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The Cookeville Collection
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233 posts in this topic

9 hours ago, walclark said:

I’m thankful to Mr. Mackie for sharing his memories of the Cookeville Collection.  He was a genuinely pleasant gentleman and we talked for a while about mutual acquaintances, his business, and his family.  While there is still a lot that we don’t know about the collection, we now add Marchbanks Drug Store to the story.

I'm thankful that a conscientious boardie researched this while one of the protagonists was still alive. (worship)

If only there were some of sort written document where we could gather the stories of all these different pedigrees.

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Does anybody here have any idea as to the highest grade achieved for a Cookville book to date so far?  hm

It would appear that most of the Cookville books tend run in this CGC 7.0 grade range or thereabouts and probably top out somewhere in the CGC 8.s.  Just wondering how this collection, amongst a few others, were ever able to meet CGC's original (but apparently no longer) key criteria of "pre-dominantly high grade condition" in order to achieve pedigree status?  (shrug)

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On 10/17/2020 at 3:24 PM, walclark said:

I was able to track down some additional information about the Cookeville Collection and thought the Board might find it interesting.  I had the opportunity to talk to Jimmie Mackie, the younger brother of Leroy Mackie, and he was kind enough to share a few additional details about the collection.

Leroy was born in 1930 and Jimmie in 1933.  Their family lived on South Jefferson Avenue in Cookeville, not far from the town square.  As the brothers got older, on Saturdays, their mother would give them each a dime and the boys would ride their bikes to the town square.  Sometimes that dime would be spent at the picture show, but more often than not, the Mackie boys would head to Marchbanks Drug Store.  This is where the boys bought the comics that would become known as the Cookeville Collection.

MarchbanksDrugStore.jpg.1539e25d0312346ac70ed89709289961.jpg

Jimmie (who later changed his name to Jimmy and eventually to James because he told his mother that Jimmie was the way girls would spell that name) remembered that the pharmacy had a soda fountain and sometimes that dime was spent on a malted or a sundae.  Often, he and Leroy would read the comics on the newsstand and eventually make a selection to take home.

At home, their father had built on to the home and added an attic space for the boys to store their things.  It was referred to as the “funny book room.”  Jimmie remembered the room with built in shelves for them to stack their comic books and as a place for them to store their marbles.  Apparently, he was quite the marble player and had amassed a fair number of them that were stored in a big bucket.  I would guess that the fact that the comics were stored out of sight in the “funny book room” is probably what saved the collection that familiar fate of so many other collections…”mom threw away my comics.”

The “funny book room” matches exactly with what Rick Frogge told me about the day that he, Harry Thomas, Geppi, and Overstreet went to move the collection out of the family home.  Jimmie didn’t know a lot about the details of the sale.  In fact, at that time, he didn’t know that Leroy had sold the comics.  He found out a few years later.  When cleaning out the house following the passing of their mother, Jimmie asked Leroy what happened to all the old comics and Leroy told him that silverfish had ruined them and he had thrown them out.  It was only later that he found out that Leroy had been selling some of the comics over a few years and then made the bulk sale.

Jimmie told me that Leroy was the big collector and only stopped buying comics when he joined the Air Force.  Maybe that’s why he didn’t sound at all bitter about the fact that his brother had sold their comic collection without his knowledge.  He told me that at one point Leroy had his daughters cataloging the comics, but he didn’t think those records exist anymore.

As to the big mystery about the initials on the comics, unfortunately, the passage of time has erased that memory.  Jimmie didn’t really remember the writing on the cover at all (I’m guessing that the clerks marking the covers and applying date stamps wasn’t that memorable to a kid that age).  He remembered that it was a couple of the female shop clerks that made the sundaes and rang up the boys’ purchases and he’s certain that it’s their initials on the comics.  And a note to CGC: despite what it says on the CGC website, the store clerks were sisters, but not the Mackie’s sisters.

I’m thankful to Mr. Mackie for sharing his memories of the Cookeville Collection.  He was a genuinely pleasant gentleman and we talked for a while about mutual acquaintances, his business, and his family.  While there is still a lot that we don’t know about the collection, we now add Marchbanks Drug Store to the story.

It should be mandatory that this kind of research be done as part of determining a pedigree.

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On 12/30/2020 at 1:20 PM, lou_fine said:

Does anybody here have any idea as to the highest grade achieved for a Cookville book to date so far?  hm

It would appear that most of the Cookville books tend run in this CGC 7.0 grade range or thereabouts and probably top out somewhere in the CGC 8.s.  Just wondering how this collection, amongst a few others, were ever able to meet CGC's original (but apparently no longer) key criteria of "pre-dominantly high grade condition" in order to achieve pedigree status?  (shrug)

There is a Comic Cavalcade #11 in an old school 9.2 label.  May have been the first Cookeville that I owned, but traded it away as a raw copy at a Chicago con many, many years ago.  It was in the Overstreet grading guide as a VF if I recall.

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/comic-cavalcade-11-dc-1945-cgc-nm-92-off-white-to-white-pages-wonder-woman-flash-and-green-lantern-make-cover-appea/a/14031-16254.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

 

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1 hour ago, walclark said:
On 12/30/2020 at 11:20 AM, lou_fine said:

It would appear that most of the Cookville books tend run in this CGC 7.0 grade range or thereabouts and probably top out somewhere in the CGC 8.s.  

There is a Comic Cavalcade #11 in an old school 9.2 label.

Probably one of the exceptions to the rule when it comes to high grade copies for this particular pedigree. :applause:

The same would probably also apply to the Eldon and Harold Curtis pedigrees which along with the Cookville's were all given pedigree status back in the summer of 2019 when CGC introduced their new pedigree label. hm

From my own personal point of view, definitely not on par with the Edgar Church and Allentown pedigree books when it came to condition quality.  (shrug)

Edited by lou_fine
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Y’all know how I feel about the “Paul” collection. Easily, the best collection I’ve ever run into. It ran from the early 1940’s up until the mid 1980’s. It also contained tons of early pulps and sci fi fanzines. Problem it was spotty and Joe never compiled a list. He sold them locally at shows and to me and another guy. Condition was a bit all over the place as well but most of what I bought was 6.0 or better. All GA. I saw a lot of the SA and it was more consistent in runs and high grade. I passed on them due to lack of money. 

I don’t really know how the Cookvilles really qualify compared to the “Paul’s”. 

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I think everyone knows how much I like the Cookeville collection.  It's like a hometown collection for me.  The town is about 80 miles from my home.  I have numerous ties to the area and I was really close to the two dealers that first brought the collection to the market.

Having said that, I disagree with its designation of pedigree status.  It's a nice collection with thousands of Golden Age comics, but I don't think it meets the criteria for a pedigree.  Of course, in and of themselves, the criteria are arbitrary.  It's not like there is a Federal Department of Comic Book Pedigrees.

I don't track the prices of Cookeville copies that closely, but my impression is that the market doesn't place any premium on the books.  Unlike Church, Okajima, Larson, etc., they certainly don't seem to sell at multiples versus similarly graded copies.  Maybe the market has spoken regarding the collection's status.

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I believe the Cookvilles were well documented and accepted by the collecting community. For this reason I think they should be noted as a “collection” but not a pedigree. As should the Curtis, Eldon and probably a few others. Seems like a bit of s money grab to me. 

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4 hours ago, walclark said:

I disagree with its designation of pedigree status.  It's a nice collection with thousands of Golden Age comics, but I don't think it meets the criteria for a pedigree. 

 

2 hours ago, Robot Man said:

I believe the Cookvilles were well documented and accepted by the collecting community. For this reason I think they should be noted as a “collection” but not a pedigree. As should the Curtis, Eldon and probably a few others. Seems like a bit of s money grab to me. 

Totally agree with both of you here as I made the exact same point on these boards when CGC first decided to add these 3 massively large mid-grade collections to their designated list of pedigrees when they introduced their new pedigree label back in the summer of 2019.  (thumbsu  

Although these 3 collections certainly didn't meet the key pedigree criteria of high grade condition quality, they were certainly easily identifiable and I could imagine CGC salivating at the thought of absolute thousands upon thousands of these books being resubmitted back into them for their pedigree labels (for a fee of course :devil:) over time upon eventual resale.  hm

One indirect benefit though was that I was able to position these 3 mid-grade pedigrees to convince the owner of the Chinatown Collection to give his collection another shot at obtaining a pedigree designation which from my own personal point of view was a no-brainer to me and more deserving of a pedigree designation which it did finally managed to achieve in the end:  :applause:  :luhv:

 

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