Inherited Collection - Advice Please!

[kiwijalex-migration]

Hi everyone,

 

Im a newbie to the forum and wanted to introduce myself and explain my situation and probably get a bit of advice. My father sadly passed away last year and left to me a fairly large collection of comics that he started collecting in the 60’s.

 

There are just under 1000 books in total, with a large range of titles. About third are silver age – third bronze and the rest 80’s mini series’ and one offs etc.

 

They have all been well cared for and stored properly and as a result there are some very high grade examples. I have put 4 of the books that have varying issues in the spare me a grade forum to get some ideas as grading is still fairly new to me and I am realising there is a lot to learn about it! I have put a list of some of the more interesting titles below – bear in mind the grading is really just a quick assessment from a newbie so just use as a guideline.

 

 

Amazing Spiderman - #26 (1961) – Complete but quite brittle - probably 2.0

 

Avengers - #95 and #96 – Grade 8.0

 

Batman – 25 books between #199 – #253 (Including #200, #227, #232 (x2), #234, #251 (x2). I have graded mostly 7’s, 8’s and some 9’s. (#200, #232 and #251 are in the spare me a grade forum)

 

Brave and bold – 39 books between #47 and #111 (85 to 111 complete run) – varying grades

 

Captain America – 12 between #100 and #114 (5.0 upwards - #100 is in spare me a grade forum)

 

Captain Marvel #1,#2, #4 – NM 9+

 

Conan (1966) - #13 NM+ and 8 books from #25 upwards

 

Detective Comics – #387 to #417 8’s and some 9+

 

Dr Strange – #170 (1964) and 24 books from #1 to #30 (1971) – NM+

 

Forever People - #2 to #11 NM

 

Green arrow and green lantern - #76, #77, #79 #86, #89 – 7’s and 8’s

 

Mr Miracle - #1 to #17 – NM+ (some 9.6 in my opinion)

 

New Gods - #1 to #10 – NM+

 

Nick Fury (1965) - #1, #2, #3, #5, #6 – Grade 5 and up

 

Phantom Stranger (1966) - 26 books from #6 to #30 – Grade 7 upwards

 

Shazam - #1 to #11 – Grade 8 – 9+

 

Spectre (1963) - #1, #2, #3 – yet to grade

 

Strange Tales – 21 books from #133 to #169 (inc #135 around 7 or 8 and #167)

 

Superman - #233 to #242 – 8 upwards.

 

The Flash – #217 to #225

 

Journey into Mystery - #114, #115, #119, #120, #121

 

Thor – #128 to #131 and 8 more from #152 to #183 – 7s and 8’s maybe a couple higher

 

Warlord John Carter – 25 books from #2 to #28 – Grade 8 upwards

 

Wonder woman #201 and #202 – 8.0

 

X-men - #56 to #65 complete – 7 upwards

 

X-men – 18 books from #112 to #131 – 8’s mostly

 

 

Other more recent stuff in high 9.4 – 9.6+ grade such as Batman killing Joke, Legends of dark knight #1 to #20 complete, Hellblazer #2 to #13 … and much more…

 

SO!!!

 

I am wondering what to do with them. I have spent the last 6 months or so researching and learning about comics as much as I can, as well as going through and cataloguing the collection.

 

Whilst I am enjoying the process, I think I am looking to selling the collection off so am hoping to get some advice on the best way to go about it. I also am wondering if it is worth getting any of the books slabbed or not.

 

I am happy to spend quite a bit of time selling the key books one by one on ebay or similar but open to other ideas or even selling as one collection if that opportunity came up. Any advice from any of the experts on here would be really appreciated, if you want more information on any of the books or are interested in what else is there then let me know.

 

Thanks in advance!

Regards, Alex

 

 

[Gotham Kid]

Nick Fury (19658) - #1, #2, #3, #5, #6 – Grade 5 and up

 

 

 

[kiwijalex-migration]

yup... '68 thanks peter

[Gotham Kid]

If you want to sell off the entire collection, you can always PM mycomicshop

[HeyMoe]

From your ID, are you from New Zealand?

 

 

[zuulioso]

If you want to sell off the entire collection, you can always PM mycomicshop

 

+1 Unless you have major keys or issues that you can get hundreds of dollars each for, I would go that route.

 

Other options are here on the board, ebay, Craigslist, and comic shows all of which require your time to prep the comics (scan, bag/board, package, ship). It is very time consuming and in the end you will get less than half of guide for most of the books and many times even less.

 

If you do have any major keys you can make a determination on whether to get them graded but unless you are talking many hundreds of dollars it probably isn't worth your time.

 

Long story short:

 

1. Temper your expectation on what you will be able to sell them for.

 

2. Lots of work, do it yourself, deal with potential fraud from many individual customers, get 40-50% of guide selling them individually if you are lucky.

 

3. Very little time, work with a dealer and sell them in bulk and get them off your hands and get paid quickly.

[faster friends]

Just keep them to remember your Dad.

[comicjack]

(thumbs u

[oakman29]

Just keep them to remember your Dad.

That's what I would do too!

[rjpb]

Just keep them to remember your Dad.

That's what I would do too!

 

I can see keeping a couple of books if you thought they meant something in particular to a parent, but three long boxes of fairly random stuff? I wouldn't. Would you keep three boxes of paperback novels inherited from a parent?

 

 

[oakman29]

Just keep them to remember your Dad.

That's what I would do too!

 

I can see keeping a couple of books if you thought they meant something in particular to a parent, but three long boxes of fairly random stuff? I wouldn't. Would you keep three boxes of paperback novels inherited from a parent?

 

A rational me,no. Me period,yes.Cause they were Dads.

 

 

I'm such a hopeless hoarder.

[kiwijalex-migration]

Thanks for input everyone...

 

Yes I certainly will keep a couple of keepsakes... however I have a lot of other things of his allready, particually art and glass sculpture that he collected and also made himself as well as lots of sentimental things.

 

This was a hobby of his that he essentially stopped collecting before I was born and has sat in boxes for the last 30 years. Its not something we shared or means a huge amount to me sentimentally allthough it is fun to go through and see the books he was obviously feverishly collecting when he was around my age.

 

So yeh... will keep a few but most are gunna go... Additionally I really dont have space for 4 big boxes of comics that I will likely never read!