Its a personal choice

People get into this hobby for a variety of reasons.

Some just want to make money by flipping comics. Some are just Collecting Nuts and want every issue of every series that they are interested in. Some want to collect just key issues. Some want just comics that give them a nostalgia from childhood. Some collect only certain artists or writers.

Heck some actually want to READ the stories and gawk at the artwork on the inside. WHOA you mean there are stories in these things? haha.

Anyway I happen to have a little of each of these qualities but am definitely in the Collecting Nuts category.

I have my favorites just like each of you do. I tend to be a completist and strive to get all of a particular series. I also strive for strict 9.8 WP copies or better as many of you do.

In the CGC side of comics however keys are graded in spades while many of the other issues in most sets are like trying to find that darn proverbial needle.

Combine this with the cost of acquiring CGC graded issues and the longer the series the more likely people are to just get keys and really cheap ones when they show up. The longer the series the more momentous it is when one of us Collector Nuts actually completes one.

The decision to collect keys or sets is a purely personal choice and can vary not only from person to person but also from set to set for an individual. There are some sets that I only want the keys of and some I JUST HAVE TO HAVE ALL OF NO MATTER WHAT.

I have a fairly large collection going now but so far have not completed a single set. Im soooo close on a bunch of them however. As collectors we all know that typically the closer you get to finishing the set the longer and harder it becomes to finally get those last pesky few. We also tend to be willing to pay more for those last few than we might otherwise just to finish the darn thing.

Anyway one of my goals is to complete my Dazzler set in 9.8 and I recently acquired two more issues I needed. Im only nine away from the whole thing and some of them are OAKs. The image below is of my recently purchased copy of number 37. Its one of those lower print run later issues in the series and is currently the only 9.8 out there.

What are your goals? Keys or sets? Which ones? How close are you? What did you have to go through to get there?

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