Nerdly Advice Is Back!
Nerdly Advice Is Back!
Sep 23Nerds have questions, but nerds have to appear authoritative or risk losing their nerdy cred.
That’s why, as a recurring feature on Alert Nerd, Jeff answers these conundrums anonymously. It’s like Ann Landers as written by Gorilla Grodd. We call it Nerdly Advice.
If you’re like me (and let’s face it, you might be) you need to go through your longboxes and trim some of the fat from your collection, the comics you just plain aren’t that into. But what do you do with them? That’s our question this week.
Mr. Logical asks:
Given its relatively low prices, the comic book medium tends to inspire me to take a lot of random chances. I’ll often buy a few issues of a series that I discover I don’t care for, or trade paperbacks that just don’t prove to be that memorable. While I don’t have a problem simply throwing in the trash those books I find to be truly objectionable (my copy of Crossed #1 is likely biodegrading in a landfill somewhere), I generally feel bad about just discarding comics, even if I don’t want to keep them. How can I get rid of unwanted comics without being wasteful? What can I do with, say, the handful of issues of the relaunched “New Mutants” that I purchased before realizing I don’t care, or the hardcover copy of “All-Star Batman and Robin” I bought before understanding why everyone was saying it wasn’t any good? My LCS doesn’t buy back issues, I don’t think Good Will accepts comics, and selling this stuff on ebay seems like too much effort. I have no interest in making any money off of my pile of unwanted random single issues and trades, I just need to shed some dead weight form my library as I’m moving into a new apartment. Help me Nerdly Advice, you’re my only hope!
First of all, it’s great that you’re culling the weak from your collection and that you want to do some social good at the same time. You are an Awesome Person.
Just because Goodwill won’t take your comics, that doesn’t mean that other nonprofits out there can’t use them. Contact your local library, a pediatric hospital or urgent care clinic, or even other Goodwill-esque organizations like the Salvation Army or Volunteers of America. Your elementary or middle schools might work, too. As someone that’s used comics in the classroom before, I know that they can be a good teaching aid for lessons on storytelling technique, structure, plot, and dialogue. Crossed #1 is not apropos for any of these applications, unfortunately.
Another idea? Just leave them out and encourage people to take them. Locally, Paper Kite Press has a ‘Take A Book, Leave A Book’ box outside its gallery where people can dump unwanted paperbacks, etc.
There are people out there that can use your comics; you just may have to think outside the longbox about where they’ll do the most good.*
*And remember to get a receipt for your donation – you’ll thank me at tax time.
I’ve recently discovered that Lone Star Comics (at mycomicshop.com) offers a buyback policy via mail–you record the stuff you have and the condition it’s in, and once you have a pile of it, you submit the “order,” they accept it, you mail in the comics, and they give you store credit. (they also do this for cash but apparently it’s kinda hard to get; they start every friday and seem to run out of spending money within a few days.)
I pay about $2.39 for a $3 comic book at my online retailer of choice–Lone Star usually gives me $1.20 I can use on something I want. So I’m out a buck, which is far better than being out $2.39 and having a pile of crap to deal with.
(I love charity too, though. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just not about ME.)