This "key" opened my safe

After a few months of buying "fun" comics, I started to get jonesing again for some ASM books, being so close to completing the series, but yet so far due to the price of the few remaining books...
Happy to say that my ASM want-list is now down to just 7 issues, though I doubt if I'll be able to complete the series this year.
Last week I bought #18 and #27 in VG...and I also got this one


oh and....

Happy/ashamed to say that my Fantastic Four #1 has now been dethroned as the most expensive comic I've ever bought, by that other uber-key....Amazing Spider-man #1
Being serious about completing entire series means a few things to me;

a) No reprints...ever. Period. If you go for it, go for the real thing
b) No restored books, I'd rather have a low grade GOOD than a restored VG
c) Pay what you can afford, don't go into debt for the sake of a funny book.

So I knew that the day was coming that I was going to have to shell out the big bucks for this and a few other ASMs..
I was planning on getting it as a Xmas present for myself, just like the FF#1 last year, the Avengers #1 the year before etc...And during the Xmas break my friend CVR always flies down from Boston to Belgium and I get him to take the big ticket books with him as I rather not have these kinds of books shipped from 5000 miles away. Trouble was that CVR wasn't planning on coming this year at the usual time, but was flying in at the end of October. So I made the decision to get the book now as an early early (early) Xmas present.

I have been following all ASM #1s that have been put on the market (eBay/Heritage/Comiclink) this year religiously and new what the going rate was, and what to look for. Again I wanted a copy in 2.0 to 4.0 that presented better than the given grade, oh and it HAD to be CGC'ed as I didn't want to take chances with restoration.

I had been tracking this very copy for a while and the seller, whom I knew,had put the book up on eBay every three months for $1900...it never sold and highest bid was about $1500...
So after it was up last week and didn't sell again, I emailed him asking how much he wanted for it. I had a psychological barrier of $1500...but he wouldn't let it go for that price, and I have to agree, book was too nice for $1500. But we did agree on $1600...so now it's mine

7 more to go....