It's an inevitable part of a comic collector's personal history that when you reach college age you throw your collection away for a pittance as you either need the money or see the act of dumping your childhood treasures as a rite of passage.
Then comes the seller's remorse, the extended period away from the hobby (despite feeling the occasional need to go back to it) and finally, when you're more solvent and considerably older, the return. I didn't purchase or read a comic from the mid 80s to the early 90s. Not as long as your hiatus, but still a time when I never thought I'd get back into the hobby.
Glad I took that breather though, despite the opportunity to buy high grade silver during the 1980s lull.