Nowhere to go but up...

As I have mentioned in previous journals, I collected comics pretty hard from my early childhood (started at age 6 in 1972) until the early 1990's. I purchased the odd back issue off and on until 2001 when I decided it was time to sell my collection since I hadn't really done much with it for years. It wasn't big by the standards of most of you. It was probably 1,500-2,000 comics. It was a lot of stuff from the 70's and 80's, with maybe 10% from the 60's. I didn't have any of the big keys from the Silver Age, but I did have some nice runs of Bronze Age stuff and a handful of Golden Age DC's that probably weren't worth much.

I've started a small collection a couple of times since then, but I've put in a hundred bucks or so, then got distracted and sold the comics. In 2011, I really wanted to dive back in. I actually bought some nice graded GA books, and I bought a few Silver Age goodies too, but money was tight and I ended up selling all of those too.

Here we are in 2014, and things have settled down. I got married last June. I have a decent house and a decent job. I'm a school teacher (and so is my wife). I can't afford to chase the big comics, but I would like to go after the stuff that I really enjoyed as a kid and as a teen. That would be the 60's and 70's. So, I made a list of the titles that interested me. I decided that I would try to collect those titles through December 1979. And I wouldn't go back any further than January 1960. I won't chase any titles that don't interest me.

So where do I start? Well, I figure that buying in bulk might be the way to go. So, I recently bought some lots of Challengers of the Unknown, Sub-Mariner, and Marvel Triple Action (Ooooh, big spender). I also bought a handful of early 70's Batmans that I remembered particularly well. One of them (#241) was the first comic that I ever bought. So, now I will have it again.

I did make a couple of bigger purchases. I LOVE the early Fantastic Fours. So, I decided that I would work on the Kirby FF's in graded form. I bought FF #1 off of the boards, and I've picked up several more over the last few weeks. I have a LONG way to go there. I may pick up other graded books here and there if they work within my budget. We'll see. I have five slabs that are not FF's currently.

So, I think I will use this journal as a way of keeping track of my collection and my purchases and watching it grow. I warn you -I am not a Mint Freak. I am perfectly satisfied with Vg-F books. So, I might post a picture or two of books that you might consider uncollectible. But for me, they are still beautiful. And, since I am re-starting from scratch, I am going to be bouncing all over the place trying to fill giant holes in my collection. But, I will be having a GREAT time doing it!!!

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