Perfectly Centered 9.8 White X-Men From World's Best X-Men Collection in Pedigree Comics’ September Grand Auction

X-TRA! X-TRA! Read all about it! Pedigree Comics recently received on consignment an incredible run of Bronze Age X-Men for their upcoming September Grand Auction. The auction is scheduled to begin in just a few days, on the night of Monday, August 30th and last for ten (10) days until the night of Thursday, September 9th 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 have no reserve. Every book is CGC graded and the minimum bid is only $20 for this Auction. You can view the initial high grade X-Men comics in the Auction Preview right now (almost 600 lots). Just go to the website and click on the Auction banner.

The brand new X-Men consignment contains a complete run of over 500 issues between Giant-Size X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #544 plus most of the Annuals and is easily the nicest and highest certified group of Bronze Age X-Men ever offered for sale! EVERY issue is at least a CGC certified 9.8, with many 9.9's and 10.0's, including a complete 9.8 run of CGC Signature Series signed Paul Smith issues!! Amazingly, every issue in the collection that is not a 9.8 is a 9.9 or a 10.0!

The consignment comes out of Washington state and the CGC Registry Set and Award Winning collection of Steve Nelsen, an X-Men and Wolverine enthusiast and collector who is well known on the CGC boards under his handle, worldsbestcomics. Here is his story:

“Whenever a comic collector was introduced to Steve Nelsen, worldsbestcomics on the CGC Boards, they would frequently ask, “Do you have the world’s best comics?” And he would smile and reply, “I have some of them.” Boy is that the truth.

I’ve enjoyed reading comics my whole life but I didn’t really begin collecting comics until the new X-Men launched in 1975. I focused on bronze and copper Marvel books because that is what I enjoyed and could afford. But I also enjoyed Valiant books and silver age Disney books and sketch covers.

I collected coins with my dad when I was a kid and he taught me to appreciate high-grade items. I remember when CGC first started grading comics. There were a lot of dealers and collectors who scoffed and treated them as a novelty. But I remembered how professional 3rd party grading from reputable companies like NGC had changed the coin collecting market and I believed the same thing would happen to comics. So I began focusing my collection on high-grade CGC books, especially mint grade books when I could find them.

I was always very picky about the condition of my comics, even before CGC, so many of the books in my CGC runs were submitted from my personal collection.

I had always planned on selling my books around 2025 but there is so much demand for them now that I felt the timing was good. I have bought a lot of books from Pedigree Comics over the years and I felt selling my collection with Doug would make the process more enjoyable; more of a celebration of a lot of fun work and wise decisions.

I really enjoyed finding visually superior books, digging out rare variants and getting difficult signatures so there are a lot of books in these two auctions that will be particularly appealing to discriminating collectors and completists. Some examples besides all the mint books include “The White King”, a gorgeous and simply brilliant white copy of Giant-Size X-Men 1 that looks mint; 9.8 copies of the first appearance of Alpha Flight and The Hellfire Club (and, well, everyone since every book in the run is at least 9.8); the first (and only?) complete 9.8 run of signed Paul Smith X-Men issues; the first, and highest graded, copy of the super rare “Bone Claws” Wolverine 145 error variant; a 9.8 copy of the Wolverine 1 Campbell variant, and some very hard to find 9.8 2nd prints and newsstand editions that are far more valuable than the first prints.

But, it would be wrong to gloss over and fail to mention all the mint books. There has never been an auction with this many (36 in all!) CGC-graded 9.9 and 10.0 X-Men and Wolverine books, including key issues like Wolverine Limited Series #1 (1982), Wolverine #1 (1988), Wolverine #1 (2003) and the first appearance of Gambit in X-Men Annual #14. This a rare opportunity to upgrade even the very best X-Men and Wolverine collections."

All 500-plus issues will be featured in the September Grand Auction and will be offered with no reserve amount. As an added bonus, EVERY book has white page quality (save for just a couple) with none less than off-white to white. There are many great issues and iconic covers included in the run and almost every book is the single highest or highest certified copy to date.

The focus of this article is the group of perfectly centered, white-paged 9.8 X-Men issues that is the featured run of the auction. These books are literally newsstand MINT and are unsurpassed in overall quality. They are all the nicest known examples in the world and all are the highest certified copies according to the CGC census. Here are the highlights:

Giant-Size X-Men 1 9.8 white
X-Men 96 9.8 white
X-Men 97 9.8 white
X-Men 99 9.8 white
X-Men 100 9.8 white
X-Men 101 9.8 white (CGC Signature SERIES)
X-Men 103 9.8 white
X-Men 104 9.8 white
X-Men 105 9.8 white
X-Men 106 9.8 white (Don Rosa Collection)
X-Men 107 9.8 white
X-Men 108 9.8 white
X-Men 111 9.8 white
X-Men 112 9.8 white
X-Men 114 9.8 white
X-Men 115 9.8 white
X-Men 116 9.8 white
X-Men 117 9.8 white
X-Men 120 9.8 white
X-Men 121 9.8 white
X-Men 122 9.8 white
X-Men 125 9.8 white
X-Men 129 9.8 white
X-Men 130 9.8 white
X-Men 131 9.8 white
X-Men 132 9.8 white
X-Men 133 9.8 white
X-Men 136 9.8 white
X-Men 139 9.8 white

Please check the website and this space over the next few weeks for all the details and new listings in the auction. Please make sure to check out the upcoming Grand Auction featuring the second part of the collection, the Wolverine issues, starting on October 4th.

If you have high grade CGC or CBCS certified comic books to sell or consign, do yourself a favor and contact Pedigree Comics' CEO and President, Doug Schmell. Please go to the site (www.PedigreeComics.com)and read the following for all consignment information or contact him directly at (561) 422-1120 or (561) 596-911 or by email at [email protected].

Pedigree Comics is still accepting consignments for the World's Best X-Men & Wolverine Auction and will continue to do so until the night of Monday, August 30th. The sooner you consign your books the more exposure they will receive. Pedigree Aggressively promotes and advertises each auction and sends periodic newsletters to all of their over 25,000 customers announcing the auction items. They also offer generous cash advances for quality consignments so check the site for consignment instructions and get your books in now.

Mr. Schmell invites you to take advantage of Pedigree’s many outstanding services. Consignors maximize their profits selling in a Grand Auction, more so than on any other auction site or auction house. They do not charge a buyers’ premium, an amount that most bidders take into consideration when bidding in other sites (the bidders simply deduct the buyers’ premium amount, usually 20% of the winning price, from their final bid, meaning less $$ to the consignor and more to the auction site). The higher the value of your book(s) that sell in a Grand Auction, the more $$ you take home under Pedigree Comics’ Climbing Scale as follows:

A Climbing Scale is in effect for consigned comics with a winning bid
as follows:

10% Commission for any consigned item that sells up to $10,000 (Consignor’s Proceeds = $90% of the final bid price);

9% Commission for any consigned item that sells over $10,000 and up to $25,000 (Consignor’s Proceeds = $91% of the final bid price);

8% Commission for any consigned item that sells over $25,000 and up to $50,000 (Consignor’s Proceeds = $92% of the final bid price);

6% Commission for any consigned item that sells over $50,000 and up to $100,000 (Consignor’s Proceeds = $94% of the final bid price);

5% Commission for any consigned item that sells over $100,000 (Consignor’s Proceeds = $95% of the final bid price).

Pedigree consistently sets new sales records for Golden Age, Silver Age and Bronze Age comic books in each of their bi-monthly auctions and they do not saturate the market with the same material each month. They also specialize and feature quality consignments and collections in their own exclusive auction, something that other auction houses simply can not do. Grand Auctions are unique and exciting, with brand new CGC and CBCS certified and diversified, highest quality material in each event. Why take home less $$ and settle for less by consigning with someone else?

There are three easy ways to consign your books to the upcoming World's Best X-Men & Wolverine Auctions. The only criteria is that the books must be CGC or CBCS graded and worth no less than $100.00. If you have high grade raw books that you want to have certified and sold in the September Auction or a future Grand Auction, you can utilize Pedigree’s Raw To Riches Consignment Service, in which they will have your books certified under their account and will lay out all the CGC or CBCS grading fees in advance for you (refer to the website and their Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide advertisement for all the details of the Raw to Riches Consignment Service). Here is how to consign:

1. Ship your books to their offices in Wellington, Florida. They will inventory, scan and upload each book into the Grand Auction listing. The items will be listed under your personal account and you will receive email notification at the conclusion of the auction with a list of every consigned book that sold along with the winning bid made.

2. Email the scans of the books you wish to consign directly to them at [email protected]. They will format and upload each scan onto their server and then put each book into the Grand Auction listing. Please use a .jpeg format with the resolution set at 72 and the pixel width at no more than 1200 for optimum clarity. If you do not have a scanner you can use a digital camera.

3. You can upload your own scans, item information, book descriptions and reserve amounts, if any, by utilizing their Automated Consignment System. Just register onto the site (www.PedigreeComics.com) and login, click the “Customer Page” tab under “Your Account” and then click “Consignments” (under the “Auctions” heading). You will then be able to enter the Pedigree Comics Consignment Management System and list your own CGC and CBCS certified books. You will receive an email once you have uploaded the scan and book information for each individual item into the system and they will then review the information imparted for accuracy. The item(s) will then be added to the Grand Auction listing to be bid on. You will be amazed how simple it is to use the Automated Consignment System.

If you have any questions or comments about the consignment process, any of the auction lots or about the World's Best X-Men Auction 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].