Help Me Sell My Comics
June 30, 2008 5:12 AM Subscribe
How can I optimize the liquidation of my not so exciting comics collection? Difficulty: I'm moving to the UK in 3 months.
I've got your standard'70s/'80s/'90s assortment of comics - 8.5 long boxes worth. Yeah, most of it is dross, but I want to do what I can to extract whatever gold I may have in there. I've read up on the topic here and elsewhere, but there's a few things I'd like to hear from the AskMefi comics collective on. I do have some Silver Age stuff, but nothing terribly exciting unless you're really jazzed about comics referenced in a Hembeck strip.
I've been indexing my comics using Collectorz. However, I'm clueless as far as grading comics, so while I know I've got a few interesting things in there (First Wolverine 4 issue mini-series, First appearance of the New Teen Titans, TMNT 3), I'm not sure how to maximize their sale price. Would it be worth my time and money to go the CGC route with items in that range? - i.e. potentially worth something (up to a few hundred dollars), but nowhere near the value of Amazing Fantasy #15. Also, with my database in hand, are there any resources out there that I can use to dig into my collection to find anything I might be missing that's of value? I could pore through the CBG by hand, but... Meh. I'd be happy to pay a premium to get my collection evaluated as far as finding anything worth looking closely at.
I also have some series that are more or less complete and might still be of interest to folks who are looking at getting them to read or collect. Would it be worthwhile to go out and dig up 1 or 2 missing issues to complete a run and then offer the whole thing on eBay? I'm thinking of Vertigo stuff here, mostly.
I'm willing to make some effort and I don't mind pulling stuff that's worth significantly more than cover and doing what I can to get the best deal for it. The rest, I'm prepared to donate, recycle, or whatever.
I've got your standard'70s/'80s/'90s assortment of comics - 8.5 long boxes worth. Yeah, most of it is dross, but I want to do what I can to extract whatever gold I may have in there. I've read up on the topic here and elsewhere, but there's a few things I'd like to hear from the AskMefi comics collective on. I do have some Silver Age stuff, but nothing terribly exciting unless you're really jazzed about comics referenced in a Hembeck strip.
I've been indexing my comics using Collectorz. However, I'm clueless as far as grading comics, so while I know I've got a few interesting things in there (First Wolverine 4 issue mini-series, First appearance of the New Teen Titans, TMNT 3), I'm not sure how to maximize their sale price. Would it be worth my time and money to go the CGC route with items in that range? - i.e. potentially worth something (up to a few hundred dollars), but nowhere near the value of Amazing Fantasy #15. Also, with my database in hand, are there any resources out there that I can use to dig into my collection to find anything I might be missing that's of value? I could pore through the CBG by hand, but... Meh. I'd be happy to pay a premium to get my collection evaluated as far as finding anything worth looking closely at.
I also have some series that are more or less complete and might still be of interest to folks who are looking at getting them to read or collect. Would it be worthwhile to go out and dig up 1 or 2 missing issues to complete a run and then offer the whole thing on eBay? I'm thinking of Vertigo stuff here, mostly.
I'm willing to make some effort and I don't mind pulling stuff that's worth significantly more than cover and doing what I can to get the best deal for it. The rest, I'm prepared to donate, recycle, or whatever.
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Most of your collection is probably worth less than the paper it's printed on. But you probably knew that anyway. If it is your own collection then you should instinctively know whether a given comic is worth anything i.e. First appearance of the New Teen Titans. It is unlikely that you have any hidden gems.
I would recommend Comicspriceguide.com as a useful resource for quickly checking on the value of an issue. I'm surprised that Collectorz database does not contain valuations but there are probably databases that do that. Other people might be able to recommend something specific here.
I would advocate getting your more valuable comics graded by CGC as doing so increases both the likelihood of sale of the comic and the price you could expect to get. Do this for anything valued at 100 dollars upwards.
Complete runs of comics are worth selling as there are buyers for them. Probably worthwhile trying to track down the missing few comics to complete a run but don't go overboard with effort if a quick search on ebay or in your local comic shops yield no results then sell the set of comics as is.
Sell on ebay.
Sell the CGC graded comics as individual lots.
Sell complete runs as a lot do not split up into smaller lots (unless the run exceeds 100 issues)
Donate the rest and feel good that you brought some reading pleasure into some kids lives.
posted by electricinca at 6:42 AM on June 30, 2008