Comic book hoarder? Learn how to be a collector at Lexington Comic Con
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Lexington Comic Con 2026
Celebrity guests, comic creators, vendors and more at will gather at this year’s LexCon.
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How did Bill Bissett know his comic book collection had gotten too big?
When he was moving, and he had to have a second truck just for his comic books.
That wake up call started Bissett on a downsizing process that whittled his collection down from 150 boxes of books to about 25 now.
At 1 p.m. Sunday, Bissett will share what he’s learned with other collectors in a presentation titled “How to Create a Collection That Doesn’t Make You Crazy” at the Lexington Comic and Toy Convention.
Bissett, who is president of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, is no stranger to Central Kentucky.
He lived in Lexington while serving as president of the Kentucky Coal Association from 2010 to 2016, and he said he’s enjoyed watching the local Comic Con grow and thrive over the years.
Bissett, 60, has collected comics since he was 11 years old.
But several years ago, after decades of collecting, he said the size of his collection had become so unwieldy, it no longer brought him joy.
“I hated even looking at it,” he said. “There’s a very dangerous border between collector and hoarder.”
Tips: How to have a focused comic book collection
As he began to consider what to get rid of, Bissett said he developed a method to help him decide. His tips to downsize your collection are based in part on Marie Kondo’s ideas about keeping things that “spark joy,” and partly derived from comic aficionado Chuck Minsker’s practice of recording things off television and taping over them if he’s never going to watch them again.
Bissett said he began ditching comic books if he knew he would never want to read again, trading many of them off for store credit at The Inner Geek in his hometown of Huntington, W.Va.
Now, he said he has a much more focused collection, and he’s back to enjoying his books.
“If you try to collect everything, you’ll go crazy,” he said.
But Bissett said keeping his collection to a reasonable size is an ongoing process, because he enjoys reading the new material being published, and he gets new comics mailed to his home monthly.
But just because a comic comes into his house doesn’t mean it is part of the collection.
Bissett keeps boxes at the ready for things he plans to dump.
“Comics are a lot like film,” he said. “Some films are very, very thoughtful, thought provoking, you know, emotive. Others aren’t. And comics are very similar, too. There are some that are very surface, simple entertainment, and some that are very, very thought provoking.”
Like movies, he said, you don’t know which you’ve got until you consume the media.
What to do with comic book collection after death
Bissett said it’s also important for collectors to plan ahead for what will happen to their collections after their death.
Whether you collect comic books, action figures, coins or spoons, “you better get an exit strategy,” he said.
“Am I going to be buried in a giant sarcophagus?” Bissett joked about his own collection. “I mean, what is going to happen to all these? I doubt my 12- and 14-year-old girls are like, ‘Oh my gosh, Dad’s comics are all mine!’”
He said a New York Times article reinvigorated him to think about that topic, because it’s “almost unfair” to burden family members with a giant collection of something they really don’t want.
He cautioned that collectors planning to divest themselves of collectibles should prepare for disappointment, knowing they probably won’t get back the amount of money they invested.
Bissett said it’s helpful to him to remember why he started collecting in the first place and to decide whether you are collecting for love of the item, speculating in hopes of making a future profit or running a business.
He doesn’t get out of shape if a comic gets wrinkled while he’s reading it, and he said he has some comics in his collection “that are very dear to me that are nearly worthless.”
He said people sometimes say “My collection is worth a million dollars.”
His response: “Well, it is if you have a friend with a million dollars who wants your books.”
Lexington Comic and Toy Convention 2026
When: 6-10 p.m. Thursday, March 26; Noon-8 p.m. Friday, March 27; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, March 28; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, March 29.
Where: Central Bank Center, 430 W. Vine St.
Parking: Credit card only at Rupp Arena parking lot; Event organizers say there are more than 10,000 parking spaces available within a 10-minute walk of Central Bank Center
Tickets: $25-$250; Kids 10 and under are free for all days
Online: lexingtoncomiccon.com
This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
