The guy at a con in Baltimore told me 'read the letters page first' and it changed how I buy back issues
I was digging through a $1 bin at a con in Baltimore back in March and this older guy next to me kept flipping to the back of every book before buying. I asked him why and he said 'read the letters page first, it tells you if the book had a moment.' I tried it on a stack of 12 books and ended up putting back 9 of them. He was right. The letters pages from the early 80s show you which issues fans were mad about, which means those are the ones people still talk about. Now I check the letters page on any book older than 1985 before I buy it. Does anyone else do this or am I the only one who learned this from a stranger in a folding chair?