How, or why, did you start collecting comics? Here's my story.... 4 4

[Galen130]

Hey gang!!!  I'm sure a similar thread/threads were created on this subject, but I opted not to dig through the forums to find one.  I personally have not explained why I got started with comic collecting, hence this thread.  If there's another thread that is already pretty extensive, then by all means post a link.  Otherwise, let's hear your stories!!! 

When I was a kid in the 70's, I would occasionally ask my dad to buy me a comic because of the cover...like Devil Dinosaur #1.  What young boy didn't like dinosaurs???  This was long before Jurassic Park came out in theaters.  I even had dinosaur models around my bedroom!!!  From the mid 70's until about the mid 80's, I would get comics based on their cover.  Ghost Rider #1 was a favorite of mine as well.  Then I read my first novel...Stephen King's 'The Stand'.  It was my dad's copy and he wanted to expand my reading capabilities.  After that, I became a voracious reader (still am, when I have the time).

When I decided to leave college and join the Air Force in 1989, my first permanent duty station was Little Rock AFB, Arkansas.  I would find myself buying comic books at the BX based an their covers.  Soon, though, I started buying every new issue of Batman and Detective Comics.  I would read them, because what are comic book titles but very long stories (normally).  I was still reading novels too, but comics were a decent distraction between books.  This would be the start of my current collection of raw comics, which I am slowly selling off.  I found an LCS in West Little Rock and I became a regular customer.  I had a pull list, which grew exponentially over time.  When word got out that Superman was going to be killed off, I started buying and reading Superman titles.  Funny thing to note; if a comic book issue referred to another comic book with that asterisk (*) plus issue number, I would find that comic and read it in order to fill in gaps in the story I was reading.  So my collection also has an oddball assortment of comic titles I didn't fully collect.   And my pull list grew larger.

When I left for Germany for three years in the mid 90's, my LCS would ship my comics to me.  I kept reading them, following every story.  At the time, I didn't buy comics for investment purposes, nor did I think that they would be overly valuable years down the road.  I was a 'reader' of comics, which turned into collecting comics.  I did, however, keep a hand-written database with every comic I purchased.  It took until 2017 to convert all of that into an Excel file.  Imagine how much work that took!!!   I continued buying my normal titles until I moved to Colorado in 1998, but I was in the AF Reserves by then and my paychecks weren't the same.  By the end of that year, I stopped collecting everything.  I couldn't afford it anymore.  Around 2006, I started back up again for a few years because Ghost Rider had a new series (s).  I had collected the 2nd series prior to this, and purchased the 1st series as back issues.  I really wanted to see Ghost Rider reach issue #100...that didn't happen with the 3rd series either.  I stopped collecting again.  By this time I had purchased my first home.  I was still single and I really didn't want to live in another apartment.  No comics for me.  Then I started collecting again in 2010.  Why?  Army of Darkness titles started coming out, as well as Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower'.  I was also buying back issues of my previous titles, just because.  I stopped again in 2012.

In 2017, I was converting my collection (now over 3000 raw comics) into my current Excel file.  I got married for the first time that year (and the last), so I decided to look into selling comics on eBay.  I found out that Batman Adventures #12 was hot, so I did some research online on how to grade a raw comic, joined the CGC boards, and slowly started listing on eBay.  I wasn't looking to make a fortune necessarily.  I decided it was time to whittle away at my collection and make room in the new house (20 long boxes).  Most of them hadn't been touched since they were read, boarded and bagged, and placed in a long box.  But I digress.  When I listed my BA #12 as a 9.4 on eBay, it sold for over $400!!!  THAT put the selling bug in me. Lol.  As it turned out, they buyer who purchased it sent it in to be graded and it came back a 9.4!!!  Beginner's luck, I guess.   Since then I've close my eBay account...it was 20 years old in 2020.  I got tired of the B.S.

I think I'll leave off with this paragraph.  Everything else since 2017 is pretty much moot because I've been on the boards awhile and a lot of you know what I'm about...grade estimating, selling my collection (I've sold off four long boxes in the past 4 years), purchasing CGC SS slabs, and general buffoonery.    I did buy variant covers for awhile to get them graded, then sell them, but that pretty much stopped around the time the world started dealing with the virus.  I saw the writing on the wall after a few months, so I got out.  I started getting my own comics graded, but that didn't last long either because of the state of the market and CGC's shenanigans.  Now, I'm more interested in selling raw books...using those funds to buy unique slabs for my personal collection.  My Devil Dinosaur #1 is still with me, slabbed as an 8.5.  I'm slowly listing a pile of SA/BA/CA/MA comics I had put aside for CGC submission.  A bit of my collection, plus some slabs, will stay with me.  I'm just not interested in having comics graded anymore...the luster of it all has worn off.  Ce la vie!!!

Thanks for reading my story.  Believe it or not, this is the short version.   Share your stories, please.  It's always interesting to me how people got started in comic collecting.  

[theCapraAegagrus]

I'll give you the how and the why. I'll also give you when. You already know the who and the what. The where is different places in MI.

Then, as a kid: My dad took me to comic book shops and forced* me to find something that I liked. It was always X-Men related.

Now: Circa 2014 I simply wanted to get to the source material of all the movies I was watching. I bought stuff like The Dark Knight Returns, and Marvel Masterworks, and it boomed from there.

*Not really. We wanted to be there.

[Galen130]

On 12/7/2021 at 10:32 AM, theCapraAegagrus said:

I'll give you the how and the why. I'll also give you when. You already know the who and the what. The where is different places in MI.

Then, as a kid: My dad took me to comic book shops and forced* me to find something that I liked. It was always X-Men related.

Now: Circa 2014 I simply wanted to get to the source material of all the movies I was watching. I bought stuff like The Dark Knight Returns, and Marvel Masterworks, and it boomed from there.

*Not really. We wanted to be there.

Wish I knew how to tell a shorter story.  I'm always a bit long-winded when I discuss something I'm passionate about. 

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 12/7/2021 at 12:42 PM, Galen130 said:

Wish I knew how to tell a shorter story.  I'm always a bit long-winded when I discuss something I'm passionate about. 

I just know that the members of this site have short attention spans.

[ADAMANTIUM]

I'm not sure if I have an origin story per se.

I grew up collecting baseball cards at the year 1987-1990, the most printed era. I had gaming magazines too.

Every once in a while I'd read comics in a store awaiting anything good. I helped myself to give finger discounts throughout the years, then later felt bad and gave them all away.

I kept the ones parents bought, and when X-Men the animated series came out, I got a marvel subscription to two titles: ASM classics and wolverine issues after the loss of ADAMANTIUM.

To say I collected anything was an over statement. I knew stories from friends but mostly did my collecting in 2014-2015. Discovered the registry in 2015, signed up but didn't have slabs to add. I then discovered the boards and lurked for about 6 months while at college, and I joined in 2016 to ask about signature series, since I had participated at cons with Stan Lee.

It was a "lot" but not so much to "tell".

I get more exited telling the origin of cons for me and my brother, as that was all impromptu, along with first signature series at those cons. I've told that before, but that was when I decided to keep going with officially "collecting!"

[Galen130]

On 12/7/2021 at 10:45 AM, theCapraAegagrus said:

I just know that the members of this site have short attention spans.

What are we talking about???

[csaag]

Back in the latter half of the 70's, I remember my father walking down the basement and tossing me a Flash comic (which prob turned it from a 9.4 into a 8.5!).  I don't remember the details but I must have mentioned it to a friend at school was was currently collecting. He got me to meet him at a local pharmacy where we headed to the spinner rack at the back of the store.  He was a DC collector so I started with mostly DC's. I was prob using allowance money back then.

From there we took occasional trips on the bus/train into center city Philly to visit the comic book store and compared our stashes on the trip home. Eventually a shop opened up in my area which I rode my bike to and poured my paper route dollars into.  Prob collected about a dozen years

[Crops068]

I have always been a bit of a nerd.  I started getting odds and ends just from the cover in the late 80s/early 90s when I would go random places with my Dad that was trying to get new business (he sold paper products to businesses).

Most of the comics I had as a kid have been lost to the black hole of time.  But I still have the most memorable of them (for me anyways) -  Infinity Gauntlet #1 (CGC 9.8 SS with Perez and Rubinsten sigs) and Wolverine #41 (raw).

I have jumped around a bunch over the years, now more settled in getting stuff I enjoy reading and mostly indie books.  Along with working on at least raw all the appearances of Thanos.

[Muno42]

Read them casually until 4th Grade. My friend Danny LOVED comics! He drew a lot like a young Kirby and would make sound effects while drawing the Human Torch, or growl while he drew the Hulk smashing through a wall. I was hooked and all the people that made money off of me in this industry owes Danny a percentage.

[Axelrod]

Posted my not-super-exciting story in this thread a little bit ago. 

https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/481719-stories-about-our-first-contact-that-sealed-our-love-for-comics-in-general/#comment-11567388

Funny I was already thinking about it with the George Perez news today.  

Edited December 7, 2021 by Axelrod

[Galen130]

On 12/7/2021 at 12:54 PM, Axelrod said:

Posted my not-super-exciting story in this thread a little bit ago. 

https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/481719-stories-about-our-first-contact-that-sealed-our-love-for-comics-in-general/#comment-11567388

That's why I didn't look for a similar thread...that one is probably buried in the forums by now.  Thanks for including the link though.   

Looks like it didn't get a lot of traction...maybe we can do so with this one. 

[Ken Aldred]

As well as liking the stories and pictures in the comics, as a British kid I found there was nothing like the smell of American newsprint first thing in the morning. Also, safer than napalm.

[Galen130]

In regards to collecting, today I claimed a slab that was signed by George Perez (among others).  Then I read a thread a fellow boardie started earlier today AFTER I snagged it.  The thread was in regards to his current health crisis.  I thought it as bad/poor timing, but I did offer to the seller he could keep it instead of selling it to me.  He graciously declined.   That slab was going into my PC anyway.  I still have hopes for Mr. Perez…you just never know. 😕🙂

[kav]

I was at a news stand and saw this comic of a guy in like a trapeze costume lifting a green car.  I was mesmerized.  Bought every copy they had-15.
I wonder if they worth anything today.

[Galen130]

On 12/7/2021 at 8:59 PM, kav said:

I was at a news stand and saw this comic of a guy in like a trapeze costume lifting a green car.  I was mesmerized.  Bought every copy they had-15.
I wonder if they worth anything today.

So you're, like, a hundred years old???

Edited December 8, 2021 by Galen130

[kav]

On 12/7/2021 at 8:03 PM, Galen130 said:

So you're like a hundred years old???

Boom.  Roasted.
@greggy

[Galen130]

On 12/7/2021 at 9:03 PM, Galen130 said:

So you're, like, a hundred years old???

I has to fix my sentence structure here.  I don't want to be mistaken for an uneducated nerd...

[GeneticNinja]

I can't remember the how or why. I do remember posting in that first comic shop topic around here. I was attempting to recall that comic shop but couldn't. Yet I did post what was probably my first comic. And I remembered some of the old mall bookstores that are no longer around that sold comics.

[littledoom]

Watching the early Spider-Man/Hulk/Blade early 2000s Marvel movies then buying the Toybiz/Marvel Legends figures associated to those films and then learned they originated from comics walah

[Ken Aldred]

On 12/8/2021 at 3:59 AM, kav said:

I was at a news stand and saw this comic of a guy in like a trapeze costume lifting a green car.  I was mesmerized.  Bought every copy they had-15.
I wonder if they worth anything today.

It wasn’t drawn by Curt Swan, so to you it’s most likely worthless drek now.