Pipeline - Jan 6, 2015

[CBR News]

Augie purges a thousand comics, realizing his massive disorganization, while listening to good comics podcasts. Plus, the McSpidey Chronicles' Penultimate Chapter!


Full article here.

[Sasquatch by Night]

It's always inspiring to read stories of other people's "Purges". While I wouldn't say I have a huge collection compared to some people (roughly 8 short boxes), I do have to watch the number of new comics I'm buying, and what that'll look like in a couple of years. And possibly get over a few emotional attachments...

[dancj]

My purge is a regular ongoing thing. I have one room (our dining room) which has four bookcases (Ikea Billy - 3x60cm and 1x80cm - each with the expansion on top) and one alcove full of graphic novels. For every one I add one has to go to be sold.

It's painful, but my collection is stronger for it.

[art123guy]

"What comics do you really need? Which ones will you never read again? Which ones are just taking up space? Which ones do you own more than once? Save the trade, ditch the issues. If they're valuable, put them up on eBay and get rid of them. Take that money and invest in a better storage solution. Buy better comics, not more comics."

Easier said than done for some of us. I really need to clean out my collection, but I'm a completest. I've been collecting for 36 years and have complete series of almost every Marvel title. Lucky for me, I bought the my early Avengers, X-Men, etc. before 1990 so the most expensive comic I've ever bought was Avengers 4 for $200. I know it's a pointless and useless badge of honor to have a complete series, but I'm still proud of it.

Last year (and a half) I read all my Hulk comics. I have the entire series starting with 102 (the 1968 one). The first 3 Masterworks covers what I don't have. The year before I read Captain America, again, complete from 100 (1968) with the Masterworks filling in the rest. My goal is to read everything I own. Will I every reread any of them? I doubt it, but I still don't think I can sell them.

If I ever do sell anything, it would have to be the entire series. If I kept certain runs, eventually I'd get the itch to fill the gaps. The web makes it even harder to stop collecting since it's easy to find every issue you're missing with a few clicks. I got Daredevil 201-380 last year on ebay in about 4 or 5 lots/bids.

Sadly, I think my brain is just wired wrong as I believe if it wasn't comics I was collecting, it would be something else.

[Kaitie]

Where are good places to sell comics you don't want anymore? I know ebay, but I was wondering if there were other options. The books I'm thinking of are relatively new, so I don't think comic book stores would buy them back.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Kaitie - I got lucky. A relatively local dealer I know around here does shows a couple times a year where he sells everything in quarter boxes and trade for $2 - $5, basically. So he's happy to buy fresh inventory. Once a year, I drop him a line with my list, he makes me an offer, then he comes and picks them all up. Real easy.

I've sold some stuff -- the higher end stuff, which is rare -- on eBay. eBay is all about people looking for extreme bargains or extreme collectibles. Everything in the middle might as well go in the recycling bins.

-Augie

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

art123guy - Funny enough, I find myself Purging runs of things as I go. This latest batch included John Ostrander's entire "The Spectre" and "Martian Manhunter" series. I liked them both, but I'll never reread them.

I can understand the collector's mentality, though. I used to be there, myself. My mind changed, so it's gotten easier to pretend to be a "curator" and not a "collector." It takes some mental rewiring and massive space constraints, but I got myself there.

In the meantime, do what you enjoy. =)

Besides, I'm no golden example here. I'm getting rid of just about 1100 comics at last count now, but I must have looked through 10,000 comics to get there. It's a gradual process of rounding off the corners every time until I hopefully one day am left with a circle. Or something like that.

-Augie

[nathanaaron]

" Save the trade, ditch the issues." - See, I'm completely the opposite. I'm not really a trade person. I'd MUCH rather have a run of original issues, over a collected trade paperback of those issues. In fact, if I do have a trade (say for example, Elektra: Assassin) I'll hunt out all the single issues and purge the trade once I have them! And do trades really take up less space? It's the same number of pages/same amount of paper (In fact, sometimes the trades have bonus pages, etc. which could take up more.) Though I realize many people like the display aspect of trades. I'll stick to my single issues, though!

[dancj]

Where are good places to sell comics you don't want anymore? I know ebay, but I was wondering if there were other options. The books I'm thinking of are relatively new, so I don't think comic book stores would buy them back.

I have a bunch of longboxes in my loft filled with TPBs that I take to a local comic fair once a year. I make around £300 each time selling them for mostly £3 a pop - and always seem to build up enough new TPBs to fill the boxes for the next trip.

It takes out a day at a time - and probably a couple of hours of prep the night before, which is way less time consuming than selling the same amount on eBay.

[dancj]

And do trades really take up less space? It's the same number of pages/same amount of paper (In fact, sometimes the trades have bonus pages, etc. which could take up more.)

Yeah. The comics have loads of adverts which more than outweigh the bonus pages. They also have comic bags and they don't squash as completely flat because of the way they're bound. Hardcovers might take up more space, but that's one of the reasons I prefer TPBs.