How to sell a comic book collection

Daimar · January 2020

I've got a comic book collection from my younger days that I'd like to get rid of an if at all possible make a little bit of money back on. There are about 6 longboxes of comics from the 80s - early 90s, all bagged and boarded, although I wasn't bagging and boarding when I purchased them, that was a later project when I wanted to put them in better storage, so most of them aren't in super good condition. I realize the vast majority of the comics are probably going to get me $0.01 - $0.05 each, if that, but there are some in there that are worth more.

So my question is what are some good ways to get rid of this collection that isn't outright just giving it away or throwing them out? Is it a matter of trying to pick out the higher value ones to try and sell on eBay or a comic book shop or would it be worthwhile to sell a specific title in one/several packages depending on how many there are? I'm a tad on the lazy side so have a hard time picturing myself throwing a ton of time into it so if I could just give it to a 3rd party to handle and give me money that would be best, even though that wouldn't be the highest return.

Has anyone had an experience with downsizing their comic book collection that worked out well for them that they'd like to share?

Xaquin · January 2020

I'd recommend ebay for the better ones and either sell the rest as a set price or resign yourself to not making much money from them. Some 80s comics can be worth money, but very few from the 90s are

Corvus · January 2020

I had two collections I've partially sold, my late 80's early 90's x-men focused collection, and one of miscellaneous non-superhero (disney, western, etc) comics of my father's from the 50's or 60's which I largely sold by consigning them at a local store who did the pricing for me. The store was honourable (they called me when they realized one of my comics was an issue of The New Mutants with the first appearance of Deadpool and asked what I wanted to price it at) , but the store also went out of business before it all sold ( I was able to retrieve my stuff), I think times are difficult for comic book stores.

I made decent money on the things that sold, though I was suprised that the older stuff actually made more money despite not being in the best condition. Nostalgic boomers I guess.

I'd suggest calling around to your local comic stores and seeing if they do consignment (not all will), handle pricing, and what the % you would get of sales is.

Iruka · January 2020

If you are looking for the "gamestop trade in" version, pretty sure Half Price Books will take comics, but you'd probably have to just pluck off the most rare. I say gamestop trade in cause I imagine it'll be like getting 10bucks for a lot of wii games when you know you could off load 1st party nintendo for more, and they're gonna sell each game for at least that much.

zepherin · January 2020

So my wife has liquidated a few collections from a previous ex...the way she does it, is she ebay's the hole collection at one go. Puts the move valuable items at the front of the collection. In a way that makes the buyers think there is more but she doesn't know the value of the items. She says she got about 80% of the book value and got rid of it all in one shot.

Also she said that as a warning not to leave my shit at her house if we ever broke up because she would be getting a new purse to console her.

amateurhour · January 2020

I went the consignment route with my local shop about a decade ago with the higher end books and listed the rest as a bulk lot on craigslist.

Smrtnik · January 2020

zepherin wrote: »

So my wife has liquidated a few collections from a previous ex...the way she does it, is she ebay's the hole collection at one go. Puts the move valuable items at the front of the collection. In a way that makes the buyers think there is more but she doesn't know the value of the items. She says she got about 80% of the book value and got rid of it all in one shot.

Also she said that as a warning not to leave my shit at her house if we ever broke up because she would be getting a new purse to console her.

You guys are married but love in separate houses?

WiseManTobes · January 2020

The forums taught me a decent trick for selling off some so-so magic collection that might work on comics. Get a good shot of the collection with some obvious trash comics showing, with the odd gem peeking out, with a generic " Box of comics discovered while cleaning for sale" type line, my bidding war got intense from people gambling for hidden gems being contained inside.

zepherin · January 2020

Smrtnik wrote: »

zepherin wrote: »

So my wife has liquidated a few collections from a previous ex...the way she does it, is she ebay's the hole collection at one go. Puts the move valuable items at the front of the collection. In a way that makes the buyers think there is more but she doesn't know the value of the items. She says she got about 80% of the book value and got rid of it all in one shot.

Also she said that as a warning not to leave my shit at her house if we ever broke up because she would be getting a new purse to console her.

You guys are married but love in separate houses?

We were dating at the time. We got married later. Explaining that bit fucks up the flow of the story with a girlfriend at the time now wife. So I streamlined it for readability.

Vanguard · February 2020

Most dollar amount will come from breaking your collection down into discrete lots by series (as granular as by story arc, if you have that much).

The biggest caveat is that this will not be a quick process as it requires a good amount of time to research what you have and upload to your platform of choice. Then, of course, you need to wait for the market to start buying, which they will, but at this level you’re essentially waiting for someone to be looking for exactly what you have.

I got rid of about 3 long boxes this way over 18 months and probably got back a bit over $2000. That might seem a low number (as it’s just above book value) but that was just the higher value books. In the end I had maybe 200 issues of stuff that was below book price that I just recycled.

The collection method people have mentioned definitely works, but you’re dealing with a different market there - mostly people looking to score finds and resell them at a higher value. It will be quick but you’re definitely going to see lower returns.

azith28 · February 2020

So real talk.
I've got about 40 longboxes of books, ranging from the mid-80's to 2015 or so. I collected for 30 years, mostly just to have something to read, so don't count on this collection having much at all of what would be considered 'high value' books. I'd say at least 50-60% of the books are bagged and boarded, while the rest is loose. The boxes are NOT sorted.

If i just wanted to get rid of them without putting much work into sorting/ ordering, etc, What is a realistic amount i can expect to get from say a single collector buying large lots (assuming i can find one).

Places like half-price books probably arent going to be interested in this large of a collection right? Do i basically just wait for a comic book convention to happen, go to the dealers room and ask every dealer if they buy collections?
There are a few comic/hobby shops around here but I get the feeling they arent going to buy huge amounts of old books...(maybe im wrong? I think i have more books then what are on display at these shops...maybe they just keep the stuff in the back and sell it online discreetly?)

Darkewolfe · February 2020

Just call the local comic book shops and say exactly that. Some places will take it, some won't.

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