Nostalgia for what you had, or what you wanted? 0

[valiantman]

Nostalgia for what you had, or what you wanted?

Just curious how many of us would say that we are collecting the books (cards, coins, games, toys) that we used to have versus how many of us are collecting what we used to want.

Since I'm "valiantman" I'll elaborate specific to Valiant.  More than 98% of the Valiant comics produced 1991-1996 were extremely easy to obtain and I had many of them when I was younger.

Being "valiantman" in 2017 doesn't mean that I collect the Valiant books I had when I was younger.  It means I collect the Valiant books I wanted when I was younger... the early books, the expensive books, the "holes in my collection" from my teen years.

Is nostalgia for getting back what you had, or for getting what you always wanted?

Edited May 12, 2017 by valiantman

[mackenzie999]

When I was a kid collecting back in the 70's, I had almost every Marvel hero book ever made, with the exception of the mega keys FF1, AF15, Hulk 1,etc. (I had the lower end keys like DD1, X-M1, ToS39)

Those are the only books I want now. When my collection is complete it will total fewer than ten books.

[catman76]

It's different for everyone I guess.  I don't have much nostalgia for things I had as a little kid or things in my lifetime. I have nostalgia for times and things that existed long before I did. When I was 11 I was digging through antique stores and flea markets for old comics from the 40s and 50s and old pulp magazines and pretty much anything pre 1962ish. I was a weird kid.

[marvelmaniac]

 

I LOVE these trips down memory lane so whoever is responsible for all of the nostalgia threads lately...KUDOS!!!

When I got back into comics in 79 I was buying new stuff off the newsstand and then I found my very first LCS in 81/82(???) and thought I was in heaven.

(The wife thought otherwise, but what did she know)

Not only could I get back a lot of the books I had collected as a kid (but had to leave behind in 1969) but books that were out before I was collecting that I did not even know about, so it was a little of both.

As I got older and more comic shops opened and then "real cons" (when a "Comic" Con was actually about comics) it was all about "I just want to complete the runs/series of the titles I collected as a kid."

Then eBay came along..."Nuff Said".

Now I am collecting books from before I was born.

On another note related to collecting and nostalgia, 10 years ago the nostalgia bug bit me and I spent $100.00 to regain a "Beany Copter by Mattel" because my new born baby sister gave me one as a gift in 3/62 and for whatever reason I needed to have one.

These are the very first books I bought at a Comic Shop back in 81/82.

[joe_collector]

Both, but it would have been "for what I had" if I didn't manage to keep most of my collection. Even so, my "camping trip disaster" got me hunting down all those issue later and it was a real rush to inadvertently getting an purchase in the mail and finding out it was "one of those books". A great example was Marvel Premiere 24 and 25, which I forget I owned and only remembered after reading them. Same with Daredevil 93 and 94, which were coverless books I got from relatives. I brought my favorite books, like all my ASM's in the 130's and 140's, my X-Men in the mid-late-90's, as well as (drum roll) Hulk 181 (and 180), which bugged me for years.

But I also remember books that were out-of-my-price-range when I was a kid, like the early issues of Marvel Team-up and early Starlin Captain Marvels (my first issue was 32) and after staring at them on the LCS wall it was a blast finally getting HG copies and actually reading them.

[1950's war comics]

In my youth i collected comics in the years between 1970 to 1975,  of course Marvel and DC only , Charlton always was and still is pure drek, , but now that I am back in the hobby not for a second do I want those ones of my youth back, I wanted the older stuff even then and so did all the kids in the neighborhood ,

[batman_fan]

2 hours ago, joe_collector said:

Both, but it would have been "for what I had" if I didn't manage to keep most of my collection. Even so, my "camping trip disaster" got me hunting down all those issue later and it was a real rush to inadvertently getting an purchase in the mail and finding out it was "one of those books". A great example was Marvel Premiere 24 and 25, which I forget I owned and only remembered after reading them. Same with Daredevil 93 and 94, which were coverless books I got from relatives. I brought my favorite books, like all my ASM's in the 130's and 140's, my X-Men in the mid-late-90's, as well as (drum roll) Hulk 181 (and 180), which bugged me for years.

But I also remember books that were out-of-my-price-range when I was a kid, like the early issues of Marvel Team-up and early Starlin Captain Marvels (my first issue was 32) and after staring at them on the LCS wall it was a blast finally getting HG copies and actually reading them.

Hey Joe, haven't seen you post for a while. Glad to see you posting again 

[thehumantorch]

I kept most of what I bought when I was younger so it's not what I had.  It's what I wanted, a complete SA Marvel collection.  But beyond that I'm collecting stuff I never looked at as a teenager, GA to MA, anything that catches my eye.

[oakman29]

I swear I was reading comics before I could read, and never stopped at any time like most.

So I still have books from my youth, a bit tattered, but they are the most important books in my collection.

Back in the day it was nearly impossible to get all the books in numbered succession, so completing a run of ASM was my ultimate goal as I got older. Now I have most of the big superhero keys I could ever want, so now on to something my parents never allowed me to have as a child, those evil horror magazines that always intrigued me on the book shelf. 

So I guess it's a bit of both nostalgia,and what I wanted.

[Knightsofold]

Nostalgia: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.

 

I feel very sentimental about some WW2 era comics because of stories from or about family members alive during the 1930's-40's.

 

Not sure if it qualifies because I wasn't even alive back then, but certain items from that time period makes me feel closer.

 

 

[01TheDude]

5 hours ago, joe_collector said:

Both, but it would have been "for what I had" if I didn't manage to keep most of my collection. Even so, my "camping trip disaster"

I've seen you mention this a couple of times-- can you provide a link to where you shared this story?

[followtheleader]

Comics - Definitely what I wanted.

Toys - 50-50 of what I had and what I wanted. 

Patrick