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Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this but here it goes anyways: So I moved home recently when my father passed away. We are cleaning the house and getting ready to move into a smaller one. In the attic is my comic collection which I was once very, very proud of. I think I have something like 6 long boxes of comics up there. Mostly Marvel, but some Vertigo / DC. My question is this: With the explosion of Marvel movies recently, will these comics EVER be more valuable than they are now? Or in the near future? That is - once the Infinity arc is finally finished in the next few years. Part of me wants to save them for future generations, but I would really like to know what they are worth now. or once the movies peak. When I was collecting them, Wizard was the go to price guide, but I understand they went out of business and were sued for fraud. No surprise there IMO. In any case, what is a dependable price guide these days? Should I sell now, in the next few years, or be good to potential offspring? With so many comics going digital and so many back issues already scanned / digitized, I have to think the comics will be easy enough to read in the future. It isn't so much the stories being hard to get to, but the value of a (dying?) paper medium. For all I know, my kids won't care and would rather collect the future equivalent of baseball cards, stamps, or coins. Who knows? So - when to cash out? Is it even very viable, considering the glut of comics in the 90s? Maybe just sell duplicates and keep the best condition ones? I think I have multiple copies of Spawn and Spiderman (McFarlene) for example. What do you guys think?
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Jul 18, 2015 21:00
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:32 |
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I had a collection (about 6500 comics) of stuff from the early 90s through about 2010. Mostly regular superhero stuff (about 60% DC, 30% Marvel and about 10% Image and other brands). It had gotten to a point where I was buying more than I could read and they ended up bagged & boarded in 28 long boxes in the closet. They were a bitch to move into an upstairs apartment. I knew I would likely never get around to reading them especially since I ended up missing huge chunks of story lines. So, one week I went through everything and picked out the stuff I really liked (which ended being mostly non-superhero stuff). I ended up with about six long boxes worth of stuff that I plan on having bound (I'd done this a few years ago and they came out quite nicely). I put the rest on ebay. I would try and sell them in blocks of 10 or 12 to justify the aggravation of packing and mailing (or entire runs where possible). After 18 months, I've sold about 3700. I made a nice profit on a few and took a bath on most of the rest. I'm just glad to be rid of them. I still have about 1100+ left and, to be honest, I am tired of messing with them. I still have a few single issues that should bring in some decent money, but I have to figure out what to do with the rest. Condition is important, of course, but demand is most important. Check the sold listings of what you have to get an idea. Avoid single issue sales unless it's something highly valuable.
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Jul 19, 2015 01:38
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Donate them to your local children's library.
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Jul 19, 2015 23:35
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I feel like the old rules thread (or some other thread I don't remember) had a line it that said something along the lines of "your comics aren't worth any money, sorry". I mean yea it's possible you could make some money if you've got an Amazing Spider-man 252 or something in there but really your chances of making enough money to justify the time and effort spent selling them are slim. Just find somewhere to donate them to someone who might still enjoy them.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:32
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Sadly, this seems by and large true. For the amount of time and investment I put into them as a teenager, they are worth appallingly little when I looked most of them up. My father used to warn me that most of them would depreciate and it seems that he was right. A comic I paid 2.50 for is now worth less than a dollar in a lot of instances. I have some blocks of comics but a lot of them are missing issues to complete a run. Very frustrating, and I still feel that old familiar itch to fill in the holes / storylines. I am sure some of the single issues or a few runs might be valuable due to upcoming movies (New Mutants for example?) but I am not sure it matters at this point. I have very few issues in new or mint condition and I am realizing that just by going through them, the spines can crack more. The bags stick together slightly as it is. Writing down what issues I have (3 long boxes isn't THAT much) and then putting them away again. No matter how successful the marvel movies are, I don't think it does enough to hike up the value of the books they are based on. With some exceptions, of course. New Mutants #98 is the first appearance of Deadpool and although I remember reading that issue and owning it... it seems to be missing now. Argh.  Did Wizard ever get sued? It seems to me they ripped off a LOT of people with their inflated price guide. sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Jul 20, 2015 |
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Jul 20, 2015 18:53
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Price guides were intended as what you should expect to pay at a retailer, NOT what someone will pay you for a thing.
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Jul 20, 2015 21:46
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Fair enough. I was looking at a couple of different websites listing prices to try to gauge things. Wizard obviously went out of business for a reason. How would one get an idea of what one could sell a signed comic? Namely, I have WildCATs #1 signed by Jim Lee and X-Force #1 signed by Liefeld. These kinds of things used to go for a lot at comic book stores, but I have never tried to sell anything like that before.
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Jul 20, 2015 21:59
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sigma 6 posted:Namely, I have WildCATs #1 signed by Jim Lee and X-Force #1 signed by Liefeld. These kinds of things used to go for a lot at comic book stores, but I have never tried to sell anything like that before. I am not being insulting in the slightest when I tell you this: I would give you 25 cents for either of those books. Not a cent more. You'd be lucky to find any shop willing to give you cash for them. Your best bet would be to contact local shops and look for an offer on the whole thing.
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Jul 20, 2015 22:06
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sigma 6 posted:Fair enough. I was looking at a couple of different websites listing prices to try to gauge things. Wizard obviously went out of business for a reason.
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Jul 20, 2015 23:33
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I have a co-worker whose husband collects comics and I'm going to take him what's left of my collection and let him have whatever he wants at 50 cents a pop. I've had it with trying to sell them on eBay.
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Jul 21, 2015 00:20
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It seems like my timing was usually bad when I tried to sell comics, especially on eBay. I had complete runs of Marvel's G.I. Joe and Transformers series, with all the related miniseries and tie-in issues, and sold them on eBay over a decade ago for what seemed like paltry amounts, compared to how much I know they would go for nowadays. I also had New Mutants #87 (first Cable), NM #98 (first Deadpool), and Uncanny X-Men #266 (first Gambit), and back in the early 2000s, they went for much less than they would today. Of course, selling anything on eBay sucks nowadays. If you just count on the auction feature without setting a Reserve or Buy It Now price you can live with, you're just going to get lowballed. And thanks to Paypal always taking the buyer's side in disputes, there are so many unscrupulous buyers trying to rip off honest sellers that I haven't bothered selling in years. I used to have tons of signed comics from meeting writers and artists at cons, and I always had a hard time selling those. Most shops and serious collectors don't want them at all without certificates of authenticity. I've been really lucky to sell and trade on a smaller scale, in SA-Mart and other collectors' forums. Since comics rarely sell for much, I've been thrilled to pull off some great trades over the last several years, often trading comics I no longer want for TPBs I'd rather have. And a chain of local comic shops has one day every spring where you can bring them up to four comics (as long as they have cover prices, so no FCBD issues), no matter how unpopular, for up to $8 in back issue credit. I've unloaded dozens of unwanted comics on that special day every year for almost a decade now, always getting interesting new things in return.
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Jul 21, 2015 02:53
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Hm. So sell before the movie comes out - or after? I realize I have a deadpool #1 for example. Was pleasantly surprised to find a signed copy of Death: The high cost of living (Neil Gaiman). That's kind of cool. Also 1-6 of Preacher in mint. That is a TV series coming out soon. Sort of wondering if a TV series is going to hike the price as much as a movie. Might try Ebay or SA mart just to try my luck. Writing down all the issues which might have any worth, Kind of amazing how many foil covers, bags w/trading cards etc. I have. Sad that comics are practically sold by the pound nowadays.
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Jul 23, 2015 03:01
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sigma 6 posted:Hm. So sell before the movie comes out - or after? I realize I have a deadpool #1 for example. Which Deadpool #1? There are like 6. Also you should look into getting those Preachers graded as the price on the first 12 or so are heating up.
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Jul 23, 2015 03:20
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Rhyno posted:Which Deadpool #1? There are like 6. Also you should look into getting those Preachers graded as the price on the first 12 or so are heating up. I had the last dozen or so issues from the last Deadpool series (#57-69) (which I swear I didn't remember buying) and sold them for about $70.
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Jul 23, 2015 03:40
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Mister Kingdom posted:I had the last dozen or so issues from the last Deadpool series (#57-69) (which I swear I didn't remember buying) and sold them for about $70. I'm sitting on a complete run of all Deadpool appearances from X-Force #2 up to the start of the Daniel Way run. All I'm missing is New Mutants #98 (which I have a line on). They're all in high grade, I'm going to get a dozen of them CGCed in August. I'm hoping to get $3000+ out of it when the movie hits.
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Jul 23, 2015 03:53
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Rhyno posted:I'm sitting on a complete run of all Deadpool appearances from X-Force #2 up to the start of the Daniel Way run. All I'm missing is New Mutants #98 (which I have a line on). They're all in high grade, I'm going to get a dozen of them CGCed in August. I'm hoping to get $3000+ out of it when the movie hits. Sounds cool. Good luck.
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Jul 23, 2015 03:59
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If anyone else is looking for New Mutants #98 that isn't in pristine condition, keep your eye on New Mutants lots on ebay. I picked up a complete New Mutants run on ebay back in 2009 for $90 (#1-100 and the annuals). The issues are all in pretty good condition with just some slight wear and tear on the spines and maybe a bent page every 6th issue or so. I was pleasantly surprised that find both the Deadpool and the Cable issues in there in great shape!
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Jul 23, 2015 22:35
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Havoc904 posted:If anyone else is looking for New Mutants #98 that isn't in pristine condition, keep your eye on New Mutants lots on ebay. I picked up a complete New Mutants run on ebay back in 2009 for $90 (#1-100 and the annuals). The issues are all in pretty good condition with just some slight wear and tear on the spines and maybe a bent page every 6th issue or so. I was pleasantly surprised that find both the Deadpool and the Cable issues in there in great shape! I'll have to do that. I had a run of X-Factor I just could not move in the store, not even at $100. People didn't want 147 issues of garbage I guess.
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Jul 24, 2015 01:36
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You don't have New Mutants #98, Rhyno? 
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Jul 24, 2015 16:11
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One day I'll finally do BSSSS and toss my copy in that I paid 30 cents for.
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Jul 24, 2015 16:17
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irlZaphod posted:You don't have New Mutants #98, Rhyno? I've owned four or five, just not any in the last three years.
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Jul 24, 2015 17:49
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I hope to sell my TMNT 1st ed 1st print #1 signed by Eastman and Laird some time after I die. That's a good time for me to sell my comics collection. I plan on never selling my ROM Spaceknight collection, but granted, I don't think I could actually find a buyer for that. edit: I just checked what the comic is valued at. I haven't done that since the mid 90s. h-holy poo poo
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Jul 26, 2015 21:45
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I think I'm gonna try to take to a shop and just say, "Hey I want like Detective Comics vol 1-5 tpb and we're good." There's about $400 to made if they can sell em all and I get $80-100 out of it, I don't care anymore. I've went the eBay route as well and they either don't sell or the user is like this is a 9.2 not a 9.4 because I know exactly and I want a full refund and then they ship it back folded as a 2.0, money gone. I guess I'll try to unload various things on SA Mart, if someone wants em.
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Aug 31, 2015 16:07
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Havoc904 posted:If anyone else is looking for New Mutants #98 that isn't in pristine condition, keep your eye on New Mutants lots on ebay. I picked up a complete New Mutants run on ebay back in 2009 for $90 (#1-100 and the annuals). The issues are all in pretty good condition with just some slight wear and tear on the spines and maybe a bent page every 6th issue or so. I was pleasantly surprised that find both the Deadpool and the Cable issues in there in great shape! I've debated doing this and this may be the best place to ask: From a collector's perspective, is it taboo to sell a lot of comics that are "crap" with one gem in them? I want to get rid of some stuff and know that my NM #98 will fetch some coin but all those X-Force #1's won't. So if I combine a bunch on eBay would that piss off potential collectors and/or hurt potential sales? I personally have bought a few bundles of comics just to get one particular issue so I don't mind the practice. But I'd like to hear what others think. Dick move? Bargain?
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Oct 30, 2015 20:25
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Ferrule posted:I've debated doing this and this may be the best place to ask: Nope. I sold a Batman Adventures #12 (first appearance of Harley Quinn) and threw in another dozen issues with it. None of the bidders ever questioned it.
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Oct 30, 2015 22:38
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Good to know I'm not the only one. Thanks. e: Follow up question: Should I get things like this NM 98, AMS 300, etc, slabbed or just leave em as is? Keeping in mind I'm going to auction them mixed in with all the surrounding issues. Ferrule fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Oct 31, 2015 |
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Oct 31, 2015 02:08
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Ferrule posted:Good to know I'm not the only one. I'd only get them graded if you are 100% positive they'll come back above 8.0.
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Oct 31, 2015 04:23
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Ferrule posted:I've debated doing this and this may be the best place to ask: I'd say most people would consider them an extra to what they want. And unless you put up a crazy rear end reserve (Or whatever they call that sketchy minimum bid thing), they won't care.
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Oct 31, 2015 18:43
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