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Shameless Commerce
I like to point out that I'm a collector, not a pack rat. I rarely keep things just because I think they might be useful someday. That's not to say that I never do this, but I don't think I do it more often than the average person. Moreover, although storing my stuff can be a challenge (especially with another person and two felines now living full-time in my house), I don't have stacks of stuff lying all over the house in a seemingly-messy manner, obstructing my ability to live here. I do have some piles of things lying on tables. They usually get cleared off every few weeks or so. I rarely have anyone visit who remarks that my house seems messy - rather the opposite, usually.
(At this point, it's possible that Debbi is laughing her ass off or at least snorting through her nose. She does have a lower tolerance for stuff-lying-around than I do. However, given the amount of stuff that I own, really very little of it is "just lying around".)
Anyway, since 'tis the season (to give and get more stuff), here's a quick sizing-up of my stuff-acquisition policies.
Years ago I used to keep lists of stuff I wanted in documents on my computer, and print them out to carry in my wallet. Over the next few weeks I would add items or cross them off, and eventually update the computer documents and print out fresh copies. This was burdensome, but for a long time was the best I could do. I bought an Apple Newton in 1995 and it helped a little bit, but it was too big and clunky to be able to take everywhere I shopped.
In 1999 I bought a Handspring (a PDA by the eponymous company which licensed the Palm OS, but which was later bought by the original company) which had the two advantages over the Newton I desired: It was faster, and it could fit (barely) in my pocket. At this point I moved all of my want lists to the Handspring, and I'm now on my second PDA (also a Handspring) and am still using it mainly as a want list organizer (and also for addresses and for my date book). It is very handy to see something in a store and to be able to add it to my list right then, if I'm not prepared to buy it immediately.
I also have an Amazon wish list which I keep more-or-less updated. Amazon has become a much less central part of my buying strategy, partly because I've been shifting to buying from independent bookstores in the area (to support them), and partly because for CDs and DVDs I find that Amazon either doesn't stock what I want, or I can buy them much more cheaply elsewhere (this is mainly a testament to my focus on progressive rock in my music tastes).
(Anyone can feel free to buy me items from my Amazon wish list. My other lists are a little more obscure and obviously not set up to coordinate among several people like the Amazon list is.)
Here's a sample of stuff on my want lists in my PDA right now:
- Books:
- Kage Baker The Graveyard Game MMPB (it's unclear whether this will ever be available in mass market, but I do not plan to continue treading the series until it is)
- Julian May, A Pliocene Companion (I'm undecided on whether I prefer paperback or hardcover on this one)
- Liz Williams, several of her novels which look interesting (I hope to read some Real Soon Now!)
- Better-condition or nice hardcover copies of a number of books I already own. I'm a condition geek, and am often looking to upgrade the condition of books I've decided to keep.
- Nice-condition copies of several Charles Addams cartoon collections; I own copies of all of them, but would like copies with nice dustjackets (my copy of Black Maria actually has no dustjacket)
- The rest of the collections of Footrot Flats which I don't already own (I picked up about half the run through Dreamhaven Books about 10 years ago)
- Bill James Baseball Abstracts 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 (I expect these will run me a pretty penny if ever I find them)
- Several books by David Macaulay
- Comic Books:
- A number of old Marvel Comics, though this list is quickly shrinking as the Marvel Masterworks reprint series covers most of what I want. Issues I may well buy before they get reprinted include The Avengers #57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 65, and 75, and a a few X-Men issues.
- Some issues of Justice League of America, mainly better-condition copies of some JLA/JSA team-ups.
- A few issues of one of my favorites, Thieves and Kings, mainly because I like his color cover art. (I have the whole story in the paperback reprints.)
- Some random stories I liked as a kid which I'd like to read again. For instance, Action Comics #465-466, and Wonder Woman #231-232.
- Music:
- Several CDs by Camel, a progressive rock group whose later albums I think I'd enjoy, but they are pretty hard to find without ordering from Europe.
- Remastered CDs by Jethro Tull and Elton John, because the remastered editions are much nicer than the crappy original CD issues from the 80s (which were half-assedly transferred from the 60s and 70s LPs).
- Some prog bands I want to try out: Erasmus, Farpoint, Nil, Noekk, Saint Just, Stride.
- Some random jazz albums I may buy sometime.
- Some slightly-less-random folk albums I may buy sometime, notable by Dougie MacLean and Steeleye Span.
- Some individual tracks to download from the iTunes music store.
- Other:
- Some board games I may buy at some point, although I seem to be at a local minimum in my enthusiasm for games lately. (But see the eBay section, below.)
- Some DVDs I'd like to buy (few), and films I'd like to see (many). In particular, I really wish George Lucas would release the original, unbastardized version of the first Star Wars trilogy on DVD. I have no intention of ever buying the Special Edition "remastered" versions, with the bogus new special effects and other deleterious changes.
- A list of state quarters I still need.
It's quite a few items. However, I do enjoy browsing and looking for stuff; that's a key part of the hobby for a collector. My list is in fact gradually dwindling down to the genuinely hard-to-find and expensive items. Which means at some point I may need to channel my "hunting" energy into actively "consuming" the items I've bought.
And then of course there's eBay.
I've been active on eBay since about 1997, both buying (many sorts of items) and selling (mainly comic books and a few board games, primarily to clear up space in my house rather than to make much money on them). I don't know whether I'm an especially sophisticated eBay user, but I've done pretty well at finding items I want at prices I (mostly) appreciate. Over time, I've realized that when I get an item for $20 less than I'd budgeted for, this means I can bid $20 more on some other item and effectively get two items at a collective price I want.
I wrote much more extensively about my eBay experience a few months ago.
One thing I do have is a fairly sophisticated set of saved searches to find items I want. Here's some stuff I'm currently looking for on eBay regularly:
- The above-mentioned Bill James Baseball Abstracts.
- The above-mentioned Charles Addams cartoon collections.
- A copy of the game Liar's Dice. This is pretty freely available, I just haven't bothered to bid on it yet.
- Several "gold variant" 2003-2004 reissues of the Marvel Masterworks hardcover volumes. In particular, I'm still looking for:
- Volume 12, Uncanny X-Men #101-110
- Volume 15, Silver Surfer #1-6 (I only want this because I won the second Surfer volume at an extremely low price; it wasn't really on my list otherwise, but was too good to pass up)
- Volume 16, Amazing Spider-Man #31-40
- Volume 21, Fantastic Four #31-40
- Volume 23, Doctor Strange from Strange Tales #110-141
- Volume 31, X-Men #22-31 (this will cost a pretty penny due to its very low availability; I expect it will cost $300-$500 to buy, which is 6-to-9 times the original cover price)
This list is much, much shorter than it was 6 months ago.
- Metagaming Microgames, which I wrote about a couple of months ago. I have collected most of their main series of microgames since then, but an missing a few of the early ones. In particular, Wizard and Melee are going for $20-$30 each in top condition. Argh.
- Books by two authors I enjoy, Tim Powers and George R. R. Martin. Mostly I'm looking for first edition hardcovers in each case. They're not too hard to find, but they're not at the top of my want list.
- A copy of the "Think Different" photo album which Apple published in the late 90s, which collects many of the posters from this ad campaign. In addition to being an Apple partisan, I liked the posters quite a bit, and own several of them. There aren't any other posters I want to own, but the book would be nice. (No, I can't get any through Apple itself. I think Apple disposed of any leftover stock years ago.)
Maybe this is altogether too anal-retentive a look at my collecting habits. But it should illustrate that I'm a serious collector of things I enjoy, and that I'm very systematic in my efforts to buy those items.
My collections are not really worth a whole lot of money. I mean, they're not worthless, but much of their value is tied up in the sheer quantity of stuff. I own few items which are, all by themselves, worth a lot of money. I'd be surprised if any individual comic book (other than the hardcovers) is worth over $50, and of course the majority of them are worth maybe a buck each (if that).
I'm not a pack rat. I'm also not an investor - I'm not buying this stuff for the money. I'm buying it because I enjoy it and I want to own it for the rest of my life. And every so often I turn a critical eye to my bookcase and think, "Okay, what's here that I don't want to own for the rest of my life?" And out it goes.
And then I sit down and re-read something like Roger Stern's run on Doctor Strange from the early 1980s. It may only be worth a buck an issue, but it's a great read. And then I remember why it is I'm into this crazy hobby.
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