Hey LegionnairesL

I have a ton of stuff I'd like to sell. Mostly it's duplicate stuff, but all of it is stuff that the LCS won't give me much for. But more than that, I want to set up a scenario to sell my entire collection so that I've got an alternative to whatever Mile High or mycomicshop.com or whoever offers me.

I want to sell my stuff. And I want to control it, so I can get top dollar.

How do I do that? Anybody got any ideas besides eBay?

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  • There are several groups on facebook for selling comics.  I recommend going this way.  Much less of a headache than eBay imo, and you should get more in most cases for your comics than a typical LCS would give you (sometimes a bit more, sometimes more than a bit more).  I started thinning out my collection a few months ago and it has been the best option by far.  I'm in several Canadian groups; the biggest one has about 2300 members.  This one is based in the U.S, and has over 5600 members:

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/Honestcomicpeopleonly

    Just do a search on fb for "comics for sale" and several groups will pop up.

    A few hints, if you go this route:

    - If you don't have one already, sign up for Paypal.  When you are new to a group, most buyers are reluctant to use other payment methods, such as interac e-transfers.  Paypal does charge a transaction fee when someone sends you a payment; here in Canada it is 2.9% plus 30 cents, which I have found most buyers are willing to pay.  I've done several transactions in the past few months and they have all gone smoothly, not one person has asked for a refund.  I've heard and read this is a rampant problem on eBay with paypal.  However, I find the fb groups I belong to all have a sense of community, that we're all fellow collectors, and 99% of the time no one is trying to scam anyone.  All my groups have at least 2 admins and I've seen scammers weeded out quickly.

    - People want things shipped securely and within a reasonable amount of time, usually within 48 hours of a transaction being completed.  All the comics I've sold were bagged and boarded of course, in some cases I put them in a new bag.  My latest transaction was a lot of 12 comics, I put cardboard on the top and bottom of the pile, and taped it together with packing tape, and mailed it in a bubble mailer.  The feedback I've gotten from buyers has been all positive.  People don't want to be hosed on shipping, which is another main complaint on eBay.  Here in Canada, I count the cost of the bubble mailer and the Paypal fees, as well as the postage.  And there is zero need to use the fastest shipping method, which is also always the most expensive.

    - Be prepared for lots of haggling.  Price guides are just that, a guide, most people want to pay less.  The best advice I got when I started was to used the sold listings on eBay to gauge what people are willing to pay.  Also, I've found the Comic Book Realm site very helpful, as it gives a guide to what a book is listed at in every condition from Near Mint down to Poor condition.

    - A lot of people are looking for what is referred to as "keys" - mainly first appearances and first issues.  Depending on what you have to sell, I would start with these.  One thing that surprised me was how many books from the last 10 years are highly sought after.  If you have comics from this timeframe, check the guide, you may be pleasantly surprised.  For instance, a number of first issues from the DC New 52 launch in 2011 go for $10 or more NM; Batman #1 goes for quite a bit more.

    At the moment that's all I can think of.  Ask me any questions that you have.  Can I ask what it is generally that you are selling?  Silver Age, Bronze Age, more modern stuff, all of the above?

  • Wow, John, thanks!

    Here's my deal: I'm taking an involuntary vacation, so I thought I'd finally address the out-of-control Comics Cave. I have completely run out of room, and I've got tons of stuff I'd like to get rid of. 

    I've got hundreds of action figures I want to sell, all MIP and many still in the original boxes. I don't even have it written down what I've got. Thought I might do that, and sell it.

    I've got tons of duplicate material. HCs, TPBs, and so forth. Thought I should write that down, too, and sell it.

    And how to sell it? I've been asking around -- here, on Facebook, and elsewhere.

    I am going to sell all my comics -- eventually. This seems like a good time to set up some relationships or mechanisms to do that when the time comes.

    In the meantime, I've got hundreds of action figures and HCs, TPBs and duplicate comics to sell. So I'm looking for how to do that.

  • Coincidentally, Tracy and I are finalizing our wills today. I'm leaving all that for her to deal withe after I am gone. (It'll give her something to do.) Should she go first, it will be up to our executor. Prior to the will, I had left verbal instructions that I be burned on a stack of my longboxes.

    Depending on what kind of a relationship you have with the owner of your LCS, you might consider selling some of them on consignment.

  • I sold my entire collection off over the course of the last 8 years or so.  Mostly, I did it on eBay because that was the best way to control pricing. But it was an awful lot of work.  Very time consuming.

    When everything of value had been sold off, I carted the remaining stuff to my LCS and they paid pennies on the dollar.  The only good thing about that was they bought all of my TPBs, which I was never able to  sell on eBay or anywhere else.  Shipping costs make selling TPBs a zero sum game.

    You could try phone apps like Offerup (much less time consuming) or you could place an ad on Craigslist. That way you could at least do your negotiating electronically and ferret out serious buyers.  You would be mostly restricted to your local market though.

  • Andrew, have you checked into My Comics Shop consignment option? It may be too much of a hassle based on the number of books you are selling but I used it recently and was pleasantly surprised at how much I made in their auction format. For example - they offered me $17 for the outright purchase of a Silver Age issue of Thor - instead I consigned it and it sold for twice that in auction.

  • I am aware of it Doc, but don't know how it works.

    What if I offered Amazing Spider-Man 9-100? Would they choose what's consignment? What about auction?

  • In my situation I was only offering about a dozen comics. After listing each issue in their "Sell My Comics" section, they indicated that an issue of Thor and an issue of Next Men were eligible for consignment due to condition and desirability. I had the choice of selling those issues directly to My Comic Shop for a fixed price or consign to auction. I chose the latter and those two were placed in their next auction with bids opening at $1. Separate paperwork was provided for the auction items and the others that I sold outright.

  • How did they know the condition? Did you have to mail them in first?

  • They have a default grade for each comic based on the age of the book with the option to raise or lower the grade based on your personal evaluation. If you accept their initial on-line offer based on the info you provide, send in the books and they will examine and confirm or change the grade.  At that point you can accept their evaluation on some or all of the books. Books that you don't agree on will be shipped back to you.

    I've sold to them several times and have always gone with the default grade - in only a couple of cases have they changed the grading - up or down. They list their grading criteria on the site.


    Captain Comics said:

    How did they know the condition? Did you have to mail them in first?

  • Hrm. Maybe that's how I should sell the comics.

    I'm stuck on the action figures.

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