Sorting the Collection

[ctowner1]

I'm in dire need of a reorg, but in theory, my collection is organized like this:

0. The principal theory is that everything is sorted generally by length of run.

1. Other, DC, Marvel - and within Other, it's by company, based on number of comics in that company.

2. I group related comics together (ex. Avengers, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Ultimates, Avengers miniseries).

3. I have boxes like "Marvel-old-medium" - which have old Marvel comics, with medium length runs - and "DC-old-short" - which have old DC comice, with short runs.

4. I have "current" boxes ordered Other, DC, Marvel, with comics I've bought over the past few months (or years). Every few months (or years), I integrate the "current" boxes with the "old" or base boxes for the character.

5. Comics are often grouped by how long their run is - or, more particularly - how long their non-full-box run is. For example, I probably have, say, 2 full Avengers long boxes, and about 100 Avengers comics that take up less than a full box, and 3 full Spiderman boxes, with, say, 50 Spiderman comics that take up less than a full box. I'll have a box just for the most recent Avengers and Spiderman comics (and perhaps a 3rd title as well). When the 3 titles overflow the box, I'll get rid on 1 and only have 2 in it. When the 2 titles overflow the box, I'll get rid of the shorter one, and then the box will only have one type of comic. so it's a constant shifting based on size of runs. But this way, the most recent comics are always on the top of the collection (the collection is about 6 rows of 7 boxes, so I have the most recent on the top).

6. Unread comics are in their own box (fortunately, I've been able to keep it to a single longbox!).

7. My trades are in their own book case. I have a top row of my all time favorites (Absolute Sandman, Alan Moore, Complete Cerebus, Wagner's Mage, Chaykin's Flagg! Then I go alphabetical by author the rest of the way.

8. Any trade that I buy for the character, and not the creator, gets filed in a longbox just like any other floppy comic.

I'm sure this sounds pretty chaotic - but I can generally find anything I own pretty easily. (excpet for the fact that, as I mentioned, I'm due for a majot overhaul to get everyhting to conform with the abvoe system! lol).

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[JohnMayo]

0. The principal theory is that everything is sorted generally by length of run.

I can sort of see the logic in this but it isn't something I'd do.

4. I have "current" boxes ordered Other, DC, Marvel, with comics I've bought over the past few months (or years). Every few months (or years), I integrate the "current" boxes with the "old" or base boxes for the character.

You are doing better than I am on this. I've got five short boxes and five Drawer Boxes that are completely unsorted. Well, actually, they are more or less sorted into the order I read them in but that isn't much help at all. I've got another 8 or so short boxes that are each individually sorted and another group of 4 or 5 Drawer Boxes sorted. Once I get each of the remaining unsorted boxes sorted, I'll merge the whole mess into the main collection. I hope to spend either Thanksgiving weekend and/or the winter holidays doing this.

6. Unread comics are in their own box (fortunately, I've been able to keep it to a single longbox!).

I've got about a dozen Drawer Boxes in my reading room with my unread back issues. Some of these are sorted but a few aren't. This is one of the other things I need to tackle in the sooner rather than later time frame. I'm not even sure all of these comics are in my inventory.

I've got a short box of new unread comics. I used to be a Drawer Box worth of stuff but got it down to around 100 items and shifted it into a short box. I hope to shift back to the short box top approach that used to work for me before I got chronically behind on my reading.

7. My trades are in their own book case. I have a top row of my all time favorites (Absolute Sandman, Alan Moore, Complete Cerebus, Wagner's Mage, Chaykin's Flagg! Then I go alphabetical by author the rest of the way.

My trades are very disorganized. I've got a few on bookshelves, some in short boxes and far too many simply stacked over my reading room.

I'm sure this sounds pretty chaotic - but I can generally find anything I own pretty easily. (excpet for the fact that, as I mentioned, I'm due for a majot overhaul to get everyhting to conform with the abvoe system! lol).

Yes, it does sound complicated and confusing. But, if it works for you, great.

[ctowner1]

0. The principal theory is that everything is sorted generally by length of run.

I can sort of see the logic in this but it isn't something I'd do.

The general idea is that I have about 1000 issues of Spiderman (between Amazing, Spectacular, Ultimate, Marvel TeamUp, miniseries, etc), so that's 3+ longboxes. It doesn't make sense to me to file the 3 copies of "Spineman" after the 1000 issues of "Spiderman". Better to stick Spineman in a box with a bunch of other series that have runs of 2 or 3.

4. I have "current" boxes ordered Other, DC, Marvel, with comics I've bought over the past few months (or years). Every few months (or years), I integrate the "current" boxes with the "old" or base boxes for the character.

You are doing better than I am on this. I've got five short boxes and five Drawer Boxes that are completely unsorted. Well, actually, they are more or less sorted into the order I read them in but that isn't much help at all. I've got another 8 or so short boxes that are each individually sorted and another group of 4 or 5 Drawer Boxes sorted. Once I get each of the remaining unsorted boxes sorted, I'll merge the whole mess into the main collection. I hope to spend either Thanksgiving weekend and/or the winter holidays doing this.

Remember, I said I was in need of a reorg - that's the theory. In practice, I think I have another 3 or 4 longboxes full of comics that I knocked out of the "Current Box" and just stuck there to be theoretically integrated into the heart of the collection. Alas, those 3 or 4 longboxes have comics that have been there for at least 3 or 4 years now! In theory, those 3 or 4 longboxes shouldn't exist! lol

I'm sure this sounds pretty chaotic - but I can generally find anything I own pretty easily. (excpet for the fact that, as I mentioned, I'm due for a majot overhaul to get everyhting to conform with the abvoe system! lol).

Yes, it does sound complicated and confusing. But, if it works for you, great.

At the end of the day, "what works for you" is the system everyone should use. I am getting a little worried though that things are getting unwieldy - so if/when I do the major overhaul, I might consider something new. (perhaps a major section of "things to put on ebay!" lol)

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[JohnMayo]

At the end of the day, "what works for you" is the system everyone should use. I am getting a little worried though that things are getting unwieldy - so if/when I do the major overhaul, I might consider something new. (perhaps a major section of "things to put on ebay!" lol)

e
L nny

Absolutely. It is your collection so organize it the way that works best for you.

While I doubt I'll ever go the eBay route myself, I did at one point add a column to my Excel inventory system called "unloadable" for thing that I'd be willing to part with. I don't think I ever filled that in for anything yet but it is there as a concession to the physical storage limitations that I'm going to hit in the not too distant future.

[Trev]

I've got a question about how you guys sort comics. When you've got a box of comics, or maybe a couple of boxes of comics, how do you physically go about sorting them? In other words, regardless of what order you sort them into, what process do you use to physically get them into that order?

I have a holding box of bagged and boarded stuff to be filed. Then as I enter those into Comicbase I place them on the respective box they would go in -- everything is alphabetical in my collection. Once I have a good number of books ready to go into an individual box, I go ahead and file them.

It can get tedious because I mostly use short boxes for the main collection.

I'm thinking of going to a system like Bob has, where comicbase stores the location via some kind of box id and I don't really have to alphabetize them at all -- comicbase will tell me where to look.

[BobBretall]

I'm afraid that for me, the time it would take to keep the collection in any kind of coherent order is far more than the desire to just put the stuff somewhere where I know where it is.

So, I just toss things into a box as I read them, and then they go into ComicBase & the Box# they are in gets tagged with the comic, so I can find the books if I need to by going into ComicBase. This has been working for me so far, but I'll be totally screwed if I lose access to ComicBase (we do burn backups of the Db onto DVD every couple of months.)

That being said, I do think at some point I'm going to pull out some of my longer runs of "classic" stuff and try to keep them all together in DrawerBoxes in my Comics Room: (JLA, Spider-Man, FF.....)

[ctowner1]

I've got a question about how you guys sort comics. When you've got a box of comics, or maybe a couple of boxes of comics, how do you physically go about sorting them? In other words, regardless of what order you sort them into, what process do you use to physically get them into that order?

I have a holding box of bagged and boarded stuff to be filed. Then as I enter those into Comicbase I place them on the respective box they would go in -- everything is alphabetical in my collection. Once I have a good number of books ready to go into an individual box, I go ahead and file them.

It can get tedious because I mostly use short boxes for the main collection.

I'm thinking of going to a system like Bob has, where comicbase stores the location via some kind of box id and I don't really have to alphabetize them at all -- comicbase will tell me where to look.

The downside of a system like that, for me at least, is that I REALLY enjoy sometimes just seeing all the comics of a particular run all together - going through 10 years worth of a single comic and enjoying the covers.

I also kind of just like the process of sorting and organizing the comics. It's fun to just touch them and order them - satisifies a deep anal retentive collector's impulse I guess! lol

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[BobBretall]

I REALLY enjoy sometimes just seeing all the comics of a particular run all together - going through 10 years worth of a single comic and enjoying the covers.

I also kind of just like the process of sorting and organizing the comics. It's fun to just touch them and order them - satisifies a deep anal retentive collector's impulse I guess! lol
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L nny

I agree, but when you start having 50,000 comics this need takes a back seat to practicality......

I do take a deep anal retentive collector's satisfaction in knowing I OWN all those comics, even though they are not necessarily all in a row in the same box

[Lord Shaper]

I've got a question about how you guys sort comics. When you've got a box of comics, or maybe a couple of boxes of comics, how do you physically go about sorting them? In other words, regardless of what order you sort them into, what process do you use to physically get them into that order?

Because I'm not getting as much as alot of you after I read my books and then put them in the database I just add them to the boxes in alphabetical order and from there if I need to add a new box I just shuffle them all down so the new box starts at the end of my collection and then or if there is a huge chunk I have to put in that gets a new box.

[Frank Castle]

I agree, but when you start having 50,000 comics this need takes a back seat to practicality......

50k!

I'm at 5k and I'm thinking it is getting out of control!