Thrill of the Hunt or Click Here Collector? How have your buying habits and methods changed over the years. 3 3

[Krydel4]

I've certainly changed my habits after collecting for over 35+ years now. I used to be a strictly LCS guy, if they didn't have it, I didn't get it. As I got older and had more freedom of mobility, I started to venture to Cons and further afield LCS to find books. I didn't buy my first book online until 2019. Then it was almost a strictly online purchasing for about a year or 2 and now I find myself dropping the online and going back to the LCS and Cons as I get more satisfaction from I guess putting in the work to track down a book than putting a search term into Google. How about you guys and gals?

[rlextherobot]

It kinda depends on the type of book for me - more expensive stuff is largely purchased on these boards, or from a few trusted online vendors with reasonable prices. I find local comic show prices to be outlandish on anything considered to be a "key", and the dealers reluctant to cut a deal. That said, I really love digging through bins and finding good deals or weird rarities that fly under the radar. I have a short list of books I buy on sight when I see them cheap just because they're neat and I love being able to give them away to friends. That's the kind of collecting that'll never get old to me. 

[bc]

Depending on what you collect, the hunt may have just expanded to digital venues as part of a natural progression.

The LCS and cons are typically a local hunt. Buying online is still hunting, but on a larger scale.

-bc

[Krydel4]

On 8/15/2023 at 3:38 PM, bc said:

Depending on what you collect, the hunt may have just expanded to digital venues as part of a natural progression.

The LCS and cons are typically a local hunt. Buying online is still hunting, but on a larger scale.

-bc

Agree. Now it just comes down to money really. You can basically type any issue into the Ebay search engine and you'll get a minimum of 10 hits back. That kinda takes the thrill away of a find in the real world. Like the T-rex and the Goat.

[bc]

On 8/15/2023 at 7:27 PM, Krydel4 said:

Agree. Now it just comes down to money really. You can basically type any issue into the Ebay search engine and you'll get a minimum of 10 hits back. That kinda takes the thrill away of a find in the real world. Like the T-rex and the Goat.

Umm, I collect high grade Pre-Hero Marvels (8.0+) from late '58 to '63.

You can hit every search engine/website/LCS/auction house/garage & estate sales for years and still not find every issue. I know, I've been collecting them since 2008. Like I said earlier, it depends on what you collect. Sure SA and BA titles are more like "ordering" based on your check book, but for other collectors, it ain't that easy.

-bc

[Krydel4]

On 8/15/2023 at 5:30 PM, bc said:

Umm, I collect high grade Pre-Hero Marvels (8.0+) from late '58 to '63.

You can hit every search engine/website/LCS/auction house/garage & estate sales for years and still not find every issue. I know, I've been collecting them since 2008. Like I said earlier, it depends on what you collect. Sure SA and BA titles are more like "ordering" based on your check book, but for other collectors, it ain't that easy.

-bc

Yeah, GA is definitely a different beast when it's not the Keys you're after.

[lizards2]

I haven't lived in an area with a LCS or Convention within 200 miles since 1990. So there you go.

and FU greggy.

Edited August 16, 2023 by lizards2

[ExNihilo]

Option C: Whatever's cheapest.

When it comes to keys, I'll buy from whomever has the best price, whether it's an LCS, local con, or online.  When completing arcs, it's largely LCS and local con (hellllllo dollar bins).  The occasional big value book within an arc, I'll buy online.  I love the feeling of finding a deal or series amongst the dollar bins, but otherwise, I don't really subscribe to the thrill of the hunt of going to all the LCS's in an area in search of one book.

[Robot Man]

I’ve been collecting for over 50 years. Definitely been a weird and on going transition.

I started out buying off the racks, trading with kids in the neighborhood and garage sales and used book stores. Never more than cover price.

My dad took me to Hollywood to Cherokee Books, Collector’s Books and Bond Street. I then began to pay more than cover price. I then started hitting Swap Meets and Flea Markets. When comic stores opened, I hit them too but didn’t find much vintage books there.

Started going to small local cons and SDCC. 

Then came TBG and mail order. In 1998 I discovered the internet and EBay and my collecting really took off.

I then discovered the big auction sites but found (and still do), that a lot of the prices were prohibitive.

Now days I do all of the above but times have really changed. Local shops have no vintage books. Flea Markets have really dried up and now, tons of competition. eBay listings have really dried up on the vintage books I look for. There is always the big Auction sites but like in the past, prices are high and lots of competition. My buying has slowed down to a dribble.

Been a great and fun ride. And so glad I hung on to what I picked up in the past. Still in the game but a lot less obsessed. 

[sfcityduck]

The stuff I'm looking for includes some really esoteric material. I'm searching all over the internet to find that stuff. Not just eBay (although it can be super helpful for books that people generally don't know about or appreciate yet - I've picked some really really rare Bronze Age books on eBay) but also Craigslist, an array of auction sites beyond the usual comic go to's, and retailer sites in areas other than comics.

Examples: When my kid went off to college in another part of the country (Syracuse, NY), I checked out the Craigslists for that area before I went to visit him. That's how I serendipitously picked up a copy of a rare DC that Ian Levine said was one of the toughest finds to complete his DC collection - How You Can Defend Your Home. I ended up driving a few hours to Buffalo and back to get my $20 find. I also ended up selling that one for a few thousand because it wasn't in my wheelhouse.

When I read on this board that no one could locate or had even seen a copy outside of the Library of Congress of the comic that Frederic Wertham said was the "only good comic ever published," I searched fine art and related sources using the internet because I knew the artist was a fine artist and illustrator. I ultimately located a copy of The Nightingale after over a year of searching. I sold that to SOTIcollector so he could become the first and only person to put together a complete collection of all comics referenced in Seduction of the Innocent.

And for my own personal grail, a 1931 book that has been dubbed "a history-making revelation," "the first graphic novel," "first autobiographical graphic novel," and "first manga published in the U.S." by TIME and The Comics Journal, and a "treasure" by Will Eisner, I spent 15 years combing the internet until I finally found a copy on eBay.

All completely different but thrilling internet hunts that led to big payoffs.  

Edited August 16, 2023 by sfcityduck

[Gonzimodo]

When I was younger and had more energy and free time, you couldn't keep me from digging through any long box I could find.  Now that I'm older and lazier, I mostly fill gaps in my collection online.  It just seems harder and harder to find those rare, underpriced gems anymore without putting in more time and effort than I'm willing to. 

[Dick Pontoon]

My story is similar to Robot Man's. I started buying off the rack in the mid-'70s and then going to the monthly Boston show. I'd hit used bookstores and comic stores, which were less common then and often a tad pricier than a show. In the late '90s I started buying online. I don't get any special charge out where/how I buy a book, I care more about adding it to my collection. Where I bought it doesn't really matter.

[Robot Man]

On 8/16/2023 at 9:01 AM, MR. Pontoon said:

My story is similar to Robot Man's. I started buying off the rack in the mid-'70s and then going to the monthly Boston show. I'd hit used bookstores and comic stores, which were less common then and often a tad pricier than a show. In the late '90s I started buying online. I don't get any special charge out where/how I buy a book, I care more about adding it to my collection. Where I bought it doesn't really matter.

Where I bought and what I paid especially out in the wild, is very important to me. Probably better than the piece it’s self. Weather comics, pulps, old toys, advertising and sports stuff. It’s a lot about the memories of the moment and the experience that still make me smile. 

[Gonzimodo]

On 8/16/2023 at 12:01 PM, MR. Pontoon said:

I don't get any special charge out where/how I buy a book, I care more about adding it to my collection. Where I bought it doesn't really matter.

For the most part, I really do not care where I actually get most comics, with a few exceptions.  I value my Mark Jewelers books because they specifically tie back to my time in the military, and I would never actually seek out other MJ books beyond what I have.  They're just a quirk to my overall collection that I think is kind of neat.  I also personally value a lot of comics I bought off the stands in my earliest days of collecting more than gap-fillers from the same period that I bought later, but that's just nostalgia kicking in.

[Gonzimodo]

On 8/16/2023 at 12:45 PM, Robot Man said:

Where I bought and what I paid especially out in the wild, is very important to me. Probably better than the piece it’s self. Weather comics, pulps, old toys, advertising and sports stuff. It’s a lot about the memories of the moment and the experience that still make me smile. 

This is probably why I seem to place more personal value on the comics from my earlier days of collecting, before I had easy access to comic shops and the internet.  I had to scour every spinner rack in my small town to find what I wanted, and trips to actual comic shops or cons in nearby cities were truly special events.  When I was stationed overseas, I had no car and was lucky if I could tag along with someone to the nearest base with a newsstand even once a month.

Now that I live in a big city, my local comic shop is less than ten minutes away from my house, and the internet is always there.  There are a few other really good comic shops in town, too, but I've gotten so lazy and complacent that I rarely muster up the motivation to drive even twenty minutes to visit them.  (Wow, I feel like a jerk typing that out, because there are so many collectors out there who don't have even one store within 100 miles of them.)  The convenience is great, but it's taken away the thrill of the hunt and, sadly, a lot of the fun and passion for collecting that goes with it.

[F For Fake]

Back in the day, I used to keep a folded up piece of paper in my wallet, covered in TIIIIINY type, a list of all of the comics I needed. This was pre-eBay, pre-internet (as we know it now. I know that it technically existed.) If for some reason I ever found myself in a new city or town, like on vacation or whatever, I'd get the phonebook out and track down any comic shops, then I'd take that list and dig like mad in order to fill out those runs of LoSH or X-Men, or the more obscure things I just couldn't find. The thrill of the hunt!

The internet eliminated the thrill of that particular hunt, as most of what I was looking for were pretty common books, compared to, say, GA or whatever. But it created a new hunt: trying to find the best deals I could, especially once I started buying slabs. Even with so much material at my fingertips, just clicks away, there's still far more available than I could ever possibly afford to purchase, so now the hunt is to find the best deal I can on the stuff I really have to have. It's fun, in a different way.

Edited August 17, 2023 by F For Fake

[Gonzimodo]

On 8/17/2023 at 11:17 AM, F For Fake said:

Back in the day, I used to keep a folded up piece of paper in my wallet, covered in TIIIIINY type, a list of all of the comics I needed. This was pre-eBay, pre-internet (as we know it know. I know that it technically existed.) If for some reason I ever found myself in a new city or town, like on vacation or whatever, I'd get the phonebook out and track down any comic shops, then I'd take that list and dig like mad in order to fill out those runs of LoSH or X-Men, or the more obscure things I just couldn't find. The thrill of the hunt!

The internet eliminated the thrill of that particular hunt, as most of what I was looking for were pretty common books, compared to, say, GA or whatever. But it created a new hunt: trying to find the best deals I could, especially once I started buying slabs. Even with so much material at my fingertips, just clicks away, there's still far more available than I could ever possibly afford to purchase, so now the hunt is to find the best deal I can on the stuff I really have to have. It's fun, in a different way.

I always carried my folded-up list in my wallet so I'd have it everywhere I go.  Now I just keep a copy on my phone.

The convenience of that is nice.  The downside is that I usually forget to bring my old man reading glasses when I leave the house, and I probably look like one of those dooshy flippers who live and die by the Key Collector app when I'm squinting at my phone.  Yes, I do want that SUPER-HOT-BLAZING-LIKE-THE-SURFACE-OF-THE-SUN 14th appearance of SuperTerrificGuy's archvillain's second cousin's neighbor's cat THAT YOU MUST BUY NOW DUE TO TV AND MOVIE RUMORS OR YOU WILL MISS OUT ON MILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND LIVE OUT THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN POVERTY AND DISGRACE, but only because it fills a hole in my run.

Hmm, I've got the lingo down.  Maybe I should start a YouTube channel...  

[F For Fake]

On 8/17/2023 at 11:33 AM, Gonzimodo said:

I always carried my folded-up list in my wallet so I'd have it everywhere I go.  Now I just keep a copy on my phone.

The convenience of that is nice.  The downside is that I usually forget to bring my old man reading glasses when I leave the house, and I probably look like one of those dooshy flippers who live and die by the Key Collector app when I'm squinting at my phone.  Yes, I do want that SUPER-HOT-BLAZING-LIKE-THE-SURFACE-OF-THE-SUN 14th appearance of SuperTerrificGuy's archvillain's second cousin's neighbor's cat THAT YOU MUST BUY NOW DUE TO TV AND MOVIE RUMORS OR YOU WILL MISS OUT ON MILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND LIVE OUT THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN POVERTY AND DISGRACE, but only because it fills a hole in my run.

Hmm, I've got the lingo down.  Maybe I should start a YouTube channel...  

yeah, these days I keep a small list on the notes app of my phone, and I have that same fear that I'm looking like a speculator creep when in fact, I just can't remember off the top of my head which exact issue of The Adventures of Captain Jack, I'm still looking for.

[Beastfeast]

I started out buying from the gas station and grocery store and eventually moved up to only LCS’s, chasing Wizard top 10 books and general stupid 90s buying. Long since sold all those OO books. 
 

moved on to dollar bin digging and flea  markets. Now I’m in the camp of being picky about what I buy and how much I pay and really only buy books to flip and then use that money to buy collections or auction house stuff for the PC. I bought a 10,000 books collection last year and kept literally 6 comics. 
 

Im making more money than I ever have and am more picky that ever before. 

[D2]

What a great question. I Love This.

I hope people read this and enjoy reading my journey, and if not, it was fun to type. 
 

My collecting habits have changed dramatically over the years. 
 

At first, I was a kid, and collecting was more like, collecting, by definition. I bought to read and my books were literally all reader copies. I didn’t have money so any book over $20 was crazy expensive and out of reach. Typical books were Wolverine, post Adamantium, Spawn, post McFarlane, X-Men Kubert era, Age of Apocalypse, Cliffhanger! sort of thing…
Then I realized I was just buying books and not reading them so I stopped buying, and dropped the hobby altogether. Last issue I remember buying was Spawn #86.

Fast forward 18 years later and I ordered a pizza. I arrived early to pick it up and parked outside. It was 9:30 at night and to my surprise, a comic book store was still open in the same plaza, so I thought, to kill some time I’ll go inside. I haven’t bothered reading comics since I was a kid, and by this time it’s 2014 and the MCU was quite popular. Sure…

Well my nerd got pulled right in. One of the first things that caught my eye was a copy of Uncanny X-Men 213. Alan Davis’ Wolverine vs Sabretooth cover. This book was unattainable as a kid. I only dreamed of that book. And here it is in front of me, for 30 bucks. After walking around a bit and chatting with the owner, I bought the comic (and probably overpaid) and felt the power of being able to buy a comic I remember as a kid, never thinking was possible. 

Just before exiting I asked the owner a book to recommend for me, and he suggested Saga, trade volume 1. I read it… and was hooked. 

So began Journey #2 into comics, and it was a rough ride. I immediately learn about eBay and scramble to get my hands on anything Image. I also find this new fad of “signed comic books” and immediately buy anything and everything variant, Comic-Con exclusive, signed, raw. I dig back into my youth and research best reads by characters. I go off! Also note, I avoid CGC graded books as they are deemed too expensive. 

2 years later. I have acquired thousands of rare books, many signed, have attended conventions, and even sold books through eBay as a side gig on signed books. 

Well, 2+ years later and I realized something again. I now owned thousands of comic books, most of which I’ve never read. Sounds familiar. 

So this time I start reading them, mostly in trade form, to preserve the “collectibles” I’ve acquired. I did still keep reading Saga, and a few others mind you, but I was really diving in to all the other titles I bought from, suggestions, hype, influence… etc. And I’ll tell you what… most of the reads, sucked. 4 out of 5 books I read, I either hated, found cliche, or downright boring. Suddenly I had a collection of books I didn’t care about.

This is when I made the decision to sell anything I didn’t like, and immediately opened up the flood gates to sell all those books. Problem was, all were raw, and most were signed, raw… and those books are Hard To Sell. 

It took me 4 years to offload them, many of which I lost money on.

The experience basically formed my opinion today.

Today, I buy books, but very few. The books I usually buy are books I’ve read and adore. If I want signed books, they are CGC only, and typically only 9.8s. I do still have a few raw books I had signed that I’ve submitted for green labels, but those are just personal books. Now I try to keep my collection down to 50 books or less. If I read a series and love it, I’ll buy a 9.8, but that doesn’t happen often. 

I am trying to stick to reading comics. Yes, I still collect, but I’ve realized that I can’t enjoy owning a book I don’t like, so I force myself to read everything I own, because I can own something I don’t know, and that’s a waste of money and time. As an example, I bought a 9.8 blue in Ghost In The Shell. I then read the book, and realized, although I like it, I don’t care enough about it to have a $400 copy sitting in my home, so I sold it. 

But a book I loved reading so much? Now… I will absolutely hunt down and buy the best possible copy of, in CGC. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by D2
Grammar