How to price and sell a large Flash run 1 1

[Shawnismaximus]

Backstory:
I've been purchasing some collections lately, in hopes that I can keep the comics I want, sell the rest at a local comic convention, and hopefully break even. I was lucky enough to find a collection for sale that had the below listed Flash comics, as well as new mutants 1-100 (and a bunch of 90s drek) all for $300. The other day I met a guy at a comic book garage sale that mentions he collects Flash comics. I tell him I'll come up with a price and get back to him.

Pricing problems
The plan was to cut this guy a deal by selling all the silver age stuff for a little cheaper then the sold listings on ebay, and then everything issue 220 and up I would sell for a dollar each. But then I came across this run of  Incomplete run of 53 comics from #256 - 349 that sold for $200!  Considering I'm 4 issues away from having a complete mostly-NM run of 216-350 (or 11 issues away from having 199-350) I'm starting to think the smarter thing to do would be to buy the missing issues and sell them on ebay as either one large run, or 50 issue runs. What do you guys think about that idea?

The Comics

236 comics total. I've uploaded photos of issues 115-255 as people might want to see them (the covers are awesome) and their condition varies. The ones I don't have photos of are almost all near mint. 

Flash comics:
115, 118, 120, 132, 145, 157, 160, 163, 164, 167, 169, 170, 173, 176, 177, 178, 181, 182, 183, 187, 188, 189, 191, 194, 196, 199, 200, 204 - 211, 216 - 220, 223 - 234, 236 - 345, 347 - 350

Duplicates:
227, 237, 240, 290, 300, 

New series 1987: 1, - 26, 29
Annual 1, 2, 3, 

1976 DC superstars 5 
1978 flash spectacular 80 pages
1985 crisis on infinite earths 8
1988 Annual secret origins starring flash 2

 

[Phicks]

When Christmas shopping, I often see box sets of CDs, with the "COMPLETE COLLECTION" of Prince, or Tom Petty, or whoever.  And I wonder...who would you buy these for?   Or who would buy it for themselves?  Who would want EVERYTHING an artist  ever recorded, but they do not already have most of the CDs?

 

Same idea with comics.  Who would want 100 issues of Flash, that did not already have a bunch of issues of Flash?  "I have never been interested in this character before, but suddenly today, I am all over Flash!  I want every issue!"  I do not think such a collector exists.

 

If you are going to sell 100 Flash issues as a package deal, then you are directing the sale towards other dealers.  They will only pay a price that ensures they make a profit re-selling the books individually  later.  So the most you might get will be 1/2 of Overstreet.  So you would only want to pay your seller 1/4 of Overstreet.  And in this scenario, I do not see the use of buying additional issues to complete the run.

 

If you truly have nm issues that are 1974 and earlier, put them on ebay individually with no reserve.  That gets buyers' attention, and most will sell for close to Overstreet.  Post 1975 Flash are dollar books.  And some of the silver age issues you posted photos of have obvious wear despite the small size of the pictures, so I think they will retail for $5 at best.

Just my humble opinion.  Good luck.

 

[Shawnismaximus]

1 hour ago, Phicks said:

Same idea with comics.  Who would want 100 issues of Flash, that did not already have a bunch of issues of Flash?  "I have never been interested in this character before, but suddenly today, I am all over Flash!  I want every issue!"  I do not think such a collector exists.

I get your point, though to be fair I had an experience recently where I bought some daredevil comics on a whim (Mark Waids run) despite only reading a couple random Daredevil comics previously. I tore through those and fell in love with the character, and now I've been buying every daredevil backissue i can get my greedy little hands on. If someone had a decently priced 100 issue long run for sale I'd be all over that.

Do other people agree with Phicks? What do you guys think?

[faster friends]

Dont throw money away trying to complete the run if you are just going to sell it. Put it up as is with a high buy it now and a make a best otter option.

[Cruzin' Thru Comics]

I sold a similar collection recently. Price guide value was roughly $2k. I sold it to a private collector for $800. I had it on eBay for awhile with no takers. Flash has cooled down a bit. Was hotter when tv show first started airing. 

[Brock]

3 hours ago, Phicks said:

 Post 1975 Flash are dollar books.

 

This is not entirely true. There are several that sell much higher, including the Reverse Flash/Professor Zoom issues (eg 324, 325) that often sell for $30-$50. There are other scattered issues that also do very well.

[Shadow Images]

4 hours ago, Shawnismaximus said:

 The other day I met a guy at a comic book garage sale that mentions he collects Flash comics. I tell him I'll come up with a price and get back to him.

Pricing problems
The plan was to cut this guy a deal by selling all the silver age stuff for a little cheaper then the sold listings on ebay, and then everything issue 220 and up I would sell for a dollar each. But then I came across this run of  Incomplete run of 53 comics from #256 - 349 that sold for $200!  Considering I'm 4 issues away from having a complete mostly-NM run of 216-350 (or 11 issues away from having 199-350) I'm starting to think the smarter thing to do would be to buy the missing issues and sell them on ebay as either one large run, or 50 issue runs. What do you guys think about that idea?

 

 

No offense but now you think you've seen dollars signs and now your going to back out on a gentleman agreement to sell to the guy.  Seems to be the way of the world but still doesn't make it right. 

[mackenzie999]

2 minutes ago, Shadow Images said:

 

No offense but now you think you've seen dollars signs and now your going to back out on a gentleman agreement to sell to the guy.  Seems to be the way of the world but still doesn't make it right. 

All he said was he'd come up with a price, but I agree he should give the guy first dibs.

[Shawnismaximus]

49 minutes ago, Mackenzie999 said:

All he said was he'd come up with a price, but I agree he should give the guy first dibs.

Yeah I just told him what I had, and told him he could either make an offer and I will get back to him or I will do some research, look into what they are worth and give him a number. He opted for the latter. It's really the price that the incomplete run went for on ebay that surprised me and made me consider these could be more valuable then I originally thought since it is such a large run.  Regardless I will give him first crack at it, but ultimately if I think I can make a lot more money selling on ebay then I'm going to sell them on ebay.

[mackenzie999]

34 minutes ago, Shawnismaximus said:

Yeah I just told him what I had, and told him he could either make an offer and I will get back to him or I will do some research, look into what they are worth and give him a number. He opted for the latter. It's really the price that the incomplete run went for on ebay that surprised me and made me consider these could be more valuable then I originally thought since it is such a large run.  Regardless I will give him first crack at it, but ultimately if I think I can make a lot more money selling on ebay then I'm going to sell them on ebay.

Factor that into your price. Figure out how much you might realistically make on eBay, figure a discount based on how much easier it will be to sell it all in one local transaction, and start from there.

[badback83]

If it were me, I'd try to offload all the Flash books to the guy you originally talked to about them.  If he agrees on your price, even if it's lower than the lot you could sell on eBay, why not take it?  You don't waste time listing and the original goal is completed, keeping what you want and selling the rest to make your money back.  But then again, I'm all about convenience.  

[Shawnismaximus]

1 hour ago, DocHoppus182 said:

If it were me, I'd try to offload all the Flash books to the guy you originally talked to about them.  If he agrees on your price, even if it's lower than the lot you could sell on eBay, why not take it?  You don't waste time listing and the original goal is completed, keeping what you want and selling the rest to make your money back.  But then again, I'm all about convenience.  

Yeah I think that's the plan still. I Just gotta figure out what I would realistically net from selling on ebay and offer them to him for a percentage of that. 

[1Cool]

I'll take that batch of New Mutants 1 - 100 for your original $300.  Flash books are all gravy!

[Shawnismaximus]

On 15/12/2017 at 9:16 AM, 1Cool said:

I'll take that batch of New Mutants 1 - 100 for your original $300.  Flash books are all gravy!

Haha I know right!? I think I'm going to sell some of the keys on ebay then sell the rest at my local comic con. Though part of me just wants to keep it (and the 10 cent & 12 cent Flash comics) , I need to make some money back somehow. He even had the original New Mutants graphic novel in fantastic shape. 

90% of the people I've talked to that are selling their collections have wanted way too much money for run of the mill comics. He was the opposite. He had even priced out NM 98 on ebay but figured it wasn't worth the hassel.

[Aweandlorder]

On 12/14/2017 at 12:57 PM, Phicks said:

When Christmas shopping, I often see box sets of CDs, with the "COMPLETE COLLECTION" of Prince, or Tom Petty, or whoever.  And I wonder...who would you buy these for?   Or who would buy it for themselves?  Who would want EVERYTHING an artist  ever recorded, but they do not already have most of the CDs?

 

Same idea with comics.  Who would want 100 issues of Flash, that did not already have a bunch of issues of Flash?  "I have never been interested in this character before, but suddenly today, I am all over Flash!  I want every issue!"  I do not think such a collector exists.

 

If you are going to sell 100 Flash issues as a package deal, then you are directing the sale towards other dealers.  They will only pay a price that ensures they make a profit re-selling the books individually  later.  So the most you might get will be 1/2 of Overstreet.  So you would only want to pay your seller 1/4 of Overstreet.  And in this scenario, I do not see the use of buying additional issues to complete the run.

 

If you truly have nm issues that are 1974 and earlier, put them on ebay individually with no reserve.  That gets buyers' attention, and most will sell for close to Overstreet.  Post 1975 Flash are dollar books.  And some of the silver age issues you posted photos of have obvious wear despite the small size of the pictures, so I think they will retail for $5 at best.

Just my humble opinion.  Good luck.

 

Totally inaccurate. 

First of all can't compare music to comics. Two different beasts with many opposing marketing and collecting preferences. 

I would HIGHLY encourage op to purchase the missing books (if they are random books and not keys) and list the entire run. You would have far less competition on eBay with other listings, and considering you got all of them for a song you could be flexible with pricing and hence be the first to move them quicker

I always prefer to buy missing random books in a run and list that way and I always sell quicker. I don't question who the buyer is or what's his motives, I only question profitably + work load + duration of listing. 

Good luck

[FineCollector]

I think there are still a lot of collectors out there who never got into Flash, but might be interested in a run because of the show.  I'll grant that demand has cooled since the show started, because many of the guys who suddenly said "I want a Silver Age run!" got their butts kicked and quit.  However, dealer bins are usually picked clean of nice Flash books, so it'll certainly sell.

Your target audience is probably the guys who grew up with Wally and Kyle as their Flash and Green Lantern.  They may not have delved too deeply into the earlier material, but they're older and have disposable income now.