How often do you treat yourself? In fact, what do you even consider as a 'treat' when it comes to buying yourself comics. With the rising prices of comics, a simple trip down to your LCS and getting the titles you want could be considered a treat (Especially now during the new DC 52!). I ask this simply because of the wonderful comic book merchandise that is available today, but with so much of it being so expensive, how often can you reward yourself with something special? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly!?

Comic book companies are constantly releasing new, shiny, exclusive, deluxe and expensive merchandise, do you even go near that stuff or avoid it like a plague sticking only to comics?

I'll admit it, I love to treat myself to something special. I absolutely adore Absolute and Omnibus editions of comics. I'd recommend any avid comic book fan in purchasing one...or many. But they are expensive and limited. You miss the boat on one of those bad boys and the price can raise to ridiculous heights. The Alias omnibus staring Jessica Jones is priced around 350 dollars and a new copy of Grant Morrison's New X-Men omnibus will set you back around 500 DOLLARS. Which makes me go green with jealousy regarding the lucky people who have a copy of that glorious omnibus. But is that just ridiculous? Who would pay that much? Someone must shedding out serious dollar for these items otherwise there would be no point in pricing them that high. Although, if I was a millionaire or had some meja money in the bank (wishful thinking of a teenage student...) I would get them straight away without blinking an eye lid. And I dare anyone to say differently.

A few months back, I bought The Absolute Sandman Volume One. And it is stunning. Take a look...

Gallery

This thing is huge as well. It's such a lovely item to own and it fits perfectly with the tone of the actual book. Now this set me back a bit. I've never payed so much for a comic book item. But I do plan to do it again. Are purchases like this your bag? Is a purchase like this a usual thing for you? Would you ask for something like this as a Birthday or Christmas present?

But is your treat an actual comic book, like an Absolute edition, a tpb or hardcover, or is it something else liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike statues, figurines or a convention sketch? I've always admired busts and statues but never bought one, I simply cannot pay so much for an item like this, but I will for a comic book? Strange.

However a new world I ventured to recently is; the world of buying art by comics book artists. There's countless artists sketches and drawings that you can buy from your favourite artist, but at extremely high prices. I would kill for a J. Scott Campbell, Humberto Ramos or Adam Hughes drawing because they cost. So. Damn. MUCH. But as a few of you may know I am a huge Psylocke fan and I found a piece on Ebay which I fell in love with and had to have...

I had to have it. And I received it today. It's beautiful. Even better in real life. It's by little known artist Erik Jones who does some beautiful work. Now this wasn't that much considering how much comic book art is. Around 80 dollars initially, it's gone to a little over 100 with p&p and vat (GODDAM YOU), which translated to English pounds is around £80. But some of you maniacs shed hundreds of dollars for small sketches by famous artists! I bought this because I loved it and it was relatively cheap, but if it was saaaaaaay $500, I wouldn't of looked at it twice!

But how often do you buy yourself an item like this? If at all!! And when you do treat yourself, how much are you willing to spend!? Personally, I like to treat myself every now and again, and anything going over £90/£100 pounds is too much unless someone else is helping towards it! We all like nice things and I don't see anything wrong with rewarding yourself every now and then. I already know what my next treat to myself will be....