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The death of the run collector? I'm not so sure...
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56 posts in this topic

My cousin gave me a bunch of his books to try and sell for him this weekend and there's a full run of Iron Fist in there.  It's all somewhere in the VG to Fine range, but I'm still thinking I've got a better shot at listing just the #1 and #14 by themselves than the entire run for the price of just those two books, and that the rest of them will probably just not sell.  It's all about whether the collector is out there to read these or invest it seems.

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3 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

You should definitely keep them if you have 30 of the first 20 Jason! :D

Seriously, I was in this position with ASM too. You either keep them all, sell them all or keep just a few of your favourites.  I did the latter and survived. Sometimes when you sell you come to regret it, especially when you've finished a run and the thrill of the hunt is over. As soon as they're gone though, you can suddenly remember why you loved them and want them back!

As long as the sale proceeds are put to good use, you can do it. Swapping one cherished item for another is a good way of overcoming the unfortunate obstacle of not being rich - which it helps to be in the hobby nowadays. :headbang:

 

lol i meant 30 of the first 50. 

 

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3 hours ago, Mayor006 said:

My cousin gave me a bunch of his books to try and sell for him this weekend and there's a full run of Iron Fist in there.  It's all somewhere in the VG to Fine range, but I'm still thinking I've got a better shot at listing just the #1 and #14 by themselves than the entire run for the price of just those two books, and that the rest of them will probably just not sell.  It's all about whether the collector is out there to read these or invest it seems.

I've found you almost always will do better selling the keys at top dollar and slowly selling off the remainder at a discount but it does take time.  Selling a small set like IF 1 - 15 shouldn't be an issue and may be one of those few sets that actually does better as a whole set since people would get them all in one shot.  But I do find people usually offer you the going rate of the keys and the extras are kind of thrown in for free when it's a bulk purchase.  Take New Mutants 1 - 100 which is probably a $500 set right now.  #87 and #98 are $400 in nice shape and #1, #14, #16, #18, #26, #99 and #100 are probably $100 as a set so all the rest are free in a group sell situation.  You can sell the remaining 90 issues for a buck or two but may take quite a while to get them all sold off.  $100 - $180 left on the table if sold as a set but one way is a whole lot less work.

Edited by 1Cool
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6 hours ago, jason4 said:

I was tempted last night to give up on my amazing Spider-Man run 1-200. I have everything 39-200 and 30 of the first 20 but not 1 2 or 4.

i would sell the non-keys from 102 to 200 and use the money to get an avengers 4 or something. Then I woke up today and thought I was crazy. My interests change daily lol. 

But you know collecting runs like this is so time consuming and uses up so much of the budget and what happens at the end? I don't think selling in bulk would ever be a good idea even though I'm not going to sell them. But I could probably have a more valuable collection if I went the keys only route. Going in circles here. I know collect what you like but I like pretty much everything marvel so it's hard to decide...

complete the run or go for marvel keys of a variety of great characters?

I'm there with you and I've kind of just turned that corner with my Batman/Detective run (admittedly, it was a little vast in scope), so that I can concentrate on getting a few high-end keys. Fortunately, if there's one thing I do really well, it's give up on a project when it's about 3/4 done. 

Honestly, it's partly about the "mission" for me (the research, making charts, scouring listings, etc.) and finding new ways to reinvent the hunt and renew the thrill. When I get near the end, I lose the passion because it's not actually about completing the goal so much as it's about the journey to get there; having direction and a clear purpose for a little while. The problem is when you realize that it's a bit of a prison, too. When you find yourself buying things that don't really make you happy, they're just satisfying the obligation of your collection. There are "key" Batman books that do nothing for me (looking at you, Batman 155), yet I feel like I have to fork over lots of money to get them so that I can check the box off. It's liberating when you can step out of those self-imposed boundaries and you can just walk away.

Another aspect of collecting a massive run is that of separating the wheat from the chaff: You gather up everything within your goal, then step back and decide what makes you most satisfied and what you can do without. There are a few books, both graded and raw, that I hope to never have to get rid of (to the grave, I tell you!). I've collected other things over my many years (sports cards, posters, comic art, game-used sports memorabilia) and I try to keep at least one or two special items from those collections when the rest goes.

Like you, I kind of stepped back and realized what everything I'd spent on my run could've bought me (just what I paid in shipping... *eek*) if it were distilled to just one item. Obviously, that means that the last several years would've been focused on getting that one item and nothing else, which isn't realistic. However, now I can refocus on narrowing one aspect of my comic collection and just picking up those few "key" books that would hopefully be keepers.

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50 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

I've found you almost always will do better selling the keys at top dollar and slowly selling off the remainder at a discount but it does take time.  Selling a small set like IF 1 - 15 shouldn't be an issue and may be one of those few sets that actually does better as a whole set since people would get them all in one shot.  But I do find people usually offer you the going rate of the keys and the extras are kind of thrown in for free when it's a bulk purchase.  Take New Mutants 1 - 100 which is probably a $500 set right now.  #87 and #98 are $400 in nice shape and #1, #14, #16, #18, #26, #99 and #100 are probably $100 as a set so all the rest are free in a group sell situation.  You can sell the remaining 90 issues for a buck or two but may take quite a while to get them all sold off.  $100 - $180 left on the table if sold as a set but one way is a whole lot less work.

Yeah, I'd kinda agree with being able to sell those IF as a group. I cleared out a Jungle Action BP run and Black Panther 1-10 at pretty good prices (all in the VG-F range) the weekend after the movie release. I'd say I did much better on selling them as a lot than if I'd just done the "key" books and now I don't have any of those pesky hangers-on to deal with. Checking sold listings, I think I'll probably try the same thing with Marvel Spotlight Ghost Rider and IF Marvel Premier runs. There's definitely interest in those short, manageable lots and I think there's some nice consistency with having those small runs as opposed to having just a mishmash of "keys".

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I love collecting runs and have done so for a while.   I have shifted to completing runs more in raw state than slabbed though as its much too expensive to collect everything in a slab and sometimes not even feasible if the book itself is only a $10-$50 book in a raw state (or even less).  Often I will shorten my runs from a collecting standpoint as it becomes prohibitive for me both storage wise and expenditure of resources (this includes my time).   For example my ASM run is only focused on issues #1-200.   I have a few later issues, but my interest lies primarily in the first 200 issues for me personally.   Although my run has been modified, I would still consider myself a "run" collector.   Other runs I will chase the entire thing, but they usually need to fall in the GA-BA time period for me.   I collect singles too, but completing the run after many months and/or years of work and searching is what I really enjoy.

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On a much smaller scale, I'm trying to complete my Moon Knight run from the 1st series all in CGC 9.8 white..I have two raw sets.  I really like  Bill Sienkiewicz  on these Moon Knight books and I enjoyed reading the set very much.

It's those last few issues are hard to get in just about any series. Nobody sent them in for grading since they aren't keys. 

I've already got Dectective Comics 1-400 all in CGC 9.8 Blue labels.  <---Sorry had a hallucination cramp just now. 

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On 3/17/2018 at 11:36 PM, FineCollector said:

There's someone posting a Harley Quinn #1 retailer variant on a Facebook group, and I'm trying to figure out why people are so crazy about that book.  I get that it's a 1:25, but if it was a Justice League, no one would care.  I can't picture anyone buying that without having all the other issues.  Gotta be Harley completists, right?

So far, I can picture a lot of people chasing every appearance of Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Carnage, and Venom.  Who are they, what makes them so ravenous for those characters, and how do we hook them on something with more history to it?

I don't believe this at all. IMO, completionist collecting is pretty much dead in the comic industry. The comic industry and the sheer number of variants, some of them being ridiculously expensive, really put an end to that kind of collecting. I have always been a completionist collector, dating all the way back to when I collected baseball cards as a kid. That's not to say that there aren't people out there collecting a lot of comics from their favorite runs or characters, but that is a completely different ballgame than being a completionist collector. The only completionist collectors these days are people collecting runs that don't have many variants or people that have EXTREMELY deep pocket books. 

As for why that Harley #1 is so popular...well, that could have a lot to do with Harley in general being ridiculously popular these last few years running. I have posted on multiple occasions expressing my not understand why Harley has become so crazy popular all of the sudden. If you include all of the various merchendise that is released for comic characters (comics, premium statues, smaller statues, etc.), there are very few characters that can match the sheer number of releases Harley has had the last 2-3 years running. Harley is without question one of the most popular DC characters on the market right now and that has been the case for at least the last coupe years and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. So nothing really surprises me anymore in regards to Harley purchases. 

Edited by OrangeCrush
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Are run collectors dead - not at all.  Are the number of run collectors tiny compared to what it was a bit ago - definitely.  I'd say if you took away the CGC guys trying to complete with each other on the Registry you would have even less common run books being bought up.

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5 hours ago, 1Cool said:

Are run collectors dead - not at all.  Are the number of run collectors tiny compared to what it was a bit ago - definitely. 

+1

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8 minutes ago, Robot Man said:
On 18/03/2018 at 10:08 PM, letsgrumble said:

If today's kids are into Eminem, Drake, or Taylor Swift, how of you convince them to start buying Elvis Presley or Bo Diddley records?

Play it for them. Lots of kids are discovering this stuff if they are exposed to it and loving it.

50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong...

0000344845.jpg.f02766df05ae48f186d3a0c0ba531512.jpg

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Interesting thread! My experience: I got into the hobby more seriously a couple of years ago and intented to collect the 10-12 biggest Marvel keys. I partly did that (still havent got the Avengers 4 and ST110), but the whole thing got a big boring as I had to stay focused and constrain myself to purchase like 3-4 books / year. I am a collector and I like getting packages in the post more often than 4 times a year (lol) so I went over to focus on an ASM 1-400 run. I was lucky to have already AF15 and #1 so it can only get easier. I bought almost all of 200-400 in 2 large bulks and got those out of the way (even though I love them I would hate to have to hunt them individually), and I focus now on the first 200. The cool thing with ASM is that there are SO many keys in the first issues so you virtually dont need to choose between going for the run or just for the keys :headbang:. Hopefully the interest will last to get me until the target, but I already have in mind my next goal :whistle:.

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On 3/19/2018 at 1:18 PM, Martin Sinescu said:

I'm there with you and I've kind of just turned that corner with my Batman/Detective run (admittedly, it was a little vast in scope), so that I can concentrate on getting a few high-end keys. Fortunately, if there's one thing I do really well, it's give up on a project when it's about 3/4 done. 

Honestly, it's partly about the "mission" for me (the research, making charts, scouring listings, etc.) and finding new ways to reinvent the hunt and renew the thrill. When I get near the end, I lose the passion because it's not actually about completing the goal so much as it's about the journey to get there; having direction and a clear purpose for a little while. The problem is when you realize that it's a bit of a prison, too. When you find yourself buying things that don't really make you happy, they're just satisfying the obligation of your collection. There are "key" Batman books that do nothing for me (looking at you, Batman 155), yet I feel like I have to fork over lots of money to get them so that I can check the box off. It's liberating when you can step out of those self-imposed boundaries and you can just walk away.

Another aspect of collecting a massive run is that of separating the wheat from the chaff: You gather up everything within your goal, then step back and decide what makes you most satisfied and what you can do without. There are a few books, both graded and raw, that I hope to never have to get rid of (to the grave, I tell you!). I've collected other things over my many years (sports cards, posters, comic art, game-used sports memorabilia) and I try to keep at least one or two special items from those collections when the rest goes.

Like you, I kind of stepped back and realized what everything I'd spent on my run could've bought me (just what I paid in shipping... *eek*) if it were distilled to just one item. Obviously, that means that the last several years would've been focused on getting that one item and nothing else, which isn't realistic. However, now I can refocus on narrowing one aspect of my comic collection and just picking up those few "key" books that would hopefully be keepers.

Well said. Thanks for this.

 

whats annoying to me is I was in a local comic store and saw some really cool silver and bronze stuff...like fantastic four with surfer on the cover and some nice looking tomb of Dracula and werewolf by night that would be fun to read and keep in the collection.

But I hesitated and bought nothing because I figured I'd save the money for a Spider-Man  book in the run that doesn't interest me at all other than to complete the run.

I'm seriously close to giving it up lol. Anyone want to buy some high grade late bronze spideys featuring such amazing characters as the white dragon and rocket racer? Yawn

Edited by jason4
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4 hours ago, SECollector said:

Interesting thread! My experience: I got into the hobby more seriously a couple of years ago and intented to collect the 10-12 biggest Marvel keys. I partly did that (still havent got the Avengers 4 and ST110), but the whole thing got a big boring as I had to stay focused and constrain myself to purchase like 3-4 books / year. I am a collector and I like getting packages in the post more often than 4 times a year (lol) so I went over to focus on an ASM 1-400 run. I was lucky to have already AF15 and #1 so it can only get easier. I bought almost all of 200-400 in 2 large bulks and got those out of the way (even though I love them I would hate to have to hunt them individually), and I focus now on the first 200. The cool thing with ASM is that there are SO many keys in the first issues so you virtually dont need to choose between going for the run or just for the keys :headbang:. Hopefully the interest will last to get me until the target, but I already have in mind my next goal :whistle:.

ASM 1-200 is a fun run to chase.  Plenty of keys to run after if you are in the mood to purchase a bigger $$ book, ands lots of run filler type books also if that is what your budget entails at that moment.

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I collect runs. Kind of. I just collect characters that interest me and books that I think are well priced. I'm the guy at the comic convention digging through the dollar bins, who then asks about the low grade key issue that's a good price (I recently bought a really beat up ASM #3 for $80, and fairly beat up Daredevil #3 & 4 for $30 each.). 

 I have a list on my phone of what I already have so I don't double-buy any issues. At a recent convention I pulled like 30 Daredevil comics out of this guys dollar bin. They were all late 80's stuff in NM 9.0+ shape for a buck each. No keys, no Frank Miller. The dealer seemed surprised I wanted them all. In retrospect I guess I should have tried to haggle. 

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