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Bagged, Boarded and Boxed
monkey010101
Posts: 77
Just wondering how do you store your comics? Do you bag and board them all? Or just some of them. Do you use comic boxes or some other storage?
Where in the house do you store them and what does your other half/ other housemates think of the space they take up?
Sorry for the loads of questions, I'm just really interested.
Where in the house do you store them and what does your other half/ other housemates think of the space they take up?
Sorry for the loads of questions, I'm just really interested.
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My trades and hardcovers are on the built-in shelving scattered around said man room.
My favorite original art is framed and on the walls, while other stuff I keep in portfolios on my bookshelf.
The spousal unit is fine with it. Her stuff takes up way more space in the house than mine, so she knows better than to get on me about it ;)
oh. and none are hermetically sealed. haha!
What I call 'the collection' essentially everything before 1992 or so - gold silver bronze copper -- goes into cabinets that are part of custom bookshelves along a wall of my office. This holds 18 short boxes.
I also keep 2 long boxes off to the side that hold books I intend to get rid of over the next 6 months or so.
There's one GA short box that sits on the 2 long boxes because I don't have a better place right now.
Trades, art, and reference books line the uppers of the bookcases. Magazines are in those vertical file boxes.
Art is either on the walls or in a portfolio.
Artist edition and other oversize are stacked on a side table.
I have committed to my wife that my books won't go beyond the office. This means I am constantly pruning and looking for more efficient storage options because I still work in my office 20-30 hrs a week and it needs to be presentable. Though art may eventually be displayed elsewhere in the house if it makes sense.
Eventually, I'll shove 'em in a longbox in no particular order, neither bagged nor boarded.
I keep the boxes in my office, and my wife has no problem with it because a couple of the boxes are hers. I am trying to get rid of four or five boxes of stuff I know I will never reread.
#oldguything
That is, as an example, I'll file books alphabetically according to the main title, but then I'll place them in continuity order. Spider-Man goes before Superman; but Spider-Man will contain all of the main Spider-Man titles (Amazing, Spectacular, Web, Marvel Team-Up) and cross-overs, and Superman will contain all of the Superman titles (Action, Superman, Adventures Of, Man Of Tomorrow, etc) plus cross-overs.
All of my comics from 1986 going back are in bags and boards and organized by cover date.
Everything from 1987 to to when I stopped collecting around '98/'99 is in bags and boards and are divided in alphabetical order by publisher then title.
Everything from 2010 on, I don't go out of my way to bag and board unless it was something I really enjoyed and want to keep or pass down to the kids and are in alphabetical order by title.
My wife wants them out of the way, not gone, just not in her space.
The place I get my floppys from send them bagged and boarded. These go alphabetically by title. I've got several boxes dotted around our apartment. The girlfriend isn't happy about this. Which is why I'm moving to trades more. Although ill continue to get floppys. If she can have her bags and shoes everywhere, then I'll have my comics. Good compromise I think.
I got my longboxes stacked in the corner of my bedroom.Comic are divided up into Marvel,DC,Indy,Valiant. Then 2 longboxes for all the "Dead universes" I collect. Trades and hardcovers are on a shelf put in alphabetical order.
I also keep 2 shortboxes next to my bed.They are filled with stuff I haven't read yet.Then on top of one of them is huge stack of comics I bought this year and haven't read.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_71473-80752-184874B-DS_4294936608__?productId=3473483&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar
@demonbear No, that is an old picture and just the new releases at the time. Back in the prime of my collecting, I had all fifty slots filled with monthly titles. Now I'm down to about twenty.
@Chuck_Melville That is the best Christmas present my parents ever gave me. My first LCS, The Great Escape, had several of them that they would have their quarter books on. I don't know how my dad managed it, but he was able to score one. It was originally a creame color but I painted it black to make it pop more.
Its about time I answered my own question. Compared with everyone here my collection is quite small. Its currently packed in 2 cardboard boxes and a plastic box up in our loft, in no particular order. Nearly all the comics are bagged and I've just started boarding the titles where I have long runs. Just started on Mike Grell's Green Arrow run. I've recently ordered a couple of long boxes so that I can start getting them in some sort of order and so that the will take up less of a footprint on the floor. Unfortunately I have a very unsympathic other half who doesn't understand the need to have all the issues I have, plus we have quite a small house so there's no chance of a man room anytime soon.
Does anyone use any cataloging software at all?
I started out years ago with a basic FilePro system that let me catalog my books and cross-reference issue numbers, publishers, writers, artists, story arcs, etc. More recently, I added Comicbase that does a lot of the same and more, but I haven't yet fallen out of the habit of using FilePro which, though far less exclusive, is a bit more flexible if I want to customize it to specific preferences.
So, I'm forced to commit the most criminal of all comic storage acts...
...they're in the garage. :(
When I go up there I can hear their little moans as they slowly die.
It's exactly like Saw... except it's my attic... and funny books.
I am going to investigate database software and off-site storage when I'm gainfully employed again.
Unfortunately, houses aren't being bought or sold around here at the moment.
Looks like I'm going to shed the less loved excess myself.
I'm sure it will feel great afterwards, it's the starting thing that's hard part.