SECollector

OK, confession time. Sometimes when I am alone, I put all my 12¢ Spideys on the floor, try to form a perfect rectangle using them, take a photo and spend a couple of minutes staring at them. Then, I lie down in fetal position and cry thinking foremost about all these issues I still need. Moments later I pick myself up, make a cup of tea and browse listings on Heritage, while listening to cheesy music from the 80s. A couple of hours later I put my clothes back on and go and get my kids from school. Until next time... Anyone else does that? P.S. OK, parts of this are not true. I don't drink tea.

Why is #28 heating up? I know that it was rumoured that Molten Man was going to appear in the next film, but this was never confirmed. Or am I wrong? I was watching this on CC and it went for $1600...

2018 was a Spidey only year for me. I worked pretty hard on my ASM run and I guess those three were my biggest ones!

I really enjoy "what's your collecting goals" threads. Mine for 2019 would be to add an ASM #5, #15, #20 in my Spidey run and hopefully even a #7, #8 and #10 and complete the 1-10 run. If I get on a roll I would love to add as many others as possible and open the doors to get my run of 1-400 complete in 2020. In a related note, I have as a goal to make my mind if I should sell a couple of my other big keys (i.e. my FF1 or Hulk 1) to finance the above.

Can you explain what is wrong with it?

Here is an interesting list of 600 different first appearances and their print runs: http://www.hoknescomics.com/firstappearance.htm

OK, wow. Maybe prices were on a totally different level and a difference of 0.5 - 1 grade point wasnt translated to hundreds or thousands of dollars?

Thanks for sharing these thoughts. And yes, I suppose third party grading was a huge game changer. And of course the internet. Both opened the market to collectors that don't have access to cons and who wouldn't dare spending five figures for books without inspecting them in person if they didn't come graded and sealed by a widely accepted independent "authority". I am one of these and I bet there are hundreds or thousands more like me.

These colours... wow. I will play along even if I still don't have this in my hands. I sealed the deal yesterday and it is on its way to Sweden. I will post a better scan when I have it in a few days!

Not very different than yours - I just cant get me to find issues after 400 interesting in any ways. I initially decided to go for 1-300, but realised soon that I got attracted to loads in the 300-400. From the McFarlanes, to some of the stories and even a few of the gimmicks with the shiny covers and stuff that are just a cool part of the history. End of course the death of aunt May. But post-400... yawn. However knowing me, I will probably go for them at the end just to have it complete. Fortunately they are really easy and cheap to find, even as lots Good luck finding number 2 and 3, they are amazing books and at the moment - in my opinion - #2 is undervalued.

The Doc presents so nice for its grade. I think its a bargain. GLWTS.

Congrats. That's a huge achievement. I am curious why did you choose to go for 1-400 and not for a complete vol.1? (I go for the same run by the way - but I have 69 more books to go right now).

I am pretty sure I have sold him some sweet books before. Great guy.

This is a well-thought negotiation mind game over there. And yes, trading for store credit has worked perfectly for me in a couple of similar occasions before. Great advice, thank you.

The market is very thin over here. Which makes the supply very limited. But the demand is low as well, so that somehow balances the equation. With that being said however, if you are serious about collecting either big(ger) keys or nice runs in high grades you have to look into the US market. You just can't depend on the local market. The latter applies also in cases where you want to sell. There are not enough collectors to buy top $ books and drive the market, and not enough to keep the demand up for filler issues either. Every time I have sold more expensive books, I sold to collectors in the US. The two times I needed to unload big bunches of nice bronze fillers, I sold them to a UK based dealer (the market there is much broader for US comics) for a decent price, but definitely not retail price. Filler issues don't sell to the US because of the shipping costs from here. With that said and taking in consideration that I really don't have the space to keep another long run besides my ASM run, I am leaning towards passing on this for now. I am surely still tempted, but the left side of my brain insists that I should better invest that $ on a couple of bigger books for my ASM run.

Heja Sverige Yes, thats the one.

Because he has repeatedly said that this would be his best price

There is no way he would go so low - I think this price is his lowest and he already thinks that it is too low. I wouldn't post this if we were talking about $1200 - I would just go, buy it and then brag here

There is a limited market here, which is either good or bad depending on which side of the deal you are. Collections like these however do exist and the competition out there looking for them is not huge, which is positive. In a short time I came across two awesome collections - especially one of them was a huge bargain with many big SA keys and long runs of ASM and FF. But I wouldn't buy this specific one to sell to local collectors, it wouldn't make sense.

It's not cheap due to the extra shipping costs. CGC has opened offices in London, but that doesn't change costs at all since they anyway send it to the US and back. And yes, the price I mentioned is $ USD.

Yep. Big ones I think only one issue or two in this run had MVS. I will check it out and check if they are there.

Thanks. I had no intention right now to grab a long X-Men run, due to limited space and since ASM is the run I collect and keeps me busy enough. But I don't want to let a potentially good deal go, since these don't really come up often here in Sweden. I am leaning towards going and checking them out. If the GSXM is indeed FN or better as it looks from the photo and some of the bigger keys are in decent condition - hopefully around VF or better I will grab them. It will be surely fun.

I don't really often find such collections and they are generally tough to come by here in the non-US. But I stubbled upon a guy who lives 3 hours from my home and has a few hundred issues of X-Men related titles for sale. The collection includes a complete run of Uncanny X-Men 94-320 (according to him the 94 in around FN, most of the others in VF/NM) and a GSXM 1 (again according to him at least a FN). It has many of the annuals as well (3-18) and a lot of books from the 90s (40 issues of X-Force, another 40+ of X-Men from the 90s etc). I attach the photos I have. The 94 looks lower than FN in my opinion due to the big crease, but the GSXM 1 looks nice. Although its just photos of the front covers. He is asking around $2,2K for the whole bunch. I know that this is probably under retail value, but is it so lower that it would make it worth it taking a trip 3 + 3 hours in order to check them out and risking coming back empty handed if something is wrong? And what would be potentially wrong? I attach the photos of the two issues. Thanks for the input!

Just wait until the Living Brain makes it to the big screen...

This would be interesting if it was accurate, but I really doubt it. Others here can definitely confirm it or not, but I am pretty sure than AF15 has "always" been the most valuable SA book, along with FF1 and Showcase 4.