stephenlev

About 18 months or so ago, clearing out my parents house, I opened two long boxes of comics from my childhood (about 30+ years ago). This is my experience selling them, knowing absolutely nothing about comic collecting (but getting great advice from people on this forum). As a newbie, I of course thought all my once-read comics were all 9.8s. A few posted images on your spare-a-grade forum disabused me of that idea. I looked up every comic I had online, and figured out the potentially valuable ones, then send probably too many (20 or so) to be pressed and graded. I was pleasantly surprised by the results - two 9.8s, but nothing below a 9.3. I sent everything slabbed, and every raw book MyComicShop said they'd take, to MCS. Best book was a 9.8 Sandman #1. Selling slabbed books with them has been an absolute pleasure, and I've gotten some good money for my books, and their commission is very reasonable. Their grading of raw books was very conservative - books I was sure CGC (based on my other submissions) would get in the 9's ended up in the 7s. Made me wish I'd sent a couple more books to CGC, but at this point, didn't want to bother. I took my time, didn't pay for expedited anything - I figured the comics had sat in a box for 30 years, another year wouldn't make a difference. Glad I sold them. A little sad to be without them. But they were just taking up space and there was always the risk of theft or damage. If that Sandman doesn't sell at the price I'm asking, maybe I'll have them ship it back to me and put it on my wall.

Second batch of comics just came through, pressed by CFP, and the grades aren't as good (not blaming CFP, these books might have been in worse shape). Not terrible grades (9.2 is the lowest) but nothing here is gonna make me anything if I sell, I think. X-Men 213: 9.2 Captain America 332: 9.4 Incredible Hulk & Wolverine 1: 9.4 Devil Dinosaur 1: 9.2 Sandman #5: 9.6 X-men 124: 9.4 Batman 426: 9.4 Batman 427: 9.4 Batman 428: 9.6 In the end, it was super-fun revisiting my childhood collection. I may try to sell these if prices go up, or just list somewhere and see if I get nibbles, but I'm definitely done grading.

Yeah, I'm happy overall. And although I may not be able to tell the difference between a 9.4 and a 9.6, it seems I've learned what a 9.2+ book looks like. No huge disappointments here (maybe the Thor)

Yep, all these books were cleaned and pressed by Avery. I did another batch with CFP that is being graded now (the Batmen, and some others) In hindsight, I wish I'd only sent in 10 books instead of 19. Otherwise no regrets. I'm definitely done getting anything slabbed, I don't buy new stuff, just wanted to preserve some of my childhood collection. It is fun opening the box and seeing the grades (though it would have been less fun if the grades were much lower)

Comic Description:Thor 337 11/83 Marvel Comics Newsstand EditionGrader Notes:""Mark Jewelers"" insert. small, multiple crease right bottom of front cover

Great! All the credit goes to my 16 year old self who took such good care of his comics. I'm a little bummed about the Thor, which looked good to me, but pretty happy with the rest.

OKAY, my first batch of comics came in! Sandman #8: 9.6 Wolverine #1: 9.4 X-Men #221: 9.8 (yay!) Wolverine LS #1: 9.2 Sandman #1: 9.8 (yay!) Secret Wars #8: 8.0 (I knew that one wasn't gonna get a good grade) Thor 337 Mark Jeweler insert: 8.5 (damn!) Sandman #4: 9.6 Hulk 340: 9.6

Yeah, as in investment, this might have been a bum deal. On the other hand, there was value in cracking open my 35 year old collection for the first time, looking things up on eBay, revising my childhood books, posting on these boards, getting excited as the comics moved through the process, etc. It's been a hobby, and a fun one. I haven't bought any new books, and I'm not going to slab anymore after this. Hopefully these'll look nice on my shelf.

It's due to backlog. And they don't restore, just clean and press.

And that Thor is a Newsstand/Mark Jeweler copy! But I feel like my next big disappointment is the grade. They looked great to my untrained eye, but in the nine months since I submitted, I've learned a lot. But I did post on this forum beforehand, and I was warned not to submit all these books, so I have nobody to blame but myself. Again, since I paid cover price, it's not THAT much money down the drain. I might just sell my two long boxes, and some slabbed books to my local store, and keep a few covers I love for posterity, and I'd probably come out somewhat ahead.

Whoops! I guess the good news is that I only paid cover price for them, it's not like I bought them at the top of the market. And a lot of them are classics with nice covers, I won't mind having them around, giving them to my kids.

I based my "value" off eBay sales. If they got more than $100 as a 9.6, I thought they might be worth sending in.

Nine months ago, I cracked open my childhood comic collection and sent the 20 comics getting the most money on eBay, that were in the best shape, to be pressed, cleaned and graded. This week they're getting graded. But boy have values for these books (X-Men, Wolverine, Sandman, some Batman) plummeted in the nine months since I sent them away. If they don't come back with a really high grade, they are definitely not going to be worth the money I spent grading them. My original plan was to keep 1-2 of my favs and sell the rest, but this looks like the worst climate for selling. My question is, I've waited 35+ years since I bought these comics at cover price, and am happy to just to hand them down to my kids. But do prices just bob up and down a lot, or was I checking prices in a bubble and totally misleading myself about what these books would ever be worth?

Modern/Slow Received at Avery Comic Pressing: 9/1/22 Delivered to GCG: 4/10/23 Received: 4/26/23 G/E/I: 5/3/23' (Incidentally, I sent 9 books to Avery and 9 to CFP a week apart, 9 months ago. They both arrived at CGC a week apart.)