What Makes Someone a Wine or Comics "Collector"?

Hint: it's not about the numbers.

CGC graded comics; an old Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, the ultimate wine collectible.

I recently came across a poll online asking the above title question - what makes someone a wine “collector”?

The poll was structured to ask specifically about the number of bottles it required to make someone such a “collector” in the eyes of the poll voter. 1-50 bottles? 50-100? 100-200? 500+? 1000+? Etc.

And it got me thinking.

Wine and Comic Books are both industries that attract speculators, people who jump on bandwagons, snatch up items with rising cult status, or items that are already well established as being the most valuable within the respective industry.

In comics, this can be Issue #1’s, limited editions, ashcans, complete collections or runs of titles, signed copies, and in the modern era there is the CGC - the Certified Guaranty Company - grading system for collectibles, which revolutionized the comics industry in particular. Comics used to rely on the standard “mint”, “near mint”, “very fine”, “fine”, etc. status of condition, but the CGC now oversees a “grade” number, 1-10, to showcase the guaranteed condition of any collectible. This numerical includes single digit decimals, so a 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, etc. are all fair game. The collectible is sealed in a hard plastic frame with that condition’s grade stamped upon it.

In wine, you have folks who buy “futures” - vintages that have yet to be released. In the case of the most coveted bottles, these often sell out before ever hitting the market proper. Smal production cult wineries mostly sell to “members” or those who waited years on a wait list before finally getting the offer to purchase. At least some of these bottles will hit the secondary market - wine auctions and auction sites - to be sold for more than the original buyer purchased them originally. Textbook “collector” behavior.

But I have a hot take on what makes any person a capital-C “Collector.” This might be controversial, though it isn’t meant to be:

It has nothing to do with the size of your collection.

Drops of God manga.

I own somewhere in the zone of 300 bottles of wine. Probably 200+ graphic novels and at least 500+ comic issues. I used to own vastly more on the comics front, but sold my “collection” to fund my first young adult move away from home, first to NYC and then to Los Angeles.

But I do not and never did own any of them to “collect” them. I never had the intent to sell them, and that is the key.

Intent is everything.

If you buy a single bottle of wine for bragging rights and to display it proudly on a rack or to pull out proudly from a fridge to show others; if the very thought that you own it brings you a certain joy but you have no idea when you’d ever drink it, or even if you’d ever want to…bam, you’re a collector. One bottle. Purchased with a collector’s intent. Equals entering collector status.

Same with comics. If you purchase so much as a single issue just to own it, you have no intention of reading it, or enjoying it beyond the enjoyment of owning it, or selling it, if you race out to get it graded by the CGC - you are a collector.

My ~350 bottles of wine? I’m single and most of my close-proximity friends don’t drink. I like to tell them: “I have a storage problem, not a drinking problem,” because I simply can’t drink the damn things fast enough without a lot of help. My interest outpaces my ability. But my intent is to drink them all. Some, admittedly, I want to age a little bit. The Barolos and Sagrantinos and Tannats, etc. But all with the intent of experiencing them while they’re at their peak, whenever that might theoretically be.

My graphic novels and comics? I give them to used book stores or comic shops after I read them. I’m not even talking about selling them to such places, I just give it to them. I need the space.

Some, I keep because they’d be hard to replace or they’re simply my all-time favorities, but even then, it’s so I can re-read or share them in the future. I do not own any of them just to own them. I could care less about their condition outside of looking reasonably decent on a bookshelf. (And even then, not always, tbh.)

So what do you think? Are any of us “Collectors” just because we love something and purchase them quicker than we can consume them? Or do you lean toward the idea that such status requires an intent beyond consumption?