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How many active comic collectors exist these days?

Started by Hepcat,

38 posts in this topic

Hepcat

Hepcat

Posted
Posted

I've often wondered about the size of the comic collecting community. Since this community is too fragmented to lump together, it should necessarily be divided up by title.

 

So let's all take a shot at guesstimating the number of collectors there are out there seeking to complete/upgrade each of the following runs:

 

Dell Four Color

 

Dell Uncle Scrooge

 

Dell Lone Ranger

 

Golden Age All-Star Comics

 

Golden Age Green Lantern

 

Mystery in Space

 

Silver Age Justice League of America

 

Silver Age Green Lantern

 

Silver Age Superman

 

Silver Age Batman

 

Silver Age Wonder Woman

 

Silver Age Our Army at War with Sgt. Rock

 

Fox & the Crow

 

Golden Age Marvel Comics

 

Silver Age Fantastic Four

 

Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man

 

Silver Age Avengers

 

Silver Age X-Men

 

Silver Age Daredevil

 

Sgt. Fury & His Howling Commandoes

 

Kid Colt Outlaw

 

Archie

 

Archie Adventures of the Fly

 

Charlton Gorgo

 

EC Tales from the Crypt

 

Harvey Black Cat

 

Harvey Casper

 

If you can't venture a guess at an absolute number, how about ratios with a title to which you award a 50 being ten times as heavily collected as a title to which you award a 5. Dealers might have particular insight into this question.

 

:popcorn:

 

I have to think about this one myself.

 

 

 

 

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KingOfRulers

KingOfRulers

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Depending on Michael Golden's current ponytail length, and whether Jupiter aligns with Mars and where the Gallup polls are sitting at the given point in time, there may be over one collector of Charlton Gorgo out there.

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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i think you might be overestimating the % of collectors out there trying to put together runs of any given title. not everyone collects that way.

 

I'm a completist.

 

Depending on Michael Golden's current ponytail length, and whether Jupiter aligns with Mars and where the Gallup polls are sitting at the given point in time, there may be over one collector of Charlton Gorgo out there.

 

Count me as the one then. I'm only a third complete though since Gorgos are tough as hell to find in high grade.

 

 

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KingOfRulers

KingOfRulers

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i think you might be overestimating the % of collectors out there trying to put together runs of any given title. not everyone collects that way.

 

I'm a completist.

 

Depending on Michael Golden's current ponytail length, and whether Jupiter aligns with Mars and where the Gallup polls are sitting at the given point in time, there may be over one collector of Charlton Gorgo out there.

 

Count me as the one then. I'm only a third complete though since Gorgos are a person_without_enough_empathy to find in high grade.

 

 

Congratulations! You are the majority holder of Charlton Gorgo! ;)

 

Out of your list, the only titles I collect are X-Men and Sgt. Fury. Only have a few Furys since I am going for high grade (9.0+). I am getting close to completing X-Men, since I'm only in the 5.0-7.0 range on those.

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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Here. I'll try some ratios (not absolute numbers):

 

Silver Age Justice League of America 200

 

Silver Age Green Lantern 175

 

Silver Age Superman 75

 

Silver Age Batman 125

 

Silver Age Wonder Woman 10

 

Silver Age Our Army at War with Sgt. Rock 30

 

Fox & the Crow 5

 

Silver Age Fantastic Four 250

 

Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man 1000

 

Silver Age Avengers 50

 

Silver Age X-Men 100

 

Silver Age Daredevil 30

 

Sgt. Fury & His Howling Commandoes 30

 

Kid Colt Outlaw 2

 

Archie 1

 

Archie Adventures of the Fly 3

 

Charlton Gorgo 2

 

EC Tales from the Crypt 40

 

Harvey Black Cat 10

 

Harvey Casper 5

 

:cool:

 

 

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homerwannabee

homerwannabee

Posted
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Here. I'll try some ratios (not absolute numbers):

 

Silver Age Justice League of America 200

 

Silver Age Green Lantern 175

 

Silver Age Superman 75

 

Silver Age Batman 125

 

Silver Age Wonder Woman 10

 

Silver Age Our Army at War with Sgt. Rock 30

 

Fox & the Crow 5

 

Silver Age Fantastic Four 250

 

Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man 1000

 

Silver Age Avengers 50

 

Silver Age X-Men 100

 

Silver Age Daredevil 30

 

Sgt. Fury & His Howling Commandoes 30

 

Kid Colt Outlaw 2

 

Archie 1

 

Archie Adventures of the Fly 3

 

Charlton Gorgo 2

 

EC Tales from the Crypt 40

 

Harvey Black Cat 10

 

Harvey Casper 5

 

:cool:

 

My guess is that there are approximately 50,000 people who actively collect Amazing Spider-man. If you think about it there are over 5,300 hundred Amazing Spider-man 300's that are in CGC slabs, and my guess is that for every person with an Amazing Spider-man slab there are about 10 people with no slabs at all. So based on your proportions this than can be converted by multiplying each number by 50.

 

And if you do that this is the total active collectors out there.

 

Silver Age Justice League of America 10,000

Silver Age Green Lantern 8,750

Silver Age Superman 3,750 (personally think this number is higher)

Silver Age Batman 6,250

Silver Age Wonder-Women 500 (this number is probably higher)

Silver Age Our Army At War With Sgt. Rock 1,500

Silver Age Fox, and the Crow 150

Silver Age Fantastic Four 12,250 (Believe the number is much higher)

Silver Age Amazing Spider-man 50,000

Silver Age Avengers 2,500 (Book is hot, way higher!)

Silver Age X-Men 5,000 (The number is much higher.)

Silver Age Daredevil 1,500

Silver Age Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commando's

Kid Colt Outlaw 100 (probably higher)

Archie 50 (The most off number of the bunch, pretty sure there are at least 1,000 Archie collectors)

Archie Adventures of the Fly 150

Charlton Gorgo 100

EC Tales from the Crypt 2,000 (No way Tales From the Crypt is almost as popular as Avengers!)

Harvey Black Cat 500

Harvey Casper 250

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nwpassage

nwpassage

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i think you might be overestimating the % of collectors out there trying to put together runs of any given title. not everyone collects that way.

 

I have a varied interests and tastes, and my collection mirrors my ADD.

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Snake Eyes

Snake Eyes

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i think you might be overestimating the % of collectors out there trying to put together runs of any given title. not everyone collects that way.

 

I would have to agree. From a standpoint of friends who are collectors in my little corner of the world, only one of the first five I can think of would identify himself as a collector of a single title (Batman). More commonly, I see folks who focus on a couple of titles or a particular age/segment (i.e. silver age marvel or golden age GGA). Don't know how to account for that to find a total number of collectors (aside from commissioning Gallup to do a poll lol . However, it seems breaking it into titles would overestimate the total number of collectors (for example I probably have slabs of about twenty different titles, and would specifically name several series that I actively pursue issues of. 2c

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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My level of certainty on this question is really low - so I could be very wrong. I have noticed that a very high proportion of DC fans collect JLA though while the number of Avenger collectors is dwarfed by the number of Spider-Man and FF collectors.

 

 

 

 

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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I would have to agree. From a standpoint of friends who are collectors in my little corner of the world, only one of the first five I can think of would identify himself as a collector of a single title (Batman). More commonly, I see folks who focus on a couple of titles or a particular age/segment (i.e. silver age marvel or golden age GGA..... However, it seems breaking it into titles would overestimate the total number of collectors (for example I probably have slabs of about twenty different titles, and would specifically name several series that I actively pursue issues of. 2c

 

But I'm not implying that the totals of be additive to get a "total" number of collectors out there. There's clearly all kinds of overlap between JLA and GL collectors and between FF and Avengers collectors.

 

I'm just trying to get a feel for how many collectors there are for some of the major, and minor, titles.

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