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Ronbatman Administrator Posts: 2381
3/13/2018
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Please read the blog post and let everyone know which one you are. Did I miss any collector?
http://blog.comicspriceguide.com/2018/03/13/types-of-comic-book-collectors/
Thanks,
Ron
edited by ronbatman on 3/13/2018
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radiotto Posts: 45
3/13/2018
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I am a combo of Completist and Look There's a Squirrel!
There are certain characters I will always buy, like Moon Knight and Justice Society, but I will certainly take a flier on something new.
And just like Ron said at the end of the article, I am also a sucker for a good story.
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Gilgandra Posts: 1246
3/14/2018
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Nice article Ron 
Not sure if i'm any of those ...
I go with the flow.
Knowing the history of books, I gaze through pictures, words or key references. Then go in for a closer look. If i like what i see then i get it.
Call me a (Hmm ...I'll get that) Laid-back collector, Typical Aussie Lol type of collector.
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expander Posts: 241
3/14/2018
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I'm mostly a completionist, but also a combination of married and look there's a squirrel and a little bit of an investor as well.
I don't generally buy-to-flip but I will sell books that I've read and no longer want in order to parlay them into new books.
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Ronbatman Administrator Posts: 2381
3/14/2018
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Gilgandra, do you have a large collection? In my thinking, if you have a really large collection, you can be more laid back about it. Or it could be your personality type? Thanks for reading it.
Expander, we are all kind of a mix. When I want to read a story, I become a completist. Selling books to buy more books is different than an investor. Maybe there's an efficient collector, who uses their limited resources efficiently. Maybe?
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expander Posts: 241
3/14/2018
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Yes, an efficient procrastinator perhaps?
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Defiant1 Posts: 720
3/15/2018
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None of those adequately describe me.
if I'm collecting a title, I want to be a completist. I'm going for a full run of Tales to Astonish. I'm not going to buy a series if the rare/obscure ones are unobtainable.
I'm not a "married" collector. Hulk is my favorite character, but I'm not going to buy everything related to him.
My interests are diverse, but rarity and investment value take priority over clutter.
The "old man collector" category is condescending and ignorant. By the description, perhaps that is how the ignorant might categorize my
collecting. I would buy new comics today if quality issues were addressed. Comics would be cheaper if quality issues were addressed. I know that comics can't be cheaper because the minds
developing them are unknowledgeable about how to produce and market a desirable product. They are too busy trying to catch fish out of the barrel rather than casting a net into the general population. When they
do try to cast the net to get new readers, it has holes in it that you could drive a bus through. If you insult me with the old man collector tag, I'll insult you back with the word "idiot".
Calling me an investor is not entirely accurate either. There is enough product on the market that I can find products that I like that will be good investment choices. I choose to collect EC comics. They are a better
investment than collecting World's Finest. I am a completist for Tales to Astonish. That is wiser than being a completist for Rom Spaceknight. Since I'm not trying to buy every comic made, why would anyone
intentionally pay $4 for a comic that will be worth $2 in 6 months. At a minimum. I want the items I buy to retain their value. With a discerning eye, one can buy comics they like to read that have a higher
potential to retain value or escalate in value. I bought some comics for cover price in 1994. I got $90 trade credit on my duplicates towards an Amazing Fantasy #15 the same year. My cash investment on the Amazing
Fantasy #15 was $300. Depending upon the grade, online sources value the comic between $15,000 and $30,000. Yes, I was investor. I invest wisely to collect the more expensive item I want. The Amazing Fantasy #15 is
not for sale. Had I spent my $300 on Image comics in 1994, many would be worthless today. Calling someone an "Investor" implies that they only care about making money. That again is ignorant and insulting towards
anyone who truly cares about the comics they buy.
I have some interest as an artist but can't draw worth a D@#n. I had a cartoon published for two years. At one point someone wanted to fly me out to California to pitch my comic to a Southpark producer to have it animated as a cartoon. The contact person pissed me off and I abandoned pursuing it. I never met anyone in Hollywood and haven't spoken to the person in 10 years. I only draw the cartoons on rare occasions to amuse my girlfriend. 20 years have elapsed and people still remember my cartoon and remind me of it. They describe it to others and people still laugh about the concepts and characters 20 years later. For awhile. I was in contact with other artists and there was a circle of creative types sharing ideas and concepts.
All of the categories touch on me as a collector, but all are too generalized to describe me accurately.
edited by Defiant1 on 3/15/2018
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Ronbatman Administrator Posts: 2381
3/15/2018
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Defiant1 wrote:
None of those adequately describe me.
The "old man collector" category is condescending and ignorant. By the description, perhaps that is how the ignorant might categorize my collecting. ...If you insult me with the old man collector tag, I'll insult you back with the word "idiot".
edited by Defiant1 on 3/15/2018
Defiant1,
This article was written for fun and entertainment, not a personal attack on you. I don't even know you. My philosophy is if you can't make fun of yourself then you're living a life that is too serious. I laugh at myself all the time. Chill out man, it's not that deep. It's just a silly article.
I'd suggest that you avoid my blog posts if this offends you. Have a good one,
Ron
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quinnspuddinjoker Posts: 673
3/15/2018
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The point given by Defiant1 of wanting books bought that would not decrease in value I agree with. I buy hardly any newly published books, buying only silver and bronze books mostly. If I’m paying $20 to $150 a book, I’d like to get it back if I was selling it later on.
I enjoyed the article.
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Ronbatman Administrator Posts: 2381
3/15/2018
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JokerB,
I agree. If you're going to spend some coin on a nice comic, someday you'd like to turn that back into cash. That's smart.
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Guest
3/16/2018
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Ron... that's my opinion. I understood that you intended it to be fun.
Your aspirations to be a famous comic book blogger will put your writing in front of people who disagree. It might be best to get used to it.
I still find that some of your assertions are shallow and insulting despite that not being the intention. I've encountered countless people online who do not say it to be fun.
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Defiant1 Posts: 720
3/16/2018
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Also Ron... you made a direct assumption about me in saying that I can't make fun of myself. You don't know me... so maybe you shouldn't assume you understood the tone of my response? Maybe?
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solarno Posts: 164
3/17/2018
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I voted as 'Married', but I've also done time as a 'Completist' and 'Squirrel'.
Married titles:
Any that say Star Wars or Robotech. I also fall in and out of love with Batman and Captain America.
Married creators:
Just about anything from Matt Wagner, Rick Remender, or Scottie Young. Honorable mentions to Brian K Vaughan, Tim Sale, and Jeph Loeb
Married publishers:
This is a tricky one because it dovetails with 'Squirrel', but I've gone through phases where I'll focus on, or take a flyer on, many titles from one publisher. In the past it was Comico, then Dark Horse, then Image, then Crossgen, and right now Image again.
The closest I've been to being considered a 'Completist' is with Star Wars, Robotech, and for a while Crossgen. Star Was and Robotech is just out of love for their respective universes and the stories (good and bad) told in them. Crossgen was a different story as I specifically attempted to collect everything from Crossgen. If I remember from the old forum top collector lists I had done pretty good with one of the larger Crossgen collections.
Squirrel:
Yup, sometimes I'll try a title just because the cover art catches my eye. I used to be like that with music when you had to go into a store to buy music and there were no song samples to listen to. But more often now, my Squirrel tendencies are driven by the owner of my LCBS. He know's my interests pretty well and occasionally makes recommendations to me. Gotta be honest, he hasn't been wrong yet.
I've never bought a particular book/title/creator with the intent of an ROI. I buy because it interests me. I have made a profit on a handful of books that no longer interested me so I sold off, but that is a happy accident of timing. With most books I've sold off I'm lucky if I get cover price.
Old Man Collectors: I spent 25+ years in the bicycle industry and we had those too. We called them retro grouches. Most folks that are termed retro grouches wear the title as a badge of honor. There are entire communities devoted to the collecting, restoration, and riding of vintage bicycles. They may not keep their local bike shop in business, but they tend to be super knowledgeable about the past and can be awesome to talk to. As far as comics, I happen to find great value in most new comics. We're always going to have to deal with subjective substandard writing or art, but the physical books are outstanding. I look at books I bought for $2.99 in the mid 00's as compared to today and I say we're doing pretty good. Most titles may be $3.99 now, but quite a few are still $2.99, and I'm getting better paper, better cover stock, and better printing with more vibrant and wider range colors.
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Ronbatman Administrator Posts: 2381
3/17/2018
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Solarno,
I know this is off topic (the squirrel in me coming out) but what's your oldest bike? Do you have any cool 70's or older bicycles? I enjoy watching American Pickers especially when they find old bikes or motorcycles in barns. Maybe it's because they get so excited about it.
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quinnspuddinjoker Posts: 673
3/18/2018
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Solarno, nice to read you collected CrossGen titles, I enjoyed the CrossGen world they created, most titles I really enjoyed reading. Meridian, Sojourn and Negation I enjoyed the most. The Marvel titles later were terrible I thought.
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Gilgandra Posts: 1246
3/19/2018
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Ronbatman wrote:
Gilgandra, do you have a large collection? In my thinking, if you have a really large collection, you can be more laid back about it. Or it could be your personality type? Thanks for reading it.
Expander, we are all kind of a mix. When I want to read a story, I become a completist. Selling books to buy more books is different than an investor. Maybe there's an efficient collector, who uses their limited resources efficiently. Maybe?
Hey Ron.
No large collection here, Simple no room for it.
Most likely just my personality for been laid back.
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Guest
3/19/2018
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I enjoyed the article, Ron. While I realize it was tongue in cheek, the descriptions are pretty accurate.
Three categories probably describe my buying habits. I'm a completionist first, I suppose. There are very few titles in my collection with holes, and I'm
working on them constantly. As a matter of fact, I hesitate to purchase titles if there are tons of back issues, I would eventually break down and start filling
them in. I wasn't always like this, but now I want to start at the beginning of the whole story, not just the current arc. I'm married to Spidey & The Avengers.
I have every shitty one-shot, annual, and mini series of those characters that I know exist (I have the good ones, too). And then, a cover will catch my eye
every once in a while, like some Spawn covers did a couple of years ago, so now I'm working on a Spawn collection.
To a lesser extent, I buy some comics as investments. How could I not when I collect ASM, Avengers, FF, and many more classic Marvel and DC titles?
To own the original books, you have to spend money. I would be a fool not to treat those books as investments. But I rarely purchase a new title because
it has speculator buzz. There's good money in that for somebody that can buy and sell them fast, but it would require a lot of research time to do that
effectively for a long time. I just take care of what I have, and if the time comes where I need to raise cash, I'll have them.
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pthomas2010 Posts: 116
3/19/2018
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That's me above. I'm sick of getting logged out of the forums after a few minutes.
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solarno Posts: 164
3/19/2018
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Ronbatman wrote:
Solarno,
I know this is off topic (the squirrel in me coming out) but what's your oldest bike? Do you have any cool 70's or older bicycles? I enjoy watching American Pickers especially when they find old bikes or motorcycles in barns. Maybe it's because they get so excited about it.
Even being in the industry for so long I’ve never been a collector of bikes. Unless you have a way to display them, they take up way too much space. I usually only keep one or two relatively current bikes at a time and only for a few years. I currently own a 2017 Giant Anthem Adv and a 2014 Giant Revolt. Previously I’ve owned bikes from Schwinn, Raleigh, Felt, Paramount, and Cannondale. And a bunch of other Giants as I spent 14 years with them. When it comes to old bikes, I spent many years working at a Schwinn dealer so I have a soft spot for old Schwinns and Paramounts, especially anything with lugged steel frames and related pinstriping.
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solarno Posts: 164
3/19/2018
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jokerbangedquinn wrote:
Solarno, nice to read you collected CrossGen titles, I enjoyed the CrossGen world they created, most titles I really enjoyed reading. Meridian, Sojourn and Negation I enjoyed the most. The Marvel titles later were terrible I thought.
The whole reason I even became interested in Crossgen titles was because there was a lot of discussion about them on the old CPG forum. I decided to buy a few books to see what the fuss was about and loved it. I thought they found a really interesting way to build a shared universe that very different types of titles could live in.
When did Marvel have a hand in them? I wasn't aware of that. Probably happened during my decade long collecting hiatus.
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