Do smaller purchases prevent you from saving for books you'd really like to own?

[pjthib]

I'm wondering if I'm the only one that suffers from this problem.

[rjpb]

I picked the last option, not because I have unlimited funds, but because if a book is so expensive that I have to save for it, then I'm not interested. Even if I could justify the larger expense as an investment, any pleasure I might recieve from owning an expensive book would be mitigated by the knowledge of how much money I have tied up in it. Obviously for all of us the definition of expensive differs, but once the value of a comic starts running more than half a weeks take home pay, I begin to lose interest. Fortunately my GA tastes run more to "classic" covers than keys, and I'm satisfied with lower grades, so I don't feel I am depriving myself of anything I really want.

[october]

I rarely spend much on a single comic and I almost never buy anything higher than NM-. I can live with a few minor flaws if it means I end up with twice as many books in the end. I could never justify the price of a CGC 9.4 or above. Once you get into the stage of needing a NM or better you should really should reevaluate. Not only is the difference between, say, a 9.4 and a 9.6 completely arbitrary and subjective, the defects are so tiny you end up imagining flaws that aren't there.

[Forbush-Man]

Well, for me, smaller purchases DO interfere with larger purchases, as they tend to take money away that would otherwise be available,....but I buy what is there and available/good deal at the time, so I'm okay with it. I rarely go out with a specific goal in mind. The hunt requires you to be ready for the game at hand.

[arexcrooke]

I rarely spend much on a single comic and I almost never buy anything higher than NM-. I can live with a few minor flaws if it means I end up with twice as many books in the end. I could never justify the price of a CGC 9.4 or above. Once you get into the stage of needing a NM or better you should really should reevaluate. Not only is the difference between, say, a 9.4 and a 9.6 completely arbitrary and subjective, the defects are so tiny you end up imagining flaws that aren't there.

OF, i agree with you 100% on the having x amount of books in 9.4 or 3x that number in vf to nm-. To me, give me a vf/nm with a little something wrong with it (heck give me 5 of them) rather than a nm+ book that i have to pay 3x guide of.

Back to the topic at hand, yes smaller purchases do hinder me from buying larger $$$ books. Like right now, i am saving to buy an Avengers 1. However, I cant not buy books for a month or two. So I spent about $140 last night with Metro. So the small purchases will keep me happy, but I still will be able to save for the Avengers.

[Comicdey]

I tend to purchase esoteric gold in the $10 to $100 range and then when a book is available that I want in the higher dollar range, I just dig deeper. But every time, I wonder if I really needed the lower $/grade issues for my collecting hoard. With that said, smaller purchases do prevent me from "saving up money".

 

I rarely pass on a book that I am truly searching for unless it's going for 2x or 3x guide. I'm pretty patient in that regard.

[jbud73]

YES

[DoubleCovaBrotha]

I picked yes because of modern comics. I spend about $75 a month on new books every month because I have my LCS pull several titles as well as every new series coming out. That comes out to approximately $900 a year!

[Silver Surfer]

Actually I find that buying more BA and MA books in high grade has been a nice switch from one or two expensive books every few months. Sure does feel good to have a dozen nice covers of some of my favorite reads that I enjoyed off the rack when I was a kid in high grade. If I had a $1,000 budget today I'd be pretty excited about the number of high quality BA/MA books I could get my hands on. All these beautiful Winnipeg books in 9.6/9.8 that Doug keeps cranking out are relatively affordable.

[pjthib]

Well, it looks like about 85% of the people that do save for comics have this problem. I suppose you could infer that comic collecting brings out compulsive behavior.

[bullseye]

yeh, i go to the lcs, buy every random new thing that looks nifty, then on my way out see something really cheap i have been looking for and by the time i am back it's gone heh

[Kermit the frog]

Interesting topic/question, since i've decided very recently from stopping buying modern/weekly comics to finish a very nice silver age deal.

 

Since i don't have a lot of $$$ and the fact that moderns are imho ridicouslly high (you can buy them "tomorrow" at 1/4 of their cover price), the monthly budget in the long therm would always prevent me from having/buying the comics i carve since i was a kid.

 

I decided to literally stopping to buy for some long months in order to help me strenght my budget for the recent deal. It wasn't easy the choice (nowadays there's a lot of great stuuf coming out), but i know i'll be able to track all them down at a way less, than if i continue buying them on a weekly basis.

 

the ridicouslly speculation variant movement, the sold outs and the endless mistakes made on sending the boxes to comic stores (ending up running around for a certain issue and sometimes paying more), etc... made my decision a stronger/confortanle one...

 

and i seriouslly think that at some point the majority of the weekly collectors buy more than what they are able/want to read...end up buying as a routine.

something that bugged me (why buy comics if you don't read them?!).

 

so, now in the long therm i'll be having my nice ASM coll., while the moderns will always be waiting outhere for me to buy them at 1/4 of cover price.

 

do the maths, at the end of the year how much $$$ do you end up burning?!

 

priorities, the key is on establishing priorities...if you like either to save or on the contrary to spend on modens, well whatever makes you fell happier/confortable that's what you should chose.

 

regards, Pedro.

[Samurai-Bill]

I think of my comic collection as organic , it has to grow .

 

Whilst I am buying comics it gives me the reason to look at and re-evaluate my collection , if I stopped even for a short while the boxes would be just full of printed paper with no meaning .

 

I now it's weird but its like feeding your children if you stop they would die .

[uclapeterg]

Bill, when you are comparing comics to children, do you think that's a problem?

[bullseye]

well comics can't get pb&j stains on your comics