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TRAGEDY TURNS TO GLORY

   

A comic reader's favorite day of the week is Wednesday because that's when new comic books hit the shelves, but yesterday didn't start off well.  I woke up with terrible nausea and my breathing was the worst it's been since I was hospitalized for it almost a year ago.  I have effective nausea medicine, somewhat effective steroids for breathing, and powerful pain medication, but not being able to hold down any pills left me unable to breathe comfortably and in terrible pain.  I needed to go to the hospital.   Having a breathing problem getting progressively worse day by day, and nausea preventing me from medicating myself, I knew I needed to go to the hospital.  The best way to really demonstrate how sick I felt is to point out that instead of having my father bring me to get my new comics, I asked him to bring me straight to the hospital, where I expected to stay overnite.

Enough about the horrible first half of my day.  The hospital did what hospitals do and fixed me up and my Nurse was very friendly.  Once I was feeling well and we realized that I may not be staying overnite after all, my dad,who had been reading this blog on his phone, asked me how close we were to the shop where my comic book was waiting for me(I owed $70..I had $30 down on it.  If you didn't know that, read the older posts!).  It was a really nice thought on his part because he had already driven me all the way there, pushed me in a wheelchair, and was about have to drive me home too, but I didn't have the money so I had to say no to the offer.  Then he offered to front me the money.  I declined, but then he pointed out that when I had the money, he wasn't necessarily going to be wanting to drive me back to the Boston area.. so it was an offer I couldn't refuse.  Thanks to my Dad, I'm now the proud owner of a comic that one week ago I never thought I'd have.

So here's the short version
Comic shop: New England Comics.. Quincy, MA
Issue found: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 First Printing, October 2000
Paid: $100
Total cost of adventure thus far: $135.50

As far as I can tell the only flaw is a tiny bit of blunting on the bottom right corner.  It's almost invisible to the naked eye.  I'm not a grader so there could be other flaws..I'm not too concerned about it.  I'm never gonna sell it.

As promised, here are a few photos:

And as I promised, I'm not restricting the posts to USM.  Here are 2 more additions to my collection this week.

Left: Amazing Spider-Man #90, November 1970:The Death of Captain Stacy.  My grade: 7.5
Right: Peter Panzerfaust #1 First Printing, February 2012: The Great Escape Part 1.
My grade: 9.8

Thanks for reading

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TAKING INVENTORY BEFORE DEPARTURE

   

Even though I didn't plan on collecting the whole series until now, I've got a few issues that I picked up on a few different occasions.  I'm planning on posting a complete checklist, but before I show how many issues I need, let me show the few I;ve already got.

Even though I've already listed the issues I have..  here's a photo of the collection as it stands.  I'm a comic fan writing a blog about collecting comics.  How could I write a story with no pictures?  I wouldn't go around asking people to read a blog that I wouldn't read myself.

So from top left to bottom right, here are the issues I have and what I paid for each:
Row 1:
Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1: $4;
Ultimate Spider-Man #36: $3.25; Ultimate Spider-Man #106-Ultimate Knights Part 1: $3.25; Ultimate Spider-Man #107-Ultimate Knights Part 2: $3.25; 
Row 2:Ultimate Spider-Man #108-Ultimate Knights Part 3: $3.25; Ultimate Spider-Man #109-Ultimate Knights Part 4: $3.25; Ultimate Spider-Man #110-Ultimate Knights Part 5: $3.25;
Row 3: 
Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3: $4; Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem #1: $4; Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem #2; $4.
$35.50 total.

I'll post again when I've put together a full check list, but for now... here's a good guide to the original series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ultimate_Comics:_Spider-Man_story_arcs
After the first 133+3+2, the next section is incorrectly titled "Ultimate Spider-Man (Vol. 2)".  It should  be titled "Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man".  After Ultimatum and Requiem the story continued under the new title "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" with a new #1 issue.  Every issue from that point on, I already own.

2

   

A LOOK DOWN THE ROAD AHEAD

   

I started a thread on a comic book forum to get help determining if the issue I had put on hold was the real deal or just a reprint.  The low price and the perfect condition of the book made me suspicious.  Even at $100, the issue was way too cheap.

The first thing I found out was that there were 16 versions of Ultimate Spider-Man #1, and only 3 of them are the real deal.. and the rest are worth about $8.  I was nervous.. but with the help of another collector in that thread I was able to get some clear information on identifying a true first print.

I called up New England Comics, the shop I found the issue at, and asked the guy on the phone to take my issue out of the draw and answer a few questions.  The bar code was correct, the CCA seal was correct, and on the back was an ad for Gummy Savers, which only appeared on the true first print.

So now I know the copy I secured is legit.

When I knew that, I mentioned on the same thread that I was now planning to collect the rest of the series.  Actually, my exact quote was "Only 132 issues to go!"

Another collector recommended that I visit another forum where people often go and offer to sell their entire runs of the series.  I can appreciate his tip.. there are obvious advantages there.  I could have the full run by the end of next week, rather than possibly 10 years from now.. but the idea isn't for me. As I said before, the journey is it's own reward.  Furthermore, I've seen people offering to sell full runs, and I know that people don't spend 11 years collecting a comic to sell it for what it cost them.  I asked him what price they normally ask for.. and he told me just over a thousand.. which confirmed my suspicion.  And that would be a reasonable price to pay if I hated the time consuming and often disappointing process of tracking down comics.. but I don't.  I decided to set a goal.  I said I would collect the entire run for no more that $999.99.. but now I'm reassessing, and I think I can do it for significantly less.. largely due to the awesome deal I'm getting on #1.  Most sellers are adding $300-400 for that issue alone.

Ultimate Spider-Man volume 1 ran from 2000 to 2009
The series had 133 regular issues, 3 Annuals, and two additional issues titled "Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem" #1 and #2
A total of 138 issues.

"132 issues to go" was misleading.  I do have a few issues to start with.
At some point I bought requiem 1&2 for $4 each.
I bought Annual #1 and Annual #2 for $4 each.
I also got #36 and #106-110 for $3.25 each.
I put $30 down and owe $70 on number one.

So I've spent $65.50 and once I pay off #1 I'll be up to $135.50.  I expect the first 20 issues or so to be pricey.. maybe another $50 for 2 and 3 and then a decrease to around 10 slowly going down to about $3.25 by #20.

I'm taking $300 off of the initial goal I set and I'm gonna see if I can collect the whole series for under $700.

I'll be documenting it all here.. mostly for my own entertainment and reflection.. but hopefully a few people will find it interesting.

There'll be a post anytime I come across something interesting in addition to USM issues.. or any time I take a trip and fail miserably by finding nothing.

1   

TREASURE FOUND AND ADVENTURE ON THE HORIZON

   

Some of this might be wrong.. i've been on pain meds this whole time.. but this is how I remember it:

In February I was back in the hospital with new complications after a life saving bone marrow transplant on April 1st(no joke), 2011.  I was no stranger to hospitals at this point.. nor was I a stranger to pain, nausea, terrible food, and extreme boredom.  The pain and the nausea was only occasional..they had meds for that.  The food I learned to tolerate, and my parents and friends helped by bringing me takeout and lots of candy.  The extreme boredom, however, was unbearable.  Even though it's integral to my story, I feel bad complaining about it because there were people there who didn't seem to get any visitors at all.. and I had several friends coming every day.. but when they left.. the loneliness and boredom set in almost immediately.  Playing guitar helped sometimes, but my fingers were weak, and sitting up was difficult.  Unfortunately, no one ever taught me how to play the blues, and that's all I felt like playing.  I needed something new to pass the time, and I chose one of my childhood hobbies.. Comic books.  I hadn't read a comic since I was 11.. but I had always thought about trying it out again.  I had the money, I just never had the boredom or the time to get caught up.  I asked my dad to pick me up the newest Deadpool and Daredevil.. which were 'pool #50 and DD vol. 3 #9.  Months later I had lost interest in Deadpool but added quite a few other books to my pull list.  At that point my top 3 were Daredevil, Peter Panzerfaust, and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man(vol. 2).  It started to bother me that I had started all of these series just on time to miss out on owning the first issues.  I had read them digitally, but I didn't own them.  I was only one month late on Peter Panzerfaust, so I had issue #1 in 2nd printing.  DD and UCSM I was a little more late on.  I saw that I could get the issues at inflated prices on ebay, but that didn't seem very fun, because I had already tracked down a few of my missing issues by visiting different comic shops.  It was a challenge, because they were mostly all sold out but tracking them down myself meant I paid cover price as long as it was part of a shop's original stock of an issue. Some friends and I started making pilgrimages to far away comic shops and I even hit comic shops while I visited my brother in Philly.  It wasn't long before I had completed DD and UCSM without ever paying more than .50 higher than cover price.  I had a great feeling when I completed those two series.. but it was overpowered by a feeling of disappointment.. I had nothing to search for anymore.  It was then that I came to the realization that I used as the title of this blog.
I decided to start collecting the previous volume of UCSM.. and I finished that.. and then I was at a real dead end.  Here are the series I considered trying to track down and why I decided not to:

Ultimate Spider-Man(predecessor to UCSM): near mint first issues selling on eBay for over $400
Peter Panzerfaust: Only need one issue, First print of #1, but it's going from $80-130 on ebay
Invincible: another $400 1st issue

Chew: $400 again

I was at a dead end.. doomed with nothing to hunt for.  All my future comics would be brand new issues off the rack.. or so I thought, until Friday December 7th.  I was at Kenny's so I asked him to take me to the local comic shop so I could replace a Daredevil issue that I think my mom put a dent in.  While I was in there, I found two amazing things.  The first was a Near Mint Ultimate Spider-Man #1 for $100.  The second was a Near Mint Peter Panzerfaust #1 for $25.  On ebay I would have had to pay at the very least $480 for these two issues.. and now I had found them for $125.. I bought one and put $30 down on the other so it's mine once I get my next paycheck.  It was a great day.  I got two amazing deals.. I completed a collection.. but what I'm really excited about now is that collecting Ultimate Spider-Man in it's entirety is no longer a pipe dream.  There was a boulder in the road preventing me from even thinking about starting, and now it's gone.

I'll be using this blog to document my search.  I'm still gonna pick up back issues of Invincible, Chew, and maybe a few others..and I'll post about them, but above all, this is the story of me tracking down and collecting every single issue of Ultimate Spider-Man.