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When to give up the hobby...

azith28azith28 Registered User regular
edited August 2010 in Graphic Violence
So,

Here I sit, looking at my 30 longboxes of comics, collected over the last almost 30 years. While I still read comics, the last month or two I've performed an experiment...I've stopped visiting the store. I still get a box of books every month or two from an online dealer, but I've stopped supplimenting my collection with weekly trips to the store. So far, I've not really missed it.

Then there is the huge pile of boxes, that while looking neat, you cant quite get over the fact that your looking at a huge pile of comic books.

I love to read...novels, comics, etc. The main reason i got into heavy comic collecting is so i could find characters i loved and have a constant source of material. Batmans not going anywhere anytime soon for example.

I have not lost interest in the hobby, but I do find it hard to justify at this point. Its not really a financial decision either, I just wonder if its time to at least sell what i have and cut back so i dont feel like my computer room is also a storage vault. I say its a collection but probably half of the books are unbagged or borded...I've always been more interested in the comic as a story media then as a collection with any kind of financial return in mind.

So, what made you decide to stop, or sell, and how did you go about finding a buyer? What kinds of prices did you get? when is it time to say 'id rather use this space for something else' etc.

Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
azith28 on
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Posts

  • cshadow42cshadow42 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Yeah, I'm cutting back too now. I think the only floppies I'll continue to get are:
    Knights of the Dinner Table
    Walking Dead

    Everything else I'm just going to trade wait.

    cshadow42 on
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  • DouglasDangerDouglasDanger PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I don't really have a lot of comics, but I am looking to switch over to trades in the near future. I need to make a list of what I have and figure out a way to sell with the least amount of lost money.

    DouglasDanger on
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I've drastically cut back on singles too. I'm pretty much just waiting for a lot of stuff to end so that I can switch to just buying TPBs.

    Munch on
  • TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I pretty much stopped buying floppies years ago and switched to trades.

    Floppies take up too much room, become a pain to read (pull out of the bag, read twenty pages, put back in and grab the next one...) and hardly ever increase in value anyway.

    One day I'll try and ditch a good chunk of the floppies I do have. Probably whenever I need the space.

    Tomanta on
  • cshadow42cshadow42 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    With the price of floppies increasing, sometimes its just more economical to buy the trades. Plus they go better on your shelf, are on nicer paper, and no ads.

    cshadow42 on
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  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I've really trimmed back on singles, only buying the books that really need help. Comics being hella expensive and badly written also help out.

    I've only got 3 short boxes of comics really, and those are my cream of the crop comics (2k Superman, Cap stuff, Thunderbolts, Simone's Deadpool)

    TexiKen on
  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I've only been into comic for a short amount of time, and I really only buy trades. i buy a lot of trades though, probably more and more all the time.

    Solar on
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Munch wrote: »
    I've drastically cut back on singles too. I'm pretty much just waiting for a lot of stuff to end so that I can switch to just buying TPBs.

    Ditto on this. I'm going to jump off a lot of books in September and October as storylines wrap. I plan on dropping almost all of my Marvel books as soon as the respective storylines finish off (going to give DeadpoolMax a shot and probably keep an Avengers of some sort).

    DC is a lot harder for me because I love the characters, and I love the Green Lantern stuff that's essentially fueling that whole Universe right now. Plus it takes them two years to put out their trades, which is difficult.

    Still, I'm hoping to start cutting back a lot (dropping pretty much every Superbook but Action as storylines wrap up; dropping JMS's Supes all together).

    It's hard to drop the books now, but I know after a month or so I'll forget I was even reading them. Ideally, I'd like to be spending $15 a week (sometimes I spend up to twice that).

    A lot of the problem is coming in here and seeing books on the MotW thread and going "shit, that looks awesome!" before adding another to my pull-list. I did that most recently with the new Thunderbolts, which is a good book but I have no attachment to it and can't really afford it, even though I love Jeff Parker.

    HadjiQuest on
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Also, I've only been reading singles for around 18 months now, but I have a pretty sizeable long box, and no idea what to do with it. They're probably not worth the cost of shipping; suggestions?

    HadjiQuest on
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Really, once most of the stuff I'm following wraps, I plan on getting an Amazon Prime membership, and just ordering a TPB every week. I imagine I'll save a considerable amount of money and annoyance.

    Munch on
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Munch wrote: »
    Really, once most of the stuff I'm following wraps, I plan on getting an Amazon Prime membership, and just ordering a TPB every week. I imagine I'll save a considerable amount of money and annoyance.

    That's a really good idea.

    I got the prime for students membership and I really haven't used it much yet because all my cash has been going to singles instead :(

    I want to drop all of Marvel's Ultimate Line, but I want to follow Ultimate Spidey and Bendis's stuff until Ultimate Mystery/Ultimate Doom wraps, which won't be for months.

    I really need to re prioritize. If I can't do it now, I will definitely be dumping handfuls of DC books once Brightest Day ends.

    HadjiQuest on
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    HadjiQuest wrote: »
    Also, I've only been reading singles for around 18 months now, but I have a pretty sizeable long box, and no idea what to do with it. They're probably not worth the cost of shipping; suggestions?

    eBay or trade some stuff in to mycomicshop.com.

    TexiKen on
  • MastaPMastaP Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Munch wrote: »
    Really, once most of the stuff I'm following wraps, I plan on getting an Amazon Prime membership, and just ordering a TPB every week. I imagine I'll save a considerable amount of money and annoyance.

    Yeah, once I'm no longer working at the comics shop, I'm doing this. Though, it's more a matter of my preferred reading format than a matter of finances for me.

    MastaP on
  • wwtMaskwwtMask Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Glad to see I'm not the only person who has ditched singles. I dropped all of my pull list when I was unemployed a couple months. Since then, it's been TPBs only. I might relapse and open a few new Marvel Direct subs though, since you can get a full year of Avengers, New Avengers, and Secret Avengers for $50.

    wwtMask on
    When he dies, I hope they write "Worst Affirmative Action Hire, EVER" on his grave. His corpse should be trolled.
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  • VirralVirral Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I used to read floppies back in the late 80s/early 90s, and eventually quit due to monies. The comic shop wanted all of mine.

    Now I'm all grown up and can afford stuff, I'm back into them and now buy trades exclusively. I did look into selling my old floppies, but found no stores were interested in buying them. I've been told eBay is the only real option, bundling up stacks into runs where possible.

    If you actually have 30+ year runs of comics though... I'd probably investigate that more carefully because those would have to be some pretty significant and expensive collections.

    Virral on
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  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I haven't bought singles since Iron Fist was canceled. Haven't regretted it except when someone cancels a book before I've even read the trade.

    Ringo on
    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
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  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I knew there were a few guys here on trade-only, but I didn't realize it was so widespread.

    I guess maybe it's because I was a trade kid for so long, there's just a novelty to picking up the week's big books and then coming here and discussing them right away.

    Although since I don't live near a shop and get my books day-and-date anymore, that's faded a bit as well.

    HadjiQuest on
  • WiseManTobesWiseManTobes Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Any kids/nephews/etc that you could pass it on to now/in future?
    You'd be the favorite uncle/dad/etc forever with a 30yr + collection.

    WiseManTobes on
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  • VirralVirral Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    You could give them to me and be my favourite Uncle.

    Virral on
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  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    If anyone is selling Amazing Spider-Man pre issue 500 I'm interested, I'm looking for good condition VF+ or better and bagged and boarded. Let me know what you have.

    cardboard delusions on
  • wirehead26wirehead26 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Are we allowed to sell our comics here? I'm looking to get rid of my Death of Cap single issues for the mini-omnibus. I don't like trying to sell comics on ebay and I'm not sure of any other place to try and sell them.

    wirehead26 on
    I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!!
  • wwtMaskwwtMask Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    You're allowed to advertise stuff like that in your sig.

    wwtMask on
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  • wirehead26wirehead26 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    wwtMask wrote: »
    You're allowed to advertise stuff like that in your sig.

    Cool, does it have to be from an "official" source like Ebay? Actually it might as well be since I have a perfect Ebay rating so anyone here can see I'm trustworthy.

    wirehead26 on
    I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!!
  • ServoServo Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2010
    it's funny, because this is something i was just facing myself. for years i've collected trades and now i find i just have too much.

    i've been thinking a lot about my life lately, and i decided that i'm going to sell them. not all of them, of course. i still love comic books, but i feel like i've gotten to a point where i have so many, and so many that i never read or reread that the best thing for my own mental health will be a thorough house-cleaning of my collection.

    like i said, there's plenty of stuff i'll want to keep, but there's also stuff that in my heart i know i'll never reread- preacher, y the last man, a billion of the random superhero books i picked up out of curiosity.

    the funny thing about comics as a story-delivering medium versus, say, books or movies, is that frequently it's a much bigger time and money investment to experience the entire story. as a result, despite the fact that i hadn't read it in years, my initial impulse was to keep preacher, for instance. what if i want to read it again some time down the line? each trade cost me $20! the result of the cost of each "chapter" of story for a long-running comic series generates this crazed impulse in me to hang onto it.

    once i sat down and really considered it, though, i decided i felt like in some way i'd gotten my $20 worth of entertainment out of each trade. i've read it several times and i'll remember it fondly as i do with many movies and books that i've enjoyed but not engaged with in years.

    i don't know. this is all coming in the midst of and as the result of some unexpected upheavals and changes in my life, so maybe i'm not even entirely sure myself yet why i want to sell the bulk of my collection, but i do know it feels like now is the time to do so.

    Servo on
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  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Servo wrote: »
    it's funny, because this is something i was just facing myself. for years i've collected trades and now i find i just have too much.

    i've been thinking a lot about my life lately, and i decided that i'm going to sell them. not all of them, of course. i still love comic books, but i feel like i've gotten to a point where i have so many, and so many that i never read or reread that the best thing for my own mental health will be a thorough house-cleaning of my collection.

    like i said, there's plenty of stuff i'll want to keep, but there's also stuff that in my heart i know i'll never reread- preacher, y the last man, a billion of the random superhero books i picked up out of curiosity.

    the funny thing about comics as a story-delivering medium versus, say, books or movies, is that frequently it's a much bigger time and money investment to experience the entire story. as a result, despite the fact that i hadn't read it in years, my initial impulse was to keep preacher, for instance. what if i want to read it again some time down the line? each trade cost me $20! the result of the cost of each "chapter" of story for a long-running comic series generates this crazed impulse in me to hang onto it.

    once i sat down and really considered it, though, i decided i felt like in some way i'd gotten my $20 worth of entertainment out of each trade. i've read it several times and i'll remember it fondly as i do with many movies and books that i've enjoyed but not engaged with in years.

    i don't know. this is all coming in the midst of and as the result of some unexpected upheavals and changes in my life, so maybe i'm not even entirely sure myself yet why i want to sell the bulk of my collection, but i do know it feels like now is the time to do so.

    This is kind of what happened to me a year or so back (minus upheavals). I sold my Y trades, as well as some Batman ones and JLA, JSA trades. I've thought about trimming it down even more, because while I love USM, those hardcovers are really taking up space, almost a whole row on the shelf.

    What is most annoying is that, like MastaP mentioned, money isn't really the problem. It's more a combination of increased prices and bad stories. I like comics in that, unlike videogames, I can pick them up and stop reading immediately if I need to get a project done or deal with some work.

    There's often that conundrum of being a kid and wanting to play every video game but not having the money, and then when you get older you have the money but you don't have the time (this is where college was juuuust right). Here I have the money to buy more comics, and because of their format time isn't a problem, but the stories and content just aren't there anymore. Although I think most of this is being just dumbstruck at how bad JMS has been two issues in on Superman.

    TexiKen on
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Servo wrote: »

    the funny thing about comics as a story-delivering medium versus, say, books or movies, is that frequently it's a much bigger time and money investment to experience the entire story. as a result, despite the fact that i hadn't read it in years, my initial impulse was to keep preacher, for instance. what if i want to read it again some time down the line? each trade cost me $20! the result of the cost of each "chapter" of story for a long-running comic series generates this crazed impulse in me to hang onto it.

    This is why I stick mainly to Superhero books, and rarely delve into creator-owned or re-interpretive series like Sandman.

    Reading the Super books that go on forever feels very non-committal as opposed to reading these sprawling serial 10-trade epics that cost hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours to read.

    This is actually one of the reasons I normally avoid indie books, unless they're OGNs or limited series.

    And yet it's backfired, because I'm pretty much addicted to the superbooks now.

    HadjiQuest on
  • ServoServo Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2010
    that's actually almost the opposite of how i feel. i only want to hold on to something now if i get a significant degree intellectual/emotional fulfillment out of the story and for the most part superhero stories are quite bad at that. there's alan moore and grant morrison's superbooks (i'm keeping gm's doom patrol and all star superman and batman books, for instance) but once you get past that, really engaging stories are a little thin on the ground.

    there's exitement and escapism to be had in them for sure, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. i enjoyed it greatly for years. i've just come to a place personally where i'd rather have a smaller selection of genuinely worthwhile books, books i wouldn't have to shamefacedly explain about why this chick's tits are bigger than this dude's already-enormous gun when someone flips through it idly.


    i dunno, now i feel as though i'm coming of sort of curmudgeonly and that's not really how i mean any of this. i love superhero comics. i think they're a really wonderful and unique form of storytelling. i just feel like right now, i've already read all the good ones.

    Servo on
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  • wwtMaskwwtMask Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Servo, if you're selling your stuff, let me know what you're getting rid of and for how much. Same goes for anyone else who wants to sell their trades.

    Anyway, I feel you on the superhero book thing. I keep meaning to buy trades of newer material, but I keep gravitating toward non-superhero books. Only a few mainstream titles make it to my shelf nowadays.

    wwtMask on
    When he dies, I hope they write "Worst Affirmative Action Hire, EVER" on his grave. His corpse should be trolled.
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  • wirehead26wirehead26 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I have a crap ton of trades and hardcovers but most of them were either gifts or discounted. I really need to make some tough decisions regarding what stories to keep reading, partly because of money but mostly because I just don't want to keep adding to the pile.

    I can probably drop all X-men stuff after Second Coming, maybe keep Daniel Way's Deadpool since it's really funny.

    wirehead26 on
    I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!!
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    wirehead26 wrote: »
    I have a crap ton of trades and hardcovers but most of them were either gifts or discounted. I really need to make some tough decisions regarding what stories to keep reading, partly because of money but mostly because I just don't want to keep adding to the pile.

    I can probably drop all X-men stuff after Second Coming, maybe keep Daniel Way's Deadpool since it's really funny.

    See, Deadpool is a book I am torn on. It sort of stopped being funny after the X-Men arc, although the Hit Monkey one-shot was fantastic (have the first of the mini, but haven't read it yet).

    It feels sort of stuck these last couple arcs, and I have forgotten why I read it. With Deadpool max on the corner, I may either tradewait the vanilla deadpool series or skip it entirely.

    HadjiQuest on
  • wirehead26wirehead26 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Oh yeah I will keep reading Wolverine, since I'll gladly read anything Jason Aaron puts out.

    Pretty much anything written by Bendis, Brubaker, Gillen, Remender, Diggle, Hickman, Parker, Van Lente, and Pak I'll read. I'll also give Fraction's Thor a shot and keep reading IIM but probably drop Uncanny. As for DC, I'll probably keep reading GL and GLC but those trades come out like once a year and are pretty cheap. And I'll check out the Earth 1 OGNs.

    wirehead26 on
    I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!!!
  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Like Mask said, you guys let me know what you're getting rid of. It may be easier to catalog your stuff on http://www.stashmycomics.com/ like I do. They have an excel importer and a template you can use. Check it out if you want to catalog your stuff and don't already.

    cardboard delusions on
  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    catalog....damn you must think we are all OCD.

    If i didnt have video games to distract me I might have time to sort my books. But honestly I keep thinking about how much it would cost to bag and board all the ones that arent and damn the numbers are pretty high.

    azith28 on
    Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
  • cshadow42cshadow42 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Like Mask said, you guys let me know what you're getting rid of. It may be easier to catalog your stuff on http://www.stashmycomics.com/ like I do. They have an excel importer and a template you can use. Check it out if you want to catalog your stuff and don't already.

    Hmm...I've got a bunch of floppies from the past 5 years that I should probably get rid of. I don't know what to do with them, as the good stuff I usually have in trades.

    cshadow42 on
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  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    azith28 wrote: »
    catalog....damn you must think we are all OCD.

    If i didnt have video games to distract me I might have time to sort my books. But honestly I keep thinking about how much it would cost to bag and board all the ones that arent and damn the numbers are pretty high.

    See, this would be a comment that shadow gets yelled at for reading comprehension. People are saying they have a lot of stuff and are thinking of selling. So in attempt to help, the best idea is to gather up or figure out what you have as to easily present it to people willing to buy it. The site can help you quickly build a list and check off quality and prices, so maybe you see OCD but I can only imagine you being a messy person.

    cardboard delusions on
  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I'm not trying to be offensive. However I still dont see much difference between going through my 30 longboxes and ticking off the things on your site one by one, vs just using that same time to put them in order to which THEN your site may be helpful. Maybe 2 or 3 of my boxes are actually sorted. the rest are basically in a general chronological order (of which each box is NOT marked) just tossing all the books in the latest pile i have purchased into the box.

    I appriciate you offering a tool to help. I just think more people are closer to the above then they are 'I have xmen 23-438 and batman 23-544,546-800." Thus my comment.

    azith28 on
    Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Morituri Sum
  • cshadow42cshadow42 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Yeah.... I know I've been collecting Avengers since Disassembled, but I'm not going through the trouble of ticking off the issues in a program. They're not even ordered in my longboxes. Essentially, twice a year I stick all my singles in a longbox.

    cshadow42 on
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  • SageinaRageSageinaRage Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    I haven't bought singles in years, and frankly I can't imagine doing it again. Monthly comic books are basically the worst format for the type of ongoing stories they're being used for. I don't see the format surviving for much longer. We're either going to move to actual books only, or something more like the manga system, where there's a cheap disposable weekly anthology, in tandem with higher quality actual books.

    SageinaRage on
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  • Gabriel_PittGabriel_Pitt (effective against Russian warships) Registered User regular
    edited August 2010
    Aside from mycomicshop.com, is there any place recommended to sell an entire collection? I used stash my comics to catalog everything I've got, which turns out to be only 160 individual floppies, and aside from one real old superman comic, the entirety of my collection is from 1990-2000.

    If anyone's interested, you can check out what I've got at http://www.stashmycomics.com/html/publicview.asp?username=frogstaff&viewswl=mystash

    I'll have a sig link up once I've compiled everything else I'm trying to move.

    Gabriel_Pitt on
  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    edited August 2010
    I'm starting to think that buying singles is really problematic because I'll read and issue and love it and then get stuck on an arc, then I'll feel burned by the very next issue where little happens, and then I'll fucking love the next issue, and so on...

    I've already made the decision to tradewait Fraction's Thor run and Cornell's Knight and Squire mini. I'm going to try to do the one trade a week thing in the fall as I cut back on books.

    HadjiQuest on
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