Organizing the DCs: A Tough Row to Hoe

[slym2none]

True, true.

 

 

 

 

-slym

[Dick Pontoon]

But does that make his post in this particular thread not true?

[joecgcmaniac]

But does that make his post in this particular thread not true?

 

No, but perhaps slym thought that because he was somewhat new, his opinion either didn't matter or wasn't correct?

 

 

[shadroch]

tips on sorting 50+ long boxes.

 

1. make sure you find a big open spot to work.

2. Get a bunch of empty long boxes so you can transfer and move comics easily.

3. Sort by letter first. Make a pile for every letter A-Z

4. Once A-Z piles are made, you have a better idea of what you have. Expect letters A, C, D, M, S & X to be enormous.

5. Now you can sort all the A titles, then the B titles etc...

6. If you want alpha & numeric titles now you have to sort each title by issue #. On a long title like Amazing Spider-man, you will want to first sort by 50's. Make piles #1-50, 51-100, 101-150 etc... and then put those 50 issues in numerical order. If you do not do things this way, you will have piles that are WAY to big to handle and completely unmanageable.

 

Good luck!

 

 

I generally sort by groups. For DC, I'd have piles of Batman titles, Superman, groups(JLA,JSA TiTANS,LEGION)

Horror, Kirby, mini/maxi series, and a miscellaneous one.

It is a lot of work.

[slym2none]

But does that make his post in this particular thread not true?

 

No, but perhaps slym thought that because he was somewhat new, his opinion either didn't matter or wasn't correct?

 

 

It is difficult to tell uppity noobs from Stu's various incarnations sometimes.

 

 

 

 

-slym

[Tony S]

Impressive pictures. My office, while full, could never fit that many boxes in it.

 

Man, it would be fun to help organize all that.

 

You have unusual ideas of what is fun.

[shadroch]

Is there anything in this world better than bag and boarding 10,000 books, then sorting and pricing them?

[Psithyrus]

tips on sorting 50+ long boxes.

 

1. make sure you find a big open spot to work.

2. Get a bunch of empty long boxes so you can transfer and move comics easily.

3. Sort by letter first. Make a pile for every letter A-Z

4. Once A-Z piles are made, you have a better idea of what you have. Expect letters A, C, D, M, S & X to be enormous.

5. Now you can sort all the A titles, then the B titles etc...

6. If you want alpha & numeric titles now you have to sort each title by issue #. On a long title like Amazing Spider-man, you will want to first sort by 50's. Make piles #1-50, 51-100, 101-150 etc... and then put those 50 issues in numerical order. If you do not do things this way, you will have piles that are WAY to big to handle and completely unmanageable.

 

Good luck!

 

 

I generally sort by groups. For DC, I'd have piles of Batman titles, Superman, groups(JLA,JSA TiTANS,LEGION)

Horror, Kirby, mini/maxi series, and a miscellaneous one.

It is a lot of work.

 

I've only got about 10 longboxes, and when I started to sort them, I did the same. . . Batman, Superman, X-Men, and Spider-Man separated out first and sorted, then the rest split into DC and Marvel, then alphabetical, then numerical.

 

This is a crazy undertaking, but like someone mentioned, I would actually enjoy to do it for a bit.

[revat]

I can't be sure, but I think selling them all after all that work must feel good

[Tony S]

Is there anything in this world better than bag and boarding 10,000 books, then sorting and pricing them?

 

Yeah. Lots of things come to mind

 

But in regards to this particular discussion, having someone else bag, board and sort. is better. Then you price. And then have someone else do whatever you do to sell. eBay, online, catalog, price and put out in stores..

 

From his description, I think the OP has way more than 10,000 books

[DeliBebek]

Is there anything in this world better than bag and boarding 10,000 books, then sorting and pricing them?

 

Yeah. Lots of things come to mind

 

But in regards to this particular discussion, having someone else bag, board and sort. is better. Then you price. And then have someone else do whatever you do to sell. eBay, online, catalog, price and put out in stores..

 

From his description, I think the OP has way more than 10,000 books

I'm on the same page as shadroch on this one. I get some joy out of handling and caring for the books themselves. Add scanning front and back each comic and I would have a nice project for a few months. I wouldn't care much for the pricing part. I leave that to the business-minded.

[shadroch]

Is there anything in this world better than bag and boarding 10,000 books, then sorting and pricing them?

 

Yeah. Lots of things come to mind

 

But in regards to this particular discussion, having someone else bag, board and sort. is better. Then you price. And then have someone else do whatever you do to sell. eBay, online, catalog, price and put out in stores..

 

From his description, I think the OP has way more than 10,000 books

I'm on the same page as shadroch on this one. I get some joy out of handling and caring for the books themselves. Add scanning front and back each comic and I would have a nice project for a few months. I wouldn't care much for the pricing part. I leave that to the business-minded.

 

I was being sarcastic. While I'm sure I enjoyed it at one point, the very thought of having to do it again sends shivers down my spines.

In a similar vein, I once was part of a small group that bought 100 1987 Topps vending cases to break down into individual sets. Each case had 10,000 cards( 20 boxes of 500 cards) and there were 792 cards to a set.

One team would sort cards into piles by the hundred. Another would take a box that contained ,lets say, 101-200 and divide them into ten piles 101-110,11-120, ect and the third and fourth teams worked on getting them into correct order by subgroup.

We paid about a half a cent a card for the million cards ($7500) and ended up with a bit over 800 sets that we sold for about $25 a pop. It was a nice profit for a week of hard work, but I wouldn't do it again. There were four of us that invested, and we had a good bit of unpaid help from parents, spouses and girlfriends.

In 1988, we bought another 100 cases but this time sold the cards by the box- Buy Two boxes (1,000cards) and you werepromised a complete set or we would exchange cards to finish your set. We made a lot less profit but it was well worth not sorting out a million cards.

[TopNotch]

DAY 2.

 

Thanks for everyone's tips and comments. I can't believe a lot of you sickos actually think this sounds like fun!

 

In lieu of a big open space to sort, we have to use the aisles around the large U-shaped shelving unit we use to house most of our pulps. The area provides just enough space to get a decent amount of comics from every letter of the alphabet. Myself and one of the folks who helps us pack orders just grabbed a box and some of the random piles of DC comics just laying around and got to it. Eventually we will fill up boxes by letter and then pack it away to clear more sorting space. When we get all the DCs sorted by letter we will unpack a couple letters at a time and sort by title. One small step for man, one giant leap towards a sore back and psychosis induced by comic sorting.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Would love to rebag all those into mylars. Would probably take two months to do but it would be a labour of love.

[F For Fake]

Same here. I may be sick in the head, but my favorite part of working (briefly) at a LCS was sorting/bagging/boarding the large buys. Then again I'm a leeetle bit OCD, and enjoy sorting things.

[slym2none]

That sort of work makes me happy. It is mind-numbing to some, but to me, it lets me let my mind go.

 

Some might say my mind went a long time ago, and I am okay with that. I might be a little dusty, but I'm not insane.

 

 

 

 

-slym

[Kevin.J]

Filing cabinets are the way to go, full access without having to move all the boxes, making them a lot easier to sort A-Z.

Check out bankrupt office suppliers or want/sell ads

You can get 8 long boxes per 4 drawer cabinet, I have just got a new one taking my total to 23 cabinets now.

I have either got them all free or very cheap, the most expensive one was $15

[roulette44]

for a mind numbing opportunity!

 

[Forbush-Man]

You should follow the Harley Yee model: Comics from 1933-1975. Just have the occasional post 1975 issue.

[TopNotch]

I'd guess we are now about 30% of the way through processing our DC comics by letter. Here are some pics of the small stacks of comics that have grown to stacks of boxes of each title. Finally here are a few silver/bronze/copper age gems we have been finding.