Introduction
I may be dating myself, but I used to collect comic books when I was a kid. I bought them more as an investment than for entertainment. I knew I had problems when I’d look for the special edition versions. See, back in the day, the comic book industry realized that making 1 variant cover of a comic book would lead to higher demand/sales for that particular issue, and hopefully the entire series. Thus, for a while, a lot of issue #1’s would come out with a variant cover. Sometimes it would be split 50/50 (not very valuable), sometimes it’d be 25% variant, sometimes 10%. Heck, even the Death of Superman issue had a variant cover.
Anyway, I’d go to the comic book store, sift through the new comics that came in, and if 1 in 4 had a variant cover, I’d buy that issue. I would then carefully read it (sometimes I wouldn’t even read it at all since I was buying upwards of 50 comics a month.) After reading it, I’d store it in a mylar bag with an acid-free cardboard backing. I would then store them in special comic book boxes that could hold 200 comics or so. This was my weekly routine for many years.
Enter mail order comics
The issue I had was I couldn’t get a ride to the comic book store since I was under driving age. My parents really didn’t support the hobby since they just looked at it like a time-suck and a waste of money. But every now and then, they’d drive me. On other occasions, I’d ask a cousin to drive me to the store. The local store set up “subscriptions” whereby I could tell them to store all new issues of X-Men in a box for me. I tried to pick them up every week, but due to my transportation problem, I sometimes only picked them up once a month. Clearly there was a better way.
I’m not sure how I was introduced to mail order comics; it may have been advertised in Wizard magazine, the preeminent comic book “guide” back then. Anyway, I ran into Mile High Comics. I vaguely remember writing down the subscriptions I wanted and mailing it in with a check or money order (this was pre-internet.) Then a few weeks later, I would get a box in the mail with all the comics that I had ordered. Great. This system worked for a few months. But you know me… I can’t just stop there… I wanted more and more… more than my $20 weekly allowance anyway…
Enter the credit card
I don’t remember all the details, but I remember finding (or more likely stealing my dad’s credit card) one day and instead of pre-paying for my comics, I could just charge it on a credit card and only make a small payment every month. HOW AWESOME WAS THAT!?! End sarcasm. Sure enough, this got out of hand really fast. I remember charging a few hundred dollars and only making the minimum payment. I had no concept of APR or interest rates back then. I could just pay $50 a month instead of $500. AWESOME RIGHT!?!
Of course I couldn’t let my parents know, and since I got home from school before them, I was able to go through the mail and hide the credit card statements from them. Then I’d go buy a money order and mail in the minimum payment (hey, I didn’t have $800 at the time.) This system worked well for a few months.
The ban hammer drops
I can’t remember what happened, but I think my Dad got home early from work one day and picked up the mail. I had no idea until one night, my parents called me out to the living room and showed me the bill and asked, “What is this?” BOOM! Luckily I was too old for the switch at that age, but got quite a yelling. Fortunately, they never made me pay them back for it.
Conclusion
I didn’t get my own credit card until I got to college (I think it was a Discover card and I got a tshirt on signup.) Due to me excessively spending more than my $20 a week allowance back when I was younger, I learned not to overspend on my own credit cards. And that was my first foray into credit cards. Care to share your first credit card experience?
My first CC was from WF. I opened a student checking account and the CC application was in with the papers I signed. I didn’t even realize it was there until I got a statement about overdrawing on my checking and being covered by the CC. My parents had always told me to stay away from CC’s so I cancelled it right away after paying the balance.
If only I had know then, what I know now. I would have kept the account open and had a well aged CC on my credit report 🙁
I was big into sports cards as a kid…I blame that for my love of gambling to this day. You buy a pack and hope one of the rare ones is in there. Still have a few boxes in my attic…maybe they will be worth something when my kids are older haha.
Dude. I once stood in front of a big bin of baseball cards at a Toys R Us for an hour peeking at the back of a 3 pack of Topps to see if any rare cards were in the pack so I could buy it.
That is some dedication right there. I used to buy them at a card shop and then trade the decent ones right back in to get more packs! Ahhh youth!
How much have you made off of the comics would be a better end to the story :).
I got my first one in college to pay for books etc. Then I signed up for the disover card because I though that pocket card key chain thing they had back then was awesome….although I never used it haha. Also got the student Visa which gave you 3% back but only if you carried a balance so I would pay all but $1 and would make a few bucks off of them but they would max you out at $100 per year. I remember my first purchase with that card was an engagement ring and I didn’t know you had to carry a balance to get the rewards at the time so I paid it in full and was super pissed I didn’t get any cash back on it haha. They would also only pay you out at the end of the year which sucked. So I would max out the $100 and then start on my discover card which I still have to this day.
I am pretty sure I’m grossly negative on my comic book investment. Probably 50% to 75% in the red.
I think I got my first card right before I started college at age 18. My mom probably told me it was good to start small and only use it for emergencies. I don’t remember my mom having a lot of money when I was a kid, but she lived very frugal and always paid everything off and/or saved until she could afford it. Credit cards were for special things, like renting a hotel room or rarely buying something from a mail-order catalog. So in that fashion, I was conservative with credit until I knew better (2% off on everything I bought, yes please). In college I signed up for every credit card that they hawked in the dorms for the endless supplies of T-shirts that were ‘free’. Luckily, I never had the urge to do more with those cards other than the sweet signup bonuses. I do still cringe when I think back to the time I signed up for a dept. store card, because they offered a large bag of M&Ms. But once I found 2% cards and 5% gas cards, I had knew I was hooked. Even if it was the tip of the iceberg.
hahaha ‘large bag of M&M’s” Thanks for sharing Michael.
Wow. Just wow. I can’t imagine what your parents must have thought! The process that you are describing is not only a time-suck and money waster, but a space whore as well! Where did you put all those boxes of comic books?!?
My first credit card was in college, it had a Longhorn on it (Go ‘Horns!), and I mostly got it for the free t-shirt which I wore proudly and often. Like Mario, I do not think I understood that people did not pay the whole balance every month. I paid the whole balance on time every month like the good girl that I was. What I liked most about the card was the convenience. I didn’t have to search through my purse for bills and pennies to pay the exact amount like I saw my mom do while growing up. She never wrote checks and never used a credit card. She was the one in line at the grocery store digging through a coin purse for pennies to pay exact amount. Now I can do the same thing with a swipe and a signature! How awesome is that!
For the record, I am still a good girl and pay my balance every month, but now I collect points, too! Yay!
The boxes took up half my room. You have to think it from a boy’s point of view. It’s no less different than the stuffed teddy bears that takes up my wife’s childhood room either.
Btw, I went to UT too. Go go Wendy’s guy!
I know you went to UT. Don’t you remember me? 🙁
Awww I didn’t even know you read my blog. Of course I remember you Geeeeraaa.
I’m 31 and still collect comics. It’s a time suck and I’ve spent a lot of money and I love it. True, most of my books never appreciated all that much in value, but, despite a few years in my teens when I was overly obsessed with price guides and auction value, I’ve mostly bought purely for entertainment (and that irrational need to “complete” a collection).
I don’t remember my first credit card experience, but I know for sure that it was years before I realized that many(most?) people don’t pay off their balance each month. I guess I never got the whole “credit” aspect of the credit card, and used my first ones interchangeably with debit cards. In fact, the only reason I used credit over debit is because my mom assured me it would help build my credit (the concept of “building credit” made no sense to me, and I still see it as needlessly complicated and highly problematic). My first real rewards earning card was the Southwest (coming from Phoenix, I flew them the most). I thought I was so clever when I started putting thousands of dollars of work charges on them, and then had my work pay me back almost immediately. Knowing what I do now about category bonuses, sign up bonuses, etc, I shake my head at how much more I could have milked out of that arrangement, but that was the beginning of my credit card “scheming”
Do you bag and box your comics too?
I have about 20 long-boxes worth of comics, with 60% bagged and boarded. I used to buy all the bags and boards, but then just couldn’t justify the cost considering I now mostly dig out my comics from the 50cent bin or at yard sales.
Hahaa! The oldest comic book I have in my collection (I am 59 and still collect comics), that I got off a magazine rack is a Superman comic from….. 1964! I got that comic NEW! Still have it. I have since then (and before, started reading at a very early age) bought and read and sold and collected tens of thousands of comic books. I have some on sale on eBay right now as a matter of fact and my next big box of comics will be here next week. Got out of the hobby a couple times when I was young but have been a weekly buyer and reader every week for the last 30+ years.
My first Credit card was when I was about 23 or so. Ran that up to the max. Then I got me a second card. Then I was 25 and had five or six. Back then they would just send you a card and tell you to go ahead and start using it. None of this asking the bank for one stuff! Then I got divorced and had to start paying child support. Suddenly I was using cash advances to pay credit card bills. But that first card… man that was the drug that started the addiction!
Suffice it to say when I was 28 and I met with the bankruptcy attorney, he took one look at what I owed versus what I made, which wasn’t much, considering I was at that moment unemployed and said, “You are one of the most bankrupt non criminals I have ever met!”
So that was how *I* learned my lesson. Since then, rebuilt my credit, bought and sold houses, now I play this game. Credit score usually near or above 800 and having fun! (Oh year, married and divorced again a few more times, but that is a different story!)
Haha thanks for sharing Carl. You both made me sad (I miss reading comics) and made me laugh (with your “most bankrupt non criminals”.) You’re right though.. that first credit card is like a drug. Takes will power for people not to go nuts on it.
I know my grandparents (and parents some) basically lived off of credit cards and when they stopped the interest write off for credit cards it hit my grandparents hard. Still crazy you used to be able to do that. Imagine how bad people’s debt would be if they could still justify it with that!