I have been incredibly busy over the past month and when that happens, my desk gets messy. As I was cleaning up I realized a big part of the clutter is a stack of Action Comics I recently bought that I completely forgot about.
My wife doesn’t have a problem with my Action Comics, but she would prefer they not be sitting out for everyone to see. I guess they clash a little with the decor.
I had intended to stop paying attention to the deals on eBay, but a digital search through the comic book store has become one of the ways I take a 5 minute break from work. As part of figuring out the best way to refine my search, I stumbled upon a couple old series I couldn’t pass up.
I was originally just perusing through copies of issue #421. It’s the oldest comic of the series that I’m collecting that I don’t currently own. I found a great buy of the issue with a starting price of 99¢ and free shipping. One of my favorite crosschecks on a product is if the seller has anything else on my watch list to combine shipping. It didn’t matter so much on this one, but I found a nice copy of issue #429. So without really thinking about it, I stuck in a bid for $3 each. As I was just about to close up shop, but I decided to check one of my other saved searches looking for Action Comic sets. Before I knew it I had placed bids for two lots that pulled together issues 431 to 441.
I’ve really hit a groove in shopping on eBay. I bid early based on a maximum price that makes sense to me and then just let it ride. If I win, great. If not, well then it just cost more than I was willing to spend. As a result of this philosophy, I lost my bid for issue #421 which was the reason I got caught up in bidding in the first place. And I just barely won another bid with my max price. Although I will admit I increased my bid a little to make sure I won it to combine shipping with the other bid. To be fair the other bid was pricing out much lower than I expected so I consider it more of a defer of funds.
Which leads me to spiritual lesson learned on eBay #2: Know your price before you bid. Luke 14:28-29 says, Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you. saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.’” Jesus gives this parable as the importance of understanding what you’re committing to when you sign up to follow Him. One of the biggest lies on Sunday mornings is that Jesus is offering the “free” gift of salvation. The statement is correct in that salvation is free, but it hides the truth that becoming a follower of Christ does cost you something. Wanna sleep in Sunday morning? Sorry, God’s plan is for you to go to church. Remember all those fun sins you’ve got planned for the weekend? Yeah, it’s time to let those go if you’re going to truly follow Jesus. Before you fully commit to live as the Bible tells you to live, Jesus says to be sure to figure out what it will cost you. I whole-heartedly believe that the cost of following Jesus is far outweighed by the benefits of being in fellowship with God, but it’s important for you to know this before you commit.
Since I’ve been talking about how much I’m spending on comics, it seemed like a good idea to add an expense report page. Perhaps I need to figure out how much I’m willing to spend on this entire collection before I get too caught up in building my tower of Action Comics? Perhaps I'm too late. As part of these purchases, I acquired my 100th comic for the collection!