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Are you a comic art addict?
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Are you addicted to comic art?  

59 members have voted

  1. 1. Are you addicted to art collecting or is it a light intetest? I check the boards and CAF daily - multiple times a day. I might be addicted. How do you feel?

    • Crazy addicted
      24
    • Moderately addicted
      33
    • Casuallly interested
      1
    • Can quit any time
      1


41 posts in this topic

I've only been at this for about 2 years, but compared to just about any other hobby I've ever taken up, it's the one that has hit me hardest.  However, I voted only moderately addicted vs. crazy addicted mainly for 2 reasons.  The first reason is that CAF has recently been rendered mostly unusable by my workplace's firewall, so I just kind of fell away from checking it every day.  The second, and bigger reason, is the escalating dollar amounts.  I know that there are plenty of ways to engage with this hobby at lower price levels, but the bottom line is that most of the stuff I want is priced well beyond what I'm willing to spend.  That tends to take a lot of the fun out it. 

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1 minute ago, rocket1312 said:

I've only been at this for about 2 years, but compared to just about any other hobby I've ever taken up, it's the one that has hit me hardest.  However, I voted only moderately addicted vs. crazy addicted mainly for 2 reasons.  The first reason is that CAF has recently been rendered mostly unusable by my workplace's firewall, so I just kind of fell away from checking it every day.  The second, and bigger reason, is the escalating dollar amounts.  I know that there are plenty of ways to engage with this hobby at lower price levels, but the bottom line is that most of the stuff I want is priced well beyond what I'm willing to spend.  That tends to take a lot of the fun out it. 

Same here. My CAF activity was drastically impacted by this

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I went from Crazy to Moderately and I would say I could slip into casually interested very easily. I'm expecting my first baby in two weeks, so that could be a big part of it, but it's also, as Gene says, I am pretty happy with my collection and the few pieces out there that I really want are either in permanent collections or are priced beyond what I want to pay. I could see myself continuing to buy just as easily as snapping and sending 90% off to Heritage to be auctioned. My feelings change daily. Of course, there are a solid 3-5 pieces out there that I have no idea where they are and if they ever surfaced..,. well... that could be trouble.

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4 hours ago, chrisco37 said:

Same.   Only time I ever got to CAF is when someone links a new acquisition from here.    About 10+/- years ago I was actively seeking out pages on sites and whatnot.  Haven't bought much art over the past few years (besides a collection for resale and then 2 pages with some of the proceeds).  

You said you changed about 2015.  How old is the little guy now?    That may have something to do with "priorities" or just a mindset change of "what's important".   Doesn't hurt to have your collection either.   

 

I only recently got into this, and it was around the same time I met Chris about 2 years ago. I bought some pieces from him and I got to see some amazing pieces that I couldn't afford at that time as well. Oddly enough, the person that got me interested in comic art is the same person that Chris got the art collection from. 

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i like this topic a lot-  good to meet you Dave and Matthew- i too am an addict---  once i held my first real piece of comic art i was hooked-- especially when you  actually see it with your own eyes and not in a picture-  its always better live!  glad im not alone...

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23 hours ago, SquareChaos said:

Mark me down as 'moderately addicted'. I think I'm too calculated to be 'crazy addicted', I exhibit too much self control lol

Even though I primarily collect modern art - both out of a sense of aesthetics and simple affordability - I've never felt comfortable allocating as many resources to it as I could, and I have yet to make an actual impulse purchase. I set limits for myself, and so far, manage to stand by them. As a 'for instance', just today a number of great Tradd Moore pages went up on Felix's site, including one of my top two from the issue in question... but I didn't pull the trigger. It was small potatoes compared to the deep waters some of you guys swim in, but it was outside of my comfort zone on price when discussing a brand new page (even though I love just about everything Tradd has ever done, and I'm happy to see him getting the recognition he deserves). So, while I might regret it later - that page is long gone now - that is an example of why I don't think I can really pick 'crazy addicted'... even though I spend way too much time on these message boards.

I'm in this camp.  I read the boards every day, but purchases have been minimal.  This is mainly due to school, kids, and a first house all hitting nearly simultaneously, while also having narrow interests and being generally conservative with money.  It's also partly because don't believe in the valuations on a lot of what's out there--I can't afford the high end stuff that may retain its value over the long term.  Gene's comment about spending your kids money also rings true with me, which influenced buying a rental house instead of art during the last quarterly auctions (plus I could get the house with no money down while Heritage didn't go with that plan).

The bright side is that I'm going through my comics for the first time in over 20 years and that should generate a nice chunk of cash to blow on art.

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I think I buy maybe 4 or 5 things a year typically. I keep trying to chisel it down to nothing, but there's this little pilot light for art that just stays lit. Usually no more than one larger purchase a year though, and by large I mean nothing over 4 figures. My biggest issue is space though, since the wife and I have primarily become on-the-wall or not-at-all collectors. Of course, lucky in that we are both into most of the same artists, so we've been able to fill the house with lots of wonderful work accumulated over the last 25 years, without it becoming some overwhelming Hoarders edition of an after school special. We prefer that the art we do have presents well, rather than having more art.

Wow... just realized this year marks a quarter century since I bought my first OA page at a local con, and that lightbulb went off.

Anyway, I put myself in as moderately addicted as well. I still look. I can go weeks without doing so, and then I can get into rhythms where it becomes habit for a while. But I rarely ever buy. Especially based on the collecting habits of many folks around here. But I do hit the board here most days. Even though, again, I don't post frequently. At least I don't think so.

 

 

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When I first got started I was a full blown addict.  I went bananas on buying anything that caught my eye as far as pages and commissions.  Thankfully I forced myself last year pull back on doing that and really focus on specific pieces or artists that I know that I will absolutely love to have in my collection.  So with that mentality, I have greatly reduced my spending and have the money to go after the pieces I really want when they come up for sale as opposed to buying something every month it seemed like.   I am in the same boat as Gene with that I haven't put any new money in comic art since 2015 with all the sales I did to get after the art that I am now pursuing for hopefully long term.   Now just because I put the brakes on buying everything doesn't mean that I still don't look on CAF twice a day due to the membership emails they send out of new art that I follow and of course dropping in on the boards to see what is new in someone's gallery or if something is for sale here exclusively.   So I'd say I still fall in the category of an addict since I am always still looking.

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16 hours ago, ESeffinga said:

Wow... just realized this year marks a quarter century since I bought my first OA page at a local con, and that lightbulb went off.

26 yrs for me this month.

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I just started, but I don't see myself ever going crazy with it. There are only a handful of older artists that really appeal to me, and the newer stuff is relatively cheap.

I think the value is with the new books and artists. A lot of that stuff is still very affordable. I see myself continuing to pick up pages here and there in three figure price range from new books/artists that I like, but I'm not going to be in the mix for a lot of the expensive older stuff. It seems like that ship sailed a long time ago.

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Since we all gather in a comic art board to chat about comic art collecting, I think it's safe to say there are only two valid answers for us:

"Crazy addicted" or "In denial about addiction".

 

On 01/06/2017 at 9:07 AM, JadeGiant said:

Link doesn't work for me. (shrug)

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28 minutes ago, Eltanin said:

Since we all gather in a comic art board to chat about comic art collecting, I think it's safe to say there are only two valid answers for us:

"Crazy addicted" or "In denial about addiction".

 

Link doesn't work for me. (shrug)

You don't know the secret word!

 

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