Is Comic Collecting Still Fun

[bugsy]

This is something that someone remarked on a few months ago and something i think about from time to time. With the new Overstreet now out i wondered how many of you have checked out the prices of comics you own or want, read the dealers market reports, or even bought this years Overstreet. Many of the collectors ive spoken to have less enthusiam now for the hobby than they have ever had before for a variety of reasons. How do you Corralers feel? Is comic collecting still fun or has your enthusiasm diminished?

[malaprop]

yep, it is for me. Just not the new ones.

[comicworkbench]

Interesting. Yes and no is my answer.

I was talking to one of my uncles by marriage who is a little negative and said he thought that collecting comics will be like stamp collecting. There is a generation or two who are into comics. After that generation either dies off, loses interest or moves on to other hobbies, the comic market will fall and most comics will be worthless. I think this uncle was a stamp collector who speculated in the wrong stamps. He may have a point somewhere though. If you collect comics to make money, don't bother. If you collect comics and expect them to maintain the value you spent on them, expect to lose some money.

I have gone through stages in my life where comics were boring or I did not have any exta money for them or whatever. Right now I love them and really enjoy collecting, sorting my comics and looking for stuff that sounds cool. I buy stuff I like and covet things I love and treat them like gold. Not everything that has a big value in the price guide are my most valuable comics. It is really cool when I find something that I thought might be good and it turns out good.

Is it still fun to collect? Depnds on the person. It is like asking someone how close are they to God. It depends on the day.

[fulltimer56]

Right now it's still fun to collect for me. But I did quit collecting/reading back in the beginning of the 90's because of the work that was being put out and the price was just going up too much/ too fast at the time for my pocketbook.

I'm back into comics but again the price keeps me from really getting into it as much as I was in the 70's and 80's. I have NEVER bought a comic with the idea that it would be worth more down the road. If I didn't like the storyline or art work I don't buy it or if I'm buying it and it changes by ways I don't like I quit buying it. Like the comics I sell on ebay or here, they are books I no longer enjoy and I need to sell them to make room for more of the ones I do enjoy. Plus I spend most everything I make on ebay to buy more comics both older ones I don't have and want and the new ones I'm reading now.

I enjoy reading, sorting and looking for the ones I don't have, much like comicworkbench! Who's to say that down the road I don't get tried of messing with them again, Who knows! But right now I'm enjoying myself!!

Plus remember I was buying/reading/collecting comics back when there wasn't very many girls doing that!! Needless to say I was a rare bird, indeed!

Linda

[camper49]

Oh yes!
I'm in my forties, I've been reading comic books since I was four, collecting since I was 8.
I have no friends who ever collected comic books nor have I ever sought out comicbook-collecting friends...hey, I collect comic books, I do not collect comicbook-collecting friends!
Anyway, I don't collect to make money.
I collect to read them over and over and over again.
Circumstances have me now selling off a good chunk of my collection (see my Amazing Spider-Man books up for sale on eBay as we speak) but this doesn't mean I'll stop buying them to read.
My exception to the rule...I'm after a complete CGC 9.8 BATMAN series collection.
So far I've got 169 of them and counting. And so i can read them, I also keep a raw copy handy!

[Nat 20]

I enjoy collecting. I read mainly newer comics. So I don't have to worry about making ANY money off them at all :O I read them for the stories not the investment.

People have been saying that the comic market will die for 15 years now. But if you go to a Con you know thats simply not true. There you will see hundreds or thousands of people all having fun trying to get there little slice of comic book history. From Gen Y to the old timers. From Faust to Archie there is simply so much stuff out there... I mean there is something for all walks of life. People are fanatical and comics are something that people can go crazy over.

Buy as many comics as you can afford I say. #woohoo#

[oxbladder]

I enjoy it still as long as I can avoid thinking about how corrupt it is "at the top". (Not meaning the top grade but at the top of the power structure.) People are being fleeced and most willingly accept it to hob-knob with the elite. Thinking about that makes me ill. Whenever i get wrapped up in that I just go and read comics and remind myself what I am in the hobby for.

[pasnat54]

It's still fun for me, but in a different way then when I was a kid. Back then, I never worried about their condition; I read them simply for pleasure. I still don't worry about condition too much, as I don't buy anything for investment purposes. But I know that comics have become a business, and there's a pang of guilt if I accidently put a crease in the spine of a book. Does it bother me? Only to the extent that I think "What if I want to sell that someday?" But I really have no plans to sell my collection.

I suppose some of the fun has gone out of it simply because I don't read any superhero books these days, and that's all I collected back in the day. (At least until DC revitalized its Mystery (and Secrets) books.)

Usagi Yojimbo, Castle Waiting, Fables, and few others are more my speed nowadays. They're still fun for me.

Right now, my fun comes from filling in holes in my collection. For example, my favorite artist is Russ Heath. I never collected Sea Devils when I was a kid, but since I discovered Russ did the first 10, I decided to go after them. I got the first 10, then decided to go for the complete run of 36. I only need one more.

I also discovered Russ did the cover for a late GA book, and I won that issue. I also liked the silly simplicity of the book, so I'm trying to build a complete run there as will. Need four out of the 26.

For me, collecting comics is fun to the extent that I like seeing something I read as a kid come up for auction and bidding on it. I like the simple innocent and sometimes wacky nostalgia of the books from the days when I'd ride on my bike to the liquor store and come back with 8 funny books for a dollar.

As far as collecting today's books, most of the superhero books are too overwrought, intertwined and faux-gritty for my tastes. That's why the only hero book I read is X-Men; First Class. It hearkens back to the less complicated days of early Marvel Age of Comics.

[Hoss]

Yes, comic collecting is still fun for me. I love getting new issues each week and my list just keeps growing and growing.

I'm a modern age kind of guy myself, so I am fairly sure that my comics will never be valuable. I don't really look at price guides too often, unless I am selling comics (which I haven't done in ages now).

The fun of sitting in my comic room and just flipping thru my long boxes, rereading buried treasures and just looking at all the cool covers never gets old. I spend the last hour or so of my day just digging around in my collection, trying to sort and organize, but more often than not getting sidetracked with a cool story that I just have to read again!

--

[jaydeebee]

For me, collecting new comics is still fun, or maybe I should say, fun again.:cool:

There was a time in the mid-90's when I almost stopped collecting completely. At that time, among other factors, the prices were going up faster than my income could handle. Up until then. I had been accustomed to buying everything that was published, so it was bankrupting me. Plus, the comics for the most part were horrible, the art was terrible, the writing was unoriginal and the three "G's"; Grim, Gritty and Gimmicks were really getting old. I was buying crap, for the sake of crap. I realized I didn't enjoy most of what I was buying, and it was never going to be worth even cover price, much less finance my retirement. :roll:

The upside was, during that time when I wasn't buying very much new stuff, I came across some collections of bronze and silver stuff and was able to fill in my back issues on some of my favorites series, like LOSH, Avengers, Uncanny X-Men and of course Action Comics and Superman! I even bought some Golden-Age goodies during that time that I never could have afforded if I'd been shelling out as much on new stuff. :D

But in the 2000's I've returned to my new comics collecting ways with a vengeance. No longer buying crap for crap's sake, now I'm far more choosey about the crap I buy! Yes I know most of it still won't be worth more than I paid for it, but I enjoy the writing and art and that's enough for me. ;)

The cover prices are higher than ever, and that does still limit me, but it's also forced me to hone in on the stuff I really care about. :o

I've come to realize the only way to be a successful collector is to buy what you love, and let the collection be it's own reward. Speculating on what's going to be "hot" and "rare" is a sure-fire way to suck every last ounce of enjoyment from any hobby! #oldie#

[Capitalrecoveryman]

Not as fun as collecting toy cars, but still fun.

[jaydeebee]

I wish you'd been around when I unloaded my toy cars back in the early 2000's!

[Capitalrecoveryman]

Me too.

I have a sweet Hot Wheels Sizzlers (remember those?) mostly unplayed with set complete with cars from 1970 on my watch list as we speak. It closes at noon tomorrow.

[mordo]

Here is a confession: I have 3 toy cars I got from inside cereal boxes. Sometimes when I'm at my desk I like to simulate collisions and near-collisions. Doing spinouts is fun too.

[jaydeebee]

Here is a confession: I have 3 toy cars I got from inside cereal boxes. Sometimes when I'm at my desk I like to simulate collisions and near-collisions. Doing spinouts is fun too.

Do you make the sounds too? SCREEEEEEEECH, KaThooooom!:D

[fulltimer56]

I just picked up a box full of the little toy cars still on bubblecards.

[mordo]

Do you make the sounds too? SCREEEEEEEECH, KaThooooom!:D

:D

[yarmak]

I never buy new off the shelf comics ever anymore and have not done so for at least 10 years.I still like picking up old comics tho 80's down and what I do pick up is mostly ducks lots and lots of ducks with WDCS and the old Aussie comics pre 1966.
If I ever see old EC ( haha) or atlas or warren or marvel / DC stuff will pick it up too but I do not chase it.
Im more into collecting books these days specially horror
Dave

[fulltimer56]

Hi Dave,

Have you read Robert Adams's "Horseclans" series? They are not horror but they are a super great read!!

Linda

[Capitalrecoveryman]

I just picked up a box full of the little toy cars still on bubblecards.

What did you get Linda? Anything pre-1985?

[malaprop]

hey Yarmak, I just finished rereading the Shuttered Room and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft, probably 30 years after the first time. My wife of course thinks I'm weird.

[fulltimer56]

What did you get Linda? Anything pre-1985?

I'm not sure what I got! I picked up the box at a church garage sale a few months ago and haven't had time to go though it yet. I'll let you know what I have as soon as I get a chance!

Linda

[yarmak]

Hi Dave,

Have you read Robert Adams's "Horseclans" series? They are not horror but they are a super great read!!

Linda

Hi Linda

no mate I have not - will keep my eye out tho it is added to the list of books to look out for
thankyou for this :)
Dave

[yarmak]

hey Yarmak, I just finished rereading the Shuttered Room and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft, probably 30 years after the first time. My wife of course thinks I'm weird.

Hi Malaprop
what is wrong with this mate? good stories from what I remember
Pls let her know that this is no way weird at all

I picked up some old Aussie authors this weekend gone from the 1930's - 1950's
Maria is totally used to this now and even helps me look :)
Dave

[disneyteddies]

Comic books have always been fun for me and after thirty five years of straight collecting I want to collect, sort, buy, sell, organize, read, talk and breathe even more. Comics are slowly taking a huge dominant part of my life and they are almost all I think about. Comics kind of lost me in the late nineties because of everyone dying or getting crippled but then coming back to a full recovery (plus the stupid cover price and lousy artwork...sorry modern reader's...just me) and a hero being replaced with a third person...how many Iron men are there?? LoL! I learned at that time that I don't need new comics that were turning me off when there is ohhhh.. about 40 kabillion golden and silver age comic books I've never even seen. For the last ten or so years I now look for the holes in my collection, have a large dream list (I get from time to time) and have been educating myself in all aspects of buying, selling, grading, archiving, and even teach a comic book class every few months to beginner collectors.

People have been saying that comics will be dying out sometime soon but nothing is farther from the truth, in fact now that baby boomers are parting with their incredible collections a whole new breed of youngsters are back in the comic book game and the industry is not letting up for a second. Tell me how something that is 60 years old today and worth 5000 bucks is going to be worth less money in twenty years if it is kept in the same condition. If A-Rod can be worth (which no sports player is) 28 million a year to play a game, then surely comic books like art and real estate will be around for a long time!

I LOVE comic books!!!!!!

[sterlingcomics]

I can't speak for anyone else, but comic collecting I think has various phases that folks go through. Sometimes I'm focussed on high grade "collecting", sometimes I'm just reading for the stories, and sometimes I'm just burned out and need a break. Keeping it all in perspective and balanced keeps the fires burning brighter, I think.

As some previous posters noted, the hobby goes through cylcical phases as well...I hope that the business has learned from past mistakes, but I am surprised at the increased interest people are having in the hobby. Maybe before long "normal" people will be into it. #exorcist#

[SILLYSHIP--pirate eye--]

I was out of it, as far as reading goes, but I am now back into it, reading different things, like VERTIGO titles lately.

The collection aspect always perplexes me. Why hold onto things? But I keep buying. The main thing I buy is the stuff that makes comic history, keys.

I also love certain stories, but most of my collection is stories I liked but may not care about anymore. Why do I still keep them?

[Blah]

I go through a lot of different phases too.

Sometimes I'm very into superhero comics, and other times I can downright loathe them. There are only a few select comics that I've collected for a long period of time.

[djpinkpanther67]

Collecting is still fun for me. I can't really stomach the modern stuff but I have been buying them as they are part of the title I collect. I focus more on SA & BA so it keeps it interesting for me :grin:

[SILLYSHIP--pirate eye--]

I'm in a phase of not digging super hero titles. They seem real goofy to me right now. I can only handle them if they are in the light of Top 10 or Marvels, of at least Xstatix. SA and GA books are much more impressive in your hands than modern age books, but the stories are often really dumb, so I don't mind having keys of SA, GA and even hard to get BA books in slabs. You can usually find a reprint of the stories somewhere if you want to read it.
Reading is only one aspect of collecting and even breaks down further. I buy and I collect some books in order to read them, but I always do it through second hand. I almost never ever buy a book new, not even a graphic novel. This doesn't help the guys making comics now, they don't even get the market feedback from my preferences, but that's the way I do it. It's like BSG, I love the show, but I DL eps from the net and that could be a contributing factor to the eventual canellation of the show, but that's the way I do it.
Anyway, to answer the original OP, I've been collecting for about 26 years now, and it's still fun. There is always something new to see and I love the stories, some of them anyway. The business of it somehow makes it more solid. Money makes everything more important. I'm selling about 16 longs now and even that was sort of fun, I liked looking at at, identifying and grading the books. You learn a lot about a book when you sell it, I think more than buying it.

[Hepcat]

Sure comic collecting is still fun. Otherwise I wouldn't do it. And market reports are the last place I look to tell me whether I'm having fun or not.

;)

[razz]

Sure comic collecting is still fun. Otherwise I wouldn't do it. And market reports are the last place I look to tell me whether I'm having fun or not.

;)

Get out now, while you can Mortimer.

Sell ! Sell ! Sell !