So, how did you get your TPB/GN collection up and running?

[Bslythegamerguy]

For all you TPB/GN collectors out there, how did you start your collection and what are your current buying habits? I've been thinking of selling off my collection of single issues and using the money I get to build upon my TPB collection, this will help to conserve space and I'd be more prone to read my stuff since I wouldn't have to find the books I want to read and take them out of bags and boards and then re-file them again.

So, when did you make the switch, and why? And how did you build your collection?

[Iron Fist]

I've never bought a single issue in my life.

My collection started with moving and having a MUCH bigger bedroom so I filled it with shelves (obviously) and then when I bought all the books i was interested in I repurchased some of the graphic novels i had lost a few years ago during a move, and they were mostly Xena ones, then someone recommended Saga. And then I decided I wanted to read X-Men and from there started buying all the X-Men stuff I wanted and now it's madness.

[Ivan P91]

I only started my collection two years ago when ASM #700 was released. I bought all the way back to Spider Island as singles, and supplemented it with the first Big Time Ultimate Collection. I kind of became obsessed with ASM and ended up purchasing chunks of TPBs in order from Book Depository all the way back to the first JMS collection. I also started getting Cap, Daredevil and the other Spidey spin-off series (Avenging/Team-Up, Superior Foes, 2099 etc) in floppies. All of those except for Avenging Spider-Man and Daredevil Vol 3 I collected from the very start of that run, DD I filled in the start with the TPBs and Avenging I bought the back issues. Any other series that I became interested in I decided to purchase solely in collections and own no single issues of them - for example, Fantastic Four (Hickman through to now), DD Vol 2, Ultimate Spider-Man, Venom, Scarlet Spider, etc. I originally collected Hickman's Avengers and gave up by issue 5 - it took reading his FF omnibuses and the Avengers arc in the Original Sin Companion to really 'get' him, and I'm looking forward to the OHCs coming out shortly.

I had the same idea as you regarding selling of single issues... I ended up doing it for Daredevil, I sold off my first four Waid TPBs and my singles of #22-36 and replaced them with the OHCs. They look so much nicer, are more durable and are more comfortable to read. I was tempted to do the same for Superior Spidey but haven't yet (holding out for the omnibus now, which I think is inevitable). The majority of what I own is in TPB form, but I have a few OHCs and if possible wouldn't hesitate upgrading the paperbacks. Like others here, I tend to work down the hierarchy - Omnibus > OHC > TPB. I personally prefer TPBs over PHCs, there's something about the latter (especially the Marvel Now ones) that I don't like. There's a couple examples where I haven't bothered upgrading for certain reasons - FF by Fraction, got the TPBs before the omni was announced, didn't enjoy it so I didn't bother, and Young Avengers as the one omnibus is very slim anyway. If the older Ultimate Spider-Man OHCs came back in print, or if another omni was announced I'd sell off the TPBs in a heartbeat.

As for current habits, like I said there's only a few series I collect month-to-month, but there are others that I'm invested enough in that I will get the collections as soon as they're released. I have a list that is constantly being updated of titles I need to get and then every few months I will submit an order. These are always a mix of new and old material - Epic Collections make up a big part of them, as well as whatever new volumes of current series are in the pipeline. If it's a particularly huge couple of months, or if I discover something new that I enjoyed I will generally order the older books before the newer ones.

[dbngaa]

I think the first step towards converting my singles to all collected editions came when I decided to go back and read Morrison's Batman run (which I had missed as it was coming out), and ended up getting the BM&R OHCs without realizing that format existed really. Then some of the singles I had been buying like Saga, Mind Mgmt, Manhattan Projects, etc. took off in price and I decided to sell them and pick up the trades. That got the ball rolling in a big way, as I could sell off runs of comics, replace them with collected editions and still make money. Of course, then I got into omnibuses and all the money I made off of selling the issues went bye-bye. I haven't bought a single issue in about 2 years.

As for buying habits now: I try to stick to a monthly budget, but that sometimes takes a hit when I find an out-of-print book on my Want List for a decent price. I pre-order through DCBS every month and try to stay on top of what's coming out. Sometimes I miss stuff and pick it up from IST when it's released.

[awalk1227]

Started with me deciding to collect Image/Dark Horse/Vertigo books because I was reading all my Marvel stuff digitally on Marvel Unlimited at the time. This has since ended, but my first two HC purchases were Invincible Ultimate Collection 1 and Animal Man Omnibus. After that I limited myself to a $50/month budget and slowly built it up, finishing the Invincible Ultimate Collection and then I moved onto B.P.R.D. Now I collect Marvel Omnibuses because I love the physical format. I also spend more than $50/month.

[BlackagarBoltagon]

I've been thinking of doing similar, or at least with a large portion of my collection. I've been reading The Walking Dead in TPBs since I discovered it well after it was underway. Then I started reading Invincible in the Ultimate Collections and the Hellboy Library editions. Hardcovers are a great way to sit and really absorb large chunks of story in a gorgeous format.

[Transmit Him]

I started buying trades because there wasn't a comic shop near me. Then one opened and I rejoiced... til I eventually realised that single issues are more expensive, awkward to store and they're not as nice to read, so I switched back to just trades.

[MykeHavoc]

Though I dabbled with reading floppies as a kid and reading various trades over the years at libraries, I didn't get into collection until about five years ago. In the middle of the four year gap between Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises, I wanted to dig a bit deeper into the source material to fill the gaps in my knowledge on the universe. I also got sick with mono for like four months, so I was stuck on my couch for quite some time. I started ordering the animated series DVDs and grabbed a few collected editions, the old 80's trades of the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, and its companion, The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told. I also wanted to check out some recent stuff, so I ordered RIP and Streets of Gotham volume 1. Its been a downward spiral ever since :-P

[AJpyro]

I made a terrible mistake. I bought singles for AvX.

After sometime I corrected this buy reading better books and soon was on tom buying better books. Gillen UXM vol, Whedon AXM vol 1, RHATO Vol 1-3, SM2099 (OS)Vol 1, and Blue Beetle (2006) Vol 2. And from then on I've been collecting what I could.

GOTG by DnA Ulti. 1, JMS ASM Ulti. 1, Essential X-factor, Runaways Ulti. Vol 1.

[Balakin]

I'm from Hungary and comicbook culture there is kinda crap but we have the occasional flea market type event where I bought some floppies and some trades but never gave much thought about the different formats. I also got some floppies from germany back in high school when I still understood some german.
But other than that I mostly read pirate translations (there are a lot) and later when my english got better simply downloaded the books, illegaly of course and I've read a LOT. I know, I'm not proud either but 2 things that you usually don't have in Hungary in case of comics: options and a budget.
When eventually I had a budget I started to buy the books I've already read on my pc (and liked a lot) but soon started to buy things I only heard about and wanted to try because I quickly realised I can't read on screen anymore, or at least I enjoy the books more if I read them on paper. I did a lot of impulse buying...well I'm still doing it, it feels good (that and winning ebay auctions for low prices).
I also realised that floppies look like **** when you have a bunch but trades and hardcovers look really nice. I wouldn't touch a floppy now with a stick.

[Cold Water]

The first trade paperback I ever bought was the first volume of Kurt Busiek's Avengers run. It just spiraled out of control from there. The amount of trades and hardcovers I have is really out of control. I am going to be doing digital for current series because floppies are a mess and inconvenient to access. The only series I have in floppies are old ones that have not been put into trade and probably never will be.

[MrJed]

Interesting question…. I started to collect in about 2001 – I found a very nice comic book shop in Richmond, London that I used to have a look in at lunch break. Mainly for lego

I thought floppies looked complicated to get into, but most importantly they had adverts breaking up the story left right and centre that I could never live with. Having a look around, I thought the best thing in the shop that wasn’t going to break the bank was the ‘Prestige’ comic. These were great to me as the had better covers, spines with writing on them that reminded me of LP's and didn’t have any adverts. I set about collecting most of these that were available at the time and still have them today.

That moved me towards the classics of the time in TPB (which remain to this day really) Dark Knight, Watchmen, V, Year One, Kingdom Come, long halloween etc. I brought mostly batman, and had one hardcover from that period of buying: Batman Night Cries – a book that is bigger than current OSH’s!

I dropped out of collecting after a few years, and didn’t restart until I was in a shop in Pikes Place, Seattle. Mainly for Kubricks

I picked up the 'countdown to infinite crisis' intro for a buck. It had ads, but was a great read.

When I got back to London I looked up infinite crisis, and saw all the Countdown to Infinite Crisis TPB's you could get. I wasn’t sure what order to read them in, so found the Collected Editions DC Timeline. This was a big mistake, as I purchased nearly everything on that list from identity crisis and read them mostly in order to Blackest Night.

DC started releasing most series in HB following Infinite crisis – this was annoying as most of my stuff was prestige or TPB at the time. However a trip to New York, which happened to be timed with a Midtown comics Presidents Day sale of 40% off everything changed all that. For what seemed like peanuts I picked up about 15 or so DC hardbacks, and I really appreciated them compared to the TPB.

I still wasn’t reading marvel, but spotted Hulk Grey OSH in orbital. I loved Sales art so picked it up. Again I really appreciated the art, size and the quality of paper. Better than the DC stuff. This got me started on Marvel, but I only picked up OSH. I expect I have about half to three quarters of the Marvel OSH back catalogue in my collection.

Annoyingly I did most of my reading at the time on a tube to central London. The omnibus line was too big for my bag, so I avoided them and missed many classics from that early omnibus era.

A few years down the line I started working from home, so omnibus all of a sudden made sense to me. I now go for omnibus > OSH>HC> TPB. I will still pick up a prestige though if I come across one I don’t have...

So there you have it… Missing the shelf porn though – here you go, but just noticed I seemed to miss a shelf or two https://www.flickr.com/photos/362235...7651424731941/

[Mighty Roman]

I used to buy only single issues all the time, but I switched to mainly TPBs for 2 reasons:
Firstly, after moving house, I couldn't access a local comic store, and secondly, there were some titles that weren't prints in single issues in my country (such as Earth 2). Plus TPBs are a lot better value for money. For example one issue of Doctor Who is $7, and the first TPB is $16 in Hardback.

[Mace Dolex]

My first book was The Dark Knight Returns and Batman Year One from way back in 1990 of which I still have on tip top shape, Ive stopped buying singles except for the occassional one to fill gaps in my collection.

But now I'm strictly only into HC/TPB's and I always look for discounts instead of paying retail price.

[PLEDGE]

I used to buy singles...until I saw the Bendis Daredevil OHCs sitting on a shelf at a comic store..and realized how great they look. Then the Miller DD omnibus dropped and it was all over.