what is your current comic collecting position? Buy Sell Hold, or some combo?

[01TheDude]

We all probably go through periods of each but what are your current feelings in regards to your collection?

 

are you buying, selling, simply holding on to what you have, or some combination involving a shift in collecting focus?

 

For me-- I am in a holding pattern again-- mostly due to budget constraints. I was actively buying until about 4 months ago. Nothing to do with prices-- just my wallet.

 

I am selling a few doubles but nothing from my main stash of books.

[AnkurJ]

Selling to pay off books I want to hold

[kav]

Buy

 

[Junkdrawer]

Getting high on my own supply of course.

[oakman29]

Holding pattern with the superheroes. Buying cheaper horror magazines, my guilty pleasure.

 

[kav]

GUILTY!

[Treco]

Always been a buyer. Been thinking about selling some lately, though.

[kav]

[Treco]

[FineCollector]

Holding. I don't have $1000 of fun money to spend at any one time lately. I can make it work if I see something essential, but trying hard not to. Filling in runs of drek is how I'm keeping myself busy lately.

[Chaseman210]

Mainly selling books so I can buy others to hold.

[1Cool]

Mainly buying books and then selling them.

[Hudson]

I am a buyer. Not a heavy buyer, but always looking.

 

There have been times when I have been more in more of a hold pattern as other things in life took up more time and energy.

 

As for selling. I often think about selling some books to make space, however, I do not consider myself an expert grader and I would hate to sell a book and have a collector unhappy with their purchase. To me, reputation is everything and I would hate for a collector ((or anyone) to ever think I "cheated" them. I go to conventions and hear buyers picking apart books that others are selling over the smallest flaw. I know this is probably all part of the "negotiation", but I don't want to deal with that.

 

So to answer the OP. I buy when I find something interesting and my children can sell it all when I am dead and hopefully make some other collectors happy.

[DR.X]

I've been in limbo the last few years thinking about liquidating the majority of my stuff. I may have come to the crossroads of collecting and it's time to move on to other things.

[Artboy99]

My LCS really let me down by missing over 100 books on my file pull list over the last nine years. This made me decide to no longer buy moderns, since I am not buying moderns it made me decide to sell my moderns.

 

I am keeping some stuff that I like to read, and I am keeping my keeper collection, the rest is being sold totalling about 10 longs.

 

 

[Jeffro.]

I've been in limbo the last few years thinking about liquidating the majority of my stuff. I may have come to the crossroads of collecting and it's time to move on to other things.

 

I think I'm heading this way too. The idea of having boxes of comics just doesn't seem to have the same appeal as it did when I was younger. I was an accumulator back then and the idea of continuing to accumulate stuff repels me these days.

 

Thinking about other hobbies as I get older. Stuff that I've either had interest in, or always wanted to do.

[Beardown]

I've been in limbo the last few years thinking about liquidating the majority of my stuff. I may have come to the crossroads of collecting and it's time to move on to other things.

 

I think I'm heading this way too. The idea of having boxes of comics just doesn't seem to have the same appeal as it did when I was younger. I was an accumulator back then and the idea of continuing to accumulate stuff repels me these days.

 

Thinking about other hobbies as I get older. Stuff that I've either had interest in, or always wanted to do.

 

My advice is to take a break but don't sell.

 

Just save up for other interests and someday down the road you'll be very glad you didn't sell.

 

 

[MetalPSI]

I'm thinking of selling the things that I don't focus on that I used to collect.

 

Hoping to have a huge chunk of my collection complete this year, I think I might be satisfied in a couple of years and move on to something else.

[Proteus126]

As for selling. I often think about selling some books to make space, however, I do not consider myself an expert grader and I would hate to sell a book and have a collector unhappy with their purchase. To me, reputation is everything and I would hate for a collector ((or anyone) to ever think I "cheated" them. I go to conventions and hear buyers picking apart books that others are selling over the smallest flaw. I know this is probably all part of the "negotiation", but I don't want to deal with that.

 

Understandable. You will have to get over it if you decide to sell. The comic book world is full of misanthropes, curmudgeons, and grumps! ;]

 

I'm a new seller. Built a small X-Men (94-350) and Frank Miller (DD, Wolverine, Ronin) collection decades ago and am just now unloading it. I am not an expert grader but decent enough.

 

I graded them as best as I could, checked prices at GPA, sent in the obvious ones to CGC. Calibrated my grading eye (not terrible, not great) based on CGC's findings for those 57 books. Began selling CGC slabs on eBay to build up reputation. Raw books will come after slabbed books.

 

Have already run into some of the kind of characters who would make you unhappy given what you wrote above. You are a walking ATM to them, and if you don't wilt under their scorn and start hemorrhaging money they will throw a fit and then move right on. Not fun. Some of these guys are seriously miserable. Have to be.

 

[Mio]

Mainly buying books and then selling them.

 

This... but I haven't managed to get to the "selling" part yet