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Comic Book Collectors; Nerdy Geeks Or Shrewd Investors?
By Dave Gieber
Below, you'll find
extensive information on leading comic book collectors articles and
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help you on your way to success.
When one says, yeah,
I collect comic books, what is the general public response? Oh no, a
slightly off the wall geek. Here issomeone who has lost touch with
reality. Or someone that is in his or her own little world. I think
not. Yes, comic bookcollectors may sometimes march to the beat of a
differentdrummer, but who says we all have to be cut from the same
mold.Comic books are big business.
Back in the days of my
youth (what, several millennia ago?), Iloved reading comic books. And
so did a lot of my friends.Whenever we had an extra dime or sometimes a
quarter, we couldrun up to the local small town grocery and spend some
very happytimes at the comic book rack.
We would even go out and
find small odds jobs for pocket change,which was enough then to
purchase 2 or 3 good flights ofadventure and fantasy. I can even
remember crawling under ourhouse to retrieve a cat that had the
misfortune of dying there.My Dad couldn't stomach the smell and enticed
my friend and I toaccomplish the chore for ample pocket change. We
braved thespiders and other crawly creatures to retrieve and bury
theunfortunate cat. Not long after that, we were the proud ownersof
yet, several more intriguing comic books. Even the localbully (who was
really a pretty good guy) would purchase our wornout or unwanted
magazines for far more than they were worth, sowe could purchase new
ones.
I didn't know much about
collecting then. I just liked savingwhat I enjoyed. I had a large
cardboard box that I kept under mybed, filled with all my little
treasures. I didn't realize thatI had the beginnings of what could have
been something verylucrative. In later years when I headed off to
college, Idragged my large cardboard box with me. At one point in time,
Ileft most of my belongings in the charge of what I thought weretrusted
friends. When I returned from my forest firefightingadventures, my box
full of magazines were no where to be found.And needless to say, were
my trusted friends either. Others hadseen the value in what I had and
wanted it for themselves. Ohwell, live and learn. That limited
collection of
andother magazines would have been worth a small
fortune today.
Are there big bucks in the
comic book genre? Just look at whatHollywood has been up to for
the last few decades. As
far as Ican tell, the really big blockbusters started back in 1978
withthe release of Superman, The Movie. And since then there hasbeen
comic book hero after comic book hero to hit the silverscreen. And they
all make tons of money. The Hollywood mogulsmay or may not be "into"
the genre, but the can smell largeprofits. And these kinds of profits
aren't harvested from asmall out of touch with reality niche. It take
large numbers ofindividuals forking out 5 to 10 dollars a pop, to
accumulate theastronomical profits that Hollywood is seeing these
days.Individuals who may or may not want to admit their avid interestin
comic book characters. I will stand up and say, I enjoywatching these
movies and have even started my own collection ofcomic book character
DVDs. Who knows, maybe some day my DVDswill become as valuable as comic
books. Probably not.
Although, not every
individual's collection has magazines worththousands of dollars, there
are a sizable amount of collectionsthat can be worth hundreds of
thousands or even millions ofdollars. These are not people that have
lost touch with reality.A while back, the actor, Nicholas Cage, put his
comic bookcollection of about 400 magazines up for auction. Word was
thathe might have realized a value into seven figures. That
ain'tchicken feed.
It is not uncommon for
single additions to be worth severalhundred to several thousand
dollars. Some
can enterthe realm of several hundred thousand
dollars for one magazine.Now the owners have to be some pretty rich
economically savvygeeks. Are these the types of small niche individuals
who havelost touch with reality or don't want to confess they like
comicbooks? So the next time you hear someone profess, yeah I
collectcomic books, you may want to look inside yourself and say, howdo
I release my hidden passion and start collecting myself?
About the author:Dave
Gieber, a former rocket engineer, has decided to take upresidency on
the Internet. He is the owner and editor of severalwebsites, one of
which was built around one of his childhoodpassions;
www.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com . You canvisit here to keep up
to date on the world of
andcomic book collecting. Feel free to sign up
for my comic bookezine.
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