davidh777

I don't have an issue with what kgrogers did. In his situation, a FREE sign by the dumpster for a few days would have been the only alternative that might've been worth the effort.

kgrogers1979

A big reason I was tossing all this junk is because my grandmother died last year and she was a major hoarder. Cleaning her house up was a huge effort that took many months. I don't want to leave all my crap behind for other people to deal with, so I decided to get rid of a lot of it now. Like I said, I hadn't even read any of these comics in 10 years. They were doing nothing but collecting dust. The hoarder mentality is just bizarre. There was no logical reason at all to keep those comics around. I don't know why so many people are giving me shit. I guess they're like Gollum and comics are their "precious" so they are disgusted when they read about someone throwing them away. Screw that hoarder mentality. I'm over it. It's especially funny to me because I have said repeatedly that my collection was all junk from the 80s and 90s. I had absolutely nothing that was worth anything. Who cares if I threw away five copies of X-Men 1991 #1. There's eight million more copies out there. Seriously.

fujishig

What's funny is that for some reason (because I'm insane apparently) I decided I was going to preorder all of Convergence and Secret Wars, after not having collected monthly comics in a while. So I got my first shipment of Convergence and it's largely crap; it's so buried in nostalgia, and then twists that into some stupid battle royale between continuities, that I doubt the layperson would even be interested in it, and I look at that stack of (currently) unfinished comics going "what was I thinking?" I'm not just going to throw them away when I'm done, but I might as well, it's certainly not something I'm going to read and re-read, and it feels like such a waste... It's one of the reasons I'm fine with digital. Heck,if someone loved superhero comics but hadn't read them in a while, I'd suggest Marvel Unlimited before I'd suggest trying to go monthly.

What do people do with their comics? I remember one poster saying they basically group buy with a friend and give them over afterwards.

Xiroteus

Not a fan of it myself, I'm still dealing with an old storage house of family stuff. There is paperwork here from the seventies or older!

I would not want them either, however I would just drop them off at the library (free area) Throwing away stories, books, comics tends to be offence to people, something just feels very wrong with it. I sold or gave away most of my comics years ago because digital is fine and it felt pointless keeping all that stuff. I have had to deal with people that keep everything, nope, tired of too much stuff.

The Valeyard

I didn't miss that. I was commenting on your level of effort. You've repeatedly said that you were making the minimal effort to dispose of your crap. How you eventually got rid of your books seemed like a hell of a lot more effort than just putting a posting on Craigslist. Hell, even leaving them outside your door with a FREE sign would have taken less effort than you carting them to the dumpster. Believe me, I know. I've done both. About 9 years ago, I got rid of 2 long boxes filled with stuff I didn't care about anymore (A shit ton of 90s books including X-Men #1 multi covers). I put both boxes on the stoop of my house with a sign that read FREE COMICS. About 30 minutes later, they were gone. It might have helped that I lived within walking distance of 2 schools.

Two years ago, I sold a bunch of my Grandfather's hardcovers on Craigslist (after he passed away). Took a minute to post. A day later, they were all gone. And I didn't have to lug a thing. Effort in both cases - Zero.


Nice stereotyping, taffer.



Yeah. Convergence was crap. It was DC totally missing the ball - "You miss all those old characters and the multiverse? Well, they're BACK! And now, they're fighting to the death!" Honestly, Secret Wars feels the same way. Only this one is stretched out to 4 months.

I keep all my comics bag & boarded in my Comic Room. If I get around to spring cleaning and decide to get rid of stuff, I now go through Lone Star Comics to get credit for other books. If the comic I'm getting rid of is Spider-Man centric, I'll give it to my nephew. If he starts liking more characters, I'll share those with him too.

kgrogers1979

When we were cleaning out my grandparents' house, we found dozens of cereal boxes in the basement that were unopened and had expiration dates in the 80s. that was about we will never know. Did they collect cereal? Hoarders are just weird. They keep everything.

Xiroteus

Nothing that crazy. A lot of random things and TONS of paperwork and catalogs, just box after box of junk. So far I'm like dump it out and keep the container! (those are handy) most of the stuff is just junk. Don't really understand the hoarder way of thinking either. It would be easier if the items where at least useful, yet most of the stuff is just dated and old.

Imprint

Just curious: assuming we are mostly in the 30+ crowd, we've all bought and/or subscribed to magazines. We've probably horded those magazines at some point, to some extent, too. If Kroger had dumped his collection of Entertainment Weekly, Time, or even Playboy would he be getting this much grief? Somebody would gladly take those off his hands too. Is there a difference?

Xiroteus

I never had much in the way of magazines (library had them) it is a bit different as information can become dated quickly. However, for what I did have I dropped them in the free area at the library.

Comics, books are just different (at least to me) it does help it was a bunch of 80's 90's stuff that have a million copies around. Not even as close to as painful as an artist that burned a bunch of his old work. He got MAJOR flake for that. NO KIDDING, just give it away or something! It is original art! He did say he would not do that again.

Strapped4Cash

If people have the will and the time then I think that it's best to try to find a good home for the cast-offs, but of course we aren't perfect living in a perfect world. I like to hope that most people do the best that they can in their circumstances.

I am surprised that the idea of recycling hasn't really come up. It's true that the books will break down in a landfill a lot faster than many other things that get dumped, but if there were any way to recycle then I think that would have been good. Maybe that wasn't an option, or a good one, though.

I can't really talk though, I don't think that I would be classified as a "hoarder" as my stuff is all comics, gn's, books, dvd's and blu's and some posters, statues, magazines, etc. that are affiliated with that. But of course there's a lot of it, and others may think differently.

The vast majority of it I'm not ready to part with (some of it I'm still collecting), but there is stuff that I would get rid of if I could get to it and/or sort it. I have an 8x10 storage and much of a room devoted to the collection and most recently made a real effort to get to some areas that I hadn't been for awhile.

In three different places I found old Previews magazines that I'd never gotten around to looking through. There were still 2-12 pages per that I wanted to keep for reference, but altogether I recycled 55 (I think) of them totaling close to 30,000 pages, keeping about 300 pages. Not big in the grand scheme of things, but a small win and it felt good.

I have other things that I'd like to get rid of, like if I could get all my non-sports trading cards together then I would want to keep a set of them all but at least 2/3 of them are extra sets/cards from buying boxes. I don't know that there's really any demand left for Marvel, DC, Image, Hildebrandt, Boris, Olivia, etc. cards, so I'd recycle those if I couldn't figure out something better to do with them.

I also have at least 5 short boxes worth (and maybe several more) of duplicate comics that I'd donate, giveaway or recycle if I could. Like when I heard Sandman might be cancelled after a few issues so started buying a 2nd copy every month to support it and loan out. That would be 75 comics plus a few gn's that I could get rid of as I have the Absolutes too. I bought extras for several titles like that, such as Busiek's run on Avengers or I have as many as 3 copies of some of Simonson's run on Thor as after the fact I bought some long runs that overlapped (#300-#350 sort of a thing). But sorting through it all is a nightmare, from finding the time and space to spread it out. I'd love to get rid of them and so 5,8, or even more short boxes of comics I don't want or need, but it can be tough to do when it's too packed together.

davidh777

I don't mind recycling my old copies of EW, Wizard, etc. The ones I tend to hang onto are my Cubs magazines because I love to read stories about players as they develop in the minor leagues. I should probably digitize them but haven't gotten around to it.

I imagine Playboy, though dated, still has entertainment value.

Trevor

Screw the OP!
I could talk for hours on collecting/hoarding minutae, but will try to be brief. Yeah, I do get pleasure out of collecting tidbits on the fringe of the hobby perhaps, that interest me now (or then, and/or later) or would be a goldmine to somebody else someday (in my mind).

Small example: Back in my monthly physical book ordering years, I was a subscriber through Westfield Comics. Got a great discount, monthly catalogs with interviews and other feature stories, and will always remember my decades with Westfield with incredible fondness. Haven't ordered from them in 15 or so years, and likely never will again. But I still have a bankers box full of all of their monthly catalogs. I'm not quite sure what to do with them. I could never recycle them right out. I might go thru them and cut out the couple pages of interviews or nostalgic material per issue and save those, then recycle the remaining 95% of the box. Or maybe I'll try to find the possible obscure collector who would treasure having a complete run of Westfield Newsletters.

A sickness? Yes, I could see who non-collectors would easily say that, and even some collectors. But outright throwing them away? No way ever.

I also have piles of old DC Currents and Marvel Ages and Comico Checklist and Eclipse Extra and First Editions and etc etc destined for similar fates.

Paul_SD

I have a ton of old Bud Plant catalogs going back to the first one I ever got back in 1982. I realize it is silly to keep most of them, and the only time I'm likely to ever look at them again is when I clean out the stacks of rubbermaid tubs they are sitting in. But that one day when I do go to throw them out, I know I'll be hit with a wave of nostalgia flipping through them, seeing all the cool books described, now decades out-of-print.

Next spring I think I will go through them and just keep a couple representative catalogs from a few good years. Part of me thinks someone else might be nostalgic for them, especially because compared to comic books now, stuff like this is TRULY ephemeral and almost impossible to find.
Though I guess the appeal is seriously limited too.

starman9000

I don't even like new magazines any more. Kicking the habit of signing up for every free Mag deal that came along was probably the start of my move away from collecting.

The only magazines I have that I'd feel a little bad about throwing out is a small Dragon magazine collection. Those, and my old D&D books, are worthless, but I still have a lot of sentimentality towards them.

PhantomStranger

The only magazines I've ever really kept are scientific magazines since the articles can still be read years later. People keeping old Entertainment Weekly issues are strange. That content is already stale by the time it hits the press.

Josh-da-man

I have a collection of old magazines like Omni, Heavy Metal, Playboy, and Twilight Zone. I also have a lot of old music magazines like RIP, Metal Maniacs, and other old magazines.

They're a lot of fun to read through. It's almost like opening up a time capsule.

kodave

There's a lot of stuff from Heavy Metal that's never been reprinted since. Tracking down high quality scans if you want to read a certain piece can be a bit of work.

starman9000

Omni was so great.

davidh777

I might've kept a few commemorative issues.

mrhan

I took this from my mom's house. She had a subscription for it but I never read any of them. I just wanted the Adams cover.

madcougar

I kept issues that I thought were "historical" such as the last episodes of Cheers and Seinfeld and a few others. I've tried to sell these on eBay this last year only to find out there is zero market for them. They have all been recycled.

majorjoe23

No Brandon Routh love?

mrhan

Yeah, I noticed that, too. Kirk Alyn (the first actor to play Superman) is missing from the cover, also. They should have been in on the cover instead of the stupid Jim Lee version.

calhoun07

Sometimes it's just the matter of finding the right collector who has been interested.

It's an old adage but true in this market: One man's trash is another man's treasure.

I've come across auctions on Ebay for some pretty obscure stuff I thought I would never find (or never knew existed until I saw it) and would have gladly paid high dollar to score said item(s) because I wanted them that bad. Thankfully, I usually find that stuff going cheap, but I snatch it up.

Value on old stuff like your motorcycle magazines and other collectibles talked about here is hit and miss, depending on who you sell it to. I have some stuff that would probably be hard to sell for a dollar to somebody but then again if I found the right person looking for it, it may be payday for me.

It's just putting in the work to find the right buyer.

calhoun07

The most surprising thing I found that sells for some what decent money on Ebay: old issues of Spin Magazine. Unfortunately, my copy of the first issue was damaged and beyond salvaging by the time I found my old stash in my mom's house. But most of the issues are in really good condition. Hardly anybody saved them. On average, they sell for somewhere around twenty bucks an issue on ebay. I'd probably put up a lot of them and sell them for less just to move them, though. I just gotta go through them and decide which key issues I want to keep and what to part with.