Is there a younger generation collecting comics? 3 3

[kenaran]

My 5 year old is VERY into Wonder Woman right now thanks to DC super-Hero Girls.  We got her a set of graphic novels for Christmas and she has wanted them read to her just about every night.  The FCBD floppies have been popular with her too.  Time will tell how long it lasts, but props to DC for trying, the art is decent and the stories are coherent.

[Peter Connor]

I believe the market will go up over time. Marvel continues to fish for a new fan base. (marvel rising). They always have thrown stuff out there to see what "sticks", but I think they will get more savvy about it. 

they are looking international (asian) and at the female tween demographic. The movie era will provide collectability for any of our lifetimes and after that, high quality essential comics will be still worth a lot.

 

the market might rise and fall with the general art and precious metals markets...

im newbie, so grain of salt time ....

 

 

 

[jimbo_7071]

On 11/17/2018 at 12:17 PM, Artboy99 said:

there are definitely younger buyers at the local comic shows I setup at as a vendor.

More girls buying than before as well.

Will the younger generation of buyers make the big dollar purchases? I think no but who knows?

 

On 11/17/2018 at 12:48 PM, Xenosmilus said:

That was my real question I think!

BBM (boldface by me)

I have to agree. Another question might be, are there younger collectors collecting anything? I work in education and interact with young people regularly. Precious few have any interest in collecting anything at all. They live their lives digitally. It's unreal. Some researchers have speculated that the digital/social-media age is actually causing changes in they way humans' brains develop. I see some students reading comics online, but I rarely see any reading paper comics. I became hooked on comics at age 10; I don't see any young people hooked on collecting comics or anything else. Collecting just isn't a part of the way they experience the world. I won't say that there won't be any young comic book collectors thirty years from now, but there will be very few. The hobby does have a shelf life, as any pop-culture-related hobby does. I realized that a long time ago, and I'm fine with it because I collect for enjoyment, not profit. I think of the money I put into my collection as entertainment money. After all, if I were to spend $5,000 on an overseas trip (which would be easy to do), I wouldn't get any money back from that, either.

Back in the 80s and 90s,some very good businessmen like Bill Hughes did an excellent job of convincing people that expensive comic books were investments. It was an illusion, but that illusion has been sustained long enough to make some people fairly wealthy. The hobby isn't going to tank in the near future, but if you're in your thirties, you might not want your comic collection to be your nest egg. If you're in your fifties, you probably don't have to worry.

Edited January 28, 2019 by jimbo_7071

[stevie619]

I was born in 1992 and I ve been collecting ever scince I saw sub mariner 1 on the wall on 13th ave in Brooklyn I lost most of what I got to a fire a couple years back but most people laugh at me when I say I collect ....I have a complete warlock set mostly upgraded and a great fantastic four collection thor all first appreance of warlock ...amazing spiderman up the who ha. I'll never stop and I try to encourage people to invest just for nostalgia purposes. 

[Skylath]

On 1/4/2019 at 12:06 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

On 11/17/2018 at 10:17 AM, Artboy99 said:

Will the younger generation of buyers make the big dollar purchases? I think no but who knows?

 

Also I forgot to answer this the last time I skimmed through this thread, but I've got a BOOM! Studios Power Rangers #0 Green Ranger variant that's worth about two hundred bucks now. I also bought Spawn #231 which also is floating in that price range currently. While they aren't "big bucks", per se, there are some floating around here and there.

[fastballspecial]

On ‎1‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 1:06 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

 

BBM (boldface by me)

I have to agree. Another question might be, are there younger collectors collecting anything? I work in education and interact with young people regularly. Precious few have any interest in collecting anything at all. They live their lives digitally. It's unreal. Some researchers have speculated that the digital/social-media age is actually causing changes in they way humans' brains develop. I see some students reading comics online, but I rarely see any reading paper comics. I became hooked on comics at age 10; I don't see any young people hooked on collecting anything else. Collecting just isn't a part of the way they experience the world. I won't say there won't any young comic book collectors thirty years from now, but there will be very few. The hobby does have a shelf life, as any pop-culture-related hobby does. I realized that a long time ago, and I'm fine with it because I collect for enjoyment, not profit. I think of the money I put into my collection as entertainment money. After all, if I were to spend $5,000 on an overseas trip (which would be easy to do), I wouldn't get any money back from that, either.

Back in the 80s and 90s,some very good businessmen like Bill Hughes did an excellent job of convincing people that expensive comic books were investments. It was an illusion, but that illusion has been sustained long enough to make some people fairly wealthy. The hobby isn't going to tank in the near future, but if you're in your thirties, you might not want your comic collection to be your nest egg. If you're in your fifties, you probably don't have to worry.

When I was a middle school teacher I kept comics in my closet. When my kids got done with their work early I pointed them to the stack in closet and told them to start reading.

Edited January 13, 2019 by fastballspecial

[Georgie123]

I think our hoppy has legs and will continue to grow but mostly for the silver and golden age. I think a lot of older comics don't have that many around and as people get into them they will grow in popularity and there price will grow as well. The movies are definitely helping but in 1939 if you asked the same question if, you then had  people reading them for a long time. People are in love with super heros and will continue to do so.  I think in the future women will get more into them as well. Watch the price of wonder woman's in the future

[comicginger1789]

From my experience, today’s youth wants stuff from the 90s and 2000s if they are back issue hunting. And they only wanna pay a buck or so tops...which is all they should have to pay for majority of that stuff as it was printed in mass.

 

problem where I am is that some shops charge $5-10 for random issues just because a movie came out and the character was in it. Sorry but this stuff should be for sale for under a couple bucks in order to keep kids buying. 

I don’t think many kids are collecting silver and Bronze Age. Mind you I am 29 and when I was 15-16, that was my go to and still is to this day. I worry though that if those issues become more and more expensive, todays generation will just buy tpbs for the back stories if they want them and keep up with stuff within 20 years or so from their birth.

[Sir Tannly]

On 1/4/2019 at 2:06 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

 

BBM (boldface by me)

I have to agree. Another question might be, are there younger collectors collecting anything? I work in education and interact with young people regularly. Precious few have any interest in collecting anything at all. They live their lives digitally. It's unreal. Some researchers have speculated that the digital/social-media age is actually causing changes in they way humans' brains develop. I see some students reading comics online, but I rarely see any reading paper comics. I became hooked on comics at age 10; I don't see any young people hooked on collecting anything else. Collecting just isn't a part of the way they experience the world. I won't say there won't any young comic book collectors thirty years from now, but there will be very few. The hobby does have a shelf life, as any pop-culture-related hobby does. I realized that a long time ago, and I'm fine with it because I collect for enjoyment, not profit. I think of the money I put into my collection as entertainment money. After all, if I were to spend $5,000 on an overseas trip (which would be easy to do), I wouldn't get any money back from that, either.

Back in the 80s and 90s,some very good businessmen like Bill Hughes did an excellent job of convincing people that expensive comic books were investments. It was an illusion, but that illusion has been sustained long enough to make some people fairly wealthy. The hobby isn't going to tank in the near future, but if you're in your thirties, you might not want your comic collection to be your nest egg. If you're in your fifties, you probably don't have to worry.

As an old guy, I think I find it kind of dumb for 4 people to go to lunch (as an example) ALL in a booth looking at a small screen. Happens constantly though...

Meanwhile, I am at a point that holding these pristine Heavy Metal mags is dumb also. What am I waiting for? The interested demographic to shrink even more?

The very first issue to go out of print was Sept 1978 (or so) I have 4 copies that have never been opened. Gotta look that up to confirm.

I thought some day... $$$  But alas, not to be. So, do I get them graded and slabbed? I'm still learning... and getting a bit discouraged. 

[kimik]

On 11/17/2018 at 10:17 AM, Artboy99 said:

there are definitely younger buyers at the local comic shows I setup at as a vendor.

More girls buying than before as well.

Will the younger generation of buyers make the big dollar purchases? I think no but who knows?

There are plenty of 20 somethings that buy keys from me at the other end of the booth. They focus on keys and 1st apps, not runs, though. I guess they are smarter than our generation of collectors - buy multiples of keys, not common run fillers. 

[FineCollector]

39 minutes ago, kimik said:

There are plenty of 20 somethings that buy keys from me at the other end of the booth. They focus on keys and 1st apps, not runs, though. I guess they are smarter than our generation of collectors - buy multiples of keys, not common run fillers. 

Who's teaching them to do that, though?  I wish people would stop calling it "run filler" and go back to calling it "story."  If the 20-somethings have no attachment to the books they're buying, what keeps them coming back the next time there's a downturn in the market?

[Lazyboy]

5 minutes ago, FineCollector said:

49 minutes ago, kimik said:

There are plenty of 20 somethings that buy keys from me at the other end of the booth. They focus on keys and 1st apps, not runs, though. I guess they are smarter than our generation of collectors - buy multiples of keys, not common run fillers. 

Who's teaching them to do that, though?  I wish people would stop calling it "run filler" and go back to calling it "story."  If the 20-somethings have no attachment to the books they're buying, what keeps them coming back the next time there's a downturn in the market?

Exactly. Not that all issues are equal in either importance or quality, but if runs don't matter, then neither do keys.

[Karl Liebl]

Go look at the pics of the California Comicon being posted now and tell me how many people below 18 you see...

[Skylath]

3 hours ago, FineCollector said:

Who's teaching them to do that, though?  I wish people would stop calling it "run filler" and go back to calling it "story."  If the 20-somethings have no attachment to the books they're buying, what keeps them coming back the next time there's a downturn in the market?

Amen to that, brother. Too bad we don't live in a perfect world, though.

[kimik]

4 hours ago, FineCollector said:

Who's teaching them to do that, though?  I wish people would stop calling it "run filler" and go back to calling it "story."  If the 20-somethings have no attachment to the books they're buying, what keeps them coming back the next time there's a downturn in the market?

No one is teaching them to do that, they are just collecting runs differently now. They want the keys like everyone else, but instead of reading comic runs in single issue format they do it digitally or via collected editions in TPB/HC format. I noticed this trend starting in earnest in the late 00s, and adjusted my collection accordingly as well. A lot of low to mid grade SA or BA common issues are $2 - $5 bin material now if you want to sell them, and it is generally older collectors that go for them. There is a large and growing populations of collectors now that would rather buy a collected edition TPB to read story arcs in one sitting, AND they still buy the keys/#1s to have the most important issues for their collection.

Edited January 28, 2019 by kimik

[Skylath]

1 hour ago, kimik said:

No one is teaching them to do that, they are just collecting runs differently now. They want the keys like everyone else, but instead of reading comic runs in single issue format they do it digitally or via collected editions in TPB/HC format. I noticed this trend starting in earnest in the late 00s, and adjusted my collection accordingly as well. A lot of low to mid grade SA or BA common issues are $2 - $5 bin material now if you want to sell them, and it is generally older collectors that go for them. There is a large and growing populations of collectors now that would rather buy a collected edition TPB to read story arcs in one sitting, AND they still buy the keys/#1s to have the most important issues for their collection.

In a way this could lead to a reduced number of run issues being available which may increase the want and their monetary value for those investors out there, albeit it's still going to be a while before that can happen though.

[BladeTX]

On ‎11‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 10:40 AM, Xenosmilus said:

Yeah I'm more curious of the number of collectors of print copies in the age range of 15-30.  If there are not too many in that age range I think the market will crash in the next 20-30 years....?

I can tell you for my kids, they have no interest in comics like in my day.   My 15 year old son was a big fan of Stephen King's book The Stand, and when I found out it was done in graphic art, I happily hunted down and bought the 25 issue set.  He really enjoyed that, and wanted the books for Stephen King's Dark Tower series, but there are like 70 of those so I drew the line.   Basically all the kids I see don't get a lot of entertainment from hard copy anything.  It's all on their phones, XBoxes/Playstations, Netflix, etc.   My son does like to play sports with friends outside, he's not a shut-in, but I think looking at his friends (and ruling out my 17 year old daughter and I'm guessing most young girls who could care less about comics), there isn't the desire to read comics, much less collect them where you would feel elated to find that challenging book that took 3 months to track down.   Stamp collecting died completely when the USPS went to "sticker stamps" and while coin collecting remains strong (and more expensive than comics by far), I think it too will age out eventually.    I've just restarted collecting after a 35 year absence, but it is the nostalgia of my youth (and why did I sell X-Men 94 to 150 in Mint condition for like 20 cents a book????) that drives me to collect.  And I love the series I read.

[Karl Liebl]

On 2/13/2019 at 11:51 AM, BladeTX said:

I can tell you for my kids, they have no interest in comics like in my day.   My 15 year old son was a big fan of Stephen King's book The Stand, and when I found out it was done in graphic art, I happily hunted down and bought the 25 issue set.  He really enjoyed that, and wanted the books for Stephen King's Dark Tower series, but there are like 70 of those so I drew the line.   Basically all the kids I see don't get a lot of entertainment from hard copy anything.  It's all on their phones, XBoxes/Playstations, Netflix, etc.   My son does like to play sports with friends outside, he's not a shut-in, but I think looking at his friends (and ruling out my 17 year old daughter and I'm guessing most young girls who could care less about comics), there isn't the desire to read comics, much less collect them where you would feel elated to find that challenging book that took 3 months to track down.   Stamp collecting died completely when the USPS went to "sticker stamps" and while coin collecting remains strong (and more expensive than comics by far), I think it too will age out eventually.    I've just restarted collecting after a 35 year absence, but it is the nostalgia of my youth (and why did I sell X-Men 94 to 150 in Mint condition for like 20 cents a book????) that drives me to collect.  And I love the series I read.

I sold X Men 5 to 150 for around 20 bucks a book in 1990 so not too bad.  Don't worry about what you don't have and just be thankful for what you do!

[jfree580]

On ‎1‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 10:15 AM, stevie619 said:

I was born in 1992 and I ve been collecting ever scince I saw sub mariner 1 on the wall on 13th ave in Brooklyn I lost most of what I got to a fire a couple years back but most people laugh at me when I say I collect ....I have a complete warlock set mostly upgraded and a great fantastic four collection thor all first appreance of warlock ...amazing spiderman up the who ha. I'll never stop and I try to encourage people to invest just for nostalgia purposes. 

I was also born in 1992. I have only been collecting for less than a year, but have always had some sort of attachment to it. My brother always collected when we were kids, and my dad has some (he's in his 90's, so still trying to find his stash, he said it's some where in the basement, which I can't even imagine what he would have if they are still in the basement lol). Anyways, I've also sold on eBay, and my girlfriend talked me into buying a group of 300 or so comics with the intention to sell, for less than 100 bucks at an estate sale, after most had been picked through. Now I regret not purchasing it all, on the first day, but it is what it is. I always followed Marvel and D.C. growing up, and then TMNT, things like that, but never myself purchased any comics. Needless to say, after purchasing those 300, I was hooked, and didn't even sell one.

Now, the difference between me, and most of you here, is that I don't typically read the comics. I do this for the collecting, for the hunt, for the completion of the set/series. I thoroughly enjoy collecting them, however, reading them is not really my thing. I do read up on them, and get as much information as I can, which tells me a lot of the story, but if you asked me a specific thing that happened in the book, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you. I'm not ashamed of this by any means, reading them just isn't my thing. Collecting them is. That doesn't mean I care about the book any less than any of you all do. I still follow the story line (although, maybe not as well as you all that have read every page of the comic). I think another thing a lot of people have to overcome is the attitude of other people. Mostly everyone is pretty helpful, but we have all seen how rude some can be. It doesn't bother me, I just ignore it, it is what it is. A lot of people can be extremely un-helpful though. I mean - we are here to learn, we are here to get advise from the older generations. We are all here because we enjoy the same thing. It kind of annoys me more than anything, how some can act - even if it seems like a stupid question, we ask because the older generations have the experience we don't. You will give us a link to google, and tell us we are stupid for not searching it, but if we used google first, and then assumed it was right, we would be stupid for believing everything we read lol. So, it definitely helps a lot more when the older generations, and the guys/gals that have been doing this a lot longer than us, are helpful. Plus a lot of us younger guys look up to you all, and the collections you all have created. 

When it comes to people my age buying more expensive books, it gets hard. I have a mortgage, I haven't peaked in my career yet, I have a lower savings fund then most of you all here, I dump money in my 401k, and things of that nature. Not to mention all the new home owners expenses, of things we "missed" during the inspection. Truck payment, car payment etc..  Not trying to brag by any means of what I have, what I'm trying to explain is, it gets harder and harder to buy a book that's 1k or more. Now in this time since I started collecting, I've spent a lot more than I should have, some of which was learning, and some of which was trying to catch up on all the awesome series I wanted, and then hopping to another series, because I get over excited. I myself, do not own a book with a value of more than 1k (unless the Spiderman 300 I sent in comes back at 9.6+ which I really expect it to). I own a lot that are less than 1k (750-500-250 etc, etc..) but I just haven't had the opportunity or the funds to buy one that I'm looking for, for over $1,000. Plus with all the bills we have it gets hard to justify spending that much. (I'm a Kia mechanic - well technician is what we are called now, I  spend as much on tools monthly as I do on my truck payment).

I will say, my girlfriend is a trooper. She started me on this whole thing, but I don't think she expected it to take off like it did. But she has done her best to learn as well, take interest in what I like, and surprise me occasionally with a box of comics she picked from the store herself, or buying me a lot online. She is by no means stopping me, although when I get 10+ shipments a week in, she has to make a comment if I'm spending my money wisely, which I don't blame her. 

All in all, until people my age get on our feet, with all of our new found expenses, it becomes harder and harder for us to justify spending this much. I only know of one other person that collects comics, and it just so happens we work together. He's probably 8 years older than me. So I don't know anyone within my age that collects, or even gets it. Most of the time my friends give me a "Hard time" over it. But they could really care less if I do or don't. Now, for people that are my age, and haven't purchased a home, live with their parents, or have chosen a different life path - Like a lot of the millennials we see, I could see them being able to purchase 1k+ books if they don't have these kind of expenses, but that's if they have a good job, or if their family funds it - if they are even into comics. You know, it's very sad, but being in the work force at my age, the turn over rate for people my age and younger is HUGE. They drop like flies. They can't handle it. They are typically more lazy, uninterested, or just don't take pride in what they do, and are just trying to get by with minimal effort. So, the guys I work with - we have all been working together for 5+ years. We can't handle bringing in anyone else new, because of the lazy attitude a lot of the people my age or younger have.

I just want to be clear, I'm not saying this is every millennial, but this is based off of my experience and what I have seen. So I don't know what younger people than me will do when it comes to collecting comics. I guess from what I see on my side, it doesn't look too promising. I have no idea what that holds for higher end books in the future either. Does that mean AF 15 will drop? No clue. I guess we will have to wait and see what kind of demand is created from the younger generations. It's also awesome to see all of you buying comics for your children, and supporting them, we just can't tell yet it if will just be a thing for now, or if this will develop into something they continue to pursue. 

Edited February 20, 2019 by jfree580

[HuddyBee]

On 11/16/2018 at 11:29 PM, Xenosmilus said:

I used to collect comics "back in the day" which was the mid to late 80's in my case. I recently got back into it and it has been fun but I was curious if there is a new/ younger generation that are collecting? More importantly  is there enough younger collectors to keep the prices stable in the long run or will there be an eventual crash in the physical (i.e. non-digital) comic market? 

I'm pretty young, still in school, been collecting for about 5 years now, and have amassed an entire SA run of both Atom and Hawkman, and a BA Shazam! run. I also have plenty of low grade SA DC keys including JLA 1, Aquaman 1, 11, 29, SC 34, BB 29, 30, 34, AC 260, Superman 123, as well as some BA DC and Marvel keys. I buy and sell on eBay, and buy all my comics with my money that I earn from working or flipping comics.

Edited June 7, 2019 by HuddyBee