Appreciation post: The guy who told me to stop bagging my comics wrong

I was at my local shop in Portland last Saturday digging through the dollar bins. This older dude next to me saw me cramming a few issues into a bag that was way too small, like bending the corners and everything. He just shook his head and said "you're ruining those books, son" and handed me a proper sized bag and board. He showed me how to slide the board in without scratching the cover and how to tape the flap without it touching the book. I had been collecting for like 5 years and nobody ever told me that. Ever had a random stranger at a shop teach you something that actually saved your collection?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlie_stone726d ago

And you're the reason dollar bins are full of bent comics with creased spines. A properly bagged book stays nice whether it's worth $1 or $100. I'd rather have a crisp copy of X-Force #1 than a mangled one just because it was cheap. That old dude took two minutes to help someone out and it cost him nothing. Good habits carry over to everything you bag, not just the keys.

the_lee6d ago

Bagging comics is not that deep. You're buying dollar bin books, not a key copy of Hulk #181. If you're worried about the corners on a beat up issue of X-Force from 1992 then you've got your priorities backwards. The bag is just there to keep dust off and you were probably doing just fine before that guy decided to play expert. Most of those books in the dollar bin are already dinged up anyway, that's why they're a dollar.