Constructing a Collection - On Condition

One thing I've had to come to terms with in this hobby I've chosen, as with most hobbies, is that there are different reasons that people devote themselves to it. I definitely define myself as a "comic collector." It would be the height of ridiculousness for me to deny that. My collection continues to grow, and will do unless some catastrophic event forces me to stop. So I collect. But why I collect is an interesting question.

This morning, as I was sitting and having a cup of coffee before getting ready for work, my Mum (who, at the time of writing, was visiting) came downstairs, brought a cup of tea into the living room. She put the tea down next to The Avengers v.1 #270, the comic I was reading for my project, and told me I should put it away. The comic was sitting on top of its bag and board, and she was concerned about what would happen if she accidentally spilled her tea on it. There were two concerns: one, how would it damage the comic, and two, how would I react?

I told her it didn't really care - if the comic got wrecked, I'd try to find another, and if it was still readable, then no harm done.

This was a bit of a revelation for me (as well as for her, I think!).

Similarly, the most expensive comic in my collection, My Greatest Adventure v.1 #80, is valued online at about $2000. I still take it out once a year or so and read it, regardless of its value. To me, a comic is a comic, and to not read it is to deny the use for which the comic was created. But not everyone feels similarly. Indeed, there are collectors who would "slab" such a comic, have it graded and sealed inside a plastic case so as to cease any further damage and to allow the value to increase. This is what I mean when I refer to the why of my collecting. I collect to read, to create an archive of stories in a particular format. Others collect to accumulate, to invest. In both cases, however, the condition of the comic can come into play.

There is a categorization in my database called "No Cover." Unsurprisingly, this refers to comics in the collection that have come to me coverless. What I really need to do is also add a category for comics that come to me missing center pages. In general, unless a comic is absolutely unreadable, or, as is sometimes the case, unrecognizable (water damage and mold are terrible for this), it will find its way into my collection. Coverless, I still have the stories within. Centerless, I'm occasionally missing a couple of pages of story, but not the vast majority. I keep track of the condition of a comic, but that condition has little to do with whether or not a comic has a place in the collection. Indeed, not worrying so much about condition can often make acquiring very old comics much easier. Some of my oldest pieces are coverless, and I've enjoyed them nevertheless. Occasional Archie comics I've picked up at garage sales for ridiculous prices are missing center pages, but the rest of the stories are intact. For me, considerations of condition are intrinsically tied in to considerations of readability. A comic that cannot be read, or comprehended at all, due to damage is really the only thing that I won't collect. And that happens only seldom.

Thinking through condition is fundamentally tied to our reasons for collecting is the short way of saying all this. If you are collecting for the purpose of investing, or reselling, or even of looking at comics as individual pieces of art, chances are you're looking for the best examples of a particular comic that you can find. And that you can afford, of course. If, instead, you are collecting to read, then condition becomes less important. And less important you consider condition, the broader your collection is likely to be. I certainly would not have the collection I do if I worried overly much about the condition of the comics in it.

Now, in closing, let me be clear: I like to keep my comics in as undamaged condition as I can. In order to increase the longevity of a comic, one should try to keep them as safely as possible. I want to be able to read my comics for a long time to come, and if they are deteriorating that won't be possible. And in a way, I see my job as a collector when it comes to damaged comics as being someone who will preserve that comic from seeing any more deterioration. Some comics come to be damaged through use, through, really, being loved. The way that I continue to love these comics is to make sure they are still readable, still capable of being used for the purpose for which, in my opinion, they were created. The ultimate goal, of course, is for the collection to become a reading library, but that's a project for another day.