Selling Collection? 1 1

[wsucoug81]

I have a collection of about 1000 comics - mostly one from 80's and 90's with a few from the 50's and 60's.  Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, Batman, Catwoman, etc.  DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, etc.  Most were boxed and bagged immediately after a quick read.  Almost all were purchase in local comic book store.  I put them into a cataloging tool and did a quick grading that you can do automatically in the software and the software suggests $5,000 valuation based on $2,000 original cover price (although my grading may be way to high).  Should I get them certified to realize something close to the suggested valuation and what is the best way to sell them? 

[marvelmaniac]

Welcome To The Boards!!!

My Son is selling his 2000 book collection which is mainly 80's/90's, I sent out messages through Facebook to all of the local dealers, only two replied, one not needing anything on the list and the other dealer was interested and came out to look and offered a measly $800.00 claiming although there were some key books, most were dollar bin books that he could only pay 2 cents a piece for. 

MCS (My Comic Shop) told me I had to check their want list to see if they wanted any of those books and it showed how much they would pay, which was pennies.

I have been selling these books for him for 2 years now and have sold about 250 books for $3000.00, still have 1700 books left.

If you can provide us with a generalized list of what you have we can let you know what keys, if any, you have.

Something along this format, this is the current generalized list for my Son's books.

[SOTIcollector]

On 8/14/2023 at 11:44 AM, wsucoug81 said:

I have a collection of about 1000 comics - mostly one from 80's and 90's with a few from the 50's and 60's.  Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, Batman, Catwoman, etc.  DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, etc.  Most were boxed and bagged immediately after a quick read.  Almost all were purchase in local comic book store.  I put them into a cataloging tool and did a quick grading that you can do automatically in the software and the software suggests $5,000 valuation based on $2,000 original cover price (although my grading may be way to high).  Should I get them certified to realize something close to the suggested valuation and what is the best way to sell them? 

Welcome to the boards!

If you're looking to maximize the amount of money you make, you most certainly don't want to grade them all.  Grading will set you back a minimum of $25/book plus shipping both ways.  So in strictly monetary terms, the grading would have to add a value of at least $25+shipping+shipping to make it worth considering.  A lot of factors are important to consider when determining if grading, strictly for the bump in sale price, is worth it.  For example:

- How much will shipping actually cost?  If you're grading a bunch at once, you can save on shipping.  Shipping one book adds a lot to your per-book grading cost.

- How good are you at predicting the grade?  If you're pretty good at predicting what the slabbed grade will be, then you'll be able to send in only the ones that you deem to be "worth it."  If you're less good at it, then you'll have to count on a good number of books coming in lower than expected.  That drops profits quit a bit.

- How much is your time and effort worth grading, packing, shipping, waiting for the returns from CGC, etc.?

- What's the difference between the graded price and the ungraded price?  

My personal rule of thumb is that if I feel there's a better than 50% chance that grading will add $100 or more to the value of a book, then it's worth it to me.  Your mileage will vary; maybe you have more free time than I do; maybe you have less, etc.

Marvelmaniac pointed out the challenge of selling.  If you want to get the most you can out of the lot, you'll do best selling individually or as sets.  You can count on that taking a lot of time to do.  If you want to save yourself the time and effort, you could sell them in bulk.  You'll make less money, but save more time.

[revat]

it partially depends on how much time you want to spend to decide if it was worth it to spend the time figuring the value.

But honestly if you're 80/90's the vast majority of comics are worth less than a dollar on the open market.  And in bulk, each individual comic sells for even less, because while the average random collector might pay $3 at a comic shop for a specific book he wants, he/she isn't going to buy 1000 of similar books.  The only people wiling to buy 1000 random books are dealers, who expect to turn a profit, and need to buy at a much lower average price, and they have more overhead.

If you're willing to take the time, you need to grade each book and look up the price of each book and compare the raw sold grade with the graded sold grade on ebay sold if you're really considering grading.  

 

Simply put, its not a simple proposition.

I'd say post your list and ask the audience to tell you which books to look into deeper for possible grading.

[Cman429]

The main question is how much time are you willing to commit. To “maximize value” - which seems like every person who asks this ever says - you need to set aside A LOT of time. You need to learn how to grade to at least a rudimentary level, identify what’s truly valuable (worth more than $50) from filler, and learn how to pack and ship comics. If you’re lucky you might find a half dozen or so books worth submitting so worry about that then.

Beyond that, you’ll either have to spend hours and hours photographing your books, listing them for sale across multiple platforms and shipping them over days/weeks/months - or find a bulk buyer who will take the entire collection off your hands for a flat 1/3 estimated value. Either way, best of luck. 

[DougC]

As others have stated most 80's/90's books are of very low value in general and the ones that do have value have to be in mint to hold that value. If you already have a list created just port it over to a google doc and link it here, any single issues that would benefit from grading will be pointed out.

[thehumantorch]

On 8/14/2023 at 9:44 AM, wsucoug81 said:

I have a collection of about 1000 comics - mostly one from 80's and 90's with a few from the 50's and 60's.  Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, Batman, Catwoman, etc.  DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, etc.  Most were boxed and bagged immediately after a quick read.  Almost all were purchase in local comic book store.  I put them into a cataloging tool and did a quick grading that you can do automatically in the software and the software suggests $5,000 valuation based on $2,000 original cover price (although my grading may be way to high).  Should I get them certified to realize something close to the suggested valuation and what is the best way to sell them? 

To start go to keycollectorcomics.com and type in each run you own to identify issues of value.  Any book that has value above say $100 or more go to ebay and search for the book with the "sold item" click box clicked.  That'll help you identify books that might have value and books that might have high value if they grade high and give you some insight into what's important.  Most of your value will be in key books.  95% of the books from the 80s and 90s are common and have little value.  Think of it as for every Amazing Spider-man 300 there are 100 books with little value and it's important that you know which is which.

Best way to sell?  Generally the more time you're willing to spend selling them and the more you know the better you'll do.  You could get a table at a local comic show and sell anything non key for $1 each but you'll never sell it all.  You could put runs up for sale on facebook or craigslist.  You could dump long boxes on a local auction site.  You could sell it all to a dealer.

Understand that a dealer will look through your books, figure out what's key and valuable, and make an offer based on a percentage of those books value and a bulk offer on the rest, say 10 cents a book or about $30 per long box.  If your cataloging software assigns a value of $1000 for your 10 valuable books and $4 a book for the other 1000 books to calculate a $5k valuation a dealer won't come anywhere close to that number.  That's because it's easy and worthwhile to sell a $100 plus book and a lot harder to sell thousands of low value books.

[mr_highgrade]

You also might want to reach out Very Gary Comics on You Tube. He's always buying up collections. 

[comicginger1789]

If you want to maximize your money to the fullest, you would grade the most valuable or desired issues (keys if you will) and sell everything on your own. This however could take years and years as others have attested.

Or you could grade the best books, sell those and then sell the rest for a bulk price.

Or you could keep everything raw but note that most grading tools when they give you a value (suppose you said it was Near Mint) that value is of a graded book. So if you have $5000 in graded value, that might only be $2500-3000 in raw value. The money you would spend grading though to get close to the $5000 would far outweigh that value though.

It’s best to seek out a collector/buyer local to your area or online who will pay you more than a comic shop. Keep in mind a good offer is anywhere from 40-60% of the perceived value, something you will have to agree on. You say $5000 but someone more in tune with the hobby mag say it’s more like $3000-3500 in value. Again the pricing tool you use may or may not be accurate.

Beat of luck though. Starting with putting together a list (series, issue, grade estimate) will be crucial 

[comicginger1789]

Also if going the route of selling the more valuable books separately (books in the $50-1000 range let’s say to keep it broad), I would post pics in the grading forum for feedback. This will give you a sense of your grading. If you are calling them Near Mint but get feedback there from a lot of people saying Very Fine, then you know you’ve graded too high. And vice versa 

[Axelrod]

On 8/14/2023 at 12:28 PM, marvelmaniac said:

Welcome To The Boards!!!

My Son is selling his 2000 book collection which is mainly 80's/90's, I sent out messages through Facebook to all of the local dealers, only two replied, one not needing anything on the list and the other dealer was interested and came out to look and offered a measly $800.00 claiming although there were some key books, most were dollar bin books that he could only pay 2 cents a piece for. 

MCS (My Comic Shop) told me I had to check their want list to see if they wanted any of those books and it showed how much they would pay, which was pennies.

I have been selling these books for him for 2 years now and have sold about 250 books for $3000.00, still have 1700 books left.

If you can provide us with a generalized list of what you have we can let you know what keys, if any, you have.

Something along this format, this is the current generalized list for my Son's books.

So, the question I have is, where are you selling your son's books for him?  Clearly you are taking the patient approach to this to maximize your return.  Is it mostly ebay?  Facebook market?  Craigslist?  Yard sale (hah)?  

My collection sounds kind of like the OP, where I have about 2000 books, primarily 80's, and the "cover" price for all of them adds up to close to $2000.  I have occasionally imagined soliciting offers for it, but then, I decided I didn't want to depress myself.  

[marvelmaniac]

On 8/15/2023 at 9:18 AM, Axelrod said:

So, the question I have is, where are you selling your son's books for him?  Clearly you are taking the patient approach to this to maximize your return.  Is it mostly ebay?  Facebook market?  Craigslist?  Yard sale (hah)?  

My collection sounds kind of like the OP, where I have about 2000 books, primarily 80's, and the "cover" price for all of them adds up to close to $2000.  I have occasionally imagined soliciting offers for it, but then, I decided I didn't want to depress myself.  

Cover price actually means nothing as far as value, when there are thousands of these books out there due to large print runs (80's/90's) and dealers have a ton of these books that nobody wants...

I do all of my selling on Facebook, not on Facebook Marketplace (although I did sell my Grandsons cards on Marketplace and the buyer picked them up and paid cash), but in Comic Book Groups, I belong to 6 groups, (tons of knowledgeable folks and fun talking comics, some comic book creators belong to some of these groups) only two of the six I belong to allow sales.(There are probably a lot more out there) I do not advertise the books which would bring in more folks and increase sales, I wait until I see someone looking for what I have and then message them. (I do all of the legwork for my Son, grading, photographing, securely packaging to ship, drive to the post office and, I do not see a dime) In the groups that allow sales (just run a search on Facebook) you can sell directly with BIN, have claim sales, auctions, etc. Join a group or two, read their rules and follow them, get to know the folks and sell away, no fee's, the only problem you run into these days is with the Governments $600.00 max sales before being taxed, most groups suggest PayPal G&S only, however, PayPal asks for a tax ID number and if you do not have one they will withhold 24% of everything above $600.00, I do not know if that is only when you send an "Official Invoice" through PayPal or for all moneys sent to you through G&S. I have only ever sent one official invoice and received the notice, also, the cost of shipping has gone nuts.

My advice/suggestion would be to first determine what you have in the collection that would be enticing to buyers, once you know what key books you have it will be much easier to determine how/where to sell and how much to ask, don't forget, you can also sell in this group, to find FMV on a book, use "eBay Sold Auctions" for books in the same grade. (learning how to grade is a key element to selling)

Some of the key Marvel books from the 80's that I know of would be... ASM 210, 238, 252, 298, 299, 300, Annual 16, Avengers Annual 10, Daredevil 168, IH 271, Super Hero's Secret Wars Vol. 1, Issues 1, 8 (easier to sell the complete run if you have it, two years ago the run was selling for $150.00), Moon Knight 1, Wolverine Mini-Series 1 (4 issues), She Hulk 1, Spectacular Spider-Man 64, Transformers 1, Uncanny X-Men 129, 130 (almost all Uncanny X-Men from issues 94-140 are sought after)

From the 1990's...ASM 361, 430, 431, Silver Surfer Vol 3 issue 44, Transformers 80 (issues 70-80 were low print runs and hard to find), Uncanny X-Men 266, X-Men 4

[wsucoug81]

Thanks all for the feedback.  I appreciate it.