To collect or to hoard?

[Mace Dolex]

So lately I’ve been doing a little inventory on my comic book collection which amounts to 22 longboxes of single issues and 6 longboxes of tpb’s, graphic novels so that totals to lots of comics, some are my prized collections while others are just 50 cent bin fodder.

So I’m thinking that I’m just hoarding too many comics that I don’t even read anyways that I’ve been thinking of just selling the ones I don’t care for. Already I’ve sold away my issues of Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men along with a mix of TPB’s like X-Men, USM and the manga Akira.

Basically I’m just pairing down my collection to what I love the most and not fall into the trap of what newest HOT comic is going to be big, or what comic will change the status quo for that particular superhero since we all know everything gets reset every couple of years, that is why the comic industry is in such bad shape IMO.

For example Batman and Superman are my favorite superheroes so I’d buy any title from them regardless of mediocrity because I’ve grown up on them.

And then there are comics of which I don’t care for but I follow the artist who is on at the moment of which I have many comics of those that the character sucks but my favorite artist is on it. (ex: I love John Byrne’s artwork that I’ve even bought titles that suck just for his art alone).

Another example is Spider-Man, I grew up on his cartoons but he never grew on me like Batman/Superman have done and I started buying SM comics because Todd McFarlane was drawing it, once Todd left the comics were going into a dwindling spiral that I’m glad I avoided the whole Clone Sage fiasco and same reason I gave away my Ultimate Spider-Man comics, the stories aren’t memorable, they’ll soon be forgotten.

I know this is a long rant but I’m wondering if other collectors are doing the same with their comic collections, are you guys going selling away your stuff,? Going digital? Do you buy a comic for the character? Do you follow the artist? The writer?

 

[Mace Dolex]

Well so far I've sold off some 300 comics, it just sucks that used bookstores pay pennies for them, I could sell on EBay but it would take time to rid of them and I don't have the time to sell them at a low key comic conventions.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I don't mind hoarding a little bit.

Collecting is in my DNA since the 6th grade.

 

[Darthkush]

I have something like 10 long boxes full of comics. It's hard to sell off your collection though. You're either getting ripped off because no one wants to pay decently or you don't want to sell anything of any value because you love it too much.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

i've got single issues of comics in about 4 boxes i keep in my closet

 

[HighOnPoker]

Its the Catch 22 of collecting comics. I have so many comics squirreled away in my mother's basement, but I likely will never sell them because I won't get enough money for selling them, compared to their sentimental value. And yet, I probably will not re-read them because they are out of sight/out of mind, and there are so many new comics coming out that I have enough to keep me occupied. At best, I can hope that one of the comics will be worth enough for me to sell it in my old age.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

I never really understood, just hiding away large collects away in the basement, in those long white boxs...

I don't have a big collection of comics, but what few I have, I have on display...

I get that that's not always an option when you have such a huge collect that they fill multiple box's, but still

If I had such elaborate(an expensive/valuable) collection, I'd find some way of more probably showcasing them

I'm kinda surpised that the "long white box" is still the standard for comic book storage... you'd think someone would have come up with a better way of storing them... like some type of clear plexiglass box or something, so you can at least see them (as well as added protection) how many stories have you heard of people losing whole collections due to a flood in the basement