Comics first started dying out in the 50's; just nothin goin on to catch anyone's interest, after the comics of the 40's depictions of the Jerry's getting their asses handed to them by various heroes. They perked up again about mid to late 60's, when comics began to deal with the issues of the times - race, war, segregation. Comics hit their highest pick around the 70's; not so much in sales, but in popularity - after all, back then, a comic cost a quarter. They lived through the 80's as the kings and queens of preteen/teenage literature, as well as young adults to many in their 30's. About mid 90's, prices began to rise quicker than expected (or wanted, if you were a comic fan). Stories and plots began to stagnate and become too formulaic, yet the prices still went up and mostly the diehards kept buying.
By the time 2000 came, prices had risen *75% (120% for certain event comics) and the plots not only remained stale, they were getting terrible. Characters like Wolverine and Superman weren't just more unpopular than they used to be, some downright hated them because mainstream characters like them were all over the place; especially Wolverine, who was and still is in many comic titles during same-time arcs.
Come onto today, comics are still expensive off the rack. It's easier (and occasionally less expensive) to get a digital copy online, than it is to trudge out to the ever fading comic store. The collector - in the traditional sense - is far and few between. Collectors today have their collection stored on their computers.
So, long story short (too late), collecting hasn't quite died out; it just changed formats. Collecting comics to store on your shelves haven't died out entirely either, but hard copy collecting is something diehards and traditionalists do.
Just my take on it, of course.
*My math abilities suck when it comes to percentages, so I may have it way off. Suffice to say, comics became a hella expensive, when compared to a quarter (and even cheaper years before).
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