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Comic collectors, how do you store and manage your collections?
My current collection is over 3500 individual issues with the 2 most numerous publishers being Marvel and Image. To try and make things easier I have a series of boxes devoted simply to image comics, sorted alphabetically. The downside is when I go to add issues to the A-D box, it becomes full, so I need to move a chunk of the D's to box 2, which then fills up and need to keep shifting down until I need a new Image box for T-Z. Even more fun is I digitally track with CLZ app and have to make large moves there between boxes.
Do you also fall into the same trap of constantly adjusting boxes or do you have a better system?
I have a fairly big pull list each week so my storage approach is basically to keep whatever is "active" available to be sorted into one of 27 plastic short box on my comic wall. Any series that has completed I move out to long boxes in another room when space is required. The bulk of floppies will be in one of those two places. Others like indie comics I have elsewhere, and then a few bookshelves dedicated to individual publishers like Rebellion. Around 6,500 total floppies. So it boils down to knowing where in the 4-5 places something could be and, like you, it is certainly getting to be a problem. I keep threatening to downsize and give away stuff from the long boxes but haven't pulled the trigger. The only logical solution is to get a bigger house.
I used to have them separated like that, but ran into problems where a series I liked turned into one I didn't so instead of having to constantly shift what does in which box-type I broke it down a little more simplified.
But the more simplified approach is a series of boxes for Marvel, for Image, then Star Wars/Tank Girl/DnD since they cross several different publishers, and then like 6+ boxes of other publishers alphabetically.
Like most of the responses here space is always an issue for me and I shuffle my books around constantly. My collection is segmented between a few locations. About half in plastic long boxes in storage and half on a large wooden bookshelf. I have to be very careful accessing individual issues in both locations so as to not damage them.
I've been looking into either a combination of lateral filing cabinets and bookshelves or a custom prebuilt system like Comic Cubes but I am also open to recommendations.
I remember looking into those shelves years ago but that just gets way too expensive. But then again adding up the cost of wire shelves, new boxes and the damage the shelf did to my wood floors it might have ended up being a wash anyways
I've also been looking into them for years. Price has kept me from pulling the trigger as well. Well that, and trying to estimate how many I would need/want and in what specific configuration.
I do really like the idea of storing and or displaying comics in a piece of furniture. It makes me sad to collect these wonderful stories and artwork just to end up storing them in a box in a closet.
Short boxes, a room full of them. Used to be long boxes, but they were too hard to manage.
Unfortunately my management of my collection involved donating almost the entire thing to my local. I just couldn’t keep moving it from apartment to apartment in my younger years. I kept a handful of sentimental items, but for the most part I just had to let go.
Yowzers that now makes me worry about the day I move and have to move at least 30 full short boxes of comics.
What were some of the more sentimental/valuable issues you kept?
I still have a nice chunk of Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men run along with all of McFarlane’s Amazing Spider-Man run. The most sentimental I have though is an autographed Spider-Man #1 that my dad waiting in line for hours to get at a convention when I was 10.