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How much has Climate change the affected "Key issue" census?
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Started by gadzukes,

34 posts in this topic

gadzukes

gadzukes

Posted
Posted (edited)

In other words..... How many "Key Issues" are we losing every year to Flooding, Home Fires, Hurricanes, Tornados, Tsunamis, etc...

 

We've had such a terrible stretch of weather the last couple of months with the Hurricanes and the wild fires out west.

It got me thinking.... How many of our comic peers lost their collections in Houston, in FL, in Puerto Rico, and in the decimated parts of California? 

Obviously the safety and well being of all of the home owners and their families comes first, and comics are probably the last things on their minds as they rebuild their lives, but I wonder how many comics were also lost in these disasters.

I read somewhere that Charles Schultz's house burned to the ground and I imagine many important pieces of Original Peanuts artwork went up in smoke with it.

Do any of you have collector friends who lost their collections?

Many comics are easily replaceable.  But if even 1 GA key issue like an Action 1 or Tec 27 was destroyed, that would be a big loss for the hobby.  I hate to think that we may have lost any Af15s or other SA keys.

Edited by gadzukes
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NoMan

NoMan

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I was wondering the other day how many key comics are destroyed a year for whatever reason. Or if (generally speaking) keys are better positioned to be protected from destruction then non-keys because of special protections like better quality bags and boards, safes, Safe Deposit boxes, etc. 

Edited by NoMan
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lou_fine

lou_fine

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Posted

Sorry to hear about your loss, although it sounds like the bulk of your books made it through just fine.  :wishluck:

Sounds like you had some pretty nice indie books in there with the Towers and the Gold Keys.  Were there also some of the Total War / Mars Patrol in there since I absolutely loved that series of books?  :luhv:

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gadzukes

gadzukes

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6 hours ago, NoMan said:

I was wondering the other day how many key comics are destroyed a year for whatever reason. 

About 365,000 homes are destroyed by fires every year.  

Surely some of those homes had comic collections.  How many Key issues were lost?

About 50,000 homes are destroyed by tornados every year.

Surely some of those homes had comic collections.  How many Key issues were lost?

I'm guessing about 300,000 homes were destroyed by floods every year (can't find a stat).

Surely some of those homes had comic collections.  How many Key issues were lost?

How many Key issues do we lose every year?

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1950's war comics

1950's war comics

Posted
Posted (edited)

Has absolutely nothing to do with climate change

but I can't imagine hardly anyone could have saved their comics in the New Orleans flood when Katrina happened....

except i am sure that anyone who owned one would have grabbed their Action #1 or Det #27 if they were to have time to grab anything...

Edited by 1950's war comics
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NoMan

NoMan

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27 minutes ago, gadzukes said:

About 365,000 homes are destroyed by fires every year.  

Surely some of those homes had comic collections.  How many Key issues were lost?

About 50,000 homes are destroyed by tornados every year.

Surely some of those homes had comic collections.  How many Key issues were lost?

I'm guessing about 300,000 homes were destroyed by floods every year (can't find a stat).

Surely some of those homes had comic collections.  How many Key issues were lost?

How many Key issues do we lose every year?

I don't know. 

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gadzukes

gadzukes

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Posted

By contrast I love hearing the stories of Key issues that are found every year.

I love the story of the guy in Minnesota who bought a foreclosed home and was tearing out the walls only to find a copy of Action 1 behind the drywall that was used as insulation.

Alas, I think we lose many more key issues every year than we find.

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1950's war comics

1950's war comics

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2 minutes ago, gadzukes said:

By contrast I love hearing the stories of Key issues that are found every year.

I love the story of the guy in Minnesota who bought a foreclosed home and was tearing out the walls only to find a copy of Action 1 behind the drywall that was used as insulation.

Alas, I think we lose many more key issues every year than we find.

@gadzukesIt is inevitable as comics are fragile...

coin collections on the other hand can withstand most everything

during 9/11 there was a large coin collection of raw American eagle silver dollar coins in a vault in the basement of one of the twin towers

all 110 stories fell on itself but the coins survived intact and actually were the encapsuled as special 9/11 twin tower"survivor" coins

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gadzukes

gadzukes

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18 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

@gadzukesIt is inevitable as comics are fragile...

coin collections on the other hand can withstand most everything

during 9/11 there was a large coin collection of raw American eagle silver dollar coins in a vault in the basement of one of the twin towers

all 110 stories fell on itself but the coins survived intact and actually were the encapsuled as special 9/11 twin tower"survivor" coins

That's really cool.  I hadn't heard about that.

Were any comics stored in the twin towers? hm

Edited by gadzukes
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justafan

justafan

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Posted

As a collector I sometimes wonder if I am being a good steward of my collection mainly for those key issues, one of ones, and uber high grade pedigrees or am I selfishly putting irreplaceable historic pieces at risk just to be able to access them conveniently. Now I don't live among any of the high risk regions where many natural disasters frequently do occur and while I do take care to maintain careful climate and humidity controls, wealthier individuals than I can afford museum grade gallery style vaults better able to protect them against most contingencies. However, I wonder if any of the collectors that did/do live in those zones pay any consideration to the fact that IF and WHEN something does happen, there's little chance of being able to protect or preserve them when you will be prioritizing preservation of your life and the lives of your loved ones above all else.

You could isolate those most valuable in a quick getaway bag similar to Aflecks character on the accountant. A Go-bag containing emergency essentials and your AF15, TECH27, and Action1.

But what if you have 50 or more along those lines.  Too many to carry in a bug-out bag.

And what if you're not home or able to reach them in time. Perhaps a better alternative is to keep them in a remote bank or vault. Even the risk of rusty staples is better than a complete loss.

But banks can flood or catch fire or be robbed if located in high risk zones.

So then you are back to storing your collection in a more remote, less convenient location. Weekend trip to the Catskills to visit your collection?

I would argue that we as collectors are actually the reason why so many well preserved copies of GA and SA keys still exist even if some of us do store them and live in disaster zones. If we didn't provide the market demand to own and try to protect them, these would have already been lost to time. In retrospect, those few unfortunate collections lost to recent disasters are outweighed by the hundreds that continue to survive today and into the future because of collectors. 

However, if I was the victim of a natural disaster with high probability of it reoccuring, I might consider relocating before restarting a collection of keys if that is an option.

 

 

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Jaylam

Jaylam

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Posted

An accountant friend who used to run his business from his home, purchased a building in his hometown for his  business that used to house a bank.  The bank vault was still in the building and in working order. This vault was huge, I'd say at least 12'x12'. Needless to say he said this is where he was going to store all his valuables and collectables. These old vaults could probably withstand an atomic explosion (think of that episode of the Twilight Zone with Burgess Merideth). He purchased this building for a song, but it was going to need some work as it had been abandoned for several years, but the vault itself more than made up for it's cost as it was in perfect condition. 

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shadroch

shadroch

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18 hours ago, justafan said:

As a collector I sometimes wonder if I am being a good steward of my collection mainly for those key issues, one of ones, and uber high grade pedigrees or am I selfishly putting irreplaceable historic pieces at risk just to be able to access them conveniently. Now I don't live among any of the high risk regions where many natural disasters frequently do occur and while I do take care to maintain careful climate and humidity controls, wealthier individuals than I can afford museum grade gallery style vaults better able to protect them against most contingencies. However, I wonder if any of the collectors that did/do live in those zones pay any consideration to the fact that IF and WHEN something does happen, there's little chance of being able to protect or preserve them when you will be prioritizing preservation of your life and the lives of your loved ones above all else.

You could isolate those most valuable in a quick getaway bag similar to Aflecks character on the accountant. A Go-bag containing emergency essentials and your AF15, TECH27, and Action1.

But what if you have 50 or more along those lines.  Too many to carry in a bug-out bag.

And what if you're not home or able to reach them in time. Perhaps a better alternative is to keep them in a remote bank or vault. Even the risk of rusty staples is better than a complete loss.

But banks can flood or catch fire or be robbed if located in high risk zones.

So then you are back to storing your collection in a more remote, less convenient location. Weekend trip to the Catskills to visit your collection?

I would argue that we as collectors are actually the reason why so many well preserved copies of GA and SA keys still exist even if some of us do store them and live in disaster zones. If we didn't provide the market demand to own and try to protect them, these would have already been lost to time. In retrospect, those few unfortunate collections lost to recent disasters are outweighed by the hundreds that continue to survive today and into the future because of collectors. 

However, if I was the victim of a natural disaster with high probability of it reoccuring, I might consider relocating before restarting a collection of keys if that is an option.

 

 

The last thing you'd want in a bug out bag is a couple of million dollar comics. 

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