Organiaztion of comics...

furie · 05-07-2005, 12:54 AM

I'm about to undertake the painful task of categorizing my comics. Some are in order, but most aren't. 80% of them are boarded and bagged however. Any suggestions how to make this process a little less painful?

Would it benefit me to separate all my main titles placing them into the short boxes, then moving them into the big ones once the job is done?

Should I separate silver-age from modern? Curious what u guys recommend.

Leon · 05-07-2005, 08:17 AM

fortunately, I've organized my comics from the start, so I will never have to do them all in 1 time

I would first sort them out by company. Then I would sort them out by main title. For instance all titles that are X-Men-related or Spiderman-related.
Then sort all those titles.
Good luck buddy

Sam Wilson · 05-07-2005, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by furie

Should I separate silver-age from modern? Curious what u guys recommend.

The only thing I have sorted in my collection is my silver age stuff. It's all in magazine sized boxes, and in Mylar bags w/backerboards (my whole collection is bagged and boarded, I use the Wizard Magazine bags from there web site, they are self sealing). Some day I plan on having all m silver age stuff CGC'd.

madjazz · 05-07-2005, 09:34 AM

It sounds like you have a starting strategy. There is not "one good way" to do this. As tedious as this will be, it is also a lot of fun looking through your books.

I've described how I generally separate mine on another thread you had put up a while back. You ask a question about separating within a title here.

Any book that has a guide value of $10 or more I separately store. In addition to my master comic list, these go on another list where I list the condition, value, and a short note to describe what is so special about the issue (ie 1st app. Gambit).

I try to use a better grade of storage bags for these books as well. It is not cost effective to use the best storage materials on your Power Pack #37, but once a book gets over $10 it should make more sense to spend the extra on the better storage. I set that threshhold ten years ago for me, and should probably up it to at least $15 now. You really should get your books organized initially before you take this next step. It is a lot easier to then look through the boxes with a guide book.

furie · 05-07-2005, 11:04 AM

Thanks guys.

ashley76 · 05-07-2005, 12:02 PM

When I get a new comic I carefully fold the front cover back around the back of the book then read it. Each page subsequently goes behind the other. When I am through I take all my new comics that I have read and very gently throw them on the stack of comics I have (currently almost at the ceiling). Does it hurt this price of a comic if there are spine rolls from reading and stacking as I do?

Teague · 05-07-2005, 01:12 PM

It's interesting that a lot of you guys organize by company and price to some degree. Me, I'm still strictly alphabetical (though I do go by character, not specific title--that is, my Amazing Spiderman run isn't in "A", it's in "S" next to the rest of my Spidey-titles. The only exception to this (so far) are the Ultimate titles, which are all under "U").

I thought about separating them by company a while back, but couldn't see a good reason to. And then you have the problem with having smaller companies not even taking up a longbox (Kenzer, Dork Storm, Crossgen, even Image--I've gotten rid of almost all my Image stuff now--I have a lot more Dark Horse (between Star Wars and Conan) than Image, at this point...) I don't know. My space is somewhat limited, so that's a consideration, too.

I'm actually culling a lot of modern stuff that I just don't care about--full runs of Preacher, up-to-date Y:Last Man and Fables, Liberty Meadows, etc. Great books, all, but I have the trades and just don't really care to keep it all. I'm going to focus more on the stuff I loved as a kid--silver age stuff, mainly, with some exceptions to keep buying the runs (Amazing Spiderman, Captain America, X-men)

My wife and I are re-doing our basement currently, but once that's done, I'm going to drag all the boxes out and do a major culling. Sell what I can on Ebay, give the rest away to Children's Hospital here in Denver. And then I'll re-negotiate how the organization works. Big job, but as Deacon mentioned, should be a lot of fun, too. I love re-discovering how cool an old SA Avengers, Spiderman, or Superboy cover was, for example. Great stuff.

Captain Late · 05-07-2005, 02:03 PM

MadJazz has a good point about sorting by value, I plan on wading through my disorganized mass of boxes (is there a word for the age when your folks make you take all your stuff out of their place? mine was 27 or 28...) and when I come across my early FFs or any SA stuff I plan on separating it for future grading... My GAs and a few special SAs are already separated... Gotta find that damn Hulk 181 tho...

lord odin · 05-07-2005, 02:03 PM

what I do is pay my niece and nephew to help me six hands are better than two.
we start by each of us picking 4-5 titles out of the stack then they are put in order then bagged and/or boarded and then boxed.afterwards I tell myself i`ll never do this again fast forward several years I tell my self i`ll never do this again.

madjazz · 05-07-2005, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lord odin

what I do is pay my niece and nephew to help me six hands are better than two.
we start by each of us picking 4-5 titles out of the stack then they are put in order then bagged and/or boarded and then boxed.afterwards I tell myself i`ll never do this again fast forward several years I tell my self i`ll never do this again.

The LCS I currently shop at sells everythign already bagged and boarded. I no longer have this problem.

Back when I did, all comics at least got thrown into bags/boards when I brought them in the house. Somethimes I'd tape right away, other times I'd tape after I read them. If you force yourself into this kind of pattern, it makes sorting them much easier later on, and less likely that you will needlessly mangle the books.

Teague - I know what you mean about some companies not putting out as much. I use these as filler to fill out some boxes with excess room. I also use crumbled up newspaper for this purpose - it keeps the books from shifting and sliding in boxes with excess room.

Also consider putting dead titles in the same box. Because you are not buying more issues, you don't need to shift books around as much.