How many Comic Books do you Own? + MORE CHECK IT OUT

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

I'm curious about how the people at this forum collect, and one of the ways to learn how other people collect is to find out how many books are in your personal collections. 99% of the books I own are Bronze/Modern Age, but I have a few thousand of them. Currently I would guess somewhere around 3,000-4,000. What is funny though, is that I purchased probably 85-90% of them this year. Years ago, when I collected (before eBay), I purchased my books from local comic shops, and aquired books slowly. Now I'm older, have a day job, can afford to spend more, and eBay prices on raw books is incredibly low (if you are patient, and look around enough), and I've learned that the more you buy the cheaper they are. Anyway enough about me, I want to know how many comic books are in your personal collection. I decided a poll would be best for people that would rather remain anonymous

 

 

 

What is the lowest grade book you allow in your personal collection? I prefer not to own Bronze/Modern books that grade lower than F/VF 7.0.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Post deleted by The_Man_Of_Steel

[hammer-migration]

Damn! You're not kidding - I just gave you * * * * * (five stars) & your rating didnt even budge ! Your posts are usually sensible , comic -related , & unantagonistic . Perhaps thats the problem !!!

[notch_top]

I gave him 5 as well!

 

Yowsa!

 

 

[lighthouse]

I gave him 5 yesterday when his sig file said he was a 1-star. That pushed him to two... but he probably needs a few more 5's to get to averaging 3...

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Hammer, Notch_Top, thanks for the stars, however, I don't see the rating system as a basis of the quality of my posts or how nice of a guy I really am or that I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong, but the star ratings here are more of a popularity vote than anything, and I've never been popular, so it's nothing new to me. Anway, let's get back to the topic, I would have never started it, if I didn't want to discuss it. How many comic books do you guys have? What genres/types do you collect? What is the lowest grade book you will allow to be in your collection(s)?

[murph0]

I only own around 500, 90 percent ASM..10 percent other stuff..I have other books..but I consider them to not be "collector" stuff as they are all below 5 dollars each..so altogether I actually have 2,000 "" books.

 

Brian

[lighthouse]

Depends on how you want to count... Personal collection is around 700 books. Store inventory is around 175,000 with 45,000 on display at any one time...

 

Personal collection I have books as low as fair, though most books after 1970 are 9.0 or better. Store inventory includes many coverless copies which sell just as fast as the NM's....

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Ahh but what is today, may not be years from now. Cheap books are the best kind to read, and dare I say it, invest in. Why would I say such a stupid thing? Because if you can purchase a VF-NM book for .33 to .60 cents each the investment is small, and so is the risk of loosing money when/if a collecor decides to sell a book or an entire collection.

 

 

Here is another question for everyone:

 

1.) What is the largest quantity of comic books you have purchased at one time? My answer is between 500-600 books from the same collector.

[murph0]

I don't buy collections as I really only collect 2 specific titles..and only one of them I'm looking for a full run - ASM..so I guess the most I've bought is a full run of 252-441 ASM.

 

Brian

[lighthouse]

1.) What is the largest quantity of comic books you have purchased at one time? My answer is between 500-600 books from the same collector.

 

I imagine my answer will skew your results a bit since not many people here own a store... I have purchased three original-owner collections that were in the 20,000-25,000 book range (with no dupes). I have purchased two bulk lots of store stock that each exceeded 200 full long boxes (roughly 50,000 books each).

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

I purchased the 500-600 for about .33 cents an issue, and I know with purchases as large as you've made, the deal gets even better, so do you have any idea what the price per issue comes out to with some of the larger purchases you've been involved in. Did you purchase them straight out of your pocket, or do you have a partner?

 

Another question: From those purchases, did you find any sweet surprises? You can't possibly have time to go through 200 long boxes before completing the deal.

[Lantern]

I gave him 5 just for trying to stir up some solid comic book related topics. Still at 2......

[PovertyRow]

1.) What is the largest quantity of comic books you have purchased at one time? My answer is between 500-600 books from the same collector.

 

Back around 1987 I picked up about 1800 books from the same collector. Amoung them were nice runs of FF starting from #2, a solid fine Incredible Hulk 1, a variety of DC 50's Action/Adventure type books, lots of regular Marvel runs (all from the 60's) and a lot of misc like Charlton, Archie etc. Not one is left in my collection.

[lighthouse]

I've made purchases of 20,000 comics for as little as $500 when it was all garbage with lots of duplication. The 200 long box deals usually are pretty heavy on duplication with lots of stuff that will never sell except in bulk lots to someone else. Those tend to run me around 3c an issue.

 

As far as suprises go it's kinda hard to say, since finding some $20 books in a 3c a book deal is about the same as finding $100 books in a $1 a book deal. One bulk lot had around 50 longs, almost all quarter stock except for the 55 copies of Preacher 1. I had all my money back by the 10th Preacher sale. Another bulk lot was almost all junk but had 30 copies of Uncanny 266 at a time when they flew out the door at $40 a piece.

 

Bulk lots aren't always cheap though. One of the 5,000 book collections I paid just shy of $10K... Just depends on what's there...

[Rickdogg]

I allow any grade into my collection if the price is right. I usually end up with some LG books when I buy lots. My CGC collection has nothing lower than a 9.2 with the rest being 9.4 or better

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

How many books are in your personal collection? How do you decide which books to keep in your personal colleciton, and which ones to sell? I've seen a few CGC lots, have you ever purchased a CGC lot, if so how many books did it include?

 

P.S. - If only FlyingDonut would make an appearance in this thread, I know he has some stories that would make most of us green with envy.

[Rickdogg]

I only have about 1,000 which mostly was put together within the last year since I now have some money to pour into the comic industry. I buy books for various reasons such as childhood related books (ie GI JOE), favorite artists (ie Byrne, McFarlane), favorite teams, favorite covers, etc etc. There are way too many reasons why I buy certain books, so i'm all over the place on this one

 

I usually sell books that I upgrade to offset the costs a bit or if I believe I can sell it High now and buy Low in the future. It's just being smart I've never bought a "lot" of CGC books since the sellers usually want too much for a lot full of mostly moderns

 

I love comics, but I don't think i'll ever become the dubbed "highroller." It's funny how some people assume that you don't have money just because you don't drop G's on one single book. I do have much more expensive hobbies which blows comics out of the water.

[dam60]

MOS, checking in at around 6200-6500 books. Like you, when I was a kid I had about 600 but in the last year, really since July, my collection went from about 1500 to easily 4x that, thanks to ebay! I agree, I've gotten some great deals on some full runs and collections. Most of my slabbed stuff also comes from ebay, although there are some of my originals that I have submitted for grading.

 

My biggest acquisition was 1200 from a guy here in NYC for $300 bucks. great deal. Had a complete run of the 80s transformers in F/VF condition, a run of Hulks from 350-400 (vf), uncanny 282-310 (vf+/nm-), a slew of DDs, Supes, X-Factor, Avengers, Cap, FF, a great variety with very little duplication and very few independents.

 

My babies are my Batman comics. I have every one without missing an issue from 300 on, and have about 65 from 200 to 300. It's my goal to get the full run twice over, one "reading" set and one NM set. Right now the newer ones are perfect, but the older ones really vary, some as low as FR+/G-. I also have a full run minus a handful of Hulk 200-474. Some are better than others. Next I'm trying to get ASM 252-350. Not too hard to do, just don't want to spend the money yet.

 

 

[Guest]

You kind of remind me of Ned Flanders.....nice guy, sometimes self-rightious,but most of the time you just want peace on these boards. I gave you 5 stars. I collect GI JOES and I only have around 25 comics in my entire collection right now. All are Joes 1-30 and ALL of them are 9.6 to 9.8. I still need more If any of you want to sell them? (except you Dogg!)....Hes keeping his!