Amazing Spider-Man Collecting Thread! 37 37

[Lee Enterprises]

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. 

After owning a number of #2s in the past, with the best being a CGC 4.0, I had my eye on this one for a while. I'm a sucker for a Stan Lee signature. I usually stay away from trimmed books, but I like the overall look of this one. The Vulture has never been my favorite Spider-Man foe, but this Steve Ditko cover is magnificent. I like when our hero is depicted high above the city. 

[Frisco Larson]

While someday soon I hope to buy a nice grade certified copy, my raw Spidey #2 will always be my copy. It has sentimental value like few others. I bought it at the San Diego Comic Con in 1994. I'll never forget the circumstances surrounding its purchase. I made my rounds through the enormous facility and upon reaching a back corner, I looked down and see a Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 in a glass showcase!!! I was STUNNED!!! I'd certainly HEARD about the comic but never expected to actually HOLD one!!! The seller had $7500 on it, which seemed very reasonable to me, but I was a young man with a young family and a child in private school, so my stretched-to-the-max budget for comics was $1000 cash, with $1000 available on my comic book credit card. No WAY I could move on that book. I appreciated that the seller let me hold the book (I DID tell him up front that I couldn't afford it), so I wanted to buy something from him. He mostly had books for sale, likely expensive first editions and such, but he DID have a short box of comics too. Inside I spied my Spidey #2 and it cost me the princely sum of $90. 

 Among the details above, other reasons why the book and that trip are so significant are that I met some of my longtime comic book buddies at that show. I'd already been buying books from Bill and CGCs President Matthew T Nelson at More Fun Comics in New Orleans for most of that year, but this was our first meeting in person. I also met my longtime pal, our very own @Straw-Man Billy there. I had the pleasure of having dinner with comic book legend Shelly Moldoff and his lovely wife (my wife and the aforementioned pals were also there). Also, if you've never been, the San Diego Comic Con made most every other show I'd been to look like a flea market by comparison ... the only show remotely close was the Chicago Comic Con ... and it wasn't that close. The comics available in that room .... simply amazing! So, I bought a Spidey #2 from a nice guy in the back corner! 

[Frisco Larson]

This comic is one that I smile at every time it comes out of the box! I paid a LOT to get it and don't regret it for one second! It'll likely never be for sale, even after I'm gone. I'm thrilled beyond comprehension to have it!!!    

[DST]

[spracknetch23]

I traded my blue 4.0 toward my #1. Then I got this as a placeholder and have been on a collecting hiatus ever since. 

[Beardown]

[KirbyJack]

[pmpknface]

Old school label goodness...

 

[Lee Enterprises]

I've always heard that Strange Tales Annual #2 is Spider-Man's 4th appearance in comics. Is everyone in agreement on that? I don't have raw copies so I can't look inside for dates. 

June 1963

• Distributed to newsstands in June 1963 (at the same time as issues cover-dated August and September 1963).

[Danger Haggis]

Wow - nice book!

[pmpknface]

On 6/17/2024 at 9:06 AM, Lee Enterprises said:

I've always heard that Strange Tales Annual #2 is Spider-Man's 4th appearance in comics. Is everyone in agreement on that? I don't have raw copies so I can't look inside for dates. 

June 1963

• Distributed to newsstands in June 1963 (at the same time as issues cover-dated August and September 1963).

Yes, that's correct.  Mine isn't graded, but I have one.  It's a cool book, with that Kirby spider-less costume.  I'll have to dig out my copy of that one.  Good call!  

[Lee Enterprises]

If you saw this cover on the newsstand, how you could resist plunking down your last 12 cents to read about this new villain?

[DST]

[DST]

 

[Frisco Larson]

[Frisco Larson]

And because I really love these ... 

[MattTheDuck]

One of the few times I can "play" in the first two weeks.  Feel like I just posted this a couple of days ago

 

[Frisco Larson]

People usually notice that my copy is a "little" different!  

[Get Marwood & I]

[KirbyJack]

 

 Unsubstantially rumored to be created for a never-to-be-published Amazing Fantasy 16, could this be the second Spider-Man story ever?

Edited June 17 by KirbyJack