Doug Schmell's obsession with Marvel comic books began in the early 1970's, when he began buying new issues from the stationary store located near his home in Spring Valley, New York. He also bought and traded comics with fellow school children and classmates. His first taste of back issues came in the summer of 1973, when he traded some old silver dollars to another camper for some early X-Men comics. Although the comics were mostly worn and well read, he traded for more of his friend's Marvel comics and started putting together runs of his favorite titles. Even though the majority of these initially traded for and purchased comics have been sold or filed away over the past thirty years,

Doug began focusing on having complete runs of all the Marvel titles and started buying only the best conditioned books he could find. He went to the local East Coast comic book conventions starting in 1993, and formed relationships with many of the nationally recognized dealers, trying to buy all of the near mint or better Marvel comics and magazines for sale. To that end, Doug was particularly interested in acquiring books from a single owner or named provenance, thus most of the books in his collection are from one recognized pedigree or another. Over the past 11 years, Doug has amassed over ten thousand Marvel comic books, most of which are in very high grade condition.

When the Comics Guaranty Corporation (CGC) was in the process of forming in March, 1999, Doug was one of a handful of collectors asked to attend their start-up meeting and provide input to the creation of this third party grading service. When the CGC commenced operations later that year and began encapsulating and grading comic books for the public, he began submitting his runs of Marvel titles. Now, known as "Captain Tripps" on the CGC Registry and chat boards, Doug has come to be recognized as one of the leading collectors of Marvel Silver and Bronze age comics, with many of his books being the highest graded copies in existence. In fact, Doug received the coveted Achievement in Comics Collecting 2006, awarded by the CGC Comics Registry, in honor of the outstanding runs of Marvel comics he had registered since November, 2003, including the highest graded set of virtually every Marvel Silver Age title.

With the opening of Pedigree Comics, Doug wishes to share and extend his love and passion of Marvel Comics to every collector and dealer in the hobby. As such, this website is unique to the industry, offering everyone a chance to buy, consign or sell only ultra high grade, CGC and CBCS certified, Marvel Silver, Bronze and Copper age comics and magazines. Truly, there is something for every Marvel collector on the Pedigree Comics website.