How to Sell 8,500 Comics

[david20009]

I have a bit of a dilemma that I am hoping some people on the Boards can provide me advice on.

 

As most of you know I have been working as an expatriate in Hong Kong for a few years and outside of Canada for over 10 years. When I first moved out of Canada I only had a limited amount of stuff shipped with me as I did not plan to be gone for too many years while I had the rest stored in my parent’s basement.

 

Life continued, my mom passed away some years back and my Dad is now selling the house, immigrating to the USA and moving into a condo in the middle of nowhere Minnesota as a house is too much for him now. I will be back in Canada the first couple weeks in September to deal with his immigration, finances, CDN and US tax planning, starting the process of selling the house and on top of all that dealing with all my stuff including 8,500 comic books.

 

My preference is to sell the books (and most of my other stuff) to limit the amount of things I have shipped to Hong Kong and keep peace with my wife as opposed to overloading our place which already has far too many comic books as far as she is concerned.

 

The books are located in Regina, Saskatchewan. Regina is a city with only 180,000 or so people so there is not really a local option to sell the books that I know of and the city is 800 km (500 miles) from Calgary or Winnipeg.

 

The collection is comprised of 8,500 books of which 4,000 are Marvel, 1,400 are DC, 900 are Image (yes I know, mostly Spawn and TopCow stuff), 900 are Valiant (1 copy of every single Valiant comic, not 900 Turok 1’s) and 400 Dark horse. Everything is over 10 years old. There is some 90’s drek in there no doubt about it but there is a lot of good stuff with the majority of issues being Bronze and Modern Age and not too much past 1994. Anything worth more than $7 or $8 in Overstreet from 10 years ago is in mylar and boarded.

 

Over 75% of the value is in the Marvel books, the rest mostly in DC. It is heavy on Spiderman. For example I have 25 ASM issues between 51 to 100 and then basically a full run from 101 to 441, complete Spectacular Spiderman, Web of Spiderman and fairly complete Marvel Team-Up.

 

Other titles include X-men from 94 to 300, Daredevil from 150 to 335, complete Star Wars and complete Transformers. There a smattering of most Marvel titles and key issues like Hulk 181, Conan 1, Silver Surfer 1, half of the first 10 Daredevil, including 1, the first 10 Ironman, X-men 4. Nothing is CGC slabbed as my slabs are all in Hong Kong, along with plenty of other raw books.

 

I have a spreadsheet with everything listed and graded (and priced by Overstreet but am not looking for Overstreet for the books obviously).

 

Anyone have suggestions on the best way to deal with all this . I’m not looking to make a fortune off selling the books but would like as fair a deal as possible considering the circumstances. If I had the time I would slab and sell on eBay but am really just looking for a solution that would involve all the books being disposed of at once.

 

 

 

 

 

[Gotham Kid]

Hey David, not really interested in the collection but just thought I'd mention I'm digging your sig line

[comicwiz]

From the details, you are limiting your buying candidates to only include comic dealers. It can't hurt to call up Doug Sulipa (Comic World) and see if he's willing to make the 7/8 hr road trip to look at and buy your collection.

 

I do buy, but I'd only be interested in the key issues and your approach sounds more like a wholesale clearance. Unfortunately the only other suggestion is to search on Craigslist, Kijiji or local newspapers for people who place WTB ads.

 

Sorry I couldn't be of anymore help.

[Diamond-Age-Comic-migratio]

Strawberry pick key issues first then bring them with yah in Canada you say? get them cgc'd. well for the others maybe you'll find some dealer around here goodluck

 

[Diamond-Age-Comic-migratio]

From the details, you are limiting your buying candidates to only include comic dealers. It can't hurt to call up Doug Sulipa (Comic World) and see if he's willing to make the 7/8 hr road trip to look at and buy your collection.

 

I do buy, but I'd only be interested in the key issues and your approach sounds more like a wholesale clearance. Unfortunately the only other suggestion is to search on Craigslist, Kijiji or local newspapers for people who place WTB ads.

 

Sorry I couldn't be of anymore help.

 

well said.

[david20009]

From the details, you are limiting your buying candidates to only include comic dealers. It can't hurt to call up Doug Sulipa (Comic World) and see if he's willing to make the 7/8 hr road trip to look at and buy your collection.

 

I do buy, but I'd only be interested in the key issues and your approach sounds more like a wholesale clearance. Unfortunately the only other suggestion is to search on Craigslist, Kijiji or local newspapers for people who place WTB ads.

 

Sorry I couldn't be of anymore help.

 

The idea to free up space and limit the amount of stuff I will be shipping to Hong Kong (which already is going to be a lot of stuff). I could cherry pick the key issues and them to my large collection in Hong Kong but then I would still have the issue of dealing with all the books in Canada.

 

For selling I think there is more interest if I leave the good books in. Being in a city of 180,000 I doubt there is much that would be in the local newspaper or Craigslist, plus I only have two weeks to deal with all my Dad's paper work and deal with all my stuff (which the comics are just a small part of) so I would rather just sell the books off to one person and not waste too much time.

 

[etanick]

I think not allowing cherry picking is the way to go because if all the keys are gone, it will be a lot tougher to sell the remaining 99% of the book. I purchased a few collections in my past and I have also passed up many collections in the past because the sellers sold all the keys or decided to keep all the keys.

 

....regardless of the conditions of the keys.

 

Here is something you can also try. Sell entire run of each title. So instead of having to swallow the entire collection, some collectors may buy the entire run of a title.

 

I have also done that where I bought a full run in NM like Spectacular Spider Man from 1 to 265 years ago, etc..I sold that entire run earlier this year to Max Carnage here on the board.

 

 

[tth2]

Dave, if there's no easy way for you to sell all of them in a short period of time, you could consider putting them in a self-storage place to give you more time to figure something out (or to sell them gradually). I can't imagine storage space in Regina would be all that expensive.

 

I don't know how Canadian taxes work, but it seems in a lot of situations like this, the US way to do things is to separate out all the drek and just donate it to a registered charity and take a tax deduction based on Guide value. Of course, being a Canadian who resides in HK, you probably don't have to worry about Canadian taxes in the first place, so maybe tax deductions are irrelevant.

[david20009]

Tim: With my Dad moving out of Regina I doubt I will back there anytime in the next 5 years so I am not thinking storage there is an option regardless of cost. Either I sell all the books or I ship them all to Hong Kong with everything else I am moving and store them in Chai Wan or Wong Chuk. It's not like the collection is mostly 90's drek, there are a lot of good Marvel and Batman books in there. (I stopped being a Canada tax resident over a decade ago so I'm not concerned about Canadian tax and I know Hong Kong, bless its tax system will charge me 0%).

 

I agree with Nick, I won't cherry pick the key issues as I want to move everything. I don't have time to sell runs even though I think that makes sense as I was a completest so there are lots of high grade runs. Somebody with time I think would be able to make out OK.

[Ringfinger]

I would do it as a lot, maybe E-Bay w/ pickup?

[shadroch]

Consign them to a reputable dealer. Donut comes to mind.

[mycomicshop]

You might take a look at the options we offer:

 

http://www.mycomicshop.com/webuycomics

 

You can sell your comics quickly, and for more than you'd get selling locally or listing large lots on eBay.

 

There are two main ways we buy:

 

- Buying comics using our want list. You can look up any issue, see if it's on our want list, and if so, see how much we pay in various grades. You list your comics in our system, offer them to us for sale, ship them to us, we grade them and pay you.

 

- Buying full collections. Since you're wanting to move all your comics quickly, and don't want to end up holding the leftovers not currently on our want list, this would probably be the option you'd want. Board member Pedigreeman worked with us a couple years ago using this option when he was looking to sell his 25,000 book collection. We didn't ultimately buy his collection (he was looking for a bit more than our offer), but he considered our offer fair and he enjoyed working with us.

 

Both options are described in more detail on the page I linked. You can call me (Conan) at 512-240-2802 if you have more questions.

[Foolkiller]

I actually was going to suggest these guys. For a collection like this, they seem like a fair way to go. Also, the distance is an issue. Not sure what someone like Doug Sulipa would do for you as well, but you may want to consider a Canadian dealer if you're looking to avoid shipping. That being said, mycomicshop may end up giving you the best financial offer.

[solm4st3r]

Sell the keys and donate the rest to charity?

[CR]

Sell the keys and donate the rest to charity?

 

I have a variation on this idea.

 

I'd cherry pick the keys and ship them to CGC or home to Hong Kong.

 

Then I would give or sell for next to nothing the rest to a LCS.

 

Why?

It's fast and easy.

You know the bulk of the comics are going to people who respect them and will get them in the hands of enthusiasts (not Goodwill).

And you're helping out a small business owner. Good karma.

You'll make your money off the keys.

 

[thehumantorch]

David, you will have a ton to do while in Regina. Contact Mycomicshop or Sulipia.

They will likely give you as much or more as any other sales method and it won't

take long.

[the blob]

Life continued, my mom passed away some years back and my Dad is now selling the house, immigrating to the USA and moving into a condo in the middle of nowhere Minnesota as a house is too much for him now.

--------------

 

 

Sorry to stray from the purpose of your through, but...

 

Is he big on moose hunting and ice fishing?

 

Is a Canadian moving "south" to the Minnesota tundra like someone from New Jersey moving to North Carolina to retire?

[porky]

Sell the keys and donate the rest to charity?

 

I have a variation on this idea.

 

I'd cherry pick the keys and ship them to CGC or home to Hong Kong.

 

Then I would give or sell for next to nothing the rest to a LCS.

 

Why?

It's fast and easy.

You know the bulk of the comics are going to people who respect them and will get them in the hands of enthusiasts (not Goodwill).

And you're helping out a small business owner. Good karma.

You'll make your money off the keys.

 

i like that idea

[Green]

Life continued, my mom passed away some years back and my Dad is now selling the house, immigrating to the USA and moving into a condo in the middle of nowhere Minnesota as a house is too much for him now.

--------------

 

 

Sorry to stray from the purpose of your through, but...

 

Is he big on moose hunting and ice fishing?

 

Is a Canadian moving "south" to the Minnesota tundra like someone from New Jersey moving to North Carolina to retire?

I sure hope not.

[the blob]

Life continued, my mom passed away some years back and my Dad is now selling the house, immigrating to the USA and moving into a condo in the middle of nowhere Minnesota as a house is too much for him now.

--------------

 

 

Sorry to stray from the purpose of your through, but...

 

Is he big on moose hunting and ice fishing?

 

Is a Canadian moving "south" to the Minnesota tundra like someone from New Jersey moving to North Carolina to retire?

I sure hope not.

 

OK, not the best analogy. Maybe it's ike NJ to Pennsylvania to retire.

 

Sorry for the detour, but based on his usual glowing OPG reports, it would seem to be that Sulipa is the way to go for getting a decent price for your good stuff and he's not too far away (yes, everything in canada is really far away, I understand). so load up your dog sled and get going!