Comments on: The Purge; Or, When the Gregs tells you about cutting their pull lists, I’ll tell you about cutting my collection

By: Matt Brady

Matt Brady — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 22:56:45 +0000

I actually did a collection purge last fall. I had a bunch that were sitting around in boxes, in addition to some more recent stuff that I decided I just didn’t need (like 1602, I’m with you on that one). I decided to just sell them in lots on ebay, and I was surprised at the amount I was able to make. I was afraid the various lots would go for like $1 each, but a lot of stuff went for $10 or more. Those were lots of 10-15 comics, usually. I ended up making around $300, which was much less than I spent on the comics, but more than if I had just thrown them away or something. I still have a few that I need to sell, so I’ll probably be putting them up again soon.

By: del gorky

del gorky — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 03:05:53 +0000

I think the biggest problem is that your collection really does contain a lot of terrible stuff. I’ve got a lot of garbage too but I’ve also gone and back collected classic Neal Adams Batman issues, long runs of the Byrne and Cockrum X-men, Miller Daredevil, Grant’s Punisher, and classic independents like Grimjack, Nexus, Jon Sable, Freelance and Dreadstar.

If you’ve got nothing worth keeping, it’s largely your own fault. Just think if instead of buying those “hot” hyped comics, you had started a Spirit Archive collection instead. Like I said, I buy a bunch of crap but I also budget to pick out the good stuff.

Comic stores do buy old comics but comics aren’t truly old if they’re not at least 20 years old. Most stores keep their own stock around for at least that long before blowing it out or selling it over the course of time.

By: Nala

Nala — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 16:13:49 +0000

I’m in the same boat with needing to get rid of 15-10 years worth of a collection.

What’s sad is that no local stores really buy old books anymore and it is so hard to get rid of this stuff now.

I was thinking of setting up at one of the small local cons and just doing quarter boxes once I sort through everything.

There’s so little I want to keep.

By: The Prankster

The Prankster — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 05:52:44 +0000

I’ve always been happier reading just a handful of titles, myself. I never understood the “all-or-nothing” mentality whereby you have to read EVERYTHING DC or Marvel publishes. I pick out the titles I’m interested in, usually the small and quirky ones, based on the writers or artists, and the rest can go hang. If I’m curious, but not enough to buy, I can usually find TPBs at my local library. Saves a lot of shelf space, let me tell you.

By: Loren

Loren — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 05:02:12 +0000

If you’re interested in reading 1602, give your county library a try. It turned out that my county’s system had several copies in stock, and I actually borrowed a copy today.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to purging my back issue collection too. But for the last few years, I’ve had more trouble actually disposing of unwanted issues than deciding which ones to get rid of. TPBs and full runs are easy to sell on eBay, but the boxes of more random stuff continue to take up space at home.

By: Bill Reed

Bill Reed — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 04:26:52 +0000

I’ve thought about purging my comics collection too, but I don’t know what I’d do with it. I’m afraid as soon as I get rid of something, I’ll miss it terribly, even if I haven’t glanced at it in five years. And most of my comics are in pretty rough shape, considering I read them to death in my younger days. I don’t keep things bagged and boarded unless they came that way. So I doubt I could sell ‘em. And I could never throw them away.

I could give them to my cousin’s son over time. I’ve managed to instill a love of comics into him.

Or I could give ‘em to a comic shop on the promise that they’ll start a quarter bin for ‘em. I miss quarter bins. And dime bins. Those were the days.

But yeah, mediocrity is as depressing as craptacularity. If a comic is just okay, it may as well be bad, because it won’t be good enough.