Back in the dim past of 1991, I sold my complete collection of New Mutants. #'s 1-100, Annual's #1-7, Special #1, and Summer Spectacular #1. The only thing I kept was the original Graphic Novel (geez, I love[d] those oversized things). It was the first title that I had all of that ended (AF was still going strong[?] at that time). Even though it was being replaced with X-Force, I felt somehow...betrayed. I know it's not rational, and I am certainly not the first person to have a title they loved end (boy, am I preaching to the choir here!), but I still took it personally. I vowed to never collect X-Force (a promise I've kept until...well, I'll get to that in a minute), and sold my entire New Mutants collection (though, admittedly, I did need rent money at the time. I was 18 and out on my own for the first time!). At this time, #87 (first appearance of Cable) was red hot, and netted me like $80 by itself. Funny enough, #98 (first appearance of Deadpool and today perhaps the most overvalued comic ever [a copy sold a couple years ago for $12,000, and it's still hard to find a copy under a couple hundred today, even though there are literally hundreds of thousands of copies out there]) pretty much got me cover price.
A couple months ago, I was browsing at one of the local comic shops in town. They were having a buy one, get one free special, and I was looking for some reading material. I came across the first half-dozen of New Mutants pretty cheap. BOGO made them even cheaper. I picked them up for nostalgia's sake, thinking I wouldn't get any more of them.
Boy, was I wrong. After reading them, I decided that I wanted to rebuild my classic New Mutants collection. Local comic shops, online retailers, and eBay got me almost the entire series (except that aforementioned #98...I'll find a reprint or read a scan they have on YouTube) for relatively little. I thought I would stop there...
Until today. Today I was flipping through the 50 cent boxes at the same shop I picked up the first six issues of New Mutants, looking for any hidden treasures (I found a bunch of New Universe comics from the 80's I almost picked up) when I came across X-Force #'s 1 and 2. It tickled my funny bone a bit that #1 was one of those hugely over-speculated issues (like adjectiveless X-Men #1 that sold a million copies, and everyone thought was going to pay for their college edumacation or their first home with was 50 cents. Not only that, I came across probably 4 or 5 more copies of #1 (all still in their sealed polybag). Plus #2, the second appearance of Deadpool, was also only 50 cents. You'd think if the first appearance was worth $12,000 at one point, and was still worth hundreds today, that #2 would at least go for $10. I'm sure if I dug through more of the 50 cent boxes, I could probably come up with a pretty big chunk of those early issues, but I just got those first two issues...for $1.08 after tax.
So today I broke my 22-year vow to never buy an issue of X-Force. I feel a little ashamed, a little dirty, but a little smug that I got this overhyped and overspeculated comic for about as cheap as you can get. I haven't decided yet if I will continue to get the back issues of X-Force, but we'll see after I read them at some point. Anyway, I think I might hear some D.P.7 and Psi-Force calling my name for now.
Postscript: I know there are a bunch of Alpha Flight issues (early Byrne issues included) in those cheap boxes. Some might be in the dollar boxes, though.
