c/comic-book-fans

Stuck between buying issue by issue vs waiting for the trade: how do you collect your comics?

I used to buy single issues every Wednesday without fail. But after moving last year I realized I had 3 long boxes of stuff I never re-read. Then I tried waiting for the trade on a new series and missed out on that weekly buzz at the shop. Now I'm half and half and it feels messy. What do you do for your pull list? Do you go single issues all the way or wait for collected editions?

My local comic shop guy got mad at me for bagging my pull list wrong

Last Tuesday I brought in my stack to get new bags and he saw I had the flap folded inside instead of out. He took them all off the counter and re-did every single one while muttering about "amateurs." Has anyone else gotten scolded by their LCS owner over something that silly?

My buddy said I was overthinking comic book fan meetups, and he was right

I spent two weeks planning a local meetup group for Silver Age collectors in Portland, making name tags and a strict agenda. My friend Dave told me to just pick a coffee shop and let people talk, which I ignored until half the attendees left after 20 minutes. Why do we get so caught up on details when all fans really want is to just hang out and talk comics?

Pro tip: I stopped reading variant covers and actually started paying attention

I used to buy every variant cover that came out... thinking they'd be worth something someday. After 3 years and maybe $400 wasted on duplicates, I realized most of them are just money grabs. Now I only pick up a variant if the art is by a specific artist I follow on Instagram. Anyone else feel like variants are a trap for collectors?

Warning: That $60 hardcover omnibus fell apart after one read

Bought the Absolute Edition of a classic run last month. Opened it carefully. By page 50 the binding cracked. Pages started falling out by issue 3. I babied it. Not like I was bending it backwards. Contacted the publisher. They offered me a 20% discount on my next order. So basically nothing. Anyone else had binding issues with those premium editions?

My dad's old trick for bagging comics actually saves me money lol

I used to buy those expensive comic bags and boards from the shop every month. Was dropping like $30 a pop just to keep my 90s X-Men run mint. Then my dad showed me he just uses standard polyethylene bags from a craft store and cuts his own backing boards from thin cardboard. I tried it like 6 months ago and honestly they work fine. No acid migration issues or anything so far. Anyone else cheap out on storage or am I just being dumb here?

I finally dropped $80 on a full run of The Spectre from the 90s

Found a guy at the local shop who was clearing out his collection and I snagged all 62 issues for $80. Thought it was a steal till I got home and half of them smell like cigarette smoke from his storage unit. Gotta air em out on my porch for a week before I can even read em. Has anyone else gotten burned by a collection buy like that?

Found a simple trick for organizing my long boxes

I used to spend forever flipping through issues until I started adding a numbered index card at the start of each title run. Has anyone else tried using color coded tabs on the bags for quick sorting?

Hit 500 issues in my longbox last week and it made me think about my old collection

I was just organizing my longbox and realized I have 500 issues now. That number surprised me because I remember when I started collecting back in high school and thought 50 issues was a lot. Most of my old books from the 90s are beat up and not worth much, but I still have my first issue of X-Men that my buddy gave me in 1995. It's wild how I used to flip through bins for hours looking for key issues but now I just buy trades or whatever catches my eye online. Has anyone else hit a random milestone and just stopped to think about how your collecting habits changed?

Hot take: buying variant covers is a waste of money compared to just getting the regular issue

I used to chase every exclusive variant cover I could find. Dropped $80 on a store variant for a Batman issue back in 2021. Now I just buy the standard cover and put that extra cash toward more back issues. What changed was realizing those variants don't hold value like people claim. My LCS owner even told me "90% of variants end up in the dollar bin after a year." Anyone else stop caring about variants?

Watched a guy at my local shop spend 45 minutes arguing about continuity errors in a 1975 issue of Amazing Spider-Man

Was a floppy comic hater until I saw a proper bag and board system

I used to just stack my issues on a shelf. Thought bags and boards were a waste of money. Then I saw a buddy's collection from 1985 last week. Every spine was straight, no color fade. He showed me how he rotates them every 6 months. Now I'm re-bagging my whole 200 issue run. Anyone else switch from stacking to boarding late?

Had a guy at a con in Cleveland tell me my indie comic was 'too personal' and it made me rethink the whole thing

He said he'd rather read something fun and escapist than hear about my breakup with a hardware store manager, and now I'm wondering if comic fans really avoid stories with heavy emotional weight or if that was just one dude's opinion on a Tuesday afternoon.

Figured out the trick to getting Silver Age comic prices right at flea markets

I spent 3 months overpaying for beat-up copies before I realized that checking the last sold on eBay for that exact issue number, not just the character, saved me $20 on a single Fantastic Four #67 last Saturday, am I the only one who used to just grab anything with a cool cover?

Buddy at the LCS made me rethink how I sort my collection

I was at my local shop last Saturday and this guy Dave was digging through the dollar bins, but he sorts everything by story arc instead of issue number. Said he reads runs like a novel, and now I keep mixing up my X-Men books because I tried it and honestly it flows way better. Anyone else file their floppies weird like that?

Stopped by a comic shop in Austin and the whole vibe was off

I was down in Austin last weekend visiting a friend and we stopped into this comic shop I'd heard about online. The place had a ton of back issues which was cool, but the owner was just hovering over everyone the whole time. Like, he'd walk past and grab a comic off the wall if you looked at it too long, saying stuff like 'that one's valuable' or 'you need to be careful with those.' I get that some books are pricey, but I've been collecting for 15 years and I know how to handle a bagged comic. There was this one kid maybe 12 years old who asked about a Batman issue and the owner just kind of dismissed him. It made me think about how some shops push people away without realizing it. Has anyone else walked into a store like that where the staff made it feel unwelcoming?

I wrote off that old comic shop guy as a gatekeeper until he saved me $300 at a con

There's this dude at my LCS who always lectures people about golden age stuff. I figured he was just flexing knowledge. But last month at the Chicago Comic Con he stopped me from buying a copy of Detective Comics #359 for $400. He pulled out his phone and showed me it was a 1990s reprint with a missing cover price dot. I trusted him after that. Has anyone else had an old head drop some random fact that bailed them out?

Overheard a guy at my LCS say he only reads trades, never single issues

I was flipping through the dollar bin at my local shop in San Diego last Saturday and this older collector was telling the clerk he hasn't bought a single issue in 15 years. Just waits for the collected editions. It got me thinking - I've got like 4 long boxes full of floppies from the past 2 years that I'll probably never re-read. But there's something about that Wednesday morning pull list ritual I'd miss. Anyone else debated switching to trades only, or tried it and went back?

Tried going to a comic convention just for back issues. Here is what happened.

I went to MegaCon last Saturday with a plan to fill holes in my 80s X-Men run. Brought $300 cash and a list of about 20 issues I needed. Walked away with only 3 of them because every vendor priced their back issues like they were gold bars. Saw a beat-up copy of Uncanny X-Men #210 for $50 with a coupon still on the cover. Learned that the golden age of cheap dollar bins at cons is dead. Has anyone else noticed prices tripled since 2019?

Finally got my long box organized after 4 years of chaos

I dropped my whole collection last Saturday when I was moving stuff around in my basement. Box hit the floor and comics went EVERYWHERE, like 200 issues just scattered. Spent the whole afternoon sorting them by title and issue number instead of just shoving them back in. Ended up finding a Batman #423 I forgot I even had. Anyone else ever find a surprise key issue after a mess up like that?

That one collector told me I was pressing comics wrong

I used to press my comics with a standard clothes iron set to low heat. A guy at my local shop in Austin saw me do it and told me I was ruining the paper fibers. He showed me how to use a dry mount press and silicone sheets instead. I switched to a Seal 210M I found used for $150 six months ago and the results are night and day. Now my books lie flat and the gloss stays intact. Has anyone else gotten roasted for their pressing setup?

I finally learned why my old comic book guy gave me that look

Burned $40 on a 'rare' 1990s variant cover at a con in Cleveland last year, only to find out it was a bootleg the minute I got home and checked the paper quality. Has anyone else gotten hosed on a knockoff that looked legit under fluorescent lights?

The day I picked the 1980s X-Men run over the 1990s version

Back in 2014, I had to decide between buying the full Claremont run on X-Men or going with the later Jim Lee stuff. I only had $150 to spend at the local comic shop in Nashville. I went with the Claremont issues because I heard the stories were deeper. BEST DECISION EVER. Those old issues from the 80s had way more character work and less pouches and big guns. Has anyone else had to pick between two different eras of a comic and regretted one?

Hit 500 issues in my collection last weekend and realized something scary

I hit the 500 mark on my long boxes and started doing the math. At $4 a pop average, that's around $2,000 sitting in my basement. What got me is I never even thought about storage or value until I counted them all. If your collection is growing faster than you're reading, take a weekend to log everything before it gets out of hand. How many of you guys have actually counted your total issues lately?

I finally got that guy at the con to explain why he hated my variant cover pick

A collector at the Dallas comic expo last fall told me my favorite Todd McFarlane cover was actually a third print and worth way less, and after two months of ignoring him I finally checked and he was totally right so now I am wondering how many other covers I have overvalued just because I liked the art.