With the New Mutants that are available dwindling to numbers I don't need, what's Next?

Daredevil #168 is one of my pivotal issues. It was the first comic book I collected the issues surrounding it before getting the issue itself. All the Miller Daredevil issues from #158 to #191 were purchased from the same location, ComiCards. Dane the owner pointed out those books for me to collect once I asked him what good books were around. I bought issue after issue starting with the cheapest (in this case only $3.00, I think it was issue #171) I did this gradually by purchasing the issues in order by its price (if it was the same price I chose by cover) until I finally was able to afford issue #168 (at the time I paid a whopping $35.00, as a teenager that was a lot of money.)

I am older now and $35.00 is not so much money anymore. New books are between three and four dollars, most recently a book I purchased (Ultimate Spider-Man #150) was 5.99. These days at a good convention $6.00 could buy ten back issues from the 80?s, or maybe even five from the 70?s. The condition for the latter of course would be less than ideal but aren?t we buying them to read in the first place.

When CGC first came around I didn?t know about them. I didn?t realize what an impact they created within the collecting community. My first realization was in 2007 at Wizard World Philadelphia when I purchased my first couple CGC books. The first one was Secret War #2, the one with the black cover with Wolverine. I paid $25.00 and I hadn?t currently read the series, I picked those up the same weekend. The second one I purchased was a 9.0 copy of Daredevil #90. This one only cost me $20.

The 9.8 I purchased because I quickly realized quickly that this book was as close to pristine as affordably possible. I didn?t see a 9.9 or 10.0, but then again maybe I wasn?t looking. I purchased my first New Mutants in a 9.8 a couple years later with issue #1 at a local convention in 2009. This started me to collect my favorite series once again. I then used E-bay, trying out Worldwidecomics.com, added heritage Auctions to the mix and I created the number two set in this series on the registry. I still have a few more I can get before I am forced to stop, or at least slow to a crawl.

This poses my next question. What do I collect in the meantime? I should have collected the Longshot?s when I had the chance. My desire to get them cheaper only led me to losing out. I?d also like to finish the Secret Wars from the 80?s. I added an Amazing Spider-Man Set (100-200) because of the issue #129 I have, so that is an option, the other option is to go back to what Dane recommended all those years ago, Daredevil.

The easiest and most satisfying will probably be those Miller issues again. The newer issues are cheaper but they don?t hold a place in my heart as the stories that made Matt Murdock my favorite solo superhero. The problem is when I am ready to start do I begin with Daredevil #168 or do I work my way around it and follow in my foot steps from so long ago.

Thanks for Reading

Tnerb