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How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!)

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How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!)

Old 08-27-12, 05:22 PM
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How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!)

I'm assuming at some point in this forum this question has been asked before, but I couldn't find a similar thread, so I apolgize if this question has come up before.

I currently subscribe/am a regular buyer of about 12 to 15 titles per month. And while that doesn't put a huge hole in the pocket book (roughly $40 to $50), I really hate to throw comics out - even if I know I'll probably never read them again and/or they'll never be worth anything (since EVERYONE is a collector these days!).

So what to do with all those comics? They do start to pile up! I'd happily give them to someone if I knew they would take care of them...but I don't want to give them to someone who's just going to give them to their kids to tear up, scribble in, etc. (I know...why should I care?) I'd love to donate them, but I don't want to invest even more money in shipping them somewhere (and my local library doesn't seem interested in comics...those communists! )

So I just wanted to get an idea of how many comics you guys get per month and where the hell you store them all (or how you get rid of the extras)!
Old 08-27-12, 05:38 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I don't buy nearly as many comics as I used to buy.

I have the vast majority of DC from COIE up until around 2002 or so. About 30 longboxes full.

Marvel pissed me off so much in the 90s that I sold all my Marvel books and have never bought another Marvel book ever again. (And hearing about all the crap such as Sins Past and One More Day doesn't make me regret the decision one bit.)

So really today I just buy 10-15 DC books that I really want.

As for how I store them, well I have a closet jammed full of longboxes. Being unmarried helps since I don't have a wife to complain about it.

I don't ever plan to get rid of my DC collection. If I did, I would probably just toss them in the trash because it isn't worth the time or effort to try and sell them. Since my collection is all post-80s and therefore mostly monetarily worthless, its just not worth the hassle of listing on ebay and shipping costs and all that.
Old 08-27-12, 05:44 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Now? None. I've switched to Trades and cut way back.

But for decades I bought over 100 titles a month. Sometimes way over. I have 160-170 short boxes in one room and hundreds more in storage. There's some stuff I could get rid of (and a few like my early 1st print NM TWD are worth money), but it's kind of hard to organize and find anything.
Old 08-27-12, 06:14 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

So what do you do with the trades?

When they started collecting everything into trades, I switched to that and pared down my pull list; but even then there were longboxes being filled up and comics overflowing. Now my bookshelves are overflowing with hardcovers and I've become even more discerning as to what I buy.

I know some people are against this, but I've even switched somewhat to digital. I buy comics through comixology when a sale strikes me, though I refuse to pay the same price for a digital comic that I would for a physical comic, if only because I could have gotten the physical comic at a discount via mailordercomics or dcbs. I've been buying a lot of manga volumes through the Viz app. I mainly want to read the stories, anyway. I've said it before but if they had some kind of online rental system, I'd stop buying most stuff altogether.

Forgot to answer the question. I buy 0 physical comics monthly. I still manage to fill out an order every month with mailordercomics, but they're mainly hardcovers and import toys.
Old 08-27-12, 06:34 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

It really depends on the month. I purchase mostly indies and many are bi-monthy/tri-monthly/quarterly. Most months it's roughly 16 titles. At the height of my collecting it was closer to 40 but I grew tired of the constantly rehashed crap DC and Marvel were putting out so I slowly gravitated to indies where I feel I get a better value. I still pick up a couple of the "New 52" titles from DC but they'll likely get dropped at the first hint of "same ole same ole".

Currently everything is in 18 long boxes in the garage and another 4-5 long boxes worth stacked up around the den/bedroom. I'm a collector so I pretty much keep and store everything I purchase. I'll let my kids/grandkids worry about what to do with them when I'm gone.

I, too, am looking at switching to TPB simply because they are less expensive than floppies, but they'll do nothing to help the storage issues.

One of the guys at the LCBS donates his "overstock/unwanted" comics to the local hospitals, doctor, and dentist offices because:
"It's depressing that there's *nothing* there for kids to read. If just one kid gets enjoyment from them it's worth it."
Old 08-27-12, 06:38 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I pick up about 8 floppies a week on average. That's a solid estimate; a less solid one for TPBs (since it varies so much) would be 3 a month. I'm starting to drop books I don't care all that much about, so we'll see where that number winds up before long. One of my closets is basically nothing but long boxes and stacks of unshelved comics, and what's supposed to be my dining room is heavily devoted to shelving TPBs and hardcovers. I'm not in any immediate danger of running out of room there, but...one day. I've already had to reorganize all of that once.

The Blu-ray/DVD storage situation is a lot more desperate.
Old 08-27-12, 06:41 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Originally Posted by Strapped4Cash
Now? None. I've switched to Trades and cut way back.
I have considered switching to trades, especially with how low priced they are on Amazon. The New 52 hardcovers are only about $15 on Amazon. In the end though, I decided I couldn't live without my monthly drug fix. Also I have never seen a trade that didn't have problems with gutter loss.
Old 08-27-12, 07:42 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I just buy trades for the most part. So much cheaper and easier to store than having a bunch of individual issues.
Old 08-27-12, 08:00 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I was spending anywhere from 30-60 bucks a WEEK with my pull list when I quit buying them cold turkey last year. I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 longboxes in my basement, and I'm about to start purging them. If I've got anything of real value, it's going on ebay. Everything else is garage sale fodder. All they really do is take up space, and I've let go of the collector mentality to a great degree since I've had kids.
Old 08-27-12, 08:11 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

If you have complete runs and you really like those runs, you could get them bound. Plenty of forums across the internet have guides about binding comics and what companies to use.

Otherwise, you could try to donate them to a library or childrens hospital (depending on the content) or just sell them for pennies per book on Craigslist. Someone will pay you SOMETHING for them, which is better than just trashing them.
Old 08-27-12, 08:17 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

A buddy of mine gave a bunch of his away for Halloween. He gave kids the option of candy or comic books, and he was pleasantly surprised how many of them opted for comic books.
Old 08-27-12, 08:51 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan Jabroni
A buddy of mine gave a bunch of his away for Halloween. He gave kids the option of candy or comic books, and he was pleasantly surprised how many of them opted for comic books.
Except the kids were probably thinking "old comics = valuable = even more candy" so they probably turned right around and tried to sell them on ebay.
Old 08-27-12, 10:06 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I buy about 20 a month, let a friend read em, then sell em cheap directly to someone I met on eBay. No more long boxes for me. If I liked the story enough, I may buy the trade/HC and I've got a bookcase for those.
Old 08-28-12, 12:44 AM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I buy a floppy every other month or so. I'm just too used to the pricing and convenience of trades. Now and then I'll grab a 100-page super spectacular at my LCS, or I'll find a series that I want to support like Rotten or the new Mike Grell Warlord, or some of the Infinite Crises. But I buy them, put them away somewhere, want to read them and can't find all of them in the right order, then get the trade anyway and have the floppies flopping around. Just not a good experience all the way around.

I have a bunch of '70s-ish stuff still at my parents' house that I need to pick up someday. There is some stuff of some value, I think, but nothing I want to deal with now.
Old 08-28-12, 12:51 AM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I buy about 5 to 8 comics a week. I have about 20 long boxes and 6 short boxes filled with comics. We turned the smallest room upstairs into my "comic room." They're all packed in there plus a bookshelf for trades and hardcovers and a DVD case for Doctor Who DVDs. I'm currently re-bagging older comics and transferring them over into newer drawer boxes.




I have one long box filled with comics I plan to get rid of either by trading at mycomicshop.com or giving away to charity.
Old 08-28-12, 04:45 AM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Zero. Stopped buying regularly in the late 90's once prices started rising faster than inflation.

I have been buying TPBs regularly. I usually get a few Vol. 1s, then if I like them I get the rest of the series. Some, like Sandman, I just bought all at once.
Old 08-28-12, 05:46 AM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

The books I currently buy are:

All of the Dark Horse Buffy titles.
Hellblazer.
The Boys.
Walking Dead.
Saga.
The occasional thing that catches my eye, like Morrison's "Happy" miniseries, and Avatar's adaption of Alan Moore's "Fashion Beast."
Hellboy/BPRD (trades only).
Anything else is TPB/HC only.

I've been very conservative in my comic buying for a long time now. It's way too easy to buy up tons of crap that I'm only marginally interested in, so I only buy about six monthly comics these days. I find I'd rather spend $20 a month on things I'm genuinely interested in than spend $80-$100 on a bunch of stuff I'm not going to care about ten seconds after I've read it.
Old 08-28-12, 05:57 AM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I keep my comics in drawer cabinets like these:

http://comiccubes.com/index.html

These are really expensive, though, and I've built my own system for only a fraction of the cost of those. The hardest part was finding an adequate roller assembly
Old 08-28-12, 11:25 AM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

I get about 6 per month. I used to get a lot more years ago.
Old 08-28-12, 12:05 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Around 10 a month, plus trades.
Old 08-28-12, 12:17 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

These days just Saga and The Walking Dead, and it's through Comixology so there's less physical stuff. But earlier this year I re-organized everything and bought some drawer boxes which were a huge help.
Old 08-28-12, 01:56 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Ugh... I had quit cold turkey in 2008 after 20 years of collecting. DC sucked me back in with the NEW 52 last year. I now buy about 40 books a month, including a couple of Spider-man books and a couple of Buffyverse books.

There was a time in the early 90s, I'd buy 40 books A WEEK. Needless to say, I have about 36 long boxes today. That's after selling almost anyting of value a few years ago.
Old 08-28-12, 02:14 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Thanks for all the repsonses! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has storage issues.
Old 08-28-12, 02:28 PM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Originally Posted by davidh777
...I'll find a series that I want to support like Rotten or the new Mike Grell Warlord....
Is there a new Warlord series or are you referring to the one that was cancelled n 2010? That last series was pretty good. Too bad it was cancelled.
I'm up for another one if DC resumes the series with Mike.
Old 08-29-12, 12:56 AM
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Re: How Many Comic Books Do You Buy Weekly/Monthy (and What Do You Do With Them All?!

Originally Posted by mrhan
Is there a new Warlord series or are you referring to the one that was cancelled n 2010? That last series was pretty good. Too bad it was cancelled.
I'm up for another one if DC resumes the series with Mike.
The 2010 one, "new" meaning "not the one I read religiously decades ago." Yeah, I liked it, and unfortunately they released only one TPB.

I read a couple issues of the Grell-less Warlord they did a few years earlier and decided it was crap.

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