My son and his AF15!

[sufunk]

Just a little background...

 

When i was a kid growing up in Ohio in the early 80's, my LCS had the sweetest OO copy of AF15 sitting there for years. I would sit and stare at it endlessly 2-3 times a week dreaming of buying it. I still distinctly remember it was $1200.

 

I saved up for YEARS, only asked for money for Bdays and Christmas/Chanukkah, raked every leaf, shovelled every driveway in the neighborhood and saved every dime i ever got to buy it. I finally had enough saved up when i was 13 and then my parents wouldnt let me buy it even though they said i could if i saved the money. I was CRUSHED but they thought comics were a waste of money and would get upset when i bought $2,3,4,5 back issues. They thought it was INSANE to spend $1200 on a comic book and that was that, i couldnt get it. Then, one day i went in to the store and it was gone I swore i would NEVER be like that with my kids when i grew up.

 

Fast forward 25 years and i have a 6 year old son who is REALLY into superheroes and comics. LOVES them! I put some money away for him each year and got really lucky with some Sirius stock i bought him a few years ago(thank you Howard Stern!!!). Rather than buy more stocks in this market, i thought a decent AF 15 would be a better/ more enjoyable investment for him. I used some of the money and got him his own AF15 in the last Clink auction and it just finally got here the other day.

 

I havent and wont give him to him until he is at least 16-18 but i at least wanted to get a pic of him with it so that he would have it when he got older. Hopefully, in 10-12 years, he'll be REALLY stoked when i give this to him! Heres the pics of him holding his AF15 in front of a AF15 poster i got him for his room for Chanukkah this year

 

 

[trmoore54]

Very cool! Will you be my daddy too?

[Bunky Brian]

Super cute your a great dad!

 

 

[Dark Knight]

Very cool! Will you be my daddy too?

 

Thanks for sharing and awesome story! Wish my dad did the same when I was a young lad.. Oh well, maybe one day when I have kids, I can be able to do what you did for your son

[cloudofwit]

Just a little background...

 

When i was a kid growing up in Ohio in the early 80's, my LCS had the sweetest OO copy of AF15 sitting there for years. I would sit and stare at it endlessly 2-3 times a week dreaming of buying it. I still distinctly remember it was $1200.

 

I saved up for YEARS, only asked for money for Bdays and Christmas/Chanukkah, raked every leaf, shovelled every driveway in the neighborhood and saved every dime i ever got to buy it. I finally had enough saved up when i was 13 and then my parents wouldnt let me buy it even though they said i could if i saved the money. I was CRUSHED but they thought comics were a waste of money and would get upset when i bought $2,3,4,5 back issues. They thought it was INSANE to spend $1200 on a comic book and that was that, i couldnt get it. Then, one day i went in to the store and it was gone I swore i would NEVER be like that with my kids when i grew up.

 

Fast forward 25 years and i have a 6 year old son who is REALLY into superheroes and comics. LOVES them! I put some money away for him each year and got really lucky with some Sirius stock i bought him a few years ago(thank you Howard Stern!!!). Rather than buy more stocks in this market, i thought a decent AF 15 would be a better/ more enjoyable investment for him. I used some of the money and got him his own AF15 in the last Clink auction and it just finally got here the other day.

 

I havent and wont give him to him until he is at least 16-18 but i at least wanted to get a pic of him with it so that he would have it when he got older. Hopefully, in 10-12 years, he'll be REALLY stoked when i give this to him! Heres the pics of him holding his AF15 in front of a AF15 poster i got him for his room for Chanukkah this year

 

 

 

Rough story about your unfulfilled quest as a kid (or rather, your folks' unfulfilled promise), but a great story of redemption through your son--and generosity on your part. Awesome.

[etanick]

super

[Dark Knight]

I had a similar story too in the mid 90's when I was a young kid.. I saw an AF 15 at my LCS atop his store right above the cash register. It was on display with some marvel chipping on the edge. Everytime I walked in, I kept looking at it until finally after a few months, it was gone. I think he had it priced at about a grand. I really wanted that book, but it was too expensive for me to buy and my parents would not allow such a purchase.

 

Another story was when I randomly went to this antique store in Calabasas.. He had some pretty neat stuff there,but the thing that caught my eye was a Daredevil #1 in NM condition from what I saw. He was selling the book for $700. I even remembered his name.. Corey I went back to his store about 3X to see the book over and over again and pleading to my mom if she can buy it for me. She thought I was nuts for buying an expensive book.. So I called my dad and asked him if I could buy it, he said he would think about it and was going to until he talked to my mom and asked her. She still said no to him and that basically was the decision.. I cried all night even hitting the wall with my bare fist.. That was the last I saw the book

[peewee22]

I'm all tears....

[cloudofwit]

:frown:

[sufunk]

Thanks all!

I still remember that book and the books on either side of it in the display case. To my eyes back then it was perfect. I would bet even now though that it was a 9.0 copy. The guy who owned the store always told us his dad owned a newsstand and he would cherry pick 1 or 2 copies of most comics. It was a sweet book and remember this was over 25 years ago so the book was only like 20 years old at that point.

I still give my parents about it and say things like "remember that $1200 waste of money??? It sold for $150,000!!!".

[showcase22gr1959]

Same here. . I was a paperboy at age 11-15 and I know how hard it is to save enough for that dream book . You've have made a great choice and I'm glad your boy is sharing your childhood dreams.

[mysterio]

Thanks for the story and the photos, they're great! My AF #15 story is sort of similar to the ones already shared, I was just a bit older. In the mid-80's my LCS had about a 4.0-5.0 copy for $400, which was a lot of money for me even at 15. I managed to scrape some money together and was working up to buy it. One day I was holding the book when the shop owner got a phone call. When he hung up the phone he said "this book is sold" and took it away from me. I ended up spending the money well, buying my ASM #1 for $80 that recently graded a CGC 3.0 OW-W and a copy of ASM #7 that graded CGC 8.5 OW-W, but of course they don't make up for losing out on an AF #15. Once I ran through that cash on other Spideys to try to ease my pain I didn't have another shot at a copy for years. I finally got mine in 2009, but it was a long road and cost me a whole lot more than $400!

[Peter Loves Gwen]

Very nice, and a great story.

 

I also had my eye on a big comic as a kid, ASM 1. My parents wouldn't let me buy a $225 copy that was in VF/NM then. I had $600 when we came back to the US, and then they'd let me buy back issues, mail order. I got my first collection that way, all VG-VF's, but never saw another HG ASM 1, or AF15. You have to jump on them when they do turn up.

 

(thumbs u

[etanick]

Same here. . I was a paperboy at age 11-15 and I know how hard it is to save enough for that dream book . You've have made a great choice and I'm glad your boy is sharing your childhood dreams.

 

same here...I was a paperboy from age 14 to 15 and bought my first comic then. I didn't even bother looking at the wall at my LCS back then...no point on dreaming back then.

[showcase22gr1959]

Same here. . I was a paperboy at age 11-15 and I know how hard it is to save enough for that dream book . You've have made a great choice and I'm glad your boy is sharing your childhood dreams.

 

same here...I was a paperboy from age 14 to 15 and bought my first comic then. I didn't even bother looking at the wall at my LCS back then...no point on dreaming back then.

 

Don't you just hate those Sunday newspaper back then...I think at one point I was delivering 200 papers. That was good money for a kid back then and don't forget to write those Christmas cards for the year end bonus.

[supapimp]

damn, dude, and i thought fellow boardie linmoth was generous. make sure you tell your son, he's not getting a car when he's 16, since he already has a CGC 7.0 AF 15.

[Larryw7]

That's a great story!

[sufunk]

damn, dude, and i thought fellow boardie linmoth was generous. make sure you tell your son, he's not getting a car when he's 16, since he already has a CGC 7.0 AF 15.

 

Well, just to be clear, I'm not THAT generous. This was with his money that I put away for him. If it was MY money, I'd have bought myself a AF15 1st!

 

I figured this would be probably a better and definitely cooler investment for him than some stocks or CD's. Hopefully, he'll want to keep it when he gets and we'll be in a position to not need to sell it.

 

I know I would have mess myself with glee if my parents had given me something like this when I was 18 or so and hopefully my son will be just as psyched when I give it to him in the future.

[Kirk Kenobi]

Best Dad ever.

[Spiderturtle]

Just a little background...

 

When i was a kid growing up in Ohio in the early 80's, my LCS had the sweetest OO copy of AF15 sitting there for years. I would sit and stare at it endlessly 2-3 times a week dreaming of buying it. I still distinctly remember it was $1200.

 

I saved up for YEARS, only asked for money for Bdays and Christmas/Chanukkah, raked every leaf, shovelled every driveway in the neighborhood and saved every dime i ever got to buy it. I finally had enough saved up when i was 13 and then my parents wouldnt let me buy it even though they said i could if i saved the money. I was CRUSHED but they thought comics were a waste of money and would get upset when i bought $2,3,4,5 back issues. They thought it was INSANE to spend $1200 on a comic book and that was that, i couldnt get it. Then, one day i went in to the store and it was gone I swore i would NEVER be like that with my kids when i grew up.

 

Fast forward 25 years and i have a 6 year old son who is REALLY into superheroes and comics. LOVES them! I put some money away for him each year and got really lucky with some Sirius stock i bought him a few years ago(thank you Howard Stern!!!). Rather than buy more stocks in this market, i thought a decent AF 15 would be a better/ more enjoyable investment for him. I used some of the money and got him his own AF15 in the last Clink auction and it just finally got here the other day.

 

I havent and wont give him to him until he is at least 16-18 but i at least wanted to get a pic of him with it so that he would have it when he got older. Hopefully, in 10-12 years, he'll be REALLY stoked when i give this to him! Heres the pics of him holding his AF15 in front of a AF15 poster i got him for his room for Chanukkah this year

 

 

 

 

(thumbs u Defintely something I would want to do for my son! Glad you shared your story