c/comic-book-fans

27

anna_carter53•2d ago

Back in 2015 I swore digital comics would never replace the real thing

I was that person who said flipping through a floppy was the only way to read comics, no exceptions. Then I moved to a tiny apartment in Chicago and had to box up 2,000 issues just to have floor space. Has anyone else changed their tune on digital reading after a big move or downsizing?

0

gavinross•3d ago

That $200 Ebay lot of old comics taught me a painful lesson

I bought a giant mystery box of comics off Ebay for 200 bucks last month. The seller said it was mostly silver and bronze age stuff from an estate sale. Turned out 90% of it was damaged by moisture with mold spots and wrinkled pages. I spent three weekends trying to flatten and clean them but most are just trash now. The other 10% were from the late 90s and worth maybe 20 cents each. Has anyone else gotten burned on a mystery lot like this or am I just the unluckiest guy here?

12

sageburns•18d ago

Had to pick between my favorite run or a signed first issue today

I was at a garage sale and this guy had a full set of Frank Miller Daredevil issues for $50 and also a signed copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300 for $100. I only had $80 on me so I grabbed the Miller run and ran. Anybody else had to make a painful call like that at a sale?

11

smith.blair•19d ago

I wasted $80 on a signed comic that turned out fake

Bought a supposedly signed first print of The Walking Dead #1 from a guy at a convention in Portland last summer. Got it home and compared the signature to pictures online and it didn't match at all. The seller ghosted me when I tried to contact him through the con's vendor list. Has anyone else gotten burned by fake signatures at shows?

3

jasons63•20d ago

Flipping through a run vs reading a collected edition - which is better for getting into a character?

I started reading Moon Knight a few months ago and couldn't decide if I should dig through back issues at my local shop or just buy the Epic Collection trade. I went with floppies first, got about 15 issues from the 80s run, but half of them had ads torn out and the story kept getting interrupted. Then I grabbed the collected edition and read the same arc in one afternoon, but I felt like I missed the original letter columns and backup features. Anyone else find one format changes how you connect with the character?

4

hart.parker•21d ago

Stopped by my old comic shop after 5 years and felt like a stranger

I went into Cosmic Collectibles in Portland last weekend for the first time since 2019. The whole back wall where they used to have all the long boxes sorted by publisher was just Funko Pops and T-shirts now. The guy at the counter didn't even ask if I was looking for anything specific, just stared at his phone. I get that shops gotta pay rent but it made me wonder, do any dedicated comic shops still feel like a place to hang out and dig for back issues for an hour anymore?

19

hart.parker•22d ago

The time a guy at my local shop argued Batman could beat Goku in a fight for 45 minutes straight

Last Tuesday at Graham Crackers Comics in Naperville, this grown man in a leather jacket spent a full 45 minutes explaining how Batman with prep time could beat Goku, and the cashier just kept ringing up Funko Pops without saying a word, has anyone else gotten stuck in a debate that died five minutes in but the other person just kept going?

23

jesse_west•26d ago

Am I the only one who thinks the Death of Superman story is way overrated?

My comic shop owner in Pittsburgh sold me the full run for $60 three years ago and I finally read them this weekend, and the whole thing felt like a drawn-out gimmick that didn't earn the hype, has anyone else been let down by a classic storyline everyone loves?

5

ben402•27d ago

That time a comic book fan yelled at me for bagging a book wrong

I was at a local shop in Portland last Saturday, just flipping through some back issues. Guy next to me saw me put a Silver Surfer #4 in a standard bag and went off about how I was ruining the spine. He said I should use a half-back board and a Mylar sleeve for anything pre-2000. I just stood there holding the bag like an idiot. The clerk backed him up and showed me how to do it right. Now I spend extra on different bag sizes for older books. Has anyone else run into super picky collectors judging your packing choices?

21

jordant69•1mo ago

Warning: my comic collection got ruined by a leaky pipe last Tuesday

I came home from work and found water dripping from the ceiling right onto my long box of Silver Age X-Men. About 30 issues got wet, including a pretty nice copy of X-Men #12 I got at a garage sale for 5 bucks. The water damage warped the covers and made some pages stick together. I tried drying them out carefully with fans but the damage is done. My landlord is fixing the pipe but that doesn't bring back my comics. Has anyone else had their collection wrecked by something dumb like a leak or a flood?

9

river_rivera45•1mo ago

Tried selling my old back issues at a convention booth last Saturday

I rented a table at the Metro City Con for $60 thinking I'd unload some 90s X-Men duplicates, but instead I spent half the day explaining to collectors why my copy of X-Force #1 wasn't worth $50. I watched a guy haggle me down to $3 on a near-mint copy of Amazing Spider-Man #363 because the color was slightly off. Has anyone else had a convention sale turn into more of a hangout than a moneymaker?

23

taraj11•1mo ago

Finally figured out why my old long boxes sucked compared to the new plastic ones

I kept having issues with my comics getting bent corners in those old cardboard long boxes from the 90s. Switched to the BCW plastic bins last month and the difference is huge - the lids lock tight and they stack way better in my closet. Total cost was like $60 for 5 of them at my local shop in Austin. Has anyone else noticed their old cardboard boxes just falling apart after a few moves?

15

blakecampbell•1mo ago

Just learned that Marvel's first black superhero wasn't Black Panther, it was the Black Goliath back in 1966

I was digging through some old issues on Marvel Unlimited and stumbled across a Black Goliath debut in Strange Tales, way before I ever heard of him. Anyone else find random obscure facts that change how you think about comic history?

20

mary_schmidt•1mo ago

Switched from bagging my weekly pulls to a longbox system last spring

I used to keep every new Wednesday issue in a plastic bag until I had over 200 comics piled on my desk. Now I sort them directly into a longbox by publisher and it took my stack from a 4 foot tower down to one neat box. Anyone else ditch the bags for daily reading?

9

gonzalez.wesley•1mo ago

Rant: I thought that first printing hype was total nonsense

I used to roll my eyes at people paying $80 for a new #1 issue just because it said 'first printing' on the cover. Like, come on, it's the same story inside no matter what. But then I grabbed a copy of Batman: Damned #1 off the rack back in 2019 for $6, and last month I sold it for $150 at a con in Pittsburgh. I still think the speculation game is mostly luck, but I guess I can't call the whole thing a scam now. Has anyone else accidentally stumbled into a big flip like that?

15

jenniferwells•1mo ago

Ran into an old collector at a con last Saturday who made me question my whole pull list approach

So this guy in his 60s was flipping through dollar bins while I was hunting for variant covers. He told me he stopped collecting single issues in 1985 and only reads trades now, said something like "you're buying paper, not stories." Honestly it hit different because I've been dropping like $80 a month on floppies I barely even read. But then again, I love the Wednesday ritual and the smell of fresh ink. Anyone else stuck between the weekly hunt and just waiting for collected editions?

24

piperf40•1mo ago

My LCS guy told me to grab the 2018 Immortal Hulk #1 before it blew up

Back in 2018 my shop owner Dave at Cosmic Comics convinced me to buy 4 copies of Immortal Hulk #1. He said the writing was going to be huge and the cover art by Alex Ross would make it a grail. I thought he was just trying to move stock since it was $3.99 each. Now two of them graded at 9.8 are sitting in my collection and one just sold for $280 on eBay. I should have grabbed a whole case. Anyone else have a shop owner steer you right like that?

25

blakecampbell•1mo ago

Always thought variant covers were a cash grab... then I grabbed one at my LCS

I used to roll my eyes at people hunting variants, figured it was just a way to milk collectors for more cash. But I picked up a blank cover variant of X-Men #1 at my local shop last weekend for $10, and now I'm thinking about having a local artist sketch something custom on it. Has anyone else come around on variants after finding one that actually felt personal or meaningful?

7

shane_nguyen•1mo ago

That time I rolled my eyes at a guy collecting variant covers... then I bought one

I was at a comic shop in Portland last month, and there was this dude arguing with the owner about a variant cover for some Batman issue I'd never even heard of. I'm standing there thinking, 'It's just a different picture on the front, who cares?' But then the owner pulled out this foil cover for a book I actually liked, Spider-Verse #5 or something. It had this shiny red and black design that looked way cooler in person than online. I ended up buying it for $12 just to see what the fuss was about. Now I'm kinda paranoid I'll start wanting more of them... has anyone else gotten pulled into that trap by just one cover?

11

perry.jessica•1mo ago

I finally got my hands on a graded copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 and it was a huge mistake

Spent almost $800 on a CGC 2.0 slab from an online auction, thinking it was a solid investment for my collection. The book itself is fine, but the grading feels super harsh for the price, and now I'm stuck with this expensive piece of plastic. Has anyone else felt burned by a big-ticket slab purchase?

10

jennifercooper•1mo ago

My collection hit 500 comics and it made me feel weird

I was sorting my boxes yesterday and counted them all. I have exactly 500 single issues now. I thought hitting that number would feel like a big win, but it just felt like a lot of stuff. Most of it is stuff I bought because I felt like I had to, not because I really wanted it. I see people online chasing big numbers, but I think I'm done with that. Has anyone else hit a collection goal and felt kind of empty about it?

12

beth_ward80•1mo ago

My 8-year-old niece asked me why I only collect modern comics, and her simple question about 'the old pictures' made me finally start hunting for some silver age books.

She pointed at a reprint in a library book and said, 'The colors look like candy, why don't you have any of those?' and now I'm browsing eBay for a decent copy of Fantastic Four #48.

6

jordan305•1mo ago

I had to pick between going to a big con in Atlanta or saving that money for a full year of Marvel Unlimited.

I chose the digital sub to catch up on 3 years of X-Men stories I missed, but man, I really miss the con floor energy and finding those weird back-issue bins, you know?

26

jordan_webb49•1mo ago

Serious question, trying to organize my long boxes by story arc took me a full weekend

I thought it would be simple, just group the 'Knightfall' and 'No Man's Land' Batman runs together. Ended up spending 14 hours cross-referencing my collection with a wiki because I was missing key issues. Anyone else get stuck in a sorting rabbit hole like that?

14

shane_nguyen•1mo ago

TIL comparing the new comic shop in town to my old spot made me realize how much a welcoming staff matters.

I went to 'The Panel Palace' for a year because it was closer, but after one visit to 'Comic Vault' where the owner remembered my name and pulled a back issue I'd mentioned, I switched my whole pull list over because that personal touch is what being a fan is really about, you know?