The Western Penn Pedigree and What I Know 3 3

[jimjum12]

On 5/14/2021 at 2:00 PM, lou_fine said:

I remember reading Keith's market reports in the Overstreet Updates because that was always a rather uplifting positive read.  

Heard he got himself into some hard times after that and was wondering if he was still wandering God's green Earth or has he gone down under?    

KEITH CONTARINO ... R.I.P. 

GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 5/14/2021 at 1:00 PM, lou_fine said:

I remember reading Keith's market reports in the Overstreet Updates because that was always a rather uplifting positive read.  

Heard he got himself into some hard times after that and was wondering if he was still wandering God's green Earth or has he gone down under?    

I read his columns too. Seems he was always saying the Fantastic Four truly WAS the worlds greatest comic magazine! His enthusiasm was infectious. As @linmothsays, he came to a sad end. 

[namisgr]

I owned just a small handful of Silver Age books from the pedigree, like the Spiderman Annual #3, but a whole lot of Bronze.  Amazingly, after 21 years of third party grading, this Western PA copy is still the only 9.8, from the one month that Marvel raised prices from 15 cents and made every book a giant-size:

Edited May 16, 2021 by namisgr

[jimjum12]

2 minutes ago, namisgr said:

I owned just a small handful of Silver Age books from the pedigree, but a whole lot of Bronze.  Amazingly, after 21 years of third party grading, this is still the only 9.8:

I owned a 9.8 once... but quickly tuned it into a 7.0 in the backseat of my parent's station wagon. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[namisgr]

Several years ago, Heritage auctioned off the entire Master of Kung Fu run from the Western PA collection.  In two lots, I acquired 61 of the books, the complete run from 66-125 plus the Annual.  Gorgeous near mint copies, although with off white to white pages.

Edited May 16, 2021 by namisgr

[linmoth]

I thought they were in the catalog. They were! We use to joke around that the Bronze Age books would never be worth anything. 😩

Edited May 16, 2021 by linmoth

[namisgr]

44 minutes ago, linmoth said:

I thought they were in the catalog. They were! We use to joke around that the Bronze Age books would never be worth anything. 😩

 

They weren't at the time.  But many decades later, and the sole Incredible Hulk #145 in cgc 9.8 grade sold last year for $2700.  

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by namisgr

[electricprune]

On 5/14/2021 at 11:21 AM, DanCooper said:

Hey Tom, GREAT stuff and thanks for pictures!

I think I may have found your WP Showcase 43 floating around in the ComicConnect archives (sold this past December 2020 for $1,650)

 

Had I seen that auction, it could have gone for a lot more than that. Bummed I missed it.

[TheBigJ]

Here's a couple of Avenger WP's

 

[TheBigJ]

Yeah I know, Avengers WP's are bronze books!

[linmoth]

BigJ: We don’t discriminate in this thread. It was listed by me in the Silver Age but that is because they are the books I was most familiar with. Bring them on! Wonderful way to honor a great pedigree.

I don’t have any holier than thou issues! I think all collectors should b proud of their books and want to show them to others.

[Microchip]

[TeddieMercede]

9 hours ago, DanCooper said:

The MGA 80 was sold on Comic Link last August 2020 for $26,105. Heritage also shows the copy being sold twice, in back to back years 2004 and 2005:

Believe this book is still in its original holder. Beautiful book.

[DanCooper]

2 minutes ago, TeddieMercede said:

Believe this book is still in its original holder. Beautiful book.

It is Teddie (or at least it was at the time of the Comic Link auction last August)

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?id=1422024

[linmoth]

Great books Microchip but you have a ways to go to corner the market on Captain Marvel 1. I counted 9 in the catalog. As I said earlier in the thread, the OO bought between 10-20 copies of the later 60’s #1’s.

[linmoth]

1 hour ago, TeddieMercede said:

Believe this book is still in its original holder. Beautiful book.

If they’re Western Penn and in original holders they have never been manipulated. Just as they were found in the basement of Western Pa.

[tth2]

10 hours ago, DanCooper said:

The MGA 80 was sold on Comic Link last August 2020 for $26,105. Heritage also shows the copy being sold twice, in back to back years 2004 and 2005:

Thanks for putting this up, which reminded me of the miswrap, which is why I didn't go after it and preferred to go after the Curator or PC copies (neither of which I got in the end  )

[tth2]

10 hours ago, DanCooper said:

MGA 80 Western Penn past auction results (all same copy)

2004 - $4,945 (Heritage)

2005 - $4,312 (Heritage)

2020 - $26,105 (Comic Link)

 

 I imagine it got a boost from the Doom Patrol TV series, and the Covid asset bubble, but still!  wow!

[tth2]

7 hours ago, namisgr said:

8 hours ago, linmoth said:

I thought they were in the catalog. They were! We use to joke around that the Bronze Age books would never be worth anything. 😩

 

They weren't at the time.  But many decades later, and the sole Incredible Hulk #145 in cgc 9.8 grade sold last year for $2700.  

Yup, that's what everyone thought, except for a few BA keys! 

I remember Dan Greenhalgh dumping off all the BAs and Coppers of the 3rd- and 4th-tier titles from the Winnipeg collection on Doug Schmell for peanuts because they were the dreck of the collection and it wasn't worth his time to sell them off piecemeal. 

That turned out to be a goldmine for Doug. 

[Microchip]

On 5/17/2021 at 11:31 AM, linmoth said:

Great books Microchip but you have a ways to go to corner the market on Captain Marvel 1. I counted 9 in the catalog. As I said earlier in the thread, the OO bought between 10-20 copies of the later 60’s #1’s.

Thats a sizeable chunk of the 68' starter books in the census.   It's no wonder those books are some of the most tightly graded issues out there, the WP's set the bar high from the get-go of CGC.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Microchip