Rough Idea of Value

[techvoodoo]

I know this is a hard question to answer but I was wondering if you guys could help me with a rough idea of value on a collection of Amazing Spider-man that I have.

 

The issues I have are as follows:

 

238, 239, 252, 289, 298, 299, 300, 301-690

 

Ofcourse the 20 million dollar question, what grades right? I'm not really sure, I've never considered myself any sort of grading pro. So I'll estimate on what I think is the low side.

 

The vast majority of the collection I'd consider to be your standard reader grade, bought at the comic store and bagged/boarded after being read once or twice. Most of these books I'd guess are at worst VF (8.0), probably better but I'll be conservative.

 

As some of the key books.

 

238 is a little rough, but has tatooz. This is where I run into trouble because I don't know how to grade really. It doesn't have any pieces missing, rips, tears, or any single major defect. It just has some spine stress marks, the coners are a little blunted/rounded. I'm guessing it's around a 6.0 at worse.

 

239 is much nicer than 238. I'd estimate it's atleast a 7.5.

 

252 is really nice. It's probably atleast a 9.0

 

300 the person i bought it from claimed it would grade a 9.2, i don't know it has 1 non-color breaking spine stress mark front and back otherwise it's pretty good. i'd guess it's a 9.0.

 

So ya everything else probably falls into that VF(8.0) range or better, the newer stuff obviously better.

 

Thanks for your thoughts I appreciate it.

[TSwift25]

Value for what purpose? Selling them? How do you want to sell them? Individually? In bulk?

[lizards2]

About $50

[techvoodoo]

Value for what purpose? Selling them? How do you want to sell them? Individually? In bulk?

 

Yes, sorry I should have specified. I was considering selling them as 1 large collection.

[Junkdrawer]

Seems like you have an idea on how to grade or at least how to tell that one book is better than another. Once you have come up with grades for all your books grab an Overstreet. You can come up with a ballpark from there.

[techvoodoo]

Seems like you have an idea on how to grade or at least how to tell that one book is better than another. Once you have come up with grades for all your books grab an Overstreet. You can come up with a ballpark from there.

 

Thanks for the reply Junkdrawer. I was/am working on coming up with some numbers based on the comicpriceguide.com website, but I assume that if I go by those numbers (or overstreet) that it is just a ballpark, which isn't a bad thing but not exactly what I was looking for.

 

I guess by making this thread I was trying to figure what other collectors thought it was worth or would pay in theory for this type of collection. Perhaps I'm mistaken but I thought maybe those would be more realistic numbers than going off of over-inflated price guide numbers.

 

I don't know, I never really done much selling or trading, just buying reading and collecting.

[Mike's Rack]

Your best bet is to spend some time in the grading forum. I would probably be enlightening for you to post scans of the 238, 298, 299 and 300 and get people's take. The bulk of the value of your collection is in these four, the rest are throw ins, probably $1 books at best in the grade described.

[TSwift25]

ASM's pretty popular, so there's going to be a pretty good amount of sales data to pull (eBay, etc). Obviously you're kind of familiar with the "bigger" books in the set (238, 252, 300). I'd also note that a lot of the late 90's issues (so like 410 - 441) and the vol 2. run starting with Straczynski and running though about issue 42 (plus the WTC issue, #38) are pretty big issues, especially in 9.8. Print run on those is really low and most of the issues towards the end of vol. 1 are $10ish (or more) books if they're 9.4 up.

 

At the end of the day, you have 400 comics of a pretty popular series with a lot of the better issues to have during that run (McFarlane, Larsen, Straczynski). They shouldn't be too hard to sell, but it's really really hard to give a guide without grades.

[miraclemet]

If you are selling them on ebay I'd break them up this way:

238, 239, 252, 289: I'd sell individually

 

then lot sales:

 

1) McFarlane run 298-328... looks like $250-300 is a reasonable based on recent ebay lot sales

 

2) Bulk lot of 329-400 (recent ebay sale of $150)

 

3) another lot of 400 to 441 (recently sold for $137 on ebay)

 

4) Lot of: ASM Vol 2 #1-58 and Vol 1 500-545 (a similar lot sold for $290 on ebay recently)

 

5) Brand New Day & Beyond (546-690) a similar lot sold on ebay for $300 recently

 

 

So thats 4 individual issues, and 5 lots to sell them all off in less than 10 auctions.

The lots would net around $1200 (based on ebay sales)

 

 

[Chespirito]

I am looking for a beat up/reader-type issue/coffee cup holder copy of ASM 300...let me know how much you'd let it go individually..

[techvoodoo]

If you are selling them on ebay I'd break them up this way:

238, 239, 252, 289: I'd sell individually

 

then lot sales.....The lots would net around $1200 (based on ebay sales)

 

 

Thanks for the info and help on that I appreciate it. Your idea to split them up into those groups is a good one and I'll keep that in mind should I decide to try and sell the collection.

 

 

 

I am looking for a beat up/reader-type issue/coffee cup holder copy of ASM 300...let me know how much you'd let it go individually..

 

i don't know that i'd consider the one I have a beat up coffee cup holder, but in any event I'm not sure I want to sell them yet I am just trying to get an idea of what sort of value I could get out of the collection.

[SOTIcollector]

If you are selling them on ebay I'd break them up this way:

238, 239, 252, 289: I'd sell individually

 

then lot sales:

 

1) McFarlane run 298-328... looks like $250-300 is a reasonable based on recent ebay lot sales

 

2) Bulk lot of 329-400 (recent ebay sale of $150)

 

3) another lot of 400 to 441 (recently sold for $137 on ebay)

 

4) Lot of: ASM Vol 2 #1-58 and Vol 1 500-545 (a similar lot sold for $290 on ebay recently)

 

5) Brand New Day & Beyond (546-690) a similar lot sold on ebay for $300 recently

 

 

So thats 4 individual issues, and 5 lots to sell them all off in less than 10 auctions.

The lots would net around $1200 (based on ebay sales)

 

 

+1

 

That's the approach: use completed eBay sales to find a fair price, and sell in lots.

 

Price guides, both online and printed, don't necessarily correspond to what you might get for something. But with common items like these, a perusal of what others have paid for similar items on eBay will give you a good idea of fair market value. Just be sure you're using the completed sales on eBay for comparison. An auction that's in progress tells you nothing, and an auction that ended without any buyers just tells you how much buyers WON'T pay, but not how much they will.

 

Selling in lots is definitely the way to go. Selling small quantities of inexpensive books is time consuming, and most buyers won't want to pay $4 postage just to get a common $3 book.

 

Be sure to look at it from a buyer's perspective. If you sell online, buyers want 1) reassurance that the seller is easy to deal with and trustworthy and 2) confidence in the grade(s) of books they're buying.

 

1) If you're selling on eBay, keep in mind that some buyers (maybe the ones who would otherwise place a winning bid) will choose to either bid low or not bid at all if you don't have good feedback as a seller. If your listing comes across as cranky and short-tempered, some people (like me) will either bid low or not bid at all. Judging by the tone of your posting, I'm guessing that wouldn't be a problem for you -- I point it out only because there have been many times when I've refrained from bidding because the seller's attitude turned me off.

2) If you're not good at grading, or even if you are, most buyers will want to see scans. They'll want scans of the big-ticket books (300, e.g.) as well as representative scans of the less expensive books. The more scans you provide, the more likely somebody will feel they know what they're getting. You need to decide how much work you want to put into the sales effort.

 

Best of luck!

 

 

 

 

 

[vaillant]

Selling in lots is also awesome for foreign purchasers.

 

I recently bought a neat set of the Avengers "Under siege" storyline which would have

been a hassle to put together from single issues, and would have costed me a lot in terms of overseas shipping.

 

I think Miraclemet already gave the best advice.

 

@SOTIcollector: What does "cranky and short-tempered" mean applied to a listing?

Sorry but my american english is still weak…