PhantomStranger

I haven't heard someone mention Next Gen magazine in years and years. That was always a good read and I liked their graphic design.

People forget now but the first three or four years of Wizard Magazine had some very funny stuff for comic book fans. I used to have a complete set until a move about a decade ago forced me to throw them out. Before throwing them out I went through the early back issues of Wizard and it was a blast seeing what they thought was hot at the time.

I still have a mess of their special 1/2 numbered comic book issues in storage.

I will also inform people desperate for nostalgia that most old magazines are available in digital form via torrents.

The Valeyard

Well, if there's anything GOOD in those boxes, I'd pay for shipping. But yeah. The 90s....eh.

If you're taking anything to a children's hospital, make sure you sort out the "mature" stuff first.

A few days ago, I found an antique store near my house that takes in comics for trade. They had some good stuff for pretty decent prices. If I could trade a ton of shitty comics for a couple of great ones, I'll definitely do it.

All else fails, we could always do a DVDTalk Comic Trade Thread.

Magazine-wise, I tossed out a crap load of mags about 10 years ago and never looked back. I only kept a handful of Wizards and a few Hero Mags that had some good articles.

And finally - I just upgraded my Comic Room to the larger room in the back of the house. Plenty of room to grow now. Need to buy a shit load of Drawer Boxes now.

Inhumans99

I was one of the first to lecture Trevor about letting it go...and I am finally taking my own advice (even though it involves tpb/hcs). It is easy to lecture others about letting something go, but my TPB/HC habit is out of control (at one point I was dropping over $250 a month on books from instocktrades...and that is my cost after ist's 40-44% discount on their product), so I have been cutting back over the past few weeks.

I literally have over 150 New 52 TPB/HCs that I have no time to read (on top of the 40-60 Marvel TPB/HC I need to catch up on, and did I mention the books I pick up from Dark Horse, Image, Oni, Zenescope?), so I am FINALLY throttling back on buying books I used to justify due to their great price on instocktrades (it is 50% off...too good to pass up, well...I am now starting pass up these half-off titles).

I think I am going to only set aside a handful of the new 52 books to actually read, and just unload the rest on eBay, BIG mistake to think I would have time to read so many books. I know that some of you are laughing that I consider spending $250+ per month to be out of control, but with my salary, and the fact that I was still buying books while I was unemployed for 6+ months, yeah....if I want people to listen to me when I say they need to spend less/cut-back, or simply let stuff go, I should take my own advice.

Trevor

Good start Inhumans.

I need to work on my hundreds of trades too. My plan is to sell/trade/gift almost all of them; but only as I read them. So it'll take a couple decades.

PhantomStranger

I have a mess of oversized hardcovers and omnibuses I simply don't have the time to read on a regular basis. But I need to get them before Marvel and DC take them out of print. Both companies don't play games with the omnibuses, some have remained out of print for years by now.

Paul_SD

This is my motivation for stockpiling stuff- and routinely breaking my budget to order things I know I won't get around to enjoying for some time, if ever.

Right now I have about 3 long boxes of Archives, HCs, Trades, Showcases and Essentials that I desperately want to divest myself of. Nearly all of them unread, some still sealed, and all the open ones in Broadart protectors.
The only space available for them is on the second floor and I'm honestly concerned about the structural integrity of the house because of the added weight of all this stuff. Anything I can get rid of would help. I just don't have the motivation right now to deal with listing and the possible bitching or idiocy of customers right now (someone just contacted me over a movie they bought in Oct that they claim doesn't play properly...and I know it should as I watched it before I sold it).

Inhumans99

Instead of editing my post a few replies above this one, I am creating a new post to bump up this thread. I feel my personal commitment to cut back on comic spending is officially legit. I used to constantly push my weekly instocktrades orders to the $50 price point to get free shipping, and I always wanted to order on a weekly basis to get the rolling extra 2% off my next order, so as you can imagine that "extra" 2% off was in reality costing me a ton of money on books that I would have just as easily took a pass on. The good news is that over the past 4-6 weeks I have found it to be a struggle to get to the $50 price point every week, so I would let another week (or more) go by without placing an order (with the idea that after 2-3 weeks I would have enough books on my wishlist to get to the free shipping level), and I no longer care that this means I usually end up losing the opportunity to take another 2% off my future order.

I am also skimming more and more TPBs / HCs, and just say okay, Christopher (my actual name, of course)...in hindsight I should not have purchased the book, so just shake it off that I did not read every word on the page, throw it in the read/eBay pile, and be much more picky about picking up the title in the future. Not all of my savingd on physical books is staying in my wallet, as digital sales do catch my eye, but I am not a digital addict, and find it easier to pass on digital comic sales than I do clearance sales (50-70% off books at instocktrades).

Conservatively speaking I think I could be looking at spending $600 - 800 less on books this year, which feels really good. Thank goodness my mind never tipped me over into being a hoarder, as I suspect it is really easy for collector's to let their inner voice talk them into buying every collectible under the sun and departing with their stuff only when you can pry the collectible from their cold dead fingers.

I realize the above is an unsolicited rant, but I hope you will all forgive me, because it helps keep me on the straight and narrow path of continuing to cut back on my habit by laying it all out in these posts.

malazar

It sounds like we suffered from the same dysfunction and have similar recoveries. Keep up the good discipline! I guess it has been easier for me since I had unexpected expenses and ongoing high prescription costs that have simply eaten away at "non-essential" hardcovers and trades spending. I am still a sucker for a nice omnibus though.

PhantomStranger

I don't know what this madness is in others. When I run out of room for stuff I simply think I need a bigger house.

What I've found gets to be a problem are statues if you descend into that particular brand of mania. At least trades and hardcovers look nice on a shelf and are fairly economical in terms of space. Statues crave free space and don't look right next to other statues. I am so glad that DC started making most of their figurines and statues in the NEW 52 costumes, which don't interest me in the slightest.

I have no idea what I'd do if DC started making classic Legion statues and Bronze Age statues. They seem too busy pumping out an endless array of Batman and Superman statues.

danfindlay

This rang really true for me. I was up in my attic the other day going through boxes and boxes of stuff wishing I still had the money I wasted. I found the couple things I was looking for, my old Dark Phoenix Saga trade where all the pages are loose, my Kraven's Last Hunt trade and my copy of Spider-Man vs Wolverine from 1987 amidst all the Death/Rebirth of Superman, breaking of the Bat, savage dragon and other 90's junk. I now only do trades and only complete stories. I've got a thousand pounds of shit not worth what it would take to haul it to the dump.

Somebody else mentioned 90% of collectables being worthless too. So true and a lesson I wish I'd learned a long time ago.The only floppies I'd buy again are my complete Simonson Thor run and my Jack Kirby stuff (complete run of Kamandi and Black Panther, couple other things that aren't real valuable.) The only action figures I'd ever buy again are my complete Star Trek TOS bridge crew set and only because I love them, not because I thought I was making an investment.

Inhumans99

If folks feel that I am basically spamming this thread with all my posts, let me know and I will knock it off, having said that, another example of a major purchase I might have made a year or so back (even if I were unemployed, which is just nuts) is the Marvel Secret Wars Battleworld Box Set on sale at instocktrades.

I almost pulled the trigger, but it turns out the Alex Ross poster that is included is not signed, which made it fairly easy for me to walk away from it. I am a bit surprised that my Masterworks set came with a signed Stan Lee poster (with Alex Ross art), but they did not bother to have Alex Ross sign the Secret Wars poster, that strikes me as an odd marketing decision. I would think this $500 msrp set can use more help in the sales department than the Masterworks set which reprints actual hard to acquire and super expensive comics.

davidh777

I like reading the updates.

Trevor

Yeah, post daily if you want inhumans!

I'm tempting too, but every post wold be something like: "I failed again and bought more stuff I'll possibly never read...."

Spiderbite

I enjoy reading the updates as well.

My current addiction or Mondo or Mondo-like prints. The good news is that I have just about run out of hanging room and I am not going to buy any that I have no place to hang them.

That addiction got really expensive quick. And I bet none of them will be worth shit in 20 years.

kgrogers1979

I have been doing a massive cleaning of my apartment this week. Today I unloaded my entire comic collection... straight into the dumpster. Seriously, I threw out about 20 longboxes full of comics.

I did that because I realized I hadn't actually read any of them in about 10 years. They were literally just sitting there collecting dust. I haven't bought or read comics in about 10 years, and I don't know why I kept my collection around for so long. I guess it was just a part of my childhood that I didn't want to get rid of, but I bit the bullet and got rid of it today.

Why didn't I sell it instead of just throwing it away? Honestly, I don't think it would be worth the effort to sell it. My collection was all junk from the late 80s through the 90s. I didn't have anything that was worth much. I would have been lucky to get $50 for one longbox, and tack on ebay fees, paypal fees, bad buyers who file complaints to get their money back, etc. I decided it wasn't worth trying to sell it, so into the dumpster it all went.

PhantomStranger

This may be one of the saddest things I read on DVDtalk all year. Complete runs of series usually sell on eBay pretty easily.

Hadrian7

I... Died...

kgrogers1979

I didn't have much in the way of complete runs, and I certainly didn't have anything that was worth any serious money. My collection was almost entirely DC from COIE up until 1997 when I went to college. I quit reading then and came back around 2002. I only bought comics for two years then and then got out of the hobby completely because I realized I just didn't care for comics anymore. I loved comics as a child growing up in the late 80s through mid 90s, but it lost its appeal once I grew up. I still love comic-related movies and TV shows, but the comic medium itself just doesn't appeal to me anymore.

Trevor

I hope you're kidding! Give them away to kids at least! Or me.

I will never shop at Krogers again.

Spiderbite

Jeez dude. You should have at least made the trip to a local goodwill or children's hospital or something like that. Kids still like to read comics. They just don't like to buy them (because they are too fucking expensive for kids nowadays). But they still enjoy them.

I have heard that children's cancer wards particularly like comics because so many of the kids are there for long periods of time and it helps them pass the time. You could have weeded out the adult stuff and dumped the appropriate stuff with them.

Or hell, go to the local comic book shop and give the adult stuff to the first adult nerd you see. Guys there would have probably appreciated it.

PhantomStranger

I understand drifting away from comics, I've had periods where they didn't really interest me that much. It just sounds like you could have made a little more effort to find someone that may have wanted something from your collection. I've seen people hand them out for Halloween or something similar.

kgrogers1979

A 12+ year drift?

I actually did try some of the early comics from the New 52. My local library has some comics and they have some New 52 trade paperbacks. I didn't care for any of it, not even the highly rated stuff like Batman's Court of Owls. I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I tried getting back into Marvel comics a few years ago as well. I didn't care much for that either. I love the movies, but the comics just don't appeal to me anymore.

As for making an effort to find someone who may have wanted my collection, I just did an opportunity cost evaluation. Was it worth the effort to try and sell them for what would very likely be a minimal return? I decided no. I also never donate anything or give things out for Halloween. I'm just not that kind of person for however bad that makes me seem.

Trevor

So you hate the planet, I get it.

mrhan

Maybe, you should have posted something here before throwing your books out. I'm sure there might be someone near you that would have jumped on the opportunity to get free books. I know if I did that there are a handful of otters near me.

majorjoe23

Mailing would have been a pain, but I bet if you had just put them beside the dumpster with a "Free comics" sign that they would have been gone in an hour.