Convince me not to sell my entire comic book collection... Or don't. 7 7

[999ghosts]

I sold my WWF Hasbro action figure collection - I still regret it to this day

I sold my Soundtrack vinyl collection - I still regret it to this day

Both can't be bought back as prices on some has tenfold

I never sell anything again in my life, including my 13,000 comic book collection

I say don't (if you don't have to) - you'll regret it some day...

just my 2cents

[Buzzetta]

12,000 books amounts to 80 short boxes or 40 long boxes if all of them are raw.  How many more years do you want to move boxes around?  How many more years will your back let you move boxes around?

Start off small and sell a run or two.  Once you see them go it will be easier to let go of the rest. 

[1950's war comics]

i'm in the same boat  Ariamus, but it is so overwhelming just thinking about the time and effort it would take to sell, last time if put some effort into selling it was like a full time job...

[lordbyroncomics]

I'm going through a very similar thing of late as well, not for the same reasons and it's my feeling that you should be all or nothing in this regard. Either sell the entire collection and go cold turkey, so to speak or don't sell. Keeping some while getting rid of the others has some logic to it for sure but I feel anyone with that seed of having a passion for comics- it's just going to burn like a fever and you'll just start collecting again. In my case, I want to get rid of my collection in it's entirety NOW and then have a couple years finishing other things and then I fully intend to start collecting again when I'm slightly older and presumably making more money. 

You can always start collecting again in the future. Yes, we run the risk of an increased market making everything cost more but that's part of the risk/reward. If it's already subtly nagging at you to sell, there's your answer. Those Thor books are great Silver/Bronze Age filler and should be a good addition to anyone's collection. I have almost all Silver/Bronze stuff with no extraordinary keys but just a lot of cool books from the 60s and 70s- I know lots of collectors will be glad to have it to fill and boost out their own stock. Have faith in what you have, you can always start again.

[Ariamus]

On 6/1/2022 at 12:47 AM, Beige said:

Discuss it with your wife some more, not strangers on a chat board. 

We have no idea how your wife REALLY thinks.

I suspect there is middle ground to be had.

Good Luck! 

My wife is not the issue. She's perfectly fine with my keeping the whole collection and us making space for it wherever we wind up. She knows how important my "toys" and various collections are to me.

I'm the one who's waffling on all the work that'll be involved with moving it around.

[Ariamus]

On 6/1/2022 at 1:45 AM, Cat said:

How do your kids feel about the collection? Is it something they might want in later years?

At the risk of sounding fatalistic, I think my kids would get a kick spending a weekend or two going through "dad's stuff" after I'm gone. But they're not nearly as geeky as their old man and don't have a great interest in inheriting the books.

That said, they will have kids of their own someday... Maybe the nerdiness skips a generation.

[Ariamus]

On 6/1/2022 at 5:46 AM, Buzzetta said:

12,000 books amounts to 80 short boxes or 40 long boxes if all of them are raw.  How many more years do you want to move boxes around?  How many more years will your back let you move boxes around?

It's more the space thing that concerns me. It's something like 46 long boxes with all the books boarded and bagged.

The moving stuff part is a consideration but fortunately, our lives have gotten to a level of comfort that I can easily afford to pay someone to do the moving part. And if I do keep them, my intent is to have a custom cabinet/enclosure built for the lot of them. I can afford that too. Whatever that winds up being, it will most definitely include the capability to access boxes individually without moving anything around.

[Ariamus]

Thanks for all the advice folks. It's very appreciated.

Fortunately, I don't have to make a hasty decision. I've been thinking about it for a long while and we've only just begun shopping for our forever home. So I have some time.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Sell everything that you haven't read in 5 years.

[Dr. Balls]

I am liquidating my record collection that was fairly large because as I got older, I found myself enjoying it less and less. I would always enjoy putting a record on and playing it, but it just wasn't the same for me anymore - and there's really no one to pass the collection onto, so I am going through the process of getting rid of it. I think sometimes a person just moves on from what they enjoy to something else they enjoy - nothing wrong with that.

That being said, it takes awhile (depending on how you want to sell them) to start getting rid of your books when it's an entire collection.

 

 

[chrisco37]

Set aside some keepers (I know you've always been fond of Thor/JIM) and sell the rest in one fell swoop.  

I sold nearly all my books last year (kept about 60 out of 3,000+).  It was liberating.  As a bonus, I enjoy my current small collection much more than I did the big one.  I actually look at my books now.  Before, I just looked at boxes.  

[lostboys]

Keep the Spider Man / X-Men books and sell the rest.

[Zonker]

One option I've found that works for me is selling off the originals and using the funds to buy the associated Marvel Omnibus, with a nice profit left over.  Marvel's  Silver Age & Bronze Age Omnis include all the letter pages, so I feel like I'm getting 99% of the benefit of having the originals, but at a small fraction of the space.  Also if I want to look up something prompted by some discussion here, it is a lot easier to thumb through a single hardcover book instead of opening up a box, thumbing through the various issues, unbagging them, etc.  I know you said you hadn't looked through the books in a while, but you might find a book on the shelf is more accessible and therefore more likely to be read than the original comics.

[1Cool]

If you are thinking heavily about selling  - I'd sell everything except for the most loved books.  More and more people will probably be doing what you are contemplating and I think now is a great time to sell and move that money into something you will love more.  Summer can be a tough time in terms of selling books so waiting until fall would probably net the most money.

[Namtak]

Have you considered giving them to board members?

[Galen130]

I met my first, and last, wife in 2016.  In 2017, I started slowly selling off my ‘readers’ collection on eBay.  I only had 20 long boxes, now down to 16.  I started selling on the boards two years ago, but closed my ebay account.  I sell to collectors here, instead of knuckleheads out there.  She had her house then, I had mine.  It was time for the collection to go, after more than 30 years, because I moved into her house.  Selling my home made more sense financially and I got rid of a lot of stuff in doing so.  But I did drag the collection into ‘our’ home where it continues to take up space.  Yours is obviously much bigger. 

I bought comics to read them, not for the books we see going nuts nowadays.  I’m not going to make a fortune selling these, although I have turned some of the money made into a very small GA slab collection.  I still enjoy the hobby, but my sales thread is over 150 pages…it’s finally finished.  The thread is still active while I try to sell more of my comics.  I don’t collect nearly as much, and I don’t want to haul around 16 boxes of comics when we retire to Arizona.  I’m already retired, the wife is not.  I have free time to sell what I can before we leave.

I say, if you’re not reading them anymore, time to let them go.  Keep some keys and old stuff to pass on to grandkids.  We don’t have kids, so I’m selling most of mine.  What doesn’t sell before we pack up and leave…who knows. 

Of course, 12,000-ish comics is a serious collection.  You might want to try selling off the collection as a whole…like MCS for example.  Time to get some return on your hobby and pursue something else that makes both of you happy together. 

You can always donate comics too…orphanages, etc.  It depends on whether or not you want to handle selling your own collection, like me, or not.  I would think not….that’s A LOT of comics.  Perhaps it’s better to sell or donate and let someone else handle it.

Turn the proceeds into something that you can both enjoy.  My humble opinion, of course. 

Best of luck!!!

 

[comicginger1789]

I think a lot of people have hit some key points. Especially involving your wife in the process

Depending on the time you have, selling 12k books (or even 10k if you kept some) will take time. A year is not beyond impossible though, neither is 6 months if you have the time. You could do it quick and take a dollar hit. Or see if the time is worth the extra money. 

On a small scale, I just sold 750 comics for $275. Assorted 70's and 80's and 90's filler mostly with some keys in there worth $10-20 a pop. Problem was I did not want to wait the potential years to sell some books for $0.50-$1 each. I was happier with the space. Plus they were books I probably spent 10 cents a pop on overall so to get $0.37 cents each for them is still a win.

[MisterX]

Depending on how you sell the comics, it takes a lot of time and effort. How were you thinking of doing this?

On your own, you'd have to scan, list, pack, ship, deal with buyers, etc.  How much is your time worth?  You first post doesn't mention your day job, time with family & friends, other hobbies, etc.

However, If you enjoy selling your books this way you might maximize your profit, as opposed to option #2 --

If you try to sell to a dealer, be aware you'll probably need to leave a lot of the "good stuff" in there to make buying the whole collection a more attractive option, rather than being cherry-picked. 

[Ariamus]

On 6/1/2022 at 9:15 AM, Zonker said:

One option I've found that works for me is selling off the originals and using the funds to buy the associated Marvel Omnibus, with a nice profit left over.  Marvel's  Silver Age & Bronze Age Omnis include all the letter pages, so I feel like I'm getting 99% of the benefit of having the originals, but at a small fraction of the space.  Also if I want to look up something prompted by some discussion here, it is a lot easier to thumb through a single hardcover book instead of opening up a box, thumbing through the various issues, unbagging them, etc.  I know you said you hadn't looked through the books in a while, but you might find a book on the shelf is more accessible and therefore more likely to be read than the original comics.

That's a fair suggestion but I'd go even further. If it's space reclamation, then I'd go the whole way and just replace physical books with digital. I mentioned in my OP that I haven't read a physical book of any kind in years. But I still read a ton digitally. Comics are only a fraction of that.

Mostly nowadays I find myself reading RPG rulebooks and supplements more than anything else. Oh, and board game rulebooks.  

[Zonker]

 Absolutely, digital would be the ultimate win if that works for you.  For me, digital wouldn't be anywhere near my personal 99% benefit level.  Just a tactile preference, I guess.