CapnDoug

Administrator

Posts: 151

Nice! My bro has a Giant Sized X-Men 1 and #94.
Sounds like up north there are still good stuff to be had. Here in Texas things are drying up or getting crazy expensive.

Gilgandra

Posts: 1246

I'm so glad the forums are back. I always enjoyed seeing everyone's collections and showing off some of my finds. But since the site went down, I've kind of gone a bit nuts in terms of buying. I've been buying a bunch of collections lately. Taking what I want, selling my duplicates and just generally enjoying the thrill of the hunt. I actually spent $1900 on a collection recently, loaded with Avengers and Uncanny X-Men that I needed. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself.

For those that don't remember or just never saw, my name is Doug, I'm 32 and live in Vancouver, Canada. I started collecting in about 1991 with the Ninja Turtles, then moved on to Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers (one of my long time favourites), and some nice Sci-Fi titles like Killraven. I have a pretty eclectic collection thanks to going to my local store pretty much every week for over a decade. I only recently got back into collecting, and over the summer, I discovered the value that comes from buying collections. As a result, my collection has almost doubled in size this year and I've gotten some pretty odd stuff. It helps that I've gotten my girlfriend into collecting, too.

Right now, I have almost 11,000 comics in my collection, some 3000 of which came since the site went down. I've beefed up my runs of Avengers, Batman, Uncanny X-Men and even have an almost complete collection of New Teen Titans now.Seriously, I'm only missing one issue of the first series and not an expensive one. It's actually to the point that I had so much stuff to show off from recent acquisitions, that it would have almost have been easier to start my thread over. At this point, I'm going to need to get the new stuff in new bags and boards so it can get properly sorted into my collection, so getting some more scans together would be pretty easy.

But until that happens, here are some of the things I already have scanned:

This was a gift. It's not in great condition, but still... I thin I have it graded at 3.5, but it might grade a bit higher.


This was a collection purchase where I actually felt like I ripped the guy off. I bought a long box with a bunch of Daredevil in it along with a box of random stuff. Total cost was $55. But the box had a virtually complete run from Daredevil #168-#330. I have this one in about 9.0.


This was part of my brother's collection. Not sure where he got it, really.


I bought this off eBay, years ago. Paid $26 according to my database.

And let's close with some Batman...

That cost me cover price.

More will be coming soon. Like... when I get a handle on my collection again. I've started selling my duplicates at conventions, which frees up a little space.

Kairi

Administrator

Posts: 20

It helps that I've gotten my girlfriend into collecting, too.

CapnDoug

Administrator

Posts: 151

Nice to see your thread come back, Doug!
CapnDoug wrote:

It helps that I've gotten my girlfriend into collecting, too.

Yes, you most certainly have. :P I'm glad that I finally started after being interested in starting a collection for the longest time!

Kairi

Administrator

Posts: 20

I'm glad you got into it, too. Now, when I find some interesting issues that I think you might like, I can just slip them in your box. There are some good things that I've put in there. You'll enjoy them.

Gilgandra

Posts: 1246

So... people like Batman? Well, so do I. And there were a bunch in the collection Like this:


Clearly a reader copy. But Even the more modern ones in the collection are mostly ones I don't have.



There were actually a number of Brave and the Bold in there. I have a slightly cooler one to show off in the recent pick ups, but that will happen once I get it in the new bag and board. #85...



It's a good collection for Batman....



Also the Flash.... lot of the Flash in there....

Let's do one more post for the stuff I have scanned so far....

Gilgandra

Posts: 1246

So, the big difficulty of buying a collection like this is trying to figure out what I paid for everything. I could always just say "I paid $6 for each issue," but that doesn't really seem right. Especially when that means that I'll be putting a few duplicates that I bought for $6 into my dollar bin at the con. Issues like Defenders #129... yeah.... So, what I have to do next is get everything graded (because there's no way that I'm getting a 10 cent Lois Lane for $6 in 9.4), figure out the total graded value of everything that I bought, divide the total price paid (including shipping) by that figure and start applying that percentage to every issue. It's a lot of work, but the figures must be accurate! Only time I don't bother is when I get things for under a buck an issue. Then, it really doesn't matter. Anyway, back to what was in there:



I have a pretty good collection of Daredevil now, and this collection just helped shore that up. Even got a reader copy of #10. It's pretty rough, though. Like, someone tried to trace Daredevil since there are all these weird impressions all over the outline of Daredevil. Moving on....



There are about half a dozen JLA issues in there. A bunch of which will help me with the Dick Dillin run. This one? Not so much, but it's cool, at least.



So, these were the reason that I bought the collection. A bunch of X-Men that I didn't have. Sadly, both have serious flaws that I either didn't see or were well hidden in the photos. I've been pretty good at spotting the "too good to be true" flaws that eBayers try to hide, but with this, if nothing else, it was a large set that I was buying.



Just kind of cool. Getting so many Teen Titans stuff lately. And so many duplicates. Not of this one, though.

That's all for now. As I go through the issues, I'll probably post one or two more if they end up being cool.

Gilgandra

Posts: 1246

So, I finally got a hold of the bags and boards I needed (well, a portion of, anyway...). That means I'm currently going through the more recent pick ups and getting them sorted into the new collection. I keep new pick ups separate until after they have new bags and boards. I'm weird that way, I guess. Anyway, I've already shown off a bunch of the ones I got, so check them out in the posts I put up last year for... oh yeah...



I collected every Superman title there was for a few years there. I can't claim that all of them were good, but there were classic stories like this one. Bought it new, so I paid cover price. Well, a bit less, since it was $5 after the store discount was factored in. I've been getting a few decent Silver and Bronze Age Action Comics in the recent collection buys, but let's face it, those are often more notable for the ridiculous covers.



This one's a bit worse for wear, but I keep finding Adventure Comics in my bulk buys. And when you are getting stuff like this for $0.86, you can't really complain.



I recall saying that I bought a collection for $1900. If not, I bought a collection for $1900. This was in the box of "stuff I'll throw in just to get rid of." The guy was all about Marvel (seriously, he collected a bunch of Marvel titles starting at the end of 1978 or so, ending in about 1984. Good stuff, too. X-Men, Daredevil, Iron Man, ROM... I'll be showing a bunch of those off when I get to them). After all was said and done and I had everything cataloged, I had paid about 45 cents on the dollar for everything. This issue was about $16.



So, before I bought that $1900 collection, I realized I needed to start getting serious about selling my duplicates. And if I was going to pay 45% of their graded value, I couldn't just bring them down to my LCS. As such, I started getting a table at the local cons. Which is a tad awkward since the dealer who runs the major local con was supposed to have the ability to price match on that collection. He didn't get it. Anyway, that dealer ended up buying some of my duplicates (a bunch of which were in the aforementioned collection) and gave me a nice deal on the whole set of Batman Year One original issues. All four for $40 in 9.2-9.6.



And from recent bulk buys I've been cobbling together a pretty solid collection of post-Crisis Batman. I've had a pretty solid collection for a while, but now the #400-500 range is almost complete. There's a guy I've bought a few bulk boxes off. He does bulk buys, too, but he'll do it to get a few issues and then sell the rest. The whole death of Jason Todd story (along with some other good Batman issues) were in the collection. The collection that I got for $0.36 an issue. Not too bad.

Anyway, at this point, I'm starting with my boxes of DC. I'm part way through Batman. I'll be showing off the best finds as I go. There are some good ones.