Ridiculous obsessions

After literally years of trying, I was finally able to find and purchase the above Spider-Man 2099 action figure.  I'm not a big collector of action figures, per se; the reason I searched for this figure was because of the comic that comes packaged with it.

While I'm relieved to at last have this in my possession, there's a part of me that shakes his metaphysical head in disbelief.  The comic is nothing more than a reprint of the first issue of Spider-Man 2099; the only differences are the ads inside and the border - the red foil from the first edition is replaced by this more generic solid white.  The story is exactly the same.  Exactly!  And I have the first edition, along with the more recent reprint in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man Family.  But still, I had to hunt this edition down and pay for a figure that I'm ambivalent about just to get the afterthought packaged as a bonus.

By getting this issue, I only have one version of issue #35 to get (which introduced Venom 2099) - at that point, I'll have every issue of every 2099 series published.  I wonder if they'll give me a prize when I manage to get it.

What wouldn't I buy for 15 cents?

I'm currently living in Wilmington, NC, and for all its population growth, it continues to support only one comic book shop, so if there's a book out that I want to get (and don't want to wait for, as a shop near Pittsburgh still holds the majority of my books), I have one choice in the matter.

The comic shop in question is in the process of moving a few miles away to a smaller location, and as such they are having a string of sales which does keep me hanging around to see what I can find.  Recently they had a sale where you could fill up a decent-sized paper bag full of comics for ten bucks - as long as they fit in the bag, you got 'em for a total of one Alexander Hamilton.  So, of course, I took part in the madness.

I ended up scoring a total of 69 books, stuffing them into the bag to the breaking point, and in that total I managed to get some pretty good books - but there's only so many good books that you can find for 15-cents-or-so-per-book.  If you put anyone in a room with a random assortment of comic books and said "oh, pick 70 or so", they'd invariably find some great ones, but they'd eventually run out of books that they wanted and would resort to throwing some in the bag by the end of the day.

This was certainly the case with me.  I found:

1) Books that I was looking for (a few 2099 issues and a recent Daredevil storyline)

2) Books that I didn't know I was looking for until I found them (some old Star Trek back issues and a Flash "Planet DC" annual)

3) Books that were great deals (the Bone holiday special)

4) Books that I was somewhat interested in but wouldn't pay cover price for (Amazing Spider-Man Family #1)

5) Books that I was only interested in for 15 cents (Savage Dragon #1; DC/Milestone's Icon #1...both of which ended up being fairly good for their time)

6) Books that I had no interest in but grabbed because of the urgent need to fill up the bag (see the picture at top?)

As I returned home and examined the spoils of my ten dollar adventure, I started to wonder: why would I buy a copy of Quasar #1 for ANY cost if I didn't want it in the first place?  What was the POINT?!

Then it dawned on me: this is, I fully believe, what is responsible for at least a quarter of all comic book purchases made.  You buy it because...well, you're going to buy it!

I still haven't read the damn thing.