dadaluholla

I rarely ever buy back issues anymore. There are a FEW titles I'll probably try to complete my full run of some day (Captain America, Hulk) but I'm pretty much done.

If anything I'd like to get rid of a LOT of my back issues of crap I will never read. Like I was looking through my box of of old Marvel Two-In-One last night and thinking "Why do I keep these?". It's a good enough read, but thats just it...I NEVER READ THEM.

fujishig

Most of my 100+ monthly addictions comes in the form of trades... and import Japanese toys in the back of Previews, but I digress.

I don't buy back issues much anymore for two reasons:
1) I rarely go into a comic shop anymore, and most don't have a huge catalog of backissues anyway.
2) I buy comics to read nowadays, not collect. So I'll usually buy tons of really cheap backissues to read stories. But nowadays, there's enough stuff that they're reprinting in TPB that I just buy those instead. If by backissues you mean like golden age/silver age stuff, I could never afford those anyway.

Some of that stuff just doesn't hold up anyway. I recently got the "Mutant Massacre" TPB, and really just a few morlocks died, and Angel got maimed. Hardly an event. Although I am enjoying the Essential Marvel TPBs, even without color. Now that's a whole lotta comic for a little coin.

I've also started reading backissue magazine, on the recommendation of that comic geeks podcast.

ytrez

I mostly buy trades & hc's so it doesn't really impact me, but if you continue to plan to continue to buy the monthly pamphlet comics, then don't pass over new ones in favor of buying old back issues. A few years from now you'll be paying bigger $ for the issues you pass over today.

fujishig

Really? From my experience, in the last 10 or so years, most modern comics either depreciate greatly (the quarter bin) or get collected in TPB form. If you're in no rush to read these stories, I'd say waiting won't harm you in most of the mainstream cases. Unless you just hate trades, or you're going for independents or something.

Ever try selling your comic collection?

Jackskeleton

Woah.. what got you on the wrong side of the bed today? If you don't like the book drop it. Generally speaking the "quality" books seldomly sell. Y the last man has piss poor sell numbers and it's a top notch book. I know that popularity means shit.

I'm enjoying it and I buy it. It's my own opinion on the matter but I'm also understanding that Miller hasn't written a good Batman for years. STRIKES AGAIN was just terrible unreadable crap. If he wasn't trashing Batman in that then I don't know what he was doing. So Miller fucking around with Batman isn't anything new. Atleast this is pretty to look at and funny as hell to read.

As for Azzarello, I went up to him at comic con with my sketch book and asked him to draw me superman. He said he was a writer and not an artist. I said that whatever doodle he would make of superman would make as much sense as FOR TOMORROW. He took my sketch book and drew a grave head stone with some flowers around it and finally asked me for my name.. which he in turn wrote on the head stone. I had a laugh about it and gave him my for tomorrow books to sign.

I agree that his writting is just up there. Atleast with Miller's ASBR is funny to read while Azzarello's FOR TOMORROW and LEX LUTHER were just boring as fuck to read.

Liquid Death

My local comic shop just ran a 90% off back issue sale (granted, its the first I've seen)...its still hard to find certain comics in runs, especially if they've never been reprinted. But in general, I'd say comics from the last 10 years really haven't appreciated greatly in value.

boredsilly

You better be glad Azz isn't Chuck Norris or he so would have roundhouse kicked your head off . I'm curious though, why not get a good book Azz has done signed? Thats assuming you read 100 Bullets and assuming you think it's good.

Jackskeleton

with comic con I'm always half prepared. Especially when the DC booth doesn't have a full clear cut list of who will be showing up and when. I would have had to walked back to my hotel room to get my 100 bullets and I already had for tomorrow since I just finished getting a jim lee sketch and signiture.

Giantrobo

Question:

Will any of the DC Crisis affect the VERTIGO line? If not, why not?

Giantrobo

Comic Book related... Did anyone else not know THE FLASH tv series boxset is coming? I swear, I'm always the last to know.

I found this dvdtalk thread after I saw the ad on dccomics.com

Chew

I think you are the last to know! Mine has been pre-ordered for quite a while. I'm sure it'll be nowhere as cool as I remember, but I'm looking forward to watching it again.

Giantrobo

The show was cool but I agree there's a chance it might not hold up well. But who knows... Anyway, I always thought the series version of the THE FLASH's costume kicked ass.

exharrison

Does anyone know what is happening with the Alan Moore DC collection that is supposed to come out this month? Amazon said it was supposed to be released today, but they have it listed as 4-6 week shipment now and I can't find it anywhere else. The DC page says Jan 11th.

Chew

I would think the DC page would be the correct one. I always look to Midtowncomics.com for all the new comics on a weekly basis and that's not listed for this week.

ytrez

Perhaps modern comics depreciating to the quarter bin is the norm now, I don't frequent comic shops or buy back issues enough these days to know. I started buying comics in the early 70's and the "don't pass up new comics in favor of back issues" was the first basic rule of serious comic collecting. It just makes sense. A comic shop has overhead, heat, electric, payroll, etc. and the owner needs to make a profit so of course he's going to mark up the back issues. In the 80's a 75 cent comic (IIRC) would be $1 in the back issue bin the month after it came out. It made sense to buy it when it was still cover price. If this has changed today, especially for most comics, I'd be really surprised. I have to believe, for example, that issues of JSA cost more in the back issue bins than from the shelf. No?

I went into a comic shop last month looking for old issues of World's Finest and was surprised by the prices. Back issues of Power of Shazam were also $3 & $4 apiece generally, also. But PoS may not qaulify as "modern" these days. Perhaps it is the bad modern comics that make it to the quarter bins?

As to selling my collection, I haven't tried. The large majority I wouldn't want to part with and those that I would are probably not very marketable anyway.

exharrison

^ That was before the comic industry bust. As far as what the back issue pricing is in stores, it depends on a lot of things. The shop, the local comic business. But, you can buy many of the "modern" back issues online or at conventions for sub cover price and still get them in as good of shape as off the shelf. Its just a few of the comic runs that are harder to do so with. I remember Agent X was at least at one time hard to find the full run in quality condition for cover price.
EDIT:
I do recall a few years ago dime bins were huge at conventions and most of them seem to be returning to 50c and $1 bins, so maybe there is a bit of a rebound in backissues now.

bishop2knight

I think the modern back issue market will rebound, at least a little, for two reasons:

A) The stories these days are really good and there are still those out there who want the original monthy version instead of the trade. Most likely they'll be wanting runs to get the whole story, not just single issues.

B) The printings are smaller these days so the "hot" books can't be found in back issue boxes at comic shops. If you missed it the first time, you'll have to use the secondary market to get most of these "hot" books. That's not to say you can't find 'em cheap on ebay, but most are sold off the shelf, meaning your LCS won't have the recent back issues.


I've actually been slowly delving into Bronze books I loved as a kid. I'm trying to hunt down really mint copies of my favorite books as a kid. Part of me would rather "collect" these old comics and just "read" the new ones...and by read, I mean get 'em in trade and forget about collecting the new monthlies. But I haven't made that lead yet.

MBoyd

There is a comic shop in Dallas that is known for back issues. They will pretty much have everything and anything you will want. But it will cost you. They are much higher than anyplace else.

At Wizard World I picked up all issues of the fairly recent (2002?) Batgirl Year 1 for a buck each. Well worth it. However, they didn't have issue 2 so my friend recommended this shop. Issue 2 was $15 and the other issues ranged from $5-$10!

I did end up finding #2 later for $3 in Arlington.

exharrison

I'm pretty much into trades now. I'll pick up a few trades a month and read them and put them on the shelf and re-read them more than the comics. I'll pick up a few singles every once and a while, but I only really buy backissues when I go to the Heroes Convention every summer. Thats when I normally pick up like 50-150 issues. Overall, I just like dealing with the trades for re-reading than individual issues. And I think I lost the "collecting" bug of comics with so many comics being reprinted in trade format now. I'm just like a year behind in comics which kinda sucks, but I can keep up to date enough.

fujishig

It's true that with margins being so low, the number of comics printed these days is much, much smaller. Stores don't want to get stuck with a lot of backissues, and Marvel's policy is no reprints anyway. But you can get nearly EVERYTHING Marvel publishes in trade, sometimes a couple of weeks after the last issue is published (which again discourages stores from carrying recent backissues). I mean c'mon, Great Lakes Avengers and New Warriors both got collected, which kinda surprised me. DC is a little more iffy, but they do collect a lot of titles (JLA, JSA, Superman, Titans, all Vertigo), and I'm sure they'll collect the bits and pieces of Infinite Crisis. Again, if your preference is monthlies, that's different, but to me the main draw of monthlies is getting them in a timely fashion.

The stuff that'll be hard to find are the few titles that don't get collected (for instance, I don't think all of Birds of Prey will ever be collected, or Peter David's Supergirl) or that never finish (so won't make sense in a collected format), or those that were published right before the TPB boom. I mean, I loved Walt Simonson's Orion run, but I doubt that'll ever be collected. Still, if there's enough demand on the secondary market that the prices are being driven up, a trade will probably come out sooner or later.

In any case, collect what you want! Even we trade lovers need to support the monthly releases of the series we love, since the current market is built on the backbone of monthly releases. And I don't mind "double dipping" on series that I really enjoy.

bishop2knight

Want to hear my latest somewhat odd predicament? I read about 20-25 monthlies. I have about 10 that are must reads. These books I buy in monthly format and via trades. Now that I'm thinking about collecting only trades, I still want the monthly fix. So, I'm thinking of actually cancelling my favorite titles and sticking with my second favorites. Seems counter intuitive.

Jackskeleton

Sorry, but I can't think of any "Hot" title in the last few months that hasn't recieved a second, third and even often a fourth printing or either gotten to the point where it's collected in a three month bundle sort of book like with NYX.

bishop2knight

There are collectors out there that don't care about second printings or trade. They want the first edition of the story or issue. Those issues are the ones I'm calling "hot" and that won't be found in the quarter bin.

Jackskeleton

Well that's a given. But on that same tolken there will be Dealer incentives that will never be in the quarter bins and also monthlies that will never be in that bin for specific reasons that are exceptions. Shit, half of those variants and dealer incentive issues start off at comic stores for $10 or more. So to say they wont ever be in a clearance bin seems like a no brainer.

But the point is that the "back issue" issue will never be the same because there is so many more printings of titles that the supply is always filled so the demand wont be as big.

Especially with just about every arc being collected in a trade. Look back at older comics that are sought after in the back issue bins. stuff like Young Justice or the JLI/JLA, Robin, etc. issues because for the most part they were only traded for the first two or so arcs and bigger events.

Stuff like JSA Classified that got a couple of different printings for the power girl back story will also be traded. So Supply is oversaturated in the market and that will just lead to more back issues getting cleared out in the quarter bins.

kevin75

i thought last month's shipment from DCBS was big at 23 lbs. this month's was 28! lots of normal trades for me plus IC #3, but at the bottom were the walking dead slipcase and the sin city book which looke even better than i originally thought. i can't wait to get started reading.