This is actually WHY I enjoy collecting Golden Age books. They were published decades before I was born and thus have the ability to transport me to a past that I only understand anecdotally. I suffer under no delusions that most, or even any, of the GA books I chase have any real literary merit, and the art is often terrible, at least on the interior. However, looking at a LB Cole sci-fi cover gives me a sense of nostalgia for a time I did not exist in.
On the flip side, I also collect TMNT stuff, mostly because it connects me more directly to my own childhood when there was nothing more important in the world than what was happening on that afternoon's episode of the cartoon series. I still remember seeing the trailer for the TMNT movie for the first time and I have never been more excited about anything before or since than I was in that very moment.