uglytobone

3 hours ago, shadroch said:

 

Your brother dies and you can't make time to take pictures for random strangers? Get it together, man.

Assuming you have access to his financial records, check to see if he made payments to any insurance companies for his collection. They may have a spreadsheet with the books value, or they might just be able to tell you what he valued them at.

Was it a sudden death where it's likely he made no arrangements?

His death was sudden of natural causes, but his finances were in order, which is not something I can say about his duplex which has been a real bear to clean out. I have found no signs that his collection was insured. That said, there were surprises and interesting things everywhere. One of the more interesting things was a ticket for an unnamed storage unit which I had to track down. Taking all the keys I found in the duplex to the storage unit, I tried them all one at a time until the lock popped open. I was surprised to find nothing but his convertible 1987 Toyota Celica sitting there in storage. Not a super classic, but the body was in good shape and he only quit driving it when it got too small for him, so I expect it to run after a bit of work. It's been sitting idle about 8-10 years.

3 hours ago, Crops068 said:

Any friends that could help you in your time of need?  Or if this isn't a priority that is completely understandable too.  Hopefully the information you have received will help you make the best decision for you.

Right now it's just not a priority, but when the time comes I'm sure someone will help me if I ask. The information that I have received here has been very useful-- thanks everyone. Lots of good stuff on this whole board. I received a suggestion on an app that tracks comic prices on Ebay, and was really kicking myself for not keeping and taking better care of my comics in my teens. I'm sure many of y'all have had the same feeling.

16 hours ago, BlowUpTheMoon said:

Still no pictures from the OP.  

It will be a while before I post any pics. Everything is now in storage (climate controlled) and I've just got too much other stuff going on right now. Sorry.

19 hours ago, Karl Liebl said:

Strange that he did not bag and board many of his books since this was pretty much standard fare since the mid 70's.  This suggests to me he was more of a reader than a collector.  10000 books is a LOT! You are going to get pennies on the dollar for most of these 80 -90's books if anything at all, but I am sure there are a few treasures.  Getting money out of a comic book collector is like taking a dwarfs gold, maybe harder.  Sorry for your loss and good luck!

 

Thank you for the condolences.

My brother was a reader and a collector. He always had comics and sci-fy paperbacks. He was six years older and he's the reason I got into reading so much when I was younger. He installed a lock on his bedroom door when he discovered I was sneaking in on Saturday mornings and reading the newest issues that were laying on the floor next to his bed. That didn't work, because I just climbed in the window when he was out with friends. He worked in Big Guys comic book shop somewhere in California for a while and it looked like he bought lots of comics from his store specifically for collecting. eg. I found about 50 issues of X-Force #1 sealed collectors issue which seems to be worth$3-$5 each on ebay. I found a factory sealed box of MTG The Dark booster packs, but when he introduced me to Magic he played his best cards unsleeved.

7 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

Sorry to hear of your loss especially a comic book collector.

Do you have the time to do this right or do you want them gone fast is really what you
need to ask yourself. 

Since they aren't just comics you will need someone who specializes in several areas if 
you want them all gone at once. Without doing a lot of work you will expect to received a fraction
of the true value.

If the collection is valuable then the more time you put in the more monetary reward you will 
reap. You can also advertise it on craigslist, here and other places and you will get dealers to
come look at it and make offers as well. Good luck.

 

Thank you for the condolences.

What I would like to do is to number each box and then make an entry into a spreadsheet with box #, title, issue #, price, an eyeball grade, and a sleeve/no-sleeve indicator on each and every comic/graphic novel. What I actually end up doing is another thing.

At the least I would just go back through each box and pull out the items that look like they might have greater value, using the internet for occasional reference.

I appreciate the condolences and the advice. If anything, the endeavor should prove to be interesting.

My brother recently passed away leaving me a collection of 7-10,000 comics and graphic novels. My brother was big into anime/manga so there is lots of that, but also DC/Dark Horse and Marvel. I haven't found anything really vintage, although I have not looked inside each and every box -- seems mostly 80s-90s. Looking for a strategy (not a monetary offer at this point) for handling the collection, though I feel the first thing to do would be an inventory, which is a daunting task. The condition of the comics is mostly good as most have been stored in boxes indoors with many of them in a plastic sleeves, and many of them not. Also have 50-70 anime figurines purchased from Japan still in their original boxes -- original purchase price $50-$70 each, as well as assorted trading cards and many DC superhero figurines in the original packages.

Just looking for advice/tips on how best to relieve myself of ownership of all this stuff. I haven't yet decided how much effort I wan't to put into this, although with retirement a couple of years away, I've considered deferring action until then.

Thanks.