Wanting to Sell Collection 0

[trevorg22]

My dad passed away about 5 years ago, and I've been wanting to sell his valuable comics. I want to grade them because they are in very good condition. How would I go about doing all of this?

[revat]

grading is pretty simple.  go to the CGC website, follow the directions, fill out the forms, pay the money, package the books somewhat carefully, mail in the comics, and wait for them to come back.  If you have specific questions along the way in the process, you can call CGC customer service, they've always been pretty friendly and helpful to me.  OF COURSE, there is some question of what is worth grading and what isn't, which depends largely on the condition and fair market value of a given book as graded vs non-graded (this part is trickier, depending on how much you know about comics, grading, restoration, and the comic market at large), and also to large extent what you want your profit margins to be and what method you will want to use to sell them.  Which leads to....

 

The best method of selling your books depends largely on what your goals are, and maybe what your relevant comic/business interest skills are, and also what the actual books are and how many of them there are.  For example, do you want to get rid of the books all at once (probably a lower price achieved), or do you want to maximize your profits (probably selling books individually and possibly mailing them out individually)?  Is the collection so big its in a storage locker?  or we talking about a box of 50 super key comics? 

 

To get any type of actual helpful advice, you probably need to post a bit more information about your situation (comic interest/knowledge, geography, maybe financial/professional) and your preferences (profit/time/space/logistical considerations) and the comics (age, condition, titles, pictures).  If you don't know anything about comics, you should probably just take a representative group shot of 20-30 of the comics and post it here. 

Or in the alternative, it ALREADY seems like too much work for something you have no interest in and its not sooooo many comics, just take it to the first comic shop or craiglist buyer you can find and just take whatever offer they make you and be done with it.

 

[trevorg22]

revat thank you for your reply. There is about 750 comics total. Many of the comics are from the bronze age and are in near mint condition. Some of the valuable comics are Wolverine 1-4, Ms. Marvel 1, Spider-Man 238 and 252, Nova 1, and She-Hulk 1. All of those have been in a plastic cover since they were bought. I have put all of the comic books into a comic collection tracker. I have been researching for the past 5 days and have learned a lot since then. I certainly have the time, money, and effort to get these graded and sell them. I live near Omaha, Nebraska and the closest CGC dealer is in Iowa. I was wondering if it would be a good thing to talk to them. My mother and I want to get the valuable ones graded, but we just need some more information on how to do that.

1 hour ago, revat said:

grading is pretty simple.  go to the CGC website, follow the directions, fill out the forms, pay the money, package the books somewhat carefully, mail in the comics, and wait for them to come back.  If you have specific questions along the way in the process, you can call CGC customer service, they've always been pretty friendly and helpful to me.  OF COURSE, there is some question of what is worth grading and what isn't, which depends largely on the condition and fair market value of a given book as graded vs non-graded (this part is trickier, depending on how much you know about comics, grading, restoration, and the comic market at large), and also to large extent what you want your profit margins to be and what method you will want to use to sell them.  Which leads to....

 

The best method of selling your books depends largely on what your goals are, and maybe what your relevant comic/business interest skills are, and also what the actual books are and how many of them there are.  For example, do you want to get rid of the books all at once (probably a lower price achieved), or do you want to maximize your profits (probably selling books individually and possibly mailing them out individually)?  Is the collection so big its in a storage locker?  or we talking about a box of 50 super key comics? 

 

To get any type of actual helpful advice, you probably need to post a bit more information about your situation (comic interest/knowledge, geography, maybe financial/professional) and your preferences (profit/time/space/logistical considerations) and the comics (age, condition, titles, pictures).  If you don't know anything about comics, you should probably just take a representative group shot of 20-30 of the comics and post it here. 

Or in the alternative, it ALREADY seems like too much work for something you have no interest in and its not sooooo many comics, just take it to the first comic shop or craiglist buyer you can find and just take whatever offer they make you and be done with it.

 

 

 

[revat]

sounds like you're on you way, and yes those seem like some nice comics, but the ones you listed are not SO VALUABLE that they are automatically worth grading in all cases (although they certainly might be worth grading).  And for resulting prices, there's usually a HUGE difference in pricing between a CGC 9.8 and a CGC 9.4, but the price of getting it graded is obviously the same.  Also, for CGC prices, usually you want to look at completed auctions on various websites (ebay, heritage, pedigree, my comic shop, comiclink, etc) or use a service called GPA Analysis (but you gotta pay).  The point is that as an amateur starting out with comics (or anyone really), it might not be obvious the grade differences in condition (also appropriate packing for shipping) where every issue might be worth tens or hundreds of dollars. 

On a related note, you should consider your expected return of investment on any other money or time resources you want to invest.  For example, it sounds like you have maybe 10-50 comics that are valuable enough to maybe grade and sell, but the rest of the comics from the late 70's and 80's are worth maybe between $1-5 each depending on condition.  How much time would it take you to grade each comic, look it up, find a venue to sell it, take a picture, actually try to sell it, pay any sales fees (auction, ebay, paypal), take the time to pack it up for mailing, deal with returns, pay taxes.  Or for grading of comics, if you have a comic you can sell it for $25 raw (non-graded), and it costs you $40 to grade it and two months and your best case scenario is in sales $125, the $25 profit for selling it raw is probably then investing another $40 to profit another marginal $25, I prefer the ROI on the $25 profit with no investment.  Of course those preferences are different based on your risk, ROI, timing preferences.

Just a lot to think about is what I'm saying. Maybe take the valuable comics, and sell the rest in bulk.  But of course if you're having fun and want to grade and sell everything individually or in smaller groups, nothing wrong with that too.

[shadroch]

After you have done some more research, take some of the better books and post pictures of them in the grading forum. Do not assume because they have been in plastic they are near mint.  did they have backing boards? Depending on the type of bag they are in, the bags may actually have cause damage to the books.  Bags sold in comic shops  in the early 80s were often the type meant only for short term storage and eventually leaked chemicals into the books.

It's hard for a beginner to grade accurately.  A book you describe as Near Mint( 9.4) might sell for $25 in Very Fine (8.5) or $300 in 9.6 Don't go by any grades your father wrote on the books as grading standards are much tighter than they were thirty years ago.  I had a shop when many of those books came out. As an example, I had 5 Spider-Man 252s that I had graded as NM. When I submitted the best three, one came back 9.4, one 9.2 and one 8.5. 

I'd suggest you call several dealers, or put the full list here.  Trying to sell individual books is a pain and very time consuming. Selling them as a collection will net you less money than individual sales  but save you a lot of time and trouble. Most books from the era are pretty common and don't sell for much.  A great source is to look at the sold listings on ebay, and to go to mycomicshop.com and check out both their books for sale section to see what they are selling a book for and their buying section to see if they are buying the book and what they pay.  They, and some other dealers offer a trouble free consignment service where you send them the books, they decide which books are worth getting graded, or even pressed , grade the others and work with you to set prices on the books. They then  offer them on the sites, list them on ebay, do all the shipping and take care of all the fees. All for a very modest percentage of the final sale price.  I use MCS all the time and find them great to deal with. 

However, they may not take many of your books as they are pretty common.

[FN-2199]

If you're on the fence about whether or not a specific issue is worth getting graded, take a front and back scan and post it on the "Please Grade Me" part of the forum. There, you will get a ballpark estimate of the grade and can decide if the costs of grading that book are worth it to you.

If you have a lot of filler (>$5) issues, you can sell in bulk in the Marketplace section of the forum (or just message me to unload all/some of the Amazing Spider-Man).

[vann110]

Due to the size of the collection ,It is highly unlikely you will want to send them to CGC, (a customer of mine just spent around 1,600 dollars on pre-screening .

Craigaigslist is fine but You will never get any true value off the lot.

I would suggest that you buy a price guide, it has all printed comics in it, the value by grades, as well as some notations.

it may take a week or so to get a decent valuation on the lot but at least you will be in the ball park on an asking price.

A comic shop may also offer to appraise them for a percentage of the sale or make a decent offer. I do this regularly at my shop.

Thisa is probably the cheapest and most profitable way to sell your dads issues.

 

 

[Konrad5288]

I'll reiterated vann's knowledge.Get a price guide! Get a price guide! GET A PRICE GUIDE!  Trust me. IF I only had a price guide that NYX 3 and Hulk 181 amongst others would still be with me. I inherited some comics a while back when the market was down and went just off of ebay. What a mistake! 

Edited September 9, 2017 by Konrad5288

[Konrad5288]

Im spamming sorry. In 5 days you are not going to know the difference in an 8.0 and a 9.0. I received a Hero for Hire 1 in the group i was talking about last post. Initially I thought it was an almost flawless comic. 2 years later I sent in the comic. I had it pressed and graded to the tune of $225. Even after that I was so stressed thinking it had a slight chance to end up a 7.5. It just came back 8.0! I was actually thinking the press might get it to an 8.5 but that didnt happen. Im using this to show an example of initial impression of a nice comic when you first get in and after a while. Initially I was thinking 9.0.  Later on I saw the defects and had to pray it wouldn't end up a 7.5.

This is my scheme of things to sell the 100 or so that Im working on right now.

I personally would not send all yours in until you can eyeball a real grade.

1. First buy in. Pay at least the Gold and get the $150 sub credit

2. Be ready to be out some cash for a month or 3 or 4 until 1st sub comes back too. You say you have the cash so thats good. 27 bucks the cheap way with a 50 business day turnaround plus a possible press on silvers. 750 comics is like $15-20000 to grade. As an example here I just sent some bronze in. QP MFT 18 of them was 710. Ill make a profit of $400 and a few freebies. Unless a couple come back 9.9's of which 6 of them have a chance

3.Decide how much to put in initially. If you want to spend $2000 dont spend on first sub. Ill explain below

4. A: Find the comics that need pressing(if you are into that) and send those first. Cause theyll take the longest. Also keep in mind your subs have to fit same price tier or they will be separate orders. Shipping starts around $36 per sub. And goes up with each book(shipping on 15 is around $60 or so) if no press skip 4a

4 B:Find some that dont need press and send them in just for grading.

5. Wait...........Like a week or a month and send some more in! This gives you constant cash flow as your comics get returned

6. Wait repeat

See thats why you dont spend it all up front- unless you have a lot of money and a lot of patience on getting it back 

So tired of writing

[toriw]

Another option would be to donate them. Dealing with selling is a hassle and you might not get what they are worth. A reputable charity would be a good way to get tax deduction for their value plus help others. Maybe try https://www.collectibleswithcauses.org. 

After looking them up I noticed they are IRS 501(c)3 certified non profit organization.