Savoyard23

I had the exact same plan with the exact same results! My son is 11 and lives in a home with 25+ long boxes of glorious adventure and for all the interest he has, they might as well be blocks of cement. He's even in love with the Flash TV show and the MCU movies and I have tried to use those as gateway drugs, but nope, nope, nope. He'd rather eat Brussels sprouts than open a comic book. Gah, when I was 11 if you'd given me thousands of comic books to read, I would have been walking on air.

That's possible. But if the newcomers are staying in comics because they are "undervalued due to relative scarcity" and "have great long-term growth potential", is that really fundamental demand? Do they actually want the comics or do they expect that owning comics is going to make them rich(er)? If prices start to correct downward, maybe comics won't seem so undervalued and laden with growth potential to these folks. What then? Do they enjoy owning classic comic books, or do they all sell and look for a winner somewhere else? I think you're right that the MCU is fueling this rocketship to a great degree. Everything they try, every risk they take, it just works. Hit after hit after hit. Can that go on forever? Who knows?

This might be the money that turns a market correction into a crash on its way out. It doesn't necessarily represent fundamental demand.

Totally. It was reading the Avengers arc that put me in mind to dive into the 90s series again. Have you read the Marvel Presents run? The first 2/3 or it is by Steve Gerber (who created Starhawk) and it's delightfully weird.

I read the 1990s Guardians of the Galaxy series, 1-62, plus Annuals 2-4. The later half of the series was a better read than I remembered. My memory had the guest appearances by 20th century characters feeling more contrived and overdone than it felt like it was this time. The 1st 6 issues (which I have in the trade) are a little slow to take off, but the Valentino run picks up steam. 7-20 or so are the highlight of the series. I thought Force were more interesting arch-enemies than Rancor's mutants, but Gallagher / West clearly felt the opposite. "Major Victory" - cringe. I liked the symbiote angle but they seemed to back off of it. Side-Step is my bad girl crush. The art starts getting more 90s by the end. The Drax - Cuchulain fight looks Liefeldesque. You have to love Charlie-27. The series also gave Yondu some great character development. The book suffered a little when Starhawk (Stakar) wasn't in it. He's not exactly likeable, but he's cool. (And his ex-wife blames him for years for stuff that wasn't his fault. Can anyone relate?) I wish they hadn't sanitized Yellowjacket's criminal past. Her quips were pretty amusing, though. I wasn't buying much off the stands at this point; I think this and maybe FF were the books I stuck with longest. I don't know what happened to the characters after the conclusion of the series. 274 I'm a little off the pace. But my foot is broken, so maybe that will translate into less running time (for sure!) and more comic reading time.

New Teen Titans, I'm pretty sure.

I've been thinking about going to Baltimore for the first time actually. I hear it's more of a true comic show than, say, Wizard Philly. I'm a run collector, so I'm after some bigger books by default. I feel the same way as Wombat, though, so nice to hear the opinion that this show has some good deals if I do end up going.

I'm waiting out the insanity, too. I love comics, but I'm not buying at these prices. In fact, I haven't written a check or typed in the digits for a comic in about 6 weeks, which for me is a long time. Now, I haven't taken a solemn vow not to buy another comic book until you can get a Fine X-Men 1 for less than a Toyota. I may go back to the local shows when I can, or make some offers online, to fill in a few runs I'm really close on. But I'm not inclined to buy in at prices that are going to make me feel like a chump when this all comes crashing down. And if explosive price growth is the new normal, as some believe, then I'll enjoy the 7000 comics I already have and/or I'll go digital.

To me, FF 1 has that Action 1-style magic, even if it's not the 'coolest' book on the wall. (And it's plenty cool, too.) I was just going to reply with this as my 'Holy Grail' book in the General thread. In this case, I could take or leave the Stan signature, I just love the book.

Well, I’m a collector and reader. Personally, I find it heartening when I or anyone else can collect a quality run cheaply. We’re talking about more than 2 or 3 issues, of course. But sure, I could grimace and pay up once or twice when the MCU takes a dump on my want list. I have done that once or twice. You're right, it won’t break me. But...how often do you want me to pay $20 for a comic that was $2 literally yesterday before it gets tiresome and I start feeling like the clown in this circus? I’m not really sure where you’re going here. Am I supposed to kick myself for not having bought every comic I might ever want by now? The sad thing is, I have gotten the notion these last few lunatic months that maybe I ought to just amp up the comic budget and go on a buying jag. Buy everything I can now. Before it’s too late, you know. But then I come to my senses and realize how much fun that would not be. I do enough in my life in a stressed-out panic. I have hobbies to escape from those things. It's good for you that you have some books put away ready to sell. Good luck.

I'm having increasingly strong doubts about the fundamentals of this market. And I say that after correcting for my 'wishful thinking' bias as a buyer. I agree with you, though - the likes of TMNT 1 will never be toilet paper.

This was the one-two punch that sent me to the sidelines. When you can't even complete runs of C-list Marvel 80s titles without paying up to the movie speculators, where's the fun? I have 27 long boxes to enjoy already and plenty else to do with my time and money.

I have a great fondness for that early era, but it's been a few years since I've read those issues. I don't remember Cap being quite so...explosive, but maybe I'll add them to this project and remind myself. Then again, the way Hawkeye and sometimes Quicksilver behaved back then, they'd have gotten on my last nerve too.

Let's keep it simple this time. Avengers 154-180, plus the crossover into Super Villain Team Up 9. Truly the Korvac Saga is Jim Shooter's masterpiece, and an all-time Avengers run. He weaves in many characters and subplots and it's always a plus to have George Perez on your team. My one complaint is Shooter's characterization of Captain America as an angry, hot-headed drill sergeant. I tend to forget that not until late in the story is even the reader aware that 'Michael' is Korvac. I don't think it comes up in Starhawk's fight with him in 168, and up until the reveal in 175, there's not even really a clue. I also forget that is isn't entirely a Shooter / Perez production, since Perez was just doing the covers after 171, I think, and Shooter farmed out a lot of the writing as he was promoted in the middle of the arc. 209

Whatever the driving forces for the 1990s crash, it definitely took back issue prices down. I remember being delighted when I got back into collecting around 1999/2000 after 10 or so years away. For instance, I finished my Claremont / Cockrum / Byrne X-Men run (except I never did get hold of a GSX1!) for....maybe not pennies on the dollar, but quarters on the dollar compared to what I was paying in the late 80s. Will that happen again? I'd be lying if I said I knew, but I can certainly hope. There are still worlds I'd like to conquer, but I'm out at these prices.

I've actually never seen that cover before in 40+ years of collecting. They must all be in Winnipeg.

25 mainstream BA comics in presentable shape for $63 does sound like a fair deal to me. It's about $2.50 a book without the work of tracking them all down. Go for it. The Kirby run is very different from it's surroundings. Opinions on it vary, but I do enjoy it for its sheer creativity. There's lots of good stuff in the long run you're looking at. I have them all and enjoy those books. Good luck.

Flash 261-265. This was an epic classic arc when I was little, now not quite so much, but a pleasant Cary Bates palate cleanser. Avengers 151-153, Annual 6. Continuing on from the Squadron Supreme stories. I'll probably keep rolling with this for awhile. Super Friends 1, 3-5, 7, 11, 16-17, 19-22, 27, 29-30. Talk about a palate cleanser. Warlock 1-8, and then continuing the story into Hulk 176-178. In the letter column for Warlock 8, the editor (Roy Thomas, I think) laments the book's cancellation and says, "we don't know what we did wrong". Maybe I can help. The stories and art were a little on the dull side with no real memorable villains, and the supporting cast are all pretty vanilla. There were some good ideas, but the books read....OK. "OK" is tough when you're trying to sell something brand new. I hate to call for a Spider-Man crossover, but I think the creative team's decision to stay out of the mainstream MU might have been ill-advised. 181

I have years' worth of good entertainment in all of those shabby white boxes. I consider that "quality".

Unless I'm misunderstanding the situation, why don't you just sell the book, then?

I collect both companies but my Marvel runs do tend to be longer!

Right?? To have a book in your collection that some thought didn't exist a few years ago... @Brock

Do you have the DC Comics Presents 22? Me, I'm a run collector but not necessarily a completist. I collect long runs of titles I enjoy reading and owning, as far forward as I have interest (usually late 80s or so), and as far back as I can afford.

I only go back to about 127 right now, so I can't comment on the Daredevil / Black Widow issues. I'm curious to hear what others say, too. The 30 or so issues immediately pre-Miller are your basic Marvel superhero fare, in my opinion, which is not a bad thing. Good runs by Wolfman and Shooter in there. Maybe not stone-cold classics, but worth your time if you like that kind of thing.

I had the same thought as I was reading it. Especially since an event significant to the plot of Squadron Supreme happens in Cap 314. I think it's a justified foul on Gruenwald, although the idea was probably to boost sales of the Squadron rather than Cap. At the time I was annoyed for the opposite reason to you - I was a Cap reader, but wasn't buying the mini-series and it felt like a waste of an issue, being dipped and out of another story. Heh - I guess it piqued my interest enough for me to find it in the back issue bins eventually. The Gruenwald Cap run is really good, though. It used to be a fun and pretty cheap run to collect, though I don't think that's the case anymore as some of the books are newly 'hot'.