Looking back.... 4 4

[Get Marwood & I]

Afternoon all!

During a six hour drive with Marwood yesterday  I was reminiscing over how I used to catalogue and track my old Spidey collection before it was cruelly abandoned to the wider public.

A trip into the dark recesses of the loft this morning brought forth this long since forgotten crate of documents and receipts:

 

I started collecting Spider-Man at around the age of 8. When I was 15 or so, my brother brought me home a VFNish Amazing Fantasy #15 which he bought from our LCS using his entire weekly wage (around £60). I cherished it for several months before selling it to buy clothes. Oh dear.

Don't worry, I later repaid my brother's kindness (and my aching conscience) by buying him the entire Incredible Hulk run (102-474) for his birthday many years later (he cried, as he used to have it but lost it when he split up with some rotten harridan he shacked up with).

I started collecting again properly around 1989. My first attempt at documenting my purchases was a little black note book - I still have it - not sure if you can see some of the prices the early Spideys cost me:

 

In those same pics above you'll see later books that I used to take to shops and fairs with the things I was still hunting for. I did like a chart and a set of pictures in my wants list book 

Once it was clear that a little black book wasn't going to cut it I move on to a word document. It soon grew to enormous proportions, hundreds of pages, as I catalogued every Spidey book, appearance, mini series etc etc:

 

That then got sub-divided into separate word documents for each book type - here's the Promo's one:

 

Back in the days before the interweb we used to have to buy comics from paper catalogues - here are a few I found in the loft:

Whatever happened to Goldust 'only one D' Comics...?

I used to quite enjoy filling in those paper order forms. Seems like another world when compared to the clicks of today.

 

Then there was the big sell off which left me with just Amazing Spider-Man and all it's variations. I created an excel spreadsheet for them, which looked like this:

 

 

I had 2,406 different copies of Amazing Spider-Man at the last count costing me an eye watering forty thousand Englandville pounds! Yikes!

 

In case you were wondering, it's easy to get 2,406 'different' copies of ASM when there are 857 variants for some issues!

 

 

Now, they're all gone bar a handful of books and miscellaneous cherished items. I miss my comics, but I also miss the process of cataloguing them and all those wonderful books, documents and spreadsheets that I  used to cook up.

I hope you enjoyed this ramble through my documenting history. If you have a cataloguing story to tell of your own, do dive in. I'd love to hear it.

Chin-chin! 

 

 

[oakman29]

And here I thought I was obsessive compulsive.

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, oakman29 said:

And here I thought I was obsessive compulsive.

I know! 

I sometimes think I put more effort into the cataloguing than the collecting! I did enjoy it though Oak. How did / do you do it?

[oakman29]

I really don't have a catalog written down at all. I know exactly what I have, and what books I need.

Of course when I die the wife will have a heck of a time, but F-it I'll be dead.

[Get Marwood & I]

2 minutes ago, oakman29 said:

I really don't have a catalog written down at all. I know exactly what I have, and what books I need.

Of course when I die the wife will have a heck of a time, but F-it I'll be dead.

I like your style 

[namisgr]

I just bought 'em, read 'em, bagged 'em, and put 'em in boxes.  

Edited July 8, 2017 by namisgr

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, namisgr said:

I just bought 'em, bagged them, and put them in boxes.  

Nothing wrong with the bare minimum @namisgr  

[namisgr]

4 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

Nothing wrong with the bare minimum @namisgr  

True that.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

4 minutes ago, namisgr said:

True that.

 

[1950's war comics]

Marwood,.. are you a brilliant statistician on your day job or something..........?  ?

[Get Marwood & I]

10 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

Marwood,.. are you a brilliant statistician on your day job or something..........?  ?

Would you believe me if I told you I drive a van for a living? 

[1950's war comics]

Whenever i see an old school completist collector cross checking their little "well used " want list notebooks it warms my heart but alas we are a dying breed

[1950's war comics]

That would be a neat little thread Marwoo... !!

"Show me your little black book/notebook comic book wantlist/checklist"

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, 1950's war comics said:

That would be a neat little thread Marwood... !!

"Show me your little black book/notebook comic book wantlist/checklist"

Well what are you waiting for! Shoot! 

[1950's war comics]

22 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

Well what are you waiting for! Shoot! 

I always just had a sheet of paper with me , i would write down every number and cross off the ones i had,... after awhile i would highlite the numbers i needed....

i actually have only (OLD) one sheet left, and that is from my 1970 Topps football set which i started working on the hard way (pre eBay)..................

Edited July 8, 2017 by 1950's war comics
added that i have only one (OLD) sheet left

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, 1950's war comics said:

I always just had a sheet of paper with me , i would write down every number and cross off the ones i had,... after awhile i would highlite the numbers i needed....

i actually have only one sheet left, and that is from my 1970 Topps football set which i started working on the hard way (pre eBay)..................

I've changed the title in your honour @1950's war comics 

Show us your sheets then....

No, not them. Your comic collecting sheets 

[1950's war comics]

My OOAW CGC checklist

 

[1950's war comics]

No graphs though MARWOOD although i thought about it  !!

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, 1950's war comics said:

My OOAW CGC checklist

 

 

Now that's more like it! Pen, paper and a highlighter. Not a drop of newfangled Googleation in sight 

I manged to expand one of my pics - £69.95 for ASM #129 !

£2.25 for #120 !

Somebody get me a TARDIS!

 

[1950's war comics]

I know right ?? !!! when i bought my ASM 129 it was just a common probably cost no more than 50 cents.... it was no different than any other issue after #122..........

i got it graded and it came back CGC 7.0 so a nice little appreciation there ....