I don't often buy trades w/o having previously read the singles, but there have been occasions and it's usually when I'm trying to complete a run. I have a nostalgic soft spot for 90s X-Men, and I bought the three "Road to Onslaught" trades a while back to bridge some of the gap in-between the Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught events. Some of those books were... challenging to get through.

Sometimes I'll skip over certain things in trades like Annuals or mini-series that are included but are jarringly outside the story I wanted to read. I think both of these things happened in those "Road to Onslaught" trades, as well. Man -- maybe I just shouldn't have bought those...

Oh, also: every League of Extraordinary Gentlemen release after Volume 2. I adored the first two volumes, but I've found everything beyond that nigh-unreadable. I bought quite a few because I wanted to like it, but man. I'm still not sure if my tastes changed or if Alan Moore went off the deep end.