Selling 100s of modern books...what would you do?

[ericc123]

Just moved into a new apartment and I need to make some room. Here is my dillema. My LCS offered me $1 a piece for my modern comics they need if I made them a list of what I have or $0.50 if I just dropped them off and they did all the work. Now normally I would say hey an extra 50% for a little work is no big deal but here is my problem. I've got about three long boxes and six short sitting around that for the most part are unsorted. I started making a list of the runs I had but I kept coming across random issues that didn't fit anywhere that would have to be put on my list seperatly. I work 12 hours a day almost every day and just don't have the time to go through 100s of comics but just can't justify taking the hit. What would you guys do? I was thinking of making a list of some of the runs that people would want to read and putting them on ebay and forgetting the whole local comic shop offer but that would leave me with a lot of [embarrassing lack of self control] just taking up space.

 

Any advice would be appreciated,

Eric

 

Oh and PS.....My LCS has almost every comic imaginable so I could end up doing hours of work for like $50.

[joe_collector]

Forget about your LCS.

 

This "books they need" clause usually amounts to them cherry picking a few choice books, sliding you a $20 bill (for comics you could logically sell for $100+ on EBay) and you having to cart everything else home. Toting down a pile of longboxes to the comic shop is not recommended.

 

Either make the list, then decide if you want to sell when you hear back (i.e. "We need 10 comics, please bring them to...").

 

or

 

Take anything remotely valuable out, toss it on EBay, and then try your LCS if you need the exercise.

[arexcrooke]

Forget about your LCS.

 

This "books they need" clause usually amounts to them cherry picking a few choice books, sliding you a $20 bill (for comics you could logically sell for $100+ on EBay) and you having to cart everything else home. Toting down a pile of longboxes to the comic shop is not recommended.

 

Either make the list, then decide if you want to sell when you hear back (i.e. "We need 10 comics, please bring them to...").

 

or

 

Take anything remotely valuable out, toss it on EBay, and then try your LCS if you need the exercise.

sounds like good advice. If the lcs is going to give you $1 for a modern, then you probably can get more for it on the Bay

[the blob]

why not give them the [embarrassing lack of self control] you don't think you can sell reasonably well on ebay and make your 50 cents a book? 50 cents is pretty generous actually.

 

most moderns sold individually won't get you more than $2 - 2.50 each. you have to figure out whether making that extra $1 or so after fees is worth the hassle. i tend to think it isn't unless you're also putting up a fair amount of more expensive stuff as well. i'm listing some moderns in the $2 - $2.50 range in my store (anything lower than that doesn't seem worth the time) but figure whatever I sell will tend to be part of larger orders of more consequential stuff or several issues at once. we'll see how that works out.

[ComicSupply]

Make a list and send it to me. I will make you a respectable offer most likely. Better than an LCS thats for sure.

[joe_collector]

why not give them the [embarrassing lack of self control] you don't think you can sell reasonably well on ebay and make your 50 cents a book? 50 cents is pretty generous actually.

 

But he probably wouldn't make a cent.

 

Remember, the 50-cents a book is for comics the store NEEDS, not an offer on ALL of the books. And trust me, the LCS will only *need* the books they can sell for a nice profit, not the junk.

[paperheart]

eric,

 

this may sound painfully obvious but i think the more effort you put forth the more you're likely to get in return. I'd put together the runs and offer them to forum members.(PM me, i'm always looking for modern sets). then i'd try ebay. the stuff that doesn't sell, you could package as a group or donate and take the tax deduction.

[tilleycs]

Keep the good stuff, and donate the dreck to Comics4Kids. You'll get more in a tax write-off than you'd ever get selling them to anyone.

[shrunkenhead]

I think the tax deduction is the way to go. I was talking to a guy this week who told me he donated several longboxes of moderns to a children's hospital, and he got a tax deduction that was the equivalent of the cover prices. You'll never get that selling them to whoever...so the kids at the hospital we're happy, he's happy, everybody wins. I believe that's the route I'll go when it's finally time to clean house...and that day is fast approaching.

[the blob]

oh i see, i thought the $1 each was cherry picked issues, 50 cents was for the comics in bulk dropped off (which sounded like a very generous offer by LCS standards)

 

yup, 50 cents each for what he cherry picks doesn't seem too worthwhile, nor does making a list of 1000+ comics and him deciding he wants 20 of them for $1 each

 

the charity route is a good one, but be sure to segregate the mature readers and other racey (image, etc.) comics. i did a similar donation through my office to a children's shelter about 5 years ago (unloaded tons of damaged "heroes reborn" books that my old LCS was just planning to throw out, as well as lots of other unsellable stuff that was cluttering the house up). i didn't get too greedy on valuing them because I didn't get a receipt. most were 25-50 cent bin books I shouldn't have bought, so I evaluated them along those lines, but if you don't have a bunch of fishy deductions already, saying cover price for books you bought off the rack for cover doesn't sound like you're pushing it.

[ericc123]

Thanks for the advice guys but I'm in the lowest Tax bracket you can be in so I think my write off would be minimal. I would rather sell them.

[ArAich]

[FlyingDonut]

Thanks for the advice guys but I'm in the lowest Tax bracket you can be in so I think my write off would be minimal. I would rather sell them.

 

A bunch of them would probably sell here - what titles do you have? Don't worry about issue numbers yet.

[ericc123]

Thanks for the advice guys but I'm in the lowest Tax bracket you can be in so I think my write off would be minimal. I would rather sell them.

 

A bunch of them would probably sell here - what titles do you have? Don't worry about issue numbers yet.

 

I've got a lot of current on going series like Teen Titans, JLA, Green Lantern, Ultimates 2, Flash, X-Titles, Spider-Man titles, Batman Titles from the 90s spanning about three years, a lot of non main stream stuff like 1-46 of Spider-Man 2099, 1-24 of Mutant X, Nova 1-6 the first 20 issues or so of Daredevil, all of the current Captain America series and quite a few of vol 3, Spawn, 1-49 of Wild C.A.T.S., The current Fantastic Four series, all of the death of Superman story plus the events following (hey who doesn't have that right?) honestly I could go on forever just from memory but this is the kind of stuff I have. Not too much fluff just books that I've read and put away for years.

 

And just from reading the modern boards I know I have Birds of Prey #8 and Wonder Woman #219 which I guess are selling well one ebay right now.

[ArAich]

Sheesh...you can't be in too much of a dire need to sell these...

 

I sent you a PM of which you felt you needn't respond too where I said that if you gave me a brief rundown of the titles and conditions that we could probably work something out...

 

If you want to sell stuff you have to do a little work or at the very least respond to offers of which possible counter-offers may ensue...

 

My suggestion is go to the comic shop because you seem unwilling to make the effort needed to sell them here which makes me think that if you even tried eBay you probably wouldn't put enough effort in your listings to make 1/10 of what they may be worth...

 

JMO and I'm sticking to it...

[Jack Anderson]

Fact is, if you're going to sell your books and you want to get a fair amount for them, you're going to need to find out what you have. And that means putting together a list of what titles and issues you have. If you don't have time to do it all in one shot, don't. I doubt you're in that big of a hurry. Just take an hour or so a day, and list what you can. Stick a piece of paper or cardboard in the box to mark your place so you can continue later.

 

The only ways to avoid this are to take your LCS up on their $0.50/issue offer, for which you'll likely only sell a handful of comics anyway (and they'll be the more valuable issues) or sell the entire lot on eBay as "900 random modern comics", and you won't make a fair amount that way either.

 

So, either take a week and get to listin', or face facts that you're not going to get what they're worth.

[ericc123]

Jeez who peed in your corn flakes this morning. In case you haven't already noticed I am not in a dire need to sell my moderns. My original post was about if my LCS was giving me a good deal based on the fact that I have no time to go through them. Did you miss the point about 12 hours a day at work? I didn't come on the boards trying to sell these just looking for advice. Maybe I posted in the wrong forum but I thought the market place was just as good as any when it came to advice on selling.

[ArAich]

How hard is it to make a 20 second reply to a PM...

 

And as far as 12 hours a day...I've got you beat by 3 hours...

 

As far as advice...don't quit your day job...

[the blob]

sometimes people forget to look at their PM, even when they log in here. i wouldn't take it personally.

[ArAich]

sometimes people forget to look at their PM, even when they log in here. i wouldn't take it personally.

 

Well...you see there is a thing know as a "read reciept"....which let's you know when a member opens and reads a PM...

 

Rookie....