Collecting...or accumulating?

In an earlier post, I referred to the ownership of comics as "collecting." I'm not sure if "collecting" is the right word. It seems that "accumulating" would be more accurate.

It happened so innocently. My friends and I would go to a comic convention. I'm talking about a time before Wizard Con - when local conventions would have a good number of tables and dealers and you could really find that for which you were looking. It was sad to see these local conventions die such a slow death. But, again, I am getting off topic...

Collecting vs. Accumulating. Here's how it works: You go to a show, and find a dealer or two who've been there and not had many buyers. So they offer their books for 50 cents, 25 cents...10 cents (!) each.

Then you can really go nuts and buy all sorts of things you'd thought of trying, but didn't bother with at full price. I mean, really, how can you go wrong if you pay a quarter or a dime for an issue?

Another way to accumulate lots of issues is to frequent shops that were going out of business. This was happening quite a bit in the early/mid 90's, so my friends and I were fortunate to be able to get a crapload of comics for very reduced rates.

The end result of this is that you accumulate lots of comics. Acquiring them this way doesn't seem like collecting, does it?

This is by no means me complaining. I always enjoy getting new comics - it reminds me of simpler times when there were less things to worry about.

Of course, accumulating comics in such volume puts me in an interesting position. I now have a lot of comics that I have not had a chance to read yet. And I do get the occasional stack of comics even now, so the collection increases.

But this is a fun problem to have. I guess if I live long enough, I'll find the time to read all the "accumulated" issues.

I guess "Comic Accumulation" doesn't sound as good as "Comic Collection," does it?