is there an optimal size for a comic collection? Do you have a limit?

[Lazyboy]

I am sitting at around 10k. Mixture of GA, SA, BA up to ~1990. Would love to pair it down to about 2k. Here is what it looked like up to a few days ago.

 

 

 

 

 

Two words- Drawer Boxes. Nuff Said.

 

Good shelving works just fine. Maybe even better, depending on where your collection is stored.

 

But, yeah, stacked regular boxes are just awful.

[RockMyAmadeus]

If you stack them high enough, you can have some cool boxalanches....

[kav]

I got 10 longboxes and I finally semi organized them. 2 boxes each of kirby and swan. 2 boxes of GN's. 3 boxes copper age indys. 3 boxes of misc also three short boxes of magazine sized somewhere inside is Flaming Carrot 1.

[ChiSoxFan]

I have 110 long boxes or so that's my regular collection, and another 30-35 of stuff to sell/bring to shows. As much as that sounds like, everything is alphabetical and in numeric order, so it's very manageable (plus I keep a binder list of everything I have so I don't duplicate when I'm looking at stuff to buy). If I need to find a book, I can find it with no more than a minute or two of searching.

 

My answer to what "optimal size" is that it varies by the person.

[makeminemego]

60 slabs displayed in my office, all very early Marvel-mostly circle 12s.

 

4 short boxes that extend the displayed runs (ASM 18-39, FF 14-28, JIM 93-112, ST 111-120, TOS 49-59, TTA 45-60, raw early X Men and Avengers).

 

I think it's about 160 books, I can see it getting to @200.

 

 

[Revol]

Currently I have 4 long boxes, 3 short boxes, a shelfs worth of silver/bronze Marvel keys and about 6 CGC slabs. It adds up to about 2050 comics. 3000 would be my absolute limit.

[01TheDude]

60 slabs displayed in my office, all very early Marvel-mostly circle 12s.

 

4 short boxes that extend the displayed runs (ASM 18-39, FF 14-28, JIM 93-112, ST 111-120, TOS 49-59, TTA 45-60, raw early X Men and Avengers).

 

I think it's about 160 books, I can see it getting to @200.

 

 

wow-- that sounds very impressive. Way to go.

[catrick339]

I limit myself to one basementful. Anything beyond that and I start shoveling out.

[miraclemet]

3 long boxes of comics for my Green Lantern collection, about to start my 4th long box.

1 long box of comics of stuff I like to just pull out and read from time to time (some of these get sold as more get bought)

4 short boxes of slabs

 

what ever that totals out to.

 

I used to have twice the number of long boxes, and it was to much for me. I either found I'd go months without cracking a box to look at books, or I'd find myself hunting thru them trying to find random titles...

[rjrjr]

142 short boxes (bagged and boarded), 7 magazine boxes, and 10 short boxes (unbagged and unloved). Over 15,000 comics. And I'm listing them here on the for sale boards at a snails pace.

 

I am not entirely sure how many boxes will end up being sold off and how many will stay. My current estimate is 2/3rds will go and I'll keep the other 1/3rd.

[Waylander]

Optimal size - NO, I always want...

 

 

 

MORE

 

 

 

currently my collection is just shy of 15,000 books and its still growing

 

 

[Bill1]

 

Old picture, more now, about 31,000. I have the old Comic Collector software and can find any book within minutes. When this room is full (or falls into the garage), I will be done.

[marvelmaniac]

I have 35 short boxes, about 2000 books with no doubles except for a couple I upgraded and then the Mylite is marked " 2 copies".

I am "Anal" with a "Touch" of "OCD"( HA, He said a touch) so organization is key.

All books are stored in Alphabetical/Numerical Order, All Boxes are Labeled and All Books are Cataloged on my Computer.(also saved to 2 Flashdrives)

I know Exactly what I have and where it is.

 

Right now I am in the process of Photographing and Detail Grading All of my Books.

Also keeping detailed list of what these books are actually selling for on eBay in the condition my books are in.

 

This is where me and Sheldon Cooper are alike.

[Doktor]

I think the key with size is that the larger the collection, the more diligent you have to be about organization if you want to not feel overwhelmed or like a hoarder or something. I keep all 7k of mine in alphabetical order by title, and numerical order. I even split the volumes & each title gets its own divider card if there's more than 3 issues in it (less than 3 issues, it goes in front of the generic letter card that corresponds to the title. Except random X-Men specials/one-shots. Those all go in the generic "X-Men Specials" slot). It was a little bit of an initial investment to buy a boatload of divider cards, but well worth it from an organizational standpoint.

 

You could ask me to find any book in my collection & I can have it out of the box in 15 seconds. And since nobody but me really ever touches it, I don't have to worry about things getting misfiled. Plus, the filing cabinet drawers have labels. #-A, A-C, D-F, etc.

 

And that's just the physical organization. I also use the CLZ app on my phone to keep track of my collection so I don't double-buy (though I have been known to when it's something I like or if I make the mistake of assuming that I need that issue and not looking at my phone to verify. But that's straight user error) and use the tagging so that I pull up my whole slab collection log as well (easy because I only have about 60, but still)

[vaillant]

The problem I have is that – while I find it enjoyable to some degree, and maybe even recreational – I can’t avoid to think to the time spent on managing the material as "not employed in the best way".

 

I mean that, having too many comics, it seems the effort of sorting them out shows little result, and so I am thinking it will be the best thing to entirely stop for a while and see what is more worth to be sort out and organized.

 

I "rushed" to extend my Marvels collection just because I feared prices would go way out of hand for me, but now, after I fix some essential holes, I have to stop and spend time on deciding what is truly worthy for its content.

[Ryan.]

At one point I had about 20 long boxes. I sold 99% of that collection and bought a car.

 

I then rebuilt that collection into a couple boxes of keys. I eventually sold 90% of those to buy an engagement ring.

 

Now I have one box of books with half being keepers and half being stuff to turn over for fun and profit.

[vaillant]

I think the key with size is that the larger the collection, the more diligent you have to be about organization if you want to not feel overwhelmed or like a hoarder or something. I keep all 7k of mine in alphabetical order by title, and numerical order. I even split the volumes & each title gets its own divider card if there's more than 3 issues in it (less than 3 issues, it goes in front of the generic letter card that corresponds to the title. Except random X-Men specials/one-shots. Those all go in the generic "X-Men Specials" slot). It was a little bit of an initial investment to buy a boatload of divider cards, but well worth it from an organizational standpoint.

I’d love to see a picture of it, Doc. (thumbs u

[Doktor]

I think the key with size is that the larger the collection, the more diligent you have to be about organization if you want to not feel overwhelmed or like a hoarder or something. I keep all 7k of mine in alphabetical order by title, and numerical order. I even split the volumes & each title gets its own divider card if there's more than 3 issues in it (less than 3 issues, it goes in front of the generic letter card that corresponds to the title. Except random X-Men specials/one-shots. Those all go in the generic "X-Men Specials" slot). It was a little bit of an initial investment to buy a boatload of divider cards, but well worth it from an organizational standpoint.

Id love to see a picture of it, Doc. (thumbs u

 

Lemme see what I can do when I get home later. It's not really all that easy to photograph organization tho.

[vaillant]

I think the key with size is that the larger the collection, the more diligent you have to be about organization if you want to not feel overwhelmed or like a hoarder or something. I keep all 7k of mine in alphabetical order by title, and numerical order. I even split the volumes & each title gets its own divider card if there's more than 3 issues in it (less than 3 issues, it goes in front of the generic letter card that corresponds to the title. Except random X-Men specials/one-shots. Those all go in the generic "X-Men Specials" slot). It was a little bit of an initial investment to buy a boatload of divider cards, but well worth it from an organizational standpoint.

Id love to see a picture of it, Doc. (thumbs u

 

Lemme see what I can do when I get home later. It's not really all that easy to photograph organization tho.

I know. My books are somewhat "organized", but they are scattered all over the house (and attic).

[entalmighty1]

I have around 3k total, including maybe 70-80 slabs. I only collect silver and bronze, with a handful of copper keys. I have everything alphabetized, and all of my boxes fit on one big wire rack in my comic/poker/board game room. If it got to the point that the boxes wouldn't all fit on that one rack, I'd start paring down my runs. So far, I haven't run into that problem, but I'm not done. ::