How did I get here?

[etanick]

thanks Kevin

 

I will try to balance the amount of story telling as well as pics to not bore everyone to death. My life ain't all that entertaining

 

So I graduated high school in 1985. I debated for a while on treating myself to a nice X-men 94 or a nice GS #1 but I couldn’t pull the trigger. Up until that point, I have never spend more than $25 for any comic books so it was too hard to open my wallet at the time.

 

I saved well over $3k from my job in high school so I was being too frugal at the time....but there are college expenses to deal with so I tried to be practical.

 

Now college, as a senior I did fairly well in my art class that my teacher wanted me to pursue a career in art so he wrote a nice recommendation to an art school and got me a small scholarship. i decided to forgo art school for something more practical....uhhh computer science. There goes my dream of becoming a comic artist

 

Instead of posting about 1986 to 1989, the college years, I will segway into other areas...perhaps more interesting than what a typical college person experienced....perhaps not but other things in life shape the collector that I was and am today...but I will post one more significant piece I acquired a decade ago. Not really a big piece but when I saw it on Ebay 10 years ago, I knew I want it because it is an OA from my very first X-men 155. Would I rather have the OA art from Iron Man 150? no.....it is the X-men. Unless it is the cover for Iron Man 150, I rather have this page.

 

 

[etanick]

can someone show me how to post a spoiler tag? i can't figure it out

 

[sufunk]

When you type your post, above the text there is an S with a diagonal line thru it. Highlight what you want in the spoiler tag and then hit the S with the diagonal line thru it (thumbs u

[etanick]

ah..many thanks (thumbs u

[etanick]

avoid the spoiler below if you don't want to read a wall of text..lots of words. I know this is a comic forum....we care more about seeing pics of comic books...not wall of text so please skip the post below if you don't care to read about my personal upbringing. It won't hurt my feeling the long post explained the poster/person/collector that I am here. Most of us know nothing about anyone on here unless we meet and since I don't plan to go to any conventions any times soon, the odd of meeting and knowing anyone here really well is slim to none...at least for now.

 

I promised to post many more eye candies shortly...uh...depends on what you defined as eye candies

 

 

 

What kind of upbringing did I have? Sure the story so far is me coming to the US in 1980 but what about before?

 

My dad was a farmer’s son. In 1954 after the battle of Dien Bien Phu, his family fled North Viet Nam to South Viet Nam to escape “communism”. He joined the French army shortly. He showed the French officer a flash of brilliance and was hand picked to go to France for higher educations along with 2 others soldiers. He spent 4 years in France and returned with a Bachelor Degree in Math and served as a high rank officer in the army. When the French left and the US took over, he left the army. He opened the only prep school with the other 2 that went to France with him. Between the 3 of them, they had degrees in Math, Physic, and something else I can’t recall. It was an immediate success and he quickly rose to the top of society. At least in Asia at the time, educated people are highly regarded more so than movie stars.

 

He got married. He even has a street named after him. We were the elite by now. We lived in gated mansion, with private nanny for each kid as well as chauffeurs and chefs. Life was good. At the age of 4, my dad enrolled me in violin classes and found out I was musically gifted. Right off the bat, I was enrolled in musical school and really didn’t have a normal school life like other kids. To skip the boring years, by the time I was 12, I pretty much mastered the violin. I was slotted to compete internationally. I was the star and famous. I got everything a 12 years old could ask for. I was arrogant, spoiled, pampered, a complete person_too_unaware_of_social_graces. I loved the attention and accolades.

 

Lets not forget in 1975, the Viet Nam war ended and the communist took over. I was 9 at the time. My family lost just about everything. Everyone that served with the French or the US were rounded up and sent to “education” camps. My dad escaped this hardship because he was a well respected intellect. They took away the prep school, the cars, the servants, etc…but we got to keep the mansion.

 

By 1978, it was very apparent to my father that he needs to get the family out of the country but he did not have enough money for the family of 7, there is enough for 3 so it was decided that the oldest 3 kids will escape. I was 12, my older brother was 13 and my older sister was 14. For those old enough to know the history of Viet Nam, we were part of the “boat people”. Not much different that the Cubans that still sail the sea today to get to Florida but a tad longer distance. There were many life lessons taught to prepare for this trip but my father’s wish was for me to find my way to Julliard (yes, even back then in a third world country, the reputation of Julliard was well known). Even before we “escaped”, all my teachers were asking me “when are you going?” because the brain drains were happening at a rapid pace during that time. Everyone with wealth and/or brains and/or talents wanted to get the hell out of the country.

 

To not bore you all to death, we escaped, landed in Indonesia for 9 months in the refugee camp and finally made out way to the US on 3/80. We had an uncle living in East Greenbush, NY. He was a dentist in the Vietnamese army and in 1975, he was lucky enough to dated the daughter of the General and he and that entire family flew/escaped the country and landed in NY. Once here, he had to go back to school to reacquire his dental degree so he was in school at this time. He strugged with his wife and newly born daughter but he sponsored the 3 of us. Since he sponsored us, we were not entitled to any government assistants. He was a student and his wife was a nurse with a baby. We were dirt poor living in a 2 bedrooms apartment. I enrolled in 7th grade at the middle school in East Greenbush. It wasn’t much left of the school year but it wasn’t easy. I didn’t know any English and right away on my first day at school, one boy asked me “do you like girls?”..of course at that moment, I had no idea what he was saying and I basically knew 2 English words back then, Yes and No and I said “no” . By the end of the week, I think I was dealing with “are you a ?” seemingly from every boys in the school. On top of that, my first name, difficult if not impossible for most non Asian to pronounce but the closest people can pronounced was “Nee”, it is spelled NGHI. So besides being labeled and chastised as a by the end of the first week in school. “YO, Knee cap” or “Hiney….haha…got it, azzboy”. I don’t think I can walk down the hallway without hearing someone yelled out those insults at me. Yes, kids are cruel. I don't blame them today, I blamed their parents for not teaching how to not treat someone else like a piece of dirt.

 

If you don’t know about East Greenbush, it is a suburb in upstate NY with very few minorities at the time. In that middle school, I was the only Asian out of 1000 students. My older brother and sister attended the high school and they had each other. I never discussed the deplorable treatments I received daily. What is there to say? As if anyone can do anything.

 

Anyhow, I enrolled in the school orchestra naturally and right away I wowed the teacher and the entire orchestra. No doubt, no one at 13 in that school has every played a violin that well. At least there was a sanctuary I can go to and can shut everyone else up.

 

Well, the school year ended and the summer of 1980 was here…nothing major happened. My older brother and sister buried themselves in learning English. I really didn’t even try. I spent my summer babysitting my uncle’s 2 years old. The new school year started on 9/80 and I am now in 8th grade. I don’t know how I advanced from 7th grade but somehow I did. I did manage to make a few friends in school that make things 10 times more tolerable. It was mostly the kids from the school orchestra. The ridicules were present daily but I think the teachers stepped in more often to stop the teasing. I even got into a fight with another kid in the hallway because I wasn’t going to be bully anymore. I was doing extremely well in the orchestra, no doubt the rising star and the talk of the school. Christmas was coming and my teacher decided for this year Christmas recital, he would like to showcase me so we worked on a few pieces together. Naturally, not everyone in the orchestra liked me. The stars that were there before I got there, were jealous and certainly didn’t care to be send to the 2nd row. I don’t know the full story but at the day of the recital, the teacher approached me and told me the orchestra will play but there will be no solo act. I was disappointed but it wasn’t a big deal…..until after the orchestra finished and I left the stage and there were 2 solo acts that followed. Apparently, the little green eyed monsters got to the teacher and wrote me off the program.

 

I was angry and that very moment, decided to walk away from Violin for good. Enough was enough, I had it with the BS. I didn’t care anymore. Nothing mattered at that point, perhaps the lowest point of my life. I didn't come to America for this...Christmas shopping at the Salvation Army? I was ashamed and bitter. I detested standing in lunch line with a card that allowed me to get the free lunch. I couldn't fathom how low it can be.

 

Just prior to the recital, my uncle told us we have to move during Christmas, the 2 bedroom apartments are not big enough and the landlord didn’t want 6 people living there so we had to move. We found a 3 bedrooms place in Albany and off we moved….to the apartment on New Scotland Ave, the very first place I read my first US comic book. The place that jump started my life long love for the hobby.

 

If you made it this far, then you know now what discovering comic book at this place meant for me. For the first time since I came to the US that I found joy and excitement….and purpose, something to look forward to the next day instead of wallowing in misery and self pity. I had reasons to learn English now. I want to read these wonderful comic books. Hope was powerful. The drive to get a job to buy my first comic was immediate.

 

So yes, I had everything and then had nothing. Perhaps it was fate but the early years in the US changed everything about me. I went from being a spoiled brat that talked down to everyone to a much humbled person and one that treats others as I want to be treated….it was that simple. I grew up fast. Was there a choice?

 

Again, much appreciated if you spent the time to read this long winded post…it is only a small part of my unfinished book. I might never finished it but since my freshman year in college, my History 101 teacher has urged me to write my life story and many that know me well over the years have urged me to do so. So why now? Perhaps I achieve the American dream, I promised them when I feel that have reached a certain level of success, then I will write it but they all have said…you already won Nick long ago…WRITE IT!

 

 

[etanick]

As bizarre as it was, I was not interested in Spiderman at all up to this point. About the only thing worth mentioning between 1986 and 1989 is this odd little book. I had passed on the TMNT books that I saw at the LCS 2 years earlier but I picked up this little book. The only TMNT item I own.

 

it is a neat little book. Nothing earth shattering but I am glad I have it.

 

 

While I was in college for 4 years, my collection was stored in the attic..hot and humid with cheap bags and boards. All of these books will go thru some bad storages for the next 20 years and came out mostly with white pages today so I want to give my 2 cents about PQ and storages. Bad storage conditions CAN significantly hurt the PQ but good PQ does not automatically guarantee that a book was stored properly in the most ideal conditions. We have to remember that books prior to the 90's were printed with some of the cheapest papers so certain batches were printed on poor paper that might never qualified as "WHITE" right off the printers. Some of you might not agree but I am going with my own experiences with my collection. Some books can maintain good PQ even with the worse storage conditions and mine did.

 

So I graduated in 1989 with a bachelor in Mathematics. I had a second major of Secondary Education as I thought I might pursue a career as a math teacher but I dropped it my senior year. In the summer of 1988, by chance, I rented a movie called Wall Street on VHS. Wow, I remembered sitting there and was fascinated with the entire Wall street thingy....It was something I never even considered before or understand but GREED IS GOOD...love it. Now I started out as a computer science major my freshman year in college but I thought the entire computer thing was boring and stupid eventhough I had a knack for programming. Programming is all logic = all math...so if anyone is good in math, learning to program isn't that hard.

 

My older sister by now had graduated and lived in Boston working for an insurance company so I moved there after I graduated to find a job. It wasn't easy getting job from a lousy school in a big city. 1989 was also a bad recession year so the jobs were hard to find for many. Eventually, I sucked it up and got a job as customer service with the help of my sister at the insurance company for $19k a year...even back then, $19k was not a lot. But I started to be able to feel better financially that I began to spend more money on comic books. I finally bought my first "grail", and X-men 94 in NM. Years later, I sub the book and got a PLOD with CT...curse the douchery dealer that sold that book to me at a Boston con in 1990.

 

I eventually got a nice copy to replace that PLOD. As always, I tried to buy well centered copy. PQ isn't a must for me, I own brittled books while I appreciate white PQ, it isn't something that is a must for me. I have seen enough inconsistency in CGC grading with PQ that I know a lot of off white book is very nice.

 

[etanick]

1990 was a big year in comic book for me because I finally bought my first ASM.....uh Todd McFarlane ASM #1...uh....who didn't buy a copy or 2 or 10?

 

but I enjoyed his arts and that started my hunt for Spiderman back issues. The very first collection I bought contained mostly Spiderman silver age and bronze age. Many of the bronze age books were killer conditions. I sold ALL of them as of today. There was one book I regretted selling. If I could, I would still keep it to enjoy it raw instead of slabbing the book and sold it. It is ASM 101..a stunner with perfect centering. It was graded as a 9.6. Hell it looks better than the 9.8 copy Sparklecity just auctioned last week. It wouldn't shock me if the owner cracked it out and pressed it out for a 9.8 by now. All of these books were stored in fairly poor conditions for decade(s) by the previous owner and moi so once again, the good PQ was preserved by higher powers, certain not the hot room with the furnace.

 

I had a killer bronze ASM collection.

 

 

 

from that collection, there was a ton of very high grade bronzes...I kept a few of the scans but all have been sold long ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[etanick]

1991 was important in that I got a new job related to investment...one step closer to "wall street".

 

At this new job, I quickly showed my skills in programming and if you are old enough to understand the age of computing, computers with Windows are just now starting to be popular. I remembered the first week at the new job going to an orientation class on how to use a freaking mouse. The power of computing is starting to take hold in many investment firms and those that know a lot of about computers and programming did very well during this time. I quickly got a lot of recognition for my programming skills and I was lucky enough to have a good boss. He told me to pursue an MBA and a CFA if I want to advance in this field so I stuck around till the end of 1992 to get 2 years of experience under my belt. He gladly offered to write a good recommendation to any schools I wanted. Perhaps this was a mistake but I chose to chase "fun" along with higher education and the grunge music scene was the rave back in 1992 so I decided to head to the Pacific Northwest to get my MBA as well as have some fun. Not much happened with comic books because I saved my money for grad school.

 

Even at this point, the most valuable book I owned was the X-men 94. I did pick up quite a few Neal Adams DC books...mostly mid grade but a few high grades like these.

 

 

[greggy]

Reading your story makes me want to have some Pho.

[etanick]

oh no Greggy is reading my junks

 

if you are ever in Sarasota, I will cook you a nice bowl if not the bet bowl of Pho you have ever ate. At least everyone that ate my cooking told me so

 

Ok so I packed up all my books and asked my sister if I can store them. She shoved them in the furnace room where they stayed for 13 years. Off to the Pacific Northwest and Nirvana I went

 

I basically stopped buying during grad school because I am just too busy with school and life. I had no idea if I will return to the hobby but it was out of sight out of mind.

 

I graduated from MBA school in 1994 but I loved the Pacific Northwest and didn't want to go back to Boston. Luckily I found a job with an investment firm in Portland Oregon. It was great because instead of competing with the big fishes with the big Pedigrees in Boston or NY. An MBA from Oregon State was just fine.....more importantly, my programming skills were really in demand. To cut it short, by 1998 I was managing a ton of money with big responsibilities. As I was doing stock analysis in the tech sector, I found Ebay and finally joined Ebay in 1999 and wow, I was back in the hobby with a vengeance.

 

 

[greggy]

I expect only the top quality beef tendon.

[etanick]

you got it...I prefer a combo of brisket, tendon, and a few slices of raw top round.

 

 

[bane]

Makes me want to head over to Sarasota

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Where is that exactly.....

[etanick]

if you find your way here to Sarasota, you can geek out with these books in your hands

 

[scooter99]

if you find your way here to Sarasota, you can geek out with these books in your hands

 

 

That is some sweet junk there. Great read thus far, Nick. Looking forward to more.

[etanick]

So what did I buy on Ebay in 1999? For the first time, I started buying Silver Age books. I bought some low grade Neal Adams X-men issues before but that was about as close to buying silver age comic books until 1999. Now I started to look for NM books. It was a fun time and for the first time, cost wasn’t a big of a deal as it used to be. I was still buying raw books and haven’t paid much attention to slab books on Ebay. I didn’t even know about CGC until 2001. I was still focus on just superhero titles. I was also starting to look out for GS #1 and the holy grail, X-men #1. I slabbed many of the X-men I bought in my first batch to CGC. I was abled to get a complete run of X-men from 2 to 143. I sub many of these books with my first batch to CGC years later and got 6.5 to 8.5 for most of the Silver age X-men. The best early X-men I got was a 9.0 and issues #9 but I only got a 7.0 for #2 and mostly mid grades for the early issues. I sold many of them so I don't have scans for them any longer. The few keepers I still have are here

 

 

 

and this double cover. I didn't even realized it was a double cover until years later. No doubt a pleasant surprise.

 

 

speaking of double covers, I have a few others

 

 

this one is a crips 9.6 double cover

 

[etanick]

By the end of 1999, I was fairly unhappy with my job. Even though I did very well as a portfolio manager and outperformed my benchmarks, I really didn't get recognition or the just rewards I felt I deserved so I planned my departure from my job and branched out on m owns. I started a few "dot.com" startups in 1998 that I wanted to pursue full time. In 1996, I also wrote a simple accounting software that analyze stock trading that was useful for security litigations. The software creates reports that show how, when and where a portfolio lost money. I have communicated with a few attorneys over the year of what my report can do and have done a few cases on the side with good results (the clients won in arbitrations).

 

I waited until March 2000 to quit my job because I wanted to collect the last bonus check. I thought the market was nut at the time but little did I know that was the top of the market and we are about to have a melt down. Success required a little luck and timing as it turned out. Both my dot.com startups failed shortly after 2000 and I actually moved back to Boston at this point.

 

A little segway but my brother, my sister, and I sponsored my parents to the US in 1991 and they are all in Boston even today. I moved out West in 1993, partly because of the riff between my parents and I. Heck, I didn't care to hear any parental complaints from them since I really didn't feel they had any rights in telling me what to do so that was part of the reasons, I didn't stay in Boston to go to school.

 

I spent much of my savings with my startups so that was a bust. By June of 2000 when I moved back to Boston, I was close to being broke and asked my parents if I can sleep on the couch to figure out what the next steps can be. They welcomed me back with open arms and all were forgiven. There are to be no more criticisms. My dad embraced the entrepreneur spirits in me because I reminded him of his younger self so he was all in for me to do whatever I want. Needless to say, the rest of my siblings were very annoyed that I was freeloading and sitting around the house watching tv all day long as they saw it. I spent most of my time enhancing my software that I wrote years ago for security litigation and BOOM.....in July 2000, I got a call from the biggest law firm in the country that specialized in security litigations..."Mr. Vu, we heard you are an expert in this field that can create reports or expert testimonials, is that true?"....uh yes?

 

I was insanely busy and no doubt, was in high demand right off the bat. I am still doing this today. 16 years in the business and I don't even have a website or business card...didn't need them since people call me. I am likely the top 3 in this field in this country so the name is well known with the attorneys. The peak of the business was 2003 for sure where I was retained in over 300 different cases. It was insane and I don't even know how I managed that mess.

 

By now, I decided it is time to treat myself to get all the grails I ever wanted...X-men 1, GS#1, Hulk 181, etc....I can afford them, why not? and yes for first time, I noticed CGC slabs on Ebay and understand "grading". So I bought and X-men #1 high grade. I was naive and stupid. The listing came from a seller that never sold a book. The feedbacks were plentiful but not one other book but there was a nice high grade x-men #1 8.5 sitting there with a reasonable BIN price so I bought it.

 

lesson to all....ALWAYS OPEN A PACKAGE WITH EXPENSIVE BOOK(S) IN FRONT OF THE DELIVERY PERSON...if you can.

 

the box arrived...I signed for it. Closed the door and open it...EMPTY! holy cow, I can't believe what I saw. I frantically contact the seller, Ebay, UPS, etc...everyone. I will cut this story short but 3 months later, everyone ruled against me....everyone accused me of lying and I was not to get a refund or insurance payment from anybody. Everyone believed the seller that I lied about the package being empty. I swore off Ebay and paypal.

 

so what next? I decided that I have had enough of the BS. I was too busy with my business to care so I decided to buy another X-men #1 copy along with the nicest GS #1 I can find and leave the stupid hobby again. I got the books, toss them in the closet and didn't look at them until 2008. I never picked up a Hulk 181 or any other keys...those 2 slabs were the first but that was my end of slab buying for many years to come.

 

i sold this book a few years back but I still have an old scan.

 

 

the GS #1 is a beauty. As with the X-men #1, or X-men 94, I was OCD on well centered book even back then. If I was going to spend big money on a book, I want it well centered.

 

 

[scooter99]

You can replace the sale of the 8.5 with Schmell's 9.8 Pacific Coast.

 

And that GSX1 is absolutely stunning. Perfect registration and white pages.

[TheLiamSturgess]

WOW! Great books Nick.

[comics_ross]

Great stories! I really enjoy reading them