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Post by Outrajs on Aug 7, 2017 10:44:35 GMT -5
When I was a kid I had a friend who was crazy into comic books. He read absolutely everything and knew just about everything on all current books at the time. One day I bought Lobo's first edition of his own book and immediately boarded and bagged it without reading it. I didn't want it to get messed up. He told me I could never be a true comic book fan if I was a collector. To him, all books are made to be read. He kept just about everything, but if you didn't read everything you bought he called you a collector...an insult in his book. I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this one.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 10:57:31 GMT -5
I consider myself a reader. I keep my copies in good condition but I'm not crazy about it. I collect comics to read them not to just have them.
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Post by tingramretro on Aug 7, 2017 10:57:36 GMT -5
I don't see why you can't be both a collector and a reader. I am a collector. I have been since I was about ten. But I would never buy a book and not read it.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 7, 2017 10:59:13 GMT -5
That's an old point of contention. I don't think there are that many people at the ends of the spectrum: those who buy a comic, read the comic and burn the comic on one end, and those who buy a comic, slab the comic and keep the unread comic in a safe, never to be touched again.
My view on collecting comics is that it's a somewhat different hobby from reading them. Comics were initially created to tell stories, and people who bought them were interested in those stories. Cheap and disposable entertainment, no more to be religiously collected than old beer bottles.
But then they also became cultural artifacts; physical objects with a certain intrinsic value as well as a medium to tell stories. People who read them were the first to start collecting them and trading them, I suppose, but that was an adjunct activity. The trading of comics became a hobby in and of itself, without their reading being an essential part of the equation. It's the same, I suppose, with people who trade great bottles of wine; they may enjoy drinking wine, but no way are they going to drink their 1972 Chateau Fonbadet; it's either to be kept to make the collection more awesome, or it will be traded later for a healthy profit.
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 7, 2017 11:04:10 GMT -5
This is still a very divisive issue among comic book fans. There's a thing called CGC, which is a company that grades books and then encases them in protective plastic slabs, meaning you can't read the comic unless you break open the slab - which of course defeats the whole purpose. Arguments about slabbing - which is basically collecting comics as an object rather than as a story to be read - regularly spring, and even on these wonderful forums, the arguments have gotten heated enough that some people have quit the boards entirely. For me personally, I don't think there's a wrong way to love comics! So it doesn't matter to me how or why people are collecting, as long as they are enjoying the hobby in their own way and being respectful of other people's choices. Unless those people collect Mark Millar or Wolverine or something, in which case they are doing it totally wrong!!!  |
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Post by brutalis on Aug 7, 2017 11:19:50 GMT -5
Collector mentality to slab and seal so it remains "untouched" is for all those dreamers who believe that one day they can sell it for outrageous sums of money. All the old comics are expensive because of their limited quantity due to destruction during the war years. Modern comics will never sell in the same cost ranges. But there is the acknowledged statement: it is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it and I can believer there are collectors who will pay incredible prices just because it is listed as so. Go figure.
I collect comic books to read and look at. The natural wear and tear and smell is part of the joy of the hobby. Sealed in plastic removes much of the pleasure of collecting for me...
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 7, 2017 11:25:30 GMT -5
I don't see why you can't be both a collector and a reader. I am a collector. I have been since I was about ten. But I would never buy a book and not read it. Yeah, this. I do, indeed, have a comic book collection (and a CD collection and a movie collection and...) but I don't consider myself a "collector" of any of those things. They're simply things I've kept so I can enjoy them again. Cei-U! I summon another artificial dichotomy! |
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Post by lobsterjohnson on Aug 7, 2017 11:26:22 GMT -5
I take good care of my comics, but I read all of them.
I have no problem with other people collecting comics without reading them.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Aug 7, 2017 11:26:30 GMT -5
When I was a kid I had a friend who was crazy into comic books. He read absolutely everything and knew just about everything on all current books at the time. One day I bought Lobo's first edition of his own book and immediately boarded and bagged it without reading it. I didn't want it to get messed up. He told me I could never be a true comic book fan if I was a collector. To him, all books are made to be read. He kept just about everything, but if you didn't read everything you bought he called you a collector...an insult in his book. I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this one. Ha! that's so cosmic : I was about to post a thread on the exact same topic! In my book your friend is right : I have 15000+ comics, so I indeed have a collection, but it doesn't necessarly make me a collector. A collector wants to own before anything else. I would make a tiny distinction between my take and your friend's though : I wouldn't call you a collector as an insult, just as a relevant distinction. If you want to own and store htings, that's perfectly fine, I'm not gonna say you're a bad person, far from it. I might just hazard you're missing on something, but even that is subjective as everyone is wired diferently. |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Aug 7, 2017 11:35:20 GMT -5
Collector mentality to slab and seal so it remains "untouched" is for all those dreamers who believe that one day they can sell it for outrageous sums of money. All the old comics are expensive because of their limited quantity due to destruction during the war years. Modern comics will never sell in the same cost ranges. But there is the acknowledged statement: it is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it and I can believer there are collectors who will pay incredible prices just because it is listed as so. Go figure I'm a huge vinyl record collector, I have paid 4 figure sums for records that exist on CD for 10$. That being said, if there is a vinyl record repress, I would only buy the original if found at a bargain. I also do some record dealing and buy interesting doubles when I find them cheaper than what they should go for, either for trade or resale purpose For comics, my MO is different : the only comics I may pay more than 10$ for are ones that aren't collected or reprinted in any form. I don't like collections and want the original with its advertising pages etc, but I wouldn't spend good money on originals if an affordable trade exists. And I don't buy doubles. The doubles I have are by products of lot purchases. |
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Post by Outrajs on Aug 7, 2017 12:07:59 GMT -5
When I was a kid I had a friend who was crazy into comic books. He read absolutely everything and knew just about everything on all current books at the time. One day I bought Lobo's first edition of his own book and immediately boarded and bagged it without reading it. I didn't want it to get messed up. He told me I could never be a true comic book fan if I was a collector. To him, all books are made to be read. He kept just about everything, but if you didn't read everything you bought he called you a collector...an insult in his book. I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this one. Ha! that's so cosmic : I was about to post a thread on the exact same topic! In my book your friend is right : I have 15000+ comics, so I indeed have a collection, but it doesn't necessarly make me a collector. A collector wants to own before anything else. I would make a tiny distinction between my take and your friend's though : I wouldn't call you a collector as an insult, just as a relevant distinction. If you want to own and store htings, that's perfectly fine, I'm not gonna say you're a bad person, far from it. I might just hazard you're missing on something, but even that is subjective as everyone is wired diferently. I usually did read what I bought. The only two times I did that were with the Lobo book and the glow in the dark Spectre book. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 12:26:36 GMT -5
I don't see why you can't be both a collector and a reader. I am a collector. I have been since I was about ten. But I would never buy a book and not read it. I'm with tin on this one ... his statement here is exactly how I phrase mine! |
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Post by LovesGilKane on Aug 7, 2017 12:39:26 GMT -5
great topic, Outrajs! my answer is simple. on a budget, always be a reader, if with hefty disposable income, buy one to read and one to bag. but always read first  we scriveners and scritchers work too hard to naught but cry if our efforts go unseen. (yes, i do poetry too, lol) |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 7, 2017 12:50:19 GMT -5
great topic, Outrajs! my answer is simple. on a budget, always be a reader, if with hefty disposable income, buy one to read and one to bag. but always read first we scriveners and scritchers work too hard to naught but cry if our efforts go unseen. (yes, i do poetry too, lol) I hadn't considered the creator's point of view. Yes, everybody should buy two copies!!!  |
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Post by LovesGilKane on Aug 7, 2017 12:53:04 GMT -5
great topic, Outrajs! my answer is simple. on a budget, always be a reader, if with hefty disposable income, buy one to read and one to bag. but always read first we scriveners and scritchers work too hard to naught but cry if our efforts go unseen. (yes, i do poetry too, lol) I hadn't considered the creator's point of view. Yes, everybody should buy two copies!!! busting my gut laughing, as you ARE a creator! LMMFGAO |
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