Howdy all...as many of you know, I've recently gotten big into binding my comic collection. I thought it might be fun to have a place here for discussion on custom binding. This is my latest batch that I got yesterday. It's the complete Marvel and DC runs of STAR TREK, and the four Gold Key trades from the '70s bound into one book.

'Bout time you started posting this stuff.

Zaki, I'll have you know that because of you I have six volumes prepared to go out, and a friend who is waiting for me to get them so he can send out some stuff of his own.

Great looking stuff.

Good Idea Zaki! I'm sure you have been asked before but how much does binding cost and how many issues fit per book? I have been thinking of giving my Brave and the Bold issues this treatment.

Ross, I use Library Binding, which isn't as elaborate as David Banks' work with Capital Bindery, but it's more affordable for large quantities. They have a flat fee of 15 bucks per book, with additional costs if you want custom fonts on the spine or die stamping on the spine and the front. As an example, those Star Trek books ended up costing me 20 each, with five dollars for the logo stamp. My GI JOE books were 25 dollars each because I had the logo stamped on the spine and the front:

Great thread. I may want to do this at some point. Zaki, how many comic books can I fit in one $15 book?

Those look sweet, especially the G.I. Joe one. I think I'd like to put all my Supreme books in hardcover.

What do you do with the covers? Do you move them to the bac k of the book or just bind them as they are?

$15 is up to two inches of thickness, which I've found to be about 25-30 issues, depending. As a general rule though, I've found that it's a good idea to stay within an issue or two of 25 comics, otherwise it starts getting unwieldy in terms of holding and reading comfortably.

James -

I usually leave the comics as-is as much as possible, including leaving in the ads and leaving covers in place. The exception to this is when I bind multiple prestige format books. In that case I generally remove the cover so the book is easier to flip through.

I didn't realize it was such an affordable process, Zaki. I could see doing this with series like PREACHER, SANDMAN, STARMAN, and the Morrison ANIMAL MAN run.

Hmmm...

Thanks for posting this Zaki. I've been meaning to start a thread just like this to ask you a bunch of questions about affordably binding some books. What is the companies website, and how is shipping handled? (i.e., how do you package them, how much does it cost to ship?)

The company's website is http://www.librarybinding.com.

As far as shipping, I send via UPS Ground. You want to pack securely, insure the package, and keep the tracking info. On average I pay about twenty bucks when I ship out. They will insure the shipment on the way back, and return shipping will be included in the final price that they give you. In general the return shipping adds about five dollars to the cost of each of your books.

So it's about $50 per volume then, if I read you right, after all is said and done?

More like twenty-ish per volume.

How do you pack the comics to send to them?

That's what I thought.

Then I remembered that Zaki usually does 4-6 volumes a shot.

Ah yes, that would be the difference. Thanks Zaki! Oh, and Serge.

http://www.librarybinding.com/images/comicprices2.pdf

http://www.librarybinding.com/products.html (half way down)

Thanks for the info Zaki.

If we wait long enough, Zaki will have paid for all the custom Fonts for us to use. I may do this with my FF collection.

Actually I've only had the Star Trek stamp in the first post made. Otherwise I tend to piggyback on stuff other people have had done.

So there is value in having one made, if I pay for an FF logo, the number 4 in a circle, everyone else can then use it then?

I wonder how much the cool Avengers logo would cost....

$ $

Which one?