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Edward Aycock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2024
Location: United States
Posts: 196
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| Posted: 23 May 2026 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | 1
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When I was 11 in 1983, I was looking for a cancelled book (Super Friends issue 2) that had come out several years earlier. All I had to go on was going to store after store and looking. No luck. At that time, you really could barely give back issues of the book away, and it wasn't listed on places like Mile High Comics. One day in 1993, I came upon it by chance in a shop and I was elated. Back then, a ten-year search between 11 and 21 felt like an eternity. And then later that year, I was trying to find issues of "Namor" and "Next Men" but it was all piece by piece.
I am sure many of us of a certain age have similar stories. So, for those who jumped from manual searching to online, does anybody really miss the old days, the thrill of discovery in a store, deep in the racks or do you prefer the instant gratification of searching today?
What was your holy grail?
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John Popa
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 March 2008
Posts: 4759
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| Posted: 23 May 2026 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | 2
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The first comic I ever had to order through Mile High Comics was "Kitty Pryde and Wolverine" #6. At least in Canton, OH it was rare, at least I couldn't find it at the few places my parents would take me. Even the one comic book store that was downtown so I had to BEG to get taken there didn't have it.
Of course, in those days ordering something took 'four to six weeks for delivery' which felt like a LIFETIME.
In the great scheme of things, no, it wasn't a rare comic but I didn't understand that at 12 years old.
I do miss the thrill of digging in quarter boxes, at least nostalgically. At this point, I only buy hardcover reprints of things I want to preserve.
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Steve Gumm
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1495
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| Posted: 24 May 2026 at 1:12am | IP Logged | 3
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My thrill of the hunt happened on two fronts. I was buying comics somewhere around 7 years old FF, Avengers, Spider-Man and MTU, BUT somehow X-Men where a complete blind spot I didn’t see or buy them until around X-Men 150. About then, I tagged a long with a buddy to a store with nothing but comics and records, they even had boxes and boxes of old comics…WHAT?!? My mind was blown and saw my first wall of great comics behind the register there, in all their shiny glory, were the Byrne X-Men comics. Oh man I had to figure out how to get those cool issues. That was a fun chase. I was just wanting to have them, so I would always buy the somewhat dinged up ones when they popped up. Then, I found the John Byrne comic book checklist in the back of the Art of John Byrne book (5 out of 5 stars). That’s when I started going on the hunt for all John’s past issues. That was a fun endeavor which I haven’t quite completed after all these years. I enjoy digging through the bargain bins and pulling out a random Byrne treasure, something like a MTU 70 for $2 will make me buy it again… hey it’s a sickness but a fun one!
Edited by Steve Gumm on 24 May 2026 at 1:16am
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136214
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| Posted: 24 May 2026 at 10:18am | IP Logged | 4
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Ordering from an online service doesn’t count towards the “hunt”.
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Brian Hughes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 June 2015
Location: United States
Posts: 425
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| Posted: 24 May 2026 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | 5
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I really do not like buying online. There are just too many headaches involved. I am lucky enough to live in Fort Worth as the Dallas/Fort Worth area is home to the largest collection of comic book shops anywhere.
Yesterday, my son and I were on the hunt and found a true "hole in the wall" comic shop that opened it's doors for a weekend sale. I was lucky enough to complete my Elektra Assassin collection and my son found JB's West Coast Avengers White Vision action figure from 2021 for a nice price. It was a few rooms in an office building like the ones where you would go to see a specialist doctor. There were about ten fellow collctors there after the the shop opened and we all just dug through the well organized collection of about 150 long boxes.I made a few new friends along the way and even a few new listeners for the podcast.
There is nothing better thant the hunt sometimes.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136214
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| Posted: 24 May 2026 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | 6
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For me, “the Hunt” was a weekly experience. Backstory: I my part of Canada, growing up, comic distribution was truly abysmal. Not that I would have expressed it as such. I knew only that I could not be sure that a particular title being on sale at a store this week would necessarily mean it would be in the same store the next month. (For some reason I did not click on the idea that the books came out on a specific day. Mostly it would be a case of me wandering into a retail location—drugstore, newsstand, grocery store, even the train station—and finding new issues on display.) My hunt consisted of hopping on my bike and doing a wide circuit of the places I had found comics before. Due to the frequency of our moving from one place to another (close to annual) this grand route was in need of constant updating.
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Doug Centers
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 5792
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| Posted: 24 May 2026 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | 7
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Similar experience for me as JB, though I did know which day they came out on but for whatever reason the different drugstore's were sometimes spotty on the titles.I did have one goal when I went to my first and only comic convention as a youth. This was either '77 or '78 and I was determined to find a Daredevil with him in his original red/yellow uniform. I found a Daredevil #6 in great condition for the outrageous price of $7 (I only had $20 to start). Most I had ever spent on a comic and also the first comic I got in a bag.
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Peter Hicks
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 2127
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| Posted: 24 May 2026 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | 8
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I’m still hunting. I’m a completionist collector, trying to get all the major Marvel and DC titles from the Silver and Bronze Ages, in Near Mint condition. Sometimes I lower my condition standards to acquire a key issue for hundreds rather than thousands of dollars.
I had given up hope a longtime ago of ever owning Fantastic Four 48-50. Then about 2 years ago, someone on the CGC message boards offered a VG copy and I bought it. Maybe 8 months later, I was at the Silver Snail in Toronto and paid a lot of money to get a 49 in VF condition. Ok, I thought, but I will never land a copy of the much more expensive 48. Then last week on the Sunday of FCBD, I was at a store I rarely get to and they had a G copy, 20% off for FCBD weekend. Dreams do come true!
But now it’s on to FF46. I already had 47. It’s a story that rarely ends. Probably my most impressive run is Silver Age Green Lantern 1-89. But of course, that just leads to tracking down Showcase 22-24…
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