Were you raised by collectors?

[This is water]

I collected coins with my dad and brother. But he was never really into it, he just did it because we liked it. My parents don't like spending money on "useless" things.

 

I started to read/collect in my mid-teens. I know they think it is a waste of time and money. They fail to understand my enthusiasm and passion for comics. And treat the medium as if it is made only for children.

[warlocke]

Nope. My parents think I'm crazy. "You didn't spend that much money on comics. Did you, son?!?"

[This is water]

Nope. My parents think I'm crazy. "You didn't spend that much money on comics. Did you, son?!?"

 

I feel ya.

[s-man]

Me neither. My dad used to call them "funny books" just to aggravate me!

[ZiM1021]

Kinda. My Dad said he used to have baseball cards when he was a kid. He remembers having a lot of the greats but my grandmother threw them out on him. He also used to collect stamps. He showed me the books and loose stamps he used to have. I believe he still has them somewhere. My Mom doesn't really collect anything.

 

I would always collect things growing up. I do it all the time. I always want a complete set of something. There were some cards here and there when I was a kid but it really started right before I started college. I got a job with a friend making some really decent money so I started buying all the old '80s TMNT toys I grew up with. My Dad threw them out when I was younger but I started re-buying them. Still have them stored in my basement.

 

That moved into comics, which I never really read when I was a kid. Bought a few ASM, earliest one being an ASM #29 G+, off eBay. Started getting into Walking Dead and, later, CHEW, which I still buy, read, and store. I've collected baseball cards, video games, and DVDs as well but not as much anymore. Basically, just comics these days.

[Ringfinger]

Not me, I was a loner, a rebel.

[Whizzer]

Although neither of my parents collected anything, my mother in particular always encouraged my collecting as she thought it was educational to have a focused interest.

 

She had read comics as a child in the Forties which her elder brother brought back by the stack from his trips to the States, (he was a merchant seaman) sadly none of those books survived to be passed on to me .

 

She would buy me comics off the spinner rack in our local newsagent and encourage me to keep them in order and good condition as "they might be worth something one day". However, due to poor distribution of US comics during the seventies it was tough to build a run of consecutive issues. Then one day in 1976 she bought me issue number 1 of the Captain Britain UK Marvel weekly title. at last here was a comic which I could get every issue of and properly collect.

 

I never looked back, and by the late 70's distribution of US titles had improved and I was able to build runs of Byrne X men etc.

 

But if it hadn't been for my mum and her cool attitude to collecting I wouldn't have the collection which I am lucky to have today, (including that original run of Captain Britain, still in pretty nice shape!).

[Pirate]

no collectors in the family that I know of.

[nearmint]

My Dad had a comics collection as a kid, but Grandma got rid of them after he went off to Korea. As adults, neither of my parents are collectors, and of my 7 siblings, only one other has the collector gene.

[MR SigS]

Nope. My parents were born in the depression, and their parents never had any money. I think they were happy to have food on the table and be able to take the occasional cheap vacation.

 

My brothers collect stamps, coins, motorcycles and guns. I collect comics. My sister doesn't collect anything that I'm aware of.

 

Sounds like she collects brothers

 

Same with mine. 5 brothers, 1 tough-as-nails sister.

[MR SigS]

Nope. Eeveryone in my family thinks I'im wastingwaisting my money, even when I i show how much the stuff I i buy goes up in value every year and how every time I i sell something I i make money. It's always, "well, what if the prices go down/" Hey it could happen but WITH most keys they have never gone down ever. I show them stuff like, "hey look at this action 1 6.0 that sold for 317K. Nnow a 3.0 is worth that much just 2 years later". I personally could NOT care less about the value. Iif it were up to me, Ii wish they weren't worth anything so Ii could buy all the books Ii want .

 

Fixed that for ya (thumbs u

 

Do they think you should put your money in stocks instead? Because...

 

You missed one! (thumbs u

There was quite a few, but the whole "could-care-less/could-not-care-less thing has always been a pet peeve of mine (sad, I know).

 

Now it's all fixed Sorry to pick on you mt1000

 

[TupennyConan]

My parents are both highly educated, graduate degree holders.

 

They both have strong lifelong interests in the arts.

 

My mother was a professional artist – portrait painter & Florida landscapes, flora, fauna, seashells -- & educator – prep school art teacher on the high school level.

 

My father read each night to the family from an ornate podium in the formal living room -- the Bible, Hemingway, Robert Frost, &c.

 

Our family home was like a museum, virtually rococo in accumulated art & antiques of all styles & manner.

 

 

[goldust40]

Although neither of my parents collected anything, my mother in particular always encouraged my collecting as she thought it was educational to have a focused interest.

 

She had read comics as a child in the Forties which her elder brother brought back by the stack from his trips to the States, (he was a merchant seaman) sadly none of those books survived to be passed on to me .

 

She would buy me comics off the spinner rack in our local newsagent and encourage me to keep them in order and good condition as "they might be worth something one day". However, due to poor distribution of US comics during the seventies it was tough to build a run of consecutive issues. Then one day in 1976 she bought me issue number 1 of the Captain Britain UK Marvel weekly title. at last here was a comic which I could get every issue of and properly collect.

 

I never looked back, and by the late 70's distribution of US titles had improved and I was able to build runs of Byrne X men etc.

 

But if it hadn't been for my mum and her cool attitude to collecting I wouldn't have the collection which I am lucky to have today, (including that original run of Captain Britain, still in pretty nice shape!).

 

Similar 1970s collecting experience, except my parents always frowned on me collecting comics. My mum loathed them and thought they were rubbish, but oddly enough never threw them out.

 

My dad was equally contemptuous of my new (and as it turned out) permanent collecting obsession, labelling comics as cheap ephemera which he couldn't believe were collectible in any way.

 

This despite the fact that he and his brother had put together the best collection of cigarette cards in the country over the course of several decades, all the way back to the 1930s when the pair of them were in their teens. And neither of them smoked! And he wondered why I had the collecting gene....

[TupennyConan]

What are cigarette cards?

[TheWatcher]

Most of the earliest baseball cards were issued in packs of smokes by tobacco companies

[seanfingh]

Were you raised by collectors?

 

I was raised by wolves.

[Whizzer]

Small cards inserted one per pack into cigarette packets featuring different themes, often military uniforms/cap badges or sporting heroes etc. Which would build into sets.

 

I have seen numerous examples but I think they died out in the Sixties or so.

 

Similar cards were also found in packets of tea and could be pasted into albums which you could purchase by mail. These continued at least into the early Nineties. (thumbs u

[Reno McCoy]

My dad collected wives, apparently, but after he left us, I'm pretty sure he stopped collecting after the next one. And why not, she was a stripper.

 

My mom, now a single parent with four kids, collected paychecks and little else. She was lucky to put food on the table for us with two jobs.

 

I got a paper route when I was in fourth grade and bought my first comic with my own money not long after that. Looking back, I think I got the collecting bug with comics and sports cards as a way to control something. I couldn't control the world around me, but I knew that I had my comics and cards, and I could arrange and rearrange them any way I wanted, and I knew there were more anytime I wanted to go to the store. All I had to do was get on the bus and more comics could be mine!

 

Actually, I've been in and out of collecting my whole life, and if I thought about it, I bet I'd see that I turned to collecting pretty hard whenever there was something new in my life. Going off to college? Better start collecting again. Moving out of state? Better start collecting? If there was a bit of the unknown, I'd start up again.

 

 

 

[TupennyConan]

My dad collected wives, apparently, but after he left us, I'm pretty sure he stopped collecting after the next one. And why not, she was a stripper.

 

My mom, now a single parent with four kids, collected paychecks and little else. She was lucky to put food on the table for us with two jobs.

 

I got a paper route when I was in fourth grade and bought my first comic with my own money not long after that. Looking back, I think I got the collecting bug with comics and sports cards as a way to control something. I couldn't control the world around me, but I knew that I had my comics and cards, and I could arrange and rearrange them any way I wanted, and I knew there were more anytime I wanted to go to the store. All I had to do was get on the bus and more comics could be mine!

 

Actually, I've been in and out of collecting my whole life, and if I thought about it, I bet I'd see that I turned to collecting pretty hard whenever there was something new in my life. Going off to college? Better start collecting again. Moving out of state? Better start collecting? If there was a bit of the unknown, I'd start up again.

 

 

 

I recently had a conversation with a collecting buddy of mine, and it turned to a discussion of what drives us to collect. Not what drives us to collect what we collect, but the urge to collect in the first place.

 

For both of us, our collecting started about the time our parents got divorced. For me, my home life got kinda crazy, and I moved around a lot and never got comfortable in any school because of the divorce. I may have not known it at the time, but I seem to have kept and collected the comics, cards, and books I enjoyed because these were things I could control while the rest of my life felt out of control. I remember organizing and reorganizing my collections all the time.

 

Anyway, flash forward to now. I'm stressed like crazy because of deadlines at work, a new baby in the house who we had to pull out of daycare after a very unfortunate incident, and a wife who may be losing her job soon. During my limited free time, I've found myself researching and making lists for the books, comics, and cards I want. I've found myself drawn to the collecting of these things instead of turning to the enjoyment the things themselves bring.

 

As it turns out, my friend does the same thing. When things are calm and normal, it's all about enjoying our collectibles, yet during times of stress, it's more about list making and getting things in order. It's as if when times are a bit out of control, we turn to the things we can control.

 

 

I'm not sure why I'm posting this. I guess I'm wondering if there are others who seem to go this route at all. I know I run the risk of everyone judging me and overreacting, which is silly considering this is just a small window into my collecting habits, but so be it.

 

 

Ditto!

 

Collecting is about control!!

[TupennyConan]

Small cards inserted one per pack into cigarette packets featuring different themes, often military uniforms/cap badges or sporting heroes etc. Which would build into sets.

 

I have seen numerous examples but I think they died out in the Sixties or so.

 

Similar cards were also found in packets of tea and could be pasted into albums which you could purchase by mail. These continued at least into the early Nineties. (thumbs u

 

Most of the earliest baseball cards were issued in packs of smokes by tobacco companies

 

Thanks guys. I prefer Marlboro Lights when drinking.

 

Ooooooooohhhh sweet sweeeeet tobaccooooooooo