One of my personal favorites is the "Green River" pedigree. The books are great and the story behind the collection is definitely "different". And if you're a "date stamp" kind of person, this collection is for you.

Green River

The Green River pedigree is an interesting pedigree through and through. It contains mostly Marvel and DC books from the early 1960’s to the late 1960’s. There are approximately 2,400 books that make up the Green River collection. They are among the easiest to identify of all the major pedigrees because the majority of the books carry a small red arrival date stamped on the front cover. The books are characterized by incredibly white pages, terrific cover gloss, great color, tight cover wrap and an overall unread, right-off-the-newsstand freshness. The edges and corners are typically razor sharp.

The specifics of this collection are still not 100% known, but much of its contents have been uncovered. It is known that the collection consisted of a complete run of Silver Age X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man #1 (which CGC graded a 7.0), Avengers, Daredevil, Journey Into Mystery (issue #91 and up), Sgt. Fury, and Fantastic Four (issue #8 and up). The collection also included a large assortment of DC books and some Gold Keys, as well. The collection is also known for having several copies of Giant or Annual books, all in high grade—typically 9.4-9.6.

As legend has it, the collection was bought by William J. Stevens who was the adopted son of an owner of a drug store in Spokane, Washington. William and his brother Robert used the drug store to supply their comic collection, and were able to amass a great collection in a small amount of time—whether these books were stolen or taken with permission is still unknown. Stevens later became a nationally known figure as being a suspect in one of the most heinous serial killing sprees in American history.  Stevens was arrested in 1979 for stealing police equipment from a Seattle warehouse, and was later released in 1981 on a work-release program. He disappeared from all knowledge on the run for the next eight years under several aliases. His whereabouts were discovered by police in 1989 due to some phone tips. When police found him, they also found many handguns, about 150 police badges, many credit cards and several sets of car keys—Stevens was arrested. This was the time when Stevens was pointed out as a suspect in the Green River serial killings in which at least 48 people were victims (mostly women).  He was later released due to solid alibis which placed him elsewhere during the murders. After his release he began to sell off much of his comic collection (about 1,600+ books) to pay the various costs he incurred during his time of legal calamity. These books were bartered to his attorney (Craig C. Beles) as a form of payment for his services.