- Sun Sep 21, 2014 2:52 pm
#31952
...And BTW, all this talk of flippers, color variants, 'true' vinyl enthusiasts, etc. depressingly reminds me of being a comic book collector in the 90s.
Beginning as a kid around 1982, I began collecting comics because a friend lent me a comic called 'Elfquest', which at that time came in a magazine format. I loved it, grew into a comic fan and eventually started collecting mostly Marvel comics through my second great comic love, Uncanny X-Men.
I'd attend the conventions in Portland, OR if I could, and I'd complain about the price of admission to get in which if I recall correctly was less than $20. I'd enjoy the lightly attended convention with other comic book nerds, who were largely unsocial like me and were merely there to try and pick up back issues of comics.
Then suddenly in the 90s, the comic book industry became a larger economic investment and the publishers began making holographic covers, 3-D covers, multiple versions of the same comic, etc. The attendance at conventions suddenly ramped up and I was stuck having to share space with a rabid new form of fan: The fan that didn't merely want to collect because they enjoyed the comic but the fan that collected primarily because they saw the comics as investments.
Eventually the market crashed and it took the comic book industry years to recover.
The parallels between comic book collecting then and vinyl collecting now are 'uncanny'.
As Sartre stated in No Exit, "Hell is other people." Don't expect others to live up to your personal expectations of conduct, because you'll always be disappointed because they'll live their life as they see fit. Enjoy this resurgence in vinyl while your taste for it is still sweet rather than bitter.
And heck, occasionally even enjoy other collectors. Sometimes you run across folks that truly enjoy the art. Sometimes the collector that enjoys the art and sees them as investments, even flippers, are the very same people.
Hopefully the folks lucky enough to be attending Mondocon are finding those kind of people to spend a little time with. Raise a glass and celebrate your joy!
