Short answer-yes to all of the above..,

I am still actively growing certain parts of my collection (Red Dress covers, comics featuring Kubert, Toth, Baker, Frazetta & Cooke, EC reprints, Usagi, Scooby Doo, Groo, Spirit, Uncle Scrooge, Xenozoic Tales, Conan, Phantom, Flash Gordon, and a few other titles and or themes.

I am trying to spend more time reading what I have as well as getting them organized and displayed the way I want.

I am also downsizing, as I am running out of space and stuff I know I will not revisit, stuff I lost interest in, or stuff I collected but did not enjoy as much as I thought I would when I read it, I am moving on from and selling, trading, or giving away.

If there was a significant market correction, I might consider trying to finish my collection of Hawkman solo feature (either as a lead feature, a back up, or a significant guest appearance)-I only have three issues I need-B&B 34, Hawkman 1 & 4, but with the pandemic price inflation and the movie appearance hype prices on those three have gotten out of hand and I gave up hope of ever owning any of them; same deal with Ghost Rider and Marvel Spotlight #5 and GR #1 and 2, and the last half dozen issues of the 90s series. These are series that were priorities in 2018 and 2019, but I have pretty much given up on over the last year and a half. I've also given up on a lot of Hanna Barbera comics (especially early Scooby Doo and Space Ghost comics) as they have skyrocketed out of my willing to spend zone and I won't be getting them unless they come back to earth.

As for grails, yes. I have a couple I am still looking for if I can ever find affordable copies of...

Spirit #22 (Quality series) It is the cover that launched not quite 1000 red dress covers for me...I have the reuse of that cover from The Spirit magazine but I'd love to one day own the original...



Blazing Combat #1 (I have #2-4 in mid-grade all of which I found for under $10 each within two years before the pandemic started). All have Frazetta covers and similar contents to #1, but #1 sells for exponentially higher than any of the other three issues even though it had the highest print run of all 4 issues and has nothing to set it apart from any of the others except the #1 on the cover, but I'd still snag it if I can find an affordable copy, though I doubt that happens unless we do see that significant market correction)



copies of any issues of La Reina de la Costa Negra, the Mexican Conan comic that predated the Marvel run. All I ever see on ebay are photocopies copies, which I will pass on, and I've never seen one in the wild.



There's a few other more common books I have been hunting for for a while, but they aren't so much grails as books no one seems to bring to shows as there isn't enough demand for them.

-M

I actually do not buy key back issues any longer - and haven't for a long time.

I buy new books weekly, and I pick up trades of things I want to read (or just to have on bookshelf if it's a hardcover of a book i bought individually) at shows.

but otherwise?

I don't really "collect" comic any longer. . and certainly don't buy any as "investments"
(not knocking those that DO. . I just happen to NOT do that)

Yes, I am still collecting comics (collecting to read, I might add, in reference to Slam_Bradley's above post ).

I generally prefer to buy original vintage comics rather than reprints, but I'm also a pretty thrifty collector, so I will buy a nice modern reprint collection if getting the original issues is price prohibitive. That said, I must admit that I do like the historical element of owning a vintage comic that was on stands back when its contents were brand new. It appeals to the history buff in me.

Unfortunately, I've found that over the past decade or more, the prices of Silver and Bronze Age comics have skyrocketed so much (due to the popularity of the MCU, I guess) that it has become increasingly difficult for a thrifty collector like me to justify the prices of vintage comics. As a result, my comic buying has really slowed down over the past decade, but I do still pick them up if the price is right and it's a series that I'm actively trying to complete.

I'm still building my collection, but I also collect to read, not to invest. I make my decision on whether to buy floppies or TPBs/HCs based on primarily on price, but also on readability and convenience. I'll go for what's cheaper. Often that's the reprint, but if I have most of the run, I'll get floppies of what's left. I don't care about grade for investment purposes but may go for a higher grade if the price is good so there's less chance of fading pages that are harder to read/enjoy.

I probably have some compulsive buying issues though, because I have a huge backlog of stuff I've purchased and haven't read. The greater availability of stories through reprints and increases in my income make me want to amass lots of stuff I used to feel were out of reach.

I buy solely to read at this point.

I will pick the odd issue here and there but generally buy a lot of collections as I'm revisiting a lot of the storylines I cut my comic reading teeth on.