"Best way to sell comic book collection--80s mostly" Topic

Sorry for being a bit off-topic. Maybe this belongs in Utter Drivel?

Anyway, I need to sell off a modestly large comic book collection, primarily from the '80s with some early '90s. Our apartment is getting more and more crowded due to my pack-rat habits and our five-year old.

Can anyone suggest a relatively quick way to do this? I'd like to get at least a fair price if I can. The time necessary to go through all of them, assess condition, and check prices just seems prohibitive.

Of course, if I could get motivated to put some of my miniatures that I'll never use up for sale, that wouldn't hurt, either.

OK make a list of what you have and price. Send it to me.
This tag at aol

Maximise returns by ebay. Convenience would be a job lot sale to a comic book store.

This is what I am currently doing.

Get a spreadsheet of all your comics.

Go to comicbookrealm.com comicbookrealm.com and search on your titles.

Ebay them.

Mark down anything that goes over $20 USD, sell those singularly

Sell everything else in batches or lots.

Have a disclaimer saying they are not perfect condition and have not been certified and how they have been stored (boxed, bagged, backed, non smoking area)

Scan the cover at a high resolution.

What doesn't sell, find a comic book store that buys comics and sell to them.

The good comics should sell. I didn't realize I had New Mutants 98 or that it was worth anything until I went to that website… it sold for $140 USD

Haywire, that's my problem. You really seem to be doing an excellent job, but the amount of work is a bit beyond me at the moment. Not to mention all of the shipping … Ick.

Sure you don't want to buy all of my long boxes and take a cut? :)

I got screwed by selling to a store back in 96. Had stopped collecting a while back, but $500 USD for a collection that included the original Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, Wolverine mini series, V for Vendetta, Akira…

Most comics don't seem to be worth anything nowadays in the UK anyway – tried to sell my collection a couple of times but noone wanted to buy it at all.

Mike

Lots of work. I am in the same situation I have lots of comics and little space. I don't mind some but I have too many. Seems that on Ebay I get less than the shipping cost and boxing and sending is more of a drag than what it is worth.

I posted about 100 Sgt. Rock lot on Marketplace here and sold them for a fair price but it did take about 5 years. :)

I didn't realize I had New Mutants 98 or that it was worth anything until I went to that website… it sold for $140 USD USD

Wow! thanks for the tip. I've got the whole run of New Mutants from the 80s.

Wow! thanks for the tip. I've got the whole run of New Mutants from the 80s.

I think it went up in the last five years thanks to the Deadpool video game. The rest of my New Mutants are not selling and will end up in the Sell to Comic Store Box.

I was also able to sell my Rocket Raccoon Mini Series for $40 USD thanks to the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

@blackhat, that would make sense if your collection was made up of British comics ;)

I am kidding. But since the comic book market dropped its guts in the 90s you'd be hard pressed to get a decent return outside of big name titles or authors. Know a guy who had a tonne of Image Comics first titles, sometimes wonder how much they're (not) worth.

A mini version of this is happening in the poster and prints scene. Used to see Mondo movie posters go from $50 USD to $500 USD in two hours on ebay, but these days that would be very rare.

Even before that most comics weren't worth the paper they were printed on. I sold my first collection to a store back in the eighties and got about a nickel per comic. Sure, there were gems in there but most of it was bargain box material. I always feel kind of bad when non-comics people tell me they have a "big box of comics under the bed that's worth a fortune". They are bound to be disappointed.

I do have a rather large collection all bagged and boxed but I keep it because it's worth far more to me than it ever would be to a potential buyer…

For the most part I am expecting $.10 USD to the $1. USD Going through and selling the "good ones" separately is the "fun" part. Again I am not making the high limit, but it sold for more than I paid for it.

Mark down anything that goes over $20 USD USD, sell those singularly

Sell everything else in batches or lots.

Actually, my variation on this would be to sell the $20 USD plus value comics on eBay, and dump the rest at a local comic shop. You'll get pennies on the dollar at a comic shop, but unless you have lots of time to devote to the effort, and a desparate need for every dollar you can wring out of the sales, its probably the easiest way to go.

I have quite a few boxes filled with mostly Late 1970's to mid 1990's comices.

Probably around 3000-4000+ comics

Yes, the wife would love to see them gone.

Though I am going to keep

Savage Sword of Conan
Wolverine Mini Series
Death of Superman

You would probably clear up more room by selling the five year old.

N'yuk-n'yuk!

But I relate to the query and anguish. I have thousands of comics going back to the 1960s up until the present, with a few 50s and 40s, and while I know I must sell them sometime, and that some are worth a tidy sum in theory (first SA Green Lantern appearance, first JLA appearance, "Flash of Two Worlds" issue, first issues of Turok, Vampirella 1, first appearance Harley Quinn, first appearance Red Sonja, complete runs of certain DC titles from the 1990s and 2000s) I know that selling them all for a fair price on average is going to be a massive undertaking and I don't know of any major dealer who would buy the entire collection at one gulp and still give me a respectable price, even allowing for his percentages.

The collectors' arena has certainly changed in recent decades and eBay has also become a buyers' market. Back in 1998 I was largely able to pay for my first computer (an original teal iMac) and perihperals from the proceeds of selling four Golden Age Batman titles for about $800 USD total. I don't know that they'd fetch that these days.

Donate them and take the appraised value as a tax deduction.

Kim