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longevity in the hobby

Started by etanick,

56 posts in this topic

etanick

etanick

Posted
Posted

I am just curious how many people here started collecting at a young age, and never stopped or took a break?

 

share your stories because I don't know anyone that picked up a book at 10 and not take a break in 10 to 40 years.

 

I personally took 2 long breaks over the 30 years in the hobby. Luckily, nothing earth shattering happened in those breaks so I didn't feel as if I missed out on anything.

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lizards2

lizards2

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I've been going strong since about 1971-72, but took most of my college years, 1982-1985 off. As soon as the break was over, and I sobered up from college, I quickly found everything I missed during those years.

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davidpg

davidpg

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I started with comics around 1981 and took it easy on comics between 1985-1987 when I became really interested in baseball cards, though I kept everything.

 

I started getting back into comics in 87, and have been buying constantly ever since.

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bigfiver69

bigfiver69

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I started buying comics in 1977, and started 'collecting' in 1980... but truth be told, I didn't really care much about grade.

 

Went through a 'buy everything that every company publishes' phase in 1983.

 

Stopped buying altogether in 1985. It's no coincidence that was was the year I turned 16, started drinking beer, and got myself a serious girlfriend.

 

Re-discovered comics in 2000. And I've been broke ever since.

 

Shep

 

 

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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I was a hard core reader from about 1975/76 till about the age of 9 or 10 when I started taking care of them. Then I was a hard core collector till about the age of 20 or so when real life simply got in the way.

 

From the ages of about 18-20 I was my LCS's best customer spending almost my entire paycheck in there every Friday.

 

I stopped from about 21-32 because I got married and started raising a family, but I bought every once in a while (Death Of Superman anyone?).

 

I sold off my entire collection at 27 to help fund the purchase of my first home.

 

Started back at the age of about 32 when I found eBay and I don't see myself leaving it any time soon.

 

I'll be 40 next year.

 

 

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etanick

etanick

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started in 1981 and I was pretty conscious of keeping the books in decent conditions right away. I really can't recall why or what prompted that but I can only guess getting yelled at for "messing" with the new books on the stand got me thinking about not folding them in half and putting them in my back pockets like many of my friends at 13 or 14 years old were doing back then.

 

I stopped at 1993 after my graduating from grad school mainly because I was tired of the books, crappy stories and arts...and girls were more important.

 

Reentered the hobby at the birth of Ebay primarily for back issues. Finally made decent money so I started to buy BA back issues that I couldn't afford before. Like many, I got plenty of horror stories from buying on Ebay but the straw that broke the camel's back was the con job that cost me $4500 on an X-men 1. Long story about that one so I will spare you all for now but I left the hobby in 2003 and really thought I will never return.

 

Surprisingly, I am back this year and having fun again with more money to spend so it has been fun.

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WEBHEAD

WEBHEAD

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Started very late '50s when I only had 25 cent per week to spend, then '60s when I had more, still keep collecting became a self proclaimed Marvel Zombie with letter to the editor, and 3 no prizes, kept collecting through the '70s and '80. Got married, had a wonderful daughter :cloud9:, then got divorced :pullhair: took a huge hit in take home income with child support, but started collecting like there was no tomorrow and it helped me get past the bad times. In the '90-now I found ebay, CGC, and major conventions and never looked back. Now retired (caught up in the Banking meltdown) so on a fixed income back to my roots lots more time to collect, and sell.

 

 

WEBHEAD

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