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My return to comic collecting after 30 years

Started by bluerosekiller,

38 posts in this topic

bluerosekiller

bluerosekiller

Posted
Posted

My Mom & Dad always bought me comics & monster magazines from the time of my very earliest memories, but my first clear memory of a particular comic book standing out to me was when my Mom bought me ASM #78 when I was about 8 years old in 1969.

It was the first appearance of the Prowler issue & I remember being head over heels about Spiderman from that moment on.

It wasn't until a couple of years later when I was 10 that I REALLY began collecting though & over the following several years I managed to build quite a nice collection of around 3000-3500 comics. Including near complete or complete collections of ASM,AVENGERS,FANTASTIC FOUR, DAREDEVIL, UNCANNY X-MEN, TOMB OF DRACULA, MARVEL TEAM UP & a dozen or so other Marvel titles of the day. I also collected a few of your standard DC universe titles as well, with my favs being the Neal Adams BATMAN & GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW runs. Plus I loved a lot of the old Gold Key titles as well. Warrens too.

Then, shortly after I turned 18, I decided that I'd "outgrown" comics & got the brilliant idea of selling my collection. I was just about set to start college & I was far more interested in girls & beer than superheroes. So, I sold my collection for a fraction of what it was worth then. Now? If conditions were right, I think that collection might might buy me a house. But, alas, it went in what I call the "Great Purge of 1980".

Of course, it didn't take me too long to come to my senses & regret my actions, but by then it was far too late & I couldn't even LOOK at a comic for years. Which remained the case other than Topps run of THE X-FILES back in the late '90s & the early Dark Horse BUFFY titles which I collected.

After which I went several more years without buying any more comics until maybe a year & a half ago when I read about Dark Horse reviving CREEPY. Another old fav of mine. So, I headed to my LCS & after initially just picking up that title as well as the new Wildstorm X-FILES, I began to buy a few more titles. Some new & some old friends like ASM & THE AVENGERS.

With ASM being my passion, just like back in the day.

Between a combo of my LCS & e-Bay, I've managed to go from zero issues just a year ago to well over 200 now. I'm getting pretty darn close to a complete run of the '99 ASM #1 to the present. Which, I'm loving. It's great fun & gives me a lot of satisfaction.

Plus, it's definitely cool that I've come across some good runs & lots for low prices through e-Bay that have made it possible to be where I'm at today.

Sure, I still fantasize about somehow regaining the collection that I lost 31 years ago, but the past year or so has gone a LONG way toward soothing that nagging regret that I used to feel when I thought about comics & filling the void that selling off my collection back in 1980 left behind.

 

Jim

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Hawkman

Hawkman

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Posted

Thanks for sharing your story and welcome. I remember buying a few ASM and punisher books in the 80's off the 7-11 rack, but didn't keep any (rebought the books later). In the 90's, my LCS was Comic Bookie in claremont ca. They had a great back issue section and when you bought books, you got back issue credit, good towards their back issue section only. Absolutely brilliant. I bought 60's superman and a beat up daredevil #10 because of this (sold those books a few years ago). I also bought lots of valiant (still have my solar #1 and a few other books). Around 1994-1995, i stopped buying comics.

 

When spiderman (the movie) came out, i started thinking about buying some ASM books. But what really got me back in was reading an issue of wizard. I didn't understand the cgc section in the back, but the issue made me want to know more. Soon, i found this site....and that was that

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Toz

Toz

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Pretty much the same thing happened to me.Quit in the early 1990's and sold out completely by 2001.Then I got a computer and discovered ebay.I've since built my collection up to where I'm kinda happy with it now.Half the fun is re-acquiring all the great books we had in the past.Plus finding the ones we knew about but could never find.

 

Welcome back to the fun!

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spidrvacc

spidrvacc

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Posted

Same Story. Stopped reading comics when I was 12 ish back in late 70's.

 

In I believe 1993 I went back to my parents house to see what comic books my brother and I had left. I then thought wow these must be worth something now. Took a list of the 250 books to Jim Haneys comic book store on Staten Island and got a lesson on how stores pay cents on the dollar vs what a guide says. well while I was there I saw the 30th anniversary issues out for the 4 spiderman titles and grabbed them. Also saw this spiderman comic but the character had a black outfit and not red and he looked bigger and meaner. Well the guy gave me the story of "Venom" and I grabbed any Venom stuff he had. also grabbed a few back isues of Venom and other comics. I came into the store hoping to sell the comics I had and walked out with $100 in comics and a huge Venom fan .. Been back collecting since 1993.

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sgt_jarhead_99-migration

sgt_jarhead_99-migration

Posted
Posted
My Mom & Dad always bought me comics & monster magazines from the time of my very earliest memories, but my first clear memory of a particular comic book standing out to me was when my Mom bought me ASM #78 when I was about 8 years old in 1969.

It was the first appearance of the Prowler issue & I remember being head over heels about Spiderman from that moment on.

It wasn't until a couple of years later when I was 10 that I REALLY began collecting though & over the following several years I managed to build quite a nice collection of around 3000-3500 comics. Including near complete or complete collections of ASM,AVENGERS,FANTASTIC FOUR, DAREDEVIL, UNCANNY X-MEN, TOMB OF DRACULA, MARVEL TEAM UP & a dozen or so other Marvel titles of the day. I also collected a few of your standard DC universe titles as well, with my favs being the Neal Adams BATMAN & GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW runs. Plus I loved a lot of the old Gold Key titles as well. Warrens too.

Then, shortly after I turned 18, I decided that I'd "outgrown" comics & got the brilliant idea of selling my collection. I was just about set to start college & I was far more interested in girls & beer than superheroes. So, I sold my collection for a fraction of what it was worth then. Now? If conditions were right, I think that collection might might buy me a house. But, alas, it went in what I call the "Great Purge of 1980".

Of course, it didn't take me too long to come to my senses & regret my actions, but by then it was far too late & I couldn't even LOOK at a comic for years. Which remained the case other than Topps run of THE X-FILES back in the late '90s & the early Dark Horse BUFFY titles which I collected.

After which I went several more years without buying any more comics until maybe a year & a half ago when I read about Dark Horse reviving CREEPY. Another old fav of mine. So, I headed to my LCS & after initially just picking up that title as well as the new Wildstorm X-FILES, I began to buy a few more titles. Some new & some old friends like ASM & THE AVENGERS.

With ASM being my passion, just like back in the day.

Between a combo of my LCS & e-Bay, I've managed to go from zero issues just a year ago to well over 200 now. I'm getting pretty darn close to a complete run of the '99 ASM #1 to the present. Which, I'm loving. It's great fun & gives me a lot of satisfaction.

Plus, it's definitely cool that I've come across some good runs & lots for low prices through e-Bay that have made it possible to be where I'm at today.

Sure, I still fantasize about somehow regaining the collection that I lost 31 years ago, but the past year or so has gone a LONG way toward soothing that nagging regret that I used to feel when I thought about comics & filling the void that selling off my collection back in 1980 left behind.

 

Jim

 

I certainly know where you're coming from. Left the hobby myself for 30 years and just got back a little over 2 months ago. Not only do I have a lot of catching up to do, the hobby has certainly gotten a whole helluvalot more expensive than what I remember what it was :ohnoez:

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trmoore54

trmoore54

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More competition...aaargh :frustrated:

 

Seriously...Welcome to the boards and back to collecting! Lotta fun for me after 10 years back in it...same thing for me...stuck everything in a few boxes back around 1973 and didn't really plug back in 'til around 2001... :headbang:

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Calamerica

Calamerica

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Posted
More competition...aaargh :frustrated:

 

Seriously...Welcome to the boards and back to collecting! Lotta fun for me after 10 years back in it...same thing for me...stuck everything in a few boxes back around 1973 and didn't really plug back in 'til around 2001... :headbang:

 

Agree w/ Mr. Moore.

 

Welcome to the Boards and have fun in this unique hobby!

 

CAL who likes new members...

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Jeffro.

Jeffro.

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Jim

 

Welcome back Jim. (thumbs u Good to have you here.

 

Head over to the gold forum and prostrate yourself before our king. Perhaps he will find you worthy. ;)

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DWL

DWL

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Welcome to the Boards!

 

My story is similar, I got back into collecting about four years ago after being away for 25 years.

 

Glad you found this site.

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MR SigS

MR SigS

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WTTB! Unlike you and most others, I didn't sell my collection in my teens (late '70s). My mom's live-in boyfriend (aka @$$hole) threw them away when he heard I referred to him as @$$hole. My younger brother's collection was also caught in the crossfire. Not because he did anything wrong, but because my mom's bf was... well, you know.

It was maybe 8 years later that I wandered into a local trading card shop that had a few comics on display and found a beat up copy of X-Men #1 for I think $15.00- Naturally I grabbed it, not really thinking it was valuable, just cool. I brought it home and soon noticed it had a missing page. Like an insufficiently_thoughtful_person I brought it back for a refund so I could use the $ for some other books there. I SO wish I had kept it. It's only $15, but at the time I was only making $3.25 an hour and young and in my 1st marriage. That = not a lot of cash very often. Ahhh, Hind sight.

A couple years later and a better paying job soon turned into a Hulk #181. My 1st wife is history, but I still have the book :luhv:

Now I have a GREAT paying job, a WONDERFUL 2nd wife, but we also have a mortgage. Still, I'm buying some sweet books, sticking to GA, SA and some BA.

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