It was easier as a kid to just buy "cool books" and throw them in a box...

I've been thinking a lot lately about my Uncanny X-Men 1-201 run that I've been working on. I have one of the most complete sets in the registry, and did a lot of work upgrading my copies of existing issues.

Then I started a 3-front war between economics, patience (or lack of) and hobby lust.

My set has reached the point where in order to get some books at a nicer grade, I have to start shelling out bigger and bigger chunks of money. I can handle that, I can save. But if I want the books faster, I should pre-sell the books I need to upgrade... which will drop my registry score, albeit not by much when I'm ditching a 4.5 copy of X-Men 58, for example.

I have a spreadsheet I keep with all my issues and the scores, and within certain ranges I have a color code for "adequate" and "goal". I break it down like this:

Issue Adequate GOAL

1 3.5 5

2-10 5 8

11-30 8 8.5

31-50 8.5 9

51-100 9 9.4

101-130 9.4 9.8

131-201 9.8 9.8

Annuals 9.8 9.8

Giant1 8 9

Giant2 9.4 9.8

Now I've decided to add a third tier/color code, which is "SELL". Anything a full 1.0 grade under the adequate will be put up for auction.

Will it hurt my scores? Short term, yes. But long term, I'm hoping it pays off in being able to patiently seek out hidden gems and deals, and someday, I swear, I'll have a complete set worthy of recognition.

Does anyone else obsess this much with organizing their collection process?