NORMAL - Dan Nordyke owns over 200,000 comic books. "They're all over my house and the more expensive ones are in a storage unit that has a dehumidifier and air conditioner," he said.

Nordyke was looking through boxes of comic books at the Twin Cities Comic Convention on Sunday at the Signature Inn in Normal.

"I mostly buy key issues, which means they're either a first edition or a first appearance by a character," he said. "It's really all about what you like."

For Nordyke that includes Spiderman and the Teen Titans.

"I've always been into early Marvel beginnings," he said. "Teen Titans have always had a more realistic storyline, so that's one of the reasons I like them."

Convention organizer Alan Morton of Wyoming said he has seen people offer to buy the 1938 comic book where Superman first appears for over $100,000.

Morton said a lot of the comic books that came out during that era were lost because of the paper drives that were held during the war.

"People didn't know that if they would have just given it to their grandkids, they would now own something worth as much as a house," he said.

Josh Ash of Springfield said he just started collecting comic books again a few years ago.

"I had some when I was a kid, but they got torn up and ended up in the garbage," he said. "Now I take care of my stuff, though."

Ash said he collects mostly Batman and DC comics.

"The more rare the comic book, the better," he said. "And if it's popular and everybody wants it, it's more valuable too."