Completist conundrum 1 1

[DarkKnightReturns]

Question for y'all 

 I mostly collect Batman, Detective comics and Amazing spider-man. Mainly buying from local comic shows, the boards and my old LCS. 

 For a few years approx 6 years ago when buying at my LCS I rarely read the moderns I was buying. Just buying them obsessively and filing them away in boxes to keep the run going. I finally just stopped buying moderns. I felt I didn't have much attachment to them anymore like way back when I was kid and actually cared about the story lines. 

Now years later Ive noticed issues here and there that in CGC 9.8 are fetching some good amounts of money. ASM campbell issues, anti venom stuff, batgirl stuff, red hood stuff etc

Do I submit to CGC cross my fingers for 9.8s than sell those issues? thus breaking up my runs or just keep as is. 

I have older issues I could submit too but have slight more attachment to them...

If I sold these there is no way I'd ever replace them and my runs would be incomplete at which point its kinda like why bother. Some keys of different comics I've sold in the past I'd like to own again but refuse to pay the prices they command now. I just can't bring myself to do it. 

I'm kind of leaning towards submitting a bunch than deciding later as at this point maybe they'll come back 9.4s...or worse

It'd be nice to use that money to fund some other "key" issues Id like to own but at the same time I'll be ruining my runs. 

Anyone else ever think this way? Curious how others feel about their...runs.

[oakman29]

I , like you have a complete run of Amazing Spider Man. Looking at some of the prices that the modern variants are commanding like the 678 Venom variant. I have had thoughts of selling them to buy books I want, but then I would be breaking up the run that I spent nearly my whole life working on, so it just sits there on the shelf.

[FineCollector]

Are we talking about variants or regular issues?  I don't consider variant covers to be part of a run, they're just like sprinkles on top of the cupcake, a nice to have.  If you sell variants but still have the regular issue, I say your run is still intact.

Amazing Spider-Man ends at 441 for me, so I don't have the concerns you do

[oakman29]

4 minutes ago, FineCollector said:

Are we talking about variants or regular issues?  I don't consider variant covers to be part of a run, they're just like sprinkles on top of the cupcake, a nice to have.  If you sell variants but still have the regular issue, I say your run is still intact.

Amazing Spider-Man ends at 441 for me, so I don't have the concerns you do

I had to end it at that 700 mark. Seemed like the perfect spot.

[Martin Sinescu]

I say keep the run intact. Once the keystone is removed, the whole structure crumbles.

I am building a Batman and 'Tec run, too. If I sold off my nicest copies of key books, I'd definitely feel like I'd let something special go 'cause those are often my favorites. 

[DarkKnightReturns]

I have quite a few variants and the 2nd printings in my ASM run so perhaps I'll sell off a couple of those. Maybe get them graded and just sit on it for a bit. No rush.

I honestly am always surprised when moderns go up in price   With CGC and everyone kinda knowing how to store properly and pick the best books you'd think supply would meet demand keeping prices quite low but nope, lots of moderns in big titles sell above $100. Still seems crazy to me. 

I bought a whole bunch of those Adam Hughes cat woman issues from my old LCS back stock for $1 each. Popped them in a box and now I see the Lost cover with the cleavage shot is selling for just over $200 in 9.8. I guess its a low print run?

I guess its a sign that the collecting hobby is good and healthy!

[DarkKnightReturns]

21 minutes ago, Martin Sinescu said:

I say keep the run intact. Once the keystone is removed, the whole structure crumbles.

I am building a Batman and 'Tec run, too. If I sold off my nicest copies of key books, I'd definitely feel like I'd let something special go 'cause those are often my favorites. 

Id be less likely to sell off anything from my Tec or Bats runs.

Where are you starting your run from? My Tecs and Bats start around 1969 when Neal and Denny started working on the titles. Seemed like a good time to start. Ive never really been a fan of the GA or early SA Bats, some really really cheesy stuff in there. 

[Lazyboy]

4 hours ago, DarkKnightReturns said:

For a few years approx 6 years ago when buying at my LCS I rarely read the moderns I was buying. Just buying them obsessively and filing them away in boxes to keep the run going. I finally just stopped buying moderns. I felt I didn't have much attachment to them anymore like way back when I was kid and actually cared about the story lines.

...

Anyone else ever think this way? Curious how others feel about their...runs.

 

Why have runs that you don't care about or that extend to a point you don't care about? I wouldn't sell a comic from the middle of a run, but I might shorten a long run and sell off anything outside the new range.

1 hour ago, oakman29 said:

I had to end it at that 700 mark. Seemed like the perfect spot.

Marvel ended ASM at 441, so that is the obvious spot.

1 hour ago, DarkKnightReturns said:

I guess its a sign that the collecting hobby is good and healthy!

Yup, just like it was in the early 90s!

[oakman29]

3 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

 

Why have runs that you don't care about or that extend to a point you don't care about? I wouldn't sell a comic from the middle of a run, but I might shorten a long run and sell off anything outside the new range.

Marvel ended ASM at 441, so that is the obvious spot.

Yup, just like it was in the early 90s!

Well due to my obsessive compulsive nature I kept going for vol.2 up to 700.

[Readcomix]

It's individual as to which point of demarcation you want to select, but I have found that in discussing runs with people, when I say that I have complete original runs of Avengers, Iron Man, and Defenders, people understand I mean 1-402, 1-332, 1-152. If anything, I have to clarify that with IM I just mean the self-titled series not TOS. I think the early Marvel reboots are a no man's land for many (though in fairness the Perez/Busiek effort was better than much of Avengers original run north of say 202. Past that only a couple isolated storylines stand out much.)

I include the annuals and giant-sizes in my definition; no one asks if they are there.

It's a process to define what's meaningful to oneself as a run to collect.

As to selling, I don't think it's an impairment to to break them up. I think for larger ones they might be hard to find a buyer for. I mean, who the heck likes the Avengers enough to buy that whole run from me without already having many of the books?? 

Defenders, I'm guessing, is about as large a self-contained set as I could sell in one shot. I suppose someone who has none might be inclined to buy and read it. 

I have been on a kick of paring down the size of my collection and using proceeds/trades to acquire books I have always wanted that I never got. This has involved hunting down odd issues of many small runs to finish them off, then reading them end to end before releasing them. (Champions, Secret Society of Super Villains, Super Villain Team-up, West Coast Avengers, Freedom Fighters, etc) I will read the three larger runs end to end before making any decisions, but I have already traded a long box of Avengers-related books post-402 and haven't looked back. I reread a few beforehand is all.

I can easily see myself cutting Avengers off north of 202 (basically 200, except those next 2 are a great little Ultron arc; the comic book version of an Avengers novelette from a Marvel Superheroes paperback from the late 70's) after seeing what it's like to read the serial epic as a serial epic.

Then there's full sets that came within collections I acquired! These really stump me....I have the Spirit Warren and Kitchen Sink stuff and Jonah Hex from All-Star Western 10 thru Hex 1-18, plus a few later books. I'm reading, and I plan to release, but I still need a plan for those. Both are right at that size point (about a full magazine box) where someone might want them intact, but I'm not sure how to do it yet. I will probably walk them into the post office one day to figure out whether offering online is even an option (in terms of shipping).

[Martin Sinescu]

8 minutes ago, oakman29 said:

Well due to my obsessive compulsive nature I kept going for vol.2 up to 700.

Yeah, I can understand this. I kept going on UXM way after I lost interest but I had a pull list at my LCS and didn't want to tell them to cut me off as well as there being that pride in having assembled a run from 200 up to whatever issue in the 300's I was up to at that point. 

9 hours ago, DarkKnightReturns said:

Id be less likely to sell off anything from my Tec or Bats runs.

Where are you starting your run from? My Tecs and Bats start around 1969 when Neal and Denny started working on the titles. Seemed like a good time to start. Ive never really been a fan of the GA or early SA Bats, some really really cheesy stuff in there. 

Right now I'm open to everything in the two original runs. At one point I was going to do like you and just kind of try to hit from the start of Bronze until the last issues for both runs, but there was a lot of late SA that I really liked (some of which I'd already had for many years) so I didn't want to cut that stuff out. It also made me focus and push a lot harder as SA books had always been much pricier, but now I have a few "grail" books that I'd always thought of as unattainable. Plus, as I started searching through earlier stuff, I found there were a lot of cool books which I'd been ignoring so I've basically opened myself up to putting the two main runs together.

Impossible? Probably. That early SA stuff is the biggest obstacle due to my limited enthusiasm for the Sci-Fi stuff. Some of the wacky covers can be fun ("Zebra Batman") and there are a few keys scattered about, but it's going to be really tough to fork over money for every single issue and, ultimately, I doubt I'll do it. Maybe once DC's Omnibus line gets to that early SA stuff and I can read the stories I'll begin to get into that period more. It's definitely helped me get into GA -- an era to which I'd never given a single thought prior to buying the omnis. Really, though, I still have gaps in my run from late Bronze until the end in 2011 (probably about 85-90% complete over that 30-odd year period) that I'm just not that interested in plugging as I'm now much more interested in the GA/SA stuff. The GA, of course, is prohibitively expensive, but I do enjoy the stories and covers. I feel all eras really have their own charm once you jump in the pool and swim around in it.