Just realized the guy at my local shop in Toledo was right about one thing, and it bugs me
I was in my shop last Saturday, just browsing the dollar bins like I do most weekends. This older guy named Ray, who I see in there all the time, was sorting through a long box next to me and he asked what I was looking for. I said nothing in particular, mostly just killing time. He nodded and said most folks in his experience only read the covers, not the stories, and that is why so many runs get dumped cheap. I kind of laughed it off at the time, but then I got home and looked at my own shelf. Out of the 60 or so issues I bought last year, I could not name what happened in more than maybe 8 of them. He was not being mean about it either, just matter of fact. Now I am sitting here wondering how many of you actually remember the plots of the books you pick up, or if you are in the same boat as me.
Honestly that Ray guy sounds like he was just trying to feel smart about his own collecting habits. Plenty of people read every single book they buy and still dump runs later, that has nothing to do with it. I read my stuff cover to cover and I still could not tell you half the plot of some random X-Men arc from 2019 because the writing was forgettable, not because I did not read it. Forgetting a story and never reading it in the first place are two totally different things and he mashed them together. Your shelf is not proof of anything except that comic plots are hard to hold onto when there are hundreds of them.