When downsizing the collection: How do you determine what stays and what goes?

[Balakin]

How many do I have to own before considering to downsize?

that only you can tell since it's your house/flat and your life so it is only you who can decide how many books you want to have around.

[ROM Spaceknight]

If you ever get to the point where you have so many comic book longboxes and/or shelves filled with comics/collected editions that:

1) You can't easily move around in your home because you don't have enough space & this becomes a safety hazard...

2) and/or you have to get a storage facility to house your comics/collected editions...

Then it's probably time to consider down-sizing your collection.

[WinterSoldier76]

I'll consider downsizing once I have everything! Until then "you're gonna need a bigger boat!"

[JakeJarmel]

gotta realize it's not about the size of your collection, but rather the content

[Orion]

I've sold off somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 collected editions over my years of collecting them (roughly 2003 - present) I try to keep a check on my collector/hoarder instinct this way. Sell-offs usually fall into one of four categories: Books I blind bought and ended up not liking at all (Tomb of Dracula Omnibus), books I bought for completeness sake but really never had much interest in (Marvel Premiere Classic DM variants), books I liked ok but not enough to ever see me reading again (McFarlane Spider-man), and books I upgraded to better editions. This latter category I try not to be too anal about. I still have my original Annihilation, New X-Men, and Ultimates OHC's and have always resisted the urge to turn them into omnibuses.

[Pat Thomas]

How many do I have to own before considering to downsize?

Depends on how much they get in your way and affect the lifestyle of everyone in your home, how much clutter is okay, can you get to books without digging? That kind of stuff.
There's a fine line from collector to hoarder you need to watch for, and just keep it below that level.

[Bri]

I'll consider downsizing once I have everything! Until then "you're gonna need a bigger boat!"

I fully agree. When I ran out room for new books I briefly considered adding onto the house. I realized that A: This would cost money that could be spent on more trades and graphic novels and B: I had a large perfectly good room that I simply needed to clear out and I could more then double the space available for my collection. So now the boy sleeps in the yard. I got him a sleeping bag. He's fine.

[CP1234]

gotta realize it's not about the size of your collection, but rather the content

This. I've been getting rid of everything I'm not in love with.

[lvizzz]

This. I've been getting rid of everything I'm not in love with.

Trade/sell everything you don't like. Keep some stuff which you don't like but it's going OOP or already is for trade. Build a collection where you like every single book and every book is precious. That's my philosophy now.

[WinterSoldier76]

I fully agree. When I ran out room for new books I briefly considered adding onto the house. I realized that A: This would cost money that could be spent on more trades and graphic novels and B: I had a large perfectly good room that I simply needed to clear out and I could more then double the space available for my collection. So now the boy sleeps in the yard. I got him a sleeping bag. He's fine.

Real Recognize Real!

[JFP]

It's easy to give up comics that have been cancelled. I can't reread a cancelled comic because I know the story will never be completed.

All in all, it shouldn't be about quantity but how many times you can reread the story and enjoy it. I enjoy rereading DBZ. I reread the story over and over. It gives me tons of enjoyment. If you can't say, "I love reading this comic over and over again" and mean it, then it's time to get rid of the comic.

[Cozzster]

Trade/sell everything you don't like. Keep some stuff which you don't like but it's going OOP or already is for trade. Build a collection where you like every single book and every book is precious. That's my philosophy now.

I do this with my collection. I generally prescribe to keeping only books that I really care about. Everything else goes away.

[TimmyWeiss]

I do this with my collection. I generally prescribe to keeping only books that I really care about. Everything else goes away.

This 100%.
I am beginning to re-read many of my omnibus's and selling off the ones that I don't have a connection with. I used to collect omni's because they looked great on a shelf, but over time and with more kids added to the mix, I find it the logic behind becoming a completest absurd. Over the last couple years i started selling the OOP books first, since they could get reprinted and lose value and because I needed the money to buy books that I wanted. Omnis, like TOD, Wolverine, Silver surfer, all sold and now I am left re-reading the silver age stuff to see what I really want to keep and will be re-reading in next 10-20 years. Some silver age stuff is truly magnificent (Kirby FF, Ditko SM), but some is just...laboring and overall meh (classic X-men, Hulk, Iron Man..imo).

Right now I am tussling with McFarlane's SM omnibus. It has a nostalgic value to me, but it is tough to re-read and enjoy. The stories aren't really there, and I cannot see myself re-visiting it.

[MatchstickJohnny]

I have been buying/reading/collecting MARVEL floppies for years and years. I still buy from week to week but I really want to stop and go with collected editions all the way. I could have easily stopped the floppies with this October's reboot but I still continue to buy new floppies. How do you just stop buying new and wait for the collected edition?

[Captain Craig]

As noted: floppies>TPB>OHC/Omni>Absolute

Single issues are about pointless as a solitary bag/board item. Key issues are slabbed anyway if your a collector anyway so if you need a reading version you can have that in a collected format anyway.