What comics to keep???

[dandy mad]

I was offered a copy of action comics no 1 for £1000 over 30 years ago but I got a mortgage on a house instead , it was only a good to fair copy of the comic so not a million pound investment

Jeez they where expensive even back then!

[David McDonald]

I have a large collection of 70's and 80' (90's upwards too) mostly British comics.
The majority of them are worthless, I like to keep my comics well, but I'm not one for bags, and a rip here or there wont bother me, missing and coloured pages wont do though, unless to fill a gap.
I generally keep everything I buy, unless I have totally no interest, e.g. some girls and football comics.
When I shuffle off this mortal coil, which I'm hoping wont be for a while, the comics will probably still be worthless, but a donation of them to the local library, or Musuem might be a option.
The collection's that we all have amassed will be fairly unique, and might be of some value as a social barometer to future generations, or maybe not

[stevezodiac]

Yes I think about what will happen when I expire. I sort of set a date in my head say, when I am 70, that I will put my collection up for sale. May not kive that long though. My dad and brother died in their early 40s and I'm 57 now. Best thing is to write a will and have them auctioned for your descendants. My sister would happily put them all in a skip. She is a neatness freak.

[japandroid]

I had a scare a couple of years ago where I had 25,000 comics and had to downsize to around 10,000 max due to a house move. I found selling a lot of stuff very easy once I spent some of the money I made on high grade or rare stuff + records I thought I would never own. When the time comes I'll be keeping 2000AD 1-500 + Specials and Annuals, Starlord set, Vampirella/Creepy/Eerie Warren sets, my Skywald collection, MWOM set, Mediascene set, Treasuries. After that it will be a few choice US and UK comics that I couldn't part with. I reckon could downsize to around 5,000 without feeling suicidal.

[Michael Anden]

Christ what a depressing topic! "How do I get shot of stuff I basically love, but can't keep in their entirety because life's short, space is at premium and I don't want my relatives harumphing after I bought the big one!"

What about the formation of some sort of chain of comics library-cafes where they can all be nicely filed and indexed, maybe collected into volume binders, and every can have a nice cup of tea and chat about whatever they're hunting for. There can also be activities, workshops and stuff?

Yeah, I know- "show me the money". "Where's the beef". "You had me at hello" etc

[abacus]

I obviously enjoy collecting to the extent of not only comics and annuals but also well illustrated victorian books etc.I probable think somewhere in the back of my mind I'm saving some of our history from the rubbish dump, that's my excuse anyway.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Absolutely agree on the point that an Establishment should be set up to store and look after our comics collections after we are all gone. I'd feel a lot better about this , as whoever clears out my house will have no real love or affinity for a pile of 1969 BEEZERS: this will amount to a block of junk to be systematically cleared quickly.

Non-profit-making, of course: perhaps selling 'doubles' of early rare issues on e-bay to help funding.

Maybe a Lottery Grant will foot the bill?

[Marionette]

Absolutely agree on the point that an Establishment should be set up to store and look after our comics collections after we are all gone. I'd feel a lot better about this , as whoever clears out my house will have no real love or affinity for a pile of 1969 BEEZERS: this will amount to a block of junk to be systematically cleared quickly.

I think house clearers are more savvy these days. I've seen several comic auctions on ebay saying this random comic was found in an attic during a house clearing or renovation. I think I picked up an issue of Sally from one of them.

[paw broon]

That's a good idea but I doubt a lottery grant would be available, given the general attitude to comics in the U.K. But, there is a library service, which is still relatively healthy in Scotland. And our local library service is interested in comics and G.N.'s. To the extent that we have had comics pros chatting and taking workshops. The main problem with the library is the necessity of concentrating on American product because of the relatively small amount of British collections available. Readers can borrow Commando collections, some Talbot and Moore books, plus Gravett histories. There is no emphasis on classic British comics.
Were a group of committed fans attempt to suggest this idea of comics libraries in our existing libraries, it would need a lot of work, and space becomes a problem again, this time for the library. Also, an archiving service costs money unless any group has people who can make piles of volumes on a regular basis. But it's worth considering. Curious to read what others think.
As for my collection which is a mix of old American, Aus, Euro., and British pocket libraries and other Brit. titles, I do wonder what will happen to them when I kick the bucket. Even now, I lack space - one of the reasons I have embraced digital files. So what do I ditch so I can store recent purchases? I don't want to get rid of anything, so I do nothing and more of my wee room disappears under comics.

[r3tr0_gam3r]

I am currently going through the problem of running out of space. For a while now, my bedroom hasn't had much room! I broke a bookcase a short while ago, so a lot of my annuals are currently stacked and taking more room than the bookcase ever did. Also, the last couple of months, I have made the mistake of buying a few job lots of loads of comics with the idea that even though there were going to be doubles (or in some cases triples) of ones I already had, it was helping to fill a lot of gaps in my collection. Of course now, I have more comics in my collection, more to sell and less and less room. I am hoping to start selling these soon.

[Bethanys grandad]

I have slowly been selling off the comics that I no longer want , the big trouble is that if I don't take the money out of paypal of use it I got a feeling that I have bought more than I have sold so my collection which I am trying to reduce by at least half is getting bigger, I have given away a large number of football and beano comics and I shall be soon giving away 4 large boxs of 2000ad to a work colleague ( if his wife lets him have them) which should cut it down by a few hundred.

[SID]

Well, I have just moved (from Kent to County Durham) to live with my partner and realised how much stuff (predominantly comics and annuals) I have collated over the years. Though not as much as most of you on this site, I still had a fair few thousand comics to shift and some I had to leave behind.

Luckily the sacrifice was mainly my spares. But I was going to use them as my start up stock when I finally was going to start up my little comic business after I have retired (though that is still a couple of decades to go before that happens).

Unfortunately, due to the circumstances of the move, I didn't have the time to sell them on eBay but I am planning for them to go to charity to see what they can get for them.

Up in County Durham, I do have an old bookshop that is interested in selling any unwanted graphic novels for me so maybe some good news there (I just hope he realises how many books I can give him).

But it was a tough decision overall. Sad to see them go.

[geoff42]

don't sell any, you'll regret it at some point. About three years ago, I won a full set of Star Wars Marvel UK comics with their original free gifts and posters on offer. I picked them up personally and, as I was loading them into my boot, I could feel the seller's sorrowful eyes on his loss. I drove off quickly, fearing that he may suddenly change his mind. The poor soul had sold a part of his childhood; he had informed me that he had collected the series from his early teens. I bet he dearly regrets the sale now. He had filed every comic in a A4 pocket file and indexed every box (3 in total) from wherein the comics resided. My gain - a gain I will never sell on.

[japandroid]

My wife will often regale people with stories about how every room in our house had comics in it apart from the bathroom and that was only because it was literally impossible. Once we had collectorline boxes in the lounge with cloths on them to make them look like an occassional table.

[Lew Stringer]

don't sell any, you'll regret it at some point. About three years ago, I won a full set of Star Wars Marvel UK comics with their original free gifts and posters on offer. I picked them up personally and, as I was loading them into my boot, I could feel the seller's sorrowful eyes on his loss. I drove off quickly, fearing that he may suddenly change his mind. The poor soul had sold a part of his childhood; he had informed me that he had collected the series from his early teens. I bet he dearly regrets the sale now. He had filed every comic in a A4 pocket file and indexed every box (3 in total) from wherein the comics resided. My gain - a gain I will never sell on.

I think it comes down to the individual really. When there comes a time when you realise you haven't even looked at a some comics for 20 years, and have no inclination to read them again (because personal tastes change over time) then there's no point in hanging onto them.

I agree that childhood comics would be missed though, because they hold the strongest memories of nostalgia. I'll always keep my 1960s comics.