Disclaimer:
Before you decide to formulate your opinion solely based on the headline, read first and if you still don’t agree then keep it moving about your day.
First let me start out by saying that I never set out to be a collector. I’ve always bought things that I liked and held onto them which eventually equated turned into a collection. I’d rather consider myself a preserver of culture and with that comes actually knowledge of, or knowing the history of things in your collection. It’s never been about “look at me, I’m a collector” but it has always been an eye opener for outsiders who either understood or couldn’t related to why someone would hold onto such things.
Collecting things has always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember back in the 1970’s buying comic books off of the spinner racks at my local comic shop or even earlier, the corner drug store. Collecting like other things is just a way of life for many people. As a kid, we collected comic books and sports cards and we also saw adults, particularly older men who collected pulp and pinup magazines, model cars, train sets, vinyl and of course comics. It was just who we all seemed to be and it was a rather small circle and many times a loaner life away from the day to day of the outside world but it was something that was cool to us. Even attending my first comic convention around 1980, I knew that collecting was primarily a man thing which comprised of a lot of men that grew up in the 1940’s – 1960’s who had seen their time in whatever world war that was going on, dealing with social and political issues of the present and surrounding themselves with things that made them happy was their escape. As a generation born during the 1970’s we latched on to much of those same things of interests when it came to collecting and it was a natural connection. As the 1980’s rolled around, so did the term “nerd” which was used to describe various types of people. Whether you were into computers or comic books, it was all the same to the outside world, you were a nerd and looked down on by the “cool kids” or jocks. And all of the things like comic books, anime and other non mainstream interests were typically enjoyed by those who were really about that life.
From comics to vintage toys, vinyl to arcade and pinball machines, I’ve built up what has become a collection of things that I enjoy and when I stop to think about it, most of the things in my collection where purchased at relatively cheap prices because there wasn’t a mass market or industry built around it. These were things that only a small group of people wanted to own which is why when you look at older collectors, they’ve built up an insane archive like those who chose to buy cheap art which later became the million dollar pieces. Collecting back then was fun and exciting and for a kid, saving up $10 in lunch or allowance money went a long way. As an adult who had a job or retired from the military back then, buying and collecting any and everything was easy. Things were sold at grading book values or what the seller thought something was worth was majority of the times, cheaper than book value. You actually went out dig whether it was a Saturday morning flea market or a random secondhand store filled with a hodge podge or random things, the thrill was in the hunt and we all wanted to go on the adventure. There are two sides of the collector coin today, those with good paying jobs and enough money to buy everything and essentially drive up prices similar to the housing market and those who want what they can’t afford and complain about things being too expensive. As a record collector, I hear so many DJ’s complain about record prices while at the same time taking shots at other record collectors who dig for or floss grails that they themselves want but can’t afford but will justify buying a reissue and using the excuse that “it’s about the music”. Here’s the thing, most of you guys came into the game late and are mad that others bought that grail 30 years ago for $50 and now it’s $500 on the secondary market. Suck it up, Charlie or go out and actually dig, hit a flea market or work out a trade to get the records that you want instead of taking subliminal shots posting memes on social media about “no one cares about your rare records”. Fact is, having diversity is what separates one collector from the other, we’re not all supposed to have the same things in our collection. Collections are supposed to be about personal tastes, not checking off what’s in the holy grail textbooks or basing your collection off of others collections.
During COVID is when we started to see the shift in not only new collectors flooding the market, but also when we saw the spike in prices. It became a hypebeast market filled with kids in a candy store that actually had a bank account to buy what they wanted. $25 comics and records became $100 because people would rather throw money at it now than find it in the field later. Dealers took note of that and adjusted prices accordingly because they knew that someone would be hungry enough to pony up the price they were asking for. We also started seeing a shift in online auctions, both on Instagram and eBay where bids were going up high on things that weren’t previously seen as that valuable. Collecting became less about personal tastes and interests and more about flossing what you had purchased to others in your circle, scene or social media. We saw people who weren’t previously comic collectors suddenly buying comics that were slabbed and graded and bragging about the high grading but have never read the comic. Then you have the flippers who will buy up as much merch as they can and then sell it at astronomical prices before the market and hype crash. Everyones trying to cash in and when a collector talks about the value or rarity of something more than they do the personal connection or story of how they obtained it then you know collecting isn’t who they truly are. Seeing DJ / record collectors suddenly buying records that aren’t that good buying them just to brag yet never playing them out in sets or even at home is yet another prime example. I’ve seen so many so called grails purchased never heard them played by the DJ or collectors who overpaid for it. Collecting has become a sport for those who have and like to spend the money to get things that others don’t have and want. Everyone says that they’re digging, yet most are just shopping. If you paid full price at a boutique shop where the owner has curated a nice selection of grails and wants, then you definitely weren’t digging.
Fast forward to the present and everything seems to be cool to the masses. My first comic cons were scruffy old men and a few woman dressed up as Vampirella or Red Sonya because it was sexy and eye candy for men. Fast forward to the modern era and cosplay is at it’s biggest, yet it’s been a thing within the sci-fi community here in the states with Star Trek conventions dating back to the late 1970’s and has always been a thing in Japan. Suddenly, Japanese anime culture is the latest trend here in the states when previosly the only people into that culture where the nerds who would import tapes and have viewing parties in their dorm rooms for other nerds or groups like The Philadelphia Animation Society which was founded by the late Bill Thomas. The group was a spin off of America’s first formal anime club was the Cartoon / Fantasy Organization (C/FO). While its national headquarters was formed in Los Angeles in 1977. TPAS group spun off from the early tape-trading days to hold regular monthly screenings and discussions of imported Japanese animation which lasted for 40 years and had it’s last meeting in January 2023.
As a collector who has pretty much all of the major wants in my collection, I can honestly say that collecting just isn’t as fun as it used to be. It’s not that I have everything because there’s always things that I wasn’t hipped to that a dealer might introduce to me to and things that I might want to mint up on but things are different. I still enjoy the thrill of the hunt and usually in the streets on a regular digging as well as going to shops and shows. But the people are different in all scenes, it seems less pure and more about hype than anything. The conversations don’t come from a place of knowledge and history but rather what went viral on timelines to create the next must have. We’ve seen people during COVID buying everything then post COVID after the money ran dry or boredom of being stuck in the house was over, they started selling and flipping things. Pretty much in the same way where we saw Serato become the popular DJ tool and DJs sold their records to now 45’s being the new trend and all of those same DJs are now buying the same tired records on 45 that they sold on 12″. I still enjoy my circle of collector friends that I can jump on group chats with to discuss the hobby, travel out to record shows and conventions and meet up with or fly out to Japan with for our annual Manga Quest get together. Now I’m not saying that there aren’t new people getting into collecting that are truly about it but they are the minority, the same way we were the minority in the 70s’s and 80’s or the previous generation was in the 60’s. Trends come and go while many of us were here since day 1 and will be here until it’s time to pass off our archives to the next collector in line.