Trevor

Besides being interested in those two answers, an ulterior motive is the hope that someone can talk me out of a purchase this evening.

Answer #1: I own about 14,000 physical comics and 20,000 digital comics. It has taken me over 40 years to accumulate those physical books, yet only a few years to amass the digital books. In my partial defense, thousands of the digital were free, and the price paid for both the physical and digital books probably average 50 cents a piece.

Answer #2: I probably read 5 books a day on average. With my fairly recent re-focus on comics I expect that to hit 10 books a day.

So it will take me about 9 years to read/re-read everything I own. Yet here I am about to click buy on ~90 more digital books (Archer & Armstrong and The Boys). What is wrong with me?

majorjoe23

I tend to read 3-5 per day. No idea on how many I own, I need to make an estimate sometime, as well as thin out the collection a bit.

teameck

I must have between 8000-12,000 physical issues (and a few dozen-- free-- digital issues thanks to this forum). It's been about ten years since I've regularly bought anything and fifteen since I was hardcore buying, so all that came in about the span of fifteen years. I'll get a few dozen a year in lots from eBay or Half Price Books.

I haven't read a single issue in around a decade. All of my reading is from the one to two dozen TPs I have on loan from the library at any time.

I hope I can get my act together and cull-out the ones I really don't need, so I can go back and enjoy the ones that I loved.

sven

I've got a couple of full long boxes in the basement. I've probably got around 500 digital comics all bought within the last 3 months.

I'd say I read about 5 or 6 per day on average.

PhantomStranger

Classic Archer & Armstrong is always worth reading. I always wished they had made it into a movie.

Individual issues? Hard to say, I lost track over a decade ago when Wizardworld's online database disappeared and took my collection's tracking with it. I have nearly complete runs of the major modern age books from Marvel and DC up until the mid-90s. Countless more when you include hundreds of hardcovers and omnibuses.

I've been reading more lately but there are many weeks out of the year where I won't pick up a single comic book or trade to read. I am far too busy to sit for hours and read extended runs. I'll pick up a trade and randomly chose an issue to read from it on a whim.

terrycloth

I have close to 100 tpb and HC.

probally 10 long boxes of single issues and a disgusting amount of digitals

i try to read atleast 5 a day but since getting a puppy and waking up two hours earlier a day i been reading close to 20-30 a day with the extra time

im starting to flip/re-purpose comic collections as i enjoy going thru collections i pick up

kodave

I have maybe half a short box of single issues from when I was a kid.

Trade collection wise - far too many. I've bought nearly all of them cheap enough that I can re-sell them at a price that still breaks even for me after shipping and anything like eBay fees.

Probably a lot of the non-collector's edition stuff (TPBs, regular HCs as opposed to Deluxe Editions, Omnibus, Absolute, Library Edition, etc.) would be better off having in digital until a deluxe physical edition is produced.

If I'm "focused" I can usually read a TPB-worth of material almost every day since it only takes an hour, give or take. So anywhere from 4 to 8 issues really. I think this past week I read 5 or 6 TPBs. But sometimes I go long stretches without reading anything, this year being a prime example of that. I think I've only read about 250 comics this year, which is well behind those 1000-plus-comics-per-year goals a lot of comics readers set for themselves. I think if I can read about 5 trades a week until the end of the year I should be able to hit 500 comics.

mrhan

I have about 10K books. Mostly pre-'86. Really slowed down during the 90's and stopped monthlies about '98. I still buy old books, though.

I rarely read comics now unless I just bought some old books. I occasionally take some out to read and to smell the past.

Obi-Wanma

Thousands and zero.

Strapped4Cash

Idk, hundreds of short boxes. At least I've finally gotten the vast majority into boxes.

No digital.

Archer & Armstrong and The Boys are definitely worth reading at least once.

The Valeyard

I have thousands upon thousands.

I generally read 2 comics a day if I'm lucky. More on the weekends.

Undeadcow

I have about 12,000 digital books. I probably have a few hundred physical books I've trucked around with me since I was a kid blowing my allowance on them.

On a typical day I read 5-10 books, sometimes much more if I get into a good arc/series.

I prefer to binge read series when possible so end up buying complete collections or bundles online.

Trevor

I'm struggling with my great pleasure at the whole collecting process, my joy in reading books old and new, but the realization that owning more books than I'll likely read in my life isn't very wise.

davidh777

I have the equivalent of maybe 10 longboxes still at my parents' house. When I got back into comics, I was really attracted to the convenience, price, and readability of the TPB so that's what makes up nearly all my current collection, plus a couple dozen floppies and 200 digital freebies (doubled by my recent Dynamite bundles).

I rarely read, unfortunately. I'll binge on vacation, but otherwise I may read a handful of issues a week. If I get a new volume of Invincible or Walking Dead, I'll probably read that in one sitting.

BobO'Link

Without actually checking I'd guess 20-25 longboxes and *zero* digital comics (something I plan to never "own").

I like to try and read the week's haul every Saturday morning but am currently ~10 months *behind* in my reading and have only read a average of 1 comic per *week* the past several months, yet I still make my weekly run/purchase. If I'd at least read 1 or 2 per day I could stay caught up... I need to give that a try.

malazar

I no longer own any single issue physical comics as of a few years ago, but I have something like 75 omnibus and Absolute Editions in addition to hundreds of other hardcovers and trades. As far as digital comics, I have never counted how many I have but a guesstimate would be something like 1000 that I paid for. Whatever the number is, it is +90 tonight with The Boys and the side stories.

Lately, my actual reading is very erratic. Between being extremely busy with work and having to do work-related classes when I have any free time, my comic reading time is limited. I'd say once an average month shakes out, I average an issue a day. I do it in bursts though rather than anything consistent. Hopefully, I will be finished with my classes by the end of the year and not have to deal with that again which will open things up.

PhantomStranger

The obvious solution to that problem is by living longer.

I hear some have been cursed to walk the Earth for all eternity.

Trevor

There are at least 500 freebies available right now.

I get a few collections per year from my library, but really should sample titles there more often.
Could you estimate by number of boxes? That's all I do, doubt I'll ever have an exact count.

Trevor

This is as good a place as any to discuss this, but why?

I was anti-digital for years but finally decided I might as well grab the limited availability freebies as they popped up. You could have around two thousand digital comics for free right now just by making a couple clicks once a week.

Once I read a few on a nice tablet I realized that the experience was just as good as holding an actual paper comic in my hands, and in some ways much better.
I would be ok with that, but my compromise hope is to have a younger friend or relative inherit these sweet physical and digital collections someday.

teameck

I haven't actually read any digital titles issues yet. I don't have a tablet yet and don't feel like trying to read them on a laptop until I do get a tablet.

And I am trying to be more selective with digital and only redeem things I am probably going to be interested in. Sure, I'll miss one of two great titles because I didn't try them, but I have thousands of physical issues I don't really like (or haven't read yet) cluttering my basement now. Digital is definitely more space-saving, but grabbing everything available will just become digital clutter I'll have to wade through someday.

stingermck

A short box of 70's Batman Family, Batgirl and some random favorite issues growing up. A stack of GA and SA keys, maybe around 40 or so, and a half full book case of trades.

I sell my new singles when I am done reading, and frequently trade in trades and HC's to the LCS, that I only got to read or don't see myself re-reading again.

I just cant have shit sitting on the shelf that just looks pretty and not being re-read.

Zero digital.

kgrogers1979

I own zero comics. I used to have about 20 longboxes, but I threw them all in the trash a few months ago. Yeah me!

rocket1312

I have 8-10 short boxes of individual issues. It probably is in the neighborhood of 1000 single issues. I also have 100 or so tpb/hardcovers and 300 or so hundred digital "items." Some of them are singles and some are collections.

I probably read, on average, 5-10 issues a week. It depends. I'll go through a two week period where I read that much every day and then the next two weeks I'll read nothing. I have found that with a small child at home and a wife who often works nights and weekends, that comic books are a much more easily digested form of entertainment than tv or movies.

PhantomStranger

Probably over two dozen well-curated longboxes, maybe more. I was methodical assembling my collection back in the day, so I have very few holes from the period when I was collecting years ago.

Should I count the thousands of digital comics I downloaded back in the day and still have somewhere on a hard drive? I tried but I simply don't like reading comics on a computer or tablet. Marvel and DC will lose me as a customer when they eliminate the physical book market.

Trevor

Did you try on just the PC or an old cheap tablet? Because I agree that it was a bad experience on any PC, and on a 7" tablet; but comics on a large retina screen are beautiful and easy/intuitive to read.
I'm afraid that day is coming. But besides, we're probably too old to be reading Marvel and DC comics.