Collections you have seen - what's your story?

[bergdoll]

In my years of comic collecting, I have been fortunate enough to make a number of friends and have been invited to see some amazing collections.

 

Two collections stand-out in my mind:

 

1) The "Don" collection. When I was a young collector (18 or so), I worked part-time at a local comic shop. One of our customers - who's first name was Don (all I can remember), used to come in and buy comics in a bit of an odd way. Most people buy monthly issues of comics they like. Not Don. Don would look at every new issue and buy what appeared to be very random comics.

 

As time went on, we got to know him well - he came in every week. At any rate, he told us that he collected "first appearances of characters" and other such "event" comics. Cool.

 

More time went by and he invited the shop owner and myself to his home. I remember walking into the house, turning left and walking into a basement. Inside a room in the basement was what I can only describe as "comic geek heaven". He had, from what I remember, almost every golden-age DC key. Action #1, Superman #1, 'Tec 27, Batman #1, Showcase #4 and on and on. They were all in mylar (this was the late 80's - even mylar was cool to see). They were all on the wall, lined-up in rows. We are taking well over 100 books of this caliber.

 

I remember his "tour" well:

 

"This is the first Robin"

"This is the first Joker"

"This is the first Catwoman"

"This is the first Penguin"

 

on and on and on.....

 

I lost touch with folks from back then, but never forgot this collection. It *may* be the Vancouver collection that I've heard tell of. I don't know anything about this collection, but it was on Vancouver Island that I saw this collection. If anyone knows "Don" - I'd love to say "Thanks again!" - it was a collection I enjoyed seeing very much.

 

 

2) The second cool collection was one I saw more recently while on a business trip to the Toronto area. This one was the Canadian White collection of Stephen. Wow. It's a museum to this very little-known area of comic collecting and a demonstration of what a sub-specialty can be! (oh..and there just happened to be a complete...and I mean COMPLETE collection of EC books as well - including magazines and Weird Suspenstories books)

 

Stephen is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He actually picked me up at my hotel and drove me to and from his home. We looked and talked about comics until 1am! I was bleary eyed at the end, but amazed that such a collection could exist.

 

Honestly, he should get a government grant from Heritage Canada to protect this collection!

 

 

So? What collections have you seen that have blown you away? (more the private collections,not the commercial or dealer ones). The ones where you can see years of effort and a real love of the hobby?

[Boozad]

Great stories. I've only ever seen two collections, my first and my second

[Old Fashion PB and J]

Great stories. I've only ever seen two collections, my first and my second

Pretty much the same here.

[bergdoll]

Great stories. I've only ever seen two collections, my first and my second

 

haha! I'm one of those folks that sold their collection in their foolish youth and then returned recently to collecting. Except, I guess my return has been 10 years now and I have some nice books. So, I'm on "collection #2" as well.

 

Like many of us, I suspect, we have plenty of coulda-shoulda-woulda stories about old books.

 

The "Don" collection above was before these keys were super-expensive. He had all the SA books to by-the-way. FF#1, ASM#1, AF#15... it was stunning.

 

If he still has this collection, it would rival the best of the best.

 

I won't say exactly where the collection was (out of respect to privacy), but it was NOT in the type of town you'd expect it to be. It wasn't a New York, or LA collection - where there has been a large population for a long time. It's an old town, but not massive.

 

 

[Old Fashion PB and J]

Great stories. I've only ever seen two collections, my first and my second

 

haha! I'm one of those folks that sold their collection in their foolish youth and then returned recently to collecting. Except, I guess my return has been 10 years now and I have some nice books. So, I'm on "collection #2" as well.

 

Like many of us, I suspect, we have plenty of coulda-shoulda-woulda stories about old books.

 

The "Don" collection above was before these keys were super-expensive. He had all the SA books to by-the-way. FF#1, ASM#1, AF#15... it was stunning.

 

If he still has this collection, it would rival the best of the best.

 

I won't say exactly where the collection was (out of respect to privacy), but it was NOT in the type of town you'd expect it to be. It wasn't a New York, or LA collection - where there has been a large population for a long time. It's an old town, but not massive.

 

My first collection was all CA, I just read and stored my books as a kid. When I returned I attacked a few runs like ASM, Avengers,and X-Men. Which I still have large collections of, mainly because I am too lazy to grade them all. I expanded to a bunch of DC stuff, and still read moderns. And then I found the boards, became unhappy with my books, and am now building a collection that is more quality then quantity (for the most part) and have really found a wonderful niche for myself.

 

So I am on collection #3 also. The more I learn, the more I try and improve.

[nmtg9]

Im also onto my 2nd collection.

 

Until recently it was the best set id seen, ive met a friend locally who has an impresssive collection of Silver Age goodies. m going to visit him again on monday to see more beauties.

[Boozad]

The collection I have now puts my first one in the shade by a long stretch. When I was first collecting I could only afford to buy the stuff I was reading, so it was never really a collection worth anything much.

 

This time around I'm in a position to afford much better books so I'm happy with where I am. I do wonder sometimes how far I could have gone by now if my collection hadn't been binned and I hadn't taken ten years out. I'll never know, so I'll just be happy with what I have now and be envious of other people's collections that are miles ahead of mine (thumbs u

[Old Fashion PB and J]

The collection I have now puts my first one in the shade by a long stretch. When I was first collecting I could only afford to buy the stuff I was reading, so it was never really a collection worth anything much.

 

This time around I'm in a position to afford much better books so I'm happy with where I am. I do wonder sometimes how far I could have gone by now if my collection hadn't been binned and I hadn't taken ten years out. I'll never know, so I'll just be happy with what I have now and be envious of other people's collections that are miles ahead of mine (thumbs u

[Boozad]

The collection I have now puts my first one in the shade by a long stretch. When I was first collecting I could only afford to buy the stuff I was reading, so it was never really a collection worth anything much.

 

This time around I'm in a position to afford much better books so I'm happy with where I am. I do wonder sometimes how far I could have gone by now if my collection hadn't been binned and I hadn't taken ten years out. I'll never know, so I'll just be happy with what I have now and be envious of other people's collections that are miles ahead of mine (thumbs u

Gav I'm in awe of your Bats and I've thought about trying to liberate them from you

 

Thanks Pat!

[bergdoll]

It's funny, both of the collections I saw were very - motivating.

 

It made me realize that over time, with careful buying - I'll have a collection that is grand in the eyes of others.

 

One of the things I always wanted was a complete set of Uncle Scrooge - and, now I almost have one! (about 80% of one anyways).

 

I've actually just started thinking more about CGC and have started a bunch of "sets" - good times.

[towards2112]

There are no collections, there are only books you haven't flipped yet.

[Ogami]

There are no collections, there are only books you haven't flipped yet.

 

speak for yourself, dealer lite.

 

 

 

 

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

It's funny, both of the collections I saw were very - motivating.

 

It made me realize that over time, with careful buying - I'll have a collection that is grand in the eyes of others.

 

 

I've only been collecting GA since August 2006, but when I look back at all the wonderful books I've been able to accumulate in less than three years, I manage to impress even myself.

 

Slow careful buying of quality material will yield wonderful results in time. (thumbs u

[MrBedrock]

...when I look back at all the wonderful books I've been able to accumulate in less than three years, I manage to impress even myself.

 

 

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

...when I look back at all the wonderful books I've been able to accumulate in less than three years, I manage to impress even myself.

 

 

Smart-@ss remark omitted?

[Old Fashion PB and J]

The collection I have now puts my first one in the shade by a long stretch. When I was first collecting I could only afford to buy the stuff I was reading, so it was never really a collection worth anything much.

 

This time around I'm in a position to afford much better books so I'm happy with where I am. I do wonder sometimes how far I could have gone by now if my collection hadn't been binned and I hadn't taken ten years out. I'll never know, so I'll just be happy with what I have now and be envious of other people's collections that are miles ahead of mine (thumbs u

Gav I'm in awe of your Bats and I've thought about trying to liberate them from you

 

Thanks Pat!

[Dark Prime 0]

i know of 2 collection i would love to see, both dealers.

 

John who i know and have been buying books off of for years only deals in SA books, and most are F+ books. i know when he buys he also cherry picks for his personal collection.....so compared to what he sells, he has so real buties at home.

 

the 2nd is my local comic dealer Al....he's been buying for years, and i've seen a bit of it, his problem is he has some of his privite and dealer collection mixed, and is at the point where he doesn't remember what he has, i know he has a ASM 1 5.5, and a showcase 4. some of you dealers/collectors of model kits might know who Al is too, or have dealt with him before

[telerites]

Back in the early-mid 80s while I was going to college, a local dealer had acquired what I think was the entire Mile High Catman run. It is the only time then or since that I have seen an so many Mile Highs of a single series together. Being a broke college kid, I could only afford one book, so I bought the #13 (I am almost positive I paid $60 for it). I had no idea it was one of the scarcer issues of the run. So since he was selling them, not really a collection but it blew me away back then.

[Boozad]

The collection I have now puts my first one in the shade by a long stretch. When I was first collecting I could only afford to buy the stuff I was reading, so it was never really a collection worth anything much.

 

This time around I'm in a position to afford much better books so I'm happy with where I am. I do wonder sometimes how far I could have gone by now if my collection hadn't been binned and I hadn't taken ten years out. I'll never know, so I'll just be happy with what I have now and be envious of other people's collections that are miles ahead of mine (thumbs u

Gav I'm in awe of your Bats and I've thought about trying to liberate them from you

 

Thanks Pat!

 

[followtheleader]

Many years ago, I was collecting carded He-man figures. A guy in the Denver area had a huge collection (met him through E-bay). I was on a bit of a lull with comic collecting.

 

The guy had collected all the right things and got the best quality. He pulled out a short box to show me his comic collection. I assumed it would be a joke. But everything was high grade and there some great books. Iron Man #1, tons of high grade Spidey, even a mid-grade Amazing Fantasy #15. He pulled out a titanium suitcase that had 3 high grade Spidey 39s. Looks so sweet. It was like a comic drug-deal. I was simply floored. He had more value in that shortbox than I did in my whole collection. Some great DCs too.

 

When we went downstairs to view the sealed boxed sets (basically pristine from the 80s), he casually showed me a 2nd Amazing Fantasy! Definitely low grade, but 2 in one house.

 

I asked where he accrued such a fine collection. He mentioned that he and his dad bought off of some phone auction that existed prior to E-bay. I'd never heard of it, but it sounded like an E-bay predecessor. He said that few people did it and it was a family fun thing.

 

He also loved Transformers. Had a bunch of great stuff. The nicest vintage Optimus I'd ever seen (with all parts). Next to the Optimus was a stack of the complete Marvel series. I'm sure they were top notch too.

 

I kick myself. I should have investigated and bought more.

 

Pat