So I ran a little survey in my shop...

[lighthouse]

Actually one of my employees ran it, as a project for her statistics class...

 

I can post a bunch of the meaningless numbers for people to stare at later, but I thought three numbers might turn a few heads here...

 

First the background, since some of you will care when you try to argue sampling bias. Survey was taken by 113 customers. Customers were compensated with a free comic book for participation. Everyone who made a purchase of a new book over a period of a few days was asked to participate. Of the people asked to participate, 86% agreed to do so. 85% of males agreed, 88% of females agreed. 77 males and 36 females completed the survey. The survey was 10 questions long. Median age of participants was 29 yrs. Mean age of participants was 31.4 years.

 

The three statistics likely to turn some heads:

[*] How old were you when you read your first comic book? --- Median Age 9 yrs[*] How old were you when you started reading comics regularly? --- Median Age 19 yrs[*] What year was that? --- Median answer 1995

 

Half the people currently buying new books in my shop started reading them regularly AFTER 1995. And despite the fact that they were introduced to comics at an early age, they didn't start reading them regularly until they were already out of high school.

 

I have long questioned the belief that we have to hook kids on comics early to make them lifelong collectors. But the answers we got in this survey surprised even me.

[Rickdogg]

Not hard to believe. I would fall into the same boat as far as the ages are concerned

[joe_collector]

Medians could mean just about anything, but what are the true Averages?

 

I really can't believe 1995 would stand up as an average.

[awe4one]

It is surprising....but the question is really....how often did they read comics as kid? They could be answering that they started to buy comics regularly once they earned and had their own money to spend.....

 

Some people might not think they read and bought regularly until they solely did so on their own......

 

Jim

[Aces]

 

Much different than me.

 

First comic: about 1970 when I was 5.

Reading regular: sometime in 1972 when I was 7.

 

Stopped buying new off the rack around ASM 200 (1980?)

Stopped collecting back issues at all for about 7 years: 1985-1992

Got back into clollecting very strongly in the later 1990s especially when eBay came around.

[ericc123]

I'm with Rickdogg I fall into that survey give or take a year or two.

 

Eric

[goldust40]

Started collecting in '73 when I was 10 and was reading DCs (and later Marvels) almost immediately. Have always bought new comics (even now) but had similar experience to Aces in that I completely stopped collecting between 1985 and 1992, and got back into the hobby (and later, a business) in a more dedicated way in the mid 90s.

 

I still wish I'd continued collecting between '85 and '92 - I got back into the hobby not long after the Silver Age boom of '89/90.

[Darthdiesel]

The three statistics likely to turn some heads:

 

How old were you when you read your first comic book? --- Median Age 9 yrs

 

I'm surprised since the state of American literacy is so deplorable that most

folks would probably have to be older to acheive a level of literacy high enough to even read, much less comprehend, a comic book.

 

How old were you when you started reading comics regularly? --- Median Age 19 yrs

 

I was 8 years old. By the time puberty hit, there was no time for reading schoolbooks much less comics books. All my reading was reserved for the latest porn mag, or some of my dad's old 70's stuff - just as nice : thumbsup: Actually I was 25 when I started reading regularly again and have been at it now for 4 years straight

 

What year was that? --- Median answer 1995

 

1982 started reading regularly; 1988 stopped; 1999 started regularly again...

[lighthouse]

Medians could mean just about anything, but what are the true Averages?

 

I really can't believe 1995 would stand up as an average.

 

No, the median means something very specific here... Half of all the people who answered the survey started reading comics regularly after 1995.

 

As I say, I can break down the data more and start boring people to death, but of the 113 people who answered the survey, 53 of them started reading them regularly in 1996 or later, 51 people started reading them in 1994 or earlier, and 9 specifically started in 1995...

 

Our group of forum members often forgets that they are far from the statistical norm when it comes to comic collectors... And remember, by their own admissions, over half the people here do not buy new comics at all.

 

The thing that struck me from the data, and the point I was bringing up in the post, is that the people actually buying new comics today do not fit with the profile that many here assign to them. We make assumptions about the impending death of the industry based on our own life experiences and the fact that so few people today are following the same path we did. The reality is that there are a lot of paths that lead becoming a serious collector, and for many of the people today, reading comics at age 10 wasn't a prerequisite...

 

Marvel and DC may not be as far off base as we think. Yes, they seem to have abandoned the children's market (Gus Beezer and the like notwithstanding). But the children's market may not be relevant in developing new comic fans. Almost 20% of the people from our survey didn't read their first comic until high school or later. But the material they found waiting for them was compelling and they started reading comics...

 

Is a 22-year-old more likely to enjoy 100 Bullets because he read Richie Rich as a kid? I doubt it... The skatepunks who love Jhonen Vasquez sure don't seem to care about Casper and Scooby Doo... And I guarantee you I have an easier time selling Strangers in Paradise to a woman in her mid-30s if she didn't read comics as a kid than if she did...

[Freiherr]

I was 18 or 19 when I first started buying comics. It had nothing to do with having my own money then because I worked part-time during school months and full time during the summer since I was 11. I worked for my grandfather and was paid a real wage.

 

My grandfather was an independent vendor and we made deliveries to 10-30 locations a day. Many of these places would have comic racks and I remember glancing at them from time to time. I was intrigued by the covers, but never bought any. When I was older (around 16), I picked up Robin #1 at a store, but thought the story was lame.

 

I never really thought about it, but I only recall seeing one child (with his father) in a comic shop. That is years worth of visits once and sometimes two times a week. I am willing to bet that most kids pickup their comics at retail and grocery newsstands like I did. The first comic I ever bought (Transformers) came from a pharmacy newsstand. I was shopping with my mother and she was happy to buy any type of book that I wanted to read.

 

[delekkerste]

There is a major sampling flaw in this survey that might not be obvious to everyone - it has tremendous "survivorship bias" - what's missing in the data is the fact that overall volume of customer traffic for all ages, particularly youngsters, has plummeted in the last decade (MH Chuck is always citing some statistic about how many shops have closed since then...I think it's 4 out of 5). The survey only samples people still going to comic shops (forget for the moment that we're only talking about one particular shop), and these people very well may have started reading later in life. Not that this is even firmly established - the survey also said the average participant first read a comic book at age 9, so one could argue that early influences lead to later participation in the hobby (or, conversely, if today's kids are not getting exposed at an early age, they won't necessarily become regular readers/collectors when they hit their late teens/early 20s). Furthermore, the fact that the median age of the survey participants was nearly 30 years old was a bit scary...even if they started picking up comics in their late teens/early 20s, I question whether new readers in that age demographic will be coming on board in sufficient numbers to keep the hobby from slowly declining.

 

Gene

[Rickdogg]

Give every child in sight a comic book!

[joe_collector]

No, the median means something very specific here... Half of all the people who answered the survey started reading comics regularly after 1995.

 

I see your point on the Year People Started Reading Regularly, but certainly not on the other data, especially ages.

 

If I walk into a room, and there are 12 babies and 13 guys aged 102, the median age of 102 tells me absolutely nothing about the demographics of the room.

 

"Wow, must have been a pile of old codgers in there" would be the assumption, which is far from the reality.

 

Average, Mean, Median, etc. would all be needed to figure out most statistics, otherwise you will have erroneous assumptions.

[lighthouse]

Gene, I am well aware of the limitations of the survey sample...

 

The one thing that struck me that I didn't mention yet, because it's difficult to explain without boring people to death, is that it seemed as though the comic industry did its worst job of hooking new readers from 1988-1993.

 

There were plenty of people responding from time periods both before and after. But those six years were the lowest six-year-total from 1977 to 2003. Knowing what I know about the store counts and print runs during the time period, I have a very difficult time assigning causation. It could be that the fanatical buyers from that time period were alienated by the eventual crash and never came back. It could be that the product from the time was so bad that the people who enjoyed it were unlikely to develop a lifelong love of the medium (what some of us jokingly refer to as the "Kirby effect". That if you discovered comics during a "good" period like Kirby's you might find something to love in comics forever, but if you discovered them during a "bad" period your love for the medium would be short-lived.)

 

It's also possible that the demographics of my area limit the number of people who would be the "right" age to have gotten hooked during the boom. As I say, I can't assign causation. But I did find it interesting...

 

And one minor point in response to the store-closure stat... The number of stores today is within 10% of the number of stores in 1988. Yes, a huge number of them closed between 1995-1997. But some of that is because a huge number of them opened from 1991-1993.... The store count today is not very different from where it was pre-boom...

[joe_collector]

It could be that the fanatical buyers from that time period were alienated by the eventual crash and never came back. It could be that the product from the time was so bad that the people who enjoyed it were unlikely to develop a lifelong love of the medium... It's also possible that the demographics of my area limit the number of people who would be the "right" age to have gotten hooked during the boom. As I say, I can't assign causation. But I did find it interesting...

 

Here's a hint: Do a graph up of cover prices per year, and then compare that to the decrease in new comic buyers.

 

It's pretty telling, really.

[Freiherr]

I am willing to bet that his numbers are about right. I do not need a survey to see with my own eyes who is in a shop. The only thing that I think that would make it inaccurate would be the fact that the survey was done in a hobby shop.

 

It is my opinion that older collectors with more money are going to be buying from those places that have more expensive items. The shops in my area just do not have high-dollar books. Your best usually being things like Uncanny #1 or Hulk 181. Silver age books are slim pickins and Golden Age books are almost nonexistent.

 

I do not see children in shops and it does not surprise me. The biggest obstacle would probably be transportation. I think we have 2 shops left in my city and either would be one heck of a trip for me on foot or bike. I’m sure parents would take some children, but due to today’s hectic lifestyle, I am bet they would opt-out for subscriptions or newsstands.

 

As for a decline, it is the newsstands that worry me the most. I do not see them anymore. When I was a kid, stores would have racks with 30 or so different titles. Today, IF they do have comics it is only 2-3 titles that are a few months old. I have also noticed that local toy stores have stopped selling comics.

 

[sterlingcomics]

Despite and controversy regarding the survey, I appreciate you taking the time sharing this information with the forum!! Very interesting!

[joe_collector]

Despite and controversy regarding the survey

 

There's not controversy, I just dislike Medians when it comes to expressing most survey data.