My changing comic book purchasing/reading habit.

[ultimate jezebel]

But modern books are not rare and not worth boxing or placing in plastic bags.

I don't agree with this, there are some winners and collector's items but then again I do a bit of selling on the side and 'flip' books which have potential. I've made some useful cash which I put back into comics - it's fun when they help pay for themselves.

I bag everything...and put the better ones in mylites.

[King Poindexter]

I used to love the hobby back when the people creating comics were knowledgeable and dedicated to the format. It was the wannabe screewriters trying to turn comics into movies on paper that started leaving me empty. (mind you, I skipped the years 1994-1997) After a brief return to glory with the Heroes Return stuff, Bob Harras was fired and Joe Quesada came in, completely ignorant of most Marvel history, brought in his equally ignorant buddies to the fold, and the quick death was over in less than a decade. When I also take into account how many people working for Marvel (which I was pretty exclusive to buying), like Quesada, Brevoort, Slott, Bendis, Ellis, Millar, Wacker, and Aaron, who have repeatedly shown themselves to be jerks to any customer who has a complaint, it wasn't hard to determine that my days of supporting new comics was over. I do buy collected editions of great classic works, and I enjoy rereading comics that you can absorb because they take longer than 5 minutes to read and have better storytelling artists.

[MECHANO]

I was on the verge of giving up comics back in 2010-2011. I would get my sub's via mail order (I live out in the middle of nowhere) and the stacks would pile up without reading them. Once every quarter or so, I would put them in long boxes... Having still not read most of them.

Then, comiXology and the publishers got serious about digital. It was totally freeing to not have to worry about ordering my books 2 months ahead, not having to organize, not having to worry about sell-outs.

And I really love reading comics again. I buy what I want, when I want... I read them wherever I want. And if I change my mind, I know there is always a copy available.

With Valiant and Image going drm-free, it's simply a no brainer.

[Jack Flag]

Reading comics on a smartphone will kill your eyes. If one wants to go the digital route, try tablets with 8 inch screens and up or a laptop.

I have a Galaxy and its pretty big. I will say this - reading a comic on my smartphone via comixology is not so bad - tablet is best.

[Jack Flag]

I don't agree with this, there are some winners and collector's items but then again I do a bit of selling on the side and 'flip' books which have potential. I've made some useful cash which I put back into comics - it's fun when they help pay for themselves.

I bag everything...and put the better ones in mylites.

I actually bag everything and place it in a box but - I think I do that out of habit than any expectation any of the modern books will go up in value. I don't backboard many books these days and to save money I was doing 2 books in one comic book bag back to back. But I feel this is just me continuing what I did as a kid.

[Jack Flag]

I used to love the hobby back when the people creating comics were knowledgeable and dedicated to the format. It was the wannabe screewriters trying to turn comics into movies on paper that started leaving me empty. (mind you, I skipped the years 1994-1997) After a brief return to glory with the Heroes Return stuff, Bob Harras was fired and Joe Quesada came in, completely ignorant of most Marvel history, brought in his equally ignorant buddies to the fold, and the quick death was over in less than a decade. When I also take into account how many people working for Marvel (which I was pretty exclusive to buying), like Quesada, Brevoort, Slott, Bendis, Ellis, Millar, Wacker, and Aaron, who have repeatedly shown themselves to be jerks to any customer who has a complaint, it wasn't hard to determine that my days of supporting new comics was over. I do buy collected editions of great classic works, and I enjoy rereading comics that you can absorb because they take longer than 5 minutes to read and have better storytelling artists.

There were guys that worked at Marvel like Gruenwald that loved Marvel as a super saga (and they even created a short lived series called Marvel Saga - a history of Marvel as a super hero populated world using re-printed panels in chronological order as if you were reading a history book). That is actually one of the things I loved. The other was the "realism" and that had to do with Marvel trying to offer plausible scientific explanations for how Hulk's powers worked or how Iron Man's suit operated in those Marvel Universe books. I remember me and my circle of comic book reading pals would devour that and discuss power sets and Marvel science non stop - the third was 'aw shit' good stories - Mutant Massacre, etc. I feel that is gone now. So I am slowly drifting away from the Marvel centric collecting.

[ultimate jezebel]

I actually bag everything and place it in a box but - I think I do that out of habit than any expectation any of the modern books will go up in value

If you've been collecting Batman (New 52) from #1, the set to date can go upwards of $300.

And a recent book from Marvel, Edge of Spider-Verse #2 featuring Spider-Gwen goes for $50. That book is barely 3-4 months old. I'm keeping my 3 copies for the time being.

I'm not a fan of digital, although I still read some on nothing less than a 24' monitor as that makes the book actual size. I like to own what I buy. If Marvel or DC suddenly decide to withdraw a digital comic, I'll lose it. Whereas if it's printed, they can't come in my house and take it. But I do appreciate that digital lets me preview books and buy actual hard copies of after. Sometimes in entire runs.

[Jack Flag]

If you've been collecting Batman (New 52) from #1, the set to date can go upwards of $300.

And a recent book from Marvel, Edge of Spider-Verse #2 featuring Spider-Gwen goes for $50. That book is barely 3-4 months old. I'm keeping my 3 copies for the time being.

I'm not a fan of digital, although I still read some on nothing less than a 24' monitor as that makes the book actual size. I like to own what I buy. If Marvel or DC suddenly decide to withdraw a digital comic, I'll lose it. Whereas if it's printed, they can't come in my house and take it. But I do appreciate that digital lets me preview books and buy actual hard copies of after. Sometimes in entire runs.

I can buy almost all of 52 for cover price. I hear you about the virtual nature of the comic book. I also hate not owning a physical copy. But I own tens of thousands of comics - pretty much full runs from the 80s onwards that take up space in onr room of my house. If I buy any more I am dangerously close to hoarder space territory. I would keep buying all physical comics if they retained their collectors value - but I can't see me doing all that fuss for something that at best will sell for at the same price as cover and at worse end up being worth less than cover.

[ultimate jezebel]

I can buy almost all of 52 for cover price. I hear you about the virtual nature of the comic book. I also hate not owning a physical copy. But I own tens of thousands of comics - pretty much full runs from the 80s onwards that take up space in onr room of my house. If I buy any more I am dangerously close to hoarder space territory. I would keep buying all physical comics if they retained their collectors value - but I can't see me doing all that fuss for something that at best will sell for at the same price as cover and at worse end up being worth less than cover.

Woooooo - tens of thousands of comics does add a new dynamic to the equation! I'm barely 5k strong....but then I'm picky and choosey, not a completist

But I also sell books I no longer want. The ones that make money adequately cover the few that don't, or the ones I just give away....so that ensures there's room for anything 'new'.

[Jack Flag]

Woooooo - tens of thousands of comics does add a new dynamic to the equation! I'm barely 5k strong....but then I'm picky and choosey, not a completist

But I also sell books I no longer want. The ones that make money adequately cover the few that don't, or the ones I just give away....so that ensures there's room for anything 'new'.

I went on ebay - wow - those are selling for that much? That can't be right? I mean I can but these same issues of Spider-Verse for cover price. Maybe ebay is the equation for back issues I am not aware of?

[Jack Flag]

Woooooo - tens of thousands of comics does add a new dynamic to the equation! I'm barely 5k strong....but then I'm picky and choosey, not a completist

But I also sell books I no longer want. The ones that make money adequately cover the few that don't, or the ones I just give away....so that ensures there's room for anything 'new'.

PS: Yes, I was a completist in that I loved the idea of an interconnected universe for Marvel - many forget that Marvel comics exist in the Marvel Universe and instead of writing made up stories just chronicles documented adventures. Captain America was hired as Steve Rogers to draw his own adventures as a civilian gig for his then secret identity. That part of my collecting hobby is done.

[ultimate jezebel]

I went on ebay - wow - those are selling for that much?

See? They're not all losers

[Jack Flag]

See? They're not all losers

I just see those as unrealistic prices (as in I don't think beyond the short term they will retain that value) - like I remember the prices during the speculator bubble.

[fumetti]

As with the OP, I loved buying comics in the 1980s because I felt I was buying the history of two universal sagas. Both Marvel and DC cultivated their heritage by footnoting references to past events. This drove fans to buy up back issues. In the early 80s, many comic shop owners were selling about 30% new comics to 70% back issues. (They even bought extras of new comics to put in the back issue bins.) What a great time it was to visit a comic shop and plunder the longboxes for ancient treasures!

Then publishers decided to tap into that 70% and flood the stands with endless spin-off titles. (Marvel even tried to flood the shelves so much that shops would not have enough money to order DC or Indy books--a plan which failed.) Fast forward and we have shops that don't even bother to carry back issues at all. They just stock up on TPB reprints. Because so much material remains available as TPBs, many fans just switched over to buying those instead of back issues. And thus, back issue prices for comics over the past 20 years--even though numerically they are rarer than 70s comics and many 60s comics--rarely rise above cover price. And much of the late 70s and 80s "hot" comics has stagnated. I can buy Byrne X-Men today for the same price they'd cost me in 1983 (I know because I just bought most of them at those prices). Same for Miller's Daredevil too. Hard to believe.

Back to universal sagas, neither Marvel nor DC show any interest in building up anything. They have no problem obliterating decades of continuity (and nullifying all those published stories) for the sake of a bit of sensationalism today. Marvel's bad but DC is the absolute worst. Killing off the original Golden Age Earth Two was the last straw for me. I'll never 'buy in" to DC (or Marvel) ever again.

These two factors have led to changes in my own buying/reading.
1. I no longer rush to buy new "hot" comics to avoid paying higher prices later.
2. I no longer buy comics to build some kind of historical library.
3. I no longer follow current superhero universes (esp. Marvel or DC).

Other changes:
4. I no longer pick up random comics off the stands to try them out.*
5. I rarely try out new titles from Marvel or DC.**
6. I skip certain new comics to "wait for the trade." Unfortunately, I lose interest before the TPB comes out...

*This is because of decompression. It's pointless to buy part 4 of a 6 part story.
**They'll just be changed in a few years, so why invest in them?



These days, the vast majority of my new comics are indies (mostly licensed titles). And the vast majority of total comics I read are from way in the past. I'd rather just catch up on old titles I missed the first time around (that have positive word-of-mouth) than bring home 20 disappointments at $4 a pop. I have lots of Essentials and Showcases that I bought but haven't read, so I focus more on that.

[Jack Flag]

As with the OP, I loved buying comics in the 1980s because I felt I was buying the history of two universal sagas. Both Marvel and DC cultivated their heritage by footnoting references to past events. This drove fans to buy up back issues. In the early 80s, many comic shop owners were selling about 30% new comics to 70% back issues. (They even bought extras of new comics to put in the back issue bins.) What a great time it was to visit a comic shop and plunder the longboxes for ancient treasures!

Then publishers decided to tap into that 70% and flood the stands with endless spin-off titles. (Marvel even tried to flood the shelves so much that shops would not have enough money to order DC or Indy books--a plan which failed.) Fast forward and we have shops that don't even bother to carry back issues at all. They just stock up on TPB reprints. Because so much material remains available as TPBs, many fans just switched over to buying those instead of back issues. And thus, back issue prices for comics over the past 20 years--even though numerically they are rarer than 70s comics and many 60s comics--rarely rise above cover price. And much of the late 70s and 80s "hot" comics has stagnated. I can buy Byrne X-Men today for the same price they'd cost me in 1983 (I know because I just bought most of them at those prices). Same for Miller's Daredevil too. Hard to believe.

Back to universal sagas, neither Marvel nor DC show any interest in building up anything. They have no problem obliterating decades of continuity (and nullifying all those published stories) for the sake of a bit of sensationalism today. Marvel's bad but DC is the absolute worst. Killing off the original Golden Age Earth Two was the last straw for me. I'll never 'buy in" to DC (or Marvel) ever again.

These two factors have led to changes in my own buying/reading.
1. I no longer rush to buy new "hot" comics to avoid paying higher prices later.
2. I no longer buy comics to build some kind of historical library.
3. I no longer follow current superhero universes (esp. Marvel or DC).

Other changes:
4. I no longer pick up random comics off the stands to try them out.*
5. I rarely try out new titles from Marvel or DC.**
6. I skip certain new comics to "wait for the trade." Unfortunately, I lose interest before the TPB comes out...

*This is because of decompression. It's pointless to buy part 4 of a 6 part story.
**They'll just be changed in a few years, so why invest in them?



These days, the vast majority of my new comics are indies (mostly licensed titles). And the vast majority of total comics I read are from way in the past. I'd rather just catch up on old titles I missed the first time around (that have positive word-of-mouth) than bring home 20 disappointments at $4 a pop. I have lots of Essentials and Showcases that I bought but haven't read, so I focus more on that.

We are sympatico on the points you brought up with me just now thinking I should not bother reading Marvel or DC as a regular monthly pull. I still get monthlies but like you wrote, why bother? I ma thinking of concentrating most of my money on back issues. I mean, I missed out on the Byrne run of FF and Miller on Daredevil. I have key issues but money was tight as a kid and was not a monthly pull for me back in the day. I have seen prices near cover price for these issues. Most of their stories are not in TPB - some are but not the entire run so I am really considering this as my next thing to do.