Widely regarded as the pre-eminent Silver Age collection of comic books in the world, the Pacific Coast Collection was founded by Robert Roter of Pacific Comic Exchange Inc. in 1999, thus the pedigree’s name. The original owner began selling some of his Marvels piecemeal on Ebay before Mr. Roter bought his entire holding of more than seven thousand comic books.
For years, the White Mountain collection of comic books, originating out of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, was widely considered the greatest of all the Silver Age pedigrees. It was the earliest of the Silver Age collections to appear (in 1984) and included many diverse publishers and titles, many from the Atom Age (1950’s). The original owner of the books loved science fiction titles, so most publishers’ sci-fi comic books graced this collection of approximately 5,000 books, which spanned the years 1948 into the early 1970’s. Incredibly, the White Mountains consisted of almost complete runs of the EC titles (the first books offered to Jerry Weist of the Million Year Picnic in Cambridge, Mass. in 1984), Atlas, Avon, Ziff-Davis and Marvel; approximately one-half of the Fawcett and Harvey titles and most of the DC science fiction books. It was only with the more recent emergence of the Pacific Coast and Curator collections in the late 1990’s that the White Mountains have taken a back seat.
As a life-long collector of Marvel comic books and, more recently, a dealer who has started an internet company devoted exclusively to consigning, buying and selling ultra high grade certified Marvels and magazines, I feel I have a unique perspective of the Silver and Bronze Age Marvel market from both a buyer’s and seller’s standpoint. Since Pedigree Comics only deals in Marvel comics and magazines from these eras, I will not comment on any other segment of the comic book market.
