New Ultra High Grade Bronze Marvel Panhandle Collection Debuts in Pedigree Comics' Upcoming January Grand Auction

MAJOR MARVEL NEWS! Pedigree Comics' CEO and President, Doug Schmell, recently purchased a fabulous collection of almost 2,000 ultra high grade CGC certified Bronze Age Marvels and the first part of the collection (approximately 300 books) will debut in his company's upcoming January 2022 Grand Auction. The auction is scheduled to begin in just a few weeks, on the night of Sunday, January 2nd and last for ten (10) days until the night of Wednesday, January 12th as a separate event on the Pedigree Comics website (www.PedigreeComics.com). There is no Buyers Premium on any of the lots in the auction and EVERY book will be listed with no reserve. Every book is CGC graded and the minimum bid is only $20 for this auction. You can view the high grade comics in the Auction Preview right now (over 100 lots). Just go to the Pedigree Comics website and click on the Auction banner.

The Panhandle Collection is a brand new ultra high grade (almost all 9.4 and higher) CGC graded collection of mostly Bronze Age Marvels out of Fort Walton Beach, Florida (in the area known as the Florida Panhandle). The Collection is just unbelievable and features approximately 2,000 certified Bronze Age Marvels with some late Silver Age books included. The collection spans the years 1968 through the early 1980's and features almost every Marvel title imaginable save for Amazing Spider-Man (the collector wasn't ready to part with his prized Spideys just yet but we are hoping to have them soon enough!). Almost every book is a CGC graded 9.4 or 9.6 with only a few in 9.2 and there are many 9.8's as well. There are a bunch of titles with nice runs (too many to mention here), but the most significant are Amazing Adventures, Astonishing Tales, Avengers, Captain America, Captain Savage, Chamber of Chills, Conan the Barbarian, Creatures on the Loose, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Fear, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Jungle Action, Marvel Team-Up, Master of Kung-Fu, Monsters on the Prowl, Power Man, Star Wars, Supernatural Thrillers, Tarzan, Vault of Evil, War is Hell and Where Monsters Dwell.

The collector started buying comic books in 1968 at age 7, purchasing a bundle of books that were tied together with string (10 used books at a time for 25 cents) and this started his love for the Marvel Universe. When his father, who was in the Armed Forces, was ordered back to the United States in 1972, they both started weekly pilgrimages (every Saturday) to a local book store called Book Harbor, where the collector would pick up every Marvel title he could get his hands on, carefully reading every book. He would then preserve each one in a polypropylene bag and backing board, standing vertically on the shelves of the many different bookcases in his house.

He continued buying Marvels while in college from 1980 through 1984 but his collection really took off in 1985 after getting his degree in education and a steady paycheck as he was now able to afford all the back issues of titles he had always dreamed of getting. When CGC started operations in 2000, he began sending all his books in for certification. Almost every book came back a Near-Mint (9.4) or higher, with off-white to white page quality, a testament to the method in which he stored his prized comic books. He also started buying books from local dealers, mostly from Pedigree Comics, and he and Mr. Schmell became friends.

He decided to sell the collection in June of this year and contacted Mr.Schmell. After some back and forth negotiations, a purchase price of $200,000 was agreed upon. The entire collection will be sold in separate
auctions throughout 2022, each showcasing around 300 books, starting in January. The collection will be listed alphabetically, with the superhero titles first, and will end with the monster/horror/fantasy titles (one of the best and highest graded parts of the collection) which he loved so much.

If you have any questions or comments about the consignment process, any of the auction lots or about the Panhandle Collection in general, please contact Mr. Schmell at (561) 422-1120 (office) or (561) 596-9111 (cell) or at [email protected]. For any financial related and consignment payment questions, please contact their CFO, Lisa Shapiro, at [email protected] and for any technical related questions or concerns, please contact their Web Master at [email protected].