Anyone have an idea of how many active comic collectors there are these days? 1 1

[the blob]

5 hours ago, Batman said:

 

Digital is the perfect medium for modern comics. Have you seen some of the they release these days? How can you justify killing a tree for that?!

Isn't most of the paper recycled anyway? I thought we had a paper glut?

 

[PunisherPunisherPunisher]

Just hope the market doesn't drop and dry up like baseball cards did

[F For Fake]

Event titles, one shots, etc aside, how many copies does a top ten regular monthly title sell these days? Although I'm sure some of those buyers are buying multiple copies, I'd reckon the bulk are single copy buyers. Certainly not scientific, but may at least get you in the ballpark. Like, how many copies does a non-event, non-"special" issue of Batman or Amazing Spider-Man sell these days? I have no idea. 50,000? 100,000? Walking Dead, before it went belly up, would have been a pretty good indicator as well, as that was one of the most reliable and popular books on the stands.

[the blob]

14 minutes ago, PunisherPunisherPunisher said:

Just hope the market doesn't drop and dry up like baseball cards did

Stop being so 1993.

 

[the blob]

10 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

Event titles, one shots, etc aside, how many copies does a top ten regular monthly title sell these days? Although I'm sure some of those buyers are buying multiple copies, I'd reckon the bulk are single copy buyers. Certainly not scientific, but may at least get you in the ballpark. Like, how many copies does a non-event, non-"special" issue of Batman or Amazing Spider-Man sell these days? I have no idea. 50,000? 100,000? Walking Dead, before it went belly up, would have been a pretty good indicator as well, as that was one of the most reliable and popular books on the stands.

Walking Dead hardly went "belly up".. its millionaire creator lost interest in doing the comic. I am just not sure new issue sales tells much of a story. I buy like 5 new comics a year off the rack.

[F For Fake]

24 minutes ago, the blob said:

Walking Dead hardly went "belly up".. its millionaire creator lost interest in doing the comic. I am just not sure new issue sales tells much of a story. I buy like 5 new comics a year off the rack.

I'm sure he could have kept publishing Walking Dead for as long as he liked, I wasn't implying that it was unpopular. Hence my using that as a possible indicator of regular monthly sales.

[tv horror]

1 hour ago, Bronty said:

horror film mag collecting?   What sort of stuff, Famous monsters, or?

I have over 6000 of them both horror and sci-fi related and yes from Famous monsters up to present. Nothing beats the feel of holding the originals in your hand as for grading I don't believe in slabbing even my comic collect it's all raw, thanks for asking. If you like horror please have a look on the thread Karloff Dell TV horror and more in the Silver age thread you won't be disappointed everyTHING is welcomed.

[LordRahl]

7 hours ago, DavidTheDavid said:

How many collectors and how many pop culture fans?

Impossible to say however, something to the tune of 160,000 people attend SDCC every year. Let's say even 40% of those collect comics to some degree. That would be 64,000 comic collectors...just at SDCC. I would venture that the percentage of people going that collect comics to some extent is greater than 40% but I'll use that number just to illustrate the point of how far off 35,000 is. This is JUST attendees of SDCC. There are a lot of collectors that don't attend that con every year and some never attend. I spend 10s of thousands a year on comics and I've never attended. How many collectors just buy a few hundred or a couple thousand worth of books a year that wouldn't spend thousands to just attend a con? Most likely a lot. There are far more than 35,000 collectors. That number is likely in the hundreds of thousands, not tens.

Some further numbers to support that theory. The CGC graded market is likely upwards of a quarter of a Billion dollars per year. If the raw market is larger, which I'm told it is, you are looking at over half a Billion dollars a year in sales. That is a lot of money for 35,000 people to absorb.

[the blob]

2 minutes ago, LordRahl said:

Impossible to say however, something to the tune of 160,000 people attend SDCC every year. Let's say even 40% of those collect comics to some degree. That would be 64,000 comic collectors...just at SDCC. I would venture that the percentage of people going that collect comics to some extent is greater than 40% but I'll use that number just to illustrate the point of how far off 35,000 is. This is JUST attendees of SDCC. There are a lot of collectors that don't attend that con every year and some never attend. I spend 10s of thousands a year on comics and I've never attended. How many collectors just buy a few hundred or a couple thousand worth of books a year that wouldn't spend thousands to just attend a con? Most likely a lot. There are far more than 35,000 collectors. That number is likely in the hundreds of thousands, not tens.

Some further numbers to support that theory. The CGC graded market is likely upwards of a quarter of a Billion dollars per year. If the raw market is larger, which I'm told it is, you are looking at over half a Billion dollars a year in sales. That is a lot of money for 35,000 people to absorb.

Oh, I dunno about 40% of SDCC or NYCC being comic collectors at all. I'd think 10-20%, maybe. SDCC is a show business thing with a side gig of comics. NYCC is a fan thing. Yes, many of these people are fans of comic characters, movies, etc... Does not mean they have a closet of short boxes or whatever or even regularly read new comics.

With that said I have no idea how many people are reading comic digitally. So, they're not collectors per se. But I am seeing it a lot commuting on the subway and know several guys who read digital comics who never set foot in a comic shop, etc.

[the blob]

How many people attend Baltimore or Charlotte? I think those may have a much higher % of actual collectors.

[LordRahl]

27 minutes ago, the blob said:

Oh, I dunno about 40% of SDCC or NYCC being comic collectors at all. I'd think 10-20%, maybe. SDCC is a show business thing with a side gig of comics. NYCC is a fan thing. Yes, many of these people are fans of comic characters, movies, etc... Does not mean they have a closet of short boxes or whatever or even regularly read new comics.

With that said I have no idea how many people are reading comic digitally. So, they're not collectors per se. But I am seeing it a lot commuting on the subway and know several guys who read digital comics who never set foot in a comic shop, etc.

No way to know who's correct but I completely disagree that 80-90% of people that go to SDCC are spending thousands to attend just to see the sights and don't buy any comics. I can't "prove" it but I just have a hard time believing it 

[Bronty]

20 minutes ago, tv horror said:

I have over 6000 of them both horror and sci-fi related and yes from Famous monsters up to present. Nothing beats the feel of holding the originals in your hand as for grading I don't believe in slabbing even my comic collect it's all raw, thanks for asking. If you like horror please have a look on the thread Karloff Dell TV horror and more in the Silver age thread you won't be disappointed everyTHING is welcomed.

I have a grand total of 1.  

I bought some mag called World of Fandom once because it had a terrific Tim Vigil cover.

[MGsimba77]

55 minutes ago, the blob said:

How many people attend Baltimore or Charlotte? I think those may have a much higher % of actual collectors.

I agree this might be a more useful metric than the larger cons. Probably more hardcore collectors there per attendee. It is a good question though. How many people would bother attending a big ticket convention, spend the money take the time etc etc that are not collectors at some level??? Sure I'd suppose there are plenty non collectors along for the ride like maybe someone's friend, spouse, parents or whatever but what percentage ? Food for thought 

[DavidTheDavid]

1 hour ago, the blob said:

Oh, I dunno about 40% of SDCC or NYCC being comic collectors at all. I'd think 10-20%, maybe. SDCC is a show business thing with a side gig of comics. NYCC is a fan thing. Yes, many of these people are fans of comic characters, movies, etc... Does not mean they have a closet of short boxes or whatever or even regularly read new comics.

With that said I have no idea how many people are reading comic digitally. So, they're not collectors per se. But I am seeing it a lot commuting on the subway and know several guys who read digital comics who never set foot in a comic shop, etc.

Per se is a good qualifier. There are plenty of younger folks who collect digital goods, even when the terms of service to which they agreed mean they don't own their collection. For that matter, I suppose we analog collectors have quite limited ownership of our comics. But yeah, digital collectible card games are worth a mint for a successful game. That said, the digital subscriptions seem to pretty much be a full buffet, from what I understand.

[LordRahl]

3 hours ago, MGsimba77 said:

I agree this might be a more useful metric than the larger cons. Probably more hardcore collectors there per attendee. It is a good question though. How many people would bother attending a big ticket convention, spend the money take the time etc etc that are not collectors at some level??? Sure I'd suppose there are plenty non collectors along for the ride like maybe someone's friend, spouse, parents or whatever but what percentage ? Food for thought 

Absolutely, Baltimore or any "true" comic show will garner a much higher percentage of "actual collectors". But those shows are not events. SDCC is. There are a lot of people that collect but don't spend big money on comics. If you are spending less than a grand a year on funny books, and I think there are a lot of collectors out there that fit that bill, you are not going to Baltimore or Charlotte unless it's down the street from you and easy to get to. You might spend the time and money to go to SDCC though, because it's an event and not there strictly to buy funny books. The problem with using "true" comic show attendance as a number is I think there is a very small percentage of the overall pool of collectors going to any specific show. How many West Coast collectors are really going to go to an East Coast show and vice versa? Probably not many as you can just go to a show close to you.

[MGsimba77]

6 minutes ago, LordRahl said:

The problem with using "true" comic show attendance as a number is I think there is a very small percentage of the overall pool of collectors going to any specific show. How many West Coast collectors are really going to go to an East Coast show and vice versa? Probably not many as you can just go to a show close to you.

Yeah but if we're talking about comparative information between 1995 & now which was what the OP was trying to get at then the attendance numbers could still be helpful. I think comics in general as a hobby was in the dumper in the mid 90's so maybe '95 isn't the best year to look to. Maybe early to mid 2000's would be a better point in time? 

Sidenote, I wonder how big a convention the Miami Beach convention is? Medium sized?

[Ken Aldred]

8 hours ago, DavidTheDavid said:

Per se is a good qualifier. There are plenty of younger folks who collect digital goods, even when the terms of service to which they agreed mean they don't own their collection.

Some comic publishers do allow you to do a DRM-free physical backup copy.

[Batman]

12 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

There are some good modern comics.

As well as moderns in digital format, I've also bought volumes containing the 40s and 50s work of Ditko, Kubert, Krigstein, Meskin, Williamson and Frazetta.  Very happy with the presentation, and the ease of access to expensive and difficult-to-find stories.

I agree. There are some good modern comics.

[Batman]

12 hours ago, the blob said:

Isn't most of the paper recycled anyway? I thought we had a paper glut?

 

Yes. Most if it is modern comics  

[Ken Aldred]

21 minutes ago, Batman said:

I agree. There are some good modern comics.

Some is applicable to all comic book Ages, not just the present.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Ken Aldred