A 1000 comics February

Well I managed to hang on and continue my reading quest of 2011. It's been a lot of fun and I'm convinced now that not only will I reach the 1000 comics mark, but I'll keep reading long after that. By my last count I still have over 3000 comics which I haven't read yet...so I'm good for a while ;)

Anyway this is what I read in February :


Creepy 33-41.
Amazing Spider-man #562 to #578.
Amazing Spider-man #501 to #524.
Eerie 1 - 22.
B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth Gods #2
Captain America - Hail Hydra #2
Doctor Strange - From the Vault #1
Hellboy The Sleeping And The Dead #2
Iron Man Thor God Complex #1
The Walking Dead #81
Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates #1
New Ultimates #5
Ultimate Thor #4
Victorian Undead II #4
Warlord of Mars #4
Ultimate Captain America #2
The Boys #51
Daredevil Reborn #2
Love and Capes - Ever After #1
Silver Surfer - an all new beginning #1
Iron Man #252 - #300
Iron Man 2.0 #1
King Conan Scarlet Citadel #1
Orson Scott Card's Speaker For The Dead #2
Sherlock Holmes - Year One #1
The Mission #1
The New York Five #2

What to collect.

I’ve never collected for financial gain, never considered myself a “comic-investor” or bought multiple copies of a hot new book with the intent of selling them. But realistically almost every GA/SA/BA collector does a little speculating and is hoping his collection will go up in value. Of course what a lot of people seem to forget is that if your collection goes up in value so do the books you still want, and you end up paying more for the books on your want list.

But it’s a lot of fun (and for most also part of the attraction) that if you collect carefully and make informed decisions, you stand a good chance of at least not losing money. In fact a lot of comic collectors use this as an excuse when a wife/girlfriend/friend keeps hammering on how much money they spend on “funny books”. The de facto reply is almost always “yes but this book will be worth x-amount in y-amount of time” or “If I go down the pub every night the money is gone as well and now at least I have something to show for it”

So it’s not surprising that most questions and queries I get, both here and on my Youtube video channel is what books to buy and how much I paid for a certain book. Now as a rule I never divulge how much I paid for a certain book…that’s my prerogative and it’s nobody else’s business. If I get a book way below market value and I post the price, it almost seems like bragging and laughing in the face of the guy that sold it to me…which I think is very uncouth. Also if I paid a significant amount of money I don’t want to be avalanched by mails and messages telling me I could have gotten a small car or end world famine for that price.
Again, it’s my money and mine to play with.

But I’m always very happy to help people that start collecting or are narrowing their focus on what books to get. The general rule is and will always be “collect what you like”. Get the comics you love, the ones that ring your bell or transport you back to Nostalgia Road and don’t put possible future appreciation as your number one goal. Sure it’s sweet when your comic increases in value but if you buy it to never look at it and just keep it in a safe somewhere for 5 years and then proceed to sell it off…then think about investing in gold.
It’s the same low-thrill hobby and you’ll probably do better in the long run.

So, OK you LOVE Silver Age comics and want to start buying and will love the comics for ever…so where do you go from here ?
Well there are two trains of thought here. A lot of people will tell you to always buy the highest grade possible as these will appreciate the quickest and the most. Well these people are 100% correct, but most comic fans I know would rather have 3 nice mid-grade books for the price of one high-grade book. So if you are only interested in high grade books the following advice is not for you.

Congratulations, you’ve made it this far, this means you are ready to buy low to mid-grade books that are fun to own/collect and have a chance of making you some money.
Well for starters you can not go wrong with very early Marvel Silver Age, especially the “Big Two”…Amazing Spider-man and Fantastic Four. Most collectors will always be interested in the first 20 issues (at least) of these wonderful series. They are the cornerstone of the Marvel Universe and are riddled with keys. If you do not overpay then you will make a profit down the road as these keep going up year after year.
Some do it slowly but surely, others take huge jumps at a time (Amazing Fantasy #15).


In fact it will be much easier to unload three or four books in the 2.0 range than one book in the 5.0 range. There are still a lot of collectors out there who want to own a certain book and don’t really care about grade. So low grade books are perfect for 90% of the collectors that just want to build a collection and don’t want to mortgage the house to buy certain issues.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week.

Time Capsule

Sometimes it's not all about being busy or not having enough time...and often it isn't even about just being too bone-idle...No the reason I've been away so long again is plain and simple that I had zero inspiration and had no idea what to write about. And I rather not write anything than ramble on without rhyme or reason.


Previous entries were almost always about my new purchases. Series I was completing, runs I was putting together or sweet sweet keys.
But after collecting for 7 years now I'm almost done...and I don't buy that many books anymore. What I now mostly buy are upgrades, but does the world really want to read that I've upgrade my Fantastic Four #5 from CGC 4.0 in OW pages to a CGC 4.5 with W/OW pages ? I don't think so.I did complete a very large series recently that I've been working on for almost 3 years, but I don't have the final book in hand yet and when I do I'll probably make a video of it all..yes my Youtube channel is getting all the love (and the hits) these days. So look out for that in the near future.

While I haven't been buying the great quantities I used to, I have been selling quite a large number of books. At one point I had nearly 12.000 books which I managed to whittle down to around 10.000 but that was still way too many. So I decided to get rid of all my books after the 1985 cut-off date. Why 1985 ? Well I've always been of the opinion that something was lost after Marvel released "Secret Wars" in 1985... it was like the Marvel universe expanded ten-fold and the quality got lost among the claptrap. It was also the time I stopped reading comics as a kid (Secret Wars #1 was the last comic I bought for almost 20 years)...my own Time Capsule as it were.

So in brief I should be able to get the collection down to about 6000 books, almost all from 1961 to 1985 every Superhero book From Fantastic Four #1 to Secret Wars #1.
I've been trying to re-read all the books that I'm selling.. but it's not easy. I recently sold Amazing Spider-man #301 - #441 and before I put that huge pile in a box to ship out I sat down and started reading the books again...I didn't last long.
I didn't care for the stories and the art did nothing for me. I understand people growing up with these book might have a soft spot for them...but I knew if I didn't sell them right there and now, I would never read them again...so why keep them.

Amazing Fantasy #15 ...part 2

One of the questions I get asked most of all is if I have a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. Now matter how many thousands of books I show, no matter how many keys I lay out,it always comes down to the KING of Marvel Silver Age books...AF #15 the very first Spider-man.

It's hasn't been an easy question...sure the answer was easy (a firm "no !") but there was so much baggage associated with this question that I could never just answer with a one-syllable reply. You see I USED to own a copy...which was my pride and joy and which cost me an arm and a leg...but something happened to that book... I accidentally tore it apart while reading.
I'm not going over the entire story again, armchair critics, rubberneckers and people who identify with "Nelson" of the Simpsons can read it here : My own personal AF 15 horror story.
The story did have a somewhat happy ending... I had the book professionally restored and I traded it with a friend for a page of original art. We were both very happy with the deal...but I didn't have a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 anymore.

So why am I revisiting old ghosts ? Well for the next 2 1/2 years I kept looking at the AF #15s for sale, I saw the prices rise and rise each year and saw the chances of me getting another shrink with each passing Heritage or Comiclink auction. And still the question kept coming, both here and on my Youtube comics channel "Do you have an Amazing Fantasy #15"..stinging every time.

When 2009 rolled around I made a decision, come hell or high water I would get a copy this year. I tried to get at least 10 copies that year, but all went for far too much money or just weren't the "right" copy for me. But just when I thought it was all for the birds, I "found" the perfect book just after Xmas. It was about $500 more than my absolute max I wanted to pay, but sticking to my very rigid maximum price had gotten me nearly three years of frustration and empty hands..so I went for it.

Cutting it very close, but by some small miracle I managed to get myself a new copy of the biggest Marvel key, days before the end of the year. In hindsight I don't think I overpaid, book looks fantastic in hand and is by far the best looking book (in grade) that I have seen over the past years (and believe me I saw a LOT of them).
That the book is completely without Marvel Chipping and has OW/White pages is another big bonus.

Nothing left for me to say now, just let the picture do the talking.





And if you are in the mood for a Marvel Silver Age Keys smorgasbord, then take a look at my latest video, featuring, among other illustrious company, the above book.
And before people start mailing me again that the videos are way too small, I agree ...I agree, that's why if you click on the video or just Click here and put it up at 720p (HD picture)