cool thread idea (thumbs u i'll give it a try
born october 12, 1970 same time this book was on the stands.
my introduction into comic books was in 1976. a friend of mine Nick and his older brothers collected back issue and a guy named Jack who was maybe 10 years older then me lived a few houses the opposite direction.
Nick and his brothers had a few hundred Marvels from the 60's. i can't remember what condition they we're in. i do remember they we're completely raw, no bags or boards.
i remember lots of Iron Man books, lots of FF books, Avengers and Hulks.
immediately i thought they we're very cool.
Jack was 16, 17, 19? something like that. his mother would watch me every once in a while if my mother needed to run out for something. she took me into his room one day and opened his closet.
there we're multiple trunks full of comics. boxes stacked on top of even more boxes full of comics. they we're overflowing out of the boxes onto the shelves in his closet.
but what really struck me about his collection was how perfectly organized the comics we're. at that time i had never seen anything like it. everything was doubled boarded and bagged. everything was in alphabetical order and numeric order. he had many doubles, and from what i recall the books we're in extremely nice condition.
basically i have been chasing his collection all these years. there had been many years without buying a single book .
i was in my early 20's when started working and making some cash. i began buying books form local comic shops like Barbarian Book Shop in Wheaton, MD and local Hotel cons. but it was slow going.
then there was eBay. i was amazed at how many books you could find with eBay. my first ever online eBay purchase was an Iron Man #4. i was hooked until i found this place and i went into overdrive.
in the end i would say my collection is about 6 books shy of my old friend Jacks collection.