Puff’s Secret Stash: The Search For Amazing Spider-Man 129

As you know, I have a HUGE comic book collector. I got books ranging from Golden Age - Current. Some of them are pretty high dollar (Iron Man 1), some are just crap I like (the entire run of Howard the Duck), but I love it and it is what I do in my past time (much to my girlfriend's chagrin). But as far as my collection goes, there are only 2 Holy Grail books that I need in my collection: Amazing Spider-Man 129 and Daredevil 1. And this week, I finally get to check off one the boxes I've been waiting to check for a long, long time. 

To give you a little background, growing up I loved comic books but hated superheros. I wasn't into guys that had 'superpowers'. I could never get my heard around why Superman had all this strength and ability, but he always decided to pussy foot around the bad guy instead of just tearing him a new one and moving on. Didn't make any sense to me.

So, I fell in love with the Street level heroes like Daredevil and the Punisher. The guys that were just dudes that kicked ass. I have several long boxes in my collection of nothing but Daredevil and Punisher. My Daredevil collection is pretty stacked, but in my Punisher collection I have every single key issue ever published, but one...his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man 129.

And I've been searching for this book for YEARS! I've been to conventions, stores, online...everywhere I can think of. With that said, I've run into many copies that were either over priced or in just god awful shape and not worth having. But this week, I had a break major.

I was in Excalbur talking with Randy about the Daredevil TV show and expressing how badly I want them to do a Punisher show. And at that very moment, the sky parted and the birds sang and Heaven came down to earth.

Owner Chris, who was working on something in the back, came out and said, 'I forgot you were a big Punisher guy. I just got a copy of Amazing Spider-Man 129 in.' He hadn't processed it yet, but would get with me when he got it priced and all.

Well, I got a text from Randy with price, pictures, the whole 9...and not only is it a GREAT looking book, but it's for an amazing price! It's waiting in my box to get picked up as we speak. So, I just need to say how awesome the guys at Excalibur are. I know they are a sponsor of me and my show, but I was going in there long before they sponsored me and I'm sure I'll be going in there long after. It's one of the many reason why I love Excalibur, they go above and beyond for their customers. They track down all the books I want. Hell, they even set aside things I might be interested in.

And this just so happened to be the PERFECT time to add this to the collection. This book and the Punisher both turned 40 a couple of weeks ago. And finally, street level guys like Punisher and Daredevil are getting their due and people are falling back in love with them.