For Tom Vencill, his interest in comics began in the mid-70s, when he was about 7 or 8 years old. He and a friend were very interested in toys called Micronauts, and there was a Marvel comic book series related to them. Pretty soon, his interest in comic books grew, and he started getting into other Marvel superheroes, such as X-Men, Hulk, Thor, Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Daredevil.

Today, Tom’s collection is comprised mainly of Silver and Bronze Age Marvel comics from the 60s and 70s. He isn’t as interested in modern storylines, as he finds the older ones more appealing. “Collecting fit my personality,” shares Tom, who started collecting items such as stamps and coins from a young age. “I enjoy getting complete runs of my favorite titles and filling in the missing holes in the stories.”

Tom has complete runs of several key Marvel titles through the 60s and 70s, such as Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Daredevil. He also owns many other key issues that are popular with Marvel comics fans. His favorite comic is X-Men #1, which he obtained from a friend when he was about 9 years old. “I pestered him to no end to get that!” shares Tom. “I bought it for $60 and it’s worth about $7,000 now.”

Tom’s core collection is about 2,500 books although 125 or so of the professionally graded key issues make up about 70% of the collection value.  Many of the comics that Tom has purchased have risen in their value. In 2003, he bought X-Men #4 for about $400, and today it’s going for $5,000. In 2009, he purchased Fantastic Four #1 for $1,600 and it’s now worth $15,000. In 2011, he purchased Fantastic Four #52, which contains the first appearance of the Black Panther, for $100. Today it’s selling for $2,300. “I was fortunate to get into a collecting hobby related to pop culture as the value of my collection has benefitted greatly from the superhero movies of the past 15 years.”

In addition to his Marvel superhero collection, Tom also has a subset of comics dedicated to horror stories and monsters, which interested him at a young age. This includes full runs of the Marvel titles Frankenstein, Tomb of Dracula, Man-Thing and Werewolf by Night, which were popular in the 70s after the Comics Code Authority lifted restrictions on monster themes in 1971. “Monsters always fascinated me so those fit right in!”

Tom’s collection is stored in a cedar closet in his home, with some of the most valuable books kept in a safe deposit box. Every issue is bagged and boarded and stored in comic boxes organized by title and issue number and he keeps a spreadsheet that has each issue noted with condition and estimated value.