Comics in my collection worth getting graded for sale 0

[SteppinRazor]

Comics in my collection worth getting graded for sale

Hi everyone.  My brothers and I used to read and collect comics from the mid-80s to late 90's-ish (I think the last major storyline we bought was the Death of Superman/Subsequent return), and I'm wondering if what we have is worth getting graded and sold.  We used to also collect baseball and football cards and the value of those is now non-existent, as I guess the world has moved on from cardboard with stats on the back.

Regarding the books, when last I knew anything about it, highlights would be the Claremont/Miller Wolverine mini-series and subsequent Wolverine full series w/Silvestri, Uncanny Xmen 222-maybe 400, the Xmen series started with Jim Lee, Macfarlane's Spider-man #1 in all million variants, and most of the Image #1s from when it was founded, and Alex Ross's early stuff.  Should mostly be in pretty good condition, except for the 80s stuff when we were young and dumb enough to get the comics to read them .  After that we got wise to the bags and stuff.

I know that's pretty vague, but basically if it came out from the mid 80's to late 90's, there's a good chance I have it, including some nonsense like Malibu comics and like that.  So, I'm basically trying to figure out if I should make the effort to pull through the books and send anything in to get graded, or if like football/baseball cards, the comics market just ain't what she used to be.

I'm an artist/furniture maker, so if they aren't worth anything, I'll use them to make lamps and sculptures

 

Thanks for any help

 

Edited April 25, 2017 by SteppinRazor

[Bomber-Bob]

#1) You should research which issues have value and cherry pick those out. Looking at E-Bay sold items is a good way.

#2) Of those issues you will have to take a very close look at condition. Your reference to 'should be in pretty good condition' doesn't sound promising. If you read them, handled them, they may not be worth getting graded. With books from this era you need near flawless condition.

[ThothAmon]

Bomber-Bob is right.  If these books passed through more than one careful set of hands most are probably not worth grading.  Amazing Spidey 300, New Mutants 98 are hopefully the key books in the collection unless you have a TMNT 1 in there.  I personally think a lot of it would look great as part of furniture and you've given me some ideas for some of my own.

[paperheart]

see this thread 

 

[SteppinRazor]

I appreciate the replies so far.  I'm not worried if they aren't worth anything, just that if they are, they end up in someone's hands who wants them.  I would hate to turn some comics into art/furniture, then find out it/they had value to someone else and now there's one less comic in the world, and one more unhappy person. (plus the extra cash won't hurt).

I'm a little surprised more than one read is enough to kill a comic's value, but we do have some that were bought in multiple and never read (I wasn't kidding about the million variant covers, that nonsense was all the rage and we bought the gold one and hologram one and black one and etc.).  I don't want to send in something like Leonard Nimoy's Primordials and get a 30cent comic graded (exaggeration, but yes such a thing did exist).

 

@ThothAmon, I have Amazing Spider-Man 300, probably the New Mutants 98 (I'd have to look to verify, but we bought NM), not the TMNT.  I tried posting a picture from my instagram of a lamp I built, but couldn't get the picture to post.  Let me try again.:

 

Edited April 25, 2017 by SteppinRazor

[jcjames]

 

Just make sure you're not this guy:

Blundering artist destroys rare first edition of The Avengers

 

[valiantman]

Amazing Spider-man #252, #300, #361

New Mutants #87, #98

X-Men #266

Condition is the most important thing, they may not be worth the cost of grading... but these 6 comics (common Marvel 1980s-early 1990s) are worth more than a few dollars regardless of their condition.  Still better to sell them "as is" than to destroy or give them away.

[rjpb]

Unless you have copies that are likely to grade 9.8/9.9, even most of the more valuable Copper and later books will sell for about the same price raw as they will slabbed, or certainly close enough that the effort, patience and obviously cost required to slab them may not make it worthwhile.

[SteppinRazor]

@jcjames I definitely don't want to be like that guy, hopefully y'all will help me didge that bullet

Appreciate the responses.  I should have some multiples that were never even cracked open, but it seems more than likely of little value anyway.  I tried checking out ebay a couple of years ago, but it seems the same condition books would be either go for $4 or $100.  Probably just not very good at searching ebay.

 

@valiantman - thanks  for the specifics.  Xmen 266 is first Gambit, right?  I know I have that one.  I'll start pulling the ones you guys have given me already, and maybe check in with a few that I might have questions about.  Like my Sal Buscema signed Hulk comic, which is in Dutch.

If anyone has any other suggestions on potentially worthy comics, please keep 'em coming.

 

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by SteppinRazor