Thoughts on collecting comics

[Raven]

People are scum. Philistines.

They'll just see things through completely different eyes. They'll see it as just old kids' tat, clogging up rooms, like in a Channel 4 documentary hoarder's house. They'll feel no connection whatsoever to old Tom and Jerry board games, Quick Draw McGraw coffee flasks, Superman comics, etc.

[big bad bri]

my brother has told me all my comics are going in a skip when i'm gone

I read an interesting thread on the Marvel Masterworks forum a while back, where somebody posted photos of his quite spectacular collection of pop culture memorabilia: walls and walls of perfectly preserved vintage games, comics, etc.; it may have been this lovely lot:

http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku.co ... ply-762784

what a great site that link seems to be and yet another one i had no clue about so yet again i call upon the moderators of this site to find a section just for links such as this and other comics sites .i'm sure the old version of comicsuk had a links page but i could be wrong.

[Lew Stringer]

People are scum. Philistines.

They'll just see things through completely different eyes. They'll see it as just old kids' tat, clogging up rooms, like in a Channel 4 documentary hoarder's house. They'll feel no connection whatsoever to old Tom and Jerry board games, Quick Draw McGraw coffee flasks, Superman comics, etc.

Unfortunately those programmes, and the modern desire for rooms that look more like a catalogue picture than a lived-in home, have given more weight to the opinion that any clutter is rubbish. No wonder non-collectors get bored easily.

[Lew Stringer]

Yes, you could go five years or more without ever seeing a single old British comic. I wasn't aware of any outlet that sold them, dealers at comic marts wouldn't touch them. No fun in that.

True, although there were exceptions. Throughout the 1980s I attended marts in Birmingham and London regularly and rarely saw any British comics. The main exception being the time around 1984 when I noticed a seller at a Westminster Mart had boxes of Odhams comics under his table. "Oh they were already in the van so I brought them along just in case" he said. Near-complete runs of Wham, Smash, and Pow in great condition! (About 20p each I think.) I bought as many as I could afford that day, carried home as many as I could fit into two bulging carrier bags and sent him a cheque for him to post me the rest.

On a different occasion at that mart I bought a couple of issues of Ally Sloper for a pound each. The seller had a stack of them and I wish I'd bought more now, but a pound a comic seemed a lot 30 years ago. There must have been other vintage British comics around too, as Denis always seemed to find something to buy there and show us in the pub. (I remember him being very pleased about a Playbox Annual.)

Back then, when Phil Clarke was still running Birmingham's Nostalgia and Comics, he often had old British comics in stock and I was able to complete my runs of Fantastic and Terrific. I also remember buying TV21 No.1 from him in the mid-1980s, - for the (then) high sum of £5.

[tony ingram]

Desirable and collectible are pretty much the same thing, if people want them, they'll pay for them. And yes, roughly thirty to thirty-five years seems to be the magic number for nostalgia. At the moment, it seems to be all about the eighties from a dealer's POV.

Well, I've seen people rifling through boxes of them at marts, clearly a little nostalgia-smitten, but not necessarily buying. They're often still unsold at £1, or even three for a pound. So I just meant that certain titles do seem increasingly attractive from the present day, I'm just not sure that a great amount of people are prepared to pay much or are avidly building up collections at any cost.

I noticed some first issues with gifts have been going for very high prices, though.

That's interesting about the Eighties. What kind of things? US rather than UK, or both?

Both. I deal in toys as well as comics, only in a small way, but I do keep an eye on what's selling elsewhere as well as what I'm managing to sell myself. 1960s and 70s stuff seems to be less popular these days, but eighties Marvel UK titles and the early eighties Eagle have both been moving pretty well lately when a few years ago they just wouldn't sell, and as far as toys go, it now seems to be all about things like Masters of tbe Universe, Blackstar, ThunderCats, Action Force, and even Fisher Price Adventure People. Poor old Action Man, by contrast, seems to be becoming rather less sought after.

[Phoenix]

It's funny, Phoenix, I used to go to the Manchester Piccadilly Plaza comic marts, whenever I could, as a boy, probably from around mid-1980, and only recall there being tables of US Marvel and DC comics.

It was the late-eighties/early nineties for me, Phil. I got divorced in 1985 and the judge awarded me care and control of our two boys. I did agree though to drive them over to Greasby on the Wirral, where a work colleague (female) had lent Lynne a house, every Friday evening and pick them up again on the Sunday evening. This left me Saturdays free so I used to give that day over to secondhand bookshops and comic shops from Preston to Sheffield and Southport to Chorley, with occasional trips to London.

[Kashgar]

As to the Gifford collection being sold off, I believe it was the wish of his ex-wife and his children that it was to be sold off as they were the beneficiaries of his will. The story I was told was that they were sick of the comics and that it had directly led to the breakup of his marriage. And they did not want to be reminded of that period in their life.

The word philistines comes to mind.

Just to clarify, Denis and his wife Angela, who wed in 1963 and divorced sometime in the 1970's, only had one child, a daughter, named Pandora and it was at his daughter's behest that her father's collections were broken up and sold off. While I can understand his daughter's actions it is perhaps still slightly ironic that one of the major consequences of his comic collecting 'The British Comic Catalogue 1874-1974 published in 1975 was dedicated to her under her family nickname 'Pandy'.

[Phoenix]

While I can understand his daughter's actions it is perhaps still slightly ironic that one of the major consequences of his comic collecting 'The British Comic Catalogue 1874-1974 published in 1975 was dedicated to her under her family nickname 'Pandy'.

The three people I dedicated my books to are all dead now. Colin Morgan, Dave Hardwick and Les Youdell were all major collectors of Thomsons' story papers for boys, and good friends to boot. I'll have to ask in advance whoever I plan to dedicate my next book to see whether they are OK with it.

[tony ingram]

People are scum. Philistines.

They'll just see things through completely different eyes. They'll see it as just old kids' tat, clogging up rooms, like in a Channel 4 documentary hoarder's house. They'll feel no connection whatsoever to old Tom and Jerry board games, Quick Draw McGraw coffee flasks, Superman comics, etc.

As I said: philistines.

[abacus]

When I was on holiday there was a market stall with a pile of BEANO DANDY 90s/2000 comics at 50p each and each one containing a free gift.I bought three,one containing cartoon stencils,one containing a Korky the Kat badge and the other containing i'm not sure what?but with instructions I think.

It got me to thinking to when gifts were more of a rarity and of course of collector value.With so many comics with free gifts around these days I won't be eager to buy them but will judge any I come across by the quality of the gift and the relevance of the gift to the comic.

[big bad bri]

When I was on holiday there was a market stall with a pile of BEANO DANDY 90s/2000 comics at 50p each and each one containing a free gift.I bought three,one containing cartoon stencils,one containing a Korky the Kat badge and the other containing i'm not sure what?but with instructions I think.

It got me to thinking to when gifts were more of a rarity and of course of collector value.With so many comics with free gifts around these days I won't be eager to buy them but will judge any I come across by the quality of the gift and the relevance of the gift to the comic.

i don think i would call them free gifts any more as the comic usually cost extra that week just for the plastic tat.i chucked away most of it or gave it to my partner at the time children.

[abacus]

When I was on holiday there was a market stall with a pile of BEANO DANDY 90s/2000 comics at 50p each and each one containing a free gift.I bought three,one containing cartoon stencils,one containing a Korky the Kat badge and the other containing i'm not sure what?but with instructions I think.

.

i don think i would call them free gifts any more as the comic usually cost extra that week just for the plastic tat.i chucked away most of it or gave it to my partner at the time children.

Tat! you mean I've bought tat?

I agree , in some cases from what I've seen you can give away a bottle top as a free gift and call it a spinning disc and that wouldn't be far from the types of free gifts I have seen.
Collectors who have paid high prices for comics with free gifts in the past will have to look on the latest flood of comics with free gifts in a different light and probably ignore them altogether.

[George Shiers]

When I was on holiday there was a market stall with a pile of BEANO DANDY 90s/2000 comics at 50p each and each one containing a free gift.I bought three,one containing cartoon stencils,one containing a Korky the Kat badge and the other containing i'm not sure what?but with instructions I think.

It got me to thinking to when gifts were more of a rarity and of course of collector value.With so many comics with free gifts around these days I won't be eager to buy them but will judge any I come across by the quality of the gift and the relevance of the gift to the comic.

I do wonder if in 40 or 50 years time we'll be seeing auctions on eBay like "2016 Beano comic with free gift still intact" selling for hundreds of pounds.

[big bad bri]

When I was on holiday there was a market stall with a pile of BEANO DANDY 90s/2000 comics at 50p each and each one containing a free gift.I bought three,one containing cartoon stencils,one containing a Korky the Kat badge and the other containing i'm not sure what?but with instructions I think.

It got me to thinking to when gifts were more of a rarity and of course of collector value.With so many comics with free gifts around these days I won't be eager to buy them but will judge any I come across by the quality of the gift and the relevance of the gift to the comic.

I do wonder if in 40 or 50 years time we'll be seeing auctions on eBay like "2016 Beano comic with free gift still intact" selling for hundreds of pounds.

You may be right as i'm sure these days the print runs are much much lower so they will be harder to get although i suspect not as many get thrown away in this ebay generation as back in the day comics were thrown on the fire and paper was rationed and reused,

[koollectablz]

Yeah it does seem to be the case that actual 'free gifts' as I remember them have gone the way of the dodo.

I've seen a child chose their comic for that week based on what the gift is, rather than what the comic was it was attached to.

Soon as I saw that, I knew comics were doomed!