I don't know about Bud Plant catalogs, but I've seen catalogs in general go for good money on Ebay. Old Sears and JC Penny's catalogs, especially.

These are the things nobody saves and when nostalgia hits and people go to Ebay looking for it, there's a price to pay to relive those memories.

I think you should research those more before tossing them. And, yes, the appeal will be a lot more limited than Sears and JC Penny's catalogs.


And to anybody with old Playboys.....KEEP THEM. There are old issues that command some good money. Just finding the right buyer is the key. How many of those ended up wrinkled up being hidden away from parents/spouses, or ruined in other ways?

Okay, I think this thread is due for a bump. The could you quit cold turkey thread in the HD forum got me to thinking if I could do the same with comics, and it would appear that the anwer is yes. I have drastically slowed down how many books I buy over the past 6 months (most of my purchase are from IST), and find myself not itching to catch up on the latest DC or Marvel Events.

You do not want to know how much I spent on books in 2014, but there is a reason why I feel like I have more money in my bank account to pay bills, etc.., it is because I DO have more money to play around with even though I make less than I did over a year ago before I lost my job and regained employment in March 2015. In 2015 I spent over $2,700 less on books than I did in 2014, with most of the savings coming from the last 6 months. I know, holy carp!...that is a lot of money, right? I will be spending even less this year. I suspect that I will have spent well over $3,000 less than I did in 2014, and at least $300-400 less than I did in 2015.

I am kind of burned out on reading comics, and derive more pleasure from comic related shows / movies. I was spending way, way, WAY too much of my take-home money on comics the past 2 years. Glad I have started to sober up.

Also, for those that are not in the know...I have been collecting/reading comics for over 25 years (Uncanny X-Men 188 was on the stands when I started out, so it has been a while), so I have been hardcore into comics for most of my 44 years on this planet. It is interesting that it is mentally so much easier to walk away from buying a ton of comics every year than I though it would be.

Anyway...anyone else kind-of in the same boat?

I have slowed way down on my floppy purchases, and now buy only titles that I really love or want to support - Astro City, Squirrel-Girl, Nick Spencer's stuff, Rivers of London... I think that's about it.

However, I have been using that money to buy tpbs and reading copies of Bronze Age stuff, so it's not like I've been saving.

I quit floppies, cold turkey, almost 10 years ago now. But then I started getting into oversized hardcover collections like Omnibuses and Absolutes. Now, while they're nicer on shelves, a better deal, and end up costing less over time for me than floppies did, it just proves that I can't really "quit" comics. I do regret a few hardcover purchases, but they're easy enough to sell off, far easier than floppies.


Edited to add that I'm also your age, and I've been reading comics since around 1975, when I was 4 years old, and "collecting" since about 1985.

I think with floppies there's just sheer momentum that the Big 2 seem all too willing to throw away. People that have, say, been collecting the Teen Titans for years and years and years, through good and bad; then when a reboot happens, or a renumber or whatever, you have that out, and you find that you don't really miss reading stuff month to month all that much, at least compared to the price you have to pay out for it.

99% of the time, the best stuff will come out in another edition, which is easier to display, store, and read. Even if it doesn't, there's digital. Unfortunately you get some good stuff ending prematurely because of lack of floppy support, but that seems to be the only drawback.

If you enjoy comics, why quit? Now if you're burnt out like Inhumans, then that's cool. If you're spending more than you can afford, then yeah, cut back and read what is probably a large stack you already have.

I read comics as a kid, picked them up again in high school, then forgot about them for years until I discovered trade paperbacks. So I got back into the hobby, mostly reading the older stuff but sampling current series and sticking with what I like. (Fortunately for my storage situation, I tried some floppies and never really got into them. ) Do I collect more than I read? Yeah, and maybe I should do something about that. But ultimately I really enjoy them and have no desire to stop.

I was in the same boat many years ago. Once the monthly habit is broken, it gets surprisingly easy to avoid buying comics.

I think as we get older, it's harder and harder to form the deep emotional attachment we once had to these characters via monthly comics.

Though even if you quit cold turkey and completely forsake comics, they will creep back into your life in the strangest ways. They will always be a part of you...

It's just hard for me to pay 4 bucks + tax for something that takes 10 minutes to read. Most comics I have seen nowadays read like a thick pamphlet.

I would have probably stuck with comics if they had stayed along with normal inflation costs.

Just be patient. Between dollar bins and digital, I buy pretty much every DC, Image, Marvel, and Dark Horse comic and average less than a buck a book.

Lost my patience long ago (ummm about 25 years ago ).

I would have gotten back into them once I got an established career and all that jazz but by that time, comic cost had gone through the roof. And as others have said, once you get used to not reading anything weekly, the interest just completely drops off.

I still pick up the occasional good deal on an omnibus or a certain collection but now I have all I need digitally (more than I will be able to read before I die).

I now tend to just read about comic history which is usually far more interesting than the books themselves.

The thing about reading up on comics history is that it can spur you to hunt down the comics you're reading about. Being a regular Back Issue reader has cost me so much money...

Going back to the original topic, if you know kids it's a lot easier to get rid of stuff. It feels great passing on stuff you enjoyed to a new generation.

One of the biggest reasons I wait or look for cheaper means. I just cannot put out four dollars plus tax for most comics. Sometimes people cannot afford them any longer while most are just not comfortable paying high prices for such a quick read.

Speaking of catalogs.....I found this in my miscellaneous box. I was going to trash it but decided to keep it because the cover art was done by Kubert. I think I got it in the mail around 1977.

Those Stars Wars masks now go for hundreds and thousands of dollars in mint condition.

My cousin has all of them. $40 each was a shitload back then and his spoiled ass just asked and he got them all. I saw him recently and he said he wasn't into SW anymore but kept all his comics, action figures and those masks in storage.

That Kubert cover looks very familiar. I don't remember looking through a catalog, though.

Maybe you did. It was in comic-book format, and resembled a collection of the Heroes World full-page ads that proliferated in those days.

I quit buying floppies about a year ago; these days I just get collected editions & that's it. These actually take up less room than floppies - since I typically keep the floppies in the bags & boards.

I also unload any floppies that I have - if I get the correspending issues in a collected edition. I have enough of this crap around as it is, I don't need anything extraneous.

It has been almost a month, so I thought I would bump the thread again. Since 12/22/15 I have spent less than $55 on instocktrades.com, and I was curious about the amount I spent in a the same 2 month period from the end of Dec 2014 to the end of Feb 2015...it was over $768!!! Can you say #@!(*!* ME!!

Good lord I wasted a lot of money on trades. I have not given up on comics (I just picked up a bunch of Lumberjanes digital comics that are on sale at comixology), but yeah....it feels like my paychecks can pay more bills nowadays because I actually can pay more bills with my take-home pay.

I feel bad for Alan Smithee when everyone piles on him, but I get it...y'all are trying to get him to realize he is wasting a ton of money that could be put to better use (saving for a rainy day, whatever). Having said that, as bad as I feel for Alan, it is threads like his (Landlord on my case...) that really forced me to look inward and think hard about why I was spending so much money on graphic novels, and could I mentally handle spending 80-90% less on trades/hcs. As it turns out the withdrawal symptoms from cutting back so much on my habit have been surprisingly easy to manage.

I now suspect I would have a much harder time completely giving up my soda habit (and even that has been pared back to maybe 1-2 sodas a day from 2-3, and of the 2 one is a diet drink) than I did throttling back hard on my comic habit.

So....4 full months have passed, and I have only dropped $53.97 at instocktrades (they must think I have fallen off of the face of the earth). Only a small amount of what I would have spent at ist in years past has gone into digital books. The good thing is that at this pace I am on track to spend well over $2,000 less of after tax funds on comic books in general this year vs last. By cutting back on comics I feel like I have given myself a raise at work.

I still plan to pick up some omnibus books from Marvel/DC and tpb/hcs from Zenescope, but yeah...I have basically quit smoking and I did it without the patch.

Thank goodness (no, seriously) Marvel has created a fantastic series of interlocking films from which I can enjoy their characters. Heck, even DC is getting into the interlocking films game so life is good for this still long-time comic book fan.

Congrats!

I've cut back too, and for me at least it helps that marvel and especially DC haven't really been putting out stuff that demands to be in my collection, at least not newer stuff.

It's also kind of amazing how much momentum plays a part in me getting into monthly series. I was on vacation and completely missed getting my monthly DCBS preorder in. I had started up a few Marvel monthlies last year after the last reboot, and still was getting Batgirl and Titans Hunt. After I missed that order, my compulsion to continue just died (also another reboot by DC didn't help). My OCD is going to nag me not finishing Titans Hunt and I may yet track it down, but otherwise I fear monthly installments just aren't for me. And like I said before, if they don't have that hook it's easy for me to wait for the trade, or the omnibus, or just not get it altogether once I realize the creative team got replaced halfway through the run.

Wow...I still continue to resist the lure of being pulled back into buying tons of graphic novels. I have also come to realize that buying digital books, even at only .99 cents a pop, that I will not get around to reading for a long time (months) is trading one addiction for another so I resisted picking up any digital books that were on sale the past week or so (I had over $170 worth of books that were on sale due to the SDCC in my cart last night, but I waited for the sales to expire and then emptied the cart when the total jumped to over $333).

Great thread - I just re-read this. I think it's better than the similar one I recently created (having forgotten about this one).

In any case, several points I wanted to make re: what's been discussed:

-If someone has floppies that they don't want to bother selling or donating, then I think it's a good idea to recycle them. At least they won't be going to a landfill somewhere, and will be used for something - instead of rotting on a pile of other garbage. It's amazing how much room floppies take up, re: the bags & boards that most collectors use (including myself).

- Reading threads like this actually inspires me to get rid of more crap that I don't need - so it's actually cathartic in a way

Send them to Trevor. He'll take care of them.

My wife just crossed you off our Christmas card list.