Trades vs Singles?

How do you read the MAJORITY of your stuff? I'm starting to get burnt out on comics, and I think the format I read them in is a big part of that. It's a pain to have to go to the comicbook store every week, and then bag/board and all that nonsense. Curious what ComicVine does, and if anyone has made the switch to reading everything in trade, as I'm considering it. If you have made the switch, how was it? Thanks.

Trades > Singles

I just got tired of constantly draining my money into monthlys, then going though the trouble of bagging and boarding them. Then I usually ended up never picking up the single ever again after the first read. I like trades better because I get the whole story at once instead of being strung along for months, a trade is usually a bit cheaper than the prices of all the singles put together, they're sturdier, plenty of reviews for the story have been released prior to the release of the trade so it's easier to gauge its quality, they look better on a shelf, and selling a used trade is way easier to do than selling used singles. The only con I can think of is having to wait several months for the next trade. I can tell you that currently, I barely pick up anything in singles anymore, and I love it.

@The_Tree: That's how I feel and why I made this thread, I've got a pile of around...50 to 60 single issues sitting here waiting to be read, going pretty far back, there's Batman 0 so I'm at least a month behind. At first it was fun collecting single issues, but now it's just become a chore and it's taking the enjoyment out of reading comics for me. I have to go in every Wednesday to buy the issues, If I don't when I go in later that week at least one book will have sold out, then I have to go on ebay and order the issues they didn't have in store, then I have to bad + board, which leaves me less inclined to reread them, plus adds, plus you don't really know what you're getting. You make a really compelling argument, and you're right, can't think of a single negative besides having to wait a while in between trades.

Thanks for that, feel much better about making the switch now.

If you like collecting like me then singles. With trades you have to wait and if you come to a site like this someone will probably spoil it for you, not worth it really to save a couple bucks especially if your LCS gives discounts for pull lists. I like floppies for the covers as well and you can get variants.I do pick up mini series in trades.

If you strictly care about reading comics, trades are definitely the way to go for reasons stated above.

@HotSauceCommittee: Yeah, it really just all comes down to personal preference. I find trades to be way more practical for me.

I like collecting trades because if the story is involved in a event, then I could read the entire story without having to wait every month for the rest of the storyline to wrap up.

I love both, and some of my favorite stories are in trade paperback form, but I also love collecting individual issues because they're so much fun to amass and look at and read and cuddle...

Lol, but seriously, it's a very small amount cheaper if you're buying recent issues rather than a trade, and some people simply enjoy individual issues more. I like the look of having hundreds of issues of comic books strewn around, making me look more nerdy than simply a pile of larger books that won't paste my entire room in comic goodness.

I don't actually throw my comic books around my room. But when I do have them out and about to organize or reread them, it's really fun to realize you've got so many and each one is important interesting in and of itself. Plus, there are issues that trades don't cover; like, lots of them lol. You can't get a full story in trade form all the time. Prime example IMO is the court of owls; you're left with a cliffhanger on a trade paperback novel. Dafuq is with that? They should've collected issues 1-11 in the court of owls and simply launched it at a later date.

Another good example is the Infinite Crisis arc from several years ago. You don't get the whole story in the trade paperback, and you have to buy several others to get an idea of what is happening all over the place; on the other hand I instead opted to collect every issue of the Infinite Crisis and have a better grasp of what happened because of it.

So, in general, trades = more convenient, slightly cheaper, sleeker, more durable; single issues = more fun to look at, complete story, better for collecting.

Although currently I get no comic books at all because parents are evil.

Here are some paperback novels I absolutely couldn't live without however:

Teen Titans Prime of Life

Batman Year One (read the entire thing, didn't buy though, now regretting :( )

Zot! complete black and white collection

Flashpoint (I got into comics after it was already out lawl. I'm such a nub. Was easier to get the paperback than hunt each issue down, for this one.)

I prefer trades.

They're easier to store and I don't have to stop in the middle of the story.

Single issues is my preferred way. I do some trades, but not a lot.