Sentimental value of books….

[ImageMask]

 

 

While I still own my dad’s OO collection back in the day I purchased many of my books on Sunday runs to the LCS with him.

 

Over the years I have sold and repurchased many for various reasons.

 

The replaced books just don’t have the same meaning/value they used to have.

 

By meaning/value I do not mean monetary. I am referring to an OO book with sentimental/emotional value with a story much like pedigrees have.

 

Any book can be replaced but “the” book cannot.

 

Anyone with similar thoughts?

 

 

 

[nwpassage]

My mom threw mine out. I know, old story. Be very appreciative your dad shared a passion with you.

[thehumantorch]

I think most of us who collect do so because we have an emotional attachment to them and because the books remind us our carefree, younger times.

 

I still have some of the first books I ever purchased, they are more important to me

than high copies.

[dupont2005]

Yes. I have a handful of comics bought by my mom and grandma I will never let go. I did sell some comics my grandma got me and I regret it big time

[HouseofComics.Com]

Any book can be replaced but “the” book cannot.

 

Anyone with similar thoughts?

 

Not really, but maybe it's not fair because I still have just about all my original books. When I reread something I loved (like just yesterday when I sold the entire Korvac Saga and flipped through the big battle scene to show the buyer) it's the actual story and art that matter most to me. I haven't touched my original copies in years and in fact can barely get to them. They aren't even in exact order and haven't been sorted since about 1985) but it hardly matters to me. Maybe if like you, I'd lost them, the new copy wouldn't mean as much. But I don't think there would be a big difference. For instance, I've identified that the first superhero comic I ever had was Detective 238. My copy is completely thrashed and coverless. I'm glad I have this "rosebud" comic but I appreciate looking through other copies when they come into inventory even more.

 

I'm very happy I still have all my originals, but I've barely looked at them in 25 years.

 

Okay--one slight exception. My first GA purchase was off a CBG ad and I got a Batman 21 and 30. I do deeply regret selling those books and if I got a replacement, it probably wouldn't be the same. But then again, my deep attachment to the 21 is the circumstances of me getting it and taking it out of the package for the first time, not the actual stories.

[HouseofComics.Com]

I've been selling a lot of Archies lately to people who are 60-70 years old. They certainly don't have their originals, but they love the nostalgia and are very happy to get an old Laugh or Wilbur or Katy Keene.

[ImageMask]

Any book can be replaced but “the” book cannot.

 

Anyone with similar thoughts?

 

Not really, but maybe it's not fair because I still have just about all my original books. When I reread something I loved (like just yesterday when I sold the entire Korvac Saga and flipped through the big battle scene to show the buyer) it's the actual story and art that matter most to me. I haven't touched my original copies in years and in fact can barely get to them. They aren't even in exact order and haven't been sorted since about 1985) but it hardly matters to me. Maybe if like you, I'd lost them, the new copy wouldn't mean as much. But I don't think there would be a big difference. For instance, I've identified that the first superhero comic I ever had was Detective 238. My copy is completely thrashed and coverless. I'm glad I have this "rosebud" comic but I appreciate looking through other copies when they come into inventory even more.

 

I'm very happy I still have all my originals, but I've barely looked at them in 25 years.

 

Okay--one slight exception. My first GA purchase was off a CBG ad and I got a Batman 21 and 30. I do deeply regret selling those books and if I got a replacement, it probably wouldn't be the same. But then again, my deep attachment to the 21 is the circumstances of me getting it and taking it out of the package for the first time, not the actual stories.

 

Thank you. That is the story I am looking for and many more.

 

I bought a ASM 14 CGC 9.2 for 2000k at one point. Sold it for 3200k at another. Could have cared less all in all.

 

But I still own a ASM 14 CGC 2.5 that I paid $14.00 for back in 84-85. Maybe 250 -300 in the current market. But you you can't buy it any price today because of the story/ attachment behind it.

 

That is my point.

[Unca Ben]

Great thread.

 

My FF#48 and Spidey #33and #34, along with a couple of other books, were bought by my Mom when I was a kid and at home sick with strep throat (or pneumonia?). My Mom picked these up at the drugstore, at my request, while getting my prescriptions filled. Medicine for the body along with medicine for the spirit, so to speak. I will never part with these now 4.0-5.0 raw copies.

 

My Mom's long gone, but these books help remind me what a great and loving Mother she was. I have a number of books in my collection with similar memories, bought for me by relatives and friends. My higher grade CGC and raw copies may someday leave my hands, but never these.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to reflect on some of the things in my life I am truly grateful for.

 

my best to you and everyone else on these awesome boards.

-David

 

 

 

[Unca Ben]

-Now I'm gonna have a nice little (but happy) cry...

-sentimental dave

[MagnetoWasRight]

I have several books with way more sentimental value that monetary. What I would consider my grail book, X-Men #1, is only a 1.0. But the fact that my wife got it for me makes it worth more to me than any other book I own.

 

I also have a Hulk 181, CGC 6.5...its the first copy I've ever owned and several friends tracked it down, not knowing anything about comics, and gave it to me for my 30th birthday.

 

These are two books that will stay in my collection forever...the value of these books lies the love of my wife and true best friends which are far more valueable than the books themselves or any book I'll ever own for that matter.

[Aaronius]

My dad used to take me to the corner shop once a week and buy me 5 or 6 comics. I still have nearly all of them.

[Larryw7]

My dad used to take me to the corner shop once a week and buy me 5 or 6 comics. I still have nearly all of them.

 

My dad used to take me to 7-11 or the local drug store for books when they were 20 cents apiece. Unfortunately, I no longer have most of them. I read them until they fell apart.

[jimhouston1]

My Dad bought me a fair copy of Batman 35 when I broke my wrist playing football from Rogofsky. I still have it and another copy I bought in Better condition.

 

I have a Sgt Fury 99 folded open to the letters page because I have a letter printed in it about how there is no suspense left reading Sgt Fury because all the Howlers were shown alive in an annual story, besides in Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD.

 

Around 1984 my girlfriend bought me a copy of Batman 28 which was sold to her as "miscut" from Dungeons and Dragons Comic Store in Yonkers. It might be severely trimmed. I of course married this woman I plan to keep both the comic and the person who loves me enough to buy me comics and Batman memorabilia. She has even gotten my children to buy me Batman stuff for Christmas and Birthday presents.

 

I have comics from Germany and England and Spain that aunts and uncles bought for me because " James likes Batman comics".

 

I like my sentimental comics.

[Mac Man]

I love the comics I had from when I was a KID... the few I have. They remind me of when comics were... gateways out of the world I lived in--even if only for about 20-30 pages.

 

Honest to God, I would trade some of my more expensive books to get back a few of the Walt Disney Gladstone Christmas Parades my dad bought me though. Not worth a plug nickel on the market, but I have some happy memories of going to the newspaper stand each December and buying my copy and reading it the whole ride home in the truck. No idea what happened to them but I know they're gone.

[Designer Toast]

I wish I had never sold my original copies of GSXM 1 and XMen 94. Pretty easily obtainable books, but my original copies were purchased on a one day trip my mom and I took when I was a kid - mom drove to a city over an hour from where we lived just so I could visit a comic shop there.

 

I bought a copy of GSXM 1 a few years ago from Borock and every time I look at that book I always think about that trip with my mom. Mom was actually the one who got me collecting comic books.

[Mr. 10%]

I love the comics I had from when I was a KID... the few I have. They remind me of when comics were... gateways out of the world I lived in--even if only for about 20-30 pages.

 

Honest to God, I would trade some of my more expensive books to get back a few of the Walt Disney Gladstone Christmas Parades my dad bought me though. Not worth a plug nickel on the market, but I have some happy memories of going to the newspaper stand each December and buying my copy and reading it the whole ride home in the truck. No idea what happened to them but I know they're gone.

 

 

Great post

[joe_collector]

You know, I'm as nostalgic as they get about comics, but it's always been about the stories and art, and not the physical books.

 

Over the years, I've given away a lot of my original comics to my kids, who read them to crepe and often cut out characters and panels for their crafts. No skin off my nose, as they're just books, and I get the same rush reading a HG copy or a reprint, or a B&W Essentials. In fact, one of my favorite adult comic-related memories was getting a pack of HG ASM's in the 120--150 range, then opening and reading them one afternoon. What a rush, and I literally felt like I had gone back in time.

 

These weren't my books, but they were my stories and memories. That's the important thing for me.

[dicjones]

I collected comics with my best friend. He was an X-Men guy, myself Daredevil. Our mother's would take turns taking us about 40 minutes away each week to a "fancy"comic book shop in the Quad Cities. Neither one of them necessarily approved of the hobby, but we were spending our own money for the most part so they let us run rampant.

 

When I joined CGC just over a year ago I used the three free coupons to submit books I had bought as a young teenager on those trips to the shops...books that I was particularly proud of picking out, books that regardless of what condition they came back were sentimentally priceless. They had previously been stored in a comic box for over 20 years...pretty much untouched; Daredevil 14, 16 and 28. He would always razz me about buying "old crusty books" he was buying up Byrne/Claremont X-Men, not even considering the silver age X-Men.

 

My friend and I were inseparable as kids. His house was the first place I went in the morning and the last place I came from at night. Shortly after high school we pretty much quit collecting comics and it was soon apparent that we had grown apart and comics were the last thing holding the friendship together. We haven't really spoken to each other much since.

 

When I look back on my relationship with him I often think of the movie "Stand by Me" and how it is true...that you will never really have friends like you did when you were young.

 

Looking at those books all slabbed and pretty in their shiny little cases, reminds me how nice and shiny and pretty childhood can be when you have a true friend to share it with.

 

 

[seanfingh]

I wish I had never sold my original copies of GSXM 1 and XMen 94. Pretty easily obtainable books, but my original copies were purchased on a one day trip my mom and I took when I was a kid - mom drove to a city over an hour from where we lived just so I could visit a comic shop there.

 

I bought a copy of GSXM 1 a few years ago from Borock and every time I look at that book I always think about that trip with my mom. Mom was actually the one who got me collecting comic books.

 

I still have my GSX 1 and UXM 94. They are so unbelievably beat up. I sold most of my OO books in a garage sale when i was a teenager, but i kept the X-Men, GL/GA and some other assorted books. Those two in particular have very high sentimental value for me, more so than just about anything other than my favorite SS books.

[bronze_rules]

Call me sentimental, but just touching it is like using a home brewed time machine. On top of that, comics like the one below remind me of my love of coloring and drawing as a toddler.

The memories begin to breech the floodgates ... where's that teary eyed emoticon?

 

 

I knew I was really hooked on comics, when we'd go to toys'r us and I'd ask to sit in the corner and read the Shazam and JSA treasuries for the entire time.

 

Remember when the local 7-11 was like a hundred miles away, and you needed a ride to get there? But then the day you got a bike and a paper route, no storm (including the ones that downed power lines) could stop you from making that same long journey and stuffing them into the paper route bags, then making that long trek back home?

 

Yep, well I do, and I also got a dozen or so kids hooked along with me in grade school.