How old are you? And here is my story regarding comics.

[SuperDuperComics-migration]

Who the heck is this Timely guy and who told him to blow his own horn?

[Artboy99]

HI,

 

I enjoyed your story and thought I would share my own.

I am 40 and got started collecting/ reading comics when I was 6 years old when my Father took me shopping with him on Saturdays. He went to this specialty meat shop in a strip mall a long ways from my home, and took me with him. He would take me to the used book store that was beside the meatshop place and give me a dollar to buy comics with while he went to the meat store. Back then, used comics were 1/2 cover price, so my dollar went a long way with the 12-15-20 cent cover prices on books back then.

The first comic I bought was a spiderman. At the back of the book in the letters page was a header that said "Make Mine Marvel" and it had all these heads of other characters marvel produced. There was an angry looking guy with a green head that caught my eye, so the next time Dad took me with him I asked the book shop owner if he had any comics of the "green guy".

Instantly I began to collect the HULK. When I was 12 years old I got into delivering papers for extra comic cash. There was a convenience store about a mile from my place up the road where I became friendly with the woman who ran the store.

Every Wednesday she got the new comics in and would set aside my requested titles. It was sort of the first comic file ever? ( except for that Church guy )

I was still buying Hulk then, and branched out to anything else that was interesting to me: Spiderman, Conan, Xmen, Daredevil, Avengers, FF, Captain America, Nova..heck alot interested me. My problem was that I was a reader of my books, so none of them were in great shape. I was also learning to draw from the books. I could draw since I was a young age, but my interest was comicbook art and practiced alot.

By my 18th Birthday i owned the complete run of Incredible Hulk including all the tales to astonish and issues 1-6 and all the rampaging Hulk magazines. I also had an FF #1, Spidey #1, Avengers #1. They were in poor condition, but was still cool to have. Those days I seemed to have a little more free money to throw at books and I began going to other comic shops that popped up where I bought better condition books. Reid book stores was the place I went to in those days, and he began bringing in these nice condition back issues. he had 2 Iron Man #1's on his wall, one priced at 35$ the other at 40$. Those days the 40$ tag was for a book in Mint in the guide. I bought BOTH. The 40 dollar one I kept for about 3 months and then shopped it around and sold it to another comic shop owner who offered me double guide for it. So I sold it for 80 dollars. What I remember about that Iron Man 1 was that there was nothing wrong with it. It was literally perfect in every detail. When I took it home to look at it and took it out of the mylar it was in I recall thinking it looks like it has never been read. I slowly began to lift the front cover and it sort of staticed to the front page making me firmly believe it had never been read so i quickly put it back into the mylar.

That Iron Man was eventually graded ( I kept in contact with the owner of the store ) and it got a 9.8.

yes I sold an Iron Man #1 in 9.8 for 80 dollars.

Eventually I found my interest in girls outweighed my interest in comics and I sold all the books I had for a song and a dance ( BIG MISTAKE ).

Now, I find I am 40, and trying to recapture my lost youth. I am nearly done the Hulk run in 6.0+ missing only 1-2, 4-6. I have purchased nearly 10,000 books in the last 6-7 years. I still love to read them though.

 

Artboy99

[kidcolt]

I am 33 and have been collectioning since I was around 9. I grew up in a tiny little community with very little resources to buy comics. Once in a while I would get into the city and buy some Spiderman comics. The only comics I could get was Archie( and archie titles) and Disney Donald and Scrooge) stuff. When I was 20 I moved ti the city and started collecting Marvel and DC.

I now collect around 15 modern titles as well as a ton of Silverage and Golden age super hero comics. I am a sucker for 1st app and key issues. I have returned to my love of Gold Archie titles and started replacing all the comics I had as a kid.

[lighthouse]

As old as my tongue, and a little older than my teeth...

 

Turned 35 a few weeks back. The last meaningful birthday before 50 (when I can join AARP). My 2006 Senate campaign is in full swing. I figure I am only 4,082,000 votes behind Kay Bailey Hutchison at the moment.

[Timulty]

Loser...I am ahead of you by 2.5 million.

[lighthouse]

Loser...I am ahead of you by 2.5 million.

 

Well I figure she got 4,082,900 votes last time around. I should be good for 900 just based on being so handsome...

[FFB]

Lots of great stories here. Here's mine.

 

I have been reading comics as long as I can remember. I don't know what was the first comic book I ever read, but I do know that as of the age of about 5 (we're talking 1977), I was sufficiently aware of Spider-Man and the Green Goblin that I had a nightmare where the Green Goblin tied me to a chair and forced me to watch television. In my dream, I tried closing my eyes but I could still see the TV screen through my eyelids. Freaked me out so badly that I still remember the dream 28 years later.

 

I remember reading comics pretty regularly by the first grade (1978). I read anything I could get my hands on, whether it be novels (stuff like Fletch and the John Jakes bicentennial series) classics like Huck Finn and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, childrens' books, and especially comic books. I loved Richie Rich, hated Archie, was a big fan of the Whitman duck books, and loved Spider-Man above all else. Starting in around 1982 or so, my local supermarket (Stater Bros.) began carrying the Marvel Multi-Mags -- one of Mankind's greatest inventions -- three sixty-cent Marvel comics for $1.69.

 

It was at this point that I began "accumulating" runs of comics, beginning with Amazing Spider-Man #229. Within a month or two, I was getting most of the Marvel titles in Multi-Mags packs, but I wasn't storing them properly or paying any attention to condition. I was just reading them, re-reading them, trading them back and forth with friends for their DC garbage so that I'd have new stuff to read, and then reading them some more.

 

And then Amazing Spider-Man #234 came out and changed my life forever. Amazing Spider-Man #234 contained a 16-page insert called "The Marvel Comics Guide to Collecting Comics." Although in retrospect it was pretty simplistic in its approach, it was exactly what I needed at the age of 10 to get me started down the road to being a "serious" collector. I learned about the importance of preserving comics by using protective bags, and also gained some knowledge about the trends of the back issue industry. With this issue of ASM, I became a collector for life!

 

Another contemporaneous happening that prodded me along the road to being a collector was the inclusion of Mile High Comics' catalog in the centerfold of Marvel Comics during this era. Although not as in depth as the Overstreet price guide (something that I wasn't aware existed until I read the Marvel Comics Guide to Collecting Comics), the Mile High Comics ads showed me the value of old comics and gave me an extra incentive to keep my old comics in nice shape.

 

My first real "back issue" acquisitions were part of a trade I made to a friend of mine. He and I collected baseball cards, but I was starting to get serious about comics and had lost interest in baseball cards. I had a full set of 1978-79 Topps baseball cards, and my friend traded me the following books for the cards: X-Men #59, Avengers #56, Legion of Super Heroes #2, Amazing Spider-Man #86, and a couple of others, all mid-grade or so.

 

Some time around 1984 or 1985, I found a local comic shop in Pomona, CA, called "Comics Plus." I began to buy back issues here, including what was the best purchase of my youth -- a VG-ish copy of Amazing Spider-Man #14 for $12.

 

I collected comics regularly throughout high school, and then in college, turned several of my fraternity brothers on to comics right as Valiant Comics was starting out. Coincidentally, the president of my fraternity was good friends with a guy named Paul who worked at Valiant, so we got some free gold logo books too. It definitely helped pique my friends' interests in collecting to get a "free" comic book that sold regularly for $100 or more. The Valiants were also great reads, and we had a lot of fun talking about the books between D&D sessions.

 

Near the end of 1993, around the time that Jim Shooter was forced out of Valiant, I began to lose interest in comics. The stories were not what they once were, the art work was getting tiresome to look at, and I just didn't have the passion I once did for collecting. I knew that I was going to move up to SF for law school after I graduated from college in 1994, so in late 1993 and early 1994 I began selling my collection. By the time I moved away in August 1994, I had gotten rid of all of my comics except for a long box full of ASMs and some other random odds and ends.

 

I didn't read another comic book until about 1997, when I saw Green Goblin #1 on the rack at Barnes & Noble or Waldenbooks. I picked up a copy and determined that comics still sucked. That was it for me until a few years later.

 

In 2000, I went to see the first X-Men movie and absolutely loved it. It definitely rekindled my interest in the heroes I'd spent so much time getting to "know" as a kid. About this same time (May 2000), I registered on ebay and started checking out comics again. I bought a few here and there and became acquainted with this new concept called "CGC grading." My first CGC graded book that I bought was Amazing Spider-Man #20 CGC 8.0. From there, I was hooked!

 

With my collecting interest reignited, I started buying comics at a feverish pace almost exclusively on ebay starting in the late summer of 2000. I had heard that the Spider-Man movie was coming out in 2002, and wanted to buy as many of my old back issues as I could before prices got out of control. Little did I know that everyone else was doing the same thing, so prices weren't that low to begin with.

 

In May 2002, the Spider-Man movie came out. My interest in collecting hit its highest point that day! What a movie! It was everything I'd always hoped a movie about my favorite character would be.

 

I continued collecting through 2003, and in late 2003, decided it was time to buy a nice, VF copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1, a book I'd always wanted to own. In January 2004, I found a nice copy advertised as a raw VF 8.0 on ebay by seller Comic-Keys, and I won the auction! After winning, I called CGC to see about having it graded and spoke to Steve Borock for the first time. Suffice it to say that I did not complete the transaction. Steve pointed me to these boards, and in February 2004, I registered and started posting. It's been a great ride ever since and I've made some awesome friends along the way. And I've learned more about this hobby in the last two years than I had learned in the prior 25 years, thanks in large part to the people on these forums, and also thanks to the increasing availability of comics-related historical information available on the internet.

 

As many of you know, I sold the bulk of the value of my collection earlier this year to help fund my new law firm. I still own a couple thousand books (mostly bronze, copper and moderns that weren't worth the trouble of collating and selling), but the allure of collecting silver age Marvels has given way to a new desire to collect early DCs and Timelys, and DCs from the 1950s that are so tough to find in nice shape. My newfound interests in these areas are a direct result of talking to people on these boards and seeing scans of some amazing books here posted by guys like RareHighGrade, AdamStrange, Tim Hui, Ian Levine, Jon Berk and all of the other guys with amazing books, and also on other internet sites. Although I am not buying anything but new issues at the moment (and I haven't actually picked up my new issue purchases from my LCS since August, so I have more than a short box waiting for me -- he just runs my card every week and sets them aside for me to pick up ), I am looking forward to re-entering the buying arena with vigor in about a year. I have my eye on a couple of early GA books from Metro's site that I plan to buy as soon as I get started again.

 

That was a fun trip down memory lane. Great thread. Look forward to reading everyone else's stories.

[tth2]

in February 2004, I registered and started posting

The understatement in this phrase is astounding.

 

but the allure of collecting silver age Marvels has given way to a new desire to collect early DCs and Timelys, and DCs from the 1950s that are so tough to find in nice shape. My newfound interests in these areas are a direct result of talking to people on these boards and seeing scans of some amazing books here posted by guys like RareHighGrade, AdamStrange, Tim Hui, Ian Levine, Jon Berk and all of the other guys with amazing books, and also on other internet sites.

I don't know whether to say or

 

[FFB]

in February 2004, I registered and started posting

The understatement in this phrase is astounding.

 

but the allure of collecting silver age Marvels has given way to a new desire to collect early DCs and Timelys, and DCs from the 1950s that are so tough to find in nice shape. My newfound interests in these areas are a direct result of talking to people on these boards and seeing scans of some amazing books here posted by guys like RareHighGrade, AdamStrange, Tim Hui, Ian Levine, Jon Berk and all of the other guys with amazing books, and also on other internet sites.

I don't know whether to say or

 

 

You have roughly half as many posts as I do in about the same amount of time. Certainly that makes you half as nuts as I am.

[tth2]

You have roughly half as many posts as I do in about the same amount of time. Certainly that makes you half as nuts as I am.

"half as many" means 6000 posts. To catch up to you, I'd have to post like... well, you!

 

I was just doffing my hat to the once and future Land Speed Record Holder.

[otherworldcomics]

Hey everyone! 34 here. I've been collecting off and on since I was 5-6. My mom worked at a magazine distribution center and use to bring home the "destroyed" comics (those with the covers removed) every Friday. Didn't even know comics had covers until I was a teen. In the 80's I'd pick up an issue here and there at the corner store not really thinking that comics were worth much. Then in college had a roommate that was a big comic fan and went with him to a local shop. I sold a couple of old ASM not realizing how much they were worth. That guy ripped me off for a pretty good copy of ASM #50. Anyway, that was an eye opener. Been a rabid comic fan ever since. I collected mostly Marvel at that time but branched out to DC and some independents in the 90's. I've gone from 1-2 long boxes in 1992 to 24-25 long boxes today. Still collecting a lot of modern stuff but have recently started collecting more Silver Age and Bronze Age stuff. Lots of Green Lantern, Thor, and Avengers. I don't go for value as much as the great art and great story. Got a whole run of the Eternals just cause of Jack Kirby. Luckily, my wife has always supported my addiction. .

[dunefan]

 

Introduction Time:

I just turned 49 in November. I was born and raised in Tacoma, WA.

I bought my comics off the rack for 12c. I don't remember my first one specifically but I they were early Marvels, around the ASM teens or maybe a bit earlier (so sometime in 1964) I remember walking or riding my StingRay to Tinchers, a drug store about 1/2 mile away, and picking up all the Marvels I could afford. Occasionally, I'd get some sports cards or wacky packages or batman cards, etc. And some penny candy, of course. They put their comics on the magazine racks on the bottom, so I'd squat down and gaze at all the shiny new comics. This continue through Junior High into High School but at some point, I stopped, probably 1974-ish. Then, when in college, I came home for a holiday and sold them all to some hole-in-the-wall shop in downtown Tacoma. I remember I had them all in a footlocker. In today's terms, they would all be readers only because I put my initials on the first page! So, if you see a comic with DW inside a circle, that's mine!

 

I started up again in 1981, when in Grad school, after my first kid was born. I was at Washington State University and would drive over to Moscow, Idaho. It was there I saw my first LCS. Buying and reading comics helped me keep my sanity while dealing with school, work, and family. During that time, I still focused on Marvels, starting to backfill the titles.

 

After several more years of school (don't ask), we moved to Beaverton, Oregon for my first job (Software) in 1986. I found a LCS. It was part of a chain associated with Dark Horse Comics which was just starting up. The store was run by one of the Richardson brothers and I would occasionally see Mike at the store. At the local conventions, most of the creators would attend so I have a lot of Dark Horse stuff autographed. During this time, I started up with DC's in addition to Marvel. This also when I started to acquire back issues of DC titles. I got some of the B/W stuff but not much. But I dropped most of the DC titles and others in the late 90's.

 

I still have the same subscription shelf but now I'm only getting a few Marvels, focusing on Spider-Man. I have most of his titles complete except AF15 and ASM 1 (although I do have a nice GRR). I need to work on my runs of Marvel Tales and Spidey Super Stories.

 

So, I joined the society for the express coupons and want to start selling off my collection, keeping the spidey stuff.

I'm doing an inventory now. I tend to proceed slowly, as evidenced by my first post after joining a few months ago.

[grider67]

Hi, my name is Pete and I'm a Comicholic.

crowd yells out (HI PETE!)

I'm 38 years of age and was born and raised in Houston, Texas (and no I don't own an oil well).

My first taste was at a 7-11 (when they were still here in TX). My grandfather gave me a dollar (and some change) and told me to buy whatever I wanted and mosied over to the spinner rack. My 1st books were Defenders #12, Avengers #119, DC 100 Page Super Spectacular #15 - Superboy (Just got a 9.6 from Greggy - Thanks bud). Fantastic Four #? - The one with Warhead on it. (Can't remember the issue #) Well, needless to say I was hooked.

 

I sold my 1st collection at the age of 18 to buy my 1st vehicle. A black 1981 Chevy Silverado with duel tanks. Loved that truck; father sold it after I went into the ARMY.

I sold my 2nd collection because of my ex-wife's spending habits with credit cards and bailing her out of jail for hot check writing. (That's why she's my ex)

 

Major interests: DC (Silver to Modern) (Can't afford Golden), Marvel (Silver to Modern), Independents (Charlton, Gold Key, etc...)

Concentrating slabbing and completing sets on DC 100 Pagers, DC/Marvel horror/mystery.

 

I got into CGC by happenstance. Surfin the net for comic shows and dealers, I came across them. I joined the club and the rest is history.

 

Oh and by the way, the picture in the avatar is my father who pasted away May of 2004. He never understood why his son collected comics because they were considered funny books to him. I told him after I got back from the Gulf War, "They're about heroes, Pop." Little did I know, until after his death, my Pop was a closet Comicholic. Mom showed me his collection... G.I. Combat, Star Spangled War Stories, Our Fighting Forces, Our ARMY at War, Sgt. Rock, War is Hell, Sgt. Fury.

Anything to do with any war comics from any comic company, my Pop's got it. From 67' (earliest year I could find) to somewhere in the 80s.

(Before I start getting alot of PMs, the books are not leaving her, she will not part with anything that reminds her of him... SO DON'T ASK!)

 

And now I got married a year ago and last month my wife gave birth to a boy.

A new Comicholic!

 

[Theagenes]

I'm 33 and started reading comics probably around 3 or 4 - I remember having some Ritchie Rich's, Casper's and some Disney comics. I got the first Star Wars comics when they came out and a couple of Batman's soon after that (one was the 1977 Pizza Hut #122 and the other I'm not sure but it had the Riddler. The first comic I actually remember buying was Batman 295. Star Wars was the first comic I "collected" in the sense that I bought it every month. I started going to a local paperback store that also sold back issue comics in quarter bins and I would buy mostly early bronze marvel like ghost rider, werewolf by night, conan, silver surfer, etc.

 

By the time I was 10 or 11 I was collecting for real - bagging and boarding, getting my first Overstreet. By then I had a real LCS in my town and I starting buying SA stuff for the first time - nothing spectacular - just mid-grade stuff I could afford. I started collecting X-men, Spider-man, Batman and Conan. Whenever we went on a family trip, I would check out the phone book in whatever town we were in to see if they had a comic book store. I went to my first big con when I was 13 (Atlanta Fantasy Fair) and got Stan Lee to sign my X-Men 14, which was pretty damn cool at the time. Not long after I saved up my money and made my first big purchase spending $200 for an overgraded, overpriced X-Men 1. I continued buying back issues throughout high school, mainly trying to complete my X-Men run but I pretty much stopped buying stuff to read except for X-Men and SSOC. By 1989 or 90 I was pretty much out of the hobby and the collection sat in a closet at my mom's house when I went to college.

 

I started reading comics again in the late 90's when the Dark Horse Star Wars comics came out. It was Star Wars that got me started and Star Wars that brought me back. Soon I discovered ebay and started buying back issues again. Picked up the GS X-Men 1 that I'd always needed and started working on completing the SA X-men run and my Conan run. Not long after CGC started up and I sent in some of my better books and quickly discovered they were "old school near mint." Anyway I was hooked again. In the past year I've discovered how cool GA comics are and that's where I'm focused now. I know very little about the GA so it's like starting all over from scratch and it's a lot of fun.

[Timulty]

Welcome to the world of GA collecting,Theagenes! You are in for one wild ride, amigo.

[Theagenes]

Welcome to the world of GA collecting,Theagenes! You are in for one wild ride, amigo.

 

Thanks Timuly, It's been very cool so far - GA is like a whole new world. The main reason I never really got into GA back in the old pre-internet days was lack of availability. My LCS's GA books consisted of a beater Superman 20 and a couple of Four-Colors. And I never really felt comfortable with mail order back then.

 

I've been mainly focusing on sci-fi and some pre-code horror, because that's were my interests lie, but after picking up some Planets and looking through skybolt's thread, I think GGA is where is where I'm going to focus next. How can you go wrong with Nazi bondage boobie covers!

 

I don't have the deep pockets that some of you GA collectors have so I have to be patient, wait for good deals and buy selectively, and of course my grading expectations are much less than when I was into bronze and silver, but all that makes the hunt that more challenging and fun. That Weird SF 29 that I posted in the grading forum just sent me well over budget so I have to chill until after the Holidays, but it's so damn addicting!

[Wrightson fan]

Hi, my name is Scott, reside in Austin, TX and am 38 years old. I have been collecting comics and the like since I was 8 years old. My dad would buy comics and his tastes usually meant that there were alot of 70's DC horror and Gold Keys around the house, most usually Uncle Scrooge. He had quite a few old Dell Four Color westerns that I now have, even though they have definitely seen better days. My collecting has been cyclical it seems, but I have always had an interest. It seems that when I am making more money I am buying more books as I am sure it is the case with everyone on here. Whenever my comic buying has slowed down I seem to move to another interest for awhile, such as Soakies (old character bubble bath containers from the 60's) old model kits, and vintage toys that I had when I was a child. (I have an old Barnabas Collins Dark Shadows game that looks almost new inside). I have close to 5000 books, but I cannot say what genre I collect the most as I just seem to buy books that "move me", based on the characters or who did the art. I try to buy the best condition I can afford, and feel that I would rather have one copy I want in true high grade than 5 or 6 lower grade copies of other books. I guess with this attitude I am building my collection at a slower rate, but I am trying to fill it with quality when I do buy. Only in the past year have I started trying to buy more certified books. I have about 30 all graded 9.4 or higher and one 9.2. I just received another batch of raw books in from an ebay seller yesterday, and let me just say that certified copies are taking precedent in my buying from now on.

I have been married (second and last time) to my beautiful wife Kelly since 1999 and we have a 16 month old daughter named Erin who is my world. Don't know what I would do without them both. Comics and hobbies are great, but having the love of a wife and a child are no comparison. Thanks for letting me share a little about myself, and I have enjoyed reading what everyone else has had to say too. Happy Holidays to everyone on here!! ps. I have attached a pic of my two gem mint 10's taken at Halloween.

 

[nik]

Here you go

 

[Wrightson fan]

Hmmm....wonder why it did not show up for me like that? I added it as an attachment. so what did i do wrong? Thanks for putting it up by the way.

 

Scott

[nik]

Copy URL, click image when posting and just paste