The lips

I’m usually a Spidey guy, but I’m finding myself being drawn back to the FF ( my first ever book ) and in particular the classic early Surfer issues. 
just been on a spending spree but all at what I considered to be a great price. 
delighted with these. 

Delighted to now own this and it’s my first major ( to me anyway ) key !

picked up for what I consider a real bargain price. 
fully complete, tight staples and good colours. Colour break creases and fair bit more but I’d be happy with anything 3 upwards to my untrained eye. 
thanks 

I’m a big fan of Alex Ross and eagerly collected his hero / villain covers. He captures these fictional characters as though they’re actually living, breathing entities. 
 

Kirby though is a genius. 

2.5

My personal grail this one and that’s exactly the type of condition that’s in my price range. Boy I wish I owned this one ! 

Saturday morning tends to be my comic time. Not specifically planned, just that’s how it tends to be. 
Im fortunate my 7 year old boy is at the age where he is obsessed with superhero’s so it’s something we do together. We get the comics out and play games such as ‘name the character’ of I’ll pull out 20 books and he attempts to put in order of value. 
Then we’ll read a few, education purposes of course !!

If time allows we’ll head out to a LCS also so I can buy him stuff he likes  

outside of that it’s mostly me looking for deals on internet when I get random spare time. 

Haha, yes I unashamedly do. 
in fact I’ve took it to an extreme and every time I open an old book, me and my 7 year old boy both sniff it at the same time, before saying in unison..

”I get high of that s**t”

weird but fun !!

I’m focussing on a run of ASM 1-375 of which I’ve 292 issues completed, I’m 78% done and that’s took me just under 2.5 years, although I still had a few issues from when I was a kid. 
As it stands I’ve 61 issues of the first 100 but none below issue 17, so thats where the time is going to take I imagine as my pockets aren’t that deep ! 
I’m 1 issue short (195) of completing 150-375 which hasn’t been too bad. 

as much as I’m desperate to complete, I keep telling myself it’s a marathon not a sprint ! If I was a gambling man I’d bet I probs won’t complete due to money reasons but you never know. I’m having s lot of fun trying !! 

On 8/25/2023 at 10:47 PM, Chamber of Chills said:

I own two .5s that I cherish above majority of my personal collection.
 

Great looking for .5. Particularly the ASM 1

On 8/25/2023 at 11:25 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

Not that I'm aware of, depending on condition of the rest of the book. I have several 2.5 with detached cover etc, and a few have been graded higher in grading contests.

 

Thanks, thought so. Likewise I’ve a couple of raws and didnt think they were automatically incomplete and .5. 
Cheers. 

Is a detached cover classed as incomplete ?? 

On 8/8/2023 at 10:03 PM, Azkaban said:

date stamps wouldn't bother me at all as long as it doesn't cover up the art, I kind of like them 

Same, I enjoy a well positioned date stamp. Adds to the history for me. 

My wallet is ultimately the deciding factor. 
 

it’s my major collecting goal to complete an ASM run of 1-375 of which I’m around three quarters done. 
I’ve sort of worked in stages. 300-375 I mostly bought on release so are all at least a 9.0. 
Buying back issues I set myself a rough target of issue..

200 to 300 - 8 or above. 
150 - 200 - 7 or above. 
100- 150 - 6 or above but gladly go lower on likes of 121,122,129. 
50-100 - 5 or above ( my issue 50 is more a 4 )

sub 50 and moving into the big keys it’s just about actually owning them. To me these are pieces of history so I don’t work on grade just a criteria. Firstly has to be complete and no loose pages ( though I don’t mind a cut out advert if it didn’t spoil story ).

Mostly I’d gladly take anything on the big first appearances in single figures and 14. 

On 7/13/2023 at 9:41 PM, Webhead2018 said:

I need 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 27 28 29 30 31 33 34 35 36 37 38 41 42 43 44 47 48 49 50 53 57 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 70 71 72 73 74 76 77 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 89 90 92 93 94  96 98 99 101 104 105 106 107 108 110 111 112 113 114 116 117 118 119 121 124 125 126 127 129 131 133 135 138 139 140 141 143 145 146 147 151 152 153 154 161 162 164 165 166 167 168 170 171 173 174 175 179 180 181 183 184 186 187 188189 190 202 203 207 208 209 211 213 214 215 216 217 220 221 223 225 226 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 239 240 241 242 245 247 248 249 251 253 255 256 257 259 260 262 263 264 266 267 268 269 271 272 273 271 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 288 290 291 292 293 294 295 297 299 301 302 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 344 346 347 348 349 352 353 354 356 357 358 359 360 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 379 381 382 383 384 385 388 389

A lot of that will be very achievable. I’m similar to yourself that I’m collecting 1-375, raw and at lower to mid grades ( certainly on the early issues )

I found collecting in stages easiest way to do it. I first completed 200-375. 
im now at same time doing 150-200 and only need 5 left to do so. 
im also doing 50-100 and need 11 issues. 
1-50 is of course the most expensive and I’ve nothing yet below issue 17. 
issues 100-150 I’ve not properly started but do have keys such as 121 and 122 so couple of big ones ticked off. 
 

for a bit of fun I laid out my sub #100 just to ogle and admire. I love them but tinged with sadness at what I’m missing !! 

Hate going first on these threads, but to my untrained eye it looks a decent copy ( better than mine anyway )

id say a 5. 

An amazing achievement. Something I’d love to do myself. I’m currently doing asm 1-375 and I’ve 280 issues ticked off ( yep it’s the single issues I’m missing )

I’ll keep chipping away but I can only dream of your achievement. 
once I think I’ve took it as far as I can I’m going to collect FF Lee / Kirby run and Silver Surfer 1968 as I have issue 1 so rest doable. 
good luck with your choice 

7.5. 
 

what I’d give to even own this book never mind one in this condition 

9.2 or even 9.4. It’s a beautiful copy and definitely better than mine. 

9.2. 
 

beautiful. 

On 5/16/2023 at 5:44 PM, Robot Man said:

Long runs can become a real burden. Also where do you draw the line? Take Spider-Man or Batman. Do you just stick with the original title? Detective has over 1,000 issues. Do you also go after the Batman title? Spin-offs and all books that feature the character? Variants?

Could be an off the hook compulsion.

I prefer to “spread the love” buying a lot of different books and characters. Pick out my favorites and call it a day. I love ALL genres. Nice to be able to enjoy different stuff once in a while. This hobby has SO much to offer. 

I predominantly collect ASM and working on a run of 1-375 of which I’m 3/4 there. 
I do now though feel like selling bit off and swaying towards other runs. 
I definitely want to finish the original Silver Surfer run and make a start on Lee and Kirby’s FF run. 

On 5/8/2023 at 5:02 PM, Hudson said:

First, let me thank you for this amazing tale.   It never ceases to amaze me how many board members are from the UK.   As we approach Mother’s Day, here, it warms my heart to think how generous your mother was to purchase you that SS 1.   I am sure you treasure it not only for Stan’s signature, but also as a reminder of your mother’s kindness and love. 
 

As for Americans not visiting Newcastle, I have to tell you that although I am no where near as important as the great Stan Lee, I do recall flying across the pond and then driving up to Newcastle.  It was probably around 2002 and I went there to finally meet my favorite actress; Louise Jameson.  She was appearing at a Dr Who convention and charity auction.   I managed to “win” a --script at the auction, that Ms Jameson was kind enough to sign for me (along with several other signatures from other actors/actresses there at the time).  This was the first time I had the privilege of meeting Ms Jameson and the trip to Newcastle was well worth the expense.  
 

Cheers to you, to Newcastle and to all our board member friends from the UK.  

Many thanks. My mother is no longer with us unfortunately so it an indeed a very nice memory. My mother bought it and Stan signed it and both now now no longer here. 
 

Delighted to hear you made it here to Newcastle and had a great time. 
Mon the very slim you chance to bust again, don’t hesitate to let me know if you need a tour guide !