silverage collecting, whats its lifespan?

[blowout]

often wondered how much longer people will gravitate to collecting silver age books.

 

most people tend to collect books they read as a child, for me that was bronze age books.

i also collect silver age books though, not because i bought them off the racks but because an older relative gave me his collection (250 books or so) when i was around 11.

are there any other younger people out there that collect silver age books that wern't around when they first hit the stands (i'm guessing under 35)?

[supapimp]

i started collecting SA books since the older the better, especially the early marvels with the circle around the 12 cent price. couldn't get into GA books when i was younger, too dificult to find and too exspensive. i started buying SA books for their value in 1990 when i was 18, and it is a part of history in pop culture. if people read comics and collect them, they will soon gravitate to the back issues.

[murph0]

I collect Gold, Silver, and Bronze books and I'm only 25. I'd say that once a lot of people who grow up collecting comics from my era (18-25) get a job in the real world and have some money to spend they'll start buying more silver and bronze as well..don't know for sure about gold though..that could become an "old boy" network..

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

They'll be sought after as long as the Silver Age heroes are still some of the most popular Modern age comics, which is the same reason many Golden Age comics will continue to be sought after. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, etc, still sell great on the stands. People start collecting there, and then go backwards.

[blowout]

do you think that marvels recent re-numbering policy will affect that?

i.e amazing spider-man 1-46 and your run is finished.

[murph0]

Nope, everyone knows the series to collect as far as ASM goes is the original as the later ones didn't make a big enough impact to really matter..

 

Brian

[comicinvestor-migration]

I truly believe that over a long period of time, most collectors will gravitate towards the comics of their youth. I've got a pretty eclectic collection myself, but after doing a serious examination of what books truly mattered to me, I've decided that most Silver and Modern are expendable and I'm not actively pursuing them.

 

There are exceptions (certain key issues and runs) but over the long term, I see Gold and Silver fading with the demographics. I certainly don't see any exponential price growth in this sector, as what you see is pretty well what you get.

[blowout]

"Nope, everyone knows the series to collect as far as ASM goes is the original as the later ones didn't make a big enough impact to really matter.."

 

but do they know thats the point.

lets say, if a kid goes into a comic store who's never bought a comic book before and sees ASM # 46 on the racks, he may only ever collect 1-46 of that series. then he sees ultimate spidey and gets the origin etc in 32 or so issues.

who's to say he will evey collect the old 60's stuff?

he may not even know it exists, how mant comic stores these days keep silver age ASM in stock?

you are just seeing the picture from you own perspective, and not that of a potential new collector.

[fantastic_four]

If he's the type that would EVER pay the higher dollars for back issues, then he'd likely buy a price guide. Then he'd know the title goes back further. Also, Marvel has started putting the number that the series would've been had they never restarted the numbering below the new numbering. A collector might wonder and be motivated to figure out what that number is.

 

I think the whole renumbering thing was artificially stupid; I kinda wish they'd just put the old numbering on instead of both numbers.

[supapimp]

i totally agree with you FF, that was completely dumb and an insult to marvel zombies. i was out of collecting back then, just strictly SA books for me, but when i found out, i was royaly turned off by the whole situation. ultimate spidey i can understand, so the newer generation can relate, but other than than that, WTF?

[murph0]

If the kid thinks the first ASM book was published in 95 then I'm not sure I want him collecting my series 1 ASM books

 

Brian

[jimjum12]

the golden age market is definitely not innundated with "completists".that market is driven primarily by key books,cool covers,scarcity,and/or esoterica.a collector who banked heavily on batman ## 39 and owns 10 copies had better cut their losses now.a nice copy of batman # 49 may be a bit stronger(cool cover,1st vickie vale,scarce above vg,etc.) may be a bit stronger.i see signs of the silver and bronze market gravitating towards that pretext.the silver and bronze books are more plentiful than golden age and only time will tell how that factor will effect their

liquidity.i'm 42 years old and still think the fantastic four and spider-man silver age

books are extremely cool.(some of them more so than others).ditto for the golden age.most of us try to rationalize our hobby with thoughts of investment,but i doubt that's the true driving force behind all this.i try to restrict my expectations to getting most of my money back out of my books someday.that's more than can be said for most hobbies.GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

p.s.it sure beats the hell out of peeking through venetian blinds after blowing all your money on crack.

[murph0]

I agree with your analysis of the Golden Age market, however, I think I should add that if a choice book comes along..as I've found anything F+ or better in Captain America gets bidded up well beyond what someone would think you'd have to pay to get some non-keys. It's the low grade stuff that just kinda goes for the minimum. When you get to about Fine, the bidding picks up for just about any series with a known character the exception to this rule are those "funny" books and the short lived stuff like Bulletman.

 

Brian

[drbanner]

the golden age market is...driven primarily by key books,cool covers,

 

You're exactly right, and that is going to be the next big thing in silver and bronze age books boyz and girlz, and you can quote me on that!! "Classic covers" drive the golden age market and as guide values go up, Ostreet will begin to reflect higher prices being paid for the classic cover books. First it was keys, then crossovers, and now the next wave of "above average" guide values will be for classic covers.

 

For evidence of this, look no further than FF 51 and FF 54, which currently each guide for $75. Which would you rather have? And not only is FF 51 one of Kirby's best FF covers, it's tough in grade as most copies I've seen have recessed top staples.

[chromium]

Don't forget FF#57...now that's power !

[greggy]

Tell me about the recessed top staples. When I bought my FF49 from Motor City Comics in 1992, they had 2 nice unread copies of 51 from the same collection. However, both of them had this problem so I passed!

[murph0]

As I said above, cool covers aren't the only thing that drive the market. If a book is listed in decent grade..it'll get bidded up, given that it's a regularly collected title such as Captain America.

 

Brian

[awe4one]

Blowout makes a valid point though. Renumbering will affect Vol 1 demand in the long run in my opinion. Silver ASM and FF and, especially X-Men, ..... will look tame in comparision to the recent books and collectors will relate to those books more readily than older, similar issues.

 

If the Silver ASM isn't written or has the same look as the current version (i.e. the version that they most relate to when reading new comics - the comics that made them collectors) then they will be completists up to a point. An easy point to stop is #1 Vol 2 or 3 not Vol 1 which seems dated (and pricey in comparision to the alternative).

 

Case in point...I know many collectors who collect ASM from #100-up, Avengers from #87-up and I know a majority of collectors who don't think the X-Men existed before #94. These were the comics they grew up with or could relate to prior to their starting. Same will happen to the next generation.

 

GA material is a premium with collectors because of their scarcity. Silver doesn't necessarily have the same problem to drive their demand.

 

 

Jim

[murph0]

For every person who just collects from a certain point up, there's 2 more that collect the full run. It's easily evidenced by the price difference for those older issues..I think the only thing that could really deter someone from collecting full runs of a specific title would be price, but most of the books are readily affordable to anyone with a job..exceptions are easily taken with books like ASM 1-10. Golden Age will always be a high $ game, so I don't see anyone getting into this unless they have some spare $ or are older with a decent job.

 

Brian

[aardvark88]

Having a f/t job does not necessarily mean u have the funds to buy cgc back issues. Need to consider marital status, kids, stability of job, economic outlook, war.