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Comic Shops when they have to break the news that comics aren't worth squat.
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221 posts in this topic

The Pawn Stars guys are good at this.  The old adage "99% of comics are worthless" and a skeptical delivery set the tone with their customers.  Now they are selling many different items so they don't have to be comics cheerleaders like a LCS does.  Maybe rephrasing it to "99% of old comics are not worth very much and to resell these I need to be able to make money."  That's what I would say.  Then every thing the person says after that I would respond "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do".  Buh bye!

Edited by GM8
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1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

Some guy worked a pretty good scam using us. He brought 70 or so books in ring binders, all of them graded and priced at 9.4 guide. Some had no covers, and the only decent things in there were a pair of Batman # 232s in 3.0 to 3.5 shape. I offered him £100 I think, and he came back for them, saying a friend of his had offered him £400, which I found truly hard to believe. Some months later, I was offered the same books from his erstwhile friend, who told me the guy said I'd offered him £400 in the first place, but that he'd rather sell them to a pal. The poor guy was not happy at all when I told him the truth.

I don't know how some people live with themselves.  That is terrible. :frown:

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On 4/22/2017 at 11:07 AM, AnkurJ said:

People automatically associate old with valuable. Sadly doesn't work that way. I get emails all the time in response to a craigs list ad with 80s and 90s comics. Its hard to tell people they are only worth 50 cents each. A local shop here buys long boxes of books like this for $25.

+1

My uncle gave me a bunch of 78 rpm records to sell from the  1940s to 1960s. I looked them up. All worthless. He had none of the rare Jazz or Robert Johnson ones. I went around to shop after shop, and they all told me to throw them away.  I even offered them for free at one point,and still no takers. I decided to just donate them to a Goodwill. So old collectibles does not mean valuable as they like to think.

Edited by ComicConnoisseur
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On 4/21/2017 at 9:53 PM, kav said:

I was at my buddy's comic shop yesterday some lady came in with a small stack of comics.  My buddy was busy so i offered to look them over.  I quickly told her sorry these aren't worth anything.  She seemed upset and said 'well this is Conan #2!'.  I stated that yes but it was #2 of the like 6th version of Conan, and anyway the original Conan book #2 you can easily get on ebay for like $10.  She then asked how could I tell and I explained the cover price was 60 cents.  Then my buddy came over and verified yes they weren't worth anything.  She left in kind of a huff and my buddy explained to me people that don't collect comics always leave angry when you tell them their comics aren't worth anything and he hasn't figured out any way to prevent that from happening.

Look at it from her side.  She's gone out of her way to look up a strange store, and take the time to bring the books there.  If she's being dismissed by someone without authority who's just loitering there, she's understandably going to be annoyed.  By the time the owner gets there, she's already upset, and he's stuck trying to diffuse the situation.  They always leave angry because you and your pal hack them off.

Rather than saying something's worthless, you could try saying it's a good book that regretfully doesn't currently have a collectible value.  Explain that there's supply, but little demand, so a comic of this kind is commonly sold in bulk to people looking for an inexpensive read.  It's worth taking the time to leave a good impression on that customer, word of mouth goes a long way.  Even if you don't believe it karma, a positive experience might drum up some good leads.

Edited by FineCollector
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When I was buying for my LCS I usually said "Unfortunately most comics don't have the monetary value they once had, so there's nothing I can do with these". The education path is fruitless and only serves to make most folks in this category more angry. It can easily come off as you condescending them when they truly have no interest in being educated and just want to cash in the comics like a lottery ticket.

 

Even though I'm out of comics retail, when people find out I read comics I'm often asked to appraise "their old collections". Usually the same line works.

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On 4/22/2017 at 2:24 PM, Artboy99 said:

No. It is a different guy that has bought comics off of us in the last few years. He has money issues. He buys comics then needs to sell them to pay rent. He has several kids and once had to sell us comics to pay his child support payment.

Had a customer like this when I was in retail. He would cut books and add them from month to month, and ask to sell back somewhat new comics and collectibles, or his old collection. He was always talking about money troubles.

I ended up cutting him off from buying for a while. I pointed out that his hobby was adding to his stress and that he could always pick books back up later when he figured out his financial problems. I just couldn't sell someone $100 a month of comics when they couldn't afford to get their car fixed.

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On 4/21/2017 at 7:43 PM, kav said:

the trick is finding that someone....

There are still a lot of people who buy 50 cent - $1 books.  A new comic store opened, where I live, and they have those kind of boxes.  People are always buying from them.  Not everybody is looking to buy for an investment, but just like reading them.

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When I was in for the week's new comics at an LCS, back in the 90s, a youngish, teenage guy pulled out a SA Superman Annual 1 and asked me if I had any idea about what it was worth.  It was the grungiest, most fragile-looking comic I'd ever seen, covered with pen ink, and on the point of disintegration.  I said that I'd recently seen a reading copy of Flash Annual 1 at a comic mart, part-detached cover, complete and with generally very nice presentation going for £10 / $15 and so, thinking I was being diplomatic and generous, I suggested about the same for his book.

His face dropped and, almost crying, he told me that he'd just paid £100 / $150 for it at the comic shop across the road.  All I could say was that the owner was fairly well-renowned for this, and sorry.  

I enjoy analysing such situations and being straightforward, but sometimes I can end up regretting it.

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Why don't you comic shop owners just have a sign or say "We buy comics with a 10 cent, 12 cent or 15 cent cover price only"  and then you wouldn't have to deal with those problems. 

And in that vein, don't y'all think the cover price for comics is ridiculous these days ?  No wonder people think their books are worth something when they started off by over paying when they were brand new 

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I worked at a comic shop about 20 years ago, and it was never easy to break it to someone that their comics were essentially worthless, because you're not only dealing with their unrealistic expectations of value, you're also dealing a blow to them personally. For many of these folks, these are the comics they lovingly collected and put away, and to have someone tell them that their beloved belongings have no value is not just a sobering reality check, it also comes across as something of a judgment of them, or at least of their taste. (Or by extension, a judgment of the relative who passed away, who they loved.)

It's not easy for people to hear. These aren't stocks and bonds, or imaginary widgets that have no purpose other than to be bought and sold. Comics tie so strongly into nostalgia, it's a bit of a personal blow to be told that what you have held onto is actually garbage. 

Nowadays, what I deal with in this regard is my family and friends who knows that I "sell comics on eBay" and that I occasionally do all right with it, so they all want to be amateur comic buyers. My sweet mother-in-law will call me all of the time with comics she's found in antique malls and the like, or my sister in law will find buy comics at the Good Will thinking she's hit pay dirt, or my office mate will ask me how he can get in on the action. It's just so difficult to make people understand that the vast majority of comics that have been printed throughout the history of time are, in fact, almost completely worthless.  It's like they want me to give them a tutorial on how to know a comic book is worth something, and it's just impossible to explain that it's a matter of supply vs demand vs condition, and that there are no simple rules for whether or not a comic is worth anything, so unless you've been doing it your entire life like I have, it's best to just leave it alone.

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1 hour ago, Senormac said:

Why don't you comic shop owners just have a sign or say "We buy comics with a 10 cent, 12 cent or 15 cent cover price only"  and then you wouldn't have to deal with those problems. 

And in that vein, don't y'all think the cover price for comics is ridiculous these days ?  No wonder people think their books are worth something when they started off by over paying when they were brand new 

The cover prices are a big part of the problem, as is Overstreet, which won't list the value of any comic as less than cover price. This is why so many collections on Craiglist, etc are so grossly overpriced. Overstreet may say your collection is worth $3 a book, but in the real world I'd only give you about 10 cents per book, if I wanted to buy them at all.

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Telling a stranger their books are pretty much worthless is not painless but I don't think about it too much.  I would find it difficult to explain to a regular buyer why the books they bought from me for $3 an issue from my back stock are now worth $0.10 a piece when they go to sell.  Of course there are a lot of expenses that go into owning a store but it must be really tough to watch the person face as they realize they spent hundreds if not thousands and are looking at getting $40 in return (if they are lucky).

Edited by 1Cool
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3 hours ago, Senormac said:

Why don't you comic shop owners just have a sign or say "We buy comics with a 10 cent, 12 cent or 15 cent cover price only"  and then you wouldn't have to deal with those problems. 

And in that vein, don't y'all think the cover price for comics is ridiculous these days ?  No wonder people think their books are worth something when they started off by over paying when they were brand new 

Because you could be passing on early Walking Dead, TMNT early issues, Harley-Deadpool stuff

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7 minutes ago, entalmighty1 said:

Or Hulk 180-182, Giant Size X-Men 1, X-Men 94, Marvel Spotlight 5, Iron Fist 14 and a host of other valuable bronze keys.

True but my buddy has been in business over 10 years and none of the books mentioned has ever walked into his store.  Youngblood yes.

Edited by kav
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It's almost always a bit of a bummer when someone asks you to "appraise" their stuff.   Over Easter I was at my aunt's house.  She has a bunch of old Heavy Metal Mags (my uncle used to subscribe) and asked how much they were worth or if I could sell them for her.   I told her there's probably not much money there, but I'll look thru them.  

I've had other people ask me over the years as well.   I say sure, send me some pics and I get the requisite Image books or $1.25 cover Marvels.  Mostly just the standard drek you'd expect.   One of the go to phrases (in my experience) is, "I've got some comics.  Can you tell me how much they're worth?   They're still in the sleeves". 

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2 minutes ago, chrisco37 said:

It's almost always a bit of a bummer when someone asks you to "appraise" their stuff.   Over Easter I was at my aunt's house.  She has a bunch of old Heavy Metal Mags (my uncle used to subscribe) and asked how much they were worth or if I could sell them for her.   I told her there's probably not much money there, but I'll look thru them.  

I've had other people ask me over the years as well.   I say sure, send me some pics and I get the requisite Image books or $1.25 cover Marvels.  Mostly just the standard drek you'd expect.   One of the go to phrases (in my experience) is, "I've got some comics.  Can you tell me how much they're worth?   They're still in the sleeves". 

I like appraising collections.  

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It would be fun/enjoyable to go thru some collections of people on the boards or similar folks.   Not so fun when someone has a longbox full of Justice League Europe, Hawk & Dove, New Universe and Bloodshot in Fine+.  

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On 4/22/2017 at 1:46 AM, shadroch said:

You simply explain that you are overstocked on those items and wouldn't be able to make a fair offer on them.

My old LCS used to just say he had a basement full of this stuff and can't sell it.  Of course, he would say that about anything that came in the door, even decent GA and SA collections.

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