So, you changed for someone else, but there is that big issue in front of you. Your various long boxes of comics and collectibles. You’ve sold off issues that weren’t really worth your time or money and kept those pieces that you enjoy time and time again. You’ve also stopped reading books that are worth those main two just said. You are back on fibrous spending because you have bills to pay for and food to but you have still that small part of yourself you intend to pass down to your children. Yeah, I thought the same too.

Then you get involved with someone who wants you to get rid of your “childish things” because you need to grow up. The books are sold off for a fraction of what his collection is worth but needed to do it because he was told to do it. Now, this didn’t happen to me but a co-worker who did it without question but admitted he needed an excuse to give to do it, otherwise the books would have never left the house. No fault there, he wanted to do it but didn’t have the catalyst to get it done, so his wife finally gave him that push to do it.

I was no stranger to this concept and I figured when I got married and had children of my own I would be in the same situation. That didn’t happen, either. I suffered a horrible break up that left me in a large amount of debt and that was the trust first sacrifice I had to make when it came to my comics. The next thing I know my entire Daredevil collection from #1-100 was sold on Ebay. I had these books signed by Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palantino, Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Morvel, and David Mack and more and I only got $200 dollars for the entire collection. It paid off the insurance bills for a few months but then I was selling all my Avengers collections (also signed), JSA (massively signed) and more. One day they were here the next they were all gone, packed in boxes and shipped around the globe. I ended up pulling in over $600 for those various series and it went all to paying off one credit car and some gas money.

I completely scaled back my reading to just five books and remained with them for the time being but then I ended up losing my job due to budget cuts and I had to return to my previous job that I left in the first place due to money and treatment but what choice did I have? Soon, the five go to three books and then cover prices go up and you drop down to one book and you start to really feel how much your life is in shambles from everything hitting you like a hammer all at once and then… the Spider-man, Green Lantern collections are also sold just to get your back in a stable financial climate again.

At the end of the day, you at least know that it’s working as you see your boxes empty out and more and more are taken to the curb to be picked up by the recycling truck. Its staying green but the green you might be saving soon doesn’t really contribute much and that one book you have because your only small joy outside some occasional web page work. It seems that dark hole of depression is going to stay with you for a long time and you wonder just how you are ever going to feel like yourself again. However, soon a small blessing happens, you get a job promotion, your hours become balance and your pay goes up.

You start off small, get things in order and even add in a couple of new titles to your reading pile and then you go into work and someone stops in for coffee and those sacrifices all seem worth it.

Most of your collection might be gone but you paid some bills off, got some spare change back and even more, this beautiful young woman steps into your life and actually accepts who you are. What could be better? Well, a year later you marry that same woman. Yep, just like Hourman and Jesse Quick it’s a rock solid relationship and things haven’t been better but then you on your own hear that voice that tells you what you need to do next.

Might as well cut back on your books and safe a little money so you can start saving for a house and then you get a real life changer, your wife tells you: “I’m pregnant”. Yep, your going to be a father and you know it’s time to find a better job and the money needs to start coming from some where so you sell off almost the entire rest of your collection. Pocket a little over a grand and make some big changes but you need to save more. What do you do? You decide to move in with your in-laws sell off your other collections and your savings star to grow. Everything is starting to look good, you know what’s important and you are making the sacrifices for a better tomorrow and even get back into school.

Looks like you are back on the up and up but then one day, it’s a Friday, you are about to call it a week when you are brought into your boss’s office and you sit down and he tells you: “Your fired!”