I was wondering the same thing. I also will not publicly speculate.Originally Posted by biomieg
I was wondering the same thing. I also will not publicly speculate.
I have a guess in mind too.
Same here.
There have been several large collections up for sale at Betts in the last couple of years. I wonder why so many are giving up on collecting King?
Hopefully there will be something in this collection for me, as all the others had nothing I did not already have, or sold out before I could get it.
I think it has to do with age. The newer collectors went fast and hard, buying a lot of expensive books (older collectors got to pay cost). Then babies, burnout, other responsibilities came around.
Older collectors can receive good value for their collections and are beginning to downsize.
This is just a guess, but I think the average age for sk collectors is around 45 ish.
Life is getting in the way of collecting. Illness (getting older) rocky wood. Babies, bills etc....
Just my opinion.
I am never selling, but when I do go. Instead of taking my books with me. My nephew has a note to call betts books!
It's not me.....
Rest assured, I'll be in buying mode if the prices make sense (which they usually do)!
I'm not a motivated seller, but I'm not a buyer either - basically, I had a lot of fun collecting back in the day, but I got bored once EVERY book got a s/l edition, and it no longer felt all that exclusive.
Plus, the publishers figured out the true value of the books and the price went up (which is totally fine)...it just wasn't sustainable or interesting to try and chase everything down.
So I think that's why many collectors dropped off the grid.
This huge consignment is based in Australia
Consignment is based in Australia. I dont think we know anyone that collects SK books in Australia. Do we????
and if so, wouldn't the books all be upside down?
There is an Australian collector whose eBay name is paulreadingking. I should know his real name but I can't find it now. He has been selling his collection for awhile. I'm thinking it may be him. Just a guess.
You sure it's not someone that's trying to fund his chadbourne art collection?
Wanted:
Gunslinger s/l #344
Drawing of The Three s/l #344
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” Wayne Gretzky
Should Chadbourne be scared? If i was a detective/writer, i would think that someone would buy all of Chadbournes art, then knock him off and make a fortune selling his stuff!!! art prices skyrocket after the artist goes. look at picasso, and michael angelo and ....
Yes, it certainly could be him. I have no inside information. Just trying to raise my post count.
My guess would also be "someone who seems like they bought everything, but don't seem to be around much anymore."
"... And lives in Australia."
Guys/Gals, c'mon, it's a no-brainer!
We all know who it is.....should be one helluva' listing at Betts come Wednesday.
Amazing. Hope the prices are great... Could be spending my years worth of King money in one shot. Lol and we sure do know who it is....!
HELP ME FIND
Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
It will be interesting to see what David lists. I am trying to think if there was anything in his collection thread that really appealed to me.
As I told RF in a PM earlier, I have seen this quite a few times over the 30+ years I have been collecting. A collector burns white hot for several months to years and then completely flames out for whatever reason. It seems the intensity of the initial interest is directly proportional to the suddenness of the stoppage. Probably an oversimplification on my part but I have seen it happen quite a few times. I hope all is OK with him.
Send a PM request to me and I will manually change you post count, but it may not exceed God's 1,000,000 count (unless of course you slide a "tithe" to RF).Yes, it certainly could be him. I have no inside information. Just trying to raise my post count.
No, Paul is based in New Zealand.
I do not think this is a "quit" collecting thing but more of a "new direction" in collecting as I have spoken to who I think this is, a few months back and kind of thought this may happen. Was not that surprised when David posting where he was from.
HELP ME FIND
Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
I am trying to see if there is anything I can afford. 8)
"One day you're going to figure out that everything they taught you was a lie."
I doubt any of us ever lose the urge to collect completely. I guess I was speaking to the smaller niche of collecting Stephen King writing that brings most of us to this forum. Over the years I have seen collectors amass very large collections of King material in very short periods of time and then, seemingly, drop out completely. There was a guy on eBay named "Dr. Mindful" or something like that in the early days of eBay. That was when I still needed quite a few King books and, eBay being relatively new, there were many, many listings of material I had never seen or heard of before. I was bidding on lots and lots of stuff and this Dr. Mindful was outbidding all of us, every day, all day long on just about every desirable King item. He seemed to have unlimited funds to buy anything he wanted. Charlie, Chris, Hutch and I (and others I'm sure) were frustrated (and pissed off) by this guy. This lasted a couple of years and then stopped abruptly. I have no idea what happened to him or what he did with his collection. There have been several other similar collectors I have known over the years who go completely all in at the beginning and then drop out of King collecting, presumably to move on to other interests. I just find it to be an interesting phenomenon. And maybe this is the norm in collecting. Maybe I am the weird one who has plodded on for 30+ years with only one real goal.....to get a copy of every word Stephen King has published and every book in every state.I do not think this is a "quit" collecting thing but more of a "new direction" in collecting as I have spoken to who I think this is, a few months back and kind of thought this may happen. Was not that surprised when David posting where he was from.
Some of us just meet our goals and move on to something else. I started my collecting habit on Edgar Rice Burroughs. Once I had all of the First editions (Some McClurgs in dust jacket and all firsts published by Metropolitan on in dust jacket) Along with all multiple examples of the reprints in dust jacket, I found my self done. 20 years and I had reached my goal. I could find some better copies of some of the books, but the cost was prohibitive and I found I had a harder time selling my duplicates. I moved on to something else. I was on to the Grant and Gnome Conan books. Finished that and started collecting some of the signed Subterranean Limited editions of authors I liked: (Scalzi, Butcher, Abercrombie, etc) along with finding signed Dark Tower books.
Now I am concentrating on signed Dark Tower related books. When I finish that, who knows what will be next. But, until I run out of time, money or space, I will be collecting something. I have that strange disease of Bibliomania
That is a very cool story! I must say... I fought and struggled with whether to start down this path or not. I mean you had some great opportunities to buy some books at the right prices. I starting so late have not and that was what was holding me back. The prices I am paying for some are high... MUCH higher than when released. But I see some going up JUST since I bought them a short time ago. I decided about a year or more ago to just get the older hardcovers (not 1st's necessarily) but kept creeping the matching Dark Tower set on ABE Books for $25000. I could not get my head around why someone would pay that.... I also did not understand why they are so much when my copies were mint and looked great. I made "friends" and I use this loosely with a guy on Ebay that had a part set and I thought I would like to have them since I LOVED the books more than any other. He gave me a really cheap price in the end... When I touched and felt the quality I decided to grab a few GE's... then I could not handle having a DT set that was "UN-completable"... thus a collecting bug/beast was born. My mission is vast (not as vast as yours) but large enough that it will take years. Should a situation arise financially that required me to sell them.. would I? Yes, I would. I would hate it and be sad cause I have a pretty nice looking set up that I enjoy looking at. But sometimes things get in the way.... life being the major one. I find it hard now to stay on task as I love the art side of it (instead of a couple of books I hired Rachel to customize me bookends to name one instance where I went off the "path") and I am constantly consumed with looking for the next deal. I also pay in Canadian too which makes the books more for me (for many reasons)... I would totally agree that a person would/could fizzel out... I do not think I will but you never know what curve ball can be thrown your way. For now I will keep on the path and hope that I have many years to stare at these wonderful books. krisI doubt any of us ever lose the urge to collect completely. I guess I was speaking to the smaller niche of collecting Stephen King writing that brings most of us to this forum. Over the years I have seen collectors amass very large collections of King material in very short periods of time and then, seemingly, drop out completely. There was a guy on eBay named "Dr. Mindful" or something like that in the early days of eBay. That was when I still needed quite a few King books and, eBay being relatively new, there were many, many listings of material I had never seen or heard of before. I was bidding on lots and lots of stuff and this Dr. Mindful was outbidding all of us, every day, all day long on just about every desirable King item. He seemed to have unlimited funds to buy anything he wanted. Charlie, Chris, Hutch and I (and others I'm sure) were frustrated (and pissed off) by this guy. This lasted a couple of years and then stopped abruptly. I have no idea what happened to him or what he did with his collection. There have been several other similar collectors I have known over the years who go completely all in at the beginning and then drop out of King collecting, presumably to move on to other interests. I just find it to be an interesting phenomenon. And maybe this is the norm in collecting. Maybe I am the weird one who has plodded on for 30+ years with only one real goal.....to get a copy of every word Stephen King has published.I do not think this is a "quit" collecting thing but more of a "new direction" in collecting as I have spoken to who I think this is, a few months back and kind of thought this may happen. Was not that surprised when David posting where he was from.
HELP ME FIND
Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
