Regret Selling My Comic Books

[Green Lantern wannabe]

It's that phase in your life when you try to recapture what you lost. I've been going through this, because I have lost close family members over the last decade. In fact, I used to frequent a local comic store, during the 1970's, but not after, when I went to the more modern competitors. I then read that it will be closing because it hasn't kept up with the market demand. I should not have felt any sadness, but I did, because it was a fixture of my childhood that will be gone.

You will be going through this in other aspects of your life, and you may try to reconnect with old friends and even casual acquaintances. That's normal and, perhaps, healthy.

I wish you happiness in this journey.

[Magik]

I tried to sell my comic books once but thank God that I changed my mind.

[ZombieHavoc]

I have a collector's heart and a minimalist's brain and they are constantly at odds.

I hate owning things but I love comics, toys and all that. Sometimes the collector side wins out and I buy junk I don't need. Other times, the minimalist in me wins, I realize I don't need whatever thing it is and I leave it on the shelf.

[Deathstroke]

I've pared down my comic collection a lot over the last year or so. I take a look at what I have and if I'm never going to get around to reading something again, I get rid of it.

Of course, I alternate that by picking a series or two that I haven't read and start buying that (in trade or singles if trades aren't available) to give me something "new" to read.

[Personamanx]

Today I gave a significant amount of my GN/TPBs to my Eight year old niece. I'm back at my parent's place for the holidays, and she visited today. Having previously given her some comics last year she inquired about them. I fished out all of my Teen Titans, Robin, and Batgirl stuff along with the Showcase collection of Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld, and a little bit of Sailor Moon. She was stoked as hell, and I know that they're going to a place that they'll be appreciated. I even gave my folks permission to give her anything else she wants when she visits in the future.

I have to say guys, it's an incredibly satisfying way to give away your comics.

[Hypestyle]

I don't regret selling mine and giving away the rest. at the time I was 30, and the comics I had were stacked in various random boxes in my bedroom and basement of the house (stayed with mom and other relative). They were just taking up too much space. I ended up taking a whole bunch to a comic store with the idea of selling them- the store owner made me a counter offer to trade for video games, including a playstation 1 system. So I decided to take it. I figured I might as well. He explained to me that the "current age stuff" which was what I had owned, wasn't maturing in price radically (though you could always visit multiple stores). In my case, I wasn't actively buying comics anymore at the time. So the trade was good enough for me. I also had begun selling off stacks of them through EBay. I tried a handful of times in going to small conventions and renting a booth, but I only ended up selling a handful of comics at the end of the day. I often ended up sending stacks to young-adult relatives, and in a few cases, donated several stacks to a charity. I just didn't get the pleasure out of them that I had gotten when I was actively buying them. I ended up keeping certain super-rare stuff or relatively unique issues, such as something that was signed, also indie stuff that I knew I wasn't going to find easily again.
Now, I seek out select indie creators when I visit conventions. I don't remotely have the comics collection I used to have, but it's way more manageable.

At this point I would be willing to eventually subscribe to those streaming services Marvel and DC have. Also I'd like to see the DVD-rom sets released of back issues.

[Coverfield]

I used to collect comic books when I was around 10-14 and ended up with a small collection of about 300. Several months ago I decided to sell them all because I hadn’t looked at them in many, many years. And to be honest, I was never really that into them anyway. I had fun collecting them and going to Comic-Cons but I barely read any of the issues I had. I would mostly just look at the artwork.

Anyway, a couple days after I sold them to a local comic book shop, I started to regret selling them. For some reason I wanted them back so I could read them and I also got the urge to watch a bunch of superhero movies. I can’t really explain this other than maybe just feeling nostalgic about them and like I threw away part of my childhood. I eventually called the owner and asked him if it would be possible to get them back and he said he already sold some of them and whatever was left over would be in the boxes in the back. I actually went there to sift through them but they weren’t really organized that well and there were so many boxes, so I just left. Now, when I think about watching superhero movies it just reminds me of my comic book collection that I abandoned and depresses me!

Has anyone else experienced something like this? I wonder if I hadn’t sold them if I’d even care about having them. I was thinking about buying some comic books again, maybe in paperback or ominubis form, but it seems pretty dumb to rebuy stuff I already sold. Also, just knowing they aren’t the exact same copies I had as a kid bothers me. Yes, I know this sounds crazy! :P

I had 14 boxes. I kept them in excellent condition for 30 years. I had so, so, so much, including X-Men 94 all the way through to the 90's. When I started collecting comic books, I told myself I would never, never, ever sell my comics. After years and years of lugging them around and not looking at them, I broke my word almost two years ago. Just today 50 issues of those X-Men sold on Ebay for $10,000. I won't even tell you what I sold my WHOLE COLLECTION for, but it was certainly less than $10,000.00. Lately I've been having panic attacks thinking about what I did, what I lost, and what I will never get back. And as someone so wonderfully put it, it's those exact issues I want back, the issues that were mine and that I cared for. Even if I replaced them, they wouldn't be the same. Ten minutes ago I cried like a baby when I realized that they were gone forever, and even if I try to buy them back, I'll have to spend the rest of my life doing it, just for replacements sealed in a plastic container. Better that I'd given them to charity, or if they'd burned up in a fire.

[JackDaw]

I sold thousands about 15 years ago...”plan” at the time was to sell everything that I knew I’d never read again. Made useful money...but as a general rule of thumb it’s rare to get “catalogue” price for anything. According to the buyer there’s always something wrong even with comics that appear to be mint.

Still got a few thousand..and to be honest...if sales process was easier, less time consuming, less irritating...I’d sell those.

Never really regretted any of the sales ( once sold, don’t look at future sales prices!)....of the thousands sold the only ones I bought back later was Tim Truman’s Hawkworld...and actually got copies in better condition than ones I sold for a lower price.

These days I’m a 99.9% electronic comic buyer...only buy paper if electronic format not available.

[DrNewGod]

I curated, and disposed of two different comic collections in my youth. I sometimes regret having given up a few, but I've found that subscribing to Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe have satisfied my nostalgic pangs. I don't read many current title, but I've had fun reading through a wide range of titles, month by month from each company. Currently doing a re-read of about ten titles from each, and am up to March of 1965.

[Oracle]

It's never happened with comic books but it has happened to me with video games. I've immensely regretted selling my Nintendo DS games to GameStop when I was a little kid.