Some of you may say I made some poor decisions. Some of you may say, I'm crazy. But I sold my holy grail, Amazing Fantasy 15 CGC 4.0 No MC for a bunch of Modern Age Grails and never looked back.

::Prologue::

I have the unfortunate circumstance where I wasn't a baby boomer or part of the generation prior. I was born into the Modern Age (1979) and didn't get into reading comics until I was nearly 10. Pass some time, get a degree, my first job, now a career with some disposable income and now I can finally start collecting comic books. Yay, right? Well, yes and no.

I would have loved to be able to at least collect Bronze Age books when they were new and cheap and to get a Hulk 181 for like $20 or whatever. That wasn't a possibility for me, instead I am at the very tail end of Gen-X. The problem is, what I want to collect is what everyone else wants to collect; Silver Age, Bronze Age books (Gold Age books aren't really my thing..I know, I know) so I'm forced to pay a lot for the comic books I want. Is it unfair? No, the market dictates the price, even if it was 40 years ago. Comics tend to go up in value, especially the sought after ones. So, after I sold off my old comic collection in 2012 to pay off my student loans, I figured I was out of the game for good.

::Life Happens::

Because of the sacrifice I made selling my books to free up some money to start saving. We decided to save up for a kid once my loans were paid off and we did, we saved so much that she then wanted to work part time for a year. I figured why not, since our son suffered a stroke when he was born (affects the right arm and leg, they are slower to develop and needs physical therpy) that would be best. And while I had thought of floating the idea of rebuilding my comics in 2013/2014 I held off until we knew what we were dealing with, regarding our son Lucas. Turns out, he's made great progress, we racked up well over $130,000 in medial bills with his NICU stay for a few weeks and all that, thankfully our health insurance covered well over 99% of it.

Anyway, back on topic. Fast forward to 2015, things settled down a bit with our son, we learned that he won't have any cognitive issues with speech, doesn't have any seizures and based on our (my wifes) mega ton of searching online with similar kids, we're hoping he'll make a great recovery, might not be full, but well enough and I'll work with him on typing that will probably be the toughest thing for him.

So, enter 2015 and I float the idea of rebuilding my comic collection to my wife and she says okay sure, but just don't go nuts. Of course, thats exactly where my mind went because, well, I never do things half-, I said I want my Amazing Fantasy 15 back, only one without Marvel Chipping. I said it'd probably be over 10K and she didn't turn red, didn't get mad, roll her eyes....she said that we don't have all of that amount saved and asked why I want it. I was honest and said I want Lucas to have it as an heirloom, it will increase in value steadily over the years and that we could get a small loan from the bank to fill in the rest of the loan.

I found the right book from a fellow boardie, got the loan and sent payment. The Amazing Fantasy 15 CGC 4.0 was perfect, my dream book. (Re)check that off the bucket list, I was so happy.

::Enter Amazing Spider-Man 678 MJ Venom Variant::

I was all set to start hammering out a list of books I used to own that I want to own again, which I did in part. I grabbed a few 9.8 books; Venom: Lethal Protectors, I subbed a few of the new Star Wars books to sell and keep, I started a new subscription with BeachBum to get all the Star Wars Action Figure Variants (which I have everyone so far). Then one day, I saw a listing on Ebay for an Amazing Spider-Man 678 MJ Venom comic. It was NM at best, but it was the first one I'd seen in a loooong time. I thought it was pretty cool. Around the same time, I finally got my hands on a Wolverine #1 Deadpool Variant CGC 9.8, which was one of the few books I had years prior that I marked as 'must have again'.

Then, another listing came up for the MJ Venom variant, a very sharp copy one I thought I could get pressed and if it were to come back a dreadful 9.6 I'd sell it. So I told my wife, days after buying the Wolvie book that there's this other super rare book that I want to make an offer on before others do. She got a little irritated I could tell, until I told her that I'd sell it if it doesn't come back a 9.8 and that we could make up to $1,500 like that *finger snap*. She agreed. I made an offer and the seller closed the auction early.

I went to my trusty presser joeypost and asked him to press this baby. He was super swamped at the time, so I had to wait a few months. During that time, I went back to rebuilding my list of wanted books and I made a new page for 'Rare' books and got to put both the Wolvie #1 and the 678 MJ in there. Turns out that MJ Venom book did get a 9.8, woot!

::The Backwards Collection And The Collecting Trifecta::

That's when I had an idea. I call it the 'Backwards Collection' idea. Since I couldn't get in on the 'ground floor' and had to pay so much for my AF15, what if I make a list of some Rare Modern Age books to get in on the ground floor with. Not just any books, but GRAILS. Once that stand the best shot of increasing in value because they hit what I call the 'Collecting Trifecta'.

The Collecting Trifecta is when an item, a car, an antique, a coin, a comic, whatever hits all three categories:

Category 1) Recognition

Category 2) Rarity

Category 3) Condition

As much as Modern Age Books amass haters and think Modern Age collecting is not a wise investment, we'll have to agree to disagree. Yes, Modern Age books run a risk, but there can also a more timely (sooner) financial reward. But, again, with focusing on only the rarest books in the highest grade I hope to hedge against some of that risk and get in on the ground floor with these books in hopes that 20 years from now, I'll have made a killing. Or hopefully at least covered inflation

Back at my desk with my wanted books list....I initially was going to wait and see if my 678 MJ book came back a 9.8 before deciding to sell my AF15 to free up funds to collect more Modern Age books. I found a buyer for the AF15 faster than I expected and decided to sell my AF15 and look toward the Modern Age.

So, my plan in 2015 was to start my Backwards Collection where I will start collecting only Modern Age Grails and 1st Appearances that have current value. Then, once I got all of my 'core-must-have modern-age grails' then I could work on getting other modern age key books. From there, I'd look at the Copper Age books like ASM 300, NM 98, TMNT #1. Although, I have to admit, I may make a single exception rule if I do decide to chase a TMNT #1. All of my Copper and Modern Age books much be 9.8+ with WHITE pages, 'no exception, except TMNT #1' That one I may shoot for a 9.0+ to match the minimum for the next age I would collect after getting those books; Bronze Age. Then finally when I myself am old and silver, I can look into getting some Silver Age books. The only must have for me in this age is the AF15. And yes

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