How do you collect?

[Psiknight]

After jumping back into comics and seeing books in slabbs for the first time I was intrigued and probably spent the first year impluse buying whatever came along that caught my attention, and of course its endless. So after selling some of those books that maybe had cream pages but I never paid any attention to at the time or unloading those books that were not super important for me to have (and of course losing money in the process) I decided to take a more focused approached. Some rules of thumb that have served me well.

 

Make a list of your top 20-30 books, scan all the titles you like and those that you never paid much attention to in the past because you will likely discover a few books. Go over that list in conjunction with your budget and decide which are your top 10 must have books and focus on obtaining them. Of course you will always stray because there are some books that you will have to grab as they come along. Since I started to use a list I have been very staified with how my colection has developed. I don't find myself saying well if I sell these books I can buy something I really have been after for some time. I have already set my sights months ago on the next 5 books I want to buy and hope to purchase them shortly. Once you have your core books you can sit back patiently and cherry pick the rest.

 

Also, try and decide on a certain grade(s) that you will be content with for the long term and understand what impact PQ and QP has on the resale value of a book.

 

Good post. After a couple of years of collecting back issues I've come to the same conclusions you've reached. Initially, I started collecting raw mid grade SA's, HG BA's, and low grade GA's. I've since resold most of these books at a 30% loss due to overgrading or moving on to something different. It should be noted that I didn't lose any money on the low grade GA stuff. Those books were mostly graded accurately.

 

Once I made the transition into collecting mid and higher grade GA books, I've seldom purchased any more SA or BA books. I'm comfortable with this position since the GA books on my want list hardly ever show up. When I was collecting SA, I would constantly jump from one title to the next without any rhyme or reason. I'd see a nice set Iron Man's or Thor's and I'd purchase the books without any thought. Two weeks later, a better deal would come along. I don't have that remorse with GA books, since 90% of the books I purchase don't show up on a regular basis.

 

I try to be that way but my Nintendo generation attention span causes me to want to jump around. I really enjoy Barks Donald Duck books but there are some pretty wealthy people out there that can always - and do - out spend me whenever a duck book comes up that I want. It's actually pretty discouraging sometimes and it makes me want to jump back into the other comic ages where the books I like actually come up and I can probably win them.

[batman_fan]

For me, I have picked certain titles and gone for picking up the entire run. It has taken me since 1972 to finish my Batman run. My Spiderman is almost done, Daredevil is also close. Detective needs some work. As someone once told me "I heard you bit off a little more than you can chew, well, just keep chewing and you will get it down" That is my collecting approach as well, set a goal and stick to it. If I think I can finish my Detective run in a few years, I am kidding myself. If I plan for finishing it in 20 years, I have a shot. Slow and steady ...

[Norrin_Radd]

For me, I have picked certain titles and gone for picking up the entire run. It has taken me since 1972 to finish my Batman run. My Spiderman is almost done, Daredevil is also close. Detective needs some work. As someone once told me "I heard you bit off a little more than you can chew, well, just keep chewing and you will get it down" That is my collecting approach as well, set a goal and stick to it. If I think I can finish my Detective run in a few years, I am kidding myself. If I plan for finishing it in 20 years, I have a shot. Slow and steady ...

 

Interesting observations. I'm always amazed by your dedication in obtaining your Batman and Detective runs.

 

I guess I want to start with my favorites and work from there.

[SuperBird]

I've been collecting since '83 or so. Through the 80's it was all First, PC, Eclipse, and other alterative publishers, who were pumping out some really great material. In the 90's I traded away a ton of baseball cards for a ton of mid and low grade silver age stuff- seeing as how both the cards I traded and the comics I got are essentially worthless now, it was a fair deal.

 

Then cleaning out from my parents house I came upon an old copy of this Superman hardback- Superman From the 30's to the 70's. I remember getting this when I was like 6 years old and paging through all those awsome GA Supes covers think how old and cool they were. But I always assumed I could never afford them!

 

Fast foward a few years, and I see a copy of Superman #32 on a dealer's wall for a few hundred$$. Which I COULD afford. After getting one as a present from the wife, and encouragement from her to get some more, and now I'm bitten.

 

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So these days 95% of my collecting is on early GA Action books, all in 'affordable' grade. For the most part, I look for clean books with good colors with some major defect that keeps them from grading higher. If I keep at it, buying 6-12 books a year, hopefully sometime in the future I'll complete a run of Action #10-63 or thereabouts.

 

Plus as many of those early Superman covers as I can get on the cheap!

[eccomic]

How do I Collect?

 

As my Forum User Name implies, I have a virtually complete run of all of the EC NEW TREND TITLES:

 

1. MAD 1-400

2. Tales from the Crypt # 21-46

3. Haunt of Fear # 15-28

4. Vault of Horror # 12-40

5. Shock Suspenstories # 1-18

6. Crime Suspenstories # 1-27

7. Weird Science # 12-22

8. Weird Fantasy # 13-22

9. Weird Science Fantasy 23-29

Shock Ilustrated # 3

Weird Suspenstories # 1-3 RARE Canadian Hybrids

 

I also specialize in Canadian "WHITES" Golden Age War era comics with black and white interiors with the LARGEST collection in the world with almost 400 individual books. I will never complete the runs due to the sheer rarity of these books with gives me the impetus to continue focusing on just collecting these rarities and nothing else

 

I also happen to won BOTH the Canadian MARVEL MYSTERY and CAPTAIN AMERICA TIMELY 128 PG B & W Annual as well

[eccomic]

OOPS!

 

I forgot to mention my compete runs of:

 

Panic # 1-12

Valor/Impact/Piracy

Two Fisted Tales

Frontline Combat