All of us are flawed, so I agree that following a person is not a good idea. As all of us are a sample size of 1, we see the world based on our experience. Our experience cannot be universally applied (different times, locations, and norms). Learning from other people's experiences is a good idea, but not following anyone blindly. I like the Royal Society's motto, 'Nullius in verba,' which means 'take nobody's word for it.' It is impossible to verify everything, but I verify the idea from multiple sources if it is something important to me. This is the same thing I tell my son: do not follow me or my experience blindly; I am a sample size of 1 with only limited exposure to the world. If it is something important to you, verify.
I concur: having multiple sources for the same conclusion is incredibly important. People often wonder why, for example, physicists can be so confident about something like the universe's expansion rate, but the fact is that they've gotten an identical answer with multiple methods, far too close to be coincidental. Good scientists do this, and we should be good scientists.
I still admire superheroes- I write stories about them, after all. But I dislike the pessimistic and shady ones and prefer ones that are more optimistic and comically flawed, which is how mine have come to be as well.
Of my real-life living heroes, Mel Brooks is tops. His whole career is a guide to participating in the best of popular culture in the 20th and 21st centuries- while, at the same time, being very uniquely and recognizably yourself. One does not become an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner doing things other people's ways. He cut his teeth in the cut-throat world of TV comedy writing in the 1950s, and all the television shows, films, and comic fictional characters are based on that same ethos. It wouldn't be much to say that his influence on my view of making comedy on and off screen owes much to him.
Mel Brooks is a national treasure here in the US, and even bigger than that, he belongs to the entire world. Like Monty Python, his singular genius did more for comedy than almost everyone else working at the time combined, and that's not an exaggeration.
Sound advice to learn from people you admire without having to emulate everything about them.
My issue with Batman is that he's always getting in the way of the protagonist of the series: The Joker. All the guy wants is to cheer people up but Batman always ruins everything. Also, pretty weird they named the entire comic after the villain.
My current real world heroes are the two wonderful men (and the neighbors that helped) in this story. I don't know any of them but my heart swelled with appreciation for their bravery and compassion. Per the clip, one is a boxer, there is a tie in to your story!
I look at human heroes much as I look at history--be inspired by the good, use the bad as cautionary tales, and never forget that human heroes are, well, human. This sounds very much like your approach.
Having loved fantasy when I was young, though I read my share of comic books, I was more drawn to literary figures like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've always been more of a sorcerer than a swordsman at heart.
As much as I loved Greek mythology, there's a distrust of magic of in it, at least among humans, so that few Greek men practice it. It's mostly left to women and foreigners--and more often than not, the ones who use it are portrayed as evil, or at least suspect. Orpheus is the one obvious exception, in that he uses music to create magical effects, yet he is also an honored member of the crew of the Argo, so he also adventures with the warriors. I wasn't musically inclined enough to be drawn to him until much later. His buddy Jason, whose name originally meant healer and who is shown in a surviving vase painting healing the blind Phineas, has lost this power in all surviving literary versions. What non-divine magic there is these versions is consigned to Medea, an ambivalent figure at best.
Interesting stuff. My partner (Alley) was super duper into Greek mythology as a kid, so I just ask her whenever I wonder something (my own upbringing did a decent but not great job with these old tales).
Magic is really cool! I loved wizards and stuff like that too, mostly manifesting by way of D&D games.
Fortunately for me my computer science heroes are just now dying off, so I wasn't stuck in 17th century mathematics, and I could put my learning to use right away.
A few of them, yes. I met Royler back in the late 90s, I think (could have been 2000 or even 2001), Royce, Roger, and probably half a dozen others. I've known Clark Gracie for more than 20 years, and he visits our gym every year or two.
Whose work in computer science have you most looked up to?
I'm familiar with about half of those names. I really enjoyed learning about early computer science, and it strikes me that folks who bridged the gap between how computers think and how we think are among the most important thinkers of the 20th century.
Well, I know people (colleagues, friends, etc.) who have something that makes them heroic. It’s an everyday kind of heroism. Plus, I’ve always admired historical figures like the Spartans of Thermopylae (my grandfather used to read their story to me all the time) and the Shimabara Rebellion rebels. They all fought knowing that they would lose, but they didn’t give up. And, about heroes from fiction, I’m re-reading Lord of the Rings just now, so I’d say Samwise Gamgee. :-)
Everyday folks are often among those whose traits I admire most, but of course I have to remind myself that it's the traits I admire, not necessarily the person as such. Kind of a weird distinction, but I think it's an important one.
Yeah. I see what you mean, and you “hit” a nerve with me. I have been on this a lot lately. I don’t know, I’m thinking about it after several “low blows” that have come my way. I’ll definitely keep your words in mind.
I sure don't have it all figured out at my end, but whenever a new framework has helped me deal with life better, you can bet I'll try to share that with you! Thanks for being here.
A very cathartic read indeed. I've had almost the same journey as you. There were several people I admired when I was young. But they fell apart like Jenga when I read more stuff about them. Now I also take to ideas. They transcend humans.
My heroes are writers here on Substack who take practical action in service to those who aren't as lucky as we are. Working together as a community we Substackers can, for just a few pennies a day, generate hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in charitable donations for good causes.
We can both reflect on the world in our articles, and make the world a better place too. Taking such action would not only be the right thing to do, it would be good for business as well. Check it out, almost all of the most successful companies have integrated public service projects in to their business model. We can do that too.
I too have learned the differences in an actual person with flaws, etc. and a character. Everyone has flaws, small or big ones. If you don't learn that, you'll constantly be let down. Every human being has flaws but that is just something that is overlooked at first and maybe always by some. *Shrugs* Anyway, I loved all of the Charmed characters. Although that's a bit different than what your post is about but not 100% different. I find some even more inspiring today due to the strength they have shown in their personal lives. There is Shannen Doherty who had the role of Prue Halliwell on Charmed. She was amazing in that role and has shown strength in life as well that I find truly inspiring. There's also Rose Mcgowan who had the role of Paige Matthews whose character interestingly enough replaced Prues character. Rose too has shown extreme strength in personal situations. I loved Catwoman and the many strong females who played that role are amazing. My two favourites are Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry. There is of course Wonder Woman. Although my favourite is by
Gal Gadot, I can't say that I actually knew alot about Wonder Woman before she played it. I don't think that enough awareness was made of strong leading females. I mainly loved Spiderman, Batman, Superman, etc. because they were the leading characters people created more awareness of. I was always more of a theatre nerd type but also absolutely loved some characters, etc. Anyway, great post! Thanks for sharing. I wish that everyone realised the people on screen playing the roles they have, are people. It would help many if they knew the differences. Thinking that they are perfect also has to put ALOT of pressure on these people. Yet in REALITY they are simply people. You can and should love them but it should be a different type of love. If not you aren't being truthful with yourself.
Good callout to Wonder Woman, too! I really appreciated Gal Godot's version, and I think she/they nailed it. I grew up with the Linda Carter show too, and loved it almost as much as the Hulk (in my defense, she didn't turn green due to radioactivity). Great superheroes!
Also: yes to Catwoman, although of course her character was complex and certainly more of an anti-hero.
I did love Gal Godot's version of Wonder Woman. It will NO DOUBT help children today know that they can too. It sounds like you knew a bit more than I ever did as far as comics. I'm more into abstract art, etc. I didn't really fully get into comics until I worked on cards but I was inspired by many of the stories in movies. I never saw that Linda Carter version.
You should see the cute little comic my friend made. He was one of the artists volunteering when I had my card group going. What a cute little comic... I'll take a picture to share with you. He was a complete sweetheart!
Moving on, as for CatWoman, I did see that story because I loved Batman. I always felt sorry for her in a way because she had been abused by guys so much, that is what turned her into CatWoman in the first place. She wasn't a man hater or anything but just a very hurt female. Unless I am wrong she also didn't actually try to hurt others who stood up for what's right. That being so again anti-hero is really not a good word for her character. I'm going to have to watch those again. I wouldn't call her an anti-hero because she did help other females but she didn't do so for the same reason as some other heros.
I mean anti-hero in the sense of not being a classical hero. Wolverine, the Punisher, and Batman (to a degree) are all anti-heroes. I think Catwoman is a lot like them, although perhaps she uses different tactics from time to time, and all three sort of blur that line of morality, showing how complicated the real world is. I love that about grey characters.
Heroes are good when kept in a box. My real life hero is Lacey Mosley, because in some ways, she is literally my hero. Her music got me through times when I was very suicidal because of her blunt honesty about her emotions, but also the ray of hope she sees in it. (A great example is the song "Much Like Falling". A thesis statement line in it may be "It feels so much like falling, separated from the fear, aware of a destination far away from here.") I adore her and will always love any song she's a part of. But if she came forward to endorse a politician... I don't care. Why would I expect a singer to be an expert in politics? When people cross that line and hang on every word someone says, it goes from hero admiration to hero worship, and that's where it becomes very problematic.
I have a few fictional heroes, but the biggest one may be Revan from Star Wars. (His existence is technically still hinted at in canon, but the specifics of his life were written before Disney took over, so some of this may have changed.) He was a powerful Jedi, but when the Mandalorians attacked the Republic and the Jedi Council decided to remain neutral, Revan lead a splinter group away from the Jedi to fight and defeat the Mandalorians. However, somewhere along the way, (which I won't spoil the details of,) he became corrupted by the Dark Side, and returned leading an army against the Republic in what was called the Jedi Civil War. But his apprentice turned on him, and while he was injured, the Jedi rewrote his memory to try to use him. Long complicated string of events later, with his memory back and full awareness of what the Jedi had done to him, he decided to protect the Jedi from another threat, but did so in a way that went against their teachings, and became the first (known) Force wielder to use both the Light and Dark Sides at the same time. He's my hero because he experienced the radicalism of both sides and then rejected both extremes, striving to carve his own path forward.
SPIDER-MAN! My namesake. While I loved lots of comics through the 80’s and 90’s, the other day I got a vintage Amazing Spider-Man lunchbox for my birthday and still it made me very happy. Andrew, I love it reading about your comic book era - takes me back. Maybe I’ll write about mine someday. When we moved I couldn’t take all my comic book boxes so I sold a bunch on eBay and that was a grand adventure. When I was little it was the superpowers that fascinated me. At night I’d pick one super power like say invisibility to imagine I had and that took me off to dreamland
It was all over the place. Overstreet wasn’t much help online and eBay hadn’t built out marketplace pricing like they have for cards now so I had to poke around to see what books were valuable. I sold a lot of Spider-man including a bunch of Todd Macfarlane covers, lots of X-Men including Jim Lee’s run, Frank Miller’s Daredevil and Spawn and … It was fun building up my seller cred and my final act was getting over a grand for a near perfect ASM #300 with Macfarlane art and Venom’s first appearance. I still have a box under my desk and once in awhile I open it up and pick out a book to browse. Oh and Wolverine - are you familiar with Sam Keith? His art was amazing and I have a giant poster of his framed in my office
We are from the same place! I did all that, too, and sold almost literally everything you just mentioned. I bet we crossed paths at some point. I was one of those early "power sellers" figuring out the game very early on. Most of my research also bypassed Overstreet, and one of my strong suits (IMHO) for selling older comics was not really to try to pin down a grade exactly, but instead to just show and tell exactly what condition the book was in. This seemed to work better for me, and I was even able to find a bunch of 50s comics including Archies and Dick Tracys for like a dollar apiece at a flea market. Now THAT was a score.
It was fun right! I did the same, stayed away from grading and posted a ton of pics. Setup a lil photo area with lights to get good ones. It was a big rush on that final ASM 300 auction. That felt like a good end. I didn't have Archie's but someone had given mea stack of Bronze Age (?) Conan's and even though they were in awful shape they sold - I think one was the first appearance of Red Sonja
Heck yeah. The thing about being a seller then was that there just weren't many of us, so it was actually a great time to sell (although of course it would have been cool to hold those for another 25 years and still have 'em today, I feel as though the value I got from selling them was instrumental in becoming an entrepreneur and eventual business owner). This was a really notable moment in my life, and I almost certainly will write a bunch more about it! Hope you do too.
You’re right, maybe I will. From a Tech POV, the thing that interested me at the time was how clunky eBay had become verus upcoming sites like StockX that sell collectibles similar to the stock market. That was interesting at the time also because … NFTs
All of us are flawed, so I agree that following a person is not a good idea. As all of us are a sample size of 1, we see the world based on our experience. Our experience cannot be universally applied (different times, locations, and norms). Learning from other people's experiences is a good idea, but not following anyone blindly. I like the Royal Society's motto, 'Nullius in verba,' which means 'take nobody's word for it.' It is impossible to verify everything, but I verify the idea from multiple sources if it is something important to me. This is the same thing I tell my son: do not follow me or my experience blindly; I am a sample size of 1 with only limited exposure to the world. If it is something important to you, verify.
I concur: having multiple sources for the same conclusion is incredibly important. People often wonder why, for example, physicists can be so confident about something like the universe's expansion rate, but the fact is that they've gotten an identical answer with multiple methods, far too close to be coincidental. Good scientists do this, and we should be good scientists.
I still admire superheroes- I write stories about them, after all. But I dislike the pessimistic and shady ones and prefer ones that are more optimistic and comically flawed, which is how mine have come to be as well.
Of my real-life living heroes, Mel Brooks is tops. His whole career is a guide to participating in the best of popular culture in the 20th and 21st centuries- while, at the same time, being very uniquely and recognizably yourself. One does not become an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner doing things other people's ways. He cut his teeth in the cut-throat world of TV comedy writing in the 1950s, and all the television shows, films, and comic fictional characters are based on that same ethos. It wouldn't be much to say that his influence on my view of making comedy on and off screen owes much to him.
Mel Brooks is a national treasure here in the US, and even bigger than that, he belongs to the entire world. Like Monty Python, his singular genius did more for comedy than almost everyone else working at the time combined, and that's not an exaggeration.
I guess you know our dog is named Dink-Dink.
Sound advice to learn from people you admire without having to emulate everything about them.
My issue with Batman is that he's always getting in the way of the protagonist of the series: The Joker. All the guy wants is to cheer people up but Batman always ruins everything. Also, pretty weird they named the entire comic after the villain.
You could always start a spin-off page called "AI Joker."
My current real world heroes are the two wonderful men (and the neighbors that helped) in this story. I don't know any of them but my heart swelled with appreciation for their bravery and compassion. Per the clip, one is a boxer, there is a tie in to your story!
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/roseville-men-save-horses-fire/
I look at human heroes much as I look at history--be inspired by the good, use the bad as cautionary tales, and never forget that human heroes are, well, human. This sounds very much like your approach.
Having loved fantasy when I was young, though I read my share of comic books, I was more drawn to literary figures like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've always been more of a sorcerer than a swordsman at heart.
As much as I loved Greek mythology, there's a distrust of magic of in it, at least among humans, so that few Greek men practice it. It's mostly left to women and foreigners--and more often than not, the ones who use it are portrayed as evil, or at least suspect. Orpheus is the one obvious exception, in that he uses music to create magical effects, yet he is also an honored member of the crew of the Argo, so he also adventures with the warriors. I wasn't musically inclined enough to be drawn to him until much later. His buddy Jason, whose name originally meant healer and who is shown in a surviving vase painting healing the blind Phineas, has lost this power in all surviving literary versions. What non-divine magic there is these versions is consigned to Medea, an ambivalent figure at best.
Interesting stuff. My partner (Alley) was super duper into Greek mythology as a kid, so I just ask her whenever I wonder something (my own upbringing did a decent but not great job with these old tales).
Magic is really cool! I loved wizards and stuff like that too, mostly manifesting by way of D&D games.
Fortunately for me my computer science heroes are just now dying off, so I wasn't stuck in 17th century mathematics, and I could put my learning to use right away.
So did you meet one of the Gracies from Brazil?
A few of them, yes. I met Royler back in the late 90s, I think (could have been 2000 or even 2001), Royce, Roger, and probably half a dozen others. I've known Clark Gracie for more than 20 years, and he visits our gym every year or two.
Whose work in computer science have you most looked up to?
A bunch from AT&T Bell Labs where UNIX and many other innovations happened that I appreciate and have for decades now.
Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan
Then:
The AI conference at Dartmouth 1959 has some AI heroes: John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Norbert Weiner
Complex systems research: Wolfram, Mandelbrot, Sante Fe Institute researchers
Many more but I think I've hit some highlights from memory.
Of course, I've always been fascinated by "mavericks."
Meeting some of the Gracies must have been a real treat. They are legenday!
I'm familiar with about half of those names. I really enjoyed learning about early computer science, and it strikes me that folks who bridged the gap between how computers think and how we think are among the most important thinkers of the 20th century.
Speaking of Bell Labs, have you already seen my gushes over that place? https://goatfury.substack.com/p/everything-was-invented-here
What an incredible time and place.
Right, I marked that one as a favorite when I read it. Damn, you seem to have a lot of interests matching mine. This is a good thing, :-)
Great minds something something!
https://www.bell-labs.com/about/history/
Well, I know people (colleagues, friends, etc.) who have something that makes them heroic. It’s an everyday kind of heroism. Plus, I’ve always admired historical figures like the Spartans of Thermopylae (my grandfather used to read their story to me all the time) and the Shimabara Rebellion rebels. They all fought knowing that they would lose, but they didn’t give up. And, about heroes from fiction, I’m re-reading Lord of the Rings just now, so I’d say Samwise Gamgee. :-)
Everyday folks are often among those whose traits I admire most, but of course I have to remind myself that it's the traits I admire, not necessarily the person as such. Kind of a weird distinction, but I think it's an important one.
Yeah. I see what you mean, and you “hit” a nerve with me. I have been on this a lot lately. I don’t know, I’m thinking about it after several “low blows” that have come my way. I’ll definitely keep your words in mind.
I sure don't have it all figured out at my end, but whenever a new framework has helped me deal with life better, you can bet I'll try to share that with you! Thanks for being here.
Thanks to you ;-)
A very cathartic read indeed. I've had almost the same journey as you. There were several people I admired when I was young. But they fell apart like Jenga when I read more stuff about them. Now I also take to ideas. They transcend humans.
This is the way!
My heroes are writers here on Substack who take practical action in service to those who aren't as lucky as we are. Working together as a community we Substackers can, for just a few pennies a day, generate hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in charitable donations for good causes.
We can both reflect on the world in our articles, and make the world a better place too. Taking such action would not only be the right thing to do, it would be good for business as well. Check it out, almost all of the most successful companies have integrated public service projects in to their business model. We can do that too.
https://writers-as-heroes.org/p/the-charitable-works-of-well-known
Van Gogh. My real life hero. Despite the flaws. Same with Cristiano Ronaldo. And many others. Though I understand that they're no perfect.
Yes! Please don't cut off your ear, though.
I too have learned the differences in an actual person with flaws, etc. and a character. Everyone has flaws, small or big ones. If you don't learn that, you'll constantly be let down. Every human being has flaws but that is just something that is overlooked at first and maybe always by some. *Shrugs* Anyway, I loved all of the Charmed characters. Although that's a bit different than what your post is about but not 100% different. I find some even more inspiring today due to the strength they have shown in their personal lives. There is Shannen Doherty who had the role of Prue Halliwell on Charmed. She was amazing in that role and has shown strength in life as well that I find truly inspiring. There's also Rose Mcgowan who had the role of Paige Matthews whose character interestingly enough replaced Prues character. Rose too has shown extreme strength in personal situations. I loved Catwoman and the many strong females who played that role are amazing. My two favourites are Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry. There is of course Wonder Woman. Although my favourite is by
Gal Gadot, I can't say that I actually knew alot about Wonder Woman before she played it. I don't think that enough awareness was made of strong leading females. I mainly loved Spiderman, Batman, Superman, etc. because they were the leading characters people created more awareness of. I was always more of a theatre nerd type but also absolutely loved some characters, etc. Anyway, great post! Thanks for sharing. I wish that everyone realised the people on screen playing the roles they have, are people. It would help many if they knew the differences. Thinking that they are perfect also has to put ALOT of pressure on these people. Yet in REALITY they are simply people. You can and should love them but it should be a different type of love. If not you aren't being truthful with yourself.
Good callout to Wonder Woman, too! I really appreciated Gal Godot's version, and I think she/they nailed it. I grew up with the Linda Carter show too, and loved it almost as much as the Hulk (in my defense, she didn't turn green due to radioactivity). Great superheroes!
Also: yes to Catwoman, although of course her character was complex and certainly more of an anti-hero.
I did love Gal Godot's version of Wonder Woman. It will NO DOUBT help children today know that they can too. It sounds like you knew a bit more than I ever did as far as comics. I'm more into abstract art, etc. I didn't really fully get into comics until I worked on cards but I was inspired by many of the stories in movies. I never saw that Linda Carter version.
You should see the cute little comic my friend made. He was one of the artists volunteering when I had my card group going. What a cute little comic... I'll take a picture to share with you. He was a complete sweetheart!
Moving on, as for CatWoman, I did see that story because I loved Batman. I always felt sorry for her in a way because she had been abused by guys so much, that is what turned her into CatWoman in the first place. She wasn't a man hater or anything but just a very hurt female. Unless I am wrong she also didn't actually try to hurt others who stood up for what's right. That being so again anti-hero is really not a good word for her character. I'm going to have to watch those again. I wouldn't call her an anti-hero because she did help other females but she didn't do so for the same reason as some other heros.
I mean anti-hero in the sense of not being a classical hero. Wolverine, the Punisher, and Batman (to a degree) are all anti-heroes. I think Catwoman is a lot like them, although perhaps she uses different tactics from time to time, and all three sort of blur that line of morality, showing how complicated the real world is. I love that about grey characters.
Heroes are good when kept in a box. My real life hero is Lacey Mosley, because in some ways, she is literally my hero. Her music got me through times when I was very suicidal because of her blunt honesty about her emotions, but also the ray of hope she sees in it. (A great example is the song "Much Like Falling". A thesis statement line in it may be "It feels so much like falling, separated from the fear, aware of a destination far away from here.") I adore her and will always love any song she's a part of. But if she came forward to endorse a politician... I don't care. Why would I expect a singer to be an expert in politics? When people cross that line and hang on every word someone says, it goes from hero admiration to hero worship, and that's where it becomes very problematic.
I have a few fictional heroes, but the biggest one may be Revan from Star Wars. (His existence is technically still hinted at in canon, but the specifics of his life were written before Disney took over, so some of this may have changed.) He was a powerful Jedi, but when the Mandalorians attacked the Republic and the Jedi Council decided to remain neutral, Revan lead a splinter group away from the Jedi to fight and defeat the Mandalorians. However, somewhere along the way, (which I won't spoil the details of,) he became corrupted by the Dark Side, and returned leading an army against the Republic in what was called the Jedi Civil War. But his apprentice turned on him, and while he was injured, the Jedi rewrote his memory to try to use him. Long complicated string of events later, with his memory back and full awareness of what the Jedi had done to him, he decided to protect the Jedi from another threat, but did so in a way that went against their teachings, and became the first (known) Force wielder to use both the Light and Dark Sides at the same time. He's my hero because he experienced the radicalism of both sides and then rejected both extremes, striving to carve his own path forward.
SPIDER-MAN! My namesake. While I loved lots of comics through the 80’s and 90’s, the other day I got a vintage Amazing Spider-Man lunchbox for my birthday and still it made me very happy. Andrew, I love it reading about your comic book era - takes me back. Maybe I’ll write about mine someday. When we moved I couldn’t take all my comic book boxes so I sold a bunch on eBay and that was a grand adventure. When I was little it was the superpowers that fascinated me. At night I’d pick one super power like say invisibility to imagine I had and that took me off to dreamland
Hey neat! Sniderman, Sniderman... does whatever Spiderman can?
What sort of stuff did you unload on eBay? I think around 1998 or 99, I dumped all sorts of bronze age classics (and modern stuff) into the aether.
It was all over the place. Overstreet wasn’t much help online and eBay hadn’t built out marketplace pricing like they have for cards now so I had to poke around to see what books were valuable. I sold a lot of Spider-man including a bunch of Todd Macfarlane covers, lots of X-Men including Jim Lee’s run, Frank Miller’s Daredevil and Spawn and … It was fun building up my seller cred and my final act was getting over a grand for a near perfect ASM #300 with Macfarlane art and Venom’s first appearance. I still have a box under my desk and once in awhile I open it up and pick out a book to browse. Oh and Wolverine - are you familiar with Sam Keith? His art was amazing and I have a giant poster of his framed in my office
We are from the same place! I did all that, too, and sold almost literally everything you just mentioned. I bet we crossed paths at some point. I was one of those early "power sellers" figuring out the game very early on. Most of my research also bypassed Overstreet, and one of my strong suits (IMHO) for selling older comics was not really to try to pin down a grade exactly, but instead to just show and tell exactly what condition the book was in. This seemed to work better for me, and I was even able to find a bunch of 50s comics including Archies and Dick Tracys for like a dollar apiece at a flea market. Now THAT was a score.
It was fun right! I did the same, stayed away from grading and posted a ton of pics. Setup a lil photo area with lights to get good ones. It was a big rush on that final ASM 300 auction. That felt like a good end. I didn't have Archie's but someone had given mea stack of Bronze Age (?) Conan's and even though they were in awful shape they sold - I think one was the first appearance of Red Sonja
Heck yeah. The thing about being a seller then was that there just weren't many of us, so it was actually a great time to sell (although of course it would have been cool to hold those for another 25 years and still have 'em today, I feel as though the value I got from selling them was instrumental in becoming an entrepreneur and eventual business owner). This was a really notable moment in my life, and I almost certainly will write a bunch more about it! Hope you do too.
You’re right, maybe I will. From a Tech POV, the thing that interested me at the time was how clunky eBay had become verus upcoming sites like StockX that sell collectibles similar to the stock market. That was interesting at the time also because … NFTs
Perfection embraces imperfection…