I was talking about this on my social media today, and it really got me thinking. Why did we get into comics?

The previous post talked about the day Superman died, when I so happened to be working at a comic book shop. The amount of people who were there because "this will pay for my kid's college tuition" (not joking on that one) really bothered me. Not because "hey, you're not REAL comic readers" but because they didn't understand the economics on how comics values work.

But beyond that...why do we care about that at all? I purged a lot of my comics in the mid 90s when I left the comics/fandom world, but still kept a bunch. A few are rare, but beat-up. Why? I read them. Every so often, I pull out a 30 year old comic and read it. I have them cause I enjoy them. Not because they're locked in a plastic graded carton to gain value over time.

I remember reading somewhere that Matt Wagner loved it when he'd see some of his old comics fans would ask him to get signed, and they were just well worn, folded, wrinkled. Cause it meant they were being read and loved. My collection would never past muster in grading, but I don't care, cause I love the ones I got.

Same with toys: I may keep the boxes my toys, but that's just cause those boxes are BUILT to protect the toys when they're shipped. Unless I'm moving somewhere, those toys are taken out, displayed and occasionally played with. :)