Vintage Vantage

I was going through some comics that I recently bought last night, bagging and pricing them when it dawned on me how many of them I bought when I was in high school.  Then I realized that they were thirty years old!  Ack!

Seriously, if you follow the rule that says that something has to be at least 25 years old to be considered "vintage."  Then comics from 1982 (the year I graduated high school*) are now vintage!  When did that happen?  It's hard for me to think of items that came with UPC bar codes on them as "vintage."  That word conjures up images of the 70's at least, and then on back from that.  The 80's?  No frigging way!

 Honestly, this is a vintage comic?  Really?

Nevertheless, 1980 was thirty years ago!  Hell, 1990 was twenty!  In five more years will we call stuff from the 90's "vintage"?  Yeesh!  We need a new term for more modern items that are aging.  In fact, we need a whole new scale for classifying these things.  I suggest:

1980's-90's: classic
1940's-70's: vintage
pre-1940:  antique

"Classic" conjures up the same kinds of sweet nostalgic memories that "vintage" does, but without the same connotations of "really old and worthwhile."  I like it.  Now to get everyone to start using it.

*That means my high school diploma is vintage! Does that make me vintage too? I don't wanna be vintage! Make it stop!

Marvel Two in One cover courtesy of GCD.