We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Stahl recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kevin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?
At the beginning of 2020 my life had been going as expected, I had an office job at the factory I had worked at for over 20 years. A wonderful wife and family, and a nice house in a small village in rural Ohio. Then COVID-19 happened and I was displaced from the only job I had known for my adult life. Having a lot of time on my hands during the lockdown I re-discovered my passion for toys and comic books. I have always collected to some degree, but for some reason I had this pull to dive back in head-first. After some research and reflecting I thought I would put my years of knowledge and experience in collecting to use. I was born in the early 1970’s and grew up in the 1980’s during a magical time in pop culture. There were so many options in the toy aisles from so many (now classic) brands like Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, Transformers and so many more. Most if not all of these and other popular brands had comic books, toys, and cartoons to fill our heads with entertainment at all times.
I created Copper Age Gold as a way to channel my love and obsession with all things pop culture during my childhood and to share my stories with others who may have some of the same experiences. In comic book collecting there are “ages” for when comics were released. The copper age generally from 1980-1992 depending on who you ask. I thought that fit what I was trying to focus on pretty well. Then the gold part came later. I thought gold was a pretty common word with an easy definition. And I thought I could incorporate that pretty easily.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Kevin Stahl, I am a life-long collector of toys, comic books, original comic book art, and many other things from time to time. I have always had an ear to the ground of the collecting world. I have spent many hours perusing websites like Ebay, Craigslist, Yahoo and these days websites like Whatnot and Mercari. For collectors, this is just part of their normal everyday routine.
When I started Copper Age Gold I had very little knowledge about how to make videos for YouTube, I of course had heard the stories of how this kid somewhere was making millions of dollars on YouTube my making videos. I didn’t believe it, but I was wrong. So I started looking into what it was going to take to get started. There are so many aspects of creating content that I had very little knowledge about. How to shoot video, how to light the shot, how to edit the video, how to create an opening, how to promote your video. The list goes on and on.
I bring and honest opinion about whatever I am reviewing and base in on years of collecting knowledge. We do toy hunts where we go out and search for the new toys that are hitting the shelves. We do toy haul videos where we show off and discuss the toys or comics that we purchase. We do pop culture news segments, We go to comic book conventions and shop for items we need to fill our collection. We also meet celebrities and sometimes have them on our channel.
Copper Age Gold tries to provide content based on what we think collectors want to see and know more about. We provide news about pop culture, the comic book industry, the toy collecting community and give our spin on whatever is happening and how it affects you.
I am most proud of the reception we have received by the collecting community. It feels great to know that Copper Age Gold is a small part of something so great. We have over 4,000 followers on social media and we continue to grow everyday. I love connecting with other collectors and engaging with them. My favorite part is when they tell me about the toys or comic books they had when they were kids.
I want people to know that you can trust Copper Age Gold to create content that we believe in and are passionate about. We will always try to help other collectors first and foremost.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
There are so many great resources available today for anyone who creates content. My favorite tool to use these days is a website called CANVA. (www.canva.com) You can do so much from this site. You can create social media posts in bulk, you can create and edit video and audio. You can create YouTube Shorts, TikTok videos, Instagram Reels and so on. This one website has revolutionized content creation and made it easily consumable.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
NFTs are a great invention, that being said I personally do not involve myself with them. I will always be a person who thinks it is way cooler to actually have something in my hand. The comparison I will make is this. When I was a kid I used to get an album or cassette tape and I would read the entire liner notes and read and learn all the lyrics and look at the cover and the inner pictures of the band. I would do this because in those days that was how to learned about the band. And nothing will ever be as cool as actually holding something brand new in your hands that you just paid your hard-earned money for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/copperagegold
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/copperagegold/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CopperAgeGold/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CopperAgeGold
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBtzYpzxGCq7l5nzEXyuKTA
- Other: Shop for some great merch at our online store TeePublic http://tee.pub/lic/ra4m337IGEI