speedcake

I have a couple of #95s on the way, a low grade and a mid grade copy.  Seems like every issue in the run has been seeing price increases, some really extreme while others are more mild but still climbing.

Makes it hard to go for the missing keys I need. #4 is going to kill me. I really hope it sees a dip sometime in the future.

On 3/22/2021 at 9:51 PM, Old_Man_Adam said:

How many are you missing now?

Here is the missing list as of today. I count the reprints as part of the run. Chipping away at it pretty good lately.

2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 39, 42, 51, 52, 53, 55, 58, 59, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67, 70, 73, 75, 76, 77, 79, 81, 84, 90, 92, 95, 102, 103, 106, 107, 109, 111, 122, 131, 132, 133

A few new additions to the run. The need list keeps shrinking 

Forgot to post this one when I got it!

Another big boy down !

And in just today! I need to update the list again. 

Also, have a big key on the way.  

Mail call this week. Another checked off the list!

woohoo!  

On 2/1/2021 at 8:10 AM, Trifisherjoe said:

Tell us story behind #1 Stan sig. that you were told when you bought it! It's beautiful!

I bought this book from Rick (G.A.tor), and he said that Stan Lee stopped by his booth at a show and asked if he had anything he'd like for him to sign. This copy of X-Men #1 was brought out and Stan signed it. It wasn't witnessed as it was an unexpected opportunity, so no gold label. I love it. It has fairly good placement (poor Ice Man lol), is legible and doesn't distract from the presentation at all. I don't think I could have asked for a nicer presenting 2.5 and the sig is just icing on the cake.  

oohI found it. I had no idea this was a thing. Is it a reliable site?

13 hours ago, Trifisherjoe said:

#65&77 are on DIG auctions now...looks like pretty low bids...one day left, good luck!

What/where are DIG auctions?

Updated need list:

2-14, 16-21, 24, 26, 28-31, 33-35, 39, 42, 49, 51-53, 55, 58, 59, 62, 64-67, 70, 73, 75-77, 79, 81, 84, 90-92

95-97, 102, 103, 106, 107, 109, 111, 122, 128, 131, 132, 133

In case there is anyone who might check in on the journal, I got the big one! I've pecked at the X-Men run here and there, but as usual I can't stay focused on one run for long and have filled in holes in my Thor, Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, Tales to Astonish runs. Last Fall I decided I should try to get an X-Men #1 before the price for even low grade copies made it impossible. I sold nearly my entire Parrillo collection as well as almost all of my copper/modern Amazing Spider-Man run (including a ASM 238 in cgc 9.4, a really nice raw 361, the rest of the McFarlane run including a super nice 316), and I scraped together the funds for THIS oh yeah baby! I've already posted it elsewhere on the boards, but thought I should update the journal, too.  Maybe if I remember to do so more often it will help me stay focused on completing this run. Now that I have a #1 out of the way, the goal seems significantly more achievable.  

Long time no see!  So I recently made the decision to only focus on X-Men #1- 144.  I've sold off everything above that, keys and all. Eventually I'll pick up the keys again, but I needed the space and when the time comes if I decided i want a full vol 1 run, it won't be that big of a chore to get one.

I also spent all of last year very much not focused on completing this quest. I added a book or two here and there, but got sidetracked on a regular basis. For example, I bought a short box of Thor that was almost a complete run of his solo title up to about #256 and instead of filling holes in my X-Men run, I filled some holes in that run. And my Hulk run. And then I got into horror mags... oof

But I think it's time to focus hard again on the X-Men. The new plan is to cut way back on buying this year, sell some stuff, save up, and look for a nice presenting lower grade #1.  Something between a 2.0 and a 3.5. I hope to find a raw copy, but yeah good luck with that.  Then I'll work on the next biggest key I'm missing and so on. I'll still grab filler issues if I find great deals on them.

Here are the books I did add since my last update!

23, 37, 40, 41, 43, 44, 48, 50, 61, 63, 94, 99, 100, 110, 112, 113, 115, 124, 128, 142

And here is the updated missing list:

1-14, 16-21, 24-26, 28-31, 33-35, 39, 42, 46, 47, 49, 51-53, 55-59, 62, 64-92

95-97, 102, 103, 106, 107, 109, 111, 114, 122, 131, 132, 133, 136

What's yer facebook page?

I did a thing! A few of these are readers, but on average they are mid grade goodness with a handful in higher mid grade and I’m very happy to scratch them all off my list 😎

I finally bought the collection I’ve been after: going to be fun reading it all. I’m planning on selling 2/3rds of it eventually. 

Good news! The X-Men run is safe for now

I'll have a nice update on Friday hopefully.

nice! thanks for the story and your comment. Looks like you are almost done without even realizing!    I'll get there eventually.  I have to reaaaaaalllly work on focusing my attention on fewer directions, but I don't beat myself up too much about going off on collecting tangents.  I do wish I had started this 10 or 15 years earlier, but  what can ya do?

I'm starting to think I may not need/want to downsize my x-men and amazing spidey runs to accomplish my current goal. I may still do so as they do take up quite a bit of space but if I can keep moving other comics I don't want then I won't need to worry so much about it.

And ya @STORMSHADOW_80  , its a great collection. Not full of too many big keys (it does have 1st app of Blade, Gamora, early Vulture appearance,  Spider-Woman, Furry Beast, a couple Ms Marvel #1s, a pile of Spider-Woman #1s lul, and a number of other minor keys and nice books like a mid grade Namor #1, low grade spidey 121, etc).  There is a run of about 90 issues of Incredible Hulk from 104 to 223 (no wolvie keys, of course   )  and a nice run of Tales to Astonish before that, a run of high grade marvel treasury editions 1 to 15 (only missing #12), a bunch of issues of FOOM in high grade,  just lots of great stuff. Most of it is mid to low high grade. About 1100 books total. So ya, gimme that!

Can't wait to get it all and start reading

tyvm 

So this year hasn't really gone the way I intended it to at all. I was going to focus hard on my Uncanny X-Men run. I really want to finish it, but alas...

The first derailment came when I discovered Lucio Parrillo. I absolutely love his art style, his painted covers, and embarked on a quest to complete several of his early runs on Queen Sonja, Warlord of Mars, Vampirella as well as began picking up his more recent work. Well, TLDR version is that I now have a short box of very nice high grade Parrillo comics, a decent pile of lower grade dupes, no complete runs (I'm missing TWO issues from his Warlord of Mars run, ughh), but quite a lot of enjoyment from chasing all these books down.  Obviously this has meant a great deal of time and resources diverted from the goal of finishing my X-Men run.

The second total and complete distraction was going off on a tangent and working on my Amazing Spider-Man run... now why I did this, I can't say. I love Spidey, and some very good deals popped up on the boards here for various back issues. I couldn't pass them up, and have managed to amass a pretty serious copper and modern Spidey run with very nice copies of some of the good stuff. But once more, Charlie spent alot  of time and resources on something other than the X-Men.  I have had alot of fun putting it together so far. But my poor, neglected X-Men.

And now something else has come up. I have an opportunity to buy a collection of silver and Bronze marvel books but both need some funds and some space in the apartment. This means I've decided to sell, sell, sell.  I'm going to sell all of my Parrillo comics. I love his work, and might keep a small pile of my favorite covers, but almost all of it is going to new homes as soon as I find them.

I've also decided to change my focus on both the X-Men and Amazing Spider-man runs.  I just don't have the space for a 500 and 700 issue run if I want to also have other stuff.  So I've decided to also sell all Uncanny X-men down to right after the first appearance of Bishop. AND I'm going to sell my Amazing Spider-man run down to somewhere around the later 300s, maybe after the last semi important Venom story. I'll still keep bigger keys from both those runs (there aren't that many in the Uncanny books after 300, lets be honest)

It's going to be time consuming, but absolutely worth it i'm able to pick up the collection I'm hoping to get.

So I'm done buying comics for a little while until I've made some serious progress on selling what I have, but I'll be looking for X-Men issues along the way. I'm not passing up good deals if they come along. I'll be a bit pickier for a while, though.

This is very rambling. Thanks all for reading!

Anyone interested in a list of what I'm selling, feel free to PM me.

Long time no update!  Here are the latest additions.  Ignore the gross slab in the first pic. The comic is still purty.  #143 is an upgrade.  All but the  121 were bought here on the boards. The 121 was bought at my LCS.  

Nice! My run won't be quite that high grade. At least not at first, I'm trying to keep the bronze books at vf/nm minimum. Eventually it will be fun to upgrade everything, but I don't wanna think about that right now ha.

Good luck finishing the run  

list updated    Seven down, way too many still to go

Updating here since this is where most people replied and would see. New X-men goodness!  #120 is a surprise mark jewelers insert