Set Description:
In 1978, my little brother hurt his leg and ended up in the hospital for a few days. I wasn't allowed in my brother’s room (I was twelve), so I spent many hours in the hospital waiting room. Along with the usual magazines, there was a small stack of comic books – one of which was Fantastic Four Annual #12. I had read the occasional comic before (Archie’s, etc.), but this book took me to another universe. I read and re-read that book the entire time I was there. Those few days changed my life and I’ve been collecting comics ever since.
I spent the next couple of years buying reader copies of whatever Marvel books I could afford with my meager allowance and low-paying jobs. I also bought some Marvel mail order subscriptions – Fantastic Four, Marvel Two-In-One, and Star Wars. Out of an Overstreet Price Guide ad, I ordered a run of FF from 100-180 in g/vg for about ten cents a pop. It was a great day when that package arrived. After that, I was convinced that I had to have every FF comic.
From 1980-1985, I still didn’t have much money, but was starting to purchase the higher grade comics. I remember thinking that I was buying near mint books, but almost all were VF at best. Grading is difficult when you have little experience and haven’t even seen many true NM books.
By 1986 or so, I had my grading skills improved enough to spot NM- books or better. So I scoured my local comic shops and conventions for every Marvel comic I could afford that was NM- or better, always looking in the FF bin first. I ended up with tons and tons of 70s books (which, at the time, most long time collectors thought was not worth collecting).
By about 1990, I realized that, to get true NM Silver Age books, I would have to buy through the mail. This was an extremely painful process, since 80% of the books purchased were not graded correctly. At the snail's pace of about 3-4 nice Silver Age FF books year, I was slowly building my collection. Then, in the year 2000, with the opening of CGC and eBay, it was like I was a kid in a candy store. After ten years of mail order pain, I could buy directly from collectors and dealers and be 95% sure of the quality. I sent in the FF books I already had to CGC to be graded and started buying the rest. Hopefully during the next ten years, I'll be able to acquire the first twenty issues of the run.
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