Was anyone here collecting Marvel in the 70's or 80's? 7 7

[Glassman10]

well, judgmental parents are the root cause of these things having value.

My uncle was killed in a plane crash in '57 and we drove to the funeral in Michigan. My aunt Jane, who had five kids was not someone my rather straight laced parents approved of at all but she came out and gave us a big box of comics to read while heading back to California.  We were doing great for some time until my dad figured out what was going on since we were so quiet. He pulled up to  a fifty five gallon can along the road ( a precursor to rest stops) and threw out the entire lot of them. Too bad for him because now he had to endure "Are we there yet" for another 2000 miles from three bored kids whose backs were all sticking to the Naugahide.. 

I hid my comics as a teen  and lost it all in a pre dawn raid on my closet. I didn't really actively try to keep any until I had moved a thousand miles away.  They were just appalled when they found out how much I sold my AF15 for. Before selling and parking the habit for fifty years , I was on a tear absorbing anything Marvel that caught my eye, Mainly Thor, Spiderman and the FF#4. I loved Jack Kirby. I did not to my regret buy Dr Strange or the X-men then. I remember when Storms was here , there were tall stacks of comics all over the dining room and we were poking around in Overstreet and here Iron Man 55 jumped out with value.  I just went and looked in that pile, and there it was. He was here two days.  It was time to let it go. Quite the journey. 

[Artboy99]

On 1/20/2022 at 12:01 PM, Glassman10 said:

well, judgmental parents are the root cause of these things having value.

My uncle was killed in a plane crash in '57 and we drove to the funeral in Michigan. My aunt Jane, who had five kids was not someone my rather straight laced parents approved of at all but she came out and gave us a big box of comics to read while heading back to California.  We were doing great for some time until my dad figured out what was going on since we were so quiet. He pulled up to  a fifty five gallon can along the road ( a precursor to rest stops) and threw out the entire lot of them. Too bad for him because now he had to endure "Are we there yet" for another 2000 miles from three bored kids whose backs were all sticking to the Naugahide.. 

I hid my comics as a teen  and lost it all in a pre dawn raid on my closet. I didn't really actively try to keep any until I had moved a thousand miles away.  They were just appalled when they found out how much I sold my AF15 for. Before selling and parking the habit for fifty years , I was on a tear absorbing anything Marvel that caught my eye, Mainly Thor, Spiderman and the FF#4. I loved Jack Kirby. I did not to my regret buy Dr Strange or the X-men then. I remember when Storms was here , there were tall stacks of comics all over the dining room and we were poking around in Overstreet and here Iron Man 55 jumped out with value.  I just went and looked in that pile, and there it was. He was here two days.  It was time to let it go. Quite the journey. 

such a harsh reaction your Father had to comics. Sorry to hear. 

I don't know what I would have done without my comics as a kid as they filled my time and imagination with more pleasant things than family. I spent as much time in my room as I possibly could.

[Glassman10]

He's long gone now, and I still miss him. I mean what's a Dutch Reformist Church member whose father was the preacher going to do after all?  Comics were an easy target. That AF15 brought over 50K. He was just appalled ( but really curious!!) . Life can be pretty strange. 

[paqart]

On 1/20/2022 at 3:59 PM, Glassman10 said:

He's long gone now, and I still miss him. I mean what's a Dutch Reformist Church member whose father was the preacher going to do after all?  Comics were an easy target. That AF15 brought over 50K. He was just appalled ( but really curious!!) . Life can be pretty strange. 

I'm still smarting over the loss of my "pristine" FF5, a likely 9.8 by today's grading standards. It was in better shape than new comics straight out of the box from the distributor. I bought it and an ASM6 is the same condition for a total of $175 back in 1978 at a convention.

[piper]

On 1/20/2022 at 12:36 PM, Artboy99 said:

such a harsh reaction your Father had to comics. Sorry to hear. 

I don't know what I would have done without my comics as a kid as they filled my time and imagination with more pleasant things than family. I spent as much time in my room as I possibly could.

Fortunately, my parents viewed Comics as a way to get their kids reading. 

My vocab definitely improved from reading the very verbose Stan Lee dialogue.

[Artboy99]

On 1/20/2022 at 2:21 PM, piper said:

Fortunately, my parents viewed Comics as a way to get their kids reading. 

My vocab definitely improved from reading the very verbose Stan Lee dialogue.

did you ever strive to use "excelsior" in an actual sentence?

[Glassman10]

On 1/20/2022 at 4:31 PM, Artboy99 said:

did you ever strive to use "excelsior" in an actual sentence?

I think it's a packing material. 

 

'nuff said " was an entirely different matter. 

[Glassman10]

On 1/20/2022 at 4:01 PM, paqart said:

I'm still smarting over the loss of my "pristine" FF5, a likely 9.8 by today's grading standards. It was in better shape than new comics straight out of the box from the distributor. I bought it and an ASM6 is the same condition for a total of $175 back in 1978 at a convention.

One of the real curiosities of the bus box find was the condition of a Spiderman 16#. It was simply pristine. The rest of the box not profound but never bad except the Avengers # 4 cover was torn ( and I gave that away!) . The 16 was like something that dodged all the bullets coming at it. I think, from that box that it went straight to CGC and pulled a 9.2.  That really just never happens. 

[paqart]

On 1/20/2022 at 5:16 PM, Glassman10 said:

One of the real curiosities of the bus box find was the condition of a Spiderman 16#. It was simply pristine. The rest of the box not profound but never bad except the Avengers # 4 cover was torn ( and I gave that away!) . The 16 was like something that dodged all the bullets coming at it. I think, from that box that it went straight to CGC and pulled a 9.2.  That really just never happens. 

When I told my boss at the comic store I worked at that I had two early Silver Age comics in pristine mint condition, he didn't believe me. I brought them in and we compared them to comics we'd just received from our distributor. They literally were in better shape than the piles of brand new X-Men #125's and everything else. They were in better shape than anything I've seen from that era. Modern comics sometimes look that good but even then, not often.

[lordbyroncomics]

I was, I was a little kid in the Eighties but obsessed with comics so was getting them in 711 in "real time" and then, every Christmas, JC Penny would do this thing where they'd have 25 Marvel Comics in a box and my Grandparents got me that. I vividly remember turning 10 in 1989 and my Grandparents bought me the Marvel Masterworks hardcover of the first six issues of the Hulk and me finding it fascinating, that early Kirby/Ayers and Ditko work. I remember the same year, the then-50th Anniversary of Marvel Comics #1 came out in HC. But I was reading Hulk (Sal Buscema, Al Milgrom have soft spots in my heart now), West Coast Avengers, a lot of things that I'd get my hands on depending on whatever 711 I was taken to had. Around late High School I couldn't cope with the Marvels that much. After Peter David did the whole Pantheon storyline in Hulk, I gave it up and generally have never gone back to Marvel outside of my personal collection's back issues. 

[kav]

On 1/19/2022 at 10:48 PM, paqart said:

my mom had vowed to kick my sister and I out of the house when we were 15, to fend for ourselves. She meant it and I knew she meant it. Anyway, after that, we're into the eighties, so I'll stop here.

CPS notified.

[StarV100]

I started collecting in the 60's (man). I had thought I was keeping everything in mint, but my preservation skills in those days weren't exactly archival. Anyway, I was the guy that was buying the stuff off my friends, giving them stupid profits, like 25 cents a book. I collected JIM starting in the 90's, ASM all the way, and lots of others. I still have a catalogue from the 60's advertising old comics. I bought ASM 2 to 5 and 11 to 14 for a total of $17. They've come in from CGC recently averaging 6.0 or so. ASM #1 was too expensive for me at $6. Never did get it. I also got Hulk #2. Similar story with #1 - couldn't afford it at around $4. 

At age 10, I joined the Merry Marvel Marching Society (anybody else?). I sent a news clipping to the Marvel Madison Avenue office and got a hand written note back from Stan Lee himself (signed: "from Stan and the gang"). I still have the note, along with the MMMS stationery, some stickers and a lapel pin.

In the 70's, I came home from university one summer to find all my comics tied up in 6 bundles, ready for the trash. Got 'em back. One bundle was a run of Avengers from 20 to 65, Daredevil from 12 - 34. Oh yeah, Cap 100 - 103, Iron Man 1 - 5 (# 1 recently graded at 7.5).

I owned a comic shop in the 80's. My supplier, a major comic store, gave me tips on what to buy in bulk. I had a relationship with a news stand supplier who let me go into his warehouse and pull as much of anything as I wanted. I got scores of ASM 252, Thor 337 and others in pristine mint, many of them Canadian Price Variants. Put them away for 40 years. I have a few dozen at CGC now (and they've been there since March). Others have been averaging 9.6 and 9.8.

[paqart]

On 1/20/2022 at 10:28 PM, kav said:

CPS notified.

They tried to rescue my sister and I a couple of times but my mom always moved first, sometimes in the dead of night. I think it was partly to avoid CPS that I had to sell my comic collection to pay for the move to Vegas.

[shadroch]

Excelsior is an exclamation. It is a sentence on to itself.   It's also the motto of NY State.

[piper]

I was certainly reading comics back in the Late 70's and throughout the 80's, but wouldn't call myself a collector until around 1988/89. Yes, I had long boxes and bagged my books back in the 80's, but I can't say that I was actively looking for back issues.  Even looking for pristine copies off the newsstand wasn't even necessarily a focus.

Around the late 80's, I would save my paper route money and have my parents drive me across the border to a shop in Southfield, Michigan where I would try and buy as many low grade Spidey's as I could afford with the money in my pocket.  I should have bought nicer copies!

I also frequented the Motor City Show in Novi.  It was a much smaller affair back then.

One of the first explanations about comics as I hobby recall reading was an insert in ASM 234 (below).

 

[steveinthecity]

On 1/21/2022 at 11:52 AM, piper said:

 

One of the first explanations about comics as I hobby recall reading was an insert in ASM 234 (below).

 

 

[PovertyRow]

On 1/17/2022 at 4:38 PM, g-man said:

I remember the small shows in Boston at the 57 Park Plaza and also the Comic Buyers Guide where you send off a money order and hope for the best (never had an issue). 
I also recall the vault in Brighton MA and Million Year Picnic….also there was a store in downtown crossing where you had to show ID to buy DKR. The girl behind the counter looked like the lead singer of The Bangles. 
i was usually buying older ASMs and high grade bronze. The 80s were a great time to be collecting. $100 went a long way (at least it seemed that way).

Man that shook the cobwebs loose! Now some of these memories may be a bit shaky so if anyone can add to them or correct them please do so!

In the 80s and 90s I was living/collecting in the Boston area (Cambridge). Back then the Boston area was a haven of comic book shops with lots of SA and GA offerings. Outer Limits in Waltham owned by the very cool Steve Higgins, where I started a 12 cent Iron Man run, New England Comics Quincy Store with Tom being the key guy there. Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square with Jerry Weist and later, Tony being the dominant presence. In  their earlier days they had two stores in the same building: one for new and one filled with row after row of back issues. In later years they only had the main store and the back issues were relegated to a case with a locked plexiglass top that had hand slots to allow you to leaf through the offerings. I remember picking up 2 or 3 literally 9.6 or better Doc Strange 169 and Hulk 102 (the 1968 equivalent to #1s) for $12 each from there. I would also take my godson there (we collected together) and we would get the new issues (starting with #1) of Dazzler, Moon Knight (who I liked more than Spidey), New Mutants and Alpha Flight.

Then there was That's Entertainment in Worcester (Paul Howley, as I recall a cousin of Steve Higgins who owns Outer Limits), Newbury Comics (a few locations but mainly the Boston store) where I remember seeing an Iron Man #55 for the ridiculous sum of $50 and I was like "huh?" - bear in mind I was a pre-code and pre-hero guy when I saw it). There was a relatively short-lived store in Watertown Square which had some cool Kirby big monster pre-heroes for  $10-$15. The owner and I would laugh at their silliness but I still bought them! Then there was a place called something like Amazing Fantasy out in the Boston Suburbs (I disremember WHAT city it was). The 57 Park Plaza Shows were great and I met some of the dealers there like Harley Yee, Ted Van Liew, Carbonaro and Jim Payette for the first time. I think these, or some of these, were put on by Great Eastern Conventions? A couple of times I actually made the ridiculous drive up to 

I remember David Cummings of Primate Productions would put on a Boston show monthly, in the 90s. As I recall it was there I was introduced to the concept of CGC when I met Steve Borock (funny story) who was going to the various dealers and explaining the concept of this new company CGC and its benefits. These shows may well have been at Park Plaza. Just hard to be precise because every weekend back then was a major comic book weekend with my hitting pretty much as many places as I could.

Edited January 21, 2022 by PovertyRow
spellig and elaboration

[sckao]

I frequented those same Boston shops in the early to mid-80s. (I also remember Superhero Universe and a couple of other stores there.) The back issue part of Million Year Picnic was long and narrow and seemed so different from the bright, clean,  new-issue, front store. 

Of course, I could only get there when my parents drove us into Boston… Wasn’t even old enough to drive. 

 

[PovertyRow]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:40 PM, sckao said:

Superhero Universe

Thanks! I do remember them now come to think of it. I was living in Harvard Square for much of this so a Red Line user. 

Just found this on the boards! 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by PovertyRow

[kav]

Summary: "collect Marvel"