Bronze age comics that are heating up on eBay... 38 38

[FlyingDonut]

1 hour ago, southern cross said:

There is a market for old vinyl records.

I don't collect them but is the market just for us in their late 40s to 60s who remember buying vinyl records at stores.

Or is there collectors who collect them and have grown up with CDs and digital only?

 

Nostalgia is the key.

Years in the future will there be people who have fond memories of watching the new star wars movies and tv shows when they were kids and with disposable income seek star wars comics including the 70s 1 in the future.

 

Time will tell 👍

My daughter and her hipster 20 year old friends buy vinyl.

[MyNameIsLegion]

17 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:

My daughter and her hipster 20 year old friends buy vinyl.

[WolverineX]

9 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

My daughter and her hipster 20 year old friends buy vinyl.

Would they buy vinyl for $1,000 though?

[1Cool]

5 minutes ago, Wolverinex said:

Would they buy vinyl for $1,000 though?

Most 17 - 20 year old's I've met will not buy vinyl for $10 let alone $1,000.  They seem to be very into thrift store type shopping and paying rock bottom prices for stuff with no interest in high end collectible stuff.

Edited May 28, 2021 by 1Cool

[Mercury Man]

The younger generation seems less concerned about amassing/collecting. 

That is a broad generalization, there are still hopeful signs, but I think the percentage has definitely dropped. 

I look at stamps and trains.  On the downturn, probably never come back.   Are Comics next?  Are the movies and pop culture references enough to keep them relevant with newer generations?   

I tired to get my nephews into comics in the 1990's.  They both amassed a long box or two in their time, went to shows, got Stan Lee's autograph.  But they have stopped cold turkey now, both approaching 30 years old.  Started selling off some of their stuff, don't actively buy comics.  Not sure if they will ever come back. 

[MyNameIsLegion]

5 minutes ago, Mercury Man said:

The younger generation seems less concerned about amassing/collecting. 

That is a broad generalization, there are still hopeful signs, but I think the percentage has definitely dropped. 

I look at stamps and trains.  On the downturn, probably never come back.   Are Comics next?  Are the movies and pop culture references enough to keep them relevant with newer generations?   

I tired to get my nephews into comics in the 1990's.  They both amassed a long box or two in their time, went to shows, got Stan Lee's autograph.  But they have stopped cold turkey now, both approaching 30 years old.  Started selling off some of their stuff, don't actively buy comics.  Not sure if they will ever come back. 

there's no such things as second generation nostalgia.  When Gen-Xers bail out of their plastic CGC tombstones in 20 years, and they start showing up at Goodwill, we will start to see viral videos of Gen Covid dropping them from roofs, burning them in fire, smashing them with hammers, shooting them with shotguns, etc.  

[ygogolak]

23 minutes ago, MyNameIsLegion said:

there's no such things as second generation nostalgia.  When Gen-Xers bail out of their plastic CGC tombstones in 20 years, and they start showing up at Goodwill, we will start to see viral videos of Gen Covid dropping them from roofs, burning them in fire, smashing them with hammers, shooting them with shotguns, etc.  

There is already one really cool dude doing that on IG.

[WolverineX]

1 hour ago, 1Cool said:

Most 17 - 20 year old's I've met will not buy vinyl for $10 let alone $1,000.  They seem to be very into thrift store type shopping and paying rock bottom prices for stuff with no interest in high end collectible stuff.

Agreed.  I've also noticed this trend too. 

[BrooksR]

2 hours ago, 1Cool said:

Most 17 - 20 year old's I've met will not buy vinyl for $10 let alone $1,000.  They seem to be very into thrift store type shopping and paying rock bottom prices for stuff with no interest in high end collectible stuff.

In fairness, most 17-20 year olds have no money 

[kimik]

12 hours ago, Wolverinex said:

Will Gen Z care about comics though if they are just sitting in a plastic tomb.  You can't read it.  You can only look at it.   If they didn't grow up with analog books, would they even care or will they have nostalgia for fornite and tiktok instead?  

Yes. The trend in collecting has been evident the past 5 - 10 years - younger collectors consume/read via TPBs and collected editions, and collect keys via slabs predominantly. Based on my sales at shows, the Gen Z collectors start with the CA and MA keys since they are more relevant to them and more affordable, and then work their way back into older SA and BA. There are some that go directly to BA keys and SA keys/early issues, but not as many. The difference with this generation of collectors is that most are not worried about putting together runs since they can get the common issues via Omnibi, TPBs, or digitally to read. They focus on keys.

Talking with store owners/managers the past couple of weeks, they have all brought up the same point when I ask them about the health of the market. With being a geek (or as I like to refer to it - a more technical/scietific society) and collecting comics becoming more mainstream, and the amount of comic shows/movies being pumped out, they all view it that the market is different now than it has been in the past. The two store owners that are still around from the early 80s view the current run up in prices being different from the 90s - back then they knew it would end as they had non-comic collecting average joe publics calling in to order long boxes of the latest #1s as an investment (and they were happy to sell it to them  ). Now, with comics being widely accepted and the multi-media approach to lever the IP, they feel that that the market has room to grow. Time will tell, I guess.

The one area both of these old school stores view as being in decline - late 40s - 50s books for the most part. One store picked up a huge mid to high grade late 40s through mid 50s, and then mid 60s to mid 70s collection. There are a ton of slow to no selling titles in the mix that he is trying to offload first since he has seen demand steadily drop for them the past 30 years. For example, most Dell titles.

[october]

13 minutes ago, BrooksR said:

In fairness, most 17-20 year olds have no money 

Well, exactly. What 18 year old has the means to drop $1000 on a record? Your tastes and wantlist develops along with your wallet. 

[kimik]

2 hours ago, 1Cool said:

2 hours ago, Wolverinex said:

Would they buy vinyl for $1,000 though?

Most 17 - 20 year old's I've met will not buy vinyl for $10 let alone $1,000.  They seem to be very into thrift store type shopping and paying rock bottom prices for stuff with no interest in high end collectible stuff.

I think we would all be surprised at how many young vinyl collectors there are now. I had a record collecting/selling acquaintance correct me a couple of years back at a pop culture fair when I mused whether there are any young collectors. There has been a resurgence the past decade. The difference is they are chasing new vinyl, not the old stuff like Elvis.

[1Cool]

24 minutes ago, BrooksR said:

In fairness, most 17-20 year olds have no money 

They have tons of money compared to me and my friends when we were that age.  We spent what few bucks we had on CDs, comics and going to the movie theater.  We may have not bought $500 comics at that age but we did spend tons on brand new CDs at $14 a pop.  I don't have the numbers but I would guess the number of 17 - 20 year olds buying records right off the presses at full value (what are they $30 now) is a very small number.  That generation is use to paying for electronics every few years and subscriptions to music or tv services (even that they try to pirate when they can).  I've weighed in the past that I do not think the younger generation will pick up comics as a collectible and the market will have a huge correction other then a bunch of key books.  The market is already going that way in a hurry and it will only pick up speed when us 40 - 60 year olds start dying off in 20 years.  Enjoy it now!

[MyNameIsLegion]

1 hour ago, kimik said:

 

The one area both of these old school stores view as being in decline - late 40s - 50s books for the most part. One store picked up a huge mid to high grade late 40s through mid 50s, and then mid 60s to mid 70s collection. There are a ton of slow to no selling titles in the mix that he is trying to offload first since he has seen demand steadily drop for them the past 30 years. For example, most Dell titles.

all Dell's will be dead money in a decade, especially photo covers. the only, only exception, is of course...

[shadroch]

2 hours ago, kimik said:

Yes. The trend in collecting has been evident the past 5 - 10 years - younger collectors consume/read via TPBs and collected editions, and collect keys via slabs predominantly. Based on my sales at shows, the Gen Z collectors start with the CA and MA keys since they are more relevant to them and more affordable, and then work their way back into older SA and BA. There are some that go directly to BA keys and SA keys/early issues, but not as many. The difference with this generation of collectors is that most are not worried about putting together runs since they can get the common issues via Omnibi, TPBs, or digitally to read. They focus on keys.

Talking with store owners/managers the past couple of weeks, they have all brought up the same point when I ask them about the health of the market. With being a geek (or as I like to refer to it - a more technical/scietific society) and collecting comics becoming more mainstream, and the amount of comic shows/movies being pumped out, they all view it that the market is different now than it has been in the past. The two store owners that are still around from the early 80s view the current run up in prices being different from the 90s - back then they knew it would end as they had non-comic collecting average joe publics calling in to order long boxes of the latest #1s as an investment (and they were happy to sell it to them  ). Now, with comics being widely accepted and the multi-media approach to lever the IP, they feel that that the market has room to grow. Time will tell, I guess.

The one area both of these old school stores view as being in decline - late 40s - 50s books for the most part. One store picked up a huge mid to high grade late 40s through mid 50s, and then mid 60s to mid 70s collection. There are a ton of slow to no selling titles in the mix that he is trying to offload first since he has seen demand steadily drop for them the past 30 years. For example, most Dell titles.

Most of those books have been dead for decades. Dells, Funny animals and funny comics have not been popular since the early 1960s. I see no reason why that will change.  The vast majority of so called comic collectors have always been super-hero collectors.

Edited May 28, 2021 by shadroch

[kimik]

7 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Most of those books have been dead for decades. Dells, Funny animals and funny comics have not been popular since the early 1960s. I see no reason why that will change.  The vast majority of so called comic collectors have always been super-hero collectors.

Agreed. And there are a ton of obscure sci-fi and horror books from that era that are dead as well. Those books will likely crater in price even further due to no demand. I will admit, when I get collections, most of the Dells end up in my $1 or $2 boxes. The people that buy them predominantly are 50+ year old collectors. There is the odd parent that will buy a Disney book for their kids, but even Donald and Mickey are nowhere near as popular (or even recognizable) with children now.

[shadroch]

I'm surprised how little demand there is for the Gladstone Disney's. They were perennial steady sellers until about ten years ago. 

I've had success with westerns but thats selling them to Wild West tourists, not normal comic collectors.

[dikran]

No bias but I wouldn't discount the Disney/comic collector Venn diagram, lotta big money in mid to high grade Disney keys... Barks books will always be collectible.

[dikran]

Actually disregard what i said, don't need more competition for those Dell Disney books, they're garbage!

[mcduckz]

5 minutes ago, dikran1 said:

No bias but I wouldn't discount the Disney/comic collector Venn diagram, lotta big money in mid to high grade Disney keys... Barks books will always be collectible.

Also, there is a HUGE following for Disney ducks in Europe.  Much, much more than here in the US