How are you coping? 4 4

[thehumantorch]

I've sold a lot of books that I regret.  I don't dwell on it as it would drive me crazy.  The hardest part is rebuying a book I've sold, for a lot more money.  

[WolverineX]

I don't dwell on my books but I do think about the bitcoin I sold off. Makes me a little bitter but such is life.

[GermanFan]

I convince myself that prices have to come down eventually, if only because of demographics. With the vast amounts of money being printed prices may rise even more, just look at he crypto art craze, its like the south sea bubble or the tulip mania but someday people will realize that there is too much money around and buying power of the dollar/euro will decline. You can cheat reality only for a certain time.

[silverseeker]

While I have regrets here and there over a few books I sold (fortunately we're talking about hundreds and not thousands of dollars of lost opportunity), my much bigger regret is not buying some books (I'm talking to you, X-Men #1 ) before the market exploded, because even if (when?) the market calms down prices will still be so much higher than they were 3-4 years ago.

The price increases TOS #39 saw after the first MCU movie should have been all the motivation I needed to make the big keys my highest priority, but I didn't.

I was still able to acquire a lot of second-tier key books (early ASMs, FF #48-#50 and #52, X-Men #4, etc.) that have appreciated, but I don't know how many of the big keys will be achievable now...

[WolverineX]

13 minutes ago, GermanFan said:

I convince myself that prices have to come down eventually, if only because of demographics. With the vast amounts of money being printed prices may rise even more, just look at he crypto art craze, its like the south sea bubble or the tulip mania but someday people will realize that there is too much money around and buying power of the dollar/euro will decline. You can cheat reality only for a certain time.

I think the crypto art craze is driven by people who are made rich by crypto, so easy come, easy go.  

[ADAMANTIUM]

Biggest regret 

Traded

ASM 129 cgc 4.5 and Silver Surfer #4 cgc 8.0 cream to off white for this statue 

 

[Mike Bray]

should I have bought all the low grade copies ( 1.0 to 2.5 ) of AF 15 and Spiderman # 1 back in the early 90`s for a few hundreds each that were at a bunch of the show s I set up at  --- ........   oh wait -- I could have -- but I didn't --- life goes on ....

[JollyComics]

I hate when it happens after I sold my gems before the prices skyrocket.  Those sane prices would help me to pay off my debts in a short time.

[aardvark88]

44 minutes ago, GermanFan said:

I convince myself that prices have to come down eventually. With the vast amounts of money being printed prices may rise even more, just look at he crypto art craze, its like the south sea bubble or the tulip mania.

Surprised inflation or stagflation has not already hit the USA and Canada in 2021, as slabbed paper collectibles HA.com and other auction prices going krazy:

 

[JazzMan]

Where's that dude who traded his TOS 39 for a set of rims?

[xvipah]

It's not the books for me, it's the MTG cards. Started playing during unlimited (right after Beta) and started a collection of "all black cards from Revised back". Basically if it was a black card, I had it and did not play with it, ever.. Sold em all a few years back for reasons. Now I see a 9.5 Juzam Djinn up for sale for 15k...  

[The Lions Den]

I don't worry about things I can't control...   

[greggy]

41 minutes ago, The Lions Den said:

I don't worry about things I can't control...   

Correct

People always dwell on what they have sold but don't focus on what that sale contributed to your current collection.

I graded and sold a ton of high grade Marvel Bronze keys in or around 2003-2005 but I parlayed it into my collection that I have now.

It's like those people who say that Chuck should have kept the Mile High collection keys to himself but the funds wouldn't have been available for him to use to expand his business...etc

I don't focus on anything that I've sold cuz in the long run, it's history. 

[Dergrosse13]

Well, I fortunately don’t have this problem because I’ve only been collecting for about two years. I’ve only sold 1 book - a CGC 9.6 Star Wars 43 for about $500 that I paid about $75 for in 2019.  At the same time, I also got into collecting PSA graded Star Wars cards. If you think comics have exploded, you ain’t seen nothing. I sold a few graded cards for about 10x what I paid for them, and used the proceeds to buy a low-grade CGC Avengers 1. 

My regret will likely be not selling the CGC 9.6 Star Wars 1 that I paid about $230 for. Those are now selling north of 1k. But that book has a lot of sentimental value and I just can’t part with it.  I think the SW1 prices on offer today will inevitably drop because there are no shortage of them out there. But oh well. My other problem is that all the Silver and Bronze Age keys are now so damn expensive. I kind of feel like it’s irresponsible to pay for them now when it’s not clear those kind of prices are sustainable when people can start spending money again on all the things Covid has curtailed.

[ExNihilo]

Easy, I just don't sell my keys.  

The ones that bug me are the books I bought with my eyes and not my heart.  That is, impulse buys that seemed like a good idea, but weren't really part of my long term collecting goals.

[silverseeker]

21 minutes ago, greggy said:

Correct

People always dwell on what they have sold but don't focus on what that sale contributed to your current collection.

I graded and sold a ton of high grade Marvel Bronze keys in or around 2003-2005 but I parlayed it into my collection that I have now.

It's like those people who say that Chuck should have kept the Mile High collection keys to himself but the funds wouldn't have been available for him to use to expand his business...etc

I don't focus on anything that I've sold cuz in the long run, it's history. 

This is a great way of looking at it, and the key is what you did with the cash you made from selling your books...

• Did you just lose your job, and needed to raise funds to cover living expenses? No regrets...
• Did you buy a house, pay for a wedding, etc.? No regrets...
• Did you buy other books that have also appreciated? No regrets...
• Did you buy other books that have not appreciated? I guess it depends on whether or not you enjoy the replacement books more...
• Did you blow it all on crack? 

[thehumantorch]

1 hour ago, JazzMan said:

Where's that dude who traded his TOS 39 for a set of rims?

rimshot 

[Math Teacher]

Well, earlier this year I sold some minor keys (FF #13, JiM #85, BatB #54, ST #101, MGA #80, Flash #137, AF #15 0.5, and Batman #232) to fund my purchase of an AF #15 CGC 2.5. I don't regret that decision at all. In fact, I've already picked up a replacement copy of FF #13, as I don't want my FF collection to be incomplete.

Now, here are things I do regret:

Selling X-Men #1 - #300 to address some financial problems we were having. What really hurt was that I ended up buying X-Men #1 - #16 again.
Selling Brave and the Bold #28 - #200, for the same reason.

[thehumantorch]

1 hour ago, xvipah said:

It's not the books for me, it's the MTG cards. Started playing during unlimited (right after Beta) and started a collection of "all black cards from Revised back". Basically if it was a black card, I had it and did not play with it, ever.. Sold em all a few years back for reasons. Now I see a 9.5 Juzam Djinn up for sale for 15k...  

I started in 4th and had a ton of cards.  Sold the good stuff to a LCS for $800 sigh.  43 dual lands including a few Alpha and Beta and playsets of pretty well every useful card and lots of other good cards although I never owned any power 9.  I did dig out what I had left and found some good cards.  Starting to sell them off now.

[xvipah]

I literally finished selling off all my loose cards about 3 weeks ago. Went to my local LCS and bulk sold a box or 2. All the big stuff had been sold already. Except one, for some reason I had a Gate of Phyrexia sitting in a box here. So I sent it in to get graded, see what that was all about. Waiting on it to get back.  I mean, it's no Mox or Lotus, but I am interested to see how card grading works, etc...

5 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

I started in 4th and had a ton of cards.  Sold the good stuff to a LCS for $800 sigh.  43 dual lands including a few Alpha and Beta and playsets of pretty well every useful card and lots of other good cards although I never owned any power 9.  I did dig out what I had left and found some good cards.  Starting to sell them off now.