jimbo_7071

Maybe the memes that circulate on social media are today's equivalent of daily strips. (What a depressing thought!)

This is where I have to take issue. Why do you believe that coin and stamp collectors are any less emotionally attached to their collectibles? Our emotional attachment has a lot to do with childhood memories of buying comics off of the rack, taking them home and reading them, and so on. I would posit that many stamp and coin collectors also have an emotional attachment to their collectibles. What about the kid who spent his Saturday mornings sitting at his kitchen table with his grandfather—a grandfather who died long ago—sorting through piles of wheat pennies looking for the rare ones to fill up his coin books? You don't think that kid would have an emotional attachment to his hobby? What about the kid who went to stamp shows with his mom every weekend looking for the stamps he needed to fill up his stamp album and who ran to meet the mail carrier every day to see if any letters arrived with cool, new stamps? You don't think that kid would have an emotional attachment to his hobby? Whether comic collectors are attached to their comics isn't the question. The question is, what will the landscape look like when those collectors are ready to exit the hobby? The few comic collectors who started collecting and preserving back issues in the '40s, '50s, and early '60s—mostly Silent Generation guys and a few of the oldest Boomers—did exceptionally well because they enjoyed a very favorable climate when they exited the hobby. For every 20 Silents exiting the hobby in the '80s and '90s, there were probably 100 Boomers competing for their books. (I don't know the actual numbers, but I don't think I'm too far off.) Guys who held their books longer did even better because even though the hobby wasn't necessarily growing after the '90s, the prospective buyers continued to accumulate more wealth. You still have even wealthier Boomers buying books from each other, but those guys won't be in the hobby forever. If the Gen-Xers prove to be as good at accumulating wealth as their parents, then the hobby should remain healthy for a while, but you won't see a 5:1 ratio of buyers to sellers like you did a generation ago; you might see a 1:1 ratio. And what about 20–30 years from now? If you have 100,000 Gen-Xers exiting the hobby over a 10-year period, will you have 100,000 Millennials and Zoomers lining up to buy their books? I don't think so. Comic books weren't as important to those generations. They weren't riding their bikes to the corner store every day to see whether there were any cool new comics on the spinner rack. I'm sure there will be some passionate collectors—there will be some who adopted the hobby from their parents or who fell into collecting at a young age—but I don't think that the numbers will be there. Everything comes down to demographics. When I hear the argument that comic collectors are more passionate than other collectors, it harks back to the old mantra of "what I collect is cool, what you collect sucks." Other hobbies didn't experience a downturn because the collectors weren't passionate; they experienced a downturn because the numbers weren't there: there weren't enough younger collectors buying from the older collectors who were exiting the hobby.

Cow Puncher #1, from January of '47, has an ad that's very close to the chest pull ad but with different colors. You might try other Avon books from '46 and '47.

Are there any dates in the fine print? Someone posted a picture of the Chest Pull ad online saying it was from a 1947 comic (but he didn't say which one). https://www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog/tag/chest-expanders/ A different online seller has a non-comic version of that particular Schwinn ad listed and says that it dates to 1946. Bike Ad Link '46 and '47 weren't big years for keys, so those back covers may not go to anything too exciting.

Your girlfriend wants my number.

Inspiring original to shameless swipe.

Rip Carter to Rip Carson.

Reading through this thread, I found it amusing how many people said, "That could never happen to comics because . . . because . . . because comics are cooler than stamps!" (or some variation thereof). Comics could crash (or, more likely, slowly deflate); the question is the timeframe in which that would happen. I think we're safe for some time. Most devout collectors are Boomers and Gen-Xers. The older Boomers are slowly starting to exit the hobby in one way or another, but there are enough Gen-Xers in the hobby to keep it going for quite a while. We have some Millenials and Zoomers, but I don't think that collecting comics will ever be more than a niche hobby for those generations. Even if they get into the MCU or Batman, they will be more focused on the movies; the comics will be an afterthought. If they collect anything, it will be the things they grew up coveting: video games, athletic shoes, Pokémon cards, Lego kits . . . who knows what else. In recent years, you've seen Boomers become empty nesters with more discretionary income, access to 401Ks, etc., and comics have done very well largely thanks to that demographic. I think there could be a leveling off of prices as Boomers exit the hobby in larger numbers, but when Gen-Xers start to leave en masse, that's when you'll see the real "crash," in my opinion. I think that's about 20 years away—so if I'm right, comics will start to get cheap right around the time I'll likely be trying to divest myself of my collection (if I'm lucky enough to still be around).

Fritzi Ritz is apparently a hot commodity. You'd better snatch this one up before someone else does, Rick. It's on sale right now, so you can save a bundle. VINTAGE 1940 FIRST ISSUE COMIC BOOK FRITZY RITZ

I have a comic book that is in a very old slab. The comic can slide around easily within the inner well. (It can move a couple of millimeters side to side; I can't remember whether it can also move up and down.) It is a Cookeville copy, but I'm not really concerned about getting the pedigree label. I am concerned about whether the loose fit puts the book at risk of damage. I wouldn't want to send it to Sarasota, and I don't want to hand carry it to Sarasota. My question is, does CGC ever re-holder books at cons? I thought I read somewhere that re-holdering wasn't offered at cons, but that was a long time ago, so I wanted to check. This is the book in question:

Thanks. I asked because I'm trying to build a "cover artist type set"—one comic with a cover by each known GA cover artist—and I don't have an Ernie Bushmiller yet. (My list of artists needed is much, much longer than my list of artists already acquired, LOL.)

Violent, jealous female to violent, jealous female.

Do you know whether those are Ernie Bushmiller covers? I ask because it seems like his signature is prominently displayed on most of his covers (and because CGC didn't list any cover artist credit). They look like his work, but his style might not be terribly hard to imitate.

Burning through a wall to busting through a wall.

Fast internet has changed sniping. I thought I was sniping on this item back in 2001. I entered my bid 18 seconds before the auction ended! I was one second later than tbirdman11; he probably thought he was sniping, too. I would never bid that early now. Back then, though, waiting any longer would have meant running the risk that the bid wouldn't go through on time.

The feds have successfully prosecuted people for shill bidding on eBay. (Shill bidding in any online auction is wire fraud, which is a federal crime.) As for your package, how can you be certain that it was never mailed? Packages do get lost in the mail. Unless you had proof of a crime, the FBI may have decided that it was a civil matter. A case like this with multiple victims, evidence of deliberate fraud, and significant losses involved would no doubt get a higher priority that a situation involving a single package.

I posted this one on the CLink thread, but I guess I can post it here, too.

Bookend to bookend.

When I first started collecting, there were local conventions in my area (Detroit) every two or three weeks (the Encore-Cons and Xtrava-Cons). Now there are really no small cons, just the big ones a couple of times per year, and the cost of admission is obscene.

Like most people born into privilege . . .

I turned 1 in1975, so I wasn't too dialed in to the world of comic book back issues. Was Calvin Slobodian simply a collector who sold off a large early SA collection?

If you're looking to make a profit, you could divest yourself of traditional American comics and start buying the early/rare/important manga-style comics.

Ghoul on a Fool. Wimp in a Blimp Grope on a Slope.

A bigger problem is that movie audiences have grown weary of superhero movies in general. People are just sick of the genre. Movie-goers are ready for something new, but the studios haven't figured out what that is yet, so they're milking the superhero genre for every last penny that they can squeeze out of it. My prediction on the next big thing: manga turned into live action films where CGI is used to make all of the actors' faces look like manga/anime characters. Wait for it.

Best wishes for a speedy and full recovery!