A funny thing happened when I opened the package from Robert Bell containing the comic bags I ordered. There was a new updated price list from the one I received about 3 months earlier. Amazing Spider-Man #1 was now $40! It had doubled in value since the last list.
My response was different from the last list. Whereas then I thought it was crazy to spend $20 on ASM#1, this time my 10 year old brain shouted “I have got to get me one of these”!! I went over the list and made a list of Spidey and FF books. I can’t really remember the exact amount but it was over $200. Now I was working on my sisters tobacco farm doing limited odd jobs and I took this money and made a US money order and sent my list and hard earned money once again to this Robert Bell guy who seemed to have every comic book I wanted. And then I waited. And waited. I lived in rural Ontario and the mail was delivered to the roadside mailbox and I knew this package of 40 or more books was going to be way to big to fit in the mailbox and I was going to have to meet the delivery person at the road.
Now after a few anxious weeks of waiting, me and my buddy Simon decided to go to a country store in Glen Meyer that I saw had a spinner rack with a bunch of Spideys. Now this was at least a 12 mile bike ride one way and we pedaled our butts off. When we got there we spun the rack and checked out everything that was there and paired it down to a few books each that our pocket change would buy. This was one of my earliest adventures in collecting! I picked up ASM #4 first Sandman, #18 Spidey cowering behind a garbage can keeping out of sight of the Sandman, ASM #28, ASM #51 and #53, and all for 12 cents each!
The next Saturday I went on my own, cleaned the spinner rack out and asked the store owner if he had any more. It turned out that was it, and these books were his sons. I bet there was a time when his son thought to himself “I wonder what ever happened to my Spideys”?
But did the package ever arrive?!
Stay tuned ,for next weeks exciting episode….