The Central Valley Pedigree collection

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The story involves a motel, a bag of gold coins, and a loaded handgun. A juicy crime novel? Naw, just another day in the life of Brian Peets, owner of A-1 Comics, and dealmaker in even the most peculiar situations.

For over 13 years, Brian has kept a lid on one of the best collections he's ever been lucky enough to come across. Until recently, he didn't have a name for the collection, but he certainly had a good story about how he bought it; "I was given the number of a motel in Grass Valley, and immediately placed a call to the individual's room at the motel. After a short conversation in which I verified the type and quality of the books, I made the one hour drive to Grass Valley from my location in Sacramento. Finding the motel was easy, but seeing the books for the first time was breathtaking."

Brian wasn't prepared for what he saw. Before him, spread out over the entire bed, where Golden Age comics whiter and fresher than anything he had ever witnessed. Four Color, Batman, Superman, Tarzan, Tip Top, Famous Funnies...all with the most amazing colors, almost glowing.

His excitement and enthusiasm were rewarded with access to the rest of the collection.

"He pulled a canvas bag out of a foot locker, and spilled the contents onto the one corner of the bed that was not covered with comics. The largest pile of gold coins I had ever seen, and right in the middle of all those coins a loaded handgun! As he picked the gun up he stated, 'and I keep this with me to keep people from messing with me.' Point taken."

Brian did the deal, and then did something that most people in his situation don't do; he kept them. He didn't sell them immediately, not even a couple years later. He knew he had something special, and realized that he may never see another collection like it again. Now, after 13 years and one agonizing decision later, the newly pedigreed "Central Valley Collection" is making its public debut on comicpedigrees.com, and samples will be available for viewing at the A-1 Comics exhibitor booth this next week at the San Diego Comic Con.

Nearly every comic is being CGC graded. Steve Borock, CGC's president and primary grader, had this to say; "When I went out to see the collection, it blew away all of my expectations. After working at CGC and grading almost a million books, and owning some of the best books in the world prior to CGC, I have never seen some of these issues in any grade, let alone in these high grades. The page quality of these books rivals, if not blows away the quality of the Mile Highs and San Franciscos.

"This collection represent a tough time period during the Golden Age of comics," continues Borock. "When the collection finally hits the market, it will give seasoned collectors who have been forever looking for these scarce comics an opportunity to finally obtain high grade examples of books they thought they never could."

Matt Nelson, CBP president, is thrilled to introduce the Central Valley books to everyone. "This is a great springboard for what I hope will become the epicenter for pedigreed comics. Brian's collection is fantastic not only because of the quality, but because it was kept intact, and its transition into the market will be completely documented through both CGC and our website. It's a trend that I hope continues in the future."

Nelson continues; "We plan on expanding the website considerably over the next two years to include a database of all existing pedigreed comics. It's a daunting feat, especially when I say it out loud. But many of these books represent the best of what exists in our hobby, and they should be documented. We've got many of the original lists, so it's simply a matter of connecting the dots."

Click here to view scans of the entire Central Valley Pedigree Collection.