How long have you been collecting?

[drbanner]

Not really a poll per se, but I'm curious how long my fellow forum members have been reading comics, and how long have they been actively "collecting" comics (buying back issues).

 

I'm guessing I started reading comics in 4th grade (1975), by 5th grade me and my buddies were trading books, and I attended my first convention around 1980 when I explicitly remember buying an FF 3 for like $5. Graduated from college and started seriously collecting in '91...and been doing it ever since!

[supapimp]

76 or 77 is when i started, i think my first comic was the ASM w/ the spidey mobile in it.

[deathlok]

76 or 77 is when i started, i think my first comic was the ASM w/ the spidey mobile in it.

 

I remember it well.

 

[Norrin_Radd]

I think we already had a poll on this.

 

 

Only 4.5 years for me.

[Mushroom]

Been reading comics since I was 6.....

 

Started seriously collecting back issues in the late 80's.

[tth2]

Been reading comics since I was 6 (1970), got into Marvels and collecting when I was 8. Started collecting back issues in middle school, seriously collecting when I graduated from college (1986), and then started seriously seriously collecting when I graduated from law school (1993).

[joe_collector]

76 or 77 is when i started, i think my first comic was the ASM w/ the spidey mobile in it.

 

I remember it well.

 

 

That's really freaky, since that is my first real (non-reprint) comic book and the first one I bought for myself. It's strange how many of us missed out on ASM 129.

[deathlok]

76 or 77 is when i started, i think my first comic was the ASM w/ the spidey mobile in it.

 

I remember it well.

 

 

That's really freaky, since that is my first real (non-reprint) comic book and the first one I bought for myself. It's strange how many of us missed out on ASM 129.

I read mine so much, all I have is a coverless copy.

[PovertyRow]

About 24-25 years. Modern to SA to GA and finally pre-code horror/crime/adventure GGA type (Dagar Desert Hawk, Thrilling, Wings etc) stuff.

[uclapeterg]

Been reading since the 4th or 5th grade. Started collecting back issues seriously in 11th grade. Gotta love the 80's, man!

[goldust40]

Started collecting in 1972, and buying back issues in 1974. Still have virtually every book I bought from that era. Most are in VF or a little better, amazingly (I read each book several times).

[JohnBull]

What's a collector?

 

The first issues I read were in 1970 and I never threw any away at the time. First time I went to a comic shop actively looking for old or new issues was 1975. First time I spent more than I should have on comics was around 1982.

[Timulty]

I remember reading ROM and Green Lantern in the Late 70's/Early 80's. Stopped reading comics until about 1992. Read my first Hellblazer. Got me hooked on DC/Vertigo. About 96 hand to drop out due to lack of funds. Finally got on my feet earlier this year and got caught up on all the Vertigo, I missed(over 1000 comics, if you count all pre-vertigo series that went vertigo in 93). Now, I am collecting(seriously, I might add) GA's. See the signature below. So, I have been collecting 13 years off and on.

[drbanner]

76 or 77 is when i started, i think my first comic was the ASM w/ the spidey mobile in it.

 

Around that timeframe, I believe the Spidey with the Spidey-mobile in it would have been 160, not 130.

 

Unless...like me, you started reading back issues before reading new issues. My mom used to take me to the used bookstore which had back issues for 10-cents a piece! A couple of the first books I remember reading are the classic Hulk/Spidey battle issues (119-120) and some of the Marvel Super-hero Hulk reprints.

[drbanner]

I think we already had a poll on this.

 

Only 4.5 years for me.

 

I recall starting two similar polls - one with a year range "When did you start collecting", and another like "How long have you been collecting", again with a year range, both of these were anonymous polls. In this thread, I was just more curious to hear from specific posters...

[nik]

Been collecting since 75 on a regular basis, been seriously collecting since 85.

[Zonker]

First comic I remember getting was Batman 234, the O'Neil/Adams Two Face issue, new off the stands, so no surprise why I got hooked on DCs. Some of the other earliest books I remember include House of Secrets 96 (Wally Wood's "The Monster," and the Wrightson ghoul on the cover has been adopted as my current avatar), Justice League 103, Batman 246...

 

I started regularly buying new books in 1974, so I missed lots of the best early Bronze Age stuff, but I did get many of the 100 Pagers off the stands. Came across the Simonson Manhunter with Detective 438, but I missed the Wrightson Swamp Thing, Neal Adams GL/GA, Kirby Fourth World. That's probably why I like the early 70s stuff so much-- there is the sense that I missed it all by just this much!

 

First local comicon must have been 1978 or so. Among the books I remember buying was New Gods #7 ("The Pact"). Cool stuff. There was an LCS within bike riding distance from home, and it was there that I started getting my regular fix of back issues. That would again have been 1977 or 1978, the pre-drivers license years!

[mstryinspc-migration]

Not really a poll per se, but I'm curious how long my fellow forum members have been reading comics, and how long have they been actively "collecting" comics (buying back issues).

 

I'm guessing I started reading comics in 4th grade (1975), by 5th grade me and my buddies were trading books, and I attended my first convention around 1980 when I explicitly remember buying an FF 3 for like $5. Graduated from college and started seriously collecting in '91...and been doing it ever since!

 

 

35 years

ran two stores by 12

[skybolt]

When I was 9 years old back in 1980, my cousin gave me about 40 of his beat up BA Marvels. The only ones he kept for himself were the Hulk issues, since they were his favorites. Anyway, since we were fairly poor at the time, I was only able to purchase another 200 books over the next 10 years. I must have read those books about 10 times each during that time.

 

When I got to college and started working, I began purchasing about 25 to 30 new books per month until 1996/97. I was still a huge Spidey, Avengers and X-Men fan, but I did get into the Image, Malibu, Defiant, etc. craze as well. The only D.C. story arcs I was interested in were the Death of Superman (his resurrection was very uninspiring), and Batman breaking his back. Other than a couple MH orders, I completely gave up on collecting comic books until 2003 (after Spider-Man #1 came out). From 1980 through 1997, I owned about 3,000 books and read every single one of them.

 

The reason why I stopped collecting was because I started looking at the financial aspect of comic books vs. what I enjoyed reading. Since the first appearnaces of Gen 13 were selling at $40 at the time, I decided to stop buying the Avenger and Captain America titles. Once these crappy Image books started tanking in price, I realized that I was missing the point of collecting, and gave up. Story arc's like the clone saga, and Heroes Reborn didn't help much either. I really resented Marvel for trying to pass off Ben Reilly as the real Spidey, and changing Tony Stark to a teenager.

 

Anyway, when I came back to collecting in 2003, I was basically trying to pick-up a few SA Marvel mid grade copies since I never owned any. I then got into the CGC craze and began purchasing some of the BA books I loved as a kid in HG. I then moved on to some SA keys, and then to GA Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman for the covers and nostalgia. Now I'm mainly collecting good girl art. I definitely didn't plan how and what I was going to collect beforehand...........it just happened. My only regret is that I'm not reading my books anymore.

[Timulty]

I try to read every GA that I buy. I just cannot reconcile myself to leaving a slab, I buy to being unopened. That leaves me to avoid slabs. Of course, when you get to GA Batman and Wonderwoman, well I would be leery of cracking those open.