You can't do this, at least not for all comics (through legal means). But I agree with the lack of clutter and the removal of OCD. In a weird way, it's actually easier to drop series (since you're no longer beholden to completing a collection, unless you're going to go back and get everything in digital form too), but it's also easier to pick a new series up.

Comixology offers DRM-free downloads though and I assume that means I can load them into any device via sd card. I know not all of them are like that but it seems like a lot are.

Dont you think it's sad that the collectability of physical comics is going to die out ? How can a digital copy ever have any appreciating value as it is so easily replicable

Umm... the physical copies don't have any appreciating value; print runs are much lower now than the height of the speculative years, but deaths don't matter, continuity doesn't matter, and there have been very few new character debuts that have really meant much; plus everyone keeps everything in mint condition or close anyway.

My perspective is a little skewed, though. While I definitely got caught up in the variant/special cover/#1 craziness of the speculation boom, when I was a kid, my mom read comics and passed them on to me... we didn't bag and board them, we kept them in piles and read them as often as we could. Pages were bent, dog eared, etc., and I didn't care whether or not a story was a reprint. And these are like Byrne/Claremont X-men, Crisis on Infinite Earths, New Teen Titans, that era of stuff. I just wanted to read them. Which digital comics replicate ok without taking as much space.

If print versions truly start to die out, the ones that remain could be more collectible, like certain vinyl releases can be.

But having comics become less collectible doesn't really bother me.

Maybe, maybe not.

If print runs become smaller, then the supply becomes smaller, but there is also the demand side of the equation. If demand isn't significantly larger than the supply, then they will not be worth anything.

There are Golden Age comics from the 1940s that are completely worthless today because there is no demand for them. Not every Golden Age comic actually has value like Action Comics #1 or Detective Comics #1. Many of them aren't worth jack simply because there is no demand for them.

I don't think many modern comics will ever have a high demand in the future regardless of how low the supply drops.

Yeah, unless something unforeseen happens then I don't see many of these being worth even cover, which is sad. A lot of great runs and previously worthwhile issues and creators and whatnot that are still worthwhile, but just not in the financial sense. We may get one or two more "lightning strikes" like The Walking Dead, but even that's not guaranteed.

If everything goes digital, say goodbye to comic book stores. A few might survive but they'll have to shift focus to non-comic books. Probably gaming store with maybe a back room with remaining comics.

I know at least 3 of the ones around here will be gone. They survive off weekly new comics. They have all the toy/back issue stuff but those seem to never be selling. Same stuff every time I've gone in there.

I mentioned that in the "bold statements" thread, that the comic companies can't really drastically reduce digitalcomic prices because, at least at this point, they still need the LCS.

But I thought a lot of comic shops moved at least some of their business to the collectible card game market (Magic, Pokemon, what have you).

They ones i mentioned do sell those but just new sealed packs. Not used ones.

One of the larger comic shops here is really just part that, they sell a ton of other collectible items and are big into card games and the like. Just selling comics is not always going to be enough.

After reading the entire Uncanny run on my iPad 2, I can honestly say due to the "cost" of digital comics, I think my pull list will go from $50 a month down to about $10. It is so neat to have all those books on my iPad and read them this way.


Still have to have a few physical books a month just for the feel and nostalgia but that might be gone soon as well.

Mod Note: Merged post within existing Digital vs. Physical discussion thread.

I've mostly gone digital because of space, but it's nice to actually go into the comic book store and buy comics. So I still get about six physical books a month.

A good example would be the SA Marvel Superheroes #18. Totally worthless until GoTG became a hit. Now even shitty copies go for over $100. I've had a copy for decades and didn't bother reading it once until the movie came out. It has nothing to do with the movie with the exception of the obvious title and one character who is a member of the original team but wasn't one in the movie.

This is the succinct version of where I am.

I have about 50 long boxes at home and I really don't have room for them. I have 10,000 digital books now. That'd be what, another 40 long boxes? No way I'd be able to stay married with 90 long boxes.

Here is the method I have used for several years:

I collect GA/SA DC keys. I have a full run of Batgirl appearances and that's it. 1 full long box total.

I still buy singles, but I sell them after I finish reading.

If I liked a story in singles that I will re-read then I will get the collected edition, which look much nicer on a shelf anyway as opposed to long boxes. I just refuse to hoard long boxes anymore.

You are probably selling them at a loss, right? Why not just go digital in that case?

I agree that if something is worth reading more than once, I want it in a collected form instead of floppies anyway; the problem is, I think most stories are pretty disposable (and I don't mean that in a bad way, because they can still be entertaining), but there's no good way to rent or try before you buy (other than Marvel Unlimited, which despite the delay is pretty awesome, especially if you haven't been keeping up with the majority of the Marvel universe, and Shonen Jump digital).

Not much loss. I have a guy that buys my singles every month after I read them.

I order off of DCBS so $1.79/$2.59 issue and I will sell it for $1 or so after a couple of reads. That way I stay current on the stories, make some money back and not have stacks of comics sitting around.

The problem I had when I went back to monthlies briefly was that the stories were so decompressed that I couldn't really remember what happened last month (it's probably also old age). So I'd start saving up the issues, or have to go back and re-read them, which wasn't that bad, but would drive me crazy if I had sold the issue...

That's not too bad I guess. But if you're mainly just a reader why don't you just go free and use the library?

As a collector I'd rather pay $1 to $2 an issue and own it forever.

Not an option around here lol.

I still have my collection with the Batgirl stuff and keys. But after trades became mainstream I realized I would be more inclined to grab a trade off the shelf than thumb through a long box. So off they went.

I wish I only had 50 longboxes worth. I refuse to count, but easily know for certain that I have over 200 short boxes. I might be able to get rid of some stuff if I could actually sort through it all, and at least find the dups., like I know that I have at least 2 complete runs of Simonson's Thor, a duplicate run of Sandman, two sets of Busiek's Avengers, a bunch of early prestige format books, and many more of that sort of a thing. But I am working up to recycling thousands of extra singles and sets of comic and art trading cards from back in the day. It won't be a huge victory, maybe 3-4 short boxes worth, but sometimes every bit helps and I don't think that those will ever come back in popularity.

I just turned 40 and have the same problem. When I was reading a bunch of silver age stuff I never had the remembering issue.


I will say this about digital, after getting the complete Bat/Tec COMPLETE run digitally and the COMPLETE 1-544 Uncanny digitally, I am having a real hard time spending $40 monthly on books.


I just love to hold and smell that book, takes me back to my youth. I think I am just going to buy the 3-4 Bat books each month and ASM. The X-Men stuff is just out of control. I am new to the X books and my buddy said it would consume me and he was right.

I remember every story I read from the 60's and 70's to this day because I read them over and over. I even have discussions with an old friend of mine on these stories...40 years after the fact. Today's stories are throwaways. I don't remember details of anything I read back in the late 80's and 90's.

Most of my early books were trashed because of reading them all the time. Luckily when I got serious about collecting in the late 70's I was able to find most of them in the 25c bins. So, when I see these same books going for outrageous amounts today I tell my friend I wouldn't pay more than a quarter for them. Too expensive.

50 long boxes?! Jesus!

I love comics but I also love space. Then again I don't know how anyone would have time to read 10,000+ comics in any reasonable time frame either, so more power to you Trevor. You truly are a comic book enthusiast.