White Mountain Collection

This collection hits close to home for me, quite literally. You see, I was born and raised in the same state that these comics were discovered and spent many days of my youth hiking, camping and generally having a good time in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

This large collection of around 5,000 comics was discovered in 1984. The titles span from the year 1948, all the way into the 70's. It was one of the first collections that included Silver Age comics to be recognized by the industry as a pedigree. Before this collection, pedigrees were only given to collections with nothing but Golden Age or earlier comics.

Fantastic Four #1

When it was discovered, it was considered one of the nicest Silver Age collections to date. Keeping these comics in such good condition must have been difficult to do in the hot humid summers in New England. I read that they were kept in metal boxes, and that's why the covers are so vibrant, and the pages white, but they must have also been stored in a basement which also kept them nice and cool.

The original owner must have loved science fiction. There are many complete runs of titles from publishers like EC Comics and also has many nice runs of Silver Age comics for titles like Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man.

Amazing Fantasy #15

A couple of the highlights from this collection are the Amazing Fantasy #15 and Fantastic Four #1. The FF #1 is CGC graded a Universal 9.2 NM-. There are a handful of copies that are graded the same or higher than that. This copy was on the market back in 2012, and sold for an impressive $203,150 at Heritage Auctions.

The Amazing Fantasy #15, which is a CGC graded Universal 9.4 NM, was also sold at Heritage back in 2005. That copy ended up selling for $126,500. This copy would end up being put back on the market only two years later at Comic Link, and this time it sold for $227,000. 

Journey Into
Unknown Worlds #11

Looking at the sales for these two comics, it would seem like the White Mountain Collection is a solid investment, if you're able to afford copies. There are other comics from this collection that are far more affordable and still in high grade. For example, there was an CGC 8.5 VF+ copy of Journey Into Unknown Worlds #11 that sold last year for $956, and there are some auctions on eBay that range from a few hundred dollars all the way down to under $100. So, you don't have to be a millionaire to be able to afford a book from this collection, all you have to do is click on the links below and look through the search results.

Find White Mountain copies here

eBay - ComicLink - ComicConnect - Heritage

What is a Pedigree?

Before I start listing and throwing down some knowledge of known pedigrees, I thought I'd try and explain what they are first. A pedigree is a collection of comic books from the Golden and Silver Age. There are certain criteria that a collection must meet in order to be considered a pedigree. The criteria are as follows.

1) The collection must have been bought by one person off of the newsstand as they were released. Only comics bought in the 60's or earlier are eligible to become a pedigree collection some day. This means that you or I can't buy older, ungraded books from your local comic shop, at a convention or online and then 50 years from now the collection will become a pedigree. It doesn't work like that and that time has already come and gone, unless you hop into your Delorean and travel back to 1955 with Marty McFly. If you do, remember to bring extra plutonium.

2) The comics must be vintage. No Bronze or Copper Age and definitely no Modern Age books are allowed in pedigree collections. In fact, it was only fairly recently (the early to mid 90's) that the industry started to recognize Silver Age books in pedigree collections. If a collection consists solely of Silver Age books, they have to have an average grade of 9.4 or greater to be considered. That's a pretty tall order, but if it were lower than that, then every Tom, Dick, and Harry would have a pedigree collection and they wouldn't be nearly as sought out as they are now.

3) The collection must be more than a few comics. It has to consist of a considerable amount of books. There are some collections that have only one or two hundred books, but there are also collections with over 10,000. If the collection is a smaller one, then most of the comics in the collection have to have significant key issues in them, or be extremely rare.

4) The fourth and final requirement of a pedigree comic collection is that they must all be in high grade. This is pretty self explanatory. Like I mentioned before, a Silver Age collection must be of very high grade averaging a 9.4 or more. A Golden Age book is a little different. These books have to be high grade or the highest grade of those that are graded. For example, if your Golden Age key issue is only an 8.5, but all other known copies are only a 7.5 or 8.0, then that comic could be considered for the pedigree.

Well, If I did my job right and wrote clearly enough, then this should help you understand pedigree comics a little bit more. If I didn't, then you're probably just as confused as you were before, but I hope it helps you out.