I also think about such things, Shax, amazed by how quickly the years go. I remember vividly the moments when I bought certain comics 50 years ago. Fifty years before that, World War One began! These pamphlets were never meant t be saved, but for many of us, they are velveteen rabbits that we bring down form the shelf whenever we feel nostalgia in its purest sense, a yearning for home. The older I get, the more I realize the role comics played in my life. They taught me, inspired me, lifted me. Without being melodramatic or mawkish, they helped me through some years of frustration and sadness, and were the refuge for me that far more harmful habits were for too many of my friends.

I think I'm going to have to sell mine. I doubt my kids will want all of them, even my older son who loved them as a kid, so I'll try to get them to good homes.  They're boxed, but most aren't  "bagged and boarded," so the "grade-conscious" types won't want them, so I'm sure they're not with much, which is good, because then maybe someone like me, who didn't collect but actually read and reread them, can enjoy them as I did and still do.

I love seeing the names of the former owners on covers or filled in on lines in subscription ads. I love the small of those old DCs and the heft of the pulpy paper,and the color of both the covers and the pages, so easy on the eyes, unlike the metallic, brassy look they have today. Give me the rolled spine, the weathered cover, the loose staple, the coverless masses yearning to breathe free -- wait, wrong sentimental invocation! -- and the accompanying trip into the past every time.

I especially love seeing the date scratched in ink on covers, because then I know the exact store where I bought them, a little "candy store," as they were known way back when, a block from my high school in a dicey neighborhood in the North Ward of Newark. I still remember the books I bought there: my first ever Tomahawk, which I'd only seen in ads in those days of sporadic distribution; Green Lantern 76, which changed everything there for a while; the Challengers of the Unknown in which SPOILER ALERT! Red Ryan returned from the dead; and so many others.

Like so many fellow posters, I could go on, but I'll be happy someday to know that the old-fashioned stuff amongst the thousands of books I have will someday be treasured by someone else, whether it's my sons (Never my daughter!) or others who just plain love comics. Maybe you can think of your collection that way, Shax, kind of a cross between what you do as a teacher and what John Chapman did with his apple seeds. It will be a sorry world indeed if there's no one out there who won't want to read all of these lines on paper that have brought you and me such joy.

Shax, when it comes to putting a monetary value on something we love, I think of what Antony says to Cleopatra when she demands, "If it be love indeed, tell me how much."

And Antony answers, "There's beggary in love that can be reckoned."

Thanks, Shax.

I am pretty sure that we will be seeing a glut of Silver Age collections hit the market in the next 15 years. There are a lot of original owners who have held on to their books and will be selling them off, or will have them sold off after they die. It would not surprise me a bit if prices went flat if not down for a period of years while the market absorbs those books.

Just as an example as to how many copies of some of those books there really are out there, I've heard from a pretty reliable source over on the CGC boards that there's a guy who owns an entire short box of Amazing Fantasy #15's. And that's just one guy.

As a side note: Over on the CGC forums, there's also a guy named Marty Mann who posts fairly regularly. He's an actual original collector from the golden age. I'm not sure just when he started buying comics, but I think it might have been around '42, and he still has many of his original comics from the 40's and 50's. It's always awesome when he posts stories and pictures of some pre-code issue or other he bought off the stands. Guys like that are very very few and far between now.

I sometimes wonder if digital comics will play a factor in modern printed comics (21st century) increasing in value someday in the distant future, simply by virtue of digital surpassing print as the preferred medium for comics distribution and print comics being released in ever diminishing numbers. Print runs these days seem to be a lot lower than they were in the past, and if the demand is there for actual printed material, perhaps we may see a resurgence in values among collectors?

Yes. I've heard there are MANY copies out there.

Rob Allen and I have an informal understanding that whichever one goes first leaves his comics to the other. If there's a lot of that going on in the collector community then the appearance of our generation's hoards on the open market may not be a foregone conclusion.

Cei-U!
Too early in the morning to be thinking about the D word!

My kids show very little interest in my comics, and unless that changes I'm pretty sure I'll eventually give them away to someone who can truly appreciate them. Good thing we have this board to find candidates!!!   

I'm wary of public libraries because they tend to do away with a lot of material, and comics by their very nature are fragile, hard to put on shelves and not meant for frequent manipulation. I fear they'd be dumped in pretty short order.

Hopefully that decision won't have to be made until 2040 or something. I intend to reread the damn things a few times yet.