organizing a collection (not software)

[The Less Blob]

I have not organized my collection in any real way since the mid-90s. It has probably doubled or tripled in size since then. Basically for the last 10 years I have been filling up boxes randomly.

 

How do you guys do it...I'm leaning toward alpha/chron by publisher rather than overall ... perhaps with separate boxes for genres like horror, war, disney/cartoon, archie, etc. I figure doing it by publisher will save me time when trying to find things.

 

This is a pretty big project for me, as we are talking about 20,000 comics, although I'm hoping that 3-5,000 will be pulled out as triples, quadrupes and so on and I'll sell them. I don't mind having triples of some spidey or x-men books...but some other stuff, not so much interest.

[mica]

..I'm leaning toward alpha/chron by publisher rather than overall ... perhaps with separate boxes for genres like horror, war, disney/cartoon, archie, etc. I figure doing it by publisher will save me time when trying to find things.

 

I thought about that one time but then every now and then it becomes a problem for certain things like Tarzan... Dell/GoldKey/DC/Marvel etc...

 

In the end I made it alphabetical except for all the Spiderman titles get thrown together under A for Amazing. But after a while it all gets thrown together.

[Reno McCoy]

Alphabetical by title. No question. If there's a title from different publishers, the older publisher's books go first in the box, followed by subsequent publishers.

 

I like the idea of boxes based on genre.

[Shark]

I have over 40,000 comics and have mine segregated this way:

 

1) 1st by Publisher

2) 2nd by comic title in alphabetical order

3) 3rd by issue number from 1st to last

 

So all of the Marvels are together in a number of boxes, the DC's are together in a number of boxes, and so on. All of my boxes of duplicate issues are sorted the same way.

 

Shark

[awe4one]

Alpha across the board except for those publishers that had relatively short publishing histories (i.e. Crossgen and Valiant)...those go in together in alpha order in the Cr and Va portions of the overall collection. Then number the boxes 1-? starting with A and you can find most anything rather quickly...

 

Too bad only 2/3 of my collection is currently sorted...

 

Jim

[Dick Pontoon]

Mine are straight up alphabetical by title. Yes - (insert shocked Robin in the corner) - the Marvels and DCs rub up against each other! Even the Gold Keys!

 

I think I I broke them down by publisher it would get way too confusing, especially with the oddball GA book here and there. I do have the horror comics separate though.

[Ringfinger]

Hey, I have to sort and rebag. I feel your pain!! Oh, and catalog as well.

[Ares]

I break it down by publisher, title, Volume then Issue

[Paladin]

Mine are straight up alphabetical by title. Yes - (insert shocked Robin in the corner) - the Marvels and DCs rub up against each other! Even the Gold Keys!

 

I think I I broke them down by publisher it would get way too confusing, especially with the oddball GA book here and there. I do have the horror comics separate though.

 

I'm in the 11,000 book range. Mine are in alphabetical order by title and publisher. I've got 80 boxes. Around box number 65, it became too much of a hassle to "shift" books from box to box. So, I made each subsequent box a separate a-z set-up and then noted which book went into which numbered box. All categorized on the dated ComicBase 7.

[alecholland]

Mine are straight up alphabetical by title. Yes - (insert shocked Robin in the corner) - the Marvels and DCs rub up against each other! Even the Gold Keys!

 

I think I I broke them down by publisher it would get way too confusing, especially with the oddball GA book here and there. I do have the horror comics separate though.

 

Same thing here. (thumbs u

 

I do have one short box of all the books I am currently reading as well.

[Epcomics]

I have over 40,000 comics and have mine segregated this way:

 

1) 1st by Publisher

2) 2nd by comic title in alphabetical order

3) 3rd by issue number from 1st to last

 

So all of the Marvels are together in a number of boxes, the DC's are together in a number of boxes, and so on. All of my boxes of duplicate issues are sorted the same way.

 

Shark

 

Yup. This system works for me too.

[The Less Blob]

so you have separate boxes for dupes? so you basically did this whole shebang twice???

[cd4ever]

Organizing?

[thehumantorch]

Looks like I'm the odd man here. I keep seperate boxes for each era because I like to box comics with comics of the same dimensions. I figure a comic is less likely to bend or wear if stored with other comics of the same dimensions in bags of the same dimensions. So by era, by publisher, alphabetically.

[The Less Blob]

Looks like I'm the odd man here. I keep seperate boxes for each era because I like to box comics with comics of the same dimensions. I figure a comic is less likely to bend or wear if stored with other comics of the same dimensions in bags of the same dimensions. So by era, by publisher, alphabetically.

 

*************

 

actually, this is sort of how I organzied things 10 years ago. silver had their own boxes, GA their own and BA through modern were in the rest.

 

the vast expansion in my collection has been in the BA and, a bit in the CA, as well as some moderns. i may win up keeping SA apart, 12 and 15 centers.

[Designer Toast]

Sorted publisher, title, iss number. Once you get it done you will be loving it (thumbs u

 

I do keep my focus collecting in separate boxes and large runs of a single title separate also.

[The Less Blob]

Once you get it done you will be loving it

**************************

 

or shocked and dismayed that i have 10 copies of some non-key issue in a run and zero copies of the next issue...

[The Less Blob]

oh criminey, i have spent about 2 hours a night the last two nights working on this and so far I have managed to only organize/re-bag/board half a long box of Amazing Spidermans in the 101-199 range (and bag a bunch in the 200s). not so impressive given that they were all in the same box already...now i have to find the other spideys scattered about the other 50 or whatever long boxes worth of stuff.

 

and, of course, it's exactly what i feared. some issues I have 5-10 copies of, others I have zilch (and not because the keys are missing or anything like that). OTOH, I have found some books in nice shape i didn't even know i owned, which is sure nice.

[Shark]

so you have separate boxes for dupes? so you basically did this whole shebang twice???

 

Yep. I probably have 15 to 20 long boxes of nothing but duplicates. Didn't really plan it that way....it just happened.

 

I take all copies of the same issue and compare. The absolute best goes into the "main collection" boxes while the rest go into the duplicates boxes for later sale.

 

Shark

[Designer Toast]

I'm going through my books right now. I just got rid of close to 1900 books in a lump and cleared up some space...for more comics

 

And having duplicates of issues while having two and three issue gaps, yeah, that sucks. I have something like 12 copies of GI Joe 20, only three copies of 21, and then it jumps to something like 10 copies 24