Your Biggest Comic Book Regret Or Disaster?

[The Whovian]

Have you sold some comics and regretted it later? Or had to sell some or all of your comics for any reason?

I regret selling some of my key issues over time, but for me personally, it was having to sell off complete runs of silver age comics. Back in 2010 I got laid off, a month later, my wife lost her job as well. We had no income for a few months and didn’t have any other option but to sell about half my comics.

I had complete silver age runs of titles like Avengers, X-Men, Thor, Captain America, etc.

I had about 40 long boxes full of comics but after having to sell some, I only had about 20 left at the time. I was sick to my stomach because it took me a lifetime to accumulate that collection. But at the same time, when you’re married and have children, you do what you have to do.

I have since reacquired some key issues, but nothing close to entire runs. I now focus on buying key issues that I want and collected editions.

[WillieMorgan]

There's the old joke that my biggest regret was buying X-Men #1 in 1992 and hoping that it would earn me a fortune in the future when I sold it for millions ! Plenty of folk did that for real.

It was actually having a huge collection, including that aforementioned X-Men issue and hundreds of other DC and Marvel titles, thrown away one summer in the 90's whilst I was travelling around Europe back-packing. I should have stored them away or something but didn't and my family threw them out by accident. They weren't worth any significant money, there were no rare titles amongst them or anything, it was just a loss emotionally.

Some of the DC stuff I've re-bought in trade since then but essentially I chalked it up as a life lesson and moved on.

[The Whovian]

There's the old joke that my biggest regret was buying X-Men #1 in 1992 and hoping that it would earn me a fortune in the future when I sold it for millions ! Plenty of folk did that for real.

It was actually having a huge collection, including that aforementioned X-Men issue and hundreds of other DC and Marvel titles, thrown away one summer in the 90's whilst I was travelling around Europe back-packing. I should have stored them away or something but didn't and my family threw them out by accident. They weren't worth any significant money, there were no rare titles amongst them or anything, it was just a loss emotionally.

Some of the DC stuff I've re-bought in trade since then but essentially I chalked it up as a life lesson and moved on.

Ugh. That's sick. Even though you said they weren't worth a lot, it still is a collection that you wanted. That would kill me even worse, if someone threw my comics out.

[My Two Cents]

My biggest regret is allowing my mother to buy me food and diapers over
A few copies of Fantastic Four #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15

[The Whovian]

My biggest regret is allowing my mother to buy me food and diapers over
A few copies of Fantastic Four #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15

LOL!! Okay, you win!

[DanMad1977]

Looking at The Walking Dead issue 1 and thinking : wow, how long will that **** last? A year before its canceled? Zombie...roll eyes...a few years later I bought all Trades.

Selling comics and toys that are worth a lot these days...

[Gaastra]

Had the he-man and superman issue as a kid. Hated that he-man didn't act like the cartoon version (adam was hitting on woman and starting bar fights!) Ended up trading it for a Spider-Man comic now worth $1 at school! As someone who liked to collect 80s cartoon comics today that still hurts.

[DrNewGod]

Long about 1984, pretending that I'd outgrown them after going to college, I let my mother throw away 200-300 Bronze Age titles. Had I a timemachine, one of my stops would be to slap some sense into myself.

[DanMad1977]

Had the he-man and superman issue as a kid. Hated that he-man didn't act like the cartoon version (adam was hitting on woman and starting bar fights!) Ended up trading it for a Spider-Man comic now worth $1 at school! As someone who liked to collect 80s cartoon comics today that still hurts.

I had that issue myself, and the Superman vs Spider-Man issue. Sold it for sweets and stuff....because I thought crossovers between brands are bullshit...still think that today, but these are damn fine classics today

[Jim Kelly]

When my sister and I were little kids, we would sometimes go over the busy highway to the second hand bookstore where we could get books and comics for two or five cents. Since we went there, I suppose we must have tried to sell something. My sister had an impressive collection of Man from UNCLE books. But I have no memory of selling anything. Later attempts to sell comics never worked out, so I have whatever I have--except a few issues I gave away.

While my parents threw out most of my treasured possessions when I was away from home, they didn't throw away my comics or my Charlie Brown books.

When I was a boy, I didn't take good care of my comics, so many of them fell apart. Do I regret that? A little, but then I remind myself that the reason that little boy wore out his comic books is because he loved them so much, and they fell apart through an abundance of affection. Those comics might be worth a few thousand dollars now, if I had been more careful. But to that little boy, those experiences were worth centillion dollars.

[Scott Taylor]

We had a fire in 2004 that managed to destroy a bunch of my comic collection indirectly. We were newly moved in and boxes were still outside waiting to be brought in somewhere and we had to very quickly evacuate from a wildfire and were gone for two weeks. I returned to find the stuff was thrown unceremoniously down a slope by firefighters, where it then was covered in anti-fire goo and got rained on afterwards. None of it was insured. Out of sentiment I salvaged what I could - they were in lousy shape with water damage - and mourned the rest.

Among these were Daredevl #8 with stilt man and Fantastic Four # 52, first Black Panther appearance. Would like to still have that last one in good shape but its basically in tatters. Readable but bleh. I still have some of my early X-Men, which is good.

Honestly, that experience taught me to let go of stuff. We lost other things more irreplaceable and the comics, while a loss, weren't as big a deal.

[TriggerWarning]

There's the old joke that my biggest regret was buying X-Men #1 in 1992 and hoping that it would earn me a fortune in the future when I sold it for millions ! Plenty of folk did that for real.

What? You mean my 12 copies aren't going to make me rich? But they are my retirement investment.

I actually do have two copies of each cover. Can't remember now if there were 5 or 6 but I bought two each thinking they would be worth something.

[Mister Mets]

There was some really cheap comics warehouse that opened up near my house for a few months, and I only went there once. There were so many five dollar trades. And that was a time I had a much smaller collection.

[WillieMorgan]

Ugh. That's sick. Even though you said they weren't worth a lot, it still is a collection that you wanted. That would kill me even worse, if someone threw my comics out.

It stung certainly. Thing is, it happened during a period in the second half of the 1990's where I was becoming seriously disillusioned with comics (and with the music scene too). They weren't great years for me culturally and that made it easier to stomach, like a 'Meh, I don't care about this sort of thing anymore' kind of attitude.

What? You mean my 12 copies aren't going to make me rich? But they are my retirement investment.

I actually do have two copies of each cover. Can't remember now if there were 5 or 6 but I bought two each thinking they would be worth something.

I also remember once accidentally ripping the front cover, before the comic got thrown away a few years later. The cover got damaged roughly where Wolverine was stood. I was livid with myself and convinced that I'd damaged a collectors item just through being careless.. Years later I thought back to that moment and laughed my head off.

[Attila Kiss]

I was born in Yugoslavia.
Started collecting comic books very early. Meaning I would have a stash I used to trade with friends and many more that I wouldn't give to anyone.
There were no bags or boards but I kept them flat and facing each other with stapes at the opposite end.
Once the war started I had to leave them all behind.
From the place that traditionally was not a collector's market, you can't even find those books anymore. Just imagine how cool it is that they said Comic Book or Magazine from Jugoslavija. A lost civilization like Mayan's.

I was collecting:
Eks Almanah
Magazine mostly B&W. Jugoslavija, despite being a Communist country at the time, was perhaps the only regime of its kind that allowed comic books from the west. This Magazine had a wide variety. Batman, Flash, Thor, Tarzan, Spiderman, Hulk, Dracula, Umpah-pah, Phantom, Aster Blistok, Mandrak the magician, Flash Gordon, and few original Yu-Comic Book characters like Herlock Sholmes, Bili The Pluc etc.

Stripoteka
Magazine B&W. For a more mature audience. Rip Kirby, Modesty Blaise, Blueberry, AXA, Prince Valiant, Coco-Bill, Spider etc. I ended up reacquiring a few of these but not even close to what I used to have.

Alan Ford
B&W pocket-size Comic Books created in Italy. This is the only one I was able to replace completely with issues I used to have and then some, in newly printed hardcovers. However, the first prints would probably have me set for life by now.

And my absolute favorite:
Strip 81 /82 / 83
The dimensions of this Comic Book flip Rock Music magazine was something I never have seen before or after. It was a mixed bag of Marvel, DC reprints as well as European titles. And when you flipped them, it was a Magazine talking about the current Rock music scene. Later I was able to buy a few issues, but they are all in fair to poor condition.

This is only the ones I regret leaving behind every day, but my collection was substantial with other titles as well, and no chance of ever replacing them.