PowderedH2O

My copies are the ungraded fine conditions, since I actually like to read mine. I was kind of out of comics for a bit and I was in a K & B Drug Store in New Orleans and I found a pocket book paperback of F 1-6 and I started reading it in the store. I was so excited that I bought it and then started flipping the comics rack looking for FF's. I found 193, 194, 195, and 196. I snagged them all and then within a short time had run them back into the 170's. Those were some great stories and I really loved those books. Still do!

When I was a kid and Ghost Rider came out, I will admit that he kinda scared me a little bit. So, I kind of put him in the "Son of Satan" genre, and I didn't buy his comics. A lot of what I read now is what I read when I was a kid. Since I don't have that connection with Ghost Rider, it doesn't have the same feel for me. I don't know if others felt the same way.

Y'know, there's nothing wrong with a low grade EC. Greatness for pennies on the dollar. A pretty good strategy if you ask me.

From a red and yellow car to red and yellow costumes

I just picked up this low grade issue of Strange Tales. 2.5 might not be to everyone's tastes, but for me this looks just fine.

I've been picking up quite a few Strange Tales lately. Here are a few, but I've got some more that I like and just haven't photographed. Obviously, not all of mine are minty mint. I'm quite ok with attractive lower graded books when it comes to early Silver Age. I am a high school teacher, so my income isn't allowing 9's and higher. But, I love these well read copies just the same.

Just picked this up from a boardie and got it yesterday. Not a sparkling mint copy, but it sparkles just the same to me

Here's three things I picked up this week. I got the Strange Tales 110 from a boardie, and the other two from ebay. Along with my raw issues, I am about two thirds of the way through the 101-168 Strange Tales run of the 1960's. I am considering grading them just to have the CGC set completed, but since they'd all be in the 4-7 range, raw might just be the way to go.

I have a collection of books like that, and I love em! Since I am a school teacher on a budget, I can't afford the older books in the 8's and 9's, so I grab them in the 3's, 4's, and 5's. I have about a third of the Strange Tales run from 101-167, and probably the best of the bunch is maybe a 6.

Well, this thread just is going to cost me some money. But, that is a good thing. So, here's the story. In 2011, my dad passed away and I ended up with all of my parents' stuff. Being the nice hoarder that I am, I kept most of it, since it was their stuff and it has some sentimental value. But, I already had a three bedroom home with three bedrooms worth of stuff. In 2012, I meet the woman I end up marrying in 2013. She owns a three bedroom home (with her two kids), and I move in... with three bedrooms of stuff and my parents stuff. So, our garage is a disaster, our house is a disaster, and did I mention we combined our pets? My dad's dog, my dog, my two cats, and her dog. Sigh... So, I show my wife some of the cool setups on this thread. And I mention how much I'd like to do something like this if we had the space. She said "Let's do it!"... so, we are going to get some stuff together and it looks like I have some projects, but one of them will net me an entire wall of the bedroom just to store and display my comics any way I want. This is a win. I can wake up next to my beautiful wife, and look over at my beautiful stuff. I'll post more in a month or so when we get it all done. Whee!!!!!

Oh, that trip back in memory lane. I haven't written a journal in over two years. It isn't that I died or had no desire, I just had other things going on. I went back to grad school to finish work on my Doctorate in Education, so I was studying a lot and my money was going toward tuition and books as opposed to collectibles. So, I finished up in late July (well, except for the dissertation) and now I can sort of get back to my life. I found myself reading a lot of comic books from the early to mid seventies recently. Specifically, I've been looking at 1973-1978 mostly. Nothing in particular. I bought some Marvel Team Up, Kamandi, Mister Miracle, Thor, Captain America, Shazam, Fantastic Four, and a wide variety of other things. I've actually been kind of cheap, since I didn't want to spend money on the expensive stuff. The whole time that I was reading these books I was thinking "Man, comics were so great! I wish they were like this again!" So, I wonder, were they really that great? I mean, were they better than the 60's or the 80's? Or now? I really don't know. What I do know is this: I was 8 years old in 1973, and a more fervent comic book reader did not exist. In mid 1974, my dad took a job in a very small town (pop 202) and I knew nobody and when I got to school right away I was the new guy and I spent fourth grade pretty much alone. But, every Saturday we drove to the nearest town and I'd go grocery shopping with my mom and I'd hit the comics rack and talk mom into 3-5 comics. So, I can safely say that comics from this time period were my best friends. I must have read the Spectre Adventure Comics at least 100 times each. The same goes for the Thors of the mid 230's. I didn't remember the covers, because those got ripped off after the 8th or 9th reading. After a year, we moved out of the small town and I could resume life, but comics were still a big part of it. So now, I find myself reading these same old books (and a few that I didn't own back then) and I wonder if I am reading them with the eyes of a 51 year old. Or, am I reading them as an 8-12 year old read them back in the 70's? And are my rose colored glasses affecting my vision? I wonder if today's kids will think back upon their comics (or video games or whatever it is that makes them happy) and remember how great things were back in the day. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I bought a couple of CGC graded early FF's from Ed. He was super easy to deal with, and I got the books quickly and well packaged. I will be doing business with Ed again.

I always enjoy reading your updates. I bought the Famous First Edition of Flash Comics #1 when I was a kid and read it over and over. Once upon a time I owned a 2.0-ish copy of $45. I really liked Flash, Hawkman, and the other series as well. I wish I could afford to collect them. At least I can afford to read your thread.

I will say this. I have read many pages of this. As a longtime collector of PSA graded sports cards, ANY thread which was anti-PSA would be poofed by 10 AM on the first business day after it was introduced on their chat boards. Give CGC credit for letting you guys debate.

My economy FT from the same day is sitting verified as well. I guess they missed the 20 days turnaround.. Still sitting at verified.... My value submissions from 12/30 have been sitting at graded for six weeks now. I was kind of excited when they got graded reasonably quickly. But now it's past day 59 and they still sit at graded. I am at three weeks, in the same boat as yours. I am now hoping to get them before the end of the school year. Or before next school year starts at worst.

Showing graded on 3/12//2014. And still at that same spot. Any day now I am hoping...

Bought some JLA's from Marc. Better than advertised. Will definitely do business with him again!

The Dread Dormammu will not be happy when he sees he didn't even make the top ten of Silver Age Marvel Villains...

I'd love an August 12, 1965 stamp on anything. Preferably heroes, but anything reasonable. Also, I was looking for my own stuff when I found this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/JOURNEY-INTO-MYSTERY-Annual-1-THOR-1st-HERCULES-72-Big-Pages-1965-/261299743824?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item3cd6adac50 It has a date of June 22, 1965, which I believe was the exact date someone was looking for a few pages (and a few months ago).

My first ever submission: Economy (4 books) verified on 1/13/2014 scheduled for grading on 3/10/2014 (today) We shall see what happens next... hopefully some good results.

Nowhere to go but up... As I have mentioned in previous journals, I collected comics pretty hard from my early childhood (started at age 6 in 1972) until the early 1990's. I purchased the odd back issue off and on until 2001 when I decided it was time to sell my collection since I hadn't really done much with it for years. It wasn't big by the standards of most of you. It was probably 1,500-2,000 comics. It was a lot of stuff from the 70's and 80's, with maybe 10% from the 60's. I didn't have any of the big keys from the Silver Age, but I did have some nice runs of Bronze Age stuff and a handful of Golden Age DC's that probably weren't worth much. I've started a small collection a couple of times since then, but I've put in a hundred bucks or so, then got distracted and sold the comics. In 2011, I really wanted to dive back in. I actually bought some nice graded GA books, and I bought a few Silver Age goodies too, but money was tight and I ended up selling all of those too. Here we are in 2014, and things have settled down. I got married last June. I have a decent house and a decent job. I'm a school teacher (and so is my wife). I can't afford to chase the big comics, but I would like to go after the stuff that I really enjoyed as a kid and as a teen. That would be the 60's and 70's. So, I made a list of the titles that interested me. I decided that I would try to collect those titles through December 1979. And I wouldn't go back any further than January 1960. I won't chase any titles that don't interest me. So where do I start? Well, I figure that buying in bulk might be the way to go. So, I recently bought some lots of Challengers of the Unknown, Sub-Mariner, and Marvel Triple Action (Ooooh, big spender). I also bought a handful of early 70's Batmans that I remembered particularly well. One of them (#241) was the first comic that I ever bought. So, now I will have it again. I did make a couple of bigger purchases. I LOVE the early Fantastic Fours. So, I decided that I would work on the Kirby FF's in graded form. I bought FF #1 off of the boards, and I've picked up several more over the last few weeks. I have a LONG way to go there. I may pick up other graded books here and there if they work within my budget. We'll see. I have five slabs that are not FF's currently. So, I think I will use this journal as a way of keeping track of my collection and my purchases and watching it grow. I warn you -I am not a Mint Freak. I am perfectly satisfied with Vg-F books. So, I might post a picture or two of books that you might consider uncollectible. But for me, they are still beautiful. And, since I am re-starting from scratch, I am going to be bouncing all over the place trying to fill giant holes in my collection. But, I will be having a GREAT time doing it!!! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I remember that Lois Lane story reprinted in the early 70's in a 50 or 60 center. I thought it was great, although as a little kid I was confused how Green Arrow could be so clean cut in one story and so hairy looking in another.

I just bought a Fantastic Four #1 from Mark. The whole process was very pleasant and I received the book when I was supposed to get it, packaged extremely well. If you have any reservations about dealing with Mark, lose them. He is an honest, trustworthy board member.

The colors on those covers are spectacular. I am not really a war comic guy, but I might hafta track those down. Wow!

Where do I fit in the world of comic collectors? Like many of you, I read. I read a lot. I read comics, but I also read history and science and a whole lot of other things. But here's a list of the things that do not interest me at all: Harry Potter Lord of the Rings The Hobbit Walking Dead Zombies Vampires Dark things in general Goth Sword and sorcery in general Magic (or Magik for that matter) Star Wars Star Trek any other Spacey series Modern comics Anime Mutants Graphic novels Figurines I grew up reading comics in the 70's, and I like comics from the 40's to the 70's. Maybe some in to the 80's, but not much after that. I haven't seen many of the comic character movies that have come out, and the ones I have seen I mostly didn't like. I kinda liked the first Spiderman movie. The first Fantastic Four movie was ok. Captain America and Iron Man were ok. But, none of them were films that I crave sequels on, and in many cases, have never seen the sequels of. I don't care for comic book conventions. Mainly because most of the people I've met are pretty much into everything on my list of things I don't care for, and most of the stuff I've seen tends to lean in that direction. So, I do most of my buying online or at comic shops. Believe it or not, I am not anti-social. I actually love talking comics with collectors. Just not new comics. And not any of the other stuff that surrounds the comic industry. Am I the only one like this? Sam To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.