Between full-time work, part-time university, and trying to build a game 
Like I talked about way back in this post I have collected a great many books over the years. Lately have been slowly downsizing my collection. Still collecting specific things but running out of room and my space is shrinking every time I move homes. The biggest downsize is yet to come as we patiently await Japan to lessen their travel restrictions and intend to move to Tokyo sometime early next year.
As I wait, and when I find time, I'm slowly going through my remaining 3000+ comic books. Mostly trying to decide what I am going to sell and what I am going to try to keep and take with me.
I am a huge Iron Man fan. My biggest run of comic books is the main series Iron Man, which I had completed before stopping modern buying. So I have every issue of Iron Man from the first series up through the 600s somewhere. I stopped about a year or two after RiRi Williams came around.
Tales of Suspense has always been on my radar to collect. In fact, the first Silver Age book I ever bought was Tales of Suspense 94. I was really enjoying M.O.D.O.K. at the time. And found this at a local convention for $5 and it was in really good shape for such an old book! (At least in my opinion.)
Over the years I found better work, made more money, started mass buying comic books. But Tales of Suspense is a relatively rare series in general. Finding them for good prices has never been super easy. With the boom the last 5+ years, it has only gotten worse.
So I picked a few up here and there but my collection still only sits at 8 issues. Most of which are not that key. However, I knocked out the biggest of all about 5 years ago. When I picked up my only CGC book... I hate that purple label. I think someone used a black marker to fill in some of the black spots and that alone caused it to be 'restored'. I've always planned to break it out anyway. I don't like graded books. But until I have a better plan I figured I'd just leave it in there.
This is basically my 'grail' as collectors tend to put it. Not going to lie, since acquiring this, my desire to collect has actually significantly decreased. I feel like I accomplished my ultimate goal and there is a lot less to care about now. 😅 I definitely still love comic books though. If you read some of my other posts or comments, despite loving Iron Man (and Daredevil and some others...) my favorite comic books are actually 90s and early 2000s indie books. As a collector though... it is Silver Age Marvel that gets most of my attention. Something about the historical significance is a huge draw to me and those modern indies can come and go for change or be just as easily appreciated in digital form. Not even sure what I have left is going to make the final cuts as I start selling soon.
Anyway. To sum up the post. Tales of Suspense 39 was/is my grail. If I continue to collect any series, it will most likely be Tales of Suspense in general. There are so many high value keys though... will probably be a long uphill battle.
So what are you collecting? Will it remain in your permanent collection? What is your grail? Have you gotten it yet? If yes, has your collecting diminished since? If no, do you think it will?
Would love to hear from everyone! Thanks for reading!
