On collecting....

[Jimmy T]

Man...I'm just all over tonight with randomness and bubbling thoughts.

Once upon a time, I reveled in seeing how large my collection could be. The yearnings of a young man, I guess.

Now, my body yells at me as I try to heave the longbox onto the top shelf (or 3 shelf stands). The 21 longboxes no longer seem to impress me that much!

Now...now I think more about what I want my comic collection to be. Somewhat with aging, listening to you guys, talking to others, and being around others' loss, and doing some reading, it always comes down to 'you can't take it with you' and ' what's really important in life.'

Seeing so much of a person's life sold or just tossed in a dumpster (ah, the American way...), I don't want my comics to be this huge...crutch? millstone?

I want my comic collection to be representative of me, not of what I just buy. I'm almost gearing up to see how much I can sell versus keep!

Yet, what I keep may say more. For sure, there will still be a lot of comics. I want all my Amazing Spider-man, and many comics from my youth. After all, I started with that, so they have been there for all the thick and thin. I want my longboxes of Superman, becuase, well, I love Superman. My 10- years of PAD Hulk, my 13 straight years of Mark Gruenwald Cap; for sure!

But 90s X-men, Batman, eh, that can go! However, I want to keep Robin I, II Jokers Wild, and III, because I love Tim Drake! There will be special issues kept all over the place too! But so much could go away. I realize my shelves will get very full with trades, and as I've done before, I've sold some older ones I simply didn't care that much about. I've given them to the library too. Got an site for how to donate them to the military as well. Hospital children wards, too.

But really, I don't need everything. I see other mbs where I saw someone go 'I have every issue of every main Spidey title ever" and I think "what a waste! All that Web of , Spectacular, and 'Spider-man?' Pfft, that's not worth bragging about. Not to this guy.

Not any more.

[Perry]

Come on now, Jimmy, most of the Spectacular Spidey was good ... at least the early stuff.  But yes, it was still a place for the second best Spidey stories to go because Amazing would get all the best ones. And Web? Ugh, the third best Spidey stories ... no thanks.

A have all the books I truly want to keep, a couple of boxes of bronze Marvel, at my parents house. The reason? If I ever get in a mood to sell them, I will not be able to. At least not on a spur of the moment thing. I would really, really have to want/need to sell them to drive 5 hours to get them and I don't see that happening anytime soon.
 

For the rest, all just Ebay fodder, except for the ones in HC. The ones I truly love. The ones I can proudly show off as soon as someone steps into the room. Not hidden away where no-one but me can see them. A collection should be on display, not tucked away from sight. (Not condemning anyone that collects comics and puts them in boxes or in closets or in attics ... please don't put them in attics ... I do the same with my Bronze Age stuff remember  ) and as soon as I finally get away from this floppy buying, I will have more and more of those wonderful HC's to showcase.

 

[Jeff]

I got inspiration from a show that came out last year or the year before that showcased the obsessive collectors in the country.  Kind of like hoarders with a sci-fi / comic collector focus.  The host tried to get collectors to focus their collections so that the collection didn't take over their lives.  

I'm not one who's house has been taken over but I did realize I could benefit from that advice.  I've been slowly carving my collection down and my plan is to eventually have the ones I keep focused on X-Men.  More specifically, Uncanny X-Men.  And even more specifically, the original run of Uncanny X-Men.  I think it will be fun trying to track down the holes I have in that part of my collection as I have most of the issues since the John Byrne days.

Once I made my brain "click" that way it became easy to start selling off the rest.

There are a couple of exceptions to my new rule, of course.  I won't be selling my copy of The Killing Joke (which I bought when it first published) or The Death of Captain Marvel.  I'm sure there will be a couple more like that I will keep, but generally I'm not as emotionally tied to the whole collection like I was.

[Perry]

More specifically, Uncanny X-Men.  And even more specifically, the original run of Uncanny X-Men.  I think it will be fun trying to track down the holes I have in that part of my collection as I have most of the issues since the John Byrne days.

Completely agree with you, buddy. In fact, once I ween myself of these floppies and have been "clean" for a few months  , I think it would be cool and more to your point; fun to fill in all the issues that I need of my stuff ... up to a certain set number. 

[Jimmy T]

Jeff, a friend of mine is an Uncanny X-men sort of dude. I think he is only missing...what did he say..something like 11 of the first 13 ever published. That's it. That's it! He was so pissed when they went off the original numbering. Hell, he's obsessed on it so much, he buys them without reading them now.

But I think I do wish to get down to this sort of mindset. There are some things were I really enjoyed the 'hunt' of them (ie Aquaman volumes 3,4 & 5). Not that they were all gems, but the hunt was important to me.

I really, REALLY enjoyed the Age of Apocalypse. That was my first order by mail; got all 9 #1 issues; and I kept up with, I think...6 of the titles through their 4 issue runs, and then X-man for 50 issues (which, admittedly, wasn't really that awesome after about 25 issues!)

So, I'm not sure what will get cut when and where. Crossgen was an amazing company in that it pushed the Big Two to get off their asses and hit some quality landmarks again. Monthly shipping, amazing colors, a good online presence, collected trades with regular timing. I mean, Mark Alessi was crazy, but what he established, the Big Two consistently follow. However, I have the comics...but now? Well, they really don't mean anything now, do they?

I think I would honestly like to carve down from 3 stocked garage shelving units full of longboxes to 2 within the next 2-3 years. But that is moving a lot of comics!!

[Jeff]

Jeff, a friend of mine is an Uncanny X-men sort of dude. I think he is only missing...what did he say..something like 11 of the first 13 ever published. That's it. That's it! He was so pissed when they went off the original numbering. Hell, he's obsessed on it so much, he buys them without reading them now.

Wow - that is amazing.  I can completely relate to being pissed off when they went and did a reboot of the numbering.  Makes it easy for me to complete the collection now though.  As far as I'm concerned what they publish now is a different comic.  

EDIT - Almost forgot - one of these days I'm going to add Incredible Hulk 181 to my permanent collection.  First Appearance of Wolverine.

[Jimmy T]

*cough* Got it *cough*

Garage sale. In with some Wendy and Casper comics. Fine to Very good condition.

I love those finds!!!

[Jeff]

*cough* Got it *cough*

Garage sale. In with some Wendy and Casper comics. Fine to Very good condition.

I love those finds!!!

I....AM.....SO.....JEALOUS!!  That thing is running from $800 to $15,000.

[Wringer]

i picked up 180 & 181 at a convention in the early 80s for about $40 bucks...at the time my friends thought i was crazy paying that much (even the best of Byrne/claremont were about $8 a pop). 

As for collecting...i am really winding down my monthlies and going mostly digital.  Before i moved to AR (6yrs now) i separated my collection and got my must keeps down to 10 boxes (now at 13) with nearly 30 as cannon fodder...i've been selling the fodder at the local convention so thats down to about 20-25 boxes