In 40 years, Is Comic Collecting Dead? ?

[comicwiz]

Wasn't there a boardie/shill who claimed he almost got beat up for reading a comic on his porch?

 

This comic collecting sounds dangerous

[Erndog]

Do people really consider comics as typical "print media" like a novel, or newspaper or monthly magazine?

 

We all know they are very, very different. I went to a comic con a few weeks ago and I picture all the people buying at all the tables and there is no way in hell that comics won't be around in 40 years.

 

These things aren't throwaways like the newspaper or US weekly.

 

[Gsims718]

Even if digital comics take over i don't see how that would stop paper comics from being valuable.

 

In addition with the popularity the movies have brought to comics I think young kids love super heroes maybe more than ever. Those kids will grow up and I'm sure be interested in owning some key issues from the past.

 

Unless there is some sort of major disaster, as previously posted, I don't see the maker going anywhere.

[MrDeafComics]

It depends. Hollywood is running out of materials so they turn to comic books. This is the age of Hollywood comics right now and for next 5 years. Not sure about 40 yrs .

[Davenport]

Do people really consider comics as typical "print media" like a novel, or newspaper or monthly magazine?

 

We all know they are very, very different. I went to a comic con a few weeks ago and I picture all the people buying at all the tables and there is no way in hell that comics won't be around in 40 years.

 

These things aren't throwaways like the newspaper or US weekly.

Man, I agree with this. Every once in a while I think back to all the old pre-internet myths surrounding comics... Mommies threw them all away, they're extremely scarce, paper-drives and Wertham-burnings destroyed most of them, and on and on.

 

Yeah, right. Comic books have to be the most hoarded item in the history of all printed matter.

 

Anyway, no one can predict 40 years from now, but I do think three things will have to have some kind of impact: 1) the Overstreet Generations who grew up collecting comics will die, 2) all their collections will be released back into the wild, and 3) instant digital access to most back issues.

 

That 3rd one is the big unknown. What impact to hoarding when at the fist mention of an AF15 (or any back issue) someone could be thumbing through one a half-second later? In real time, during the conversation, on their e-device?

 

 

 

 

 

[greenhoody]

Within in the next 40 years, there will be a worldwide catastrophe that will destroy all electronic records. Once we recover from the economic ruin, comics along with any other printed word will be in high demand.

 

I like it!

Something about digital people forget is that it's super easy to get for free. Piracy will hurt comics more than anything. Digitals need to be $1.00 or less, just like Itunes. Nobody is going to pay $2.99 for something that takes up 10mins of time when you don't even have a cool book to show for it. Digital will just drop sales imo.

[Achilles]

Within in the next 40 years, there will be a worldwide catastrophe that will destroy all electronic records. Once we recover from the economic ruin, comics along with any other printed word will be in high demand.

 

I like it!

Something about digital people forget is that it's super easy to get for free. Piracy will hurt comics more than anything. Digitals need to be $1.00 or less, just like Itunes. Nobody is going to pay $2.99 for something that takes up 10mins of time when you don't even have a cool book to show for it. Digital will just drop sales imo.

 

+1

[marvelcollector]

Hard to say.

 

There are seemingly enough younger people interested in the hobby and the characters in general, that it's possible collecting could be quite robust in 40 years.

 

At the other end, I still see that there would be at least some interest, so smaller is definetly possible, but dead, I think not.

[Bookery]

Even if digital comics take over i don't see how that would stop paper comics from being valuable.

 

In addition with the popularity the movies have brought to comics I think young kids love super heroes maybe more than ever. Those kids will grow up and I'm sure be interested in owning some key issues from the past.

 

It's complicated. Most people collect what they grew up with. Only a small number will break out beyond that to stuff that came out before they were born. Big-Little Books are a much more depressed market/format than they were 30 years ago, because the people that grew up with them are dying out.

 

I don't think there's much correlation between watching a movie, and wanting to own the comic book if you're not already a comics reader. If so, then that would have to be true in other fields as well. How many kids exclaim "Wow! That latest XBox game was awesome! Now I want to own an original 1930s edition of Monopoly!"

 

On the other hand, if something is both historically important and scarce, there will continue to be price escalations, even if the market is small. Few people have ever heard of Tamerlane, but the 1st edition is the most valuable work of fiction of the last 200 years. There may be only a small number of potential collectors for it, but there are still more of them than there are existing copies.

 

On the other hand, I've had private-press limited editions from the 1800s with print runs of fewer than 100 copies that aren't worth spit, because they are unknown authors with no marketability, regardless of scarcity.

 

No collectible market ever really dies... somebody somewhere wants this stuff. But how anemic it gets, depends on a lot of factors...

 

 

[Aman619]

but the "collect what they read as a kid" thing is not the same now, nor was it ever really true. When I was a kid, comics were everywhere but few of us even then really cared to read and collect them. We were always a geeky minority, even back in the so called simpler times (60s) when "all kids read comics"

 

and today, with comics in the media everywhere, older people are beginning to read, and collect. Especially as comics are in no way created FOR kids anymore, and their creator pool is the same talent that is creating TV series and films!

[Aman619]

that being said, 40 years from now I dont see a lot of value for 90% of all comics. There have been just too many millions produced and too many long dead and forgotten characters etc. But the keys will remain cultural, and historical, touchstones for future generations. The rest will burn nicely for heat. maybe food!

[LordRahl]

Even if digital comics take over i don't see how that would stop paper comics from being valuable.

 

In addition with the popularity the movies have brought to comics I think young kids love super heroes maybe more than ever. Those kids will grow up and I'm sure be interested in owning some key issues from the past.

 

It's complicated. Most people collect what they grew up with. Only a small number will break out beyond that to stuff that came out before they were born. Big-Little Books are a much more depressed market/format than they were 30 years ago, because the people that grew up with them are dying out.

 

I don't think there's much correlation between watching a movie, and wanting to own the comic book if you're not already a comics reader. If so, then that would have to be true in other fields as well. How many kids exclaim "Wow! That latest XBox game was awesome! Now I want to own an original 1930s edition of Monopoly!"

 

On the other hand, if something is both historically important and scarce, there will continue to be price escalations, even if the market is small. Few people have ever heard of Tamerlane, but the 1st edition is the most valuable work of fiction of the last 200 years. There may be only a small number of potential collectors for it, but there are still more of them than there are existing copies.

 

On the other hand, I've had private-press limited editions from the 1800s with print runs of fewer than 100 copies that aren't worth spit, because they are unknown authors with no marketability, regardless of scarcity.

 

No collectible market ever really dies... somebody somewhere wants this stuff. But how anemic it gets, depends on a lot of factors...

 

 

I keep hearing this statement and while it certainly has some truth in it, I don't think it plays out in reality. Most collectors in their 30s (like me) collect Silver Age if not GA. We did not grow up with SA or GA books. I think you start off collecting what you grew up with, but once you have an appreciation for the medium you "graduate" to collecting SA and probably GA as well. Hell I was 14-15 when I first read a comic book, so I started collecting in the modern era (late 80s). By that rationale I should only collect moderns, which is the one age I don't collect. Just my

[dupont2005]

 

I keep hearing this statement and while it certainly has some truth in it, I don't think it plays out in reality. Most collectors in their 30s (like me) collect Silver Age if not GA. We did not grow up with SA or GA books. I think you start off collecting what you grew up with, but once you have an appreciation for the medium you "graduate" to collecting SA and probably GA as well. Hell I was 14-15 when I first read a comic book, so I started collecting in the modern era (late 80s). By that rationale I should only collect moderns, which is the one age I don't collect. Just my

Agreed. Also, not all collectors are collecting for nostalgia purposes, and not all collect vintage comics. Plenty of modern collectors out there. Plenty of people who do not collect what they read when they were kids. I no longer own a single super hero comic, the public interest in super heroes is completely irrelevant to my collecting purposes. Although I do have some comics from my childhood (TMNT, Usagi Yojimbo, SSOC, Elfquest, and so on) I don't think I collect out of nostalgia. I collect because I like the stories and art, as an adult. They withstood me growing up, while a lot of other comics I collected as a kid did not. I also collect a ton of stuff I didn't read when I was a kid. Warren mags, undergrounds, small press stuff, and comics by big names in the lowbrow art movement. Stuff that wasn't even on my radar as a kid. The enjoyment of illustrated stories developed when I was a kid, but I'm not trying to relive my childhood when I order something from Bries.be

[hbo_boxingfan]

you need demand to keep the prices up/hobby going and most serious vintage comic collector's are already 40++ or pushing it in my opinion. when those hardcore collectors die off the prices will fall on many books in a few decades. Just my opinion but i've always thought the comic hobby will fall in 40-50 years.

[Bookery]

I keep hearing this statement and while it certainly has some truth in it, I don't think it plays out in reality. Most collectors in their 30s (like me) collect Silver Age if not GA. We did not grow up with SA or GA books. I think you start off collecting what you grew up with, but once you have an appreciation for the medium you "graduate" to collecting SA and probably GA as well. Hell I was 14-15 when I first read a comic book, so I started collecting in the modern era (late 80s). By that rationale I should only collect moderns, which is the one age I don't collect. Just my

 

This would be in total contradiction to my 30 years experience as a dealer. I have a shop that specializes in gold/silver-age, and the number of customers that come in here that will even glance at that material is verifiably about 1 in 50.

 

First off, I don't think most current comics buyers are "collectors" in the sense that you mean. They buy comics to read... they "collect" them insomuch as they don't toss them away after they've read them, and they buy runs because they don't like to miss part of the story. If these books become valuable down the road, so be it, but that's not why they buy them.

 

But of those that are buyers of back-issues, making them collectors I guess, most are still buying fairly modern stuff, or are filling in gaps from the 80s and 90s out of $1 boxes. Perception is skewed on boards such as this, where there is a concentration of people who collect older and pricier stuff.

 

There are still a lot of people out there like you that do gravitate to older material... but as a percentage of overall comics buyers/collectors... it is still small.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[THB]

Is there any other collectible more fun and enjoyable than comics? I think its instantly accessible in any price range for anybody to jump right on in. The future Golden, Silver etc... collectors are being weened on very good modern comic books, T.V. shows like Walking Dead and blockbuster comic book movies. Today's moderns are really the start of a new Golden Age. Tablets (Ipad) and digital are the game changers in my humble opinion.

[LordRahl]

I keep hearing this statement and while it certainly has some truth in it, I don't think it plays out in reality. Most collectors in their 30s (like me) collect Silver Age if not GA. We did not grow up with SA or GA books. I think you start off collecting what you grew up with, but once you have an appreciation for the medium you "graduate" to collecting SA and probably GA as well. Hell I was 14-15 when I first read a comic book, so I started collecting in the modern era (late 80s). By that rationale I should only collect moderns, which is the one age I don't collect. Just my

 

This would be in total contradiction to my 30 years experience as a dealer. I have a shop that specializes in gold/silver-age, and the number of customers that come in here that will even glance at that material is verifiably about 1 in 50.

 

First off, I don't think most current comics buyers are "collectors" in the sense that you mean. They buy comics to read... they "collect" them insomuch as they don't toss them away after they've read them, and they buy runs because they don't like to miss part of the story. If these books become valuable down the road, so be it, but that's not why they buy them.

 

But of those that are buyers of back-issues, making them collectors I guess, most are still buying fairly modern stuff, or are filling in gaps from the 80s and 90s out of $1 boxes. Perception is skewed on boards such as this, where there is a concentration of people who collect older and pricier stuff.

 

There are still a lot of people out there like you that do gravitate to older material... but as a percentage of overall comics buyers/collectors... it is still small.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are correct in that when I say "collector" I'm not talking about people that just buy new books weekly. My roommate is actually one of those people that just buys new stuff and doesn't collect back issues. I don't consider him a "collector" although I don't know what word I would apply to him. I do think that back issue collectors "graduate" to older books over time. But my viewpoint is probably a bit skewed as you point out.

[Bookery]

You are correct in that when I say "collector" I'm not talking about people that just buy new books weekly. My roommate is actually one of those people that just buys new stuff and doesn't collect back issues. I don't consider him a "collector" although I don't know what word I would apply to him. I do think that back issue collectors "graduate" to older books over time. But my viewpoint is probably a bit skewed as you point out.

 

I understand what you're saying... it's a little trickier if we're only talking about people who actively "collect" to begin with.

 

I think my earlier post might be confusing (or my later posts... or one of them... I'm confused...). When I say "people collect what they grew up with" I don't mean it necessarily limits them to just the items that came out during their youth years, though like I said, there is much of that.

 

I mean people don't tend to collect products overall that they didn't grow up with (and "grow up" is a nebulous term, too... though if we say the years of greatest influence, it could extend into one's early 20s). The poster I originally referred to suggested comics would become more valuable if they stopped publishing them due to a theoretical "digital takeover". I'm countering that the opposite is more likely, at least for not historically important issues.

 

That's why I used the example that if you are growing up with electronic games now, most people, even if they collect later, won't graduate to vintage board games. If you didn't grow up reading or at least being familiar with comic books, you probably won't collect them when you're older.

 

If you grow up reading Stephen King, you may someday seek out his first editions when you have income that can afford it. It doesn't mean you'll also seek out collectible editions of M.R. James.

 

Neither me nor any of my friends had baseball cards when we were young. They don't have any real meaning for me, beyond my appreciation for all things antiquarian. I wouldn't cross the street to pick up a pack of cards if a shop had "Free Baseball Card Day" for instance, simply because the product holds no personal fascination for me.

 

Anyway... rambling now... must get ready to take wife to dinner. See y'all later!

 

[Aman619]

ready for dinner? its not even 3PM!

[sterlingcomics]

The way printed media is going i will say there is a good chance that comic books as we know it may be gone in 40 years but the future is hard to tell, we all may be snacking on brains by then anyway.

 

I hear brains are high on cholesteral.