Long Time Floppy Collectors....

[MatchstickJohnny]

How did you make the transition to collected editions only??

Being a long time MARVEL floppy collector I have decided to stop the floppy and go with mainly collected editions and/or digital comics. I really should have stopped buying floppies with the "All New All Different" branding but I was one of the people who was pretty excited about the new line and how it would develop post Secret Wars. I am still sort of intrigued about what is unfolding but lately I have been letting my weekly floppies pile up.

I feel like I could easily make the cut off point now and from now on wait until the title is published in collected format.

The next step would be selling off my floppies. I am thinking I will try to dump the most recent stuff and all the way back to the 90's.
My reasons for selling is to hopefully get some extra cash but keeping my love for the hobby and focus on upgrading the titles I cannot part with to collected or digital editions.

Can anyone here share their thoughts (particularly the long time collectors) and experiences in doing this?

[wwise03]

I haven't completed the transition, and probably won't for a while (I enjoy keeping up with Valiant on a week to week basis, along with a few Image books and Archie books). That said, I had no trouble cutting marvel and DC floppies. Those floppies simply don't provide $4 of value.

[WeirdSpace]

I didn't, and I don't plan to. I prefer the floppies, and only buy the collected editions if the floppies are too expensive or impossible to find, e.g. the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. I may switch to digital for some mini-series.

[Cozzster]

I made the transition out of necessity really. I collected floppies for about 12 years, then I got a job that required me to move every few years and ran into two problems: 1) Some of the places I have lived only have decent comic shops that are close to an hour away and 2) moving floppies was just too cumbersome when compared to moving collected editions. All my floppies are in boxes at my parents house where they will likely remain til I get settled down and stop moving. I think if I didn't move so much and had access to a decent comic book shop I would still collect floppies and Omnibi of the older (silver age) stuff. I used to think people buying collected editions were the ones killing monthly comic sales, but now I am one of them. I also thought it would be really hard to make the transition, but once I did it, it wasn't that hard. I still love my floppies, maybe largely out of nostalgia from collecting with my dad when I was younger and definitely don't plan on selling them.

[paurru]

Im old fashioned. I prefer and still prefer buying single issues to fill in some missing gaps.

The only time to really need to go buy a trade paperback is if the first 10 issues are expensive as their regular single issues. If Im really that desparate to even need the first 5 or first 10 issues of an old series.

[paurru]

Besides, some old comic book series still look better with single issues only. Trade paperbacks most of the time they dont even include an art gallery of the original front cover art of a single issue of an old comic book series

[etrumble]

The only floppies I get now are those I get on mail subscription(which is a 45%+ discount) or when the local comic shop is having a 50% off sale(and I can get a run of a title I don't usually follow but want to sample, usually non Big 2).

I probably have >10,000 floppies sitting in storage and keep hoping I will get space to display/enjoy them.

I haven't found a good way to part with the floppies and get enough money to finance replacement with bound copies.

so, I buy collected editions of about half my comics and follow with floppies about half(I hate the idea of digital). while I have perhaps 500 digital comics, they have all been free(with code or download) and I don't get nearly as much pleasure reading them.

[Mace Dolex]

Ive stopped buying single issues since 2005 only buying the occasional issue to fill gaps in my collection, it grew to 46 short boxes and am down to 28, believe me I've either sold or traded lots of junk comics mostly from the 90's and 2000's, I realized they were sitting there without ever possibly given a second chance to read.

I still have plenty of single issues I'm keeping for nostalgic reasons but the temptation is always there to sell them because I have most of them collected in tpb's. But for the time being I'm strictly buying tpb's/hardcovers/absolutes/omnibus.

[Gotham Thrasher]

The only time I ever buy floppies these days is when I find a lot for dirt cheap with the intent of binding them . The last time i bought floppies on a regular basis was 2003. Mind u i live in Canada and its therefore cheaper tobuy collecteded editions and my lcs offers monthly discounts on trades and hardcovers so it's been easy for me to not look back. Everything s on the shelf and i no longer have to worry about bags and boards and long boxes.

[codystarbuck]

Mine was a gradual disinterest in a lot of what was coming out in comics. I was getting down to fewer and fewer books per month and most of that came either from independents, with less frequent publication, or were mini-series or fringe titles. I was working at a bookstore and we got the bulk of the trades or could order them. I went from weekly visits to my comic shop, to bi-weekly, to monthly, to cancelling my subscription. Instead, if something sounded good, I just waited for the collection, looked at it in my store, then decided whether to buy. I found that I preferred reading the complete story, in most cases. Price helped a lot, as trades were cheaper in the long run, and my employee discount made it even better. As time went on, I found things ebbed and flowed with interest from the Big Two; but, a lot of material from my Bronze Age childhood were becoming available and those were really great. Meanwhile, I could also get some amazing European collections this way.

One thing that really helped was the trend of writing storylines to fit the trade collection. This led to a lot of padding and slow-moving stories. I grew up in an era where stories lasted for a few pages, an entire issue or two to three issues, at most (with a few notable exceptions). Story should dictate the number of issues, not a pre-set number of issues dictating the story.

Aside from that, books made for better storage and rereading. It also led to interesting supplements. Besides, a stack of long boxes looks like storage for forgotten items. A bookcase filled with trades and graphic novels looks like a library.

[Mike]

I haven't and never will. I like the single issues.
I do have quite a few trades but they are of issues that came out before I started collecting and are to expensive to buy the back issues.
AND I hate the term floppies.

[awayne83]

I haven't and never will. I like the single issues.
I do have quite a few trades but they are of issues that came out before I started collecting and are to expensive to buy the back issues.
AND I hate the term floppies.

God im glad im not the only one. I remeber the first time someone said that to me in person and i just gave them the longest blank stare lol

[codystarbuck]

God im glad im not the only one. I remeber the first time someone said that to me in person and i just gave them the longest blank stare lol

I prefer just calling them comics, though pamphlets or magazines will do in a pinch. Floppies makes it sound like come on 5 1/4" computer disks, to be seen on a Commodore computer. By the same token, I never warmed to the term graphic novel being used for anything other than a single, original, complete story published in a book format. Anything else is a collection. I was a bookseller for 20 years and graphic novel came to be used for every book containing comics, since trade paperback was a term applied to any paperback book of a size similar to a hard cover (or trade cloth) edition.