Background : I originally started collecting when I was about 5 years old. I used to go to a used bookstore with my mother and they sold direct market comics (the only place in town). I saw GI JOE #39 on the rack the comics were kept and as I was a big fan (I had the toys) my mother bought it for me. And so began my comic collecting life. Every month I would get a two comics (GI Joe and Transformers) and a DC or Marvel reprint collection from the store. Pretty soon I was more fascinated with superheroes in the reprinted Silver Age stories than the Giant robots or Ninja in the two other titles. I started to collect Superman, GL and The Flash from DC along with X-Men and the Avengers from Marvel. I collected all the way up until I finished College and got a job overseas. I figured it was better to go cold turkey and just stop collecting than try to get someone to pick up my books and ship then to me etc. I sold off most of my collection keeping the books that were key or sentimental value. This was around 2000 and I didn't return back to my home country (other than for a short visit once a year) until 2011. My reintroduction to the comic book collecting world was a bit jolting. They had cancelled Action Comics. And it was rebooting at #1.Back issues and new Comics were encased in plastic never to be read and were being bought and sold for insane prices. I heard the term Investment books for the first time.  I had collected all through the 80s and 90s so I was around for the speculator boom (then bust) and chromium / metallic / 10 different variant covers Era. But this is something different. This is the Reboot Era. The Corporate era. They used to have 1 volume of Action and Detective, now there are 3 since 2011 (the newest incarnations of both are continuing the numbering but not the universe so they are separate for me). Which led me to make my decision. I would not be buying the new issues from the publishers of my youth DC and Marvel. Instead I decided to buy the characters and stories of my youth. Which for me happen to be the Silver Age as they were the characters and stories in the reprints. 

Collecting Manifesto: I have settled on 10 Series or Characters I wish to collect. I am going to be collecting the first 25 issues of each series or the first 25 issues of that characters appearance in their own book. So here goes…
Amazing Spider-Man 1-25   Avengers 1-25  Daredevil 1-25  Fantastic Four 1-25  Journey into Mystery (Thor) 83-107 Tales of Suspense (Iron Man) 39-63   X-Men 1-25  The Flash 105-129  Green Lantern 1-25 Justice League of America 1-25
(For budgetary reasons I left out Showcase, B&B and AF appearances)
I am going to be seeking out and buying whenever possible Raw copies of books and I will be cracking out any slabbed books I buy. I know that will be anathema to some but I see no reason to slab any book that is less than Near Mint. I will be reading everything I buy at least once and with completion of each series I will buy the appropriate trade or trades to go with it. 

My base budget for this endeavour is $25000 USD. Out of that base budget I have also set individual series budgets. I calculated each budget based upon the latest Overstreet price guide, Online sources (ComicLink, mycomicshop, etc) and Ebay listings. As such I will be targeting to buy between 2.0 - 5.0 books. If a higher grade than a 5.0 presents itself for a decent price within the budget I have set for each series then I will buy it. Also if I have the opportunity to buy a book in a grade lower than 2.0 (if it presents nicely) I will buy it but keep looking for a higher grade replacement. Any shipping costs will be rolled into the overall price of the book( ie. $65 book + $5 shipping makes it a $70 book) Any leftover money from a completed series will be split up amongst the other remaining series. I have given myself a timeline of 3 years to complete this personal collecting challenge. I will update this thread with the issue bought, where it was bought (LCBS, Online site, or Convention) and final purchase price. Cheers.