Things you had to sell (to pay the bills...) 0

[WolverineX]

On 10/22/2021 at 11:50 PM, WernerVonDoom said:

I wouldn't say I had to, but I sold a Hulk #181 9.4 and a House of Secrets #92 9.6 so I could retire early. Totally worth it.

Well done  Time> Comics

[Buzzetta]

There is nothing wrong with selling 'stuff' for things like education, retirement, or home equity.  Those things usually pay out dividends in the future that retaining the comics would not have brought you. 

 

At the end of the day face facts, at the end of the day it is 'stuff'.

[David-Lance Roten]

Comic/Sport Card parting of the ways.  At no point did I sell everything, but did get close.

1990: Student loan payoff + car down pymt.  Mostly comics. FF, Spidey run, 50's Atlas Westerns. Others. 

2001: House down pymt. All cards. In the end, worth it.

2010: Money for attorney to keep my dumb arse outta jail .  Cards again. Had rebuilt the card collection well 08-09, but, again. My dumb arse. 

All in all, glad I had stuff to fall back on. 

[Gaard]

On 10/24/2021 at 6:07 PM, DaLancRo said:

Money for attorney to keep my dumb arse outta jail .

For me personally, this is one of the best reasons to sell your collection. Even though I've never been, I'm scared as hell of jails/prisons. I'm such a wuss.

[littledoom]

I knew Vengeance 1 variant (which I bought for $10 when it came out) would be worth bigger money. I sold it for $210 to pay bills

[Qalyar]

Not comics, but sold out of Magic: the Gathering in part to pay bills and in part because my playgroup was pretty sure that the Urza's Block nonsense was a sign that the game was on it's death spiral like so much of the TCG industry.

Got several thousand dollars for my collection at the time. Current market price for what I owned would be north of a quarter-million. Hindsight, thou art a .

[LowGradeBronze]

Back in 1983 or 84 in my student days, I sold my entire John Byrne X-Men collection to pay for my motorcycle insurance. I needed £68. They were all genuine 9+ grades (many were proper 9.6 and 9.8) and I could never afford them now. (Although I have bought a few early ones like 108 and 111 very recently in mid to low grade. His early stuff is best, before he became Marvel's drawing machine.) 

Edited October 25, 2021 by LowGradeBronze

[Fisionbomb]

Whined about this one before, but I'll do it again here because.

Before the movies and anyone cared I sold a CGC graded 9.6 New Mutants 98 for $80 on Ebay. Was decent margin at the time... 

[aszumilo]

I sold some Killing Joke various print editions to buy an exhaust system for my car.  Then I used the money to buy some Killing joke books I needed to upgrade..  Then I bought the exhaust anyway.  Not quite what I was looking to do, but, I hate deciding between 2 things I needed.

[AndyFish]

I had this very conversation with some good friends recently, be hesitant to sell your collectibles no matter the situation, unless you have zero attachment to them.   Thirty years ago I sold off my near complete run of pre-Robin Detectives (was missing #27 and #37 and all other non-Batman covers except for #34) and I got a good price for them at the time.   Let's say for the sake of simple numbers I got $10k for them then and paid off $10k worth of debt or whatever it was I needed the money for (I'd suspect it was now ex-wife then current wife related).

Now if I'd simply gone out and got a personal loan from a bank and paid a reasonable interest rate I MIGHT have paid the bank $12,500 for that $10k.   Well looking at the value of those Detective Comics I probably paid $100k for that same $10k back then.    Why didn't I go to the bank?  Because I thought it would be easier than going to the bank and asking for a loan (I could have used the comics for collateral on a personal loan and I'd still have the comics).    Many years later and many dealings with bankers later and I realize it's no harder than dealing with a golden age comic book dealer and my credit score is 840 (near perfect).   

I bring this up for the sake of a younger collector who's contemplating selling the equivalent of what I did, go a different route and you'll be better served in your later years.