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Saw a guy at the Denver Comic Con get yelled at for reading the actual comic
Was at Denver Comic Con last Saturday and watched a dude sitting on the floor reading a Silver Age Flash issue. Some guy walked up and told him he was wasting the convention because you should be buying and flipping, not reading. I think that's backwards. The whole point of this hobby is to enjoy the stories, not treat every book like a stock option. Has anyone else noticed the crowd at cons getting more about money than the actual comics?
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charles_chen9321d ago
Haven't you ever walked through a dealer's room and seen the stacks of longboxes with price tags that make you wince? I get where you're coming from, but I actually think the market focus isn't all bad. That beat-up ASM #300 that dealer snatched? He was wrong to grab it like that, but if that kid still has that book and it's graded now, it could pay for a semester of college. I've seen people fund their whole con habit by buying low and selling high, and they still read everything they collect. The money side and the reading side don't have to fight each other. Doesn't the fact that books have real value mean more people are paying attention to the hobby?
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beth_hart6821d ago
Oh man, that story gets me fired up. I was at a small show in Tucson a few years back and saw this kid, maybe 12 years old, sitting on the floor reading a beat-up copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300. He was wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt and just totally lost in it. Some dealer walked by and actually snatched it out of his hands to check the price tag, then handed it back and said "don't get that dirty, that's worth something." The kid looked so crushed. I wanted to scream at that guy that the whole reason that book is worth anything is because some other kid in 1984 sat on his bedroom floor and read it over and over until the cover was barely hanging on. Comic conventions used to be about sharing that love, not treating every book like it's a gold bar. I still think about that little kid and hope he kept reading.
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