How long have you been collecting?

[Jud Crandall]

I'd say I began collecting sometime in 2010, with the S/L Under the Dome. Or when Blockade Billy came out, whichever came first. Before then I had no idea the scope of editions available, from magazine 1st appearances to lavish signed limiteds. I'm not too hardcore about it, but I get what I can afford or what interests me personally.

[ajw2910]

I've been collecting for a long time since I never get rid of any of my books, but probably really started getting more serious when I bought the 1st edition of The Drawing of the Three back in 1987. That got me looking more at first editions which then led to S/L's. Not sure when I got my first S/L, but I now have a bunch from many different authors. It's a sickness..........

[jhanic]

It's a sickness..........

Who let the secret out???

John

[ke7285]

My first collectable was The Gunslinger, bought at a bookstore in Portland, Me in 1983. Was already a fan of Stephen King and this was a book I had not seen or heard of sent in the postcard to get on DMG's mailing list rest is history. Still have the book, best $20 I've spent!!! Wish I would have spent a little more for the s/l back then.

[Randall Flagg]

New members? Please respond.

[amd013]

I guess its subjective, but I would say I made the conscious decision in July 2014. (that's when I started searching ebay to buy 1st/1sts I didn't already own). I have been trying to buy 1st/1st's of SK since Misery (although I didn't really know anything about printings, just wanted to get the books as soon as they came out, before the paperbacks). My first collectible was Secretary of Dreams, which I happened to see on Amazon when searching for King books to make sure nothing came out while I wasn't paying attention. My order was canceled as they couldn't fulfill it, so I learned about Cemetery Dance and ordered from them. I then preordered SOD 2 when that was announced (was a little miffed that I didn't receive it for another 3 years)

[killjoy72]

Hi. My name is James, and I have a problem...

I ran across a hardcover (BCE, of course) of Misery in an antique store roughly ten years ago. And that was the one that awoke something inside of me. I had read it before when I was younger, maybe at the age of 10-12, along with other classic King books from the encouragement of my Mom (a pretty big King fan in her day!). It was a fantastic read, and I wanted more. I've been collecting comics since I was a kid, so now moving over to 1st edition hardcovers was a pretty simple adjustment. I soon after discovered Tomas' SK Collector site, which paved the way for me to start seriously, and knowledgeably, collecting. This was way before I had an iPhone, so I printed out the Identifying US First Editions page and carried it around with me everywhere I went, just in case.

It was only a matter of time; LSOE in '09 began my gift edition collection, and the George Mason event in 2011 began my autograph collection. I finally completed my US 1st edition collection with Rage earlier this year, and am now focusing on UK 1sts (up to IT) and signed books.

[jsmcmullen92]

Hi. My name is James, and I have a problem...

Hi James....

I ran across a hardcover (BCE, of course) of Misery in an antique store roughly ten years ago. And that was the one that awoke something inside of me. I had read it before when I was younger, maybe at the age of 10-12, along with other classic King books from the encouragement of my Mom (a pretty big King fan in her day!). It was a fantastic read, and I wanted more. I've been collecting comics since I was a kid, so now moving over to 1st edition hardcovers was a pretty simple adjustment. I soon after discovered Tomas' SK Collector site, which paved the way for me to start seriously, and knowledgeably, collecting. This was way before I had an iPhone, so I printed out the Identifying US First Editions page and carried it around with me everywhere I went, just in case.

It was only a matter of time; LSOE in '09 began my gift edition collection, and the George Mason event in 2011 began my autograph collection. I finally completed my US 1st edition collection with Rage earlier this year, and am now focusing on UK 1sts (up to IT) and signed books.

[Theli]

I went with less than 5 years. While I've always collected books since I can remember, starting with Goosebumps when I was a wee tot. I used to only get trade editions, some hardcovers, but lots of paperbacks, didn't know or care about printings. However I only started getting limited edition books around 2012.

[Randall Flagg]

New members, please answer the poll, and feel free to post a comment.

[MikeDuke]

I have been a King fan since I was 13 but I started to collect in, I think 2004.

[wizardsrainbow]

My first book purchased was an original Stand from Stu at Betts...I still have the book but the receipt ink has totally faded to nothing! Pretty sure I bought it for $250 at the time (I believe this was 1985)...so a collector for 35 years? YIKES!

[Ari_Racing]

I've just "discovered" I'm getting old.
I'm 27...and I started collecting when I was 15 (Not S. King at this time, but other authors. I started with King when I was 19)(Yes...19....everything is tower related, even me ).

Now I'm 40, so it's been 21 years.

Wow.

[amd013]

wow the thread was started 13 years ago, so a lot of the answers have changed since then. perhaps an updated poll with "when" instead of "how long", since it wouldn't be relative to when you answered.

[Dr. Dawg]

I think I started collecting around 2004 or 2005 with a S/L of Black House (still one of my favorite editions despite it's high limitation). In 2012-13, I sold off my collection and started easing back in 2-3 years ago. My biggest regrets from that sell off are letting go of my IT S/L and the CP Salem's Lot gift edition in Collectors Traycase with prints... I think it was a relatively down market at that time too.

[Randall Flagg]

wow the thread was started 13 years ago, so a lot of the answers have changed since then. perhaps an updated poll with "when" instead of "how long", since it wouldn't be relative to when you answered.

I think I can "strip" the poll and start a new one without losing all of the comments.
What verbiage, choices would you suggest?

[amd013]

wow the thread was started 13 years ago, so a lot of the answers have changed since then. perhaps an updated poll with "when" instead of "how long", since it wouldn't be relative to when you answered.

I think I can "strip" the poll and start a new one without losing all of the comments.
What verbiage, choices would you suggest?

When did you start collecting:

pre 70's
70's
80's
90-95
95-99
2000-2005
2005-2010
2010-2015
2015-2020
post 2020

Just a suggestion.

[Randall Flagg]

I can do it, but we lose all 144 previous selections, and start from scratch.

[Patrick]

I've read King for many years - probably started around 1982, maybe earlier, but I didn't keep track of the books I bought. Often they were lent to friends and never seen again - such as the compilation of the four Bachman books that is out of print.

I started reading the Dark Tower books in 1992.

I began collecting King's books in November 2004 when I started buying the S/Ls of the Dark Tower series.

Glad I answered the question 13 years ago - not certain I’d remember now.

[lotuz]

I can do it, but we lose all 144 previous selections, and start from scratch.

How about a new thread?

This one is really neat and I liked reading it (especially people re-responding after 13 years!), but I am also curious about when other people started collecting.

It would also be interesting to see how the collecting demographics of this community have changed since its inception. For example, the current poll has <5 years and 11-20 years as the most common response. All those same people would now be 11-20 or 21-30 years! How many "newer" (<5 year) collectors are here now?

Fun stuff!

[Randall Flagg]

I can do it, but we lose all 144 previous selections, and start from scratch.

How about a new thread?

This one is really neat and I liked reading it (especially people re-responding after 13 years!), but I am also curious about when other people started collecting.

It would also be interesting to see how the collecting demographics of this community have changed since its inception. For example, the current poll has <5 years and 11-20 years as the most common response. All those same people would now be 11-20 or 21-30 years! How many "newer" (<5 year) collectors are here now?

Fun stuff!

So start a new poll and thread! I empower you.

[lotuz]

As a relatively new member, at least compared to a lot of folks here, I had never seen the older "How long have you been collecting" thread. It was really neat to see the people who had originally responded 13 years ago respond again.

Someone mentioned that we should start the poll again, perhaps using the calendar year that one started collecting as the response, compared to just telling us how many years. I think it will be interesting to compare the poster demographics between now and 13 years ago, and I am also interested in hearing people's stories of how they started collecting, and how their collecting habits have changed over time, or not.

I'll start. As usual this is probably going to be pretty wordy - please feel free to tell your own story in as much or little detail as you like

I, like most people here, have always been a reader, so I've always had lots of books around. It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment when I became a collector instead of just a book-buyer, because it happened over the period from 2008-2012.

In 2008 I was living in San Francisco, having moved there after finishing my undergraduate degree in a different part of the country. It seemed like everyone there was a reader. This was before smart phones, and you could get on any bus or any train and find people nose-deep in books. One nice secondary effect of this was that the thrift stores all had huge book sections to look through. Another nice effect of this was that there was a thriving used book store scene at that time - there were probably a dozen high quality independent bookstores sprinkled throughout the city - most general, some niche, all awesome. Some days, after work, I'd drop by a couple of thrift stores and see if they had any books I could pick up. They were cheap, too - usually $0.50-$1 for paperbacks and $1-$2 for hardcovers. And often there were clearance sales for $0.10-$0.25 just to empty the shelves and make more room.

After some time, I started to see patterns in what was in each of the thrift stores, and what was in the used book stores, and worked out pretty well which books I could pick up in the thrift store for $1 and sell to the used bookstores for $3-4. At first I just used this cycle to buy books from the book stores that I wanted to read but that never showed up at thrift stores. Eventually, this became a regular ritual: on days when I had to work, I'd check out the thrift stores around my job and hunt for books. On days off, I'd go to other thrift stores in the city. And probably once a week or so I'd take all my finds on the bus in big shopping bags and I would start at my favorite used book store (Aardvark, books, who just finally closed in 2019) and make my way through the Mission to Adobe Books (closed), then Forest (moved to Japantown then maybe closed), then Borderlands (still around), then Dog-Eared (still around), and then to Community Thrift on Valencia to donate whichever books I didn't manage to sell or get store credit for.

By probably 2010, I had acquired enough credit to start getting the nice, much more expensive, first editions that the used book stores carried, and that was probably the "real" beginning of my collecting. Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for the literary scene as a whole, at this point some of the small used book stores were starting to buckle. It wasn't actually super fortunate for me - I'd have preferred to keep my book scouting and book buying going on indefinitely - but it did provide me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to amass a very nice first edition collection (of general American Lit from the 1940's onward, as well as genre collecting like horror and sci-fi) for very, very cheap (considering my only real expenditures were $0.10-$2.00 books). I scored some absolutely killer deals, both at the thrift stores (a first edition For Whom The Bell Tolls for $0.25, a first edition, second printing of A Confederacy of Dunces for $1) and the used book stores (a pristine first edition Rabbit, Run for $30, etc.).

The first big shift in my collecting happened in 2012. I really like the novel American Psycho and I saw on Amazon, of all places, that there was a publisher called Centipede Press that was going to release a new version. At that point, other than a few random books at Borderlands, I had no real idea that there was a whole group of publishers out there putting out high quality books, with signatures, at that!

At first I just dipped my toe in the S/L pool – a book here and there from the Centipede Press newsletter, and every once in awhile something from the back catalog. Not only did I love the production values, but the books themselves were great! Some classic genre fiction, to be sure, but a lot of titles that I had never heard of before. My first introduction to Tim Powers was when CP announced that they would be producing The Anubis Gates – I immediately ordered a used paperback copy and have been loving Tim Powers ever since. John Farris, James Herbert, R.A. Lafferty – I like to think I would have come across them sooner or later, but CP really sped things up.

From 2012 to about 2017 I was still collecting a mix of stuff. Too much stuff! Anything that seemed remotely interesting, or a bargain, and was within my limited but growing budget. Right in the middle of that, in 2015, I moved, and at that time I had roughly ~2500 books in my collection. However, that included both my "collection" books, and my "reading" books, which were clearly becoming two separate collections.

The second big shift occurred in 2017 with a confluence of several events. I had been finding these forums pretty regularly in my google searches for rare S/L books (I can't tell you how many times it ended up at one of Bob's posts). I also was realizing, super late, I know!, that King had so, so many good S/L editions. And the third, and most important game changer, was reading an article about something called Dragon Rebound Editions, who were working on a version of Firestarter made from burned wood boards! Whoa!

These three things combined to awaken a Kondo-esque collector in me. Of all the books I had, which ones made me the happiest? Turns out it was largely the S/L books in my collection! Those were the books that brought me the most satisfaction. These were the books that I could just hold in my hand and feel happy about looking at. That's when I started to notice all the little parts - headbands, endpapers, paper quality, etc. - that made up the whole of a nicely produced book. The first editions still had a grip, but only if it was the first edition of a novel I really actually liked! This started a massive shift as I began to sell the first editions that were fun to have, but that I didn't actually spend any time with (sorry, Hemingway!). I got rid of a huge chunk of firsts in 2017-2018, and still let them go occasionally. I used the money, as well as my growing adult-person income to hunt out the S/Ls from a couple of publishers that I especially like. These are now the main focus of my collecting, along with the occasional first edition.

As far as King goes, I've said before that he's not a major focus of my collecting. But he still gets outsized attention compared to most other authors. I have copies of almost all of his books in my "reading" stash, and I do collect his first edition books, though I have not spent too much time at this point trying to track down the older titles that I'm missing. But he has some absolutely beautiful S/L that I'm proud to own, and I do try to hunt down all the interesting copies & proofs & limiteds of my favorite earlier works: IT, The Stand, and Eyes of the Dragon. This is all done relatively piece-meal, as I try to find room and budget in between keeping up with my favorite small press publishers (Suntup Editions and Centipede Press, followed by Zagava, Egaeus, and Swan River Press, and a few nicely produced titles from Sub Press and the rare Cemetery Dance book here and there).

All this said, I'm gonna say that I stared to become a "collector" at some point between 2010 and 2012, so about a decade now.

I'm very curious to hear everyone else's story!!

Note: I'm intentionally keeping the question vague. If "collecting" to you is when you started buying mass market paperbacks to read for fun but couldn't bear to part with them, great! It could mean first editions, or S/L, or whatever it means to you when you think of yourself as a "collector".

[webstar1000]

HARD CORE.. about 8 years I think. BUT have been a collector of King since 92' when I got a beat up copy of IT. I was in Grade 9 I think...

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

In a nutshell:
Used to buy paperback books in Hudsons Eastland, everything that said Nebula or Hugo award winner on the cover.
Discovered Vance and Farmer.
Bought THE GRAY PRINCE by Jack Vance at THE BOOK SHELF in Grosse Pointe Woods, my first conscious hardcover 1st edition purchase, and the year I consider my true collecting bug to have started.
Found many authors to collect since then; Anthony, Bloch, Card, Eisenstien, Ellison, Farmer, King, Kosinski, Matheson, Niven, Ptacek, Resnick, Vance, Vonnegut, Zelazny and others. Quit Anthony and Card and Niven after they began writing what I considered unreadable stuff.
Have sold maybe 10 of my books since then, still have all the others.
The beat goes on.

[MikeDuke]

For me it was like this. I read my first King book, Christine when I was in Jr High (around 1985) and I was hooked. Then I saw The Shining on TV a few years later. When I was in 9th grade I saw The Shining on VHS and was surprised by all the cursing and of course the tub scene that were edited out in the TV version. So I was an even bigger fan after that. I started to read his books and then I drifted away. But I came back later and have read many of his books. Not all, but many. Then I stumbled across this site and became a member. I decided to get back in. I choose to start collecting. It began with a first ed of Christine and I have been trying to go strong ever since. But I was un-aware of all the S\L versions of his books that were out there so that was another turning point. It's been a fun ride though. Frustrating at some points but still fun. So to sum up, I have been a READER since 1985 and a COLLECTOR since 2004.