Pat Thomas

Because I'm a passionate person.

It just pisses me off thinking I've got one wrapped up, and somebody comes along in the last few minutes and outbids me. If I pass them and they pass me again, it's gotten personal fast.

I need a bunch of issues between 10-70. Want my list?

mycomicshop.com is always good to check with.

I like doing stuff like that most of the time. I have to go in with a calm frame of mind, though. If my mind starts racing while I'm searching through a bunch of data, I start getting nervous and antsy, and then my concentration is shot. I would think that's probably a pretty common thing for others around here.

I'm at a point where all that's left for me to buy is inherently expensive in a decent grade. I was able to buy a lot of keys and run fillers over the last decade, but I have a much harder time deciding what to buy now when the cheapest books I need in a title sell for $100 or more. That's where I am with Action Comics, Superman, Batman, and Detective Comics. Yesterday I was finally able to get Journey Into Mystery 89 off my want list, but it cost me $450. I was actually surprised I won the auction. I'm thrilled that the value of my collection has skyrocketed, though. It's just too bad I have no desire to sell any of them.

I won Avengers 1 from a grab bag on ebay. The seller is still on ebay, but not as active as he used to be. It seemed like his grab bags were always good, even if you didn't score one of the major books. Seller is excelsiorcomix. I keep him on my list just in case.

I'm pretty well versed in the methods people use to repair books. I've been in and out of the hobby since the mid 70's.

Personally, I don't particularly want slabbed books. You can't line them up in the box with all the other issues of the run, which causes distress for me. And without that particular tic, I probably wouldn't have been drawn to collecting in the first place. Runs must stay together, or chaos ensues.

Could be a good time to get into the estate sale business. Fresh access to dead people's stuff.

There have to be some survivors out there that haven't been found yet. At least, that's what gives me hope of ever acquiring a copy. There are still people alive from that time, but they're declining rapidly.

I have a 30 page want list. They do get keys in stock sometimes. I got my FF 4 with store credit, along with plenty Silver & Golden Age DC books. Really I've been able to get comics I needed from all ages and genres. Sometimes I can't get things when I want them, but they always have stuff I need. The hobby is fun for me, so I don't get uptight over things I don't control. Sounds like you should expand your horizons a little.

It would be the FF1 for me. I'm only now at the point where I can even think about the biggest Marvel keys, and would love to find a FF1 or AF15 soon, because the entry point for both of these comics is about to go out of reach. I feel like it's the most important Marvel comic besides AF15, and it's been undervalued a long time. X-Men 1 is definitely cool, but it doesn't have the characters who really made them what they are today. And I already have GSXM 1 and Hulk 181.

My first foray into comics was in the mid 1970's. I remember seeing Captain America 193 in the rack with a blocky, squatty Cap front and center. I had no idea who "King Kirby" was and was baffled that people were excited about him being "back". Each cover seemed to progressively feature uglier wide blocky characters with enormous teeth. Black Panther was even worse, and the stories he was telling had nothing to do with the rest of the Marvel Universe. The letter columns are full of complaints about that. I just didn't buy those, but Marvel gave him cover duty for Avengers 151-158, so I was forced to collect them. They're still the worst looking cover in the entire Avengers first volume. After a 25 year hiatus, his old FF work looked good to me when I read those books again, and Thor look pretty good mostly. But those 70's books are still hideous.

Since the middle of 2019, I've been slowly selling the stock I bought from my former lcs when they shut down to mycomicshop.com . I've been sending 1-2 longboxes per order to them for the duration, and usually at least 2 orders per month. I started off with a little over 15,000 comics and I've got around 5,000 left. I take trade credit instead of cash, and that's how I've been primarily financing my big buys for the last 1 1/2 years. It's slowed down a little, but I still average about $300 per order I send to them.

OP, your "friend" is the type of person that will drag you down. I'm not saying he's intentionally trying to sabotage you, but a negative attitude has a way of affecting others more than a positive one does. There are enough people already walking around with a chip on their shoulder. The more you're around this guy, the more aspects of his personality will rub off on you. It won't work the other way unfortunately. Best to learn this while you're young.

Thanks for this. I went ahead and ordered one. Maybe when it arrives in June, people will be salivating for it.

Anybody coming through Central Alabama should check out Bob's Comics in Trussville. Unlike most of today's shops, he focuses on back issues primarily. Has hundreds of rows of back issues and thousands of $1 comics. He has 3 walls full of keys. It's definitely a throwback shop. Plus, Bob can be a grouch sometimes.

Until rather recently, the market for back issues was limited primarily to collectors in North America and parts of Europe. The MCU has given these characters worldwide exposure. There are millions more people curious about our little hobby than ever before, and peoples' opinions toward comics and collectors are no longer negative. The existing supply of a particular comic may have been too much before, but the audience is growing. It doesn't matter whether old timers like me embrace that or despise the result, that's how it is now. COVID probably benefitted the comic community by forcing a long break between MCU projects. There was a lot of talk about burnout after Endgame, but I think Wandavision showed that people everywhere are becoming enthused again. If the upcoming movies are successful, expect prices to keep jumping.

That isn't realistic, though. Chuck won't be around for that to happen anyway, if it was even a possibility.

So anything Marvel offers of a title you collect, you buy? At the ratios you're talking about, it's clearly about force-selling hundreds or thousands of standard covers and taking advantage of both the retailer and the poor soul compelled to own every version of a comic. How many lcs could move an additional 500 copies of an issue they've been forced to purchase? Why couldn't Marvel just set a price? You really need to pare back or one day you'll be paying $500 for a stick figure variant by the creator's preschooler, all for the sake of completeness.

My first goals were to complete runs of ASM & Avengers. I considered my collection complete when I acquired 1 copy of a first print for each issue, which was several years ago. I still buy new issues of those titles and others I've completed. I count annuals as part of the series, but they have less priority to me than monthly issues. I'll accept a 1st print variant for my collection. That's fine. I think it's ridiculous that Marvel in particular prints at least a couple of variants for each issue and over 50 of them for "special" issues. Every once in a while, I'll see a variant cover that I just like, and I'll spend up to $30 or so to get it. It's actually pretty low of Marvel as a publisher to sucker a customer base that consists of many people that are compelled to attain perfection and will attempt to buy a copy of every single variant to keep their collection complete. I can't fathom buying 50 different copies of an issue because the covers are different. I'll just stick to my way (which is still expensive and not as much fun as it used to be).

When I started back collecting in 2010 I was reading them voraciously, to the point of running out of material every few days. I was able to compile a couple of personalized longboxes from the dollar comics at my lcs for $30 apiece when they were needing to move some, so I thought I had enough reading material to last for a while. They only lasted a couple of weeks, and due to my wife's spending, I was unable to buy any until I got paid again. After that, my buying increased a ton. I was still reading like crazy and I was determined not to run out again. It didn't take long until I had a backlog of comics to read, but I was still managing to read my brand new books every week. Then things went to hell with my marriage and I moved out. It took about a month before I was able to move into my apartment, but I had still been doing weekly lcs runs and ordering back issues. I found that after I got moved in and comfortable, that it had become difficult to read comics. My mind would wander and the slightest noise made me lose concentration. When I could get in the right mindset for reading, I started falling asleep before finishing a single book. The longer it went this way, it weighed more heavily on my mind, and that just intensified the problem. I've always liked the collecting aspect and I also like order in my life, so I decided to concern myself more with acquiring and organizing than reading, and that's how it's been for a long time now. Every comic I own is in its place, accessible, and entered into a database. If I buy a comic in a bag with a sticker on it or a little worn, I rebag it. I have dividers for most of the titles, and a label maker for consistency. They are lined up alpha numerically in nice boxes on shelves in a large room downstairs where I spend most of my time. I feel a sense of peace when I walk in there and everything is where it should be. Occasionally I'm able to read a few here and there, too. Oh, I also own 2 presses for making sure even my "worthless" comics can be pretty if I want them to be.

In that case, I would keep the book that is special to you. I asked because I do have all the ASM but no AF15 yet, and it drives me crazy. I'm just biding my time, though. I'll find mine eventually.

Do you already own the complete ASM?