diff --git a/tqdm/_tqdm.py b/tqdm/_tqdm.py
index 83e5e084..b8cf7e9e 100755
--- a/tqdm/_tqdm.py
+++ b/tqdm/_tqdm.py
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import
 from __future__ import division
 # compatibility functions and utilities
 from ._utils import _supports_unicode, _environ_cols_wrapper, _range, _unich, \
-    _term_move_up, _unicode, WeakSet, _basestring, _OrderedDict
+    _term_move_up, _unicode, WeakSet, _basestring, _OrderedDict, \
+    Comparable
 from ._monitor import TMonitor
 # native libraries
 import sys
@@ -108,7 +109,7 @@ class TqdmDefaultWriteLock(object):
         self.release()
 
 
-class tqdm(object):
+class tqdm(Comparable):
     """
     Decorate an iterable object, returning an iterator which acts exactly
     like the original iterable, but prints a dynamically updating
@@ -886,23 +887,9 @@ class tqdm(object):
             self.unit_scale, 1 / self.avg_time if self.avg_time else None,
             self.bar_format, self.postfix, self.unit_divisor)
 
-    def __lt__(self, other):
-        return abs(self.pos) < abs(other.pos)
-
-    def __le__(self, other):
-        return (self < other) or (self == other)
-
-    def __eq__(self, other):
-        return abs(self.pos) == abs(other.pos)
-
-    def __ne__(self, other):
-        return not (self == other)
-
-    def __gt__(self, other):
-        return not (self <= other)
-
-    def __ge__(self, other):
-        return not (self < other)
+    @property
+    def _comparable(self):
+        return abs(getattr(self, "pos", 1 << 31))
 
     def __hash__(self):
         return id(self)
diff --git a/tqdm/_utils.py b/tqdm/_utils.py
index 981a7997..81ac39e8 100644
--- a/tqdm/_utils.py
+++ b/tqdm/_utils.py
@@ -118,6 +118,27 @@ if True:  # pragma: no cover
                     return d
 
 
+class Comparable(object):
+    """Assumes child has self._comparable attr/@property"""
+    def __lt__(self, other):
+        return self._comparable < other._comparable
+
+    def __le__(self, other):
+        return (self < other) or (self == other)
+
+    def __eq__(self, other):
+        return self._comparable == other._comparable
+
+    def __ne__(self, other):
+        return not (self == other)
+
+    def __gt__(self, other):
+        return not (self <= other)
+
+    def __ge__(self, other):
+        return not (self < other)
+
+
 def _is_utf(encoding):
     try:
         u'\u2588\u2589'.encode(encoding)