The thrill is gone. 7 7

[ADAMANTIUM]

9 minutes ago, spidrvacc said:

I started collecting as a love of the characters and storys, over time yes, seems it became about the money. Still got about  10 books i cherish (ASM 300, Nova 1 etc) , never sell them. 

Ya and I may have blown it over the top

Obviously they meant something, still there is a time for everything, even if that is to move on. I'm thankful for what I can get in comics. Things I like, I either own or I'm running out of affordable and likable options ahem. But I'll hold as long as I can or sell to buy bigger, but I can see where your coming from. I'm just glad something you enjoyed gave you a boost, you could always buy again  Paying Bill's, I could definitely see that need after 2020

[spidrvacc]

Yup, wife lost job, son lost job and i had my hours cut. Wife got new job but half pay , , I got my hours back recently, so I would be lying if I didn't say money was not  a factor. 

Edited January 21, 2021 by spidrvacc

[batman_fan]

5 hours ago, spidrvacc said:

Yup, wife lost job, son lost job and i had my hours cut. Wife got new job but half pay , , I got my hours back recently, so I would be lying if I didn't say money was not  a factor. 

Hopefully things start to look up on the job front but nice that you had a comic buffer to fall back on and kudos to actually pulling the trigger and selling a lot of what you have.  At the end of the day it is just stuff.

[NewWorldOrder]

We are all just curators of our collections then we die.   Not rocket science.  

Flip the books when you can and save the issues that matter the most.

Pre-Unity Valiant and Byrne X-Men mean more to me than AF 15's.  I will sell all my SA keys before I sell my X-men 141, see what I am getting at? 

Edited January 22, 2021 by NewWorldOrder

[FoggyNelson]

Nothing wrong if one burns out and the thrill of collecting is gone , it will probably come back later in life😷

[Namtak]

I feel pain and love at the same time in this thread ,comics aint everything but still been part of your life a long time better think about it or flip a coin wathever suits you ,someone else will enjoy it and thats the point no loss.but due to the duality of this action if you sell keep a copy of a two face comics to remind you

[Beige]

I hope the OP didn't sell his shop he couldn't use, to the first developer he met, - and throw all his $$ into Rally Rd.

If so, his $$ has followed the thrill.

 

I did quite like the Horseshoe Statues though.

 

[William-James88]

On 11/28/2020 at 2:13 PM, comicginger1789 said:

It saddens me to hear this but I guess at some point, we all probably get there. For me, I feel like one of the "younger" old book collectors. I will cherish another 40+ years (hopefully) of collecting. 

How old are you then and how old are the books you collect?

[comicginger1789]

1 hour ago, William-James88 said:

How old are you then and how old are the books you collect?

I’m 31.

I started when I was 10 buying books from the 70s and 80s only. As I got into my later teens and early 20s I was full on into Silver age and Bronze Age. Now, I go after anything I find interests me from 1940-1985, with the occasional new comic pick up to support my local guy. I’m always pecking away at my ASM 1-400 run, as I’m down to the first 50 which will be hard work but a worthwhile adventure that should last me a while in addition to the other stuff I always seem to buy.

[Sweet Lou 14]

1 hour ago, comicginger1789 said:

I’m 31.

I started when I was 10 buying books from the 70s and 80s only. As I got into my later teens and early 20s I was full on into Silver age and Bronze Age. Now, I go after anything I find interests me from 1940-1985, with the occasional new comic pick up to support my local guy. I’m always pecking away at my ASM 1-400 run, as I’m down to the first 50 which will be hard work but a worthwhile adventure that should last me a while in addition to the other stuff I always seem to buy.

If you don't mind my asking, was there somebody who got you into those older books?  Most 10-year-olds don't suddenly take interest in things older than they are unless somebody they look up to introduces them.

[comicginger1789]

6 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

If you don't mind my asking, was there somebody who got you into those older books?  Most 10-year-olds don't suddenly take interest in things older than they are unless somebody they look up to introduces them.

I grew up loving the 90s animated Spidey so that played a role. But one day while on vacation, my dad randomly took me and my brother into a comic shop.My dad never collected but he just wanted to pick up and read some random DC war books like GI Combat and Weird War Tales as he recalled them from his childhood. I remember walking right past all the new stuff up front to the old bins in the back, pulling out 35 and 40 cent issues of Spectacular Spider-Man and being hooked.

Edited February 1, 2021 by comicginger1789

[Savoyard23]

3 hours ago, comicginger1789 said:

I grew up loving the 90s animated Spidey so that played a role. But one day while on vacation, my dad randomly took me and my brother into a comic shop.My dad never collected but he just wanted to pick up and read some random DC war books like GI Combat and Weird War Tales as he recalled them from his childhood. I remember walking right past all the new stuff up front to the old bins in the back, pulling out 35 and 40 cent issues of Spectacular Spider-Man and being hooked.

Awesome.  My 10 year old is on a 3-week technology 'break', which may be my chance to get some great comics into those idle hands.  He loves super heroes and very occasionally will pick up one of my comics laying around if the cover strikes him, but so far the hobby hasn't caught on at all.

[shadroch]

Just a quick update.  

I received an offer on my building that didn't make sense to turn down. Someone from California who sold an inherited house in San Francisco and had a hole in her pocket. She didn't buy the contents so I'm packing everything up and moving it to a large ranch house I've leased with an option to buy.

I sent 142 books to MCS, perhaps 5% of my premium stock and yesterday I crossed the $15,000 sales mark, with about half the books sold.

Getting weekly checks is nice. I've picked out two more short boxes to send, but am in no rush and when I get settled in I think I will do  a much more drastic purge. 

My goal for 2021 is to get rid of half my stuff. Either sell it or give it away.  This week, I donated a complete set of the Time Life series on WW2 to my local library and a box of trade paperbacks to the Boys Club. That's two short boxes down, a couple hundred to go.

[DavidTheDavid]

I am down to five short boxes. My last holdout to build a run was Bronze Star Wars in high grade raw. I had a decent start, but as The Mandalorian seasons has boosted the price of numerous issues from all ages, I had enough and sold them at a steep discount to my LCS. The owner is a black hole Star Wars collector and used several to upgrade his personal copies. I had already sold all my remaining SA and BA here.

2020 was actually my best financial year in a while. After changing careers, I worked as a contractor for a few years and finally became a regular employee in 2020. That said, my wife sharply cut the number of private music students she was teaching so that she could homeschool our child. I would look at a partial run of comics and think, "Hmm, that one will take another three years and at least another 2 grand. This one will take a year if I focus on it, and at least a grand." And on and on. I just saw endless expenses at the same time that we were renovating our den so as to make wintering through the pandemic easier on us. And while we've now renovated all the living spaces since moving in 7.5 years ago, we still have two bathrooms and a kitchen to do. Even as my wife is slowly building out her teaching schedule, I am just way more interested in putting money into our home, savings, and retirement than I am runs that never end or chasing keys, or finding that some mid-range book is now a high-dollar book.

And I've found that I enjoy collecting moderns just as much as I do older comics. I'm a big fan of Francesco Francavilla and Michael Allred. I sometimes pick up Adi Granov covers; he's just a remarkable artist. And I collect Alex Ross covers, another modern master. I enjoy picking up some Copper Age stuff from my childhood, along with random classic Wolverine covers. And despite the grumpuses who complain about modern comics despite not having read one in decades, you are missing out on some excellent work being produced in the industry. I read more comics now than I did in the first 7-8 years of my collecting mania.

It feels like I can afford my hobby for the first time, both in terms of what I spend that's reasonable in our budget and in what I have time to actually enjoy. 

Edited February 1, 2021 by DavidTheDavid

[FoggyNelson]

Prices are going crazy , baseball cards comics stocks everything going crazy , if the thrill is gone now that is too bad because the hobby has never been more vibrant 👍👍‼️😷😷

[THE_BEYONDER]

21 minutes ago, FoggyNelson said:

Prices are going crazy , baseball cards comics stocks everything going crazy , if the thrill is gone now that is too bad because the hobby has never been more vibrant 👍👍‼️😷😷

It’s actually a great time for the thrill to be gone.

 

Makes it that much easier to let go & cash in. 

[Namtak]

19 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

If you don't mind my asking, was there somebody who got you into those older books?  Most 10-year-olds don't suddenly take interest in things older than they are unless somebody they look up to introduces them.

Well im 33 and my father introduced me to comics very young at 5 i met morris creator of Lucky luke and that was that.plus living in Québec the marvel and dc books were translated and sold tears later late 70s 80s.so in the 90 s in flea market those books were worth nothing.but not for me lol.so yeah we might be fewer but were there ,love silver and bronze age comics,ga are inconsistant(great covers story is somehat often lacking someting not always but still)but main factor too pricey

[shadroch]

1 hour ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

It’s actually a great time for the thrill to be gone.

 

Makes it that much easier to let go & cash in. 

 Darn Tootin"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[s-man]

Every time I see the title of this thread, B B King instantly pops in my head!

 

[spidrvacc]

I have to add that i just saw the buyer of my comics put up a bunch of my books i sold his store for sale on Ebay. That was a little weird and sad . As i said , I honestly am thrilled i sold them.  Glad there gone , and I did a lot of good and pay a lot of bills over that money, but seeing them for sale , i actually thought about it. Stuff i purchased and had for 35 years.  I guess it's the same as when I sold my first house. I was thrilled and glad I made the money I made. $35k profit but every time I drove by the house I thought about it. Would hit me. I used to live there my kid was born there etc. Same thing I guess , i  remember the store i purchased  that book at or I remember the great deal I got on this book  . Again t I'm still very glad I've gotten rid of most of it. But that was a wierd feeling. I actually almost wanted to buy one or two back lol.