Found my ad in CBG from 1984 selling my original collection...bittersweet memories, check out the prices! 4 4

[Point Five]

This is cool! Of course *by today's standards* the prices on key books were super low. But I would have been 12 in 1984, and a $10-plus-shipping book might as well have been $10,000 to me, it was so outlandishly out of reach. Even the $4.50 Hulk #181 would have been a stretch.  

 

[comicjack]

Loved that magazine so many great books and pre all this tech carp 

[sckao]

I subscribed to CBG during that time period… so I probably saw your ad. I could never afford to buy from those ads though unfortunately. No checking account and I was still a minor…

 

[Inhuman Fiend]

@oakman29 I'm in shock, that's so awesome you bought comics wayyyy back then from teenage-me and remember it! First of all...Thanks!! Secondly, any clue what you bought, or if you still have anything from back then? 

[oakman29]

On 3/18/2022 at 6:52 PM, Inhuman Fiend said:

@oakman29 I'm in shock, that's so awesome you bought comics wayyyy back then from teenage-me and remember it! First of all...Thanks!! Secondly, any clue what you bought, or if you still have anything from back then? 

That's asking way too much for me to remember that! 

I know I still have them, but which ones are tough to remember. I was in my first year of college in 1984.

Edited March 19, 2022 by oakman29

[oakman29]

I was buying books like crazy back in those days. I still have 98% of the books I bought. I started a run of Amazing Spider-man in the late 70s and didnt finish the run until mid to late 80s. My favorite purchase was Amazing Fantasy 15 in fine condition for 500.00.

[kav]

On 3/18/2022 at 8:20 PM, oakman29 said:

I was buying books like crazy back in those days. I still have 98% of the books I bought. I started a run of Amazing Spider-man in the late 70s and didnt finish the run until mid to late 80s. My favorite purchase was Amazing Fantasy 15 in fine condition for 500.00.

 keep tellin Oak he can sell to me and dbl his money!! 

[djzombi]

"Bye" 

[Inhuman Fiend]

On 4/12/2022 at 8:44 PM, djzombi said:

"Bye" 

Haha I know, I laughed at that as well...don't remember writing that, teenage me was trying to be polite I guess. Probably should have just signed off with "Excelsior" or 'nuff said! 

[Senormac]

Great story IF, and a miraculous find.  CBG was a weekly back in those days so finding the exact issue you were looking for is amazing. 

I bet your face lit up when you turned the page and first saw that ad.   

[thunsicker]

On 3/18/2022 at 2:31 PM, Inhuman Fiend said:

On 3/18/2022 at 11:31 AM, aardvark88 said:

HoS 92 vf $10 is a sweet deal back then, as cheaper than DD 158 nm $15.

It's so funny that DD 158 was selling for double what Hulk 181 was, and ASM 129 was completely irrelevant, a 25-cent bin book. Back then, the market was much more artist driven as far as hot books...especially popular new artists like Miller or Byrne. 

Yeah I owned a store in the later 80's and collecting was still all contributor based or run based.  It wasn't until card shop owners started getting interested and brought the idea of "rookie cards" into comics that "first appearance" started to become the trend.  All those great keys that came into my store would be traded out for runs of Miller Daredevil and Byrne X-Men that I could actually sell in my store.  Back then Daredevil #16 was hot as John Romita's first work on Spider-Man and Marvel Team Up #53 was hot as Byrne's first work on the X-Men.

[Robot Man]

On 3/18/2022 at 12:26 PM, Inhuman Fiend said:

Honestly don't recall whether I had multiple orders for the same book, I know I sold over 90% of the books (and lots of runs that weren't listed). I remember the Marvel Team-ups didn't sell, nor did the Marvel Fanfares or the Hulk 102 (surprising)...I did a second ad the following Summer for the few that didn't sell plus the other runs I had and sold 99% of that. I do remember my parents being so mad that we were getting so many late phone calls, I didn't expect that...in fact the weekend after it published I went to the beach with my friends and my dad filled up 2 pages of a notebook with call-back numbers and questions, he wanted to kill me! 

 

I remember those Buyer’s Guide days well. I lived on the West Coast and would get calls at 4:00 in the morning. Would wake up my parents. They were none to happy…

[CJ Design]

That is cool and sad...I have many similar yet more painful stories. To me as a very young collector, CBG and Passaic Books were my eBay in the 70's.

[Inhuman Fiend]

On 4/13/2022 at 6:41 PM, Senormac said:

Great story IF, and a miraculous find.  CBG was a weekly back in those days so finding the exact issue you were looking for is amazing. 

I bet your face lit up when you turned the page and first saw that ad.   

It sure did @Senormac! Good memories...and then horror at the prices I let them go for! 

[Indrid_Cold]

CBG wow that takes me back!

[piper]

On 3/18/2022 at 4:24 PM, Point Five said:

This is cool! Of course *by today's standards* the prices on key books were super low. But I would have been 12 in 1984, and a $10-plus-shipping book might as well have been $10,000 to me, it was so outlandishly out of reach. Even the $4.50 Hulk #181 would have been a stretch.  

 

+1