The end of comic collecting (long)

[thedude]

very good post Matt, I, like you and most others here, can relate,. I think we all have our share of 80s/90s/2000s drek, fortunately for me though, I never got into any of the independent titles, I stuck with DC for the most part, I read the first few issues of Spawn like most, but it wasn't my bag baby, and I remember buying a trade with the first 10 or so SA Spider-man stories and enjoying it (still have it), plus I read Preacher and Alan Moore's Swamp thing, etc. but I kept coming back to Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. and I would pick up the occasional Wonder Woman issue.

 

and yes I have a few long boxes full of stuff that will never be worth anything, but I remember reading for the first time the death of Superman storyline and Bane breaking Batman's back, the Barry Allen returns Flash storyline plus many other arcs, some good, some bad, and I wouldn't trade those reading experiences, I recently made the switch from the monthly "floppy" to trades, only because I feel I enjoy the story better if I read it all in one sitting,.I mean they don't do that with movies do they ? 12 parts over a year ? maybe the Saturday afternoon serials did and the Kill Bill movies had a few months between them, but it's not commonplace.

 

 

You hit the nail on the head with your comments about eBay and the internet, it has shown us all just what is and what is not .... wait for it ,, the eBay buzz word "RARE", pre internet, your only options for books were local or mail order, I can remember when I thought that AF 15 was a rare book, it's still a very cool book, but not rare. and I'm not saying that only "rare" books should be collected, I think a person should collect whatever they want as long as they enjoy it, but there is something in all of us comic collectors that likes having something that most others do not, whether it's a New Adventures #26, or a white paged CGC 9.9 Batman #227. I mean, I'm not likely to post my "black bag of death" Superman #75 on here and expect anything other than ridicule..

 

lastly, as we've talked about before, I also had the "Superman-from the 30's to the 70's book" which opened up the world of GA books, and I LOVE collecting these books which I thought I'd never own. but I still enjoy reading new modern stories/takes on my favorite characters, whether that will be online or in the form of a TPB is yet to be seen but I know I will be reading them one way or another.

 

P.S. good luck with your future GA Superman purchases, but you may have some competition

[Subliminal]

Best thing to do is not to obsess over your collection because it just leads to an equal amount of disappointment.

Put the majority in a dark corner and forget about it for a decade or two.

And most importantly don't buy any modern, especially at ridiculous prices for minute differences in grade, unless you actually want to read it.

 

 

[lizards2]

I have a 4 shortbox limit on my collection.

 

In the last 7 years I've managed to keep my collection down to the same 12 short boxes

 

I was kind of feeling in awe of most of the big time collectors around here, and I'm really enjoying the opportunities that belonging to this website open up.

 

But......, I've got 200 plus short boxes (gave up on counting long ago) and probably add 4-6 short boxes per year. I think....., maybe......, I've got a 300 lb gorilla on my back....,

[eddly]

I'm going to ditch my entire comic collection on ebay in small lots over the next month or so. Most valuable comic is worth no more than $80 or so... so no major loss, mainly copper junk with a sprinkling of silver and bronze. Nothing to really PM me about. It is all replaceable, but sure... I won't be able to say "i bought this copy when i was 8 directly from the LCS" anymore... ah well.

 

I just scored a new job which starts this coming fall (ya.. next year) and we will likely be moving before I start. So... massive downsize on all my junk. This is after 7.5 years of school... sigh... why did I take so long... almost finished 4 years of premed, then I switch to accounting

[Subliminal]

Sounds like that accounting switch knocked some sense into you about what represents a quality comic collectible. (thumbs u

[MutantKeys]

I have a 4 shortbox limit on my collection. I too feel easily buried & owned by the stuff. I prefer to have just 2 shorts, but sometimes I spill over.

 

Would love to reduce my collection to 4 short boxes.

 

 

I've been feeling really buried & owned by all my stuff lately.

 

I have 1 slab box and 1 short box... both are half full.

[Fan4Fan]

I like long posts too. This thread is great.

 

 

When I was 10 or so, my dad got me that hardcover Superman collection "From the 30's to the 70's", and I obsessed over all the old covers. Now I mainly buy the issues from that book!

 

That makes a lot of sense to me. My favorite issue of Batman is #86 because it has two stories from Batman from the 30s to the 70s, plus a Joker story.

 

Those two books seem fairly influential...

 

While I am not a big DC fan, the only Batman story (Detective 395) and the first two Superman stories (Action 399, Superman 233) I purchased are from those. I still check them out from the library from time to time to see if there is any issues I want.

[The Black Hand ®]

I think GA and true SA will always be revered and collected. There may be a drop off when the boomers finally fade away, but there are a lot of youngsters on these boards who appreciate the older stuff. I do think reprints will be even bigger and the real books will be limited to the wealthier among us.

[NSPhillips]

But if everyone thinks recent books are too common and throws them away, they will eventually (decades from now) start to become rare. If Golden Age books were well-regarded in their time, more would have been saved in the first place. In theory, anyway...

[SuperBird]

But if everyone thinks recent books are too common and throws them away, they will eventually (decades from now) start to become rare. If Golden Age books were well-regarded in their time, more would have been saved in the first place. In theory, anyway...

 

In theory you're right. What I think will ruin the hypothesis is the now standard tactic of prescreening and slabbing hundreds of 9.8 books right out of the box. These books are very likely to be saved as is. I'm not sure what year companies started doing this, but I imagine the only ones worth collecting at all.

 

 

[SuperBird]

I have a 4 shortbox limit on my collection. I too feel easily buried & owned by the stuff. I prefer to have just 2 shorts, but sometimes I spill over.

 

Would love to reduce my collection to 4 short boxes.

 

 

I've been feeling really buried & owned by all my stuff lately.

 

I have 1 slab box and 1 short box... both are half full.

 

that's only because you had some kind of mental episode where you sold your entire collection in 1 night!

 

(although I like your new collection 1000x better)

[davidpg]

I've been collecting non-stop in some way since 1982. I even had a shop in the late 80s-early 90s.

 

Up until 2 years ago, I has somewhere over 15000 comics, half of which were all 90s stuff (I had read ALL of them). When my son was on the way (see my avatar ) I needed some space and I traded a solid half (26 long boxes, most not bagged and boarded) for 2 solid VG Golden Age Superman books (an Action Comics 86 and a Superman 43).

 

Why those 2 books? Well, I love all GA books and they just happened to have them in stock at my LCS and they wanted all my stuff. Let me tell you, I love those 2 books WAY more than I could have ever liked the crud I got rid of.

 

I still buy a few modern each month (only what I enjoy reading and I get a huge discount so it's a small investment), and the rest of my collecting goals revolve around price per book (value) rather than set goals. Now I'll buy cheap, low grade, interesting GA stuff at cons (whatever strikes my fancy) up to cheap HG BA stuff I happen upon.

 

I'm having a blast with it again!

[brasseye]

I think that even more than CGC, eBay and the internet has really transformed the hobby. It has made local scarcity- which used to be a main factor in value- nonexistant. I would actually venture to say that CGC is one of the main reasons comic collecting has survived and thrived the way it has since the internet revolution.

 

Now, instead of ALL the Punisher #1s (or insert any title here) being worth $1 each, 99.9% of them are worth $1, while .1% are worth $100. At least there's that .1%.

 

Very good point. The internet has rendered so many 'markets' a gloablly level playing field, we should be thanking CGC for securing some value, to portions of our collections, rather than them joining the global glut of unlimited ebay listings for all the same material.

[brasseye]

Having a further read through this thread, it seems everyone is guilty of the same thing.... thinking their books are worth something!

We all know post 1968 guys consdierably more anal, and serious about hoarding have emassed massive stockpiles of comics. And this trend has never ceased.

With millions of guys around the world have joined the bag&boardem brigade. And the only winners in that scenario are the guys selling the bags, and boards.

I recently moved, and came to the very sobering conclusion, that unless you have lots of space, and a very goldfish like memory, keeping backissues in pristine order in not remotely worth the outlay, time, and ongoing expense.

 

Todays comic's need to be treated like yesterdays comics. That is handed around, Swapped, traded, left on a train/bus etc. They should be 'diposable'....albeit with a disposable price tag (and here is where my rant falls down).

To try and reserve them in pristine condition for the next 15-25 years expecting a return is simply rediculous. And anyway, we all know some other daft fool will be doing it!

 

[eddly]

rediculous.

 

masking!

 

and yes I agree, I'm gonna clean house. i stopped buying moderns over 15 years ago... now to rid myself of all these copper comics I have.

[the blob]

Sorry, but I get tired of these doom and gloom threads sometimes. Copper and modern has been pretty dead for a long time, like almost 15 years, ebay or no ebay. If you get tired of some more modern/new segment of your collection, go ahead and get rid of it. Everything sells --- at the right price. What's the purpose of moaning and groaning here about not being able to get cover price when your re-sell mass produced and collected reading material? This isn't 1981 with 50 cent cover price comics and you could actually put long boxes of recent comics out at a show and sell them for cover price and maybe more. The issue that increases is going to be the rare exception. Ebay has made it too easy for people to sell their Sandman set and with 10 available at any given time for the world to buy, the price has been driven down. It has also gone up for some oddball stuff. I buy 50 cent or $1 books from local shops for which they don't have clientelle that are $5-$25 ebay books and I actually don't even know that much about a lot of these niche comics. Granted, the common stuff outweighs the oddball stuff by about 500:1.

 

Granted, I guess this is easy for me to say. My 80s and 90s dreck was largely bought out of 25 cent boxes. Half of my 2000s dreck was bought out of the 50 cent box. Admittedly, I probably have about 300-400 modern 2000s books I've paid a buck a pop for out of boredom at my local comic shops. All in all, I hope it's no more than 4 long boxes of this stuff left. I've probably given away to charity/sold in lots on ebay about 2 long boxes of it over the years.

[CAP Freak]

I've been collecting non-stop in some way since 1982. I even had a shop in the late 80s-early 90s.

 

Up until 2 years ago, I has somewhere over 15000 comics, half of which were all 90s stuff (I had read ALL of them). When my son was on the way (see my avatar ) I needed some space and I traded a solid half (26 long boxes, most not bagged and boarded) for 2 solid VG Golden Age Superman books (an Action Comics 86 and a Superman 43).

 

Why those 2 books? Well, I love all GA books and they just happened to have them in stock at my LCS and they wanted all my stuff. Let me tell you, I love those 2 books WAY more than I could have ever liked the crud I got rid of.

 

I still buy a few modern each month (only what I enjoy reading and I get a huge discount so it's a small investment), and the rest of my collecting goals revolve around price per book (value) rather than set goals. Now I'll buy cheap, low grade, interesting GA stuff at cons (whatever strikes my fancy) up to cheap HG BA stuff I happen upon.

 

I'm having a blast with it again!

Sounds like a great plan you went with.