Thoughts on collecting comics

[abacus]

Regarding Denis Giffords collection I expect he had limited resources to go to for collecting comics.Today it's just a matter of clicking on the internet , finding the items you need, checking the condition from a provided photo and then buying., without moving from your swivel chair.

I would imagine Dennis put a great deal of work into putting his collection together and got a great deal of pleasure from doing so.

[starscape]

I miss those days. Collecting was far more fun.

[geoff42]

Have to disagree, starscape; many a time I came back from a comic fair with a heavy heart and a few comics I didn't really want but purchased just to offer a little substance to my wasted visit. As regards British comics, they were very hard to track down. Ebay is a godsend. I would rather live in the here and now with my keyboard as regards collecting comics than those old days of travelling far with little expectation.

[geoff42]

As regards the volume of incoming comics as opposed to reading them; I am firmly in that category. I have almost caught up with my monthly subscription of 2000 ad; just a month behind now. Sadly, i'm 14 months behind with Judge Dredd Megazine. Yet, I've read the whole of Battle Picture Weekly from 1975 during that time alongside a chunk of Whoopee issues from 1977. Not only do I read them, I also write down a pottered outline of every story (generally two lines of an exercise book) for reference. So, it usually takes me about an hour to read any issue of a comic as a result... I hope I live a long life

[Raven]

Have to disagree, starscape; many a time I came back from a comic fair with a heavy heart and a few comics I didn't really want but purchased just to offer a little substance to my wasted visit. As regards British comics, they were very hard to track down. Ebay is a godsend. I would rather live in the here and now with my keyboard as regards collecting comics than those old days of travelling far with little expectation.

Yes, you could go five years or more without ever seeing a single old British comic. I wasn't aware of any outlet that sold them, dealers at comic marts wouldn't touch them. No fun in that.

[Adam Eterno]

Have to disagree, starscape; many a time I came back from a comic fair with a heavy heart and a few comics I didn't really want but purchased just to offer a little substance to my wasted visit. As regards British comics, they were very hard to track down. Ebay is a godsend. I would rather live in the here and now with my keyboard as regards collecting comics than those old days of travelling far with little expectation.

Yes, you could go five years or more without ever seeing a single old British comic. I wasn't aware of any outlet that sold them, dealers at comic marts wouldn't touch them. No fun in that.

I've got to agree with Geoff too. If it wasn't for Ebay, I don't think my interest in British comics would have resurfaced so strongly after years of building a career and partying! Suddenly I could access not only the comics I'd known and loved as a kid, but others that were only passing dalliances in my childhood due to either my particular taste at the time or more than likely, the remaining coins in my pocket.

I have boxes of comics now that I look forward to reading which I never had the chance before to even acquire. I'm just a couple of evenings away from finishing the set of Crunch which I've loved! The first two years of The Wizard (1970/71) could be next......or shall I go with the full 1973 year of Victor.......decisions, decisions....that wouldn't have been possible for me without Ebay.

[Phoenix]

As regards British comics, they were very hard to track down.

Clearly I was putting my collection together quite a bit before you, Geoff, as my experience was the exact opposite of yours. My problem was finding enough money to buy them all. I'm pretty sure I have previously mentioned the sheer number of dealers who regularly had tables at the monthly comic fairs in the basement of the Piccadilly Plaza Hotel in the centre of Manchester, almost all with lots of post-war Thomsons. They were a godsend. You could add to the mix the dealers who advertised in Exchange and Mart, including incidentally Sarah Baddiel, David's mother, and of course Norman Shaw, who had a permanent advert there for donkey's years. The vast majority of my early acquisitions I got from Norman over many visits. I started out going by train from Liverpool but when the bags I was coming away with were getting heavier I began to drive down, getting quite excited when I'd passed Scratchwood services. I used to feel a bit like a schoolboy again kneeling on his hall floor looking carefully through piles of issues of Adventure, The Wizard, The Rover and The Hotspur. I didn't come to The Skipper or the shorter-run titles like The Vanguard and The Red Arrow until much later. I eventually did all my research on the 100 issues of The Blue Bird in the British Library. One good thing about Norman was that he always accepted postdated cheques, which I needed him to do on several occasions. I picked up most of my wartime issues of The Wizard and The Hotspur at a bargain price considering their VG condition from Lincoln Books. They no longer exist. They were on High Street but a fair walking distance from the Bailgate and the city centre.

[comixminx]

I had to put a small ad in the back of Dez Skinns' Comics International in the mid-90s to stand any chance of being able to get any Jinty comics (this is how I rebought the run of Jinty I now have, to replace the ones my mum gave away / convinced me to give away some 15 years previously). Whatever else was on offer in marts, I certainly never came across any of the girls comics I was interested in.

[Raven]

It's funny, Phoenix, I used to go to the Manchester Piccadilly Plaza comic marts, whenever I could, as a boy, probably from around mid-1980, and only recall there being tables of US Marvel and DC comics. I wouldn't have been interested in those old D.C. Thomson story papers, so I wonder if I've blotted them out - or if those were different times.

The only "traditional" British weekly I remember seeing and buying at one was a Smash from circa 1966 (which I thought rather poor), but which the seller may have deigned to sell because Batman was on the cover. Though, as I recall, even the UK Marvel weeklies were considered worthless back then.

The first time I really recall seeing '70s British adventure and fun weeklies on sale after their time was when I found a shop in some London alley in the mid-'90s which had just a few old issues. I remember the sheer nostalgia buzz I got from seeing these on sale at the time, it was such a rare and extraordinary thing!

[tony ingram]

It's funny, Phoenix, I used to go to the Manchester Piccadilly Plaza comic marts, whenever I could, as a boy, probably from around mid-1980, and only recall there being tables of US Marvel and DC comics. I wouldn't have been interested in those old D.C. Thomson story papers, so I wonder if I've blotted them out - or if those were different times.

The only "traditional" British weekly I remember seeing and buying at one was a Smash from circa 1966 (which I thought rather poor), but which the seller may have deigned to sell because Batman was on the cover. Though, as I recall, even the UK Marvel weeklies were considered worthless back then.

Marvel UK are actually very collectable, now. I've been selling quite a few lately, and getting a decent price for them. I've also been filling quite a few gaps in my own collection. There seem to be more around than there used to be.

[Raven]

Marvel UK are actually very collectable, now. I've been selling quite a few lately, and getting a decent price for them. I've also been filling quite a few gaps in my own collection. There seem to be more around than there used to be.

I think they are seeming increasingly desirable. I'm not sure about "very collectable", in general, as, at marts, if they turn up, they're all usually £1 each or less, even early issues. I suppose people who bought them have reached their forties/fifties and are becoming nostalgic for them.

[Raven]

my brother has told me all my comics are going in a skip when i'm gone

I read an interesting thread on the Marvel Masterworks forum a while back, where somebody posted photos of his quite spectacular collection of pop culture memorabilia: walls and walls of perfectly preserved vintage games, comics, etc.; it may have been this lovely lot:

http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku.co ... ply-762784

and, I can't find it now, but somebody, whom I think professionally worked in clearing deceased people's rooms for relatives, was saying that the likelihood was that even a collection like that was likely to go in the trash after the collector dies, because - and he's seen it lots of times - to most people, to families, this stuff is just rubbish, and they simply want the space fast.

Many just won't have the time or inclination to start trying to sell it. They'll just want it gone as quickly as possible.

It did make me think that people with huge, painstakingly put together collections really should think about carefully bequeathing if they want to ensure it doesn't all just end up in a dump.

[tony ingram]

Marvel UK are actually very collectable, now. I've been selling quite a few lately, and getting a decent price for them. I've also been filling quite a few gaps in my own collection. There seem to be more around than there used to be.

I think they are seeming increasingly desirable. I'm not sure about "very collectable", in general, as, at marts, if they turn up, they're all usually £1 each or less, even early issues. I suppose people who bought them have reached their forties/fifties and are becoming nostalgic for them.

Desirable and collectible are pretty much the same thing, if people want them, they'll pay for them. And yes, roughly thirty to thirty-five years seems to be the magic number for nostalgia. At the moment, it seems to be all about the eighties from a dealer's POV.

[tony ingram]

my brother has told me all my comics are going in a skip when i'm gone

I read an interesting thread on the Marvel Masterworks forum a while back, where somebody posted photos of his quite spectacular collection of pop culture memorabilia: walls and walls of perfectly preserved vintage games, comics, etc.; it may have been this lovely lot:

http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku.co ... ply-762784

and, I can't find it now, but somebody, whom I think professionally worked in clearing deceased people's rooms for relatives, was saying that the likelihood was that even a collection like that was likely to go in the trash after the collector dies, because - and he's seen it lots of times - to most people, to families, this stuff is just rubbish, and they simply want the space fast.

Many just won't have the time or inclination to start trying to sell it. They'll just want it gone as quickly as possible.

It did make me think that people with huge, painstakingly put together collections really should think about carefully bequeathing if they want to ensure it doesn't all just end up in a dump.

People are scum. Philistines.

[Raven]

Desirable and collectible are pretty much the same thing, if people want them, they'll pay for them. And yes, roughly thirty to thirty-five years seems to be the magic number for nostalgia. At the moment, it seems to be all about the eighties from a dealer's POV.

Well, I've seen people rifling through boxes of them at marts, clearly a little nostalgia-smitten, but not necessarily buying. They're often still unsold at £1, or even three for a pound. So I just meant that certain titles do seem increasingly attractive from the present day, I'm just not sure that a great amount of people are prepared to pay much or are avidly building up collections at any cost.

I noticed some first issues with gifts have been going for very high prices, though.

That's interesting about the Eighties. What kind of things? US rather than UK, or both?