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About this journal

Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of.  And unto this a young collector, who bought bronze items of beauty from the spinner rack...X-men, Conan, Doctor Strange, Defenders.  As he collected, he began to realize his sense of worth.  He mattered.  In time, his comic book collection could not easily be counted.  His collecting expanded into other areas and other kinds of comics and at times, he abandoned comics completely for other interests, sometimes selling key books, much to his regret.  Now, late in life, he is abandoning the relics of his former collection and has started anew.  With children soon to attend college, other collections, and the pressures of modern life, he is building a collection of bronze keys from the ground up, with an eye toward resale value and appreciation.  This is a detailed account of his Quest for Bronze.

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Entries in this journal

What I'm buying now

A lot of time has passed since my last entries.  At this point, I'm still collecting, but I'm focusing on "stuff" that seems to have a whole lot of bang for the buck. I'm going after Conan's done by Smith in 9.0 or better.  Eventually, the keys will be slabbed, but the rest will live out their lives in raw condition in some top-notch mylars and good quality backboards. I'm very passively going after Iron Fist as I run across them in high grade raw. I'm also going after some golden

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Crom!

We're almost to real time now. My recap is winding to a close...I have two more books to show.  Here's the first: I bought this book sight unseen from a good friend.  I was absolutely stunned to open the box and see this.  I knew the grade but that was all.  I won't usually pay these kinds of dollars for a book (though I got a great friend-to-friend discount), but this is one that I've thought about buying for a few decades.  For the grade, it has everything going for it.  Nice centering, white

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

How about a little gold with that bronze?

So, I've been enjoying my quest for Bronze.  But I've pretty much backed off the pursuit of all titles but Smith Art Conans.  I might attempt some early Savage Swords.  I've also snagged a few minty early appearances of Iron Fist...I'm thinking about going  after the keys of that series since the hype-train has slowed down on that character.   Essentially, all of the material I'm pursuing is "anti-cinematic universe speculation" and I'm snagging them in higher grade.  And why not!  They're so be

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Grrrr...I'm getting priced out. Think I'll collect Conan and video games

Call this a rant, if you like. Crom and Mitra, but I'm seeing stupid prices on things and it's dam irritating!  Books a little nicer than normal...books I turned my nose up on a couple of decades ago...cost as much as I'm willing to spend on a used car for my soon to be college student daughter.  I just don't know that I can enjoy tying that much money up into something that isn't really the very best and/or that I don't find captivating.  Kudos to you guys who got in early and avoided the tempt

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

The Box of Twenty Concept (Ok, maybe 30)

If you are a coin collector, you may be familiar with the Box of Twenty Concept.  For those who aren't, you may know that coins also have grading services.  Yes, you can send coins off to be slabbed.  If you send a bunch of them off, as dealers often do, the grading companies will return them in plastic boxes that hold twenty slabs.  Those plastic boxes are desirable as storage boxes for a collection of slabbed coins. Coin collectors came up with a concept called a "box of twenty".  It's a

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

First Serious Non-X-men Key (The Batman!)

I bought this beauty at TampaCon     Ordinarily, I would try to buy a nicer book, but this one was in the mid $300 range and my dollar seemed to go just far enough with this.  What I mean by that is that I saw a scraggly looking raw Batman 251 (perhaps a VG book) for $250 at the show.  It seems you almost have to pay at least $200 just to get a halfway decent raw book.  For the extra $100, I could get this.  It seems that the extra $100 was money well spent to attain a more

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Fun With Spreadsheets

Back when I was collecting coins, I was interested in appreciation.  Yet I kept making the same mistake over and over.  A mistake that collecting Bronze Comics corrects. Without fail, when presented with a cool looking coin from the early 1800's, vs. a cool looking coin from the modern era for the same price, I would always buy the old coin.  But that was a mistake....and here's why: Imagine a coin made in the year 1800 worth $100.  Now compare that to another coin made in the year 200

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Lucking into a nice Giant Size X-men #1

Right now, I'm one book away from completing a "high grade" short set of X-men from Giant Size X-men #1 to X-men  101.  First, a word about my definition of "High Grade".  When I first started collecting, I lived and breathed by the Overstreet Price guide.  I was a fairly experienced coin collector when I first started reading Overstreet, so my first question was, "Why isn't there a grade for Mint"?  And it was explained to me that Near Mint was the highest PRACTICAL grade because of the abuse t

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Hi there

Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of.  And unto this a young collector, who bought bronze items of beauty from the spinner rack...X-men, Conan, Doctor Strange, Defenders.  As he collected, he began to realize his sense of worth.  He mattered.  In time, his collecting victories could not easily be counted.  His collecting expanded into other areas and other kinds of comics and at times, he abandoned comics completely for

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Then I picked up an X-men 94

After picking up the GSXM 1, a couple shows later I managed to buy this X-men 94 for a good price.      But the thing is, this copy was labeled as a FINE 6.0.  I couldn't understand how such a nice looking copy could be graded a 6.0.  But on the ride home from TampaCON, I saw it. There is a long diagonal fold on the book that isn't apparent unless you hold the book a certain way. So I realized this book would jump with a press.  What's your opinion?  I'm thinking 8

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

X-men are like potato chips

After I made up my mind to work on a mini-run, I had a blast doing it.  I have all but one now. This picture doesn't show my X-men 94 because it's being re-graded.  And I'm missing the #100.  Two of these books came from the BST area here at a good price.  Two came from ebay.  The #98 and #101 came from a swap meet.  Notice that the X-men 101 is a 9.2.  I had planned to buy a lower grade comparable to my GSXM1 and my #94, but I got such a good deal on that 9.2 that I stretched to buy

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Convinced to do Bronze by the Master of Quack Fu

Now that I'm almost done with the X-men, I was wondering what to go after next.  It was the Master of Quack Fu that showed me the direction: Yes, the Master of Quack Fu!   See, I had this book back from when I was collecting variants.  It's in a slab, but from a company ending in "X".  Honestly, for some reason, I can't seem to get rid of this book though I've put it up for sale a bunch of times.  And yet, every time I look at it, I marvel at the design, the colors, the intricacy.  Af

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

The Cheap Under-appreciated Neal Adams Superman

So here's that cheap unappreciated Neal Adams Superman.  I was showing this around in the Bronze Comics Forum:   How can you not love this?  Superman at the gates of Hell!  How'd that happen?  Where are those gates?  What did the lady do, and should Superman help her? I'm going to find out and I'll report back! Edit:  OK, I read it.  A few things I can say, Curt Swan interior art and a Batman Cameo.  But I can't describe the plot without revealing spoilers.  I can say th

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

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