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Monday, February 28, 2005

The Lunatic is on the Grass...

I'm a fool I know.....the next stoning will commence in half an hour, so please reserve your tickets. After ranting and raving in my previous entry about getting rid of my Silver Age stuff, I just realized I can't do it...If I want original art, I'm going to have find another way to get it, selling my collection is a no-no

So what did this fool do ? Well instead of selling my Fantastic Four books, I went out and bought a few more.
Saturday night I won FF #18 and I also got news that my FF#28 arrived safely at my US address.
But the big one was last night, I autosniped and won...Fantastic Four #4... the most money I have ever paid for a single book.

In other words, I now only need FF#11 & FF#14....oh and FF#1 of course.

I'm feeling the familiar sensations of queasiness because of (again) spending way too much money on funny books this month combined with utter delight in coming ever closer to my quest. But hey, I had a tough week, so I won't feel bad about treating myself.
So there !

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Where do you go from here...

As I'm coming ever closer to filling my want-list, I've been pondering for the last few months what will happen once I have all the comic books I ever wanted ?

I've lost practically all interest in new books and my backissue want-list that once was 12-sheets long now only sports 11 single comics. Granted most are expensive, but if I wasn't such a tightwad I could probably all get them before the end of the week.

But what then ?? What do you do when all your goals have been achieved ?? Move the goalposts ?
Upgrading certain issues could be considered, among my +- 9000 comics there must be about 50 - 100 which have covers I truly love and would consider getting in high grade. But what for ? To just stare at the covers while reading the lower grade issue ?
Does a great cover become even better when you have it in NM 9.4 ?...I truly don't know

Part of me thinks upgrading isn't such a bad idea, but part of me (the part that HATES to have double issues of *ANY* comic) thinks it's just throwing money at phantoms.

Another avenue could be to diversify...collect even more series. But which ones ? There aren't a lot of series out there which I really like (and haven't already completed)...What If? Vol #1 comes to mind, but that's about $200 for the full series, not much of a challenge. Other publishers ? I don't even like Silver Age DC all that much, I would dread to read Charlton or Gold Key books, let alone collect them (apologies to collectors of these books, but I'm just a jaded, shallow Marvel Zombie)

Just give up, and let my collection just sit there and gather dust, or even worse sell it ?? Not particularly inviting is it.

Maybe Original Art is the key, a whole new area of collecting, tightly connected to the Comics I already have, and hard to find, as each page is one-of-a-kind. Only trouble is that unlike with Silver Age comics you HAVE to pay the price the piece is worth. If you want a copy of Avengers #4 but can't or won't pay a cool grand for a high grade copy, well you just buy a VG copy for 20% of the price. Not going to happen with original art. One of a kind remember...

I'm looking into it right now, it's getting me exited again and is feeding my collector's addiction. The real downside is that I will need to get rid of a big chunk of my collection of books just to buy a few choice pieces of art.
And once I get rid of the books, will I enjoy the art as much....

Told you it wasn't easy

But looking at this glorious piece of art and other like it should help me make up my mind


Kirby draws Doom vs Thing



You should see the scan in the Gallery part of the Blog on the right, if you then drag it to your browser's address bar you should see it in all its glory

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Damned if you do, damned if you don't

Been too long, yes I know.....sorry
Fantastic Four...ah just typing the name of the "World's Greatest Comic book" sends shivers down my spine and to think I need just 5 single issues to complete my 520-issue run. So am I not buying them ? Simple...they are just too expensive right now.

Ever since the rumour of the movie stopped being a rumour, prices have skyrocketed.
Of course dealers/sellers/collectors all take the Spiderman movie as an example, all Silver and Bronze age books got a 30% to 60% increase in value thanks to the phenomenal success of the two films.

Collectors have also been saying for years that the Fantastic Four books were undervalued compared to Amazing Spider-man and that a price-hike was imminent, well it happened 6 months ago and is still happening.

The true question of course is if the prices will stay this high. Both Daredevil and Hulk books ballooned before the movie and then came crashing down when the films turned out less than successful. The other question is...do I want them to fall or not.
Consider this, I need 5 more books, last year I could have gotten a decent VG Fantastic Four #1 for about $2000, this month it will cost me about $3000 for the same book. Same for #4 and #11. Issues #14 & #18 got 25% more expensive
So let's say for simplicity's sake, getting these 5 books in VG will cost me about $1700 more than last year. If I buy them now I'm out $1700 extra, if they fall after the movie premiere I'll be kicking myself. But what if the movie is a hit....will the prices rise even more ?

And then there's the issues I already have, value of my 515 issues is now $10.160....
if the films tanks and the value falls about 25% then I've just lost over $2500...

So in other words I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't

Reason for this rant is the following auction I just lost
Fantastic Four #11 in VF
Book sold for a crazy $158....which is 2.5 times guide...for a F*CK*NG VG...