What would you do with 225 comics?

[sullins5]

Hey everyone! Alright, here's the dilemma:

My dh's dad gave me 225 1950's-60's comics and asked me to sell them or help him. After calling an auction house, and sending them pics, they said though he had some nice ones, most were in good shape but yellowed or slightly yellowed. Then I contacted someone who said he would buy them all for a small price if I would ship them, and he'd see...After looking in one of the Comic appraisal books, I know some of them still might be worth something, but not sure what to do with them. For instance, he has a lot of Mickey, Minnie, TinkerBell, Superheroes like Batman and Wonderwoman. I'd really like to help him out (In fact, I covered them all and put them in a rubbermaid box), but I don't know what to do with them.

Any suggestions? I know a lot of people pay to have them graded, but there again, I'm not sure what they are worth. I did take them to a local 'show' for antiquities, and one fellow offered him about 100.00 for about 10, but didn't even ask to see anymore of them and kind of acted like he didn't want to deal with comics. I really just don't know what to do with them. And before someone recommends Ebay, I think a lot of those are graded too.

And so they sit Any suggestions?

 

[momto2inKC]

I just asked my husband, he collects comics, and he said try to find a local comic book store. He thinks you could do pretty well with older ones that way.

 

[sullins5]

I just asked my husband, he collects comics, and he said try to find a local comic book store. He thinks you could do pretty well with older ones that way.

We did that, and they told us that "not many people are into buying the old, we mainly sell new ones to collectors". We did think this was odd, but when my dh looked in their shop, sure enough, they only sold new ones. And we don't have any other ones in town that buy "old" comics. Thanks though for the suggestion!

 

[carebee21]

My husband owns a comic, card, collectible type shop, so I'll tell you what I think from experience. Very bluntly, if the comics were worth anything, people would be jumping to buy them off of you. Even if the comic owner only sells newer comics, he certainly knows the value of older, high value pieces, just in case anyone brought them in and didn't know what they had, so he would have bought them. And if they were really worth something, the auction house would have jumped. Since they're not doing so, this implies to me the comic books aren't really worth much. Also, most comic books collectors want comics in mint or very good condition. They'd rather wait until comic x showed up and pay the price for an excellent condition comic vs. a good condition comic. They don't want yellowed or torn or whatever.

And I would place any weight on the comic guide and price books. They are way over inflated and never have the right prices. The card and comic guides seem to list the comics in the price range for which the highest ones have sold. They don't take into account the economy, the fluctuation in price from year to year, etc. If a comic sold for $100 in 2005, the price guide will still list it at 2005, even though that industry has taken an absolute dive since the recession hit, and their selling for 10%-50% of what they once did. Look and see if any of the comics have sold recently on ebay and for how much and the condition listed, and that will at least give you a realistic ballpark range.

In my opinion, here are your options: Try comic and card shops, antique shops and even pawn shops in your area. If that doesn't work, try listing them on Craigslist. A shop or collector may see them and buy them off of you. If the above doesn't work, look for any of the above in a city you may be vacationing in and bring them with you. If that doesn't work, google "We Buy Comics" There are lots of shops which buy comics, have you mail them in and send you a low offer. This isn't the best option, but if you just want to get rid of them, it may work for you. And lastly, you can try ebay. The problem with ebay is that without the books being graded, the buyers don't really know the condition, so they'll go a bit lower than they normally would, but unless you know you have a high priced comic, I wouldn't waste the money getting those comics graded.

 

[sullins5]

My husband owns a comic, card, collectible type shop, so I'll tell you what I think from experience. Very bluntly, if the comics were worth anything, people would be jumping to buy them off of you. Even if the comic owner only sells newer comics, he certainly knows the value of older, high value pieces, just in case anyone brought them in and didn't know what they had, so he would have bought them. And if they were really worth something, the auction house would have jumped. Since they're not doing so, this implies to me the comic books aren't really worth much. Also, most comic books collectors want comics in mint or very good condition. They'd rather wait until comic x showed up and pay the price for an excellent condition comic vs. a good condition comic. They don't want yellowed or torn or whatever.

And I would place any weight on the comic guide and price books. They are way over inflated and never have the right prices. The card and comic guides seem to list the comics in the price range for which the highest ones have sold. They don't take into account the economy, the fluctuation in price from year to year, etc. If a comic sold for $100 in 2005, the price guide will still list it at 2005, even though that industry has taken an absolute dive since the recession hit, and their selling for 10%-50% of what they once did. Look and see if any of the comics have sold recently on ebay and for how much and the condition listed, and that will at least give you a realistic ballpark range.

In my opinion, here are your options: Try comic and card shops, antique shops and even pawn shops in your area. If that doesn't work, try listing them on Craigslist. A shop or collector may see them and buy them off of you. If the above doesn't work, look for any of the above in a city you may be vacationing in and bring them with you. If that doesn't work, google "We Buy Comics" There are lots of shops which buy comics, have you mail them in and send you a low offer. This isn't the best option, but if you just want to get rid of them, it may work for you. And lastly, you can try ebay. The problem with ebay is that without the books being graded, the buyers don't really know the condition, so they'll go a bit lower than they normally would, but unless you know you have a high priced comic, I wouldn't waste the money getting those comics graded.

Ahhhh!!!! Thanks so much! You've given me several options...at this point, I just want to get RID of them! I really don't want to Ebay, mainly because I don't know how, and it looks awfully time consuming. And since 'I' didn't collect these, it's really not worth a whole lot of my time (my goodness, took me forever to cover them and list them). Thanks for your ideas! I'm trying to be a good D-I-L, but this one has been tough. I told my dh he could take over whenever he wanted too! But I'll try some of these suggestions for sure!

 

[carebee21]

Ahhhh!!!! Thanks so much! You've given me several options...at this point, I just want to get RID of them! I really don't want to Ebay, mainly because I don't know how, and it looks awfully time consuming. And since 'I' didn't collect these, it's really not worth a whole lot of my time (my goodness, took me forever to cover them and list them). Thanks for your ideas! I'm trying to be a good D-I-L, but this one has been tough. I told my dh he could take over whenever he wanted too! But I'll try some of these suggestions for sure!

Good luck! And I totally understand. My FIL has an antique gun collection and he swears they're all worth big bucks. He and DH went to a few gun shows to sell one of the guns and then he got mad when the gun wasn't worth anywhere close to what he thought. Then he wanted DH to try to sell it for the high price. We were like, where are we supposed to sell it for that price....

You know, if you want to ebay the comic books, you could always look for one of those, we ebay for you type stores. They take a cut of the sales, but then at least they're doing all the listing, not you! Just another idea....

 

[sullins5]

That's a great idea! We used to have several of those around here. But most of them closed. I'll check into it though!
...and yep, trying to help the parents is a tough call sometimes!

Thanks again!