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Have you become more, or less, picky/OCD as you collect over the years?
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Started by Venomous72,

19 posts in this topic

Venomous72

Venomous72

Posted
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I have slowly become less OCD about my books, especially big Silver Age or older books.  Page quality, small tears, stains that do not affect the primary art work, etc do not bother me like they used to which feels quite freeing and opens up a lot of options for me as I expand my collection.
 

There are some things I try and avoid still, like random names on cover or tape (and rusted staples are right out), but going for a nice CR/OW Silver Age with a couple light stains would have been an absolute pass for me a couple years back.

I focus on overall presentation and eye appeal now.

 

What about you guys?

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Mr. Zipper

Mr. Zipper

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I am trying to complete some runs... Avengers 1 - 200 is an example. For the big books, I get the best I can afford. For the filler books, I try to maintain a VF minimum and I would drive myself crazy with that. It's gotten to the point where I've eased up a bit. I'm not going to agonize as to whether an Avengers 168 is a 7.5 or an 8.0. I just can't do it anymore... life is too short.

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Venomous72

Venomous72

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On 1/28/2022 at 9:15 AM, Mr. Zipper said:

I am trying to complete some runs... Avengers 1 - 200 is an example. For the big books, I get the best I can afford. For the filler books, I try to maintain a VF minimum and I would drive myself crazy with that. It's gotten to the point where I've eased up a bit. I'm not going to agonize as to whether an Avengers 168 is a 7.5 or an 8.0. I just can't do it anymore... life is too short.

I agree, and have also started on the Avengers run (I only have number 1 so far lol) and the older the books the less concerned I am with the grade.  I just want to own some history.

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MattTheDuck

MattTheDuck

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I'd have to say "more" but there's a giant, over 4-decade gap between when I bought books almost regardless of quality and today when I'm trying hard to buy only higher grade books.  I wish I'd had OCD about book quality in the 70s, but then I might not actually own any Silver Age books.  The truth is I probably would have chosen higher grade books in the 70s, but I rarely had access to any and didn't even know to look for them.  The only book I ever saw but declined to buy was a remaindered copy of FF #10 - so I did have some standard :)

 

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Lord Gemini

Lord Gemini

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Posted

More in general, but it depends what I'm trying to do. I still work on completing some runs with many lower grade reader copies, but books I really value, I try to buy with as few defects as possible. That being said, if a book is pretty rare, I'll be a little more lenient.

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Pat Thomas

Pat Thomas

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I only wanted NM comics for my main titles (ASM, Avengers) when I collected back in the 70's and early 80's, and after 20 years away, was still in that mindset when I started from scratch again in 2010. But as much as I enjoyed owning all NM copies of a title, I eventually realized that most issues in a run are fillers and it doesn't matter if some of them are VF (or even FN!). I saved a ton of money that way and collected both titles within a couple of years. Eye appeal is important to me, and I can't deal with brittleness or missing sections of the cover. Interior cut-outs are still off-limits whether it affects the story or not. My OCD these days is mainly triggered by old bags with price stickers, wrinkly, or turning yellow. Any comic Bronze or older gets fresh Silver Age size mylar and 2 boards for sturdiness and needs to be in its place immediately if I'm not reading it. Comics piling up in random order still get under my skin quickly.                    

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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Posted (edited)

I believe the condition is far more complex than simply being anxiety about miswraps, creases and stains.

I’ve had bad lifelong OCD, and my focus on finding the nicest-presenting copy at the most affordable price is actually a fairly minor concern and manifestation of that.  Of course, with the recent enormous price rises that process is no longer feasible in many cases, impossible for me to compete, but I also wouldn’t be happy downgrading at an inflated price.  
 

There are other obsessive and impulsivity issues for me to consider in my decision to put some distance between myself and these fixations.  I’ve become increasingly disinterested in nostalgically holding on to the past, another obsession which I don’t consider to be that healthy, and which is easily exploited.  I’ve developed a better understanding of the FOMO effect and its power in markets such as this one, and how toxic it is for those of us with OCD and impulsivity issues.  All are stressors, and I’ve found that complete abstinence, the safe cocoon of the digital world, is by far the best option for me now, where the worst defect I might have to analyse is a dead pixel.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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SeniorSurfer

SeniorSurfer

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When I was younger I was always looking for books without missing pieces, chipping, tanning/shading or writing.  PQ is more of a factor now only because I wasn't too aware of it at the time, though opening up a few books bought from shows and seeing brown/yellow pages made it an issue before CGC.  I was looking for stuff like this because I'd been buying since the early 60s, before any special bags or boards were available, and since I kept my books in the best condition possible I expected the same from an external book that was going into the PC.  Since now I'm only trying to finish the big SA key first appearances from when I was a kid, with an eye for a random GA book every so often (good thing neither are very expensive now :ohnoez:) and I'm having to pay big bucks for these books, I'm definitely the same, if not even moreso.

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Cat

Cat

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Thanks to a few NM books from MH back when I was still unfortunately dealing with them, I've decided I don't want books with leftover food or drink in them. Not a crumb. 

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rexinnih

rexinnih

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Posted

I think I'm more picky because I'm now more educated on the condition of books. Back in the 80's/90's when I was a youngster collecting pretty much weekly, just would go into LCS and grab the first one facing me on the shelf. Now, I closely look at the spine, corners, etc. Always pop into my head, I think this would be a CGC X.X grade. 

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Hamlet

Hamlet

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It all depends on price and availability to me.  I’m thrilled to pull ragged SA books out of dollar boxes and add them to my collection.  If I’m spending real money I’m more picky. I generally am never interested in spending the money for uber-high grade though. 

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universal soldier

universal soldier

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That's a tough one, probably more? I have a general baseline of VF but often will go much lower for keys or to complete runs with older books. On the other hand, I find my self looking to upgrade books that were part of OO collection. (There is a point where you can see when I started to understand that comics had value and the average grade increases.)

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