cfmoran13

I've been reading and collecting comic books for the past 20-25 years or so. Currently, they're all bagged and boarded and stored in my attic. Most of these I'm probably never gonna read again and am thinking of selling. And, I'm running out of storage room.

I've become nostalgic about some titles and, even though they'll probably never be read again, I'm having a hard time deciding whether to sell them. As an example, Dick Grayson/ Nightwing is one of my favorite characters. I have the complete run of his title prior to "The New 52" reboot. I don't know if I'll ever read them again. Plus, I can probably find them online for the iPad. People are selling the entire run for $150+ on eBay. Do I sell these types of titles or keep them?

Plus, I could probably find most of them collected digitally for the iPad. And, while I don't have a problem reading comics on it, there's something to be said about flipping the pages of a real comic book.

Has anyone else encountered these problems?

Timber

Mine are taking up room in the basement and I always dread moving and having to deal with them. For me though there is more sentimental attachment than anything I could get by selling them. And every once in a while I'll think of something and go search for one. I'd love to someday go through and track them in a program just so I know what I have and what box it's in.

Obi-Wanma

I have about 30 longboxes in my basement. It's gotten to the point where I know I'll never read them again and they just take up space. I've been thinking about selling them, its just that I'll have to go thru them and such to get an idea of their value before I do that (refuse to sell them in bulk without knowing what they're worth), and that's a task I dread.

stingermck

I sell em. The sight of stacked long boxes stopped being appealing a few years ago. I got rid of almost all of them in bulk just to be done.

I still buy monthlies. Read em, let a friend read em, then sell em to someone I met on eBay for $1 each. That way I keep up, but make a little money back and not have long boxes around. If i like a story I will get it in trade.

The only singles I have are my complete Batgirl run, and my Golden/Silver age keys.

Spiderbite

I regret selling off my childhood collection when I turned 16 and wish I still had those. Especially now that I have a kid and he enjoys looking at comics and we read them together. He would have gotten a kick out of them. I have lots of memories of fragments of various comics but will probably never be able to read them again because I have no clue what the names of the titles or issue they were (I had ton of old horror and war comics).

I say keep what you would like to go thru with a future kid or what you are nostalgic about that might be rare or hard to find issues. Dump the rest.

Any comics I bought as a teen or as an adult, I really don't give a shit about. I read them and then dump them. I think it comes from when you are a kid, you have all the time in the world and read and reread the same comics many times over...kinda like watching the same movies over and over as a kid. They are special to you and remain that way for most of your life it seems.

Josh-da-man

I've only kept the ones I know I'm going to give a shit about: Sandman, Grendel, Hellblazer, Preacher, Mireacleman, The Boys, Planetary, anything Alan Moore or Grant Morrison, yadda yadda yadda. The Marvel and DC Universe and Image crap I realized I'm never going to re-read, so it doesn't become much of a priority to hang onto.

AdamGott

I had about 30 longboxes in my basement and have been selling/giving away for a while now. I think that I am down to less than ten and have never felt better. Getting rid of that big pile of stuff in the basement has been very liberating and I know that I would never have read most of them in the future. Anything that I feel the need to re-read I will find digitally and read on my iPad.

If you opt to sell I have to warn you: Resale value is really low. I had a lot of bronze age stuff and most of it went for less than a buck an issue on ebay. Hopefully most of it went into the hands of people that will appreciate it more!

For a lot of my stuff I just gave it to the local thrift stores and took a nice tax write off, ~$2 per issue which is, in effect, much more than I would get by selling on ebay.

kgrogers1979

I will never sell my comics. Even if I ended up unemployed for a long period of time and desperate for money, I would never sell them.

They are my precious.

Strapped4Cash

I'd be careful about selling pre-nu52 stuff in general, as it seems to me that DC is less interested in keeping it (again in general) available. Much of it would just confuse the nu52 readers and, rightly or wrongly, that's where they've bet their future.

Also, much of the NW run is by Dixon and he's been long out of favor with DC (unless something's recently changed that I haven't heard?), so I'd guess that work like his is especially likely to not be available in the future.

JasonF

Every few years, I go through my collection. I look at every book (not necessarily read it, but just hold it in my hands and look at it). I ask myself two questions:

1. Can I see myself reading it again?
2. Does this particular comic have sentimental value to me?

If I answer "no" to both questions, it gets sold.

brayzie

I have 3 long boxes at my parents house and when I visit them I usually take some time to read a few comics that I saved. Stuff like "Kraven's Last Hunt," "Legends of the Dark Knight: Faces," "Grendel: Devil by The Deed," and "Pacifico Presents The Rocketeer."

I would never get rid of them because the comics are really fun to re-read and have sentimental value. I can still remember where I got a certain issue and when.

benedict

When I moved into my first place I brought a load of boxes from home some of which contained (UK) reprint Marvel anthologies from my teens. Back then I collected two or three different titles for up to five years apiece. These then stayed under a bed for a further ten years until, assisted by my brother, I decided to have a general clear out. While many things went to the local municipal dump, I took a large proportion of the comicbooks to a charity shop and donated - we don't get a tax write-off in Britain for this, though.

My sincere wish was that a kid would walk in and scoop the lot of them. I recall one summer when I was lucky enough as a youngster at a "yard sale" to find a box containing two or three years worth of an ancient weekly comic (Look & Learn + Ranger) and was introduced to the delights of the Trigan Empire and numerous other strips for the bargain price of three issues a penny!

I hung on to a few US Marvel comics and a few Vertigo titles collected during adulthood, as well as a long run of Omni magazine. These now all sit in a metal box in the basement! The few graphic novels I possessed at the time of my recent move were passed on to a nephew (he only missed out on the comicbooks I donated because I knew my sister would be less than pleased I shifted my "collection" to her house) - although I am now looking to pick up a few select titles to renew my acquaintance with the comicbook genre. Few, if any, of the titles on my wishlist are Marvel or DC which makes me think I have really moved on.

Also, when I moved, 12 months ago, I handed on my meagre vinyl collection (30-40 discs) to my g/f's son who has gone all retro and owns a turntable - something that I've not possessed for a decade or two! Fortunately my new wave and rock oriented albums went down a treat!

Trevor

I could probably ramble on for paragraphs, but will try to keep it short. I have maybe 40 long boxes now, most of it early 80s I imagine, but several boxes of 70s and 90s stuff. I rarely buy monthlies now, but still may try to fill in holes in my 70s childhood favorite titles like JLA and Man-Thing. I'm buying some digital now, and some trades. I think I'm ready to get rid of perhaps half of my floppies, but don't think I'd ever sell anything from the 70s or anything by Alan Moore, Bob Burden, Steve Rude, or a dozen or so of my other favorite creators. And knowing me and my laziness, I'll never sell anything. I might go through everything someday and give away a few boxes of crap, but I'll never take the time to grade and list individual issues to sell.

Timber

That's just it. I remember riding my bike and getting Jim Lee's first issue of Uncanny. Had no idea who he was at the time but I remember being blown away by the art. Issue is not in great shape since I was on a bike but there are tons of individual issues that I remember picking up.

Plus there is just something about the smell of those old comics that brings back memories. I think I know what a hoarder feels as I just can't bring myself to get rid of them.

cfmoran13

I'm all about the "nostalgia", too! I'm definitely keeping the monthly Bat-titles (Batman, Detective, Nightwing and the smaller titles that work into the continuity), Spider-Man and maybe Flash.

My complete run of Green Lantern (Volume 3) and the GL titles that came out in that time period, Superman/Batman, all the Batman miniseries I have, DC "event" miniseries and other books will all be going on eBay shortly.

I know I won't (and am not expecting to) get my money back. I just don't want to GIVE them away. Pennies on the dollar is still better than nothing.

stingermck

Old comics do smell great. I keep the Batgirl singles from the current 52 series, so that allows me to still collect some singles. I just cant be a slave to long boxes anymore.

TimeandTide

Nostalgia is exactly why I'll never get rid of the comics in my one remaining long box. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of scouring the newstand and IGA racks for new issues of Power Pack and Paul Davis-drawn X-Men.

The B&W TMNT (bought all first printings upon their release), Secret Wars and Crisis on Infinite Earths, Elementals, Nexus, 2000 AD/Judge Dredd, everything Frank Miller, everything George Perez, Maguire Justice League, and Watchmen bring back some fantastic memories.

And I don't think I'll ever let go of my complete run of Preachers, even with the trades readily available.

Regarding selling, it's definitely worth the effort to research prices and unload "hot" titles before they plummet in value. For example, I unloaded a mint run of Miller's 300 on eBay for $120 when the film came out.

Why So Blu?

I have 4-5 boxes of comics. I started collecting back in 90-91. I love Comixology, and all of those companies that offer digital comics, too. I will never get rid of my physical comics.

madcougar

I'm right there with you.

Nick Danger

Between us we only have about six longboxes. It's a small enough collection that we have the room to store them. We also still have our vinyl LP collections.

Obi-Wanma

See, I never really collected comics until I was almost in college (I had an issue here or there when I was a kid, but I don't think I still have any of those). I've hardly re-read any of them, so even though I have a HUGE collection, I proably don't have the same emotional attachment that some of you have, and with a wife and 3 kids, I have different priorites in life now. I stopped buying new issues 2 years ago, because I just couldn't afford to keep up anymore. I was spending 40-70 bucks a week.

Timber

That I agree with. When I bought my first house 10 or so years ago I just couldn't justify the weekly expense. Even then it was hitting $30 or so per week and many of the issues would just stay in the bags and I would never get around to reading them. It was the right time to quit.

I just don't know how any kid could afford to get into now, even if they were going digital.

resinrats

Aren't digital comics the same price as physical books? So other then saving on space, I don't see a benefit to digital comics. Also, aren't digital comics stored on the company's servers and you just access it? Sucks that if you have no internet connection or if the serivce stops, you can't get the comics you paid for.

Comics really need to figure out a way to sell for cheaper. Get issues down to at least $2 an issue. Cheaper paper? I can get a HUGE sunday paper with a lot of color pictures in it for $1.25. Probably easily 10-20 comics worth of paper.

Patman

I'm getting to the point of just leaving most of my long boxes of comics at the doorsteps of a LCS and being done with them. Don't even want any money for them, just want to reclaim some space in the house now.

kgrogers1979

Yeah, when I was a kid in the 1980s I got a $10 allowance every two weeks. I could buy about a dozen comics with that. The same allowance today will only buy you two comics (maybe three if they are all $2.99).


They are for the first month I think, and then they are reduced by one dollar when the next issue comes out.


That's my biggest problem with digital. If Comixology goes out of business, then your whole collection is gone too. At least with my physical comic collection, unless my apartment is hit by a tornado or earthquake or whatever, I will still have my collection in 20 years. Comixology may or may not still exist in 20 years though. Or technology will have advanced so much that everything is incompatible. For example, the Apple II from the 1980s can't run a single program made today.

I have somewhere over 40 longboxes. They take up a lot of room, sure, but it beats the uncertainties of going digital in my opinion. Of course I could just be ranting like an old man shaking his cane at the young kids to get off his lawn too.