Have you sold all of your comics to buy art? 0

[BCarter27]

This week, the Wife and I went down to our storage unit and loaded up 800 lbs of the remainder of our comics onto a freight pallet and shipped them off to a buyer. It was back-breaking work and I feel relieved and sad all at once.

With that albatross off of my shoulders, I wish I had all of the time back that I spent listing, packing, and shipping the first half of the collection. The money gained was not worth the time. I should have bulked it all out right from the beginning, no matter the money left on the table. But who knows, maybe I needed that time to "say goodbye"!

If you are ever in a similar position and unless you enjoy the selling aspect as part of the hobby, I would recommend not dealing with it. Also, bulking it out with some margin left on it will help stimulate the back issue market.

Other random thoughts...

The non-CGC back issue market is dead. There are very few run collectors left. I attribute this almost completely to digital. If you are thinking of selling, do it ASAP before it falls further. I missed the boat by just 2-3 years.

I don't want to think about how much my storage costs ate into the value of the comics. Another cost of small apartment NYC living.

Packing and shipping is most of the work in selling. If you don't have the right boxes/mailers on hand at all times, it can be a nightmare.

I'm down to 3 shortboxes -- 2 of books I haven't read yet and 1 box of keepers (mostly sentimental.) That's out of the 35 shortboxes I just sent out and probably another 30 or so I sold over the last 2-3 years.

We kept our print/poster collection and a few boxes of comic-related art books and promo oddities (which I will eventually sell). But if we could get it digitally or at the library, off it went!

OA takes up a lot less room, is more liquid, and seems like it will hold its value better (at least over the next 5-10 years, imo). And it is an easy way for us to stay engaged in this hobby that brings us a lot of joy -- without the logistics of mountains of books.

So if you still buy physical copies, toss them around, read them, and then give them to some young person when you are done.

So, how 'bout it? Anyone else sell all/most of their comics to buy art?

[John E.]

I never had a large of collection you as did, but because of storage issues, my collection hovered around 800-1000. In the last 5 years I started selling them at various venues from eBay to local comic shows. And yes, this was all to buy art! A month ago, I just sold half of my collection (maybe 45%?) of 300 books to a dealer for 60 cents a piece. It stung selling them for so cheap but it was a huge relief to unload them. My lament was that I wish I had given him more of my book because our landlord is selling the house we rent, forcing us to move out of the Bay Area and likely to another state altogether (I heard NYC is cheap, maybe we'll move there :P) As an aside, I thought I had one more year to sell the rest of the collection via the ‘Bay, which would have earned me more than 60 cents a pop; but yeah, the time it takes to list, pack, and ship is such a waste if you compare it to minimum wage, but I do enjoying selling. Furthermore, I was able to streamline the process to make it more time and cost effective.

Anyway, what you say is true in some respects: the back issue market is nearly dead. It's not worth saving comics, or buying them altogether. And I don't treat them as delicately as I used. But I say "nearly dead" because the local dealer I sold them too can't keep enough inventory. He has done very well selling random back issues at comic cons. Last year he had no interest in my collection, now he was desperate for anything. 

Congratulations on selling that bulk. I did see the listing.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Jay Olie Espy

[batman_fan]

I have just (literally just) started sending books that are easy sells off to CGC for grading. I won’t sell off all my books but I want to go from 10,000 down to about 1,000. The proceeds will probably be used for a mixture of comics and artwork. Having moved my collection many times I’ve the years I just can’t keep doing it. I would rather have a much smaller footprint for when it come time to downgrade on the House. 

Edited July 6, 2018 by batman_fan

[artistlost]

I sold off my comic collection to buy original art. I did replace a few of my comic runs in hardcover format but only a few.

[malvin]

I did not sell my collection to buy original art, but at my peak, I had about 30 longboxes that were stored at my parents basement (my old room).  When they sold their place to downsize, I had to purge since I had no intention of paying for storage for comics.  I kept about 6 boxes of truly special comics, and the rest, I first sold the significant ones  locally on craigslist (I think I only got $1 or $2 each canadian doing that) and when I was down to my last 10+ boxes, I sold it to a local guy in bulk who attend shows, I think I probably got 50 cents each at that point.  Please note that these are mostly modern books.

I didn't sell to buy OA, but considering how much OA I buy regularly, you can probably draw a line that shows that cash went towards OA

Malvin

[Rick2you2]

You're right about the value of some of those old books--it wasn't worth the bother. I took a lot of the low value ones to Goodwill Industries where they will sell them for $1.00 each. Then, I can claim the tax deduction.

[ESeffinga]

I never did slabs, so never got to that level of collecting. In truth I’ve come to think of myself as a lifetime comic reader, more than collector. I never did the buy one, board one thing. I always read what I bought. Condition was never a primary concern. I just wanted to see some good art and read some good stories. I still have most of the comics I didn’t give away. Maybe 8 longboard  worth. I’d be ok paring down to 2 and just keeping the essentials, but can’t chuck em and can’t make myself give them away.

[SquareChaos]

I personally think key focused collecting, slabs, and the rise of the trade killed the run collector - I don't think digital did it.

 

To answer your main question, I'm down to a decent sized hardcover collection and a few slabs that I will likely sell over time... except for a select few. Anything I read these days is usually digital, and if I really like it, in hardcover to a coveted spot on my bookshelf. Much like you, once I divested of the majority of my collection, I felt a sense of relief. Much more a sense of relief than anything bitter sweet to be honest. The older I've grown the more thousands and thousands of comics packed away began to simply wear on me. And man, moving with those things... I won't miss that.

[cstojano]

27 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

I personally think key focused collecting, slabs, and the rise of the trade killed the run collector - I don't think digital did it.

 

To answer your main question, I'm down to a decent sized hardcover collection and a few slabs that I will likely sell over time... except for a select few. Anything I read these days is usually digital, and if I really like it, in hardcover to a coveted spot on my bookshelf. Much like you, once I divested of the majority of my collection, I felt a sense of relief. Much more a sense of relief than anything bitter sweet to be honest. The older I've grown the more thousands and thousands of comics packed away began to simply wear on me. And man, moving with those things... I won't miss that.

I agree with this. There is nothing appealing to a new collector about a box of yellowing, bagged comic books. And with trades, the stories are all there. And to be honest what reading I have done I don't feel the need to return to very often, with rare exceptions. Slabbed keys have all the appeal, but even here the presentation borders on vulgar with the grade dominating the presence of the item on the wall. Its an easy step from there to OA. 

[Squeezy McSphincter]

I have 7000 comics that I've moved from Winnipeg to Toronto to Vancouver.  At this point, I'm definitely interested in selling all or almost all of them and putting the money into art.  I don't like the idea of dumping them and leaving money on the table, but I really don't want to waste countless hours selling them--especially when I basically have as much work as I want to take on right now.

[chromium]

I sold about 12,000 of the +- 15,000 comics that were in my collection between 2012 and 2015. Put all the money into original art and only kept the 100 first issues of all the Marvel Silver Age titles (and all keys from all ages)

Very happy I did this and just in time, I have about 2500-3000 comics left, which I'm not planning to sell any time soon and am actually in the middle of selling off part of my OA collection to buy even more (higher end OA). I would rather retire someday with ten 20K+ pages than with 200 $1000 pages or 10,000 $20 comics.

[Michael (OML)1]

I had 30-40 longboxes - sold everything for comic art -- I didn't bulk it out until the end as I had a ton of CGC Keys and Golden Age -- all gone.  

[MB1952]

Yes, 80% sold.  

[The Voord]

At one time I owned a near complete collection of 1960s Marvels (amongst lots of other publishing outfits).  Sold-off the bulk of my comics collection in the late 1980s to fund my OA habit.  Don't really miss any of that stuff as nowadays I'm happy with the various reprint editions which are a lot more affordable and, more importantly, can actually be read (never liked the idea of slabbed comics, even if I understand how the idea works for condition-obsessed collectors).

[AnkurJ]

I still have have many golden and silver age books. Love them too much to part with them. That part of the back issue market is alive and kicking. But much of the 70’s onward is slower to move and sells very cheap. If you have that stuff it’s smart to unload as bulk.

[DeadpoolJr.]

Yes and no. I sold off some comics including ones I didn't think I would with a large amount went to comic art. I still plan on buying comics but changing my focus to key issues and cool covers now. I also did it because I want to save space And comic art is much easier to store than comics are.

[Twanj]

I still have all my comics from almost 30 years ago (haven't bought a new one since).

I keep thinking about selling them, & in fact gave my favorites to a friend (Ron Lim Silver Surfer run, cosmic stuff).

I've been toying with CGCing the top ones & selling off the rest, but I have too much space anyways & they're not hurting anything...

[Shadow Images]

On 7/6/2018 at 10:09 AM, BCarter27 said:

 

OA  is more liquid, and seems like it will hold its value better (at least over the next 5-10 years, imo).

I'll agree to disagree on that one.  Not nearly as many art collectors and key/highend comics have a larger more accessible audience. jmho

[Andahaion]

I oscillate.  I'll think it's a good idea to liquidate my books with the mindset that I can always buy them back, but (like art) key books continue their upward climb and I don't think I'd ever buy some of these back.  I already sold my AF15 right as it went bananas this past year, probably won't ever own one again.  But you never know.  My collection's pretty streamlined already.  I only collect one run (Daredevil) with the rest being keys/favorite story lines and characters.  Lots of trades also.

[MagnusX]

I will like to sell 75 % of my collection comic books, cgc slabs, sketches and OA,
not to buy more but to downsize the collection and make it more manageable...