I try to keep up with having everything bagged, boarded, and alphabatized by title, all in long boxes on an industrial shelving unit in the garage. It's a constant process, but I really like sifting through stuff to file it away - I'm always re-discovering old books and reading them. I'm not insane about condition, though. I just want to be able to read them as much as possible before they crumble into dust.

Ed

Oh fcarrera, we get to bond on something!
There is nothing I want more than to have my own house where I can have a comic room for my models and posters as well as shelves for my books instead of boxes, so I can get to them easier. Then I will have a steel (YES STEEL) door with a deadlock, so its the one room in the house only I can get into. No one touches my comics, but me and fellow collectors. I don't collect for profit, but I will NOT let my collection get into bad condition. I'm also spending my tax return on insuring my collection. Fanatic? I think not.

Reading some of these replies, it's good to know that I'm not the only fanatic around here!

I also have a collection that is in the mid (and getting towards high!) thousands, but I would probably fall into the second category. I'm not too crazy about the condition of my books. The way I store them is I use the Golden Age bags to put 10-12 books per plastic. I store them in big boxes (but they're lying down, not vertical), and usually by title (one for Avengers, one for X-Men, etc). Each box can hold approximately 40 packs (about 400-420 comics). I would try to put them all into the long comic boxes, but they're difficult to find (can anybody lend a tip where to find comic boxes in NYC? The only store I know charges $5 per box)

The only books that are in bags and boards are hologram/chrome types, cause those are the ones I don't want any scratches on. The trades I keep on a bookshelf, along with the newer issues of titles I collect. My main purpose for collecting is reading: I'll read a bunch of issues in a title, and put them away until a couple of years later I'll re-read them.

I think so.

In a nice way, of course.

See, I don't go there. That whole "don't touch it!" thing. If somebody wants to read something I have, by all means, read it, collector or not. To me it's no different than sharing books or CDs. The only exceptions are those books that actually have some value.

Hell, my wife just go done reading my whole Sandman collection, her first ever foray into comics. I didn't worry about how they were treated. I was too busy being glad that she was interested in them.

To me, the whole collector mentality is what eventually drove my interest in comics away. I'm an ardent baseball fan, but I don't collect cards because, to me, it's a worthless pursuit. Some with the collecting aspect of comics. I read them. No more. No less. Doesn't mean I don't take good care of them - I do - but I don't treat them like tiny gods.

You're such a hoot...

What do you guys mean "you'll never sell your comics"? Are you going to will them to your children? Are you going to be buried with them?

Never say never. If, it gets to the point of my life that I have to get $10,000 together to buy that next big house or put a significant dent into my future son/daughter's college tuition bill, some of the comics will go. Will I be happy about it? Probably not. But collectables are temporary in their ownership, whether it be for 2 hours or 20 years.

That is, of course, unless you collect only New Universe titles, and maybe then your comics will stay with you your whole life, because there'd be nobody out there who actually wants to buy them!

Hee hee, tiny gods.
When I say that NO ONE reads, I used to let people, but they fucke dit up for everyone else. Besides, no one I know that aren't already into it, would want to read my books. They have that "just for kids" bullshit mentality.

My comics won't ever be worth a hell of a lot. Some will, but others not so much.
Yes, they will be willed to my children, who will be schooled from a young age in proper care and appreciation. I SHIT YOU NOT.
I will of course sell them if it's ABSOLUTELY necessary, but never for personal gain, no matter how dire things got. Only for someone else.

This is what I mean. If the above is the case, why bother locking them in an airtight vault? I wasted too much time and money fussing with that for a bunch of stuff I'd be lucky to get full price for.

But to each his own. I fully understand the joy people get from collecting, the fun in hunting down items, and the thrill one gets from looking at a sprawling collection with the knowledge that you single-handedly amassed it all. I just don't feel inclined to do that anymore.

As far as leaving them to your kids ... what happens when your kid doesn't care about comics?

Yeah, unthinkable, right? Actually, not at all.

My son can have anything he'd like from my colection, or at least whatever's left of it when he gets interested in them. If he's not interested - and that's highly likely these days - I won't worry much.

This is very true. Just the other day, when I was organizing my comics, my kids asked if I could buy them some.
"Buy them?! Here, I'll give you some!"
I gave my oldest daughter all my Supergirl comics, I gave my son all my Superboy comics and gave the baby (2 yrs old) a bunch of crap books that she could tear into.
They walked into the house beaming with a huge stack of comics dad gave them and sat down in the living room reading. Only my oldest can read, but my son can't yet, so he just followed the pictures.
It was really cool seeing them get into it and enjoying what I've been enjoying for many years. My oldest was even asking what other books she could read when she gets done with those. I showed her the Bone, Spiderman and X-Men books.

I really don't get THAT over protective of my books. Of course I don't want them getting messed up, but I don't mind letting people read them.

*side note*
My 2 year old keeps all her books that I gave her next to her bed and looks at them every once in a while. Out of the 15-20 books I gave her, only one has the cover torn off.