@wwcomics.com. The more response we get to our questions, the more questions we will post. Comicpedigrees.com, the official website for the pedigree book has also been updated, which now includes a checklist of where we’re at with each of the 48 collections. This list will be updated as we progress with each story. Our hope is to have the book finished and out during this year’s convention season. We’ll be checking this thread almost every day, but please give us at least a day or two to post, as we tend to get swamped at work. Stephen is leaving for the NY show on Saturday, and I’ll be at Ponscon all this weekend, followed by my trip to NY next Tuesday. Of course we’ll be set up with our huge inventory from wwcomics.com, and I’ll be doing my on-site proscreens for pressing and restoration for classicsincorporated.com. (shameless plug) Without further ado, here are the first five questions of the thread: 1. Did anyone buy any key issues from an antique dealer couple named the Thompsons in the '70s? The collection they purchased would go on to be considered the Kansas City pedigree, which happens to be the oldest pedigree among our 48. 2. Can anyone provide scans of Kansas City books? 3. Has anyone ever seen a San Francisco pedigree copy from the Nedor/Standard/Better publisher before? 4. It appears that the Pennsylvania collection original list is lost. Does anyone know of big key issues from this collection? 5. Does anyone have contact info for Bob Gray, broker of the Twilight collection (owner of Twilight Book and Game Emporium, Syracuse, NY)? Thanks for reading…I hope we see some interesting feedback and discussions here. Matt Nelson

Ha, you know I wasn't insinuating YOU guys would come up with that idea, Steve! I could have sworn I saw a few of the restored books without Cage notes on them, but if they're there, my whoops. And I don't want to downplay Cage unknowingly buying restored books. That is bad, bad, bad. The restored books will obviously sell for way less than if they were unrestored. No one should have to suffer that fate, even wealthy movie stars. Matt

Hopefully I can be of some help straightening out the Cage questions floating around here...I cataloged almost the entire collection for Heritage a few weeks ago, and saw every single book front and back. There are indeed just a few restored books, compared to the total number in the sale. I didn't do a tally (wish I did), but in terms of percentage, it's very low. Out of 350-400 individual books, I'm guessing maybe 40 or 50 had work...so 10-12%? But of these 10%, some constituted a large portion of the collection's value. The Mile High Adventure #40 has a tiny bit of color touch. The Mile High Cap #1 has a bit of color touch, tear seal, and a cleaned cover. Some of the keys have small work, like cleaned covers or small color touch or support. I think this is where the percentages get confusing. Talking about number of books, it's small. Value wise, it's bigger, although I wouldn't say anywhere near 70%. There are many other things to consider as well. These books were bought over a span of many years, at older market values. I don't know what was bought when, and I can't say for certain if he'll make money or lose money on this sale--something only he and his accountant know. But the collection is very valuable...$2 Million? Who knows, I certainly didn't bother to add it up. How crazy the market is now, there's no telling what they'll sell for. Side note: most of the purple labeled books do not have the "from the Nicolas Cage collection" on them. The giant books do, like the Adventure #40. In my opinion, this is a big snub to restored books. I wonder who's idea it was to do this. Not good for the hobby's impression of restored books. Did Steve Fishler not disclose the restoration to Cage? From the rumors that are swirling about, it certainly seems that there were a few that got in under the radar. But how many? All of them? Just the Mile Highs? Again, something only he can answer. I will say that the majority of the restored books had very light work on them. The kind that can easily pass without detection. Is it possible even Steve didn't spot some of the work? I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but either way, it's not good press for him. On a brighter note, the UNrestored stuff was amazing. The early Adventure run, one of the toughest to complete, was almost all there (#1-102). I think it was missing 15 or so issues, mostly pre-hero. A nice chunk of Mile High copies were part of it, and they were stunning. The Adventure #40 is a killer, killer book, despite the purple label. I promise you'll never see a nicer copy. I'd buy it any day of the week. Marvel Mystery #1-92 isn't too shabby either. Both #1's (Oct and Nov, both unrestored) are pretty, and the #2 and #4 are eye-popping. Lots of pedigrees, lots of high grades. Planet #1-72 are all mid to high grade, no pedigrees, and I think only one had a purple label. A very uniform run of books, almost as if they were bought together. There are some fantastic covers there! Oh, and the #1 is dead NM. The MH All-Star #3 9.6 is amazing. The MH Cap #1 is amazing. Even in high grade that book can look dull, but the Mile High copy has colors and corners that defy description. Graded a 9.0, I bet it gives the $265,000 NM+ 9.6 a run for it's money. Also a run of Mile High Catmans, a run of Power, most of the Timely key issues, a bunch of DC keys (but no Batmans! Go figure. Guess he gave up on that franchise), and a Thrill #1. Or Flash, forget which. The most interesting lot to see was his Luke Cage run, since this is what he based his professional name on. I noticed multiple issues on some, and a few were unbagged and ragged. Could these be his childhood copies? No way of knowing, although that would be a great question to ask if anyone ever ran into him. I think that lot may see some heated bidding. And it guides for nothing. Hope this information lays questions to rest. Matt Nelson