My Regret In The Hobby 1 1

[Cat]

I don't know, any regrets I have seem kinda silly. I'm grateful for what I have. It's a collection that no one else would want for free, but it's MINE, built by my hands, helped along by my mother when I was young, and that means the world to me. 

 

[spracknetch23]

I'd say I regret selling my Albedo 2 in 2003..but the truth is, had I not sold it then, I probably would have in 2006 or 2011 or some other year. Highly improbable it would have stayed in my collection until 2021 anyway. 

[JollyComics]

On 8/19/2021 at 7:45 PM, comicjack said:

And you picked up a few great war comics along the way 

Thanks. I enjoyed this as my other challenge.

[Mystafo]

Boy o boy some HUGE "I heard THAT"s in those first few posts....

[Savoyard23]

On 8/20/2021 at 1:16 AM, MR SigS said:

I regret not striking up a conversation with Ric Flair on a crowded hotel elevator ride after SDCC Saturday 2019.

At first I thought it was a very good cos play, until I saw his colliflower left ear just before he reached his floor (Four, appropriately).

Unless maybe it was a VERY good cosplay.

[justafan]

On 8/20/2021 at 5:00 AM, comicbookkid21 said:

May biggest regret was having my keys slabbed.  It changed my years of comic book "collecting" into comic book "investing" and something inside of me died.  I sold off my collection this year to pay for a river cabin and other than missing those beautiful covers, I realized that they had become nothing more than stamps.  I couldn't enjoy the full impact of those books anymore, touching the pages, reading the story and being changed by the people, things and situations that the heroes and villains faced within. I still buy and sell graded books to make a few extra dollars but I have started buying raw again so that I can read and remember why I bought so many comics the first time around.  And it's funny, but I still love them.

ive also been thinking of selling off some big keys to buy a lake house. 

But im fascinated by the decline of stamps as a collectible and looking for signs for whether comics will suffer a similar fate and when. When i started reading my complete ASM collection this year I noticed ads for stamps and stamp dealers were the biggest sponsors and took up at least 2 pages in every issue. Im on ASM #30 currently. No ads for comics yet but comics in the 60s was still a novel hobby but stamps were very popular. Fast forward to the mid to late 80s when i got into comics i dont think i recall ever seeing an ad for stamps but definitely a bunch for comics. 

Ive heard that the early 80s were the peak for the stamps market. The decline has been debated and attributed to many things from the rise of electronic messaging to the diminishing value of the stamp, to rise of more popular collectibles. Its likely a combination of them all. At one time, holding unused stamps was seen as a long term investment since they retained a usable face value. From 1885 to 1958 the face value only changed by 1 cent from 2 cents to 3 cents. But thereafter the face value of new stamps rose every 3 to 5 years.  The one thing for sure is that without a younger population to replenish the collectors dying out rhe hobby is doomed. The avg age of a stamp collector is 60. For comics it may be closer to late 20s and early 30s so maybe were halfway there.

My theory is that if anything kills comics as a hobby it will be the video game collectibles market combined with the decline in printed comics exposure. One thing you said that struck me was the comparison of comics that are slabbed to stamps. Just 2 dimensional with art. The best parts are locked away possibly preventing more exposure to younger collectors.  However when i look at what most of the kids i know 15 and younger are collecting, right now its pokemon cards but they do spend way more time with video games than anything else and ive hardly seen them pick up a comic let alone read comics.  Im sure there are plenty other kids out there that are into comics but they may be decreasing or not sticking with it..

I think when you start to see ads in comics for dealers wanting to buy or sell collectible video games or rather, when you start seeing more video game vendors than comic vendors at comic cons thats probably going to be the sign.

As for regrets, none so far but maybe in 20 years ill regret not selling off my collection this year to buy that lake house. 

 

[Nazirite]

On 8/21/2021 at 9:52 AM, justafan said:

ive also been thinking of selling off some big keys to buy a lake house. 

But im fascinated by the decline of stamps as a collectible and looking for signs for whether comics will suffer a similar fate and when. When i started reading my complete ASM collection this year I noticed ads for stamps and stamp dealers were the biggest sponsors and took up at least 2 pages in every issue. Im on ASM #30 currently. No ads for comics yet but comics in the 60s was still a novel hobby but stamps were very popular. Fast forward to the mid to late 80s when i got into comics i dont think i recall ever seeing an ad for stamps but definitely a bunch for comics. 

Ive heard that the early 80s were the peak for the stamps market. The decline has been debated and attributed to many things from the rise of electronic messaging to the diminishing value of the stamp, to rise of more popular collectibles. Its likely a combination of them all. At one time, holding unused stamps was seen as a long term investment since they retained a usable face value. From 1885 to 1958 the face value only changed by 1 cent from 2 cents to 3 cents. But thereafter the face value of new stamps rose every 3 to 5 years.  The one thing for sure is that without a younger population to replenish the collectors dying out rhe hobby is doomed. The avg age of a stamp collector is 60. For comics it may be closer to late 20s and early 30s so maybe were halfway there.

My theory is that if anything kills comics as a hobby it will be the video game collectibles market combined with the decline in printed comics exposure. One thing you said that struck me was the comparison of comics that are slabbed to stamps. Just 2 dimensional with art. The best parts are locked away possibly preventing more exposure to younger collectors.  However when i look at what most of the kids i know 15 and younger are collecting, right now its pokemon cards but they do spend way more time with video games than anything else and ive hardly seen them pick up a comic let alone read comics.  Im sure there are plenty other kids out there that are into comics but they may be decreasing or not sticking with it..

I think when you start to see ads in comics for dealers wanting to buy or sell collectible video games or rather, when you start seeing more video game vendors than comic vendors at comic cons thats probably going to be the sign.

As for regrets, none so far but maybe in 20 years ill regret not selling off my collection this year to buy that lake house. 

 

 That is why at age 26, I’m not to pressed on missing out on books. When you have time on your side what’s the rush? I do see video games possibly overtaking comics in the future. The amount of money from baby boomers and to an extent generation x propping up this hobby is underestimated. My 2 cents.

[WolverineX]

On 8/21/2021 at 9:52 AM, justafan said:

ive also been thinking of selling off some big keys to buy a lake house. 

But im fascinated by the decline of stamps as a collectible and looking for signs for whether comics will suffer a similar fate and when. When i started reading my complete ASM collection this year I noticed ads for stamps and stamp dealers were the biggest sponsors and took up at least 2 pages in every issue. Im on ASM #30 currently. No ads for comics yet but comics in the 60s was still a novel hobby but stamps were very popular. Fast forward to the mid to late 80s when i got into comics i dont think i recall ever seeing an ad for stamps but definitely a bunch for comics. 

Ive heard that the early 80s were the peak for the stamps market. The decline has been debated and attributed to many things from the rise of electronic messaging to the diminishing value of the stamp, to rise of more popular collectibles. Its likely a combination of them all. At one time, holding unused stamps was seen as a long term investment since they retained a usable face value. From 1885 to 1958 the face value only changed by 1 cent from 2 cents to 3 cents. But thereafter the face value of new stamps rose every 3 to 5 years.  The one thing for sure is that without a younger population to replenish the collectors dying out rhe hobby is doomed. The avg age of a stamp collector is 60. For comics it may be closer to late 20s and early 30s so maybe were halfway there.

My theory is that if anything kills comics as a hobby it will be the video game collectibles market combined with the decline in printed comics exposure. One thing you said that struck me was the comparison of comics that are slabbed to stamps. Just 2 dimensional with art. The best parts are locked away possibly preventing more exposure to younger collectors.  However when i look at what most of the kids i know 15 and younger are collecting, right now its pokemon cards but they do spend way more time with video games than anything else and ive hardly seen them pick up a comic let alone read comics.  Im sure there are plenty other kids out there that are into comics but they may be decreasing or not sticking with it..

I think when you start to see ads in comics for dealers wanting to buy or sell collectible video games or rather, when you start seeing more video game vendors than comic vendors at comic cons thats probably going to be the sign.

As for regrets, none so far but maybe in 20 years ill regret not selling off my collection this year to buy that lake house. 

 

Hmm so if the average age of comic collectors is 30.... which seems low imo,  does that mean we have about 20 more years?

[djpinkpanther67]

I wish I had come back in the 90’s instead of 2006. That being said, I have owned (and sold) some very nice books in the last 15 years. 
I’m in the twilight of my collecting. Maybe another few years left, not much more and I’m out.

[Qalyar]

On 8/19/2021 at 6:15 PM, 1950's war comics said:

Stamp collecting (philately) was the number one hobby in America, there were stamp store in every big city , anyone with a collector mentality collected them (or coins)

compared to the old days, now hardly anyone collects stamps... the hobby is nearly dead

 

It's not as dead as perception, but it's certainly way down from the highs of the 80s. Like many things, much of the business has moved away from brick and mortar to online shopping. Comic shops have held out better because for most people, that's also where new issues come from; I don't think a "back issue only" brick and mortar comic shop would be a wise investment.

But there are still stamp shows scheduled almost every weekend somewhere in the US for the next 2-3 months at least, and that's despite contraction in live events due to COVID. They're not as big or as heavily attended, but they're not fading away.

What DID utterly collapse was the philatelic equivalent of collecting Moderns. Governments (including the US) decided that stamp collectors were a revenue source, and printed increasingly large volumes of topical stamps, special format stamps, presentation sheets, variants... Somewhere around the mid-90s, the bottom just totally fell out of all of that stuff.

But the 19th century US stuff that commanded good prices still does. The rare WashFranks are still plenty rare. The 1938 Presidential are still popular with the stamp equivalent of run collectors, and the 50s Liberty series is still the ultra-specialist playground. And while the VERY top tier of international rarities (like the British Guinea magenta) have underperformed, more achievable high-end pieces are at least holding value.

No, it's certainly possible that this is just the winding down of the money and energy invested in a doomed and dying hobby. But it's possible philately will recover from this contraction and at least hold stable. After all, in some ways, comics briefly fell apart when the nonsense of the 90s gave out... but look where we are now.

Predicting the future, especially the cultural future, is pretty much impossible.

[justafan]

On 8/21/2021 at 3:19 PM, Qalyar said:

 

What DID utterly collapse was the philatelic equivalent of collecting Moderns. Governments (including the US) decided that stamp collectors were a revenue source, and printed increasingly large volumes of topical stamps, special format stamps, presentation sheets, variants... Somewhere around the mid-90s, the bottom just totally fell out of all of that stuff.

 

But it's possible philately will recover from this contraction and at least hold stable. After all, in some ways, comics briefly fell apart when the nonsense of the 90s gave out... but look where we are now.

 

This sounds familiar. I thought comics would have collapsed again after issue #666 of the asm store and bugle variants but then we got rarities like the asm dell otto and mj venom and now a flood of manufactured store variant rarities that are cut down to 500 copies. Im surprised there are so many folks still buying up the hundreds of variants popping up each week. 

What really revived comics from the 90s in my opinion was the movies, cgc grading and the census. 

Is there a cgc or ngc for philately and a census? If not do you think it ever will.

I too regret both not jumping back into the hobby sooner (2010 for me) and jumping back in as i try not to imagine what i would have done with all the money ive spent thus far. 

[justafan]

On 8/21/2021 at 2:41 PM, Nazirite said:

 That is why at age 26, I’m not to pressed on missing out on books. When you have time on your side what’s the rush? I do see video games possibly overtaking comics in the future. The amount of money from baby boomers and to an extent generation x propping up this hobby is underestimated. My 2 cents.

I think fortune will possibly favor the few young who stick with the hobby into its decline as a bunch of older folks sell off for retirement and the billionaires get bored of owning a collectible that has fallen out of popularity. 

However, if there are enough collectors your age in the hobby then we probably still have another 20-30 good years of comic collecting.

[Qalyar]

On 8/22/2021 at 10:54 AM, justafan said:

Is there a cgc or ngc for philately and a census? If not do you think it ever will.

Yes, but...

PSE is the big name in stamp encapsulation, but the philatelic community has been largely, well, hostile to slabbing. Storage has been a big concern. In comic terms, nearly all stamp collectors collect runs. And for many series, entire series can fit on a single album page. Really expansive categories, like a full collection of WashFranks, might be over a dozen pages, but that represents hundreds of individual stamps. A mature collection of classic US issues, 1847 to, say, 1938, all fits in one album, but is potentially close to a thousand stamps. The cost of slabs adds up, and storage is a nightmare.

Plus, just like lots of us want to be able to turn the pages of a comic, there's a strong desire by many philatelists to be able to flip through their albums, seeing how they've filled in the collection and immediately spotting the gaps left to find.

Beyond all that, there are several grading orgs that will grade and certify a stamp with a photo-included certificate, but without slabbing. All together, it makes slabbed philately pretty niche. But I do think it might be important in the future if the hobby recovers.

[WEBHEAD]

One thing for sure the art work from the 60s might live forever

[WEBHEAD]

[WEBHEAD]