Pat Thomas

I love reading these big success stories. There are a few of you who hit deals that are truly once in a lifetime. I regularly see threads on other boards that prove the books are still out there, so I try to investigate any possible leads to GA and SA comics, and I'm willing to occasionally gamble on a grab bag. The best I've personally done was a grab bag with Avengers 1 as the prize book. The difference in this grab bags and others I've seen is that all the non-winning books were Silver Age Marvel, mostly superhero comics. Some of the titles were JIM/Thor, Tales Of Suspense, Tales To Astonish, Iron Man, ASM, etc. The deal was $15 for 1 random book out of the ones he had pictured, and I bought 20 of them. Most of the books were worth at least $15 anyway, and I didn't own any of them, so I figured I would end up with worthwhile comics anyway. Well, my package came in and I started opening each pack with high anticipation. After 19 packages, I lowered my expectations and prepared to just accept whatever the last book was, and it was the Avengers 1. It was a raw copy, complete with all pages and cover attached. It was definitely rough; maybe 2.0 or 2.5, but I spent $300 to get it along with 19 other Sliver Age Marvels, some of which were valuable. Doesn't hold a candle to some others here, but I'll keep searching until I just can't do it anymore. There are still goldmines hidden out there.

There isn't a good excuse for the lack of communication you've experienced. And there is only so far the pandemic can be blamed. Throughout this nationwide shutdown, I've continued buying from estate auctions and off ebay, and I started buying from several dealers I frequent regularly once they said they were available again. At times, the shipping times were a few days off, but not enough that I considered it unreasonable. The stuff I've bought has come from all areas of the country, too. I don't blame you for losing patience since you can't even get a response. Maybe the time for politeness and understanding has passed for you.

That's way worse than cheating on you. Takes a cold heart.

Look, I like Superman just fine, and I collect Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Superman, and World's Finest, and I plan on eventually owning 90% of each series. But I have a very difficult time actually reading DC Silver Age Superman Comics. I love buying them and flipping through my collection, but most of the stories are downright horrible. The "mysteries" didn't make sense half the time, and the way Superman interacted with his "friends" was sometimes psychotic. But what really gets under my skin is that the many times Superman is transformed into "Superbaby", his speech pattern doesn't become childish; Instead, he sounds like a stupid version of the Savage Hulk (Me do this, Me do that, etc.). You're trying to tell us Stan Lee couldn't write at that level? I was 9 when I read my first comics (in 1975), and I loved Spider-Man and the Avengers. I would sit on the floor at the comic spinner in the drug store at the mall while Mom shopped for clothes and other boring stuff, and occasionally a DC cover would catch my eye. Even at that age, the stories didn't seem to me that they had any depth to them. Every story seemed thrown together just enough to fill the pages it needed, all the heroes talked weird, and continuity didn't matter from one story to the next. I was used to good guys who got into arguments and remembered that they were mad at each other, and they talked more like real people. Stan wrote continued stories and tried to make sure all the Marvel books took place in the same world and affected each other. Most Superman comics had 2 or 3 unrelated stories per issue. I don't see how you could consider the DC stuff from that era superior to Marvel in any way. There's a reason why Marvel was able to take so many readers from DC, until New Teen Titans came out. That was the first DC series I thought read like a Marvel.

OP, in the future, if you want cheap copies of the Claremont X-Men, there was a series called X-Men Classic in the 1980's that reprinted them. None of them should cost any more than $5, and they are very common.

OP, I bought the last 10,000 or so comics from my lcs when they shut down last year, and I've been able to move a ton of it by selling to mycomicshop.com I'm just a collector and don't have any experience selling comics, but this has been one of the easiest ways to make extra money for the last 8 months. Getting the books in order and entered into the database was time-consuming, but now I only have to let the orders build up, then pull and ship them. I opt for store credit, because it pays a little more, and I've been able to add almost $12,000 worth of comics to my personal collection. But there is a cash option. If you've never used their system, it might be worth it to put a portion of your dead stock into the database and monitor it for a couple of weeks. You might be surprised.

Ross Andru drew the Spider-Man I consider "mine" from the 1970's. As good as Romita Sr. IMO.

Dealing with customers is a pain in the . It's best to assume that, for the most part, people are trying to spend as little money as possible on expensive comics. Everybody looks for a bargain, but only some of them actually ask for one, figuring they don't have anything to lose by asking. It's just a trait of someone a little more extroverted than the typical person in the comic business, and I can see where you could mistake that as being headstrong or pushy, but they don't usually have any idea they've made you uncomfortable. Sounds like there was nothing wrong with this guy after all, but there are truly awful people out there. Don't put a minor irritant on ignore since he's proven that he will buy from you. Be nice and maybe occasionally give him a little discount, and he will have only warm fuzzy feelings about buying from you. Block the ones who cause your heart race, but learn to deal with customers who might get on your nerves by being themselves. The way you respond to the first inquiry is going to decide your relationship with these people, so just bite your tongue and make them happy if you can. I assume you would like to have some success.

We have a media that instills panic simply in the way they report things, and the majority of the population will only hear the basics of a story, jump to conclusions without any rational thinking, spread incomplete information like wildfire, and suddenly everybody's in a panic. It's the same from the local weather guy all the way up to a national anchor, and it is irresponsible and pretty unethical.

I love seeing that there are still run collectors here. We are the lifeblood of the hobby (at least until we stop buying new ones). The first time I started collecting with attention to condition and an end goal was back in the 1970's, when I was in grade school. Spidey was still in the 160's back then, and was a little past 200 when I stopped. I had collected 100-up of ASM and 100-up of Avengers (they were all such beautiful copies, too), and set a goal to eventually go back to #1 on each. When I got a little older, especially after I got my car (a 1978 Z28), I kind of just lost interest in comics. Over time, I sold them off, and I don't even remember where the bulk of them went. After a short foray into X-Men in 1985 as a senior in high school (which I sold for college money), I was out of it altogether. I didn't buy another comic until 2010, and only because I had become bored and was curious whether I could still enjoy reading them. I didn't imagine that I'd be back in full swing within 6 months. At first, I decided to finish my childhood ambition of ASM and Avengers. I also started buying the newest issues of those titles, and gradually added more. It took about 5 years to finish them both. Unfortunately, I had to learn to accept lesser than NM comics for the Silver Age and some Bronze Age books. Some of them were just too expensive and also hard to locate. But I'm happy with the standards I set for most of my collection. As of now I own these titles to the current issue with annuals: Amazing Spider-Man (plus Spectacular, Sensational, Web Of, Spider-Man, Peter Parker Spider-Man, Unlimited, Family, Marvel Team Up, Superior & Superior Foes & Team Up, Avenging Spider-Man, and a bunch of minis, shorter titles, and one-shots) Avengers (plus New, West Coast, Mighty, US, All New All Different, Secret, Dark, Initiative, Avengers AI, Avengers Academy, Avengers Arena, plus more) Incredible Hulk - From 102 (plus Indestructible, Totally Awesome, and Hulk(red) ) Iron Man & Invincible Iron Man ( plus a bunch of minis ans one-shots) Captain America - From 100 " " " " Uncanny X-Men - From 94 (plus Giant Size X-Men 1, X-Men/New X-Men/Legacy, Amazing, Astonishing, Unlimited, Blue, Gold, Red, Extraordinary, entire Age Of Apocalypse, and about a long box full of specials and minis) X-Factor X-Force, Uncanny X-Force, Cable & X-Force Cable Alpha Flight Wolverine (plus Origins, First Class, Savage, Weapon X, The Best There Is, Wolverine & The X-Men, plus minis & one-shots) Defenders Exiles Black Panther Deadpool Captain Marvel (Mar-vell, Genis-vell, Carol Danvers) Ms Marvel (Carol Danver & Kamala Khan) Moon Knight Daredevil (After I pay last $500 on #1 at lcs) I'm still working on: Fantastic Four - Need 1, 3, 52, Annual 6 Journey Into Mystery/Thor - Need 84, 85, 89 Incredible Hulk 1-6 That's just some of my Marvel stuff. Have a bunch of shorter titles completed, along with a bunch of DC titles)

I've never known anybody who owned this until now. I've dreamed about running across one from an old relative or garage sale, or wherever, since the 1970's when I first learned of it's existence. At the time, it was the most desirable and scarce comic for collectors. I guess they weren't as rare as advertised, though. I still hold on to the glimmer of hope that mine is still out there hidden from the world until I find it.

53. At 43 I started collecting from scratch for the third and final time, after a 25 year break. If I ever have to sell them all again, that's it.

I don't feel old yet. I don't feel young, though.

I'm 53

Hey, I only need FF 1, 3, & 4. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to get them. Like you, I have volumes 2 through whatever volume is current, plus annuals, minis, and one-shots. No regrets, though. It's soothing to know there's order in those longboxes.

Yep. I bought a VF copy for 3.99 before Avengers came out. The MCU was about to explode, but I managed to get that book before GOTG was really being talked about. That usually doesn't happen to me unless some new comic I buy at cover price gets hot.

I really love the era from around issue 112-200, with the high points being from about 158-177.

ASM 1-present + annuals Avengers 1-present + annuals Captain America 100-present + annuals Defenders 1-152 Doctor Strange 169-present Incredible Hulk 102-present Iron Man 1-present Justice League Of America (1960) 1-261 + all series after Marvel Team-Up Marvel Two-In-One Spectacular Spider-Man Spider-Man (PPSM) Uncanny X-Men 94-present Web Of Spider-Man Werewolf By Night X-Men / New X-Men / X-Men / X-Men Legacy X-Factor X-Force I didn't include a bunch of newer titles & shorter runs from Silver & Bronze ages. Probably have 50 or more of those.

I don't think either of these are particularly well known or acclaimed, but were satisfying as single issues when I read them: Avengers 160 "The Trial" Amazing Spider-Man 153 "The Longest Hundred Yards"

I purchased a GA Batman and two SA Batman from Sharon, and I'm thrilled with the books. For the price I paid, the books were much more solid than I expected. Everything was packed well and it arrived quickly. I'll be watching for her sales from here forward.

Kieron Gillen wrote the first Vader series. Check out his run on Journey Into Mystery from around 2011, too. He can be fantastic at times.

I do.

When I got back into collecting in 2011, I would arrange my new comics in order of the least intriguing to the one I wanted to read most, and would read them and file them away within a day or two. In about 2013, I started using 2 different database for my collection, so I always entered them before I read them. I was still very good about reading them several days before Weds rolled around again, until 1 week, I didn't. Since the sun came up the next day, I realized I was putting too much pressure on myself to read all my new books immediately. I started using a short box to keep my unread new books in, with the intention of reading them before the newest batch of books. Out of nowhere, it started getting difficult for me to concentrate enough to sit down and read a stack of comics without my mind wandering, and when I would finally be able to do that, I would start nodding off. I'm still dealing with this. For the most part, the short box I set aside for new books kept filling up, so I would file all of them away except for a select group that I wanted to read most. The process repeated so many times that I eventually filed all of them away, and each week only added the ones that appealed the most to me to my reading box. That's what I do now, after entering all the new comics into the 2 databases. About every 6 months, I have to empty the box and start from scratch again. Occasionally, I'm able to read 5-10 comics from my stack in one sitting, but I doubt I'll ever be able to spend hours getting swept away in the stories. I still love them and I love the hobby, and I still buy them like crazy, but I've had to learn to enjoy them differently since this began.

I have instructions in my will to contact mycomicshop.com, since they will buy every last book, and be the fairest to a non-collector. If I ever decide to get rid of them myself, it all depends on what the reason is for selling them. My entire downstairs is set up with all my hobby and play stuff, and the comics are safely tucked away in 2 bedrooms without windows, so they aren't in the way of anything. I'm 53, divorced and not looking, and have 2 levels of house with 3 other bedrooms separate from my comic stuff, so I don't foresee them interfering with my life if I ever lose interest.

Just asked a question. I'm not a dealer. I'm a collector who has enough money to actually do the things most people only talk about. If you're who I think you are, you're not a dealer either, just a malcontent who gets off marking snarky comments on message boards.