• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

longevity in the hobby

Started by etanick,

56 posts in this topic

HouseofComics.Com

HouseofComics.Com

Posted
Posted
interesting observation but I wonder why that is? Interestingly enough, my 2 best friends in 8th and 9th grade that collected comics were African Americans.

 

I think it's just anecdotal, in his experience. In my experience, they seem to be more interested in comics proportionally. A lot of the most passionate collectors I know are African American.

 

As a funny aside, my best friend from college is now a professor at York U. in Toronto. He got some funny looks when he honestly asked some of his Canadian friends why there weren't any African-American Mounties...

 

"Um, first of all, they are Black-Canadians."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
conditionfreak

conditionfreak

Posted
Posted

Not to get into this ethnic thing too strong, but for those of you who attend a lot of Cons, do you see anywhere near 15 to 20 percent of the participants being African Americans?

 

From the few Cons I have attended, I see at best about 3 percent.

 

It may have something to do with the old timers (blacks) not being interested in comic book heroes because most heroes were white. There are many black heroes now, but it wasn't like that before. And comic book interest is often passed down from fathers or uncles, so if I am correct that the numbers are not comparable to the general population percentages, this may have something to do with it.

 

Or it may have been a financial thing back in the day.

 

I have heard that the black population of the U.S. is somewhere between 14 percent to 20 percent. A hard number is difficult because of mixes with hispanics and other groups.

 

As a side note. My buddy is black and his wife is hispanic. The children are of course mixed, but when school registration time comes around, they get to "choose" what they want the children to be known as, and it can change each year (depending on which group is scheduled to be bused that year).

 

I guess we all really are just Heinz 57's because I have Blackfoot Indian blood in there somewhere, mixed with German/Irish and Scottish. My wife is about the same except she had a grandmother that was Cherokee. (I DO NOT want to make my wife mad) :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rjrjr

rjrjr

Posted
Posted

I started collecting consistently in 1979 (Star Wars #26 off the newsstand) and have not missed buying a Star Wars comic to this day. I was mostly a Marvel reader through the 80s, Valiant reader in the late 80s/90s, and paired back my reading in the late 90s when Valiant (then Acclaim) folded (with the exception of Star Wars, Avengers, Thor, and a handful of other titles, possibly as low as 10 titles a month). I tried jumping into Marvel wholeheartedly again with Maximum Security, but soon gave up realizing the magic (continuity, characters, situations) I loved in the 80s was gone. I then sampled DC's universe for a few years, finally giving up on them as well, even though they read more like the Marvel of the 80s I loved. I just realized superhero titles per se are not my interest anymore. I've always collected Sci-Fi/Horror titles and have turned all my attention towards those titles in recent years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
thehumantorch

thehumantorch

Posted
Posted

Started in the early 70's. Took a break during the disco era. Got serious about a girl and decided to sell all my comics when she asked about all the boxes in my bedroom. Flipping through the books I decided to keep some of the SA and got the bug again. Been at it ever since.

 

p.s. disco rules.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Logan510

Logan510

Posted
Posted

Started reading in the late 1970's thanks to my older brother ( about the only thing I can thank him for ) and began collecting in the early 1980's. I have not taken a break since...ever. Collected through having GF's, going to college, getting married...comics have been a constant in my life. Of course, there have been times where I collected a lot more, especially in the 1980's where I was up to 20-30 titles a month, to now when I only buy new issues for creators I like ( Byrne, Perez etc ). These days the majority of my comic buying / reading is back issues :cloud9:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JmC

JmC

Posted
Posted
Started in the early 70's. Took a break during the disco era. Got serious about a girl and decided to sell all my comics when she asked about all the boxes in my bedroom. Flipping through the books I decided to keep some of the SA and got the bug again. Been at it ever since.

 

p.s. disco rules.

 

lol I could just picture you Dave in the satin shirt and white pants with boots on

Link to comment
Share on other sites
trmoore54

trmoore54

Posted
Posted

I have been an avid collector of Silver-Age Marvel comics since I was a kid (early 1960s). One must understand that just about everybody, myself, my brothers, my cousins, my friends ALL read comic books voraciously at this time…TV was still pretty new and channels/programs were limited but we loved our comic books which were cheap and readily available at any five-and-dime…we read everything we could get our hands on without prejudice…DC, Funny Animals, Dell stuff, all the Harvey lines, Marvel, EC/Atlas (harder to find)…you name it! FF and Spidey hit the scene when I was in the 3rd grade, so it took me a couple of years to plug-in but by 5th grade I was hooked. I was also a big fan of Sci-Fi/horror especially anything with Ditko and Kirby artwork.

 

I “collected” haphazardly over the next few years, which was slightly tempered by the fact that my mom feared that comics were rotting my mind. By high school, 1969, I was pretty much trying to put collections together of my favorites, with the idea that I would be holding on to them for awhile.

 

I made the mistake of selling Spidey 1-50 for $65.00 my sophomore year in high school (1971…I guess it seemed like a lot of money at the time) and it wasn’t long after I realized I pretty much regretted it every time I sold something. The one down-side to my collection however was that I wasn’t exactly getting my hands on mint or near-mint copies, and once I filled a hole with anything that wasn’t too ragged, I moved on.

 

There weren’t that many comic shops around, and we certainly didn’t have the advantage of eBay (and other internet sites) back then. Of course, as a teen-ager with sparse funds, I was pretty content with picking up a needed issue for a couple of bucks without shelling out say $10 or $20 for a single mag. Living in Southern California we would make forays up to the shops in Hollywood, which was pretty fun, but again, were hampered by limited funds. Frankly, a majority of my original collection (other than books purchased directly from newsstand and retained) was purchased at the old Torrance Book Store downtown for about 8-cents apiece.

 

I started storing my comics in mylar bags and keeping them in pretty good shape sometime in my mid-twenties (approx. early 80s). I upgraded my collectible stock into better quality bags and backer boards approx. 20 years ago. I have used these books to sell and upgrade over time, and still probably have about 100 books from my “original” collection.

 

My core collection consists of Fantastic Four 1-100; Spiderman (AF15-200); Journey Into Mystery/Thor 83-126; Tales of Suspense 1-38 (pre-Super Hero); Strange Tales 110-146 (Ditko Dr. Strange run) and a few other odds and ends. Sold off sets of Avengers 1-50, DD 1-50, TTA 70-100, TOS 39-70 and X-Men 1-50 over the last several years to focus on the other titles.

 

I reinforced my collection by filling holes and upgrading issues over the last several years or so through eBay auction and other internet site purchases. My primary goal was to have fun selling off issues and upgrading my collection. Essentially, I am not in this for profit per se…only in the sense that I am trying to generate cash to continue to buy better-condition books and upgrade my collection.

 

When I first got back into collecting in late 2001 I was just vaguely aware of CGC and slabbed/graded books. I didn't like the concept at first, and therefore didn't buy slabbed books for about 3-4 years (probably cost me a lot in terms of getting my hands on HG books that were much more affordable then). I ultimately had to knuckle under to the CGC craze, despite my initial (and still current) reservations…

 

I've slowed down a bit these days, as most books I'm after now are pretty expensive...still having a lot of fun and still enjoying it...best part is all the new friends I've made in the hobby since joining the boards! :headbang:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Agent 007

Agent 007

Posted
Posted

Started in 1986 when I was in 6th grade and stopped in 1989 when I was a Freshman in High School. Picked girls rather than books.

 

I didn't start to collect again unitl 2002 until my wife said I needed a hobby and asked what I use to do as a hobby. She started a crazed trend in me and have not stopped since.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cloudofwit

cloudofwit

Posted
Posted
Mom started buying my brother and I comics so she could have some peace in the house about 1982. Collected all the way up to 1997-2001 I just plain took a break because of all the coming out. Started buying again with ebay in 01 and then started selling some in 04 or so. Doing both currently.

 

Your break was from 2001 to 2001? How did that work for you?

 

 

 

:baiting:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing