And I can give you a great example.
We've been setting up at the Calgary Expo for 10 years. We were the first guys to bring CGC graded books to that show. It was tough to sell them and most people didn't want them or would ask what the dingo they were. Then Stan Lee came to town and signed thousands of books over the weekend and most were sent on to CGC via Desert Wind. That introduced graded comics to thousands of people, some long time collectors, some occasional collectors and certainly many who'd never bought a comic before but wanted a piece of Stan Lee who is essentially this centuries Shakespeare. I had guys coming to my booth asking for something Stan Lee worked on, they had no idea what and I'd start showing them covers until one caught their imagination.
Some of those guys picking up their first graded comic will probably never buy another comic but I'm sure some got Mcfarlene to sign this year or whomever last year. And some will get drawn into the hobby and buy more.
Agreed. I have been doing local shows since I was in university in the late 1990s. There has been two large noticeable collector influxes in Alberta, especially over the past decade: 1) people in their late 30s through early 50s that have good disposable income levels and have come back into collecting and 2) an even larger cohort of young men and women in the 18 - 25 age range that have started to collect over the past decade due to the movies/tv shows, and, especially with female readers/collectors, the DC New 52 relaunch and 2012 Image successes (e.g. Saga). The interesting thing is that there are a ton of young collectors that are chasing keys/1st apps now, rather than dollar bin diving or chasing the latest hot modern. Back when I started doing shows, the only people really buying the old stuff were other sellers/dealers and old fart collectors like thehumantorch, Artboy99, piper and 500club.