Need advice! Collection organization!

[minutekev@50]

Been collecting since the mid-80s and would like to know how other collectors organize their collections. (Long boxes, short boxes, spreadsheets, checklists, etc.) What books do you place in mylars and what in regular comic bags (and how often do you change them out)? Are they alphabetical, by publisher, by cover theme, etc.? Are they sealed off in a special room, away from the prying eyes and sticky fingers of adolescent school children?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and you'd receive a free no-prize from your's truly!

Thanks

[awe4one]

Longboxes in Alpha order regardless of publisher except for Atlas/Seaboard titles which all go under "A" (Hey there's only 50 or so issues). All my comics are indexed in Excel format in Alpha order. All comics are bagged and boarded.

 

 

Jim

[chrisco37]

Right now my boxes are organized as such:

 

Spidey related books are in their own boxes, alpha-numerically ordered.

All others are alphabetical. But constantly re-organizing is getting tiresome as I buy new books, so I planned on breaking out books by company, just haven't got around to it yet.

 

All my high grade and "keys" are in Mylite2's and are stored in magazine boxes.

 

You shouldn't have to ever change your Mylars or Mylites. Polybagged books get new bags and boards every 3 years; a real pricey pain in the , but a necessary evil.

 

Spreadsheet is the easiest way to keep track. I have title, #, what I paid, and what I sold for columns. These are arranged by company and then listed alphabetically.

 

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

[chromium]

All comics are bagged/boarded, the +100 books are in mylar(or will be...thanks Chrisco).

I don't really care for those plain-white comic boxes everyone uses, to me they look like you never finished unpacking when moving into your house

 

So I use archival magazine sized half-open boxes, these hold about 50 comics each, stored upright. I use a few loose boards to make sure the comics at both ends remain perfectly flat.

 

Each series gets its own box (or boxes) with custom made labels for easy acces.

 

Mast year I had a sleving unit custom built by a local carpenter, the unit was designed to hold 10.000 comics. I'm currently at 6000 and about 250 trades.

 

here are some pics

 

 

 

 

The unit stretches from floor to ceiling (I need a little ladder to reach the top shelf) and occupies about 1/3 of the room, the other wall houses my music collection, which takes up about 3000 CDs and then there is a little corner left where my PCsetup/desk is located.

This room is my haven and is off-limits for the rest of the family, but lately my sun has been crawling in to play with his lego blocks while I sit here typing to you guys

[justiceleaguer]

i dip all my comics in WD-40 so they'll never rust.

[Room 237]

Chromium,

 

If a black van turns up outside your house and waits till you leave and you come home and find all your comics gone, it wasn't me. Even if you visit my house and notice I have exactly the same comics in exactly the same holders, then thats just an uncanny coincedence...

 

 

me jelous of your collection? grrrrr, gimme gimme gimme

 

Whats worse is that now you;ve shown us, other collectors will post images of thier collections and I'll be even more jealous and I'm gonna end up crying myself to sleep!!!!!

 

 

[Room 237]

i dip all my comics in WD-40 so they'll never rust.

 

roflol !!!!

[minutekev@50]

All comics are bagged/boarded, the +100 books are in mylar(or will be...thanks Chrisco).

 

Man, that's the neatest way to organize your collection. You've given me some great ideas. I liked the pics.

Also, has anyone ever looked at organizing their collection in binders with archival sleeves, (or something like that)? Seems like there used to be an ad in Wizard for a product but I can't remember..

 

 

 

 

 

[Foolkiller]

chromium:

 

that's pretty freakin impressive. I would never have even thought of that idea, and it's a fantastic, space saving way of storing your comics. Plus, it avoids all those boxes, makes them easy to both move and access and make a great display. I actually might think about doing this myself. Damn that's a really nice set up.

[fantastic_four]

Been collecting since the mid-80s and would like to know how other collectors organize their collections. (Long boxes, short boxes, spreadsheets, checklists, etc.) What books do you place in mylars and what in regular comic bags (and how often do you change them out)? Are they alphabetical, by publisher, by cover theme, etc.? Are they sealed off in a special room, away from the prying eyes and sticky fingers of adolescent school children?

 

• Moderns in longboxes with egerber Mylite2s and half-backs in my comic room
• Silver/Bronze worth more than around $20 in egerber shortboxes with Mylite2s double-bagged into Archives with full-backs stored off-site away from my house in a room with a dehumidifier and AC
• All books worth more than $500 or so stored in a safe in the same place as the egerber shortboxes.
• All comics grouped by title and sorted by issue number, but titles aren't in any kind of order; I keep my favorite titles in boxes which are the easiest to get to.
• Collection entered into a custom Access database with a set of web pages that can display the individual copies. Not all copies are scanned, but the majority of my copies worth more than $30 are scanned. Site is publicly available for me to browse from anywhere but I only give the address out to people I trust.
• I print out an Access report with my want list to fill out my runs or buy issues I want to upgrade every few months ( click here to see report )

[musicmeta]

All comics are bagged/boarded, the +100 books are in mylar(or will be...thanks Chrisco).

I don't really care for those plain-white comic boxes everyone uses, to me they look like you never finished unpacking when moving into your house

 

So I use archival magazine sized half-open boxes, these hold about 50 comics each, stored upright. I use a few loose boards to make sure the comics at both ends remain perfectly flat.

 

Each series gets its own box (or boxes) with custom made labels for easy acces.

 

Mast year I had a sleving unit custom built by a local carpenter, the unit was designed to hold 10.000 comics. I'm currently at 6000 and about 250 trades.

 

here are some pics

 

 

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! You've got a real neat storage setup that displays GREAT! WOW!

I'm going to do some shelving myself now.

[murph0]

You need to work on that handwriting FF

It's nice you have a list for what you want to upgrade, I just go randomly around buying junk

Anyways, I keep all my CGC'd books on shelves in a room specifically designed just for my comics (A/C controlled). All my reading copies are in 6 long boxes that are lined along one wall. Any non-slabbed book worth over 50 dollars, I have on a shelf as well with Mylite2's w/ full-backs.

I don't really own anything else comic related so all my original Scooby Doo art goes up on the wall opposite the wall lined with long boxes.

 

Brian

[cicamen]

Wow that is a great set up. I would like to do something like that to.

[Foolkiller]

Okay, after reading the last two posts, i'm almost embarassed to tell you my complete lack of organization. I've kept all of my books over $100 and other random CGC books (although I prefer raw) at my parents house in the finished basement stored in what turns out to be a cool environment all year long. They're not stored against a wall and are in a few short (also egerber) boxes. But there's no organization to those books (i.e. Cap 109 and JIM 112 I found last trip home in the box back to back... they're not alphabatized or anything) so there's complete chaos. The only upside is when i go through them, sometimes I find stuff I forgot I owned and now don't have to buy.

 

Any books under $100 I have at my house in Philly (because my parents refused to store 10 or 12 long boxes in their house anymore)... They're stored in typical long box fashion, 3 of which are down my basement with 3 short boxes on utility shelving. Those are all just common "stock" books and for some reason, I have them alphabatized and organized by title and separated by company. 60s-80s books are upstairs on the third floor in my loft/room (which runs the third floor of my house) and is always cool because the air conditioning constantly runs during the summer or when it gets even remotely hot up there (and thus a large electric bill). However, there's no organization to them either. they're grouped by title, but that's about it... some are in number order, some aren't... many are just out laying around. All books over $20 get mylites and over $70 or so get mylars with one thick board (but easy enough to slide in and out without damaging the book). Other than that... standard bags and boards.

 

As I said, seeing the level of sophistication here though, my system stinks.

[garthgantu]

I love what Chromium has done, but am not sure I'd call it "space saving." It looks to me like a great way to store comics, and have immediate access to them, IF you have plenty of room, or a relatively small collection. Those boxes he's using won't accommodate 50 comics in Mylars, I'd bet... I use those boxes to store back issues of magazines at work... I'm guessing that with Mylar + backing board, you'd be lucky to get 30 GA or SA comics in each box. Divide 6,000 comics (Chromium's collection) by 40, just to be generous, and you're talking about 150 boxes. And not just any boxes, but boxes that can't be stacked, must be handled very carefully, and don't completely protect their contents from the elements (moisture, sunlight, dust etc.). (I realize that 'standard' comic boxes don't completely protect agains the elements either, but they go much further than these 'open-ended' boxes.)

 

That said, I still really like what you've done, Chromium, and if I had the space and a secure safe room (along the lines of a 'clean room' like those at Intel and other chip manufacturers , I'd definitely do something along these lines.

 

I'm surprised that so many posters to this thread store their comics alphabetically ... isn't this a huge pain in the butt? Don't you constantly find yourselves with 5-20 boxes that are only partially filled?

 

I store my comics in order of acquisition, enter them into an Excel spreadsheet by box number, then do a data sort to view the collection alphabetically by title. Thus I can see exactly what box #12 holds, in one version of the spreadsheet, and can also check out my run of say, Daredevil using the alpha list, even if all the Daredevils aren't in one box or "contiguous" boxes...

 

In this way, I never have to open box 12 again, to shift stuff around because I've added two more DDs to the collection...

 

I admit I've had visions of alphabetizing my collection (4,200 and counting), but it's so daunting a task that I've sworn not to do it 'til I'm either finished adding comics to the collection, or have retired and have plenty of spare time, or both

 

Garthgantu

[musicmeta]

I store my comics in order of acquisition, enter them into an Excel spreadsheet by box number, then do a data sort to view the collection alphabetically by title. Thus I can see exactly what box #12 holds, in one version of the spreadsheet, and can also check out my run of say, Daredevil using the alpha list, even if all the Daredevils aren't in one box or "contiguous" boxes...

 

In this way, I never have to open box 12 again, to shift stuff around because I've added two more DDs to the collection...

 

 

Great plan of storing. Thanks for this information. I'm going to store my books this way now. I get so tired of shifting books around when I need new space for additional issues of titles.

[Foolkiller]

I like this idea too... too bad I have what garth alluded to, 15 boxes 3/4 full, waiting to be filled with new aquisitions, oh, and then I'll still end up shifting boxes every so often. I haven't gotten around to entering my comics in a database... I don't have the time. I tried years ago to start, but there was always stuff going on...

[murph0]

I was going to do a database, but then I found out I didn't need one b/c for some reason or another I know exactly what comics I have. I think I need to get out more...

 

Brian

[chromium]

Thanks for the kind words everyone...

Actually Mrs. Chromium made me do it

She allowed me one single room in the house where I could freak out, but the deal was that I would have to keep it tidy (shut-up, I didn't marry my mother !!!)...

 

Anyway, you are all right, it's a great way to have easy access to my comics, I can find almost any comic under 30 seconds, and as I like to cross-reference while reading, it makes things a lot easier

 

fortysevenuk

If a black van turns up outside your house ...

I'm not that worried, you'll never make it through our cobbled narrow streets,you Brits are so used to driving on the WRONG side of the street you'll crash and burn while driving off the ferry

 

Oh and a few other points...

Yes, it's a bit more expensive than the regular boxes, I'm closing in on about 120 - 130 boxes right now, at $1.50 a box,that's a lof of comic-money gone

 

And it is a lot easier to fill up a box,taking only 40-50 comics each...

 

I did however forget the mention the BIG DOWNSIDE to this system...strange but odly cute creatures seem to be attracted to the boxes and the ladder...and really need to be on your guard

 

This picture taken by a surveillance camera shows one of the little critters at work while I was still moving the comics from the shortboxes to the unit...

 

 

 

[minutekev@50]

Thanks for all the responses. I got some good ideas from them.

I knew it was time to get organized when I purchased about four or five comics that I already had through back issue orders and e-bay auctions!

Old age setting in, I guess. I just can no longer recognize a comic by its cover...