How many are we?

[adamstrange]

I'm new here, and am enjoying the dialogues.

 

Any guesses as to how the percentages of active collectors break down: GA only, SA only, BA only, GA/SA, SA/BA, GA/SA/BA?

 

Welcome to the boards!

 

The Dr. Townsend from CBM days? Pre-hero monsters and all that?

[gasa]

Yes. Thanks for the welcome, these boards are really enjoyable!

[adamstrange]

Yes. Thanks for the welcome, these boards are really enjoyable!

 

Cool!

 

Your article on the Marvel monsters piqued my interest in those books!

[gasa]

Thanks, it was a labor of love, piqued by early Kirby FFs and Thors and wondering where that all came from. I had to collect them all first, which took awhile, and many in ultra low grade. The analysis and categorization of monster types was the easy part. Wish I still had those copies today!!

[the blob]

As for which eras, I think there's a lot of dabbling into non-primary areas. Wouldn't even the Most ardent SA/BA collecting Marvel zombie be a tad interested in some sweet Timelys?

[gasa]

I agree, Blob. I'm the same way, and tend to go all over the map. But it would be interesting to speculate on the question of how the pie is cut up among the primary interests of hardcore collectors, as defined by aman619.

Maybe primarily GA collectors are 20%, primarily SA 30%, primarily BA 50%?

[PovertyRow]

Just a general observation - 3,000??? Are you

 

5 figures easily. Don't even see the need to explain it.

[HouseofComics.Com]

I'm new here, and am enjoying the dialogues.

 

Any guesses as to how the percentages of active collectors break down: GA only, SA only, BA only, GA/SA, SA/BA, GA/SA/BA?

 

Welcome to the boards!

 

The Dr. Townsend from CBM days? Pre-hero monsters and all that?

 

Nice spot Adam! Welcome to the boards!

[HouseofComics.Com]

As for which eras, I think there's a lot of dabbling into non-primary areas. Wouldn't even the Most ardent SA/BA collecting Marvel zombie be a tad interested in some sweet Timelys?

 

Definitely though the affordability issues don't help. I remember a collector in the Kalamazoo area named Gary Ehn back in the 80s. Loved Captain America, SA and BA. (We were still in the BA, I'd say.) One December day his girlfriend was with him and she snuck back into my little Saturday-only shop on some pretext and slipped me $30 for my All-Winners 10 for him as a Christmas present. Nice little gift. But it would be $350 today and really kind of different I think.

 

Having said that, there's a ton of crossover between SA and BA, way more than the percentages that have been bandied in this thread. I'd say almost all Marvel collectors want ASM all the way back. I think the only pure Marvel 1970s collectors I know are doing it for economic reasons. Ie, they have to specialize because they want high grade and can't afford to go back any further.

 

DC is a little different deal. If you like Batman in the 1970s, they are quite different than the Batman of the 50s and 60s. So I can see a little less crossover there. But the Marvel guys are really devout.

 

The pct. of people buying GA is definitely single digits. (As an aside, these forums have a great record in spurring people to buy their first GA book.)

 

Marc

[PovertyRow]

Im sort of asking if these boards are really representative of the majority of collectors, and how many have NOT been buying slabs etc.

 

Even though I have not been collecting this past year I have been involved enough the previous 25 years. I've always felt these boards represent a minority. Just because this place is where we congregate it does not mean it is the place of the majority. Just the place "we" are most familiar with.

 

Go to any show or shop. Probably ebay as well. Note the ratio of raw to slabbed for sale and note the ratio of raw to slabbed being looked at and sold. Raw really does have it all over slabbed. In my opinion the reason is that, like I used to, many if not most collectors want to feel and smell and read a book.

[Aman619]

I see your point POV. Clearly a slabbed book is for an investment in its condition and value: that the condition will remain constant and the value willl increase. And therefore must be selling to collectors who already HAVE the comic and read it, or, pure investipeculators. So it stands to reason that raw collectors must outnumber slabbed, and that we here would be overly represented by slab collectors who are of the

already got it and read it" variety.

[PovertyRow]

I see your point POV. Clearly a slabbed book is for an investment in its condition and value: that the condition will remain constant and the value willl increase. And therefore must be selling to collectors who already HAVE the comic and read it, or, pure investipeculators. So it stands to reason that raw collectors must outnumber slabbed, and that we here would be overly represented by slab collectors who are of the

already got it and read it" variety.

 

My god that was lucid!

[Apotheosis]

This is from Heritage's front page... how honest they are is up to you guys to decide...

 

"Heritage Delivers Bidders 42,910 Comic bidder-members and 280,109 Heritage bidder-members overall."

 

If they do indeed have almost 43k bidder-members you have to assume that they are almost all GA/SA/BA collectors since they do very little with moderns.

[Aman619]

interesting. even assuming that a certain portion of theur registered members are either idle browsers who signed up at one time but never bid, or bidders who for whatever reason signed up more than once, that still has to leave 30K+ interested comics buyers.

[the blob]

25,000 of those could be heritage employees!

[Point Five]