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Younger Silver Age Collectors

Started by Bodhi396,

133 posts in this topic

PsychoJ

PsychoJ

Posted
Posted

I'm 32 and have been collecting SA for last couple of years. I wasn't seriously focused on SA collecting but in the last couple of months SA has now got my complete attention. I still read and buy bulk lots of bronze and copper age books but i love the origins of all the marvel characters and back storys so it's these key SA issues that get bought graded for my long term collection. In fact I'd like to get into some GA as well but this may have to wait until my SA ambitions are finished.

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thehumantorch

thehumantorch

Posted
Posted
This excellent post was buried in a Comics General thread but thought it apropos to the topic.

 

My next customer was a very shy 14 year old boy. He asked how much the

Avengers 1 was. We had my low grade copy for $400 and 500club's nice copy

for $2600. He looked at mine and then gave it back. I'm a bit of a joker and

teased him about something and he just turned and walked away. Oops, didn't

mean to scare him off but there's no way he's buying Avengers 1.

 

He came back and like a fool I teased him again and he again walked away.

 

He came back a few minutes later and handed me $400. I must say I was

surprised. I gave him the Avengers and asked him if he liked Spider-man.

He did so I gave him a decent copy of ASM 252. He was thrilled. I gave

him my card and told him to call me if there was any problem and I thanked

him for the sale. And yes, I'm sure I teased him again.

 

He walked off and then came back an hour later and purchased some

Marvel Star Wars.

 

Next time I saw him he was with his mother. She could not believe he had

bought a comic for $400. More shocked than mad but I'm sure the thought

that I had ripped her son off was in the back of her mind. She was also

concerned that he had been convinced to send the comic to CGC after

Stan had signed it.

 

Turns out they are farmers and he earned the money milking their 60 cows

every day and he spent almost all of it on one comic.

 

We had a long discussion about collecting comics and why certain comics

were worth so much. She didn't mind her son spending $5 on a Star Wars

comic; but $400 for one comic? I told her she had it backwards. The Star

Wars were relatively low demand books and the Avengers 1 was an

important old key book featuring popular characters and an easy book

to resell.

 

During this discussion I had a couple $100 type sales and then I sold

nice copies of FF 10, 14, 17, 26 and 28 to one guy. As I jammed the

pile of $100 bills into my Batman cash bucket she realized that grown

men were spending hundreds or even thousands of $$ on funny books

before her very eyes. And she could see that my cash bucket was

absolutely stuffed with big bills.

 

I also explained that it was a good idea to submit a signed book to CGC

to ensure the signature was verified.

 

And I told her she had raised a great kid and collecting comics was

a wonderful hobby and that comics were an art form.

 

I gave her my card with a link to the CGC message boards and him to

come here and read about comics and I told her if he wanted to sell the

book back to me at any time I would give him all his money back and I

told her to contact me if they ever had any questions.

 

The whole time that kid had a silly, happy, I'm in heaven look. He was

totally digging comics and the show and our discussion and he'll be a

comic collector and fan for a long, long time - unless they chain him to

a cow.

 

Thanks for building my ego lol . :foryou:

 

 

 

 

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ImperiusRex

ImperiusRex

Posted
Posted
It's just so hard to breakout into all these wonderful titles!

 

I think expensive is a better choice of words.

 

Touché! I'm in grad school and make next to nothing. certainly hard to get all those good silver age goodies

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Blind Owl

Blind Owl

Posted
Posted
This excellent post was buried in a Comics General thread but thought it apropos to the topic.

 

My next customer was a very shy 14 year old boy. He asked how much the

Avengers 1 was. We had my low grade copy for $400 and 500club's nice copy

for $2600. He looked at mine and then gave it back. I'm a bit of a joker and

teased him about something and he just turned and walked away. Oops, didn't

mean to scare him off but there's no way he's buying Avengers 1.

 

He came back and like a fool I teased him again and he again walked away.

 

He came back a few minutes later and handed me $400. I must say I was

surprised. I gave him the Avengers and asked him if he liked Spider-man.

He did so I gave him a decent copy of ASM 252. He was thrilled. I gave

him my card and told him to call me if there was any problem and I thanked

him for the sale. And yes, I'm sure I teased him again.

 

He walked off and then came back an hour later and purchased some

Marvel Star Wars.

 

Next time I saw him he was with his mother. She could not believe he had

bought a comic for $400. More shocked than mad but I'm sure the thought

that I had ripped her son off was in the back of her mind. She was also

concerned that he had been convinced to send the comic to CGC after

Stan had signed it.

 

Turns out they are farmers and he earned the money milking their 60 cows

every day and he spent almost all of it on one comic.

 

We had a long discussion about collecting comics and why certain comics

were worth so much. She didn't mind her son spending $5 on a Star Wars

comic; but $400 for one comic? I told her she had it backwards. The Star

Wars were relatively low demand books and the Avengers 1 was an

important old key book featuring popular characters and an easy book

to resell.

 

During this discussion I had a couple $100 type sales and then I sold

nice copies of FF 10, 14, 17, 26 and 28 to one guy. As I jammed the

pile of $100 bills into my Batman cash bucket she realized that grown

men were spending hundreds or even thousands of $$ on funny books

before her very eyes. And she could see that my cash bucket was

absolutely stuffed with big bills.

 

I also explained that it was a good idea to submit a signed book to CGC

to ensure the signature was verified.

 

And I told her she had raised a great kid and collecting comics was

a wonderful hobby and that comics were an art form.

 

I gave her my card with a link to the CGC message boards and him to

come here and read about comics and I told her if he wanted to sell the

book back to me at any time I would give him all his money back and I

told her to contact me if they ever had any questions.

 

The whole time that kid had a silly, happy, I'm in heaven look. He was

totally digging comics and the show and our discussion and he'll be a

comic collector and fan for a long, long time - unless they chain him to

a cow.

 

Love this little story.

 

It's great that Torchy handled the younster in this fashion. By showing him (and in some ways, his mother) that he was not trying to rip him off, by offering to even buy the book back, he has created a lifelong comic fan (The freebie, didn't hurt either).

 

He also helped the mother to appreciate the wisdom of her son, which I am sure thrilled the 14 yr. old (How often in today's World does that happen), more than picking up the Avengers book (well, almost, haaa).

 

I can just imagine the conversation on the way home in the car, with the youngster holding his head proudly and high. (thumbs u

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sacentaur

sacentaur

Posted
Posted

Great to see so many younger collectors here (good for the future of the hobby as you guys have/build some sweet SA collections).

 

As an old-time GA collector who is now hot 'n heavy into SA, I feel young again... does that count? :whee:

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ThoseBackPages

ThoseBackPages

Posted
Posted

stopped by my LCS that sells back issues. very little SA available, and what there was, seemed to be pretty pricey. the more and more i think about it, it seems that as far as SA goes, online (and slabbed for that matter) is the way to go

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DR.X

DR.X

Posted
Posted
This board's sales forum is one of the very best sources for SA anywhere.

 

+1

 

And most of the dealers here who are forum members have good inventory's and will help you to locate books also.

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Bronty

Bronty

Posted
Posted
It's really good to see you younger guys appreciate the older books that are still published today,makes me feel confident in our hobby's future growth. :applause:

 

fixed. Its awesome that many appreciate books before their time, myself (36) inlcuded, but let's face it its mostly the books that are still published. myself I just like good books, but a lot of people only seem to care if the character or title is still in print

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ImperiusRex

ImperiusRex

Posted
Posted

I agree, that there are definitely deals to be had on the boards. In my short time here I have picked up some really good raws, and a few great slabs!

 

It also doesn't hurt that you can still pick up some great silver age books, from the boards, and still be on a budget! (thumbs u

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ImperiusRex

ImperiusRex

Posted
Posted

I like the idea of this thread continuing. I am always curious to hear stories about how they got into or are just getting into collecting SA and GA.

 

We can use this thread to post really good finds, as well!

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Kal-El

Kal-El

Posted
Posted
I like the idea of this thread continuing. I am always curious to hear stories about how they got into or are just getting into collecting SA and GA.

 

We can use this thread to post really good finds, as well!

 

 

Cool thread, I'm 24 myself and glad to see there a few others around my age here on the boards. People usually go from SA to GA (in my limited experience, anyway) but I've sort of gone the other way. The GA books I now collect are early Superman and for the SA I have an unhealthy obsession with Action Comics 242 :insane: (Braniac is my favorite villain by far), I have about 5 copies ranging from 4.0-6.5 but I'm targeting some keys now in the SA and I'll post scans/pictures once I obtain them.

 

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Bodhi396

Bodhi396

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Just to add a little extra about why I always liked silver age comics, even though I grew up in the late 80's into early 90's.

 

First, was they released Marvel trading cards when I was in elementary school. That was actually a big reason I started collecting comics in general. But, there were a bunch of those cards that showed classic Marvel comics, including Amazing Fantasy 15, FF 1, ASM 129, Avengers 1, etc... That kind of sparked in me an appreciation for the older key comics.

 

Second, I always loved looking at the older comics behind the counter of the comic book store. I would kind of look at them in awe, thinking I could never afford them. The fact you couldn't even touch them, that they were separate from the other comics in the store, made them more special in my mind. Its cool that now I can actually afford some of those comics.

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ThoseBackPages

ThoseBackPages

Posted
Posted

I always loved looking at the older comics behind the counter of the comic book store. I would kind of look at them in awe, thinking I could never afford them. The fact you couldn't even touch them, that they were separate from the other comics in the store, made them more special in my mind. Its cool that now I can actually afford some of those comics.

 

SO this!

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tenacious

tenacious

Posted
Posted
This excellent post was buried in a Comics General thread but thought it apropos to the topic.

 

My next customer was a very shy 14 year old boy. He asked how much the

Avengers 1 was. We had my low grade copy for $400 and 500club's nice copy

for $2600. He looked at mine and then gave it back. I'm a bit of a joker and

teased him about something and he just turned and walked away. Oops, didn't

mean to scare him off but there's no way he's buying Avengers 1.

 

He came back and like a fool I teased him again and he again walked away.

 

He came back a few minutes later and handed me $400. I must say I was

surprised. I gave him the Avengers and asked him if he liked Spider-man.

He did so I gave him a decent copy of ASM 252. He was thrilled. I gave

him my card and told him to call me if there was any problem and I thanked

him for the sale. And yes, I'm sure I teased him again. ...

 

 

You can not tell from looking at someone who walks into your shop how experienced or serious a collector he/she is or how much money they have.

 

...but there's no way he's buying Avengers 1.

 

Ah yes, these are the ignorant dealers that intimidate new collectors away from their shop and the hobby. In this case the collector stayed and bought. But I wonder how many new collectors he "teased" away?

 

 

 

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