Need advice! Collection organization!

[fantastic_four]

FF, that display looks amazing. Your slabs look great in there.

 

You've given me something to think about....

 

BTW, is that something that is easily lifted, and taken appart? Or is it one piece?

 

Cabinet is one piece and the glass shelves come out. The shelves are also adjustable so you can space them to ANY height you want; this turned out to be important to fit certain statues in correctly. I never saw adjustable shelves on any display cases available in furniture stores, which is why I was thrilled to find these. They're really not very heavy; I moved it from the store to my house with my dad, although I can pick one up by myself with not too much trouble. Takes two people mostly because it's so unwieldy at just over 6 feet tall.

 

I took that picture back in early 2001 (which is why there's no FF 52 in there...helmet was in the other case)...my comics look crowded in there when I look at it now. I used to pack the thing full, but now I just keep a statue and one or two comics around the statue per shelf. This also allows the lights to pass through the glass shelves and reflect off the mirror built into the bottom base so every shelf is lit; when I had comics lining every square inch the lights couldn't even get to the second shelf.

 

I keep the cases in my computer room:

 

[murph0]

Your computer room has a stack of videos and a "hi fi" stereo system? Interesting... very interesting...

Where's the comic closet?

 

Brian

[PovertyRow]

So I use archival magazine sized half-open boxes,

 

I hit Staples today and bought a two-pack of their plastic open magazine holders. Yes, they are plastic but I have lined them with spare, thick, alkaline buffered backing boards. And the books are, of course, in mylar with buffered boards. Each holds about 20 books. In an open environment like this I don't see an issue with the plastic (next I have to find out what kind of plastic and see what archival level it is). I LOVE the utility of these. The concept is so SIMPLE, and my small collection is already looking pretty darned nice!! Am going back tomorrow to buy more of these.

[fantastic_four]

I need to toss that stereo. Those aren't videos, those are every Overstreet price guide ever printed except the first one! Check out the barely visible Fantastic Four trashcan at the bottom middle with a print of the cover of Annual #2 on it (you can see Doctor Doom's head). I keep my moderns in a separate room, and the good stuff isn't at my house anymore. That's why the cases don't have comics in them. You can see the empty wireframe rack on the left cabinet between Daredevil and Black Widow that used to have my copy of #1 on it...but I started cycling the copies in and out of the cabinet because my computer room isn't humidity controlled.

[PovertyRow]

I need to toss that stereo. Those aren't videos, those are every Overstreet price guide ever printed except the first one!

 

Before I moved I had all except the first two. Man, live and learn! Got to acquire again.

[Lantern]

Yeah the funny part was he's telling everyone how it's worth like 15,000 dollars and you could tell from the camera view it was not NM

Its funny that you say this because I distinctly remember trying to get a good look at the book and thinking that it definately was not NM. I also thought "You know, for a rich guy like this he should be able to afford a better copy, especially if he is going to show it off to millions of people."

 

Along these lines, have you seen the episode with John Leguizamo? He actually wall papered a half bath with comic books. He did it so that the pages go around the room and in order. Now thats reading while you .........

[murph0]

Haven't seen that one...yet..they'll probably have some marathon sometime and I'll see it though. I wasn't too impressed with Sebastian Bach, I'm not sure what he does, but it looks like he wasted all of his money on a so-so house and a lot of junk.

 

Brian

[fantastic_four]

Here's a web site with a bunch of display cases like mine:

 

http://www.displaycasestor.com/contemporary_display_showcases.php

[Ariamus]

I keep all my comics in Long Boxes in a closet in my study/office, which is on the second floor of my house. None of the walls in the closet are outside walls and by virtue of the fact that it's a closet, it's constantly dark. Also, because it's on the second floor, it's never damp. The only shortcoming is temperature control during the summer. Right now, I am approaching 17 long boxes full, which is a problem because when I hit 18 long boxes full, I'll no longer have room in the closet for any more comics without stacking the boxes higher than 3 high. And, depending on how I do at the bargain boxes in Philly next weekend, I may reach maximum capacity. And this is a problem because I really don't intend to address this issue until after we move into our new house. Then I'll get a shelving unit for inside of a closet of similar size and dedicate the closet entirely to comics, accessories, and magazines.

 

Right now, I have 3000 comics in Standard size E-Gerber Mylites (with half-backs) and the rest of them in Poly bags. One more trip to E-Gerber will net me the rest of the Mylites I need to finish converting my collection to mylar and from then on in, every book I buy will go into a Mylite with a Half-back. My collection is mostly Brass age and later, so I don't really have any books that I would want to put into something nicer, such as the 4 Mil Mylars with Full-backs. And, the way I collect, I doubt I will ever buy a comic that I would want something better than a Mylite to store it in that doesn't already come slabbed.

 

As for how I store the comics in the long boxes, I have the comics separated into 4 blocks, Marvel, DC, current Indy, and defunct Indy (Malibu, Valiant, Defiant). Each block is further separated into groups. My Marvel block has three groups: Spidey, X-books, and everything else. My DC block also has four groups: Batbooks, Superman & Friends, all other superhero books, and Vertigo. Every group is then broken up into two sections, one for monthly series, and the other for limited series and one-shots. Finally, each section is alphabetized by title and then stored numerically. I know this seems complex, but it makes it easier on me to store books I add to my collection.

 

As for cataloguing my collection, I am woefully short in this department. I have a binder with checklists (designed in Excel) for every title that I collect or may want to collect in the future, but I don't have a good index of books I have, let alone their conditions, prices I payed for them, and all that jazz. At some point soon, I need to do something like this. As meticulous as I can be, it's a shortcoming on my part not being able to tell anyone how many comics I have beyond a rough guess. (over 4000 at this time).

[Smokinghawk]

What's "brass age?"

 

Also, have any of you ever considered those "Ultra Pro" archival binder pages with acid-free backer boards in them, stores in 3-ring binders? As long as you're careful not to crush an edge with the rings (which is not really a problem since they're sloped-edge rings, I think), this might be a good system for people with lots of shelf space.

 

[Ariamus]

There was a thread in here a month or so back about names for the comic ages following Bronze Age. Bronze Age is basically the 70's, Brass Age is the 80's, Chrome Age is the 90's...or thereabouts. I thought it was kind of funny. I was just saying that most of my collection is from the 1980's on.

[fantastic_four]

With regards to display, I just remembered there are three more tools I use to help--rubber/wire plate display stands, rubber/wire plate wall hangers, and clear plastic brochure holders. My goal with all three of these items was to obtain something that would let me mount comics on a wall or prop them up on a table with NO obstruction to the front by the prop or hanger itself. The plate stands cost about $2 apiece and are for propping up books on surfaces in low-traffic areas; the clear plastic brochure holder cost about $4 and is for propping books in higher-traffic areas. Here's a pic:

 

 

I've got one plate stand in front for you to see it; another is holding up the comic on the left, and note the stand is only visible at the very bottom of the comic; the clear plastic brochure holder is holding the comic on the right and the comic sets down into it with support in front to keep it upright in case somebody bumps it.

 

Here's the plate wall hanger I use, which cost about $3:

 

 

Note that you can only see the holder at the very top and bottom of the comic and it's fairly unobtrusive, although I'd prefer a solution with NO front visibility. We debated this heavily in another thread, and nobody pointed out any major flaw in my hypothesis--I only hang comics up in areas where I can control the light that gets to the comic, so I'm confident I'm doing almost no damage to the book.

[chrisco37]

FF -

 

Nice display cases. Funny you mentioned the trashcan as I noticed it and was going to comment. I actually wanted to know, what is the grade on your FF Annual #2? I saw it in the display case, but couldn't see the top of the slab, and don't recall you ever mentioning that book before.

 

It's a great book! First in-depth origin of Doom, plus reprints FF#5! (Props to Yertle for hooking me up w/ a copy! )

 

Chris

[fantastic_four]

The FF Annual 2 in the picture is a raw VF and I now own a CGC 9.0 copy of the Canadian edition.

[Dr_Neff]

I have had all my comics C-G-C'ed and then into the plastic bubble wrap envelopes, laid in thier sides all the way across drawers of six 6-drawer lateral file cabinets. ( If I didn't use the wrap you would be able to read the labels on the top)Books I have reader copies of just go wherever I'm reading, bathroom, beach, wherever. Doubles with value I keep in mylars with like, three backing boards to keep them from sliding around, and put them in a safety deposit box. I use different functions of Comic Base 7.0 to keep track of my comic books. You can print out custom reports and even graphs. It's really easy.

[Warlord]

I keep the list of items in my collection in a plain text file, alphabetically and numerically by title. I always try to organize the titles as they would be found in Overstreet so that I'll remember the order.

 

I've been thinking about migrating into a database format. There's an open source DB called MySQL that I'm learning to use that I think might be my ticket to a powerful DB that I can run on my PC. My main motivating factor for moving to a DB would be so that I can run queries to generate lists of the holes in my collection that need to be filled. I've done that before in Perl programs that read my flat text file but it isn't pretty and needs improvement anyway.

 

For storage I've got a hodgepodge of long and short boxes, some cardboard (long and short) and some made out of the corrugated polystyrene material (long boxes only). And some small acid-free boxes that I used to use only for my best books, but typically just end up holding whatever fits when I need to store about 100 books more than will go into a long or short box. I'd like to consolidate my entire collection into the short corrugated poly boxes. Only thing stopping me is the cost!

 

The comics are packed into the boxes in the same order as they occur on my list. The other comments I've read about the difficulty of this approach are right on. I've really go two alphabetical collections - one that is all organized according to my list, and a second batch that I need to work into the main batch of boxes. That never seems to get done because it is a chore. Maybe one of these days.

 

Most comics with little value or little potential to ever be of any value go into cheap poly bags. Those that are a step above that are in Mylites. For more valuable or older high grade books I put them in Mylite, and then put that inside a poly bag. A backing board or two goes inside the poly bag, but not inside the Mylite, so there is no backing board touching the comic.

 

I do it that way for two reasons - First -- because the backing board is not touching the comic I can get away with using inexpensive boards. I'm not sure that it's a perfect solution, but it's better than using cheap boards that are in contact with the comic. Second -- I find that the Mylar material of the Mylites is "sticky" against any adjacent Mylite bags. Putting the Mylite inside a poly bag means I've got bags that are "slippery" in contact with one another, and it is easier to slide comics bagged that way in and out of boxes. Trying to slide a comic in a Mylite in between two other comics in Mylites that are standing upright in a box is just asking for trouble. The polybag approach addresses that very nicely.

 

As far as storage they are here and there around the house, wherever I can put them so that they are out of the way!

 

 

[garthgantu]

Nice stuff all around. I have about 10,000, mostly in the long boxes with some shorties. Question what are egerber boxes? The thing I have a problem with is the Mylars as they dont store in a box with a top well, any suggestions here would be appreciated.

 

I have maybe 15-20% of my 4,500 comics in mylars - mostly GA, some SA mylars - and they fit just fine in the mag-sized boxes...?

[Elvis]

Man some of you guys have sweet set ups. Mine is simple. All in alphabetical in bags and boards in long Gerber boxes. Stored in "Daddys Closet". I have a mid size box call the "Box 'O Goodies". This is the eye candy that I keep out for myself. That has my 60 or so killer books.