I Keep Making The Same Collecting Mistakes… 1 1

[ADAMANTIUM]

Talk about mistakes mine may or may not involve gobs of slabs with no pressing. But I still say the 100 slabs that I did with cost at $18 per modern (but with discount still applied making it cheaper than $18) enabled me to keep said books without disregarding them forever.

Idk how many people are buying raws of x-force or the like to slab, but it still may have come in cheaper than a 9.6/9.8 cost of a slab even in today's market.

Time will tell if that $10-15 Dollars I saved per book with no pressing made a difference... 😂

Then there is the cost to press that may have even been lower before hand, but $25 no discount to slab a modern has become picky picky picky before any press considered.

Old hash debate that makes it easier to not like pressing, but it has served a purpose somehow in the market whether willingly or unwilling.

Edited December 2, 2023 by ADAMANTIUM

[ADAMANTIUM]

Pressing auto corrects to pressure good to know!

[D2]

On 12/1/2023 at 8:27 PM, universal soldier said:

Some of the mistakes I mainly make are with moderns. I might collect about 15 titles a month and most recently they relaunched She-hulk. The series prior was kinda  but I stuck through it. The latest series took me all of one issue to tap out. My LCS automatically signs you up when a series reboots and I never opted out during the relaunch. Certainly a lot less expensive than what @D2 was refernceing but I keep doing it over and over. It's the completionist in me that keeps me buying ...

Well to be fair, I think any raw comic book over $50 is expensive, especially after reading it, you think it sucks  

But I agree, a lot of what people are saying is the online method is the fastest, cheapest way to see what you like, and move on. 

[stormflora]

On 12/1/2023 at 8:44 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

Talk about mistakes mine may or may not involve gobs of slabs with no pressing. But I still say the 100 slabs that I did with cost at $18 per modern (but with discount still applied making it cheaper than $18) enabled me to keep said books without disregarding them forever.

Idk how many people are buying raws of x-force or the like to slab, but it still may have come in cheaper than a 9.6/9.8 cost of a slab even in today's market.

Time will tell if that $10-15 Dollars I saved per book with no pressing made a difference... 😂

Then there is the cost to press that may have even been lower before hand, but $25 no discount to slab a modern has become picky picky picky before any press considered.

Old hash debate that makes it easier to not like pressing, but it has served a purpose somehow in the market whether willingly or unwilling.

Considering the cost of commercial pressing and the cost of buying a heat press to do it yourself, it almost seems silly not to just spend a few days to research about doing it yourself and buying the materials necessary. There are plenty of online (video) resources to dumb down the process, so it's hard to mess up as long as you copy someone 1:1 for the procedure and parts, and practice on low value/reader comics first.

[D2]

On 12/1/2023 at 12:37 PM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

This topic strikes close to home for me. Now that I've gotten back into the hobby after 30 years away I've been focused on collecting stuff I never even noticed when I was a Teenage Marvel Zombie - bronze horror and sci-fi, romance books with great covers, and a lot of Betty and Veronica stuff. I always looked straight past these books and now that I'm in my 50's I find myself wanting to experience the parts of the hobby that my teenage superhero collecting and silly over-interest in Marvel and DC "continuity" blinded me to. But I'm sort of afraid to actually read any of these books I'm collecting now, because if I really, really don't like one of them, it would kind of ruin that book for me. If a book is run of the mill standard stuff for its era that wouldn't be a problem, as I'm collecting these partly based on their covers, but if one was just outright horrible it would be hard to keep it in my collection. 

Having said that, the good thing about the stuff I'm collecting now is that it all really does have a sort of standard level of quality that doesn't vary much, as they aren't at all beholden to "continuity" and the silly gimmicks publishers use to keep their superhero universes going. Betty and Veronica are forever Betty and Veronica and that's just fine by me.  

That journey though, the one you’re experiencing, is a pretty wild ride, for what it’s worth. Obviously you are keeping an open mind and exploring different books, some nuggets you’re going to find, will be remarkable I assure you. I also got stuck in the Marvel/DC hamster wheel for years and it took a bit of coaxing to break out of it (Saga actually pulled me away), but definitely, definitely read first, buy second.

Another thing I would recommend, is DO read your books from childhood/past. I promise, some books will stand the test for you, and some may ring more nostalgic than others. I didn’t lose my love for the books that didn’t hold up, it just made me feel like a better reader today.

 

On 12/1/2023 at 3:19 PM, Dr. Balls said:

What he said. And if you have to sell at a loss, don't beat yourself up over it. Everyone does it, no one ever talks about it.

I wish we would. I’d be willing to share my losses and lessons for sure. But you’re right, it’s like this unspoken taboo that people don’t want to get labelled bad investors? Or show financial strain? 

Full transparency now, I got laid off work, and I am now selling books I bought 2 years ago. Big surprise, I’m going to lose money. But, that’s life! No big deal

@shadroch Spawn 1-5 is honestly, a wicked ride. Issues 6-8 go a bit off the rails, but issue 9 is arguable the best single issue in the series. From 10-38 is really good, really thought provoking stories, with hits and misses throughout, and 39-50 gets weaker. I would drop after 50.

 

 

[Dr. Love]

On 12/1/2023 at 9:37 AM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

romance books with great covers

freak!

[shadroch]

On 12/2/2023 at 9:46 AM, D2 said:

That journey though, the one you’re experiencing, is a pretty wild ride, for what it’s worth. Obviously you are keeping an open mind and exploring different books, some nuggets you’re going to find, will be remarkable I assure you. I also got stuck in the Marvel/DC hamster wheel for years and it took a bit of coaxing to break out of it (Saga actually pulled me away), but definitely, definitely read first, buy second.

Another thing I would recommend, is DO read your books from childhood/past. I promise, some books will stand the test for you, and some may ring more nostalgic than others. I didn’t lose my love for the books that didn’t hold up, it just made me feel like a better reader today.

 

I wish we would. I’d be willing to share my losses and lessons for sure. But you’re right, it’s like this unspoken taboo that people don’t want to get labelled bad investors? Or show financial strain? 

Full transparency now, I got laid off work, and I am now selling books I bought 2 years ago. Big surprise, I’m going to lose money. But, that’s life! No big deal

@shadroch Spawn 1-5 is honestly, a wicked ride. Issues 6-8 go a bit off the rails, but issue 9 is arguable the best single issue in the series. From 10-38 is really good, really thought provoking stories, with hits and misses throughout, and 39-50 gets weaker. I would drop after 50.

 

 

I don't expect to go beyond issue 10 unless it blows me away.   I have not read very much new stuff since the early 1990s, so I have a lot to choose from.  Right now I'm reading Kingdom Come and Dean Motters Terminal City.  Spawn is next.

 

[stormflora]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:46 AM, D2 said:

I wish we would. I’d be willing to share my losses and lessons for sure. But you’re right, it’s like this unspoken taboo that people don’t want to get labelled bad investors? Or show financial strain? 

 

It's called sunk cost fallacy. But everyone experiences that many times in life, due to poor insight or foresight. Nobody's perfect.

If I could refund/cancel all of the purchases I've made with poor judgement, I'd easily have another $100-200K in my bank account. But that's easier said than done.

As grown adults, all we can do is resell them at a lower cost to recoup losses or make money elsewhere to offset them.

If you lost $20 buying something you ended up never needing and thus never using, all you'd need to do is work a bit of overtime to earn back that $20.

But I can understand when people fail to see the exchange in such a light, dwelling on their mistake for making the failure in the first place.

[Chip Cataldo]

On 12/2/2023 at 12:18 PM, stormflora said:

If you lost $20 buying something you ended up never needing and thus never using, all you'd need to do is work a bit of overtime to earn back that $20.

I use this analogy for Black Friday as well. Why spend hours shopping at the burt-crack of dawn when a couple hours of OT will net you the same amount you "saved?"

[stormflora]

On 12/2/2023 at 12:21 PM, Chip Cataldo said:

I use this analogy for Black Friday as well. Why spend hours shopping at the burt-crack of dawn when a couple hours of OT will net you the same amount you "saved?"

Black Friday (as well as many other sales holidays in the year) are often times just false advertising. Retailers are not stupid. They are not going to deliberately lose money. All of the savings you think you got have already been written off or offset elsewhere by the businesses, through many different tactics. A very common one being to deliberately upcharge consumers during ordinary days, and then give them the wholesale price on sales days. Or they deliberately take a loss on a few specific items (usually clearance/liquidation) with the expectation that most customers will also pick up something else during their visit, which allows them to make money.

[BA773]

On 12/1/2023 at 3:09 PM, D2 said:

Am I the only one? I can’t be the only person that does this?

I like to categorize this under: Mistakes I Did Again… 

I bought a (semi) expensive book that I hadn’t read before. 

I finally got around to reading it this morning, and it’s not all that good. 

I used to make this mistake all the time, buying comic books based on any number of reasons except for the one that mattered: loving it so much that I had to have it. 

So frustrating… even the reviews were good! And it’s not an entirely bad book, but it’s a standard ‘meh’, a forgettable tale that didn’t warrant me buying an expensive copy of the thing. 

I don’t know if it’s the speculator in me that won’t die or the neurotic collector that needs to own things, but I will tell you one thing… 

Book for sale
😂

Seriously. This is so frustrating. Owning a book I don’t care about is such a stupid problem to have. 

Buy only DC and there will be no more problem

 

[D2]

On 12/2/2023 at 12:09 PM, shadroch said:

I don't expect to go beyond issue 10 unless it blows me away.   I have not read very much new stuff since the early 1990s, so I have a lot to choose from.  Right now I'm reading Kingdom Come and Dean Motters Terminal City.  Spawn is next.

 

hm… then it may be a short ride indeed. I think you could go 1-5, skip to 9 and end it there, you’d be happy. 
I haven’t read Kingdom Come since I was a kid. Would love to hear the feedback. For fun 90s shlock, I do recommend (a dirty favourite of mine) is J Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl. 7 issues. 

 

On 12/2/2023 at 12:18 PM, stormflora said:

It's called sunk cost fallacy. But everyone experiences that many times in life, due to poor insight or foresight. Nobody's perfect.

If I could refund/cancel all of the purchases I've made with poor judgement, I'd easily have another $100-200K in my bank account. But that's easier said than done.

As grown adults, all we can do is resell them at a lower cost to recoup losses or make money elsewhere to offset them.

If you lost $20 buying something you ended up never needing and thus never using, all you'd need to do is work a bit of overtime to earn back that $20.

But I can understand when people fail to see the exchange in such a light, dwelling on their mistake for making the failure in the first place.

I did not know that there was a term for that, but it does make sense.

That was kind of my thought too. I can’t begin to believe that I can avoid all moments where I lose money, or waste money. I have kids so, I lose money every meal. But if I can at least manage myself and learn from mistakes, I can offset some of those timely mistakes. It’s the time too, the time having to now, go back, list this stupid book, haggle… eventually lose, and drag my sorry butt to mail it out. 

[D2]

On 12/2/2023 at 1:55 PM, BA773 said:

Buy only DC and there will be no more problem

 

Interesting how, it wasn’t a DC book in fact. Coincidence? 

[stormflora]

On 12/2/2023 at 1:57 PM, D2 said:

I did not know that there was a term for that, but it does make sense.

That was kind of my thought too. I can’t begin to believe that I can avoid all moments where I lose money, or waste money. I have kids so, I lose money every meal. But if I can at least manage myself and learn from mistakes, I can offset some of those timely mistakes. It’s the time too, the time having to now, go back, list this stupid book, haggle… eventually lose, and drag my sorry butt to mail it out. 

Sometimes, what we really want out of reselling unnecessary/incorrectly purchased items is closure. To pass it onto someone else who might see more value out of it.

Sure, we could simply donate it somewhere to do the same thing, but sometimes it can give us a little bit of relief to at least get a little something back, so it isn't a total loss.

On the bright side, sometimes selling things can be an enjoyable experience too, especially if there is a courteous interaction with another human being out there on the planet.

The satisfaction of knowing that you helped someone by offering them something that they needed, even if you did not.

Edited December 2, 2023 by stormflora

[BA773]

On 12/2/2023 at 7:58 PM, D2 said:

Interesting how, it wasn’t a DC book in fact. Coincidence? 

It was kingdom come right?

So you have the answer, the problem is that is an alternative universe. In contrary of every other series these story wasnt really happen in real life so obviously you already know that this story is stupid.

[Cat]

On 12/3/2023 at 5:05 AM, BA773 said:

It was kingdom come right?

So you have the answer, the problem is that is an alternative universe. In contrary of every other series these story wasnt really happen in real life so obviously you already know that this story is stupid.

None of them happen in real life. 

[D2]

On 12/2/2023 at 2:06 PM, Cat said:

None of them happen in real life. 

 

[D2]

On 12/2/2023 at 2:00 PM, stormflora said:

Sometimes, what we really want out of reselling unnecessary/incorrectly purchased items is closure. To pass it onto someone else who might see more value out of it.

Sure, we could simply donate it somewhere to do the same thing, but sometimes it can give us a little bit of relief to at least get a little something back, so it isn't a total loss.

On the bright side, sometimes selling things can be an enjoyable experience too, especially if there is a courteous interaction with another human being out there on the planet.

The satisfaction of knowing that you helped someone by offering them something that they needed, even if you did not.

That’s true too! I am selling one of my books as we speak that has sentimental value and when I do I always mention to a buyer if they ever consider reselling to let me know. 

I only do this because, 1) I do have books that mean a lot to me personally and 2) if I could ever get them back, I would. It does also open up potential conversation on if the buyer is truly an enthusiast or not. Surprisingly, not all of them are…

[stormflora]

On 12/2/2023 at 2:29 PM, D2 said:

That’s true too! I am selling one of my books as we speak that has sentimental value and when I do I always mention to a buyer if they ever consider reselling to let me know. 

I only do this because, 1) I do have books that mean a lot to me personally and 2) if I could ever get them back, I would. It does also open up potential conversation on if the buyer is truly an enthusiast or not. Surprisingly, not all of them are…

That's an interesting approach... An "indefinite loan" that doesn't cost any interest. Not something I'd do myself, since I don't think I'd ever part with something of (significant enough) sentimental value. But if it works in giving you some relief, go for it  

[D2]

On 12/2/2023 at 3:05 PM, stormflora said:

That's an interesting approach... An "indefinite loan" that doesn't cost any interest. Not something I'd do myself, since I don't think I'd ever part with something of (significant enough) sentimental value. But if it works in giving you some relief, go for it  

I know. I am unconventional. Lol

but honestly, there isn’t a single thing in this life I wouldn’t sell. 

I don’t want to of course, but if push came to shove, there is no item on Earth worth keeping (in my eyes), there’s just a hierarchy of what to get rid of first. 

Edited December 2, 2023 by D2