Options
Collection Intervention
So I'm watching collection intervention and the host says something like, "he needs to get ride of some of the not so hot stuff and collect more quality". It made me think. I'm in the process of cataloging my entire collection using collectorz. Its fantastic, but I'n not half way there and I have 4k comics cataloged. I should be done at around 9k. Thanks to many comics. I've had to move them more times than I can count.
So here's my thought. I have 33 boxes of comics and some loose stuff I'll need more boxes for. I'm going to cull the herd down to 20 boxes and use the money to fill holes in my Amazing Spiderman run. But man, that's a lot of books. Many may not be worth a lot, but they all mean something to me.
But seeing people on the show react so irrationally to their collections is making me think. And I believe I can get it down that far and fill the few holes I have in big runs.
So two questions, whats the best way to get rid of so many books, I don't want to nickel and dime over at ebay, so I thought maybe craigslist. What are your thoughts?
Secondly, anyone need 13 boxes of comics. :))
So here's my thought. I have 33 boxes of comics and some loose stuff I'll need more boxes for. I'm going to cull the herd down to 20 boxes and use the money to fill holes in my Amazing Spiderman run. But man, that's a lot of books. Many may not be worth a lot, but they all mean something to me.
But seeing people on the show react so irrationally to their collections is making me think. And I believe I can get it down that far and fill the few holes I have in big runs.
So two questions, whats the best way to get rid of so many books, I don't want to nickel and dime over at ebay, so I thought maybe craigslist. What are your thoughts?
Secondly, anyone need 13 boxes of comics. :))
Comments
Basically the less work you want to do the cheaper you have to sell because eventually somebody has to do the work.
I can drop a box at half price books, have a little cash and be rid of them in about 30 min.
Or I could parse them out in 10-20 book lots on eBay and spend a month or two plus multiple trips to the post office for about $50-$75.
The extra time is not worth the extra dollars to me.
There's also ways to donate to the armed forces (especially if you need to unload those more mature titles).
But yeah, I'm for the cheaper route. Pull out all age stuff to donate. Then get 10-13 boxes together and put an add on Craigslist. Put the lot up for 600 or best and take 4 if offered.
If anyone is in the Utica area and wants to buy, contact me. Its going to take me some time to do this so save up. :))
Funny thing is that's how I started my collection. I had bought books here and there from 8 years old, but I saw an ad in the paper for comics and bought checked it out. It was 8 boxes or so for 300 or something. Can't remember since it was almost 30 years ago. But it was amazing. Three entire boxes were just Amazing Spiderman. And this was in the 80 so it was all Silver Age stuff. Good times.
If you're a completist.... then getting rid of books of lesser value defeats the focus of your collection.
If your budget is such that you can only collect books in VG and you like the depth of your collection by focusing on mid-grade copies, then selling off 100's of books to get a single issue in 9.8 doesn't fit your collection. I purposely purchased reader copies of early Sgt. Rock books. I wanted to read and enjoy the books.
What if you collect only certain artists? Or you want to have a collection with a wide variety of examples.... maybe you want a collection that has appearances of the Joker from the various "ages" from Golden to current. This again has nothing to do with quality or value.
Some of my amps and guitars are players. Meaning while they have a certain value due to their age and type, they don't demand the highest dollar because they are not pristine examples or have been modified or been restored. I have a 1938 Gibson L-00 acoustic. (Robert Johnson and other early blues players are associated with the L-00). Its been heavily restored and is worth about 25% of excellent. Which is fine with me. The wood has aged and it has great tone. And I want to play the damn thing - not look at it behind glass.
But yeah, there is a personal thing to collecting. I want to get 10 boxes together, but man, these things mean something to me. I too buy low grade books to read. I think what I want to do is get ride of stuff I look at and say, "huh...I didn't really care for this, its worth this or that, I'm going to ditch it." Then use any funds to buy silver age stuff because those are where my holes in ASM are.
But man its tough to let go.
I just wish the talking heads on TV would talk about the broader ways to collect. Its not always about money. There's collecting..... then there's investing. My oldest son earned a merit badge on coin collecting and part of it was about the different types of collections you could create.
That Transformers guy was nuts though. When your collecting starts interfering with paying your bills, you know you have a problem.
So I'm constantly revisiting what I have vs what I want.
What's hard is my modern stuff is getting down to only what I want. I've been through 6 short boxes in the current pass and only pulled about 20 books to get rid of.
I should be about 5x that already. Sigh.
Another thing I've done is temper my purchases of new stuff off the rack. I'm measuring how many books I actually read in 2012 and will use that to budget how many new books a week for 2013.
Buying only the new stuff I love is leaving me more time to read classic runs. And from a dollars perspective helps me get more books that will hold their value better.
Funny thing is, I seem to be able to part with trades easier. When I had to move back to NY I honestly cannot remember how many trades I sold. At least a hundred, maybe more. It was crazy.