It's raining comics and blogs

I’m an idiot. And I need help.

This may not seem like such a revelation to anyone who has been reading this blog regularly. However, today’s point of idiocy revolves around the number of comics I have.

I often rant about this to nerds and norms alike, and now I feel the whole world (or at least Spider-Sam (who’s heard it before) and rheiny) needs to hear it.

I have too many comics. They are currently split across three sites. Most of them (13 long boxes, plus two other large boxes yet to be sorted.) are in my parents’ home and are visited at Christmas. Almost all the rest are in my room in London. Finally, there’s a small stash at a friend’s place which I bought when I flew from Edinburgh to London for a comic fair and couldn’t be bothered to lug back to Edinburgh only to transport back to London at some point. These include a copy of JLA #2 I finally found for a decent price and lots of Kyle Rayner Green Lantern back issues. .

My room in London is tiny, and yet I’ve still found a way to fit in seven long boxes, four short boxes and piles and piles of comics I have to carefully tread over before I can get into my tiny single bed. There are also 400 comics currently in the living room which I had to transport down from Edinburgh by courier. However, my collection is growing (through ongoing series and back issues bought at fairs) at a rate of one long box a month and has been doing so for the last year. The situation has got to such an untenable position that something drastic needs to be done, and fast.

Here are my options:

1. Put some comics into storage. I can send lesser comics to a big warehouse for a fixed charge per month and periodically go and visit them to look at.

2. Sell some runs which I don’t want (Bruce Jones’ Hulk run is top of this list). I’m not a fan of eBay. I’d rather sell to friends (if they want them).

3. Get rid of all of the odd issues I’ve accumulated over time that I really don’t want by giving them to Ian (a comic retailer friend) in exchange for store credit.

I’m not sure if psychologically I can give away or sell my comics. All the comics I have bought are a small part of me in some way – even JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS #25.

In future posts I'll be describing how this situation has arisen, but in the meantime I need help from the blogosphere. How can I reduce the number of comics I own without needing psychotherapy or losing too much money?