Slightly OT: What killed the stamp-collecting hobby?

[COI]

I've resigned myself to the eventual inevitable decline and disapearance of my hobby within 30 years, and thus, am only planning on pouring another 10,000.00 into it (roughly) over the next five to ten years, or, what I would spend on just about any hobby of any length of time, in order to have fun.

 

My thoughts exactly. All of my hobbies, whether buying comics, traveling, video games, drinking, courting young lady friends, 8-balls, or courting young lady friends WITH 8-balls, are a sunk cost.

[Flaming_Telepath]

I've resigned myself to the eventual inevitable decline and disapearance of my hobby within 30 years, and thus, am only planning on pouring another 10,000.00 into it (roughly) over the next five to ten years, or, what I would spend on just about any hobby of any length of time, in order to have fun.

 

My thoughts exactly. All of my hobbies, whether buying comics, traveling, video games, drinking, courting young lady friends, 8-balls, or courting young lady friends WITH 8-balls, are a sunk cost.

 

:o

 

At the very least, I hope you're the one in possession of the, er, eight balls.

[atomicknights]

re: My thoughts exactly. All of my hobbies, whether buying comics, traveling, video games, drinking, courting young lady friends, 8-balls, or courting young lady friends WITH 8-balls, are a sunk cost.

 

If you get caught with an 8-ball, you will do time in prison

[COI]

I've resigned myself to the eventual inevitable decline and disapearance of my hobby within 30 years, and thus, am only planning on pouring another 10,000.00 into it (roughly) over the next five to ten years, or, what I would spend on just about any hobby of any length of time, in order to have fun.

 

My thoughts exactly. All of my hobbies, whether buying comics, traveling, video games, drinking, courting young lady friends, 8-balls, or courting young lady friends WITH 8-balls, are a sunk cost.

 

:o

 

At the very least, I hope you're the one in possession of the, er, eight balls.

 

Can't get much past you.

[COI]

 

If you get caught with an 8-ball, you will do time in prison

 

I once sent 6 high grade books to CGC, and 3 came back restored. Everything has its own risks.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I once sent a girlfriend to the plastic surgeon, and she came back restored, too.

[catrick339]

Flipper, flipper, king of the sea.....

 

 

No no, that's Aquaman.

 

Flipper's faster than lightning. No one you see is smarter than he.

[mikephoen]

Your question was answered last year when Dark Knight did 1 billion at box office and modern comic sales of Batman were less then 50,000 monthly.

People went to the Batman movie in droves but it had no effect on comic sales.

 

 

Actually, just the trailer for Watchmen which first ran before Dark Knight sold more than a million copies of the Watchmen TPB. And then there were the sales of Killing Joke HC, Batman Year One TPB, DK Returns TBP, Arkham Asylum TPB, Joker HC, and all the other Batman TPBs.

 

Single issue comic sales are just a part of total comic sales. Will any of these new TPB readers ever get into collecting back issues? Some, although they will likely only want key issues or key time periods and wont collect whole runs. But that isnt much different than collectors now.

 

If CGC ever redesigns their holder, maybe they should put the label on the spine instead of the top. That way they could be displayed on a book shelf with the TPBs instead of in comic boxes.

[The Black Hand ®]

I predict that after I die, comic books will no longer matter to me.

[Ogami]

I've resigned myself to the eventual inevitable decline and disapearance of my hobby within 30 years, and thus, am only planning on pouring another 10,000.00 into it (roughly) over the next five to ten years, or, what I would spend on just about any hobby of any length of time, in order to have fun.

 

My thoughts exactly. All of my hobbies, whether buying comics, traveling, video games, drinking, courting young lady friends, 8-balls, or courting young lady friends WITH 8-balls, are a sunk cost.

 

(thumbs u

 

 

[slym2none]

 

If you get caught with an 8-ball, you will do time in prison

 

I once sent 6 high grade books to CGC, and 3 came back restored. Everything has its own risks.

 

That's beautiful, man...

 

 

 

 

-slym

[slym2none]

If CGC ever redesigns their holder, maybe they should put the label on the spine instead of the top. That way they could be displayed on a book shelf with the TPBs instead of in comic boxes.

 

Good idea... I like it!

 

 

 

-slym

[esquirecomics]

I was a very avid stamp collector in the 1970s and 1980s (until leaving for college). I used to attend stamp shows across Long Island and in NYC, and purchase mail order constantly. I remember bicycling to the post office every week in the late 1970s to go purchase the newest issues, plate books and mint sheets. I returned slightly to the hobby in the late 1990s and dabble occasionally currently. I attended a major show that was held in DC a couple of years ago.

 

I still own all my childhood collections, as well as my great-grandfather's Scott book that he put together around 1892.

 

From 1986 - 2005, every 3-5 years I would pick up a price guide and take a gander at the market and evaluate my collection. What was interesting is that I could track what I had written in the margins as the value back in whatever year versus the current one. Values continually stagnated throughout the 80s and 90s. Indeed, prices I had paid back in the late 1970s and early 1980s for high-grade early 20th century stamps were higher than the listed value years later. I'm not sure that even now they have caught up.

 

The one thing you really notice when you go to a stamp show is the age of the dealers and the collectors. They are old, simply put. There has not been an infusion of youth that has compared to comics. The energy is not the same as it used to be.

 

That said, there is still a decent stamp market from what I have been told by a colleague of mine who is a dealer. And the true indicator that there is money in the field, or at least a perception of things to come, is that Heritage Auctions recently re-entered the stamp market.

 

Regardless of the money, it is a fantastic hobby. I still enjoy looking through my collection, and that of course is what counts most. (thumbs u

[underthebigw]

My theory on the decline of stamp collecting, (and to a greater extent, postcards, and to a lesser extent, coins) is this.

 

Before long-distant travel became commonplace, these were relatively easy and inexpensive ways to vicariously "touch" distant areas of the earth. With the advent of affordable air travel for the masses, not to mention television, one needn't travel vicariously to other places through collecting stamps, postcards and coins that originate from there. One could simply turn on the TV or hop on a jet.

 

 

Yeah, that and the fact that they're boring (sorry, Mark). Even when I was a kid and collecting, that was painfully obvious. And I had a passion for history, which was the only real appeal to me.

 

The world has become a flashier place, and pop culture much more important to people and their values.

 

Stamps, and even coins, to a lesser degree, no longer hold the same importance they once did. Money will always be money, though, and will always hold a fascination. Stamps, not so much.

[kimik]

I think that there is an important lesson to be learned from the stamp, coin, and even GA comic markets: buy the high demand key (or in their case rare) items and you should do fine. The common/less desireable items will likely drop/not rise in value over the long run but the keys/high demand issues should still be collected.

[nmtg9]

Well how many of us have children who we can pass our comics onto? My kids have no interest in comics but love the movies.

 

Im sure most of us here would love our kids to have our collections when we pass away but what will they do with them? EBay probably. This will drive prices down as the people who are willing to buy them will be fewer and fewer.

 

If any of us live to 120 we might get some real bargains...

[benz]

I once sent a girlfriend to the plastic surgeon, and she came back restored, too.

[kidcolt]

I still collect sports cards and that hobby is far from dead. However the card companies (UD, Topps, ITG etc..) have flooded the market with GU and autographs making it less appealing for people to buy packs/boxes. On top of that these companies have priced the common collector out of the modern card game. When 5-8 card packs start selling for up to $500+ the and almost every decent box cost 100+ most people stopped buying especially when your return on these cards are so low. With the problems created by the flooding of the market less and less people are willing to take the chance at buying these expensive boxes. On another site I go to there are several thousand hard core sports collectors who spend a ton of cash on sports cards.

 

I am finding that a lot of collectors (especially older ones) have gone back to the basics, the grass roots so to speak. I am seeing a huge increase in people who are buying vintage cards especially rookies and working on older sets. Grading is also become a huge part of the hobby especially in the vintage section. There will always be people who collect shinny cards with autographs and game used material but the hobby is going through some drastic changes with a lot more to come.

 

On the card sites that I go to there is a huge amount of collectors who have switched from sports cards to non sports cards. There is a huge amount of people collecting Marvel sketch cards, autographs and movie/TV used material and James Bond, Lost stuff. I know of at least 15-20 former HUGE $$$ sports collectors who have stopped buying sports cards and started with non sport. There are a ton more who are talking about doing the same thing.

 

The best part about collecting comics compared to card and stamps is that you can always read and reread comics. Cards and stamps just sit there and really serve no purpose except to fill a collectors desire/complusion to own it. A lot of people collected more then 1 thing but due to the troubled economy and rising cost can now only afford to buy or collect one hobby. As I mentioned earlier I buy cards and comics but I am finding it hard to collect both. I have eased back and almost stopped collecting cards because I think the comic hobby offers me more bang for my buck. I can still watch and enjoy sports without the cards but its hard to enjoy comics without buying them.

[joe_collector]

What killed stamps?

 

The same thing that killed/maimed virtually every grass-roots, pop culture hobby - demographics.

 

The core generation of stamp collectors have long since passed their peak earning years and are now well into retirement (or are no longer with us) and the subsequent generations have not picked up the torch.

 

Right now, comics are hot simply because the 35-65 core age group is humming along, with enough disposable income to drive back issue prices to insane levels. Exposure to the characters through blockbuster movies help feed the illusion that the next generation will be ready to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy our moldy newsprint, but since new blood is virtually non-existent and modern comic unit sales are extremely low, and dropping (while cover prices spike to make up the difference), this is a pipe dream of epic proportions.

 

We all live and die, that's the way of the world, and it's the same for pop culture hobbies - what's ultra-hot today will not be hot for the next generations, as they'll want something to call their own, and that isn't already priced at the top end.

[joe_collector]

On top of that these companies have priced the common collector out of the modern card game.

 

The best part about collecting comics compared to card and stamps is that you can always read and reread comics. Cards and stamps just sit there and really serve no purpose except to fill a collectors desire/complusion to own it.

 

I find it quite amusing that you failed to see that a) Modern comics and b) the CGC market follow these EXACT trends.