Various Newbie Questions 0

[Enkmar]

Hello folks. I'm considering taking my comic collecting to the next level, to get more into the hobby, and I have several basic questions.

 

1) Am I in the right place? I'm completely new to this, and this forum seems a little... slanted towards the higher end of comic collecting? What with the grading and all... Is there a forum that I, as a more casual collector, should be looking at?

2) Critique my "plan" for me? I have bought mostly TPBs in the past, but as I decided I wanted to be more involved with my hobby, I started going to my local shop and buying comics. I'm sure you all know the pros and cons of each - comics can run a little more money, but I get the issues as they come out vs TPBs save me money in the long run, but I have to wait longer to get them. My middle ground plan I came up with is to get TPBs for most everything, since a lot of what I like is older stuff and collecting back issues of comics even as recent as Batman Rebirth is just too pricey for me. I'm going to select, soon, a comic series that has recently come out or is due to come out and get an early start on it to dodge the whole back issue problem. This way I get the best of both worlds.

3) Any suggestions for a recent comic series? Here's the problem I've been having. I'll pick a random comic and buy a bunch of issues and then be a little disappointed in the story, while I've been ignoring the series that everyone says is so good. Now I can't really get some of those series because the issues are too expensive, like Saga, or even Daredevil or X-Men: Gold's most recent runs seem to be pretty pricey, and I'm wondering what I'm missing? I'm tired of missing the good runs, so I really want to save my money and bide my time, be patient and when the next good series comes out, I want to be a part of it, read a good story, and maybe have some comics that go up in value for a change. 

Any and all help would be immensely appreciated. I'll revisit this thread with more questions as I discover them.

 

[FN-2199]

Hello and welcome to the boards!

1) I started on another site at first because there was so much content here, I was a little overwhelmed. Once that site died, I came here and am keeping up fine. I think that this forum is fine for the casual collector as long as you realize most casual collectors aren't posting but just watching. Also realize some of the members here who talk the most have small collections compared many others and some don't even collect slabbed books.

2) It sounds like you are really interested in the stories. This is refreshing to hear because many in this forum get lost in the $$ of comics over the stories. I'm sure many would appreciate your voice when threads get derailed by talk of $$ instead of content.

3) Give us a little more about what you are interested in. I'm sure lots of guys will tell you "Just read 1950s westerns" and others will say that you have to read a bunch of manga titles.

[Terrapin]

If you're not interested in collecting books for potential future value and only for reading pleasure then you can save a lot of cash by reading them online. Almost any book old or new can be read online for free.

[Philflound]

On 9/20/2017 at 9:53 PM, Terrapin said:

If you're not interested in collecting books for potential future value and only for reading pleasure then you can save a lot of cash by reading them online. Almost any book old or new can be read online for free.

Actually you can read a couple of issues online and decide if you like the books. Then if you want them in hand, purchase them. I would suggest buying lots on Ebay as you can probably pick up runs of many issues in a title for a fraction of the cost it would be in your local comic shop. Also, if you can pick up most of the title, you can use your lcs to pick up the missing issues if they have them. You may also try local comic shows if there are any to fill in gaps. Many small local shows will have dealers bringing dollar boxes. also a good means of picking up titles or issues you may want to try out without putting much money into them.