There was an old "The Zen of Collecting: 8 Tips for Building a Better Collection" thread that I had thought about replying to a long while ago but never did. I've been spending a lot of the holiday break trying to organize my collections and I figured I'd make a post, but am starting a new thread since the old one is locked. I'll try to stay away from the overly general (buy what you love
) and the overly specific, (don't leave a valuable Walking Dead variant in a spot where it can fall into the guinea pig cage.)
I will take my motto from the movie Zero Effect:
"Now, a few words on looking for things. When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you're only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you're sure to find some of them."
So have some themes, some specializations, but go outside them on a whim. If it's weird or beautiful and if I'm ok budget-wise, I'm buying it. I mainly collect books, so worst case I have another book, and all books are interesting. There is so much out there, too much to ever know entirely. I used to find this overwhelming but eventually realized that this is a wonderful thing, since you can't know everything, there are always new things to discover. I have some valuable things, but many of the items I cherish the most are often these total oddities, things I never could have looked for since I had no clue they even existed.
These days anything can be anywhere, so look everywhere and look at everything. Book stores, thrift shops, library sales are your friends. Not into history? Don't skip that section, that's where I found a misplaced World War Z first printing at a fill-a-bag-for-$5 sale. I once talked a furniture salesman into selling me one of the books they use to decorate items in the showroom while my wife pretended not to know me. Small towns are especially great, I love it when I get to go to out of the way places and have time to scour the stores. (I always thought it would be fun to write a "geek shopper" series.)
Get to know the selling side. With comics especially there are people who speculate for fun or as a way to make money. If nothing else, it's good to be aware of what's going on in the market since it may temporarily drive up prices on something you've been wanting or make things really hard to find. These days, small run independent comics can be in high demand, especially if there are rumors about a movie or TV series, and speculation can dominate the market. Stalking the preview lists and preordering is key for these. It's also good to check out what the author or artist has online, sometimes you can get signed items directly from a creator.
I don't sell much, but I occasionally come across something that I can make a few easy bucks off of. I don't have the the mindset it takes to do this in bulk but I have found that selling the occasional item helps me understand that side of the market better so I can be a more informed buyer. If you do sell, pay close attention to costs, shipping materials, postage, other fees. I find it really easy to BS myself. Learning about grading and printing identification is extremely important, even knowing what to look for when you are buying off the shelf.
Support and get to know the stores around you, many places price collectibles really high but sometimes stores have blind spots. One bookstore near where I live does a lot of online business for older texts, but doesn't pay much attention to scifi and fantasy, and I've been able to grab some things like first ASOIAF printings or highly collectible DAW paperbacks for really cheap. (The man who owns the store lives near me, and everytime we have a yard sale he swoops in and buys whole boxes of fiction which he then takes to his store and marks up, so I guess it works both ways.) For comics there are 6 different stores in my area that are different enough for me to visit regularly, one always has hot issues since they won't let anybody buy multiple copies on a Wednesday, one specializes in independents, one doesn't mark up variant covers, etc.
Use the web too of course, I like You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login for books, and you can sometimes find weird deals, like where it's cheaper to buy a book from Europe and have it shipped to the US than it would be to buy it in the states. It also can help you learn how certain sellers operate, you will sometimes see the exact same physical item being sold by different sellers at really different prices. Learn how to hack Amazon search to look for discounted items.
Make mistakes, sometimes you just need to go for it. The original post had a Bacon quote, and you can't have too much Bacon, so "Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion."
Don't underestimate personal value or nostalgia. There are things I have that look like junk, like an old Hunt for Red October paperback with the cover ripped off or a mudflap, but are a part of my story and I'm glad I held on to them, despite the occasional weird looks I get. Take motivation wherever you can, and if you see something you like don't let anyone talk you out of it. So I guess I'm back to "buy what you love" after all. Just watch out for guinea pigs.
Finally, I hope I can be forgiven for one more quote, this time from Guillermo Del Toro. "It happens to all of us, our house is who we are. Even if people say not to judge a book by its cover, we are what we own. And I know the difference between collecting or accumulating is very, very, very small. A hoarder accumulates compulsively while the collector lives through their objects, every book, every object has a meaning."