I knew exactly what poster was being talked about before I clicked the thread.  My LCS's also had it back in the day.  If they made a original size reproduction I would buy one in a heartbeat.   

7 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

I think I played that firstly on a gameboy non color in '88 or '89, it blew my filkin mind 

filkin

 

Proper noun

1. A surname.

Origin

From a medieval diminutive of the given name Philip.

 

 

I played that one at the age of 11 years old when it was brand new.  It had awesome music like all the Castlevania games, but the controls were way too sluggish.  

I sold all my video games 2 years ago to support comics.  I did keep my original PS1 and I do have two copies of Symphony of the Night.  Couldn't bear to part with that one as I still play it every few years.  

I have around 5000 CD's of high quality heavy metal albums.  It is what I collected before I got back into comics several years ago.  Most are first presses from the 80's and early 90's which are pretty valuable.  While I have the original cases and booklets, some of the discs have a few scratches because I wasn't buying them with the mindset of keeping them in mint condition.  I really did listen to all those things!  Luckily CD collectors are not quite as picky as comic collectors if I ever decide to sell.

My nicest ones are first presses of a lot of obscure 90's Scandinavian extreme metal.  These I paid good money for because they were already collectible by the time I got them, thus I took really good care of them. Talk about some low print runs.  Many of those were limited to a 1000 copies or less.  There is definitely not the same demand for those as there are for key comics, but when the albums pop up for sale they are snatched up really quick if not priced too extremely high.

11 hours ago, october said:

Video games....or at least I used to. In the process of selling off my Gamecube collection. PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn and DS will probably follow. Neo Geo is already gone. With two kids I just don't have the time to play any of it, and what time I do have usually goes to comics, old computer games, or XBONE stuff. 

Can't bring myself to sell the NES, SNES and Genesis collections though. Here's an old pic of some of it before it all went into storage. 

You have the NES Castlevania turned face front as if to accentuate its importance.  I must say I agree!

One thing the Copper Age gave us was the prevalence of the  "awesome cover."

One thing I notice is that in the Silver and Bronze Age (with very few exceptions like Kaluta House of Mystery and Jones Wonder Woman), the cover art and the interior art are essentially on the same quality level.  I honestly can't think of many instances when a cover was great but the inside was dreky.

In the Copper Age this is decidedly not the case.  In this era you had the prevalence of the strict "cover artist."  Think of how many times Art Adams, Mignola, Jim Lee, Liefeld, McFarlane, Zeck, MIller, Nowlan, Bolland, etc. gave us a kick- cover in order to pick up an issue off the newsstands only to get it home and be disappointed by the interior.  Marvel Comics Presents and Marvel Tales were the worst offenders.  Typically this tactic was used on under-performing series to provide an immediate boost, but even titles like Wolverine (24, 25, 27) were prone to it as well.  Batman was a really bad offender in the Copper Age too.  Death in the Family, Ten Knights of the Beast, 423, and so on.  (Now that I am older I think that Aparo and Buscema are great artists, but when I was a kid, they were definitely mundane compared to the artists listed above.)

BTW, kudos to Alan Davis, Silvestri, Zeck, and Lee and McFarlane for keeping the interiors as nice as the exteriors when they were given the shot.  Say what you will about Larsen, but he was a consistent professional in that regard too.  Liefield on the other hand, yeesh.  That New Mutants run really did have some great covers, but some of those interiors, man....  I'm looking at you number 87.

3 hours ago, nepatkm said:

Punisher 8 and 9 were some of the first comics I ever read.  It shocked me how bloody those issues were when I was so young.  Punisher snapping necks and chopping off heads.  Still one of my favorite stories and maybe the best artwork of the whole series.  I loved number 10 too, although DD 257 I liked a little better.  Definitely the best DD issue from the 200's.

Here are my top favorite heroes I collect(ed).  I grew up during the copper age so that explains why these were my favorite.

1. Wolverine

2. Spider-Man

3. The Punisher

4. Daredevil

5.  Batman

Here are my top favorite villains / groups of villains:

1. Sabretooth / Marauders

2.  Kingpin

3.  Hellfire Club

4.  Bullseye

5.  Juggernaut

5 hours ago, BaronSamedi said:

Is that the only reason you collect comics?

That is the reason why 99% of collectors spend actual cash money on anything they collect.

1 minute ago, Senormac said:

This would be the perfect place for a yodeling video

Hey, I like mountains.  What can I say?

13 minutes ago, KCOComics said:

 

I think it's hard to quantify key issues with dollars amounts. All the early Marvel Mystery comics are worth over $1k, but I wouldn't necessarily call them all keys. 

Don't get me wrong,  I would love to own them,  but I feel like the value has to be coupled with something significant. A first appearance or first issue. 

 

I'll agree with this.  You would have to measure keyness like they measure mountains.  There is strict elevation and then there is topographic prominence.  For example, Pikes Peak is, I believe, the most prominent mountain in CO, but it is around the 20th in strict elevation.  

To get prominence you would have to take a ratio of the value of that book over the average value of the 10 or so books before and after it.  The higher the ratio would correspond to a key with more prominence.  The most prominent keys, by this measure, would be books like IH 181, BA 12, NM 98, etc.  Basically, all relatively modern books where surrounding issues are very common or otherwise insignificant.

Keys that would fail to prominent by that metric would be issues like ASM 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, 14, 15.  All are high in strict elevation (price) , but the prices dont jump out at you when juxtaposed to each other.

I hid my previous post where the page from the issue was posted.  I just realized how offensive that might be to a casual onlooker.  

2 hours ago, Parabellum said:

Chris Warner’s work is amazing.

I really love the Big Game covers too.  I would actually put each of those ahead of the covers to 2,3, and 4 in the first series.  That set is worth it for those alone, but the story is pretty good also.

Those Terminator covers are awesome too, except for that #3.  I don't know what happened there.  

On 12/19/2019 at 3:42 PM, Parabellum said:

Predator #1 first and second print have the same front and rear cover except that the front cover of the second print has a darker shade of blue on the birds and predator, indica states printing, the inside front cover has a different pattern of shading behind “Predator”

 

Publication dates respectively Jun 1989, Sept 1989

That cover is my favorite Copper Age cover of all time.  It rules on every level.  Everytime I see that book at an LCS I pick it up.  

2 hours ago, Old_Man_Adam said:

That escalated quickly ... I gotta stop going to bed early ...

Those were some fire-sale prices.  Especially the X-Men 107.  What a steal.

12 hours ago, MYNAMEISLEGION said:

I'd move that range up about 10 issues.  #175-210. Those really do suck. They're cheap for a reason. I don't see anything in that run truly breaking out. 

About the only thing I remember from that run is Colossus fighting Juggernaut, a cool Wolverine cover on 207, and Kitty saying the N-word.

11 hours ago, jimjum12 said:

Same here.... in fact, their stock is very tightly graded, often a little undergraded. I remember a time when I dreaded having to scroll through their listings on eBay..... but now it seems I often find something new in them that I want. I do bypass eBay and order directly from their site, as the price is better. One of my favorite sites now. And turnaround ? …. if I order on a weekday the books are often received within 3 days max. GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

A few years ago I felt the same way about scrolling through their listings as well.

Now they have ended up having some of the most reasonable priced items on my searches.  I don't know why this is.  Maybe casual sellers/flippers are upping their's too fast to try and profit and MCS has just stood pat, I'm not sure.  Factor in their tight grading, and I have made a few purchases from them in the past few months and I have been happy each time. 

I got my eyes on this one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Image-Comics-Brigade-First-Issue-1/223574717287?hash=item340e177367:g:CV8AAOSwm49dHQIZ

Lot's of pics and the yellowing around the edges of the pages isn't too bad.

There are really too many to choose from from the Claremont X-Men run, but this encounter Wolverine had with the leprechaun really sticks with me for some reason.  It was a really odd way to find out his name too.  The expression on Wolverine's face is funny also.  "No way bub!  The Wolverine doesn't believe in leprechauns!"

12 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Adams' stuff was extraordinarily popular in 1990...to the point that Longshot #1-6 was a $100 set...in 1990. Even though he had done X-Men Annual #12 and #14, his earlier stuff...Annual #9 and #10, Longshot, New Mutants Special Edition....were the books everyone wanted.

I imagine FF #347-349 was the very last time people got generally excited about Art Adas work.

I think the reason no one wanted X-Men Annual #12 or the overlooked Excalibur Special 2 was because they had the X-Babies in them.  I think one of the things that contributed to Adam's waning popularity was his or whoever else's insistence that he always draw the absolute lamest of all possible X-Men storylines.  I mean, you had the X-Babies in 3 annuals in a row, which is insane.  Plus, he also drew Mojo stuff way too much as well.  The reason those FF's were popular were also due to the inclusion of Wolverine and GR.  Had they had been another Alchemy character like X-Factor 41 and 42 then nobody would have cared about those either.  

6 hours ago, kav said:

When a comic shop owner greets you with "Back again??  Thats the second time today!!!" and mocks you with the other employees you find somewhere else to give money to.

The worst is when they make fun of other customers (that are not currently there) in your presence.  You can then be 90% certain they do the same about you when you are not there.

I've been back into the hobby for only a few years now but I have recently cut down on how much I am going to my own LCS and it has paid dividends in the respect department.  If you are in there every day of the week and spend an average of a couple of hundred a week, then they almost seem annoyed, or even worse, lightly chuckle when you walk in.  On the other hand, if you only show up once a month and spend a few hundred in one transaction, you get treated much, much better and they are much more sincerely happy to see you even though you are spending less money overall.  You can also get a better bulk discount that way.  

It takes some discipline because I do love shopping for comics and my LCS is decent compared to some I have seen in other cities, but at the end of the day it is all about self-respect.  Respect yourself enough by not coming in and allowing yourself to get exposed to that and then it will not happen to you. 

Ok...

Uncanny X-Men 213 era Sabretooth versus Uncanny X-Men 140 era Wendigo?

22 minutes ago, sagekilz said:

MM is one of my all-time favorite characters.  MM for the win!

Daredevil vs. Predator

OMG I swear I was going to put this one forth last night but was too tired to post!

Interesting battle here because Predator's invisibility would be completely nullified and any element of surprise would be in DD's favor.  It would be Daredevil in a landslide, unless Daredevil insisted on not killing the Predator and tried to reason with him.  He would then try to bring him in, in handcuffs or something like that, so the Predator could face justice in the court of law.  Murdock would even offer to defend him free of charge!    On  a serious note, I can't believe there was not a Predator versus Punisher mini-series back in the late copper era.  If they had put talent on it like Lee or Chris Warner it would have sold like crazy.  

1 hour ago, Mercury Man said:

I still say nobody can show me the difference between a 9.8 and a 9.9.  

Or a 9.9 and a 10.0 for that matter. 

You can run yourself into a nervous wreck in this hobby.  

That is for sure.  I've been back into collecting for 3 years now and as much as I try to fight it, my OCD nature takes over more than I would like it to.  Every so often I will get an excellent copy of an old book, excellent gloss and white pages, basically looking like the day it was printed.  Instead of being happy with that, it sometimes has this effect of me going back to other issues I had from before that I was previously happy with and I begin to see flaws in them that I was not aware of before.  I guess it is just human nature that we spend so much time obsessing over what we don't have as opposed to appreciating what we do have.  

2 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

I honestly have been priced out of collecting. I stopped buying since I can't afford these prices and due to my own personal experience I believe there are many others in the same boat and I therefore think we are due for a market correction.

I don't blame you.  It has gotten to the point that only people with very large amounts of disposable income can purchase nice books on even a semi-regular basis.  For the vast majority of people it seems that prices have become well past the point of "just for fun" or "just a hobby" and have become investment level.  It's like to be a collector at all these days, one has to be a serious collector.       

1 hour ago, TwoPiece said:

People are obsessed with price tags. One of the dumbest 'brags' ever.

It's why (insert group insult here) buy JW Blue Label at whatever ridiculous cost it is today instead of Macallan or Glenmorangie Signet. JW Blue is pure trash compared to literally any/every single malt...

I am going to have to respectfully disagree here.  When I got my first bottle of Blue Label I felt the same way.  I thought the single malts were much more distinctive and I felt like I had wasted my money.  The reality was my palate was just not developed enough to pick out exactly what I was paying for in the Blue Label.  On later attempts I began to notice very rich, oily, textures and a very exquisite balance that the Blue Label had, things that single malts necessarilly would have a very hard time acheiving.  Don't get me wrong, there are many fantastic single malts out there like Glenmorangie, Glenfarclas, Laphroig, Lagavulin, etc, but it is wrong to suggest that some one who buys a bottle of one of the finest widely available whiskeys out there does so out of ignorance.