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

[Rickdogg]

[Guest]

remember that kid that chased John Cusak chanting " I want my 2 dollars"? Well thats going to be me chanting "Sell me your copy of #12"....."Sell me your copy of #12"............"Sell me your copy of #12"

[Rickdogg]

[FlyingDonut]

In the house, probably 10-12K books. I'm guessing. I have no idea. 300 books in a long box? 12K is probably about right. It moves in and out, in and out, in and out (right savage like!) Lighthouse has so many more books than me it is just criminal.

 

"Personal" collection - about 500 (30 cent variant set, Crime Suspenstories 1-26, bunch of investment Golden Age, some other stuff).

 

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.

 

A "storage locker" full of books for $2K in North Carolina in 1992. Maybe 20,000 books, I never actually counted all of them. 90% were gah-bahge. 8% were OK (high grade Miraclemans, 4(!) Albedo 2s, other nice 70s and 80s stuff). 2% made the buy - a box of very early Marvel silver stuff. Tales to Astonish 1-25, Tales of Suspense 1-40, FF 1-15, bunch of early Strange Tales. Lower grade, but just sweet. Paid for grad school expenses, and have slowly sold off the trash books over the past ten years.

 

People without stores don't understand just how much stuff walks in the doors of stores all the time. I work with a store in Maryland that gets big collections in all the time. Good stuff too!

 

 

[read_em-migration]

I was just going to ask that myself FD, how many books per long box are you guys estimating? (I'm not counting all these books!). I think the Other Board came to the conclusion that, all comics being bagged and boarded, a pretty-stuffed-but-not-too-tight long box holds an average of 250 comics (probably more for Moderns, maybe 275?). So, 38 long boxes X 250 = 9,500 here. Which, curiously, isn't on the poll!

What is the highest grade book you allow in your personal collection? I prefer not to own Silver/Bronze books that grade higher than FN.

[blowout]

i have about 3500 books all up, includes some books i had as a kid and a lot of i bought in the late 80's early 90's.

a lot of the books i plan to sell at some stage (when???) and are stored at my folks house, so i guess theres no real rush to clear them out.

my core collection consists of about 6-700 books, 50% silver, 40% bronze and about 10% of the stuff i bought in the 80's.

[lighthouse]

Lighthouse has so many more books than me it is just criminal.

 

Well you know if you need about 10K more I can probably spare them... The trick is getting them across country.

 

I am actually looking at a store overstock buy right now, 45K books for $3600. I can also pick up 4000 paperback sci-fi and fantasy, no more than two of any title, for about $600...

 

People without stores don't understand just how much stuff walks in the doors of stores all the time.

 

Absolutely true... It's the only reason I have a brick-and-mortar location... If the new barely covers overhead that's just fine. It's the cheap buying that makes it worthwhile...

[aardvark88]

U may need to rent more storage space if u buy 45k comics. That's a lot of long boxes to stack up.

[Guest]

Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12

Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12

Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12

Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12 Sell me your #12

[mr_highgrade]

I used have around 10K but I dumped some cheap and gave some away to neighborhood kids.

I probably have around 6K now. Tons of Bronze & Moderns with about 300 HG Silver.

 

By the way, I also gave 5 stars a while back.

[Guest]

Do you have any 80s GI Joes? In the 1-30 #s???

[mr_highgrade]

I blew them out back in the 80's when they were hot.

I believe issue # 2 (first print) was the hardest to get.

[Guest]

Yes.....#2 is the most difficult to find in high grade along with #21. Even though the books were all but dead in the 90s I couldnt find many nice issues out there! Im still having a tough time completing my collection!

[Bronty]

PS no way can you fit 300 books in a long box. 250-275 maybe with no bags or boards. If they have bags and boards you're looking at 225 at best. I remember because I had a long box of Iron Mans starting with #1 and the last book in the box was somewhere between #223 and #227. Then if you have giant size books or if you use more than one backing board like I often do you're looking at 175-200. I have a box of Lone Wolf and Cub (1st series) that probably doesn't hold more than 125 issues. All 64+ pages with bags and 1-2 backing boards...

[Rickdogg]

Fdonut

 

I just noticed that you said 10- 12K in the house! Where else and how much more?!!!

[FlyingDonut]

10-12 long boxes at my parents house in Illinois that never made it out here. Those are mostly 70s and early 80s stuff. And some very primo stuff in a safety deposit box.

[lighthouse]

PS no way can you fit 300 books in a long box. 250-275 maybe with no bags or boards

 

It depends a lot on the specific comics... Newsprint comics (pretty much everything before 1985) fit around 275 if they are loaded loose and around 320 if they are bricked 20 to a golden age bag. The bags keep the comics compressed, as well as minimizing airflow. {On a side note, some of the best condition books I have ever purchased were stored just this way.}

 

Newer stuff like Spawn you can fit many more in a box unbagged. I have a box in my rack right now with 340 copies of Spawn 62. And there is still enough finger room to take copies out.

 

For comparison, I just counted a box of Silver Age DC in Mylite2 and Full-Backs, with four cardboard title dividers and 5 100-pagers, that has 177 books in it (with empty space so you can look through the box.) A box of Uncanny with no title dividers and regular bags and boards I counted at 246 books with plenty of room to flip through.

 

After buying lots and lots of collections and seeing all the different methods people use to store them, my standard estimate is 250/long and 150/short until I see how they are packed.

[FlyingDonut]

I have a box in my rack right now with 340 copies of Spawn 62.

 

Dear God in Heaven. Why do you have 340 copies of Spawn 62??? Do you need it for kindling? Colorful toilet paper? Cat box liner? Inquiring minds WANT TO KNOW!

[lighthouse]

The scary thing is that's not how many I have, just how many fit in a long box...

 

I picked up a few sealed 200-ct cases of Spawn comics on eBay back in 99 for $14 each. IIRC there were three cases each of Spawn 62 and Curse of Spawn 9 plus a case each of Spawn 63 and Spawn 65. I sold enough in the first two weeks to get the money back and have used them as giveaways and filler ever since. At some point I might look for 9.9's but I doubt it...

 

At one point I had 1100 copies of Second Life of Doctor Mirage #1 that I picked up unwittingly in a bulk buy.... I used to shred copies and use them as packing material when I first started selling on eBay in 98. For almost two months every auction description read "Every comic lovingly packed using shredded copies of Doctor Mirage!"

 

 

[jens25e]

That is funny, lighthouse.

 

If I ever buy something from you I want to have it beautifully embedded in shredded Dr. Mirage comics too!