How long have you been collecting?

[Matt]

Just wondering how long each of you has been collecting.

[Randall Flagg]

Matt,
there is no choice for all of the above.
Also, length of time collecting and frequency of collecting are two different issues.
P.S. possible poll selection choices:
<5 Years
5-10 Years
11-20 Years
21-30 Years
30+ Years

[jhanic]

I started collecting science fiction and fantasy back about 1960 (before I graduated high school). I decided that I would like to own EVERY sf and fantasy book out there. I finally decided that was ridiculous, but before June of last year, I had somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 books, magazines, pulps and paperbacks in my collection. On June 22, 2006, while my wife and I were away on vacation, we had a very violent storm and my basement, where the vast majority of my collection was located, ended up with about 8" of water. This damaged more than half my collection. Luckily, my King collection, some very valuable pulp magazines (Weird Tales from 1926-1953) were upstairs and never touched. I am currently in the process of selling most of the remainder (except King and a few other items) via consignment.

If you meant when I started collecting King, I first was attracted to him when the paperback of The Shining came out. My first hardcover that I bought of his was Firestarter. I now have more than 375 King books (not including anthologies with King stories, magazine, etc., just King books) in my collection.

John

[Matt]

Matt,
there is no choice for all of the above.
Also, length of time collecting and frequency of collecting are two different issues.
P.S. possible poll selection choices:
<5 Years
5-10 Years
11-20 Years
21-30 Years
30+ Years

I love those ideas Jerome. I was setting it up as a test for what I was doing and couldn't think of anything

Feel totally free to edit it if you like. I am doing a "Collectors News" type page right now, planning a photo gallery add on for the actual collections and a ton of other stuff.

Collectors news page <---Weird name for now

[Randall Flagg]

I went ahead and changed it to a time question only.
I cleared the 2 existing votes, then voted myself.
Hopefully the 2 people who voted will please vote again.

[Matt]

Thanks

Like I said, it was kind of a test and I hate doing tests for pages in hidden forums because google searches it.

What do you think of the page?

[Randall Flagg]

The page looks cool.

[Matt]

Why thank you sir

I bet myself to death on that over the weekend. The gallery is going to be a great home for the collections themselves I think.

All on the first year development train.

[funky dredd]

I've actually only been collecting for about a year to a year and a half. Most of the King books I had were in paperback. I started moving to hardbacks because I needed glasses and I could no longer read the small print in paperbacks, the headaches were way to painfull to keep reading them in small print. So I set out to find the hardbacks to replace those paperbacks (this is where the bug bit me), at first most of them were pretty easy to find, but the more obscure titles was what really got me into collecting. But I was lucky enough to talk to the used book store owner in town and we really got to know each other pretty good and he has turned me on to some other people he knows and then my collection really took off. I really haven't sunk to much money into my collection other than the Gunslinger, DotT, Waste Lands and WaG which I saved up for almost a year to buy these all at once (family comes first for me). I have a few used books that don't even look like they were read or opened and I only paid anywhere from .99 cents to $7 (at the most). This one guy I talked to couldn't give me them fast enough, he said he felt dirty having SK books around and had no idea why his ex-wife even read SK. I just looked at him funny and proceeded to give him some money, we still talk and he keeps an eye out for me. I kind of thought he was just trying to get his wife back for leaving him, but that is farther than the truth, she told him to sell them, she never said for how much I still go to the used book store every saturday to see what the guy gets because he constantly looks for stuff for me and sometimes will find something for me. He's a really good guy and goes way out his way to help me find things, but he constantly talks to people all day long that love books, so I'm thankful I know him. I don't call myself a collector at all, because I don't buy the expensive stuff (Signed/Limiteds), I am sure that once I do my wife would really love me!

[funky dredd]

I should note that I do not presently own anything signed. One day maybe...

[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.

[oy-the-brave]

I started collecting in 1983/1984 when I purchased a first edition copy of the Gunslinger. I had been reading King since around 1975/1976.

[Fsmdr]

I'm probably one of the shortest term collector around here and also Dt.net. Been only collecting for about 2 years. A few years back, I went to a friend's house and she mentioned with pride that her father owned a signed King book personally signed back in 79'.

That got me hunting around the web and soon enough stumbled on Bett's bookstore. I remembered thinking 'This guy is on crack!. He must be crazy to sell books at that price'.

Now my King books count is around 200. Not much, but making so many great friends makes it all worth so much more.

[Sir_Boomme]

i started reading king when my mom gave me a first edition hardback of carrie... back when it came out. that book and other early firsts went to the
2 4 1 second hand book store... darn i wish i had known then what i know now.
i started collecting king paperbacks in the mid 80's...mostly to read... but with the intent to own and read evey single king title there was. by 1991, it was my intent to own a hardback copy of every title... by 1995.... i was looking for all first edition hardbacks.... then in 1997, i by accident... while at the local mall waiting on a movie to start...ran across a slipcased gift copy of Insomnia (strangely at a store that dealt in signed sport's memorabilia) ... a new money pit was dug... and it's been getting deeper ever since.
my first really expensive purchase... in 1998... was a signed proof copy of carrie from betts (my first of many purchases from the stu master). that was an outragous 1200.00 purchase at the time... little did i know that would be a drop in one very big bucket.
coincidently...NOT... my limited and high dollar buys coincided with me graduating from college a second time (this time with an engineering degree rather than an art degree) and me getting hired as a computer chip design engineer.... money might not buy happiness... but it sure helps when you you've been bitten by a collecting bug. ha ha
note that gift insomnia edition i bought was bought 3 months before i graduated... i was working 3 nights a week as a DJ in a bar... earning 6 bucks an hour plus measily tips . the book cost 75.00 and was a LOT more expensive to me then, than the 2500.00 lettered green mile i bought just recently. i remember that i was late on rent... and had to really scrape by the entire next month after shelling out a goodly portion of my monthly income for a book... what was i thinking???? jeez louise

[Dolan]

I have been collecting since 2002. My first book as a collector was an inscribed copy of King's From A Buick 8 which was also the first time I met King.

Now I have close to 1000 hardcover/signed editions/ etc...(not only King)

[Matt]

Sounds like it could be an expensive habit.

Like golf, totally obsessive. That's how I am going to end up I think.

4 more years till the kids are gone.

[NeedfulKings]

We all start somewhere. My collection started with pb's like a lot of you. Then, I'd collect a few HB first edition (We're talking mid 90s, so don't get excited!). :p It slowly started to grow until I found ebay about 2 years ago....and then it really took off!

My most satisfying finds usually come from a used book store or better yet, a thrift store. My 1st of Rage was $4 a couple of years ago. Aside from my $2 First Edition of To Kill A Mockingbird, that's my biggest bargain.

All in all, it's become more than a hobby. I don't even consider it an investment, because I won't sell off my main collection unless I get a better copy to replace it.

[Fsmdr]

Now I have close to 1000 hardcover/signed editions/ etc...(not only King)

Where do you keep it, Dolan?. 1000 Hardcovers takes a LOT of space. Maybe you'd share pictures of your bookshelves?.

[Matt]

I agree, I would love to see those because I can live vicariously through all of you.

[Cutter]

I would say around 2000, is when I started collecting. I was an avid reader, and was really big into King in the 80’s. Although I dropped off the map for a while in the 90’s, college, etcetera, caused me to stop reading because I was just too busy. When I started getting back into reading in the late 90’s, is when I started going to only hardbacks, and then only First Editions, and it just went from there, to eventually Limited Editions. I would say around 2000 is probably when I started to learn about small press books, and it was probably a King book that was my first signed or Limited Edition, but I really have no idea what it was?

I don’t know how many books I own. A few thousand maybe, with about half being collectible, maybe more. Stephen King is by far the author I collect the most, but even his books “might” be a fifth of my collection. And to prove that I collect a lot of different authors here is a funny statement:

I am probably the only King collector who found out about Grant Books because they sold a book by Stephen R. Donaldson called Daughter of Regals (probably the most beautiful Grant book I own). Only because I was looking for that book, did I find out that they also published Stephen King/Dark Tower books. lol

[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 ).

[Brice]

I've collected books around twelve years or so. I've collected Stephen King books about the same amount of time. My collection is a little over a thousand books with about a couple hundred being hardcover I would guess. About half of those are SK.

[Candice Dionysus]

I started pretty much five years ago.

[Mordred Deschain]

I started about 20 years ago. First book was The Hobbit, and it was an old copy.

[Room 217 Caretaker]

I started collecting King after reading The Dead Zone.

After reading The Dead Zone, I revisited Carrie, Night Shift, The Shining & The Stand.

Started collecting everything I could get my hands on. Still have the original letter from King explaining why he did the 2nd edition of Gunslinger.

My favorite thing about King right now is the fantastic artwork that Whelan, Chadbourne, JK Potter, Rick Berry, Phil Hale, the list goes on.........that's been created from his work.

Ralph Mulleins
Cumberland VA