Ohio pedigree
The Ohio pedigree gets its name in part because the actual original owner’s name is unknown. He or she chose to remain anonymous but resided in Ohio (comics from the collection began to appear in the Akron, Ohio market).
The books were sold to and subsequently distributed beginning in 1994 by collector/dealer Nelson Dodds. He noted the Ohio pedigree on the mylar sleeves of the books he sold – not just to collectors at Comic Con conventions throughout the U.S. but also in bulk directly to other dealers.
The Ohio comic books are typically marked with distributor codes in the form of a letter C, slash and date. Written in grease pencil, pen, marker or lead pencil – comics published in the same month used the same technique. Additionally, there is “the Ohio bend” – a faint crease (rarely breaking color) down the center of the book due to being stored folded slightly in half and kept in newspaper bags. The comics are all generally noted for high page quality.
The collection began in the early ’40s and spanned an amazing 30-year period, encompassing a wide variety of publishers and genres totaling over 6,000 comics.
My Ohio Pedigree Plastic Man #10 (complete with football cover) is an interesting “cautionary tale” in that it sold in May of 2006 in a GCG slab as a 9.0 grade. I purchased it April 2019 “re-slabbed” as 7.5. Let this be a warning if your tempted to “crack-out” those CGC slabbed books.
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