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Introduction & History

Started by armand242,

18 posts in this topic

armand242

armand242

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Posted

Hello, I recently joined the forums here and have been reading and learning for a month or so. I wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

 

I've been collecting (off and on) for close to 30 years now, starting when I was a kid around 10 and continuing to now.

 

My first stage of collecting was in the late 70's - 80's when I was young. My home town didn't have it's own comic store but there was one about 20 miles away in a nearby town. My family would go there once or twice a month to go to the mall and eat out, or whatever, and I'd ask to stop by the comic shop. I'd pick up the latest issues (pretty much Marvel and DC) and be on my way.

 

During this first stage I was a reader. From a collecting standpoint, the concept of a back issue was me picking up the last issue I missed. Fortunately, I kept the comics in good shape and was using bags. Unfortunately, this is not exactly a golden era of investing so most of my comics have probably about held there value 30 years later. I'm sure there are some nice gems from this time period too. I'm doing an inventory now (more on that later).

 

My 2nd stage of collecting was when I was off to college. The college town had a local comic shop and I again was picking up my comics every few weeks or a month. I had a friend from my hometown that was educating me more on the history of comics and buying first appearances, important issues, key writers and artists, etc. The good news is that some of that stuck into my head and we'd make the rounds across the state and hit up comic stores, used book stores, etc and look for good deals. He took more chances than me, I was pretty tight with my money so I don't recall picking up any super key issues from golden age or silver age but who knows. I know I picked up a decent amount of mid grade comics though from golden and silver age and I'll get alot of satisfaction finding those in my boxes again.

 

While in college the Valiant line was being introduced. My friend was literally guaranteeing this was the next big thing so I stepped up and bought multiple copies across all the titles. And sure enough, the prices went crazy. After a period of months I traded in about 40 of the top Valiant comics to the local comic store for $1,000 in cash and $2,000 in store credit and used that money to buy comics for the rest of the time I was in college. My first success in the investing side of comics! Unfortunately, this was a time period where the gimic covers and stuff were taking off so I probably spent too much buying comics that will never be rare, but it was fun nonetheless. I stopped this phase when I moved to the Dallas area after college.

 

My 3rd era of collecting was post college, in my mid 30's. I started buying comics online and was buying a good $200-$300 a month getting pretty substantial discounts. These are all new comics. Again, the heaviest spend was on Marvel and DC, but I started getting into the independent publishers quite a bit. My guess is again, most of this stuff isn't worth much money but some of independents are probably sought after and given their relative rarity I will probably keep. I stopped because 90% of what I bought wasn't getting read, and barely even glanced at.

 

Now to current. I'm right at 40 years old and am starting to inventory what I have. I have 20 long boxes or so. Like I said, I don't expect to find multi thousand dollar books, but there will probably be some good gems. I have some nice runs of key titles, with obvious time gaps between my phases which is something I might fill in over time. My interest in returning is primarily now from the hobby/investing side.

 

I know the investing side is debated here to some degree. For me, I've spent my life investing in the stock market to mostly good success. I've also branched out into precious metals and coins starting years ago, also to good success. The stock market to me is no longer an exercise of doing research and finding great companies, it's just about what government intervention or lack of intervention is going to levitate the market on any given day. Therefore, I've lost some interest but I'll keep doing it since it's what I'm good at and need to pay the bills.

 

I was reading an article on CNBC a month or so ago about how high income individuals were leaving the stock market and moving into alternative investments such as real estate and collectables. Fine art was specifically mentioned as an area of collectable demand. This got me thinking, that I need a hobby/investment I enjoy that I can consider a diversification tool, have fun doing, and if I'm lucky make a little money. If not, oh well, but something has to keep me sane.

 

So, I'm wading back this fourth time as a hobby/investor. My first goal is to inventory my collection and see what I have. My second goal is to read, read, read, and learn. Every day I learn something new. After I feel I've learned enough to not be an insufficiently_thoughtful_person I'll start small and buy some stuff. I've done a little of that already.

 

The areas I'm interested in are not defined but at the moment my favorite areas are pre-code horror from the golden age, and good girl art stuff. I've been quite taken with Fiction House stuff in particular on the good girl art side and in the pre-code horror I just love it all. Honestly, I don't even remember seeing this stuff when i was a kid, or when we used to hit the stores when I was in college. I guess it was hard to find even back in the day.

 

My budget is TBD, but I'm thinking I'll start out mainly buying unslabbed mid grade stuff or slabbled low to mid grade on the golden age side. I know, plenty of people will say that's insane, but for those particular genres, high grade is pretty damn rare. It won't break my bank to get started and as I learn more sure I'll pick up some high grade.

 

I think the high grade in any hobby/investment is probably the safest area if investing is a goal, but I've got to think the low to mid grades may be underappreciated in comics for comics that actually have some rarity. I hope all the comic movies help inspire a new generation of readers and collectors. I don't exactly think that comics are that similar to some of the other hobbies which are mentioned as dead or dying. We will see!

 

Brian (armand242)

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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Hello, I recently joined the forums here and have been reading and learning for a month or so. I wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

 

I love posts when they start like this.

 

(thumbs u

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Hibou

Hibou

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Welcome to the boards!

 

A very interesting story, as was already stated and it sounds like you certainly have a plan set for yourself!

 

You will love the Marketplace here but if I could offer some advice, you may want to take a look at some Valiant books...

 

;)

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