Old Days - Back when you couldn't find back issues

[DanMad1977]

I do not remember which issue it was, but it definitely was a Spider-Man book.

But I remember seeing a German edition of Amazing Fantasy 15 (called Spider-Man 1) for 20 Deutsch Mark, maybe 20 Dollar today. It was a lot of money for a comic book at the time, but I wanted to have it so bad. My mom said no way, for that kind of money I could buy 10 comic books. I made clear that it wouldn't make a difference for her because she wanted to spend 20 on comic books for me anyway. So she bought it, and I was so happy for a very long time. It was a real gem and raised in prices up to 1000 Euros, or Deutsch Mark, I don't remember. I still have it, the value isn't there anymore, but that doesn't interest me. I took me 22 Years to get the first 137 issues of Spider-Man and complete the collection.

[Spike-X]

Just as the Byrne run on Fantastic Four had about a year left to run, I found a pile of Byrne FF back issues at a second-hand bookshop in town. They blew me away back then, and still do today (yes, I still have them!).

[Iron Maiden]

I come from a large family of 10 brothers and sisters and my Dad would sometimes go to the local Rexall or another local store called the Magazine Mart. IIRC that store also had a bookie shop in the back room where he used to place bets for my older sister who liked to try the Kentucky Derby winner. I think even the cops knew that they took bets, esp around Derby time. But I was too young for that kind of thing.

My Dad got us the very first issues of Creepy and Eerie but not so much with comic books until our neighbor brought his copy of Fantastic Four #39. IIRC, we traded something with him to get the FF comic. Been reading the Fantastic Four ever since Once time I went looking for comics myself at the Rexall when I saw a Daredevil issue in the spinner rack that we didn't have. It was the classic Daredevil #7 with the Sub-Mariner on the cover. I don't know why they had it racked because IIRC by then either John Romita Sr or Gene Colan was on the title.

As the years went on my brother has kept up our old collection as my parents passed away. He moved them into his first house and then a second time. One thing I do regret doing before he did that was that I sold a bunch of Avengers comics for about $30. Of course later became worth much more. I thought it was a lot back then.

One thing I always wanted to have was Fantastic Four Annual #2. By this time I was a big Doctor Doom fan (maybe one of the few for all I know!) and I did see some parts of it reprinted in Marvel Collectors Items Classics. IMO that was a smart move by Stan because some titles became popular a few years after their initial launch. So when the first local comic book shop opened up years later (Marvel was more established by now as a big seller) I went to see what they had. Sure enough, he did have Fantastic Four Annual #2 for a then princely sum of $5.00. I still have it but in those days there was no bagging and boarding materials handy. It is still in decent shape but definitely not mint.

[Paul Newell]

For me back issues either came from second hand book stores or swapping.

Back in the day EVERY kid seemed to read comics and we would swap. A lot. First I remember gathering is a whole stack of Jimmy Olsen's weird transformations.

[The Darknight Detective]

A lot of us grew up reading comics before comic book stores were around. With the exception of an occasional flea market or garage sale, back issues were nearly impossible to find.

Do you remember the first back issue or set of back issues that you finally managed to track down and purchase?

What book(s) was it - and was it as great as you expected or a complete disappointment?

I guess the first back issues I sought (instead of purchasing because it looked interesting) were the Famous 1st Edition books from DC that I hadn't owned already. This would have been around 1978 when we got our first LCS within walking distance.

My best friend had them already, so I knew what to expect perusing his copies before I obtained mine. In many ways, they were (and still are) my favorite comics.

The first two I bought were Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27, FWIW.