Collection Organization Tips 7 7

[01TheDude]

As to the Superman comics-- my guess is you got caught up in others passion for the character that you read on the forums. I do not collect him either and somehow have resisted buying any Superman (with the exception of the Kirby related issues). I came close to getting some Flash books too. I think I was influenced over the past 3 years by others posting really cool ocvers or having some discussions about artists. It is understandable-- especially considering the breadth of your collection -- that you would grab up books because they felt like good deals along the way. Odds are you did ok once you decide to let them go and refocus your collection to what you find most important.

Collecting trends seem to infect the board-- we see it when guys start getting excited about price variants or mark jeweler or treasury or PHM and on and on. One good post or thread is all it takes. Reading some golden age threads can be dangerous to your wallet. But the excitement of having a book on the way to be delivered is hard to resist.

[spreads]

14 hours ago, the blob said:

I think it will be alright. I am going to need to go through those DC boxes anyway, plus I already have at least one superman box and one green lantern box from the last time I tried to organize things decades ago. Need to focus on Marvel. While I like Green Lantern, I don't really even like Superman. Why I have so many Superman comics is beyond me.

It's kind of ironic to think non-comic fans would typically associate Superman with comics before any other character, even though his popularity is nothing compared to Batman/Spider-Man.

[shadroch]

When I was getting ready to move and culled some 20 boxes that weren't move worthy, I was shocked how many 1990s Superman titles I had. As I never bought one off the stands, these all came from other collections I bought.

Superman is the DC version of New Mutants. There was a time twenty years ago, when seemingly every collection I looked at had multiple copies of New Mutants 1-10.

[the blob]

13 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

As to the Superman comics-- my guess is you got caught up in others passion for the character that you read on the forums. I do not collect him either and somehow have resisted buying any Superman (with the exception of the Kirby related issues). I came close to getting some Flash books too. I think I was influenced over the past 3 years by others posting really cool ocvers or having some discussions about artists. It is understandable-- especially considering the breadth of your collection -- that you would grab up books because they felt like good deals along the way. Odds are you did ok once you decide to let them go and refocus your collection to what you find most important.

Collecting trends seem to infect the board-- we see it when guys start getting excited about price variants or mark jeweler or treasury or PHM and on and on. One good post or thread is all it takes. Reading some golden age threads can be dangerous to your wallet. But the excitement of having a book on the way to be delivered is hard to resist.

Mostly me not being able to pass up a book with a 25 cent or earlier cover price in decent shape in a dollar box, although I have 30 and 35 centers too...I understand why I bought the Byrne books, and like everyone I have the Doomsday/Death/Re-Birth stuff and so on. 

[F For Fake]

19 hours ago, OrangeCrush said:

I did wind up throwing away 95% of my brown shipping boxes and styrofoam for my Sideshow statues, something most statue collectors deem me absolutely crazy for doing. They just took up WAY too much space. A single 1:4 Sideshow statue box is roughly 2 1/2 feet tall x 2 feet wide x 12-16" deep. Roughly 35 of those boxes can take up 20% of your basement. Throwing those out freed up a CRAPLOAD of space. I kept the art boxes and simply broke them down flat and keep them stored in the basement. As for all of the extra statue pieces like swap out portraits and such, I bought 5 - 18x24 print boxes from light impressions, filled the bottom of each print box with pick and pluck foam and stored them stacked on top of one another in an antique storage trunk we own. Access to those extras is now FAR easier than it used to be. 

 

Man, that takes some resolve. I am THIS close to doing it on some of the SST pieces that I'm 99% sure are lifetime keepers (My DC ladies, my Alien legendary busts), but I am so capricious with my collection, you never really know when I'm going to decide that I don't collect X anymore, so I sell all of my X so I can start buying Y or Z. But you're absolutely right, those PF boxes are enormous and eat up a lot of real estate. I was able to stash all of the boxes for my mid-sized pieces (Batman Black & White statues, Hot Toys, etc.) in tubs in the rafters of my garage. Gets them out of the way but leaves me the option of hanging onto them should I one day decide to sell.

[shadroch]

1 hour ago, F For Fake said:

 

Man, that takes some resolve. I am THIS close to doing it on some of the SST pieces that I'm 99% sure are lifetime keepers (My DC ladies, my Alien legendary busts), but I am so capricious with my collection, you never really know when I'm going to decide that I don't collect X anymore, so I sell all of my X so I can start buying Y or Z. But you're absolutely right, those PF boxes are enormous and eat up a lot of real estate. I was able to stash all of the boxes for my mid-sized pieces (Batman Black & White statues, Hot Toys, etc.) in tubs in the rafters of my garage. Gets them out of the way but leaves me the option of hanging onto them should I one day decide to sell.

I had five nice, premium statues when I moved. Three were bought with boxes, two I bought loose.  Small sample, to be sure but the statues I shipped in original boxes got here fine. Half of the others did not.

They are tremendous space wasters, but I wouldn't chuck them so quickly.

Edited February 21, 2018 by shadroch

[Dick Pontoon]

20 hours ago, the blob said:

The sad thing is I have a garage I organized with a buddy 6 or so years ago when his wife was on vacation with their kids and he was unemployed and it has now been filled to the brim. Garage cleaning organizing, however, needs a nice string of 3-4 rain free days though.

Maybe you should change your board name to The Hoarder.

[F For Fake]

12 minutes ago, shadroch said:

I had five nice, premium statues when I moved. Three were bought with boxes, two I bought loose.  Small sample, to be sure but the statues I shipped in original boxes got here fine. Half of the others did not.

They are tremendous space wasters, but I wouldn't chuck them so quickly.

Yeah, at this point most of those enormous boxes have been sitting around the laundry from for four or five years, so I guess it won't hurt anything for them to sit a bit longer.

[originalisbest]

2 hours ago, F For Fake said:

 

Man, that takes some resolve. I am THIS close to doing it on some of the SST pieces that I'm 99% sure are lifetime keepers (My DC ladies, my Alien legendary busts), but I am so capricious with my collection, you never really know when I'm going to decide that I don't collect X anymore, so I sell all of my X so I can start buying Y or Z. But you're absolutely right, those PF boxes are enormous and eat up a lot of real estate. I was able to stash all of the boxes for my mid-sized pieces (Batman Black & White statues, Hot Toys, etc.) in tubs in the rafters of my garage. Gets them out of the way but leaves me the option of hanging onto them should I one day decide to sell.

I like the rafters idea a lot, provided there's room for it to work! But storing light, empty, but bulky, space-sucking stuff in the rafters is a great choice.

[the blob]

57 minutes ago, Pontoon said:

Maybe you should change your board name to The Hoarder.

It is more a problem of me tossing stuff in there rather than taking my time to put it away nicely.  Ironically, I found a large fully disassembled (with all pieces) practically brand new heavy duty steel shelving system from ikea on the street (not a cheap thing either, very sturdy) that basically filled my car and I brought it home with the intention of putting it together and having more shelving in the garage. Well, it has never been put together and all those pieces are consuming about 1/3 of my floor space right now.

[F For Fake]

1 hour ago, originalisbest said:

I like the rafters idea a lot, provided there's room for it to work! But storing light, empty, but bulky, space-sucking stuff in the rafters is a great choice.

Thanks, I have a good idea once in a blue moon! Our garage has quite a bit of space in the rafters that was mostly unused, except for some plastic tubs for our outdoor christmas and halloween decorations. I was able to fit four or five more tubs of boxes up there, (mostly) out of sight, out of mind! It at least got them out of the basement.

[OrangeCrush]

6 hours ago, F For Fake said:

 

Man, that takes some resolve. I am THIS close to doing it on some of the SST pieces that I'm 99% sure are lifetime keepers (My DC ladies, my Alien legendary busts), but I am so capricious with my collection, you never really know when I'm going to decide that I don't collect X anymore, so I sell all of my X so I can start buying Y or Z. But you're absolutely right, those PF boxes are enormous and eat up a lot of real estate. I was able to stash all of the boxes for my mid-sized pieces (Batman Black & White statues, Hot Toys, etc.) in tubs in the rafters of my garage. Gets them out of the way but leaves me the option of hanging onto them should I one day decide to sell.

Trust me, it was a LOT harder than I described it. I dropped them off at this recycling drop off that is like 4 miles from my house and I was literally going back and forth in my head as to wether or not I should continue to go through with it the entire time I was dropping them off and it took 5 trips in total to drop them all off. And that entire night, well into the next day, I was tempted to drive back and pick them all back up again, but once I got past the first couple days I really started to stop thinking about them and roughly a week later I was really content with my decision to get rid of them. I was literally at the point where I had very little space left so I had to choose from one of 3 options. I could stop collecting altogether and just be content with what I had, I could sell some of my old stuff to make room for new stuff, or I could toss a bunch of empty boxes that were taking up a huge part of my basement. Obviously, I chose the last option. I could also have gotten a storage bin, but spending X amount each month to store a bunch of empty boxes just didn't sit right with me. 

Investment plays no role in my statue purchases and I really have no plans on ever selling any of them. If I get my way, my son will be figuring out what to do with them when I am dead and buried. So the boxes really were disposable for me, but it was still EXTREMELY hard throwing them away. Again, I did keep the art boxes. I just broke them down flat and stored them in between some other boxes we have down in our basement. And the system I came up with for storing the various extras for my statues, which I explained in my last post, is actually VASTLY superior to keeping them stored in thier original boxes as not only are they better protected in the pick and pluck foam, but their also much easier to get too now. I can now get to any of my statues extra's in less than a minute, where as before I would have had to dig through all of the boxes to find the right box, open it up, pull out the piece I was looking for and then put all the boxes back again. It really is a great system and there is plenty of room left for future statue purchases.

Edited February 21, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[F For Fake]

6 minutes ago, OrangeCrush said:

Trust me, it was a LOT harder than I described it. I dropped them off at this recycling drop off that is like 4 miles from my house and I was literally going back and forth in my head as to wether or not I should continue to go through with it the entire time I was dropping them off and it took 5 trips in total to drop them all off. And that entire night, well into the next day, I was tempted to drive back and pick them all back up again, but once I got past the first couple days I really started to stop thinking about them and roughly a week later I was really content with my decision to get rid of them. I was literally at the point where I had very little space left so I had to choose from one of 3 options. I could stop collecting altogether and just be content with what I had, I could sell some of my old stuff to make room for new stuff, or I could toss a bunch of empty boxes that were taking up a huge part of my basement. Obviously, I chose the last option. I could also have gotten a storage bin, but spending X amount each month to store a bunch of empty boxes just didn't sit right with me. 

Investment plays no role in my statue purchases and I really have no plans on ever selling any of them. If I get my way, my son will be figuring out what to do with them when I am dead and buried. So the boxes really were disposable for me, but it was still EXTREMELY hard throwing them away. Again, I did keep the art boxes. I just broke them down flat and stored them in between some other boxes we have down in our basement. And the system I came up with for storing the various extras for my statues, which I explained in my last post, is actually VASTLY superior to keeping them stored in thier original boxes as not only are they better protected in the pink and pluck foam, but their also much easier to get too now. I can now get to any of my statues extra's in less than a minute, where as before I would have had to dig through all of the boxes to find the right box, open it up, pull out the piece I was looking for and then put all the boxes back again. It really is a great system and there is plenty of room left for future statue purchases.

I never buy statues with the intention of selling them, I just have collecting ADHD, my interests bounce around a bit, so sometimes I decide to channel funds from one piece into something new. I can only imagine what it must have looked like dragging all of those blocks of styrofoam away. Geez louise.

[OrangeCrush]

42 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

I never buy statues with the intention of selling them, I just have collecting ADHD, my interests bounce around a bit, so sometimes I decide to channel funds from one piece into something new. I can only imagine what it must have looked like dragging all of those blocks of styrofoam away. Geez louise.

Yeah, I can understand that as I am really the same way.  I collect a LOT of different things, but never all at the same time. As you stated, I just kind of bounce around between all of my various collecting hobbies as time goes on. There is really no method to the madness. My interests just kind of shift randomly depending on the various collectibles being released on the market or various things that wind up popping up on eBay, Kickstarter, etc. My wife is a big collector as well so we go to a lot of estate sales and storage bin auctions and the items that wind up being at some of those sales/auctions can get me collecting in a particular market again. I do have some hobbies where investment plays a role, but statues are definitely not one of them and the quality of statues has risen so dramatically in the last 4-5 years that I highly doubt I am going to reach a point where I want to get rid of any of them due to the quality. The house fire we wound up having in 2008 did a LOT of purging for me. That is really one of the only good things that came from that fire as I likely would have wanted to sell many of my older statues due to that large increase in quality we have seen. Many of those older statues would have just looked terrible next to these newer pieces that are being released. Sideshow's Thanos is a perfect example. I don't care how much statues continue to improve in the future, I just can't see myself ever looking at that piece and thinking that its just not good enough anymore. That's really one of the main reasons I was capable of throwing away those boxes. The statues I own now are just so amazing looking that I just can't see myself ever wanting to get rid of them due to quality. Another example is Harbottle's Red Sonja. I have serious doubts if I will ever see a better rendition of that character. Again, some of the pieces that have been released these last few years are just so amazing looking that the chance of me ever wanting to sell them is really at the slim to none level.

And worse come to worst, you can still sell a statue even without the box. Your just going to take a hit on the overall value.  I figure as long as the statue is in mint condition and you have all the accessories, you will likely lose around $100, maybe $150 tops for not having the styrofoam and brown shipping box. 

Edited February 21, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[the blob]

16 minutes ago, OrangeCrush said:

Yeah, I can understand that as I am really the same way.  I collect a LOT of different things, but never all at the same time. As you stated, I just kind of just bounce around between all of my various collecting hobbies as time goes on. There is really no method to the madness. My interests just kind of shift randomly depending on the various collectibles being released on the market or various things that wind up popping up on eBay, Kickstarter, etc. My wife is a big collector as well so we go to a lot of estate sales and storage bin auctions and the items that wind up being at some of those sales/auctions can get me collecting in a particular market again. I do have some hobbies where investment plays a role, but statues are definitely not one of them and the quality of statues has risen so dramatically in the last 4-5 years that I highly doubt I am going to reach a point where I want to get rid of any of them due to the quality. The house fire we wound up having in 2008 did a LOT of purging for me. That is really one of the only good things that came from that fire as I likely would have wanted to sell many of my older statues due to that large increase in quality we have seen. Many of those older statues would have just looked terrible next to these newer pieces that are being released. Sideshow's Thanos is a perfect example. I don't care how much statues continue to improve in the future, I just can't see myself ever looking at that piece and thinking that its just not good enough anymore. That's really one of the main reasons I was capable of throwing away those boxes. The statues I own now are just so amazing looking that I just can't see myself ever wanting to get rid of them due to quality. Another example is Harbottle's Red Sonja. I have serious doubts if I will ever see a better rendition of that character. Again, some of the pieces that have been released these last few years are just so amazing looking that the chance of me ever wanting to sell them is really at the slim to none level. 

 

I have never been bit by the statute bug. I agree they look cool, and I wouldn't turn a cool one down, but that is money I don't have! (and frankly, my set-up just wouldn't work for them) With that said, IF you ever did need to sell one of these, is not having the box going to be a problem? I was looking at a Hulk one on the forum here and it looked like the info (240 of 2500) was on the box or something.

 

[OrangeCrush]

6 hours ago, shadroch said:

I had five nice, premium statues when I moved. Three were bought with boxes, two I bought loose.  Small sample, to be sure but the statues I shipped in original boxes got here fine. Half of the others did not.

They are tremendous space wasters, but I wouldn't chuck them so quickly.

I moved 4 times in a 6 year period when I was in art school and 2 of those times I actually moved my statues without the original boxes as I had the boxes stored in my parents basement back then and it was a hour drive one way to my parents house and I just didn't feel like driving and picking them up. All you do is wrap the statues in a bunch of soft t-shirts and put them in boxes with plenty of shipping peanuts. As long as you do that and handle them carefully, you won't have any problem moving your statues without the original boxes. That being said, I would never ship them in the mail without the original boxes. I would wind up driving them in a U-haul if I ever had to move again. 

Not to mention, the chances of us moving at this point in the game is like a million to one. Both of our houses are paid off and there is literally no reason for us to move. My mother and father have both passed away, but my wife's family lives only around 45 minutes away. Plus I have my business, which would take a HUGE hit if I were to move and my wife has a great job that she has been at for over 10 years and its just a 25 minute drive for her. And Oakland County MI is one of the safest places to live in the entire US. Farmington Hills currently ranks 44th in the country, but were also right on the border of West Bloomfield, which is ranked 9th in the entire US. Plus I put a ton of effort into building my darkroom and the art studio room that we both share. Moving at this point would honestly be one of the dumbest moves we could make. So moving my statues is just not something I have to worry about anymore, which is ultimately just another thing that factored into my decision to throw my boxes & styrofoam away. 

50 minutes ago, the blob said:

I have never been bit by the statute bug. I agree they look cool, and I wouldn't turn a cool one down, but that is money I don't have! (and frankly, my set-up just wouldn't work for them) With that said, IF you ever did need to sell one of these, is not having the box going to be a problem? I was looking at a Hulk one on the forum here and it looked like the info (240 of 2500) was on the box or something.

 

Not a huge problem as long as the statue is in mint condition. You would just likely lose $100-$150 in value. There are PLENTY of statue collectors out there looking for a killer deal and that is one of the ways you can get one. I have seen plenty of statues sell over the years without the original box. Again, you just wind up taking a hit on the overall value. And yeah, the statue market has definitely gotten a lot more expensive in recent years as the quality of the statues has increased. Even Sideshow's statues, which are at the lower end of the price scale on the high end market, have risen in price significantly. 1:4 Sideshow statues used to be $300-$350 and now thier at $500-$550+, with some going as high as $699 now. Deadpool & Bane are the most expensive 1:4 Premium Format Statue's Sideshow has released to date and they were both $699. So its definitely a hobby you wind up dumping some serious cash into, especially if you buy a lot of statues. Sideshow has just been killing me the last 2 years. Its just been one piece after another that I couldn't say no too. 

Edited February 21, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[ADAMANTIUM]

20 minutes ago, the blob said:

 

I have never been bit by the statute bug. I agree they look cool, and I wouldn't turn a cool one down, but that is money I don't have! (and frankly, my set-up just wouldn't work for them) With that said, IF you ever did need to sell one of these, is not having the box going to be a problem? I was looking at a Hulk one on the forum here and it looked like the info (240 of 2500) was on the box or something.

 

The box of a limited and numbered statue will help with a sale.... as any original packaging would, I guess it saves face for opening it period that the numbering is on the package   as compared to an action figure that you'd never be able to get back in the packaging....

Edited February 21, 2018 by ADAMANTIUM

[OrangeCrush]

19 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

The box of a limited and numbered statue will help with a sale.... as any original packaging would, I guess it saves face for opening it period that the numbering is on the package   as compared to an action figure that you'd never be able to get back in the packaging....

Most high end statues have the number on the bottom of the statue, so you still know what number it is even without the packaging, but your absolutely right. Having the original packaging makes it easier to sell and you will get more money for it. Here are a couple of examples of the bottoms of Sideshow's statues:

Again, the statue being in mint condition is the most important thing and you will still be able to sell high end statues even without the box. Your just going to take a hit on the overall value and it will likely take longer to sell. You might wind up having to re-list it a couple of times. 

Edited February 21, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[the blob]

And are these boxes not something that can be broken down an folded up, or is the issue the styrophome packing on the inside that fits the statute?

[ADAMANTIUM]

3 minutes ago, the blob said:

And are these boxes not something that can be broken down an folded up, or is the issue the styrophome packing on the inside that fits the statute?

There is the box, the Styrofoam, and also the little baggies that each piece of the statue comes in. Often with higher priced statues it comes in pieces, as some are fragile, and each piece has a specific place within the Styrofoam that might also have a pad or cloth to keep it soft to protect the fragileness...