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What's the best method to value a larger collection when making an offer.
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163 posts in this topic

13 hours ago, gadzukes said:

I very very rarely am offered a collection to look at, but today I get to look at one.  It'll all be Silver and I think it's about 13 long boxes.

The guy I'm buying from has spent a decade going thru his dad's storage units scattered all over the country.  I bought a bunch of Marvel Key Silver from him about a decade ago (Hulk 1, Xmen 1, TTA 27) so I know there's good stuff in the mix.  Most in the 6.0-8.5 range.

He (luckily) kept my number from all those years ago and gave me a call yesterday because he just opened another unit and found more comics (how these units have been kept current on payments I have no idea).

When I bought from this guy years ago it was a slow process, usually with me only getting 20 comics at a time, mostly because his wife wouldn't let him sell them all at once.  I bought from him over a year until the comics ran out.  But he told me that sooner or later he expected to open another unit and see more comics because his dad loved comics.

I'm going to try to pitch to him to sell them all to me this time in one fell swoop.

Do any of you pros have a good method you use to value large runs of comics.  I want to give the guy a great price that he'll be happy with, but obviously I want to be able to make my money back and still have a nice collection of comics.

Go through it all. Estimate the big keys at 75% of Guide. If these are all Marvels, 50% of Guide for any first appearances. All other books $2 each. Add that price all up, deduct 10%, and that's your number.

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If it's an exceptional collection, consider working on a finders fee basis. A quick clean profit beats dealing with thirteen boxes.

You might want to find out his marital status. Buying books during a divorce can be a problem. Happy hunting.

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2 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

Go through it all. Estimate the big keys at 75% of Guide. If these are all Marvels, 50% of Guide for any first appearances. All other books $2 each. Add that price all up, deduct 10%, and that's your number.

Is this really the formula you use?  That's awesome!  

I suppose you grade the big keys, but then give more of a generic grade to everything else? (I mean, you can't sit there forever and take every single comic out of the mylar)

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43 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

No early X-Men were in nice shape?

The X-men were in great shape 7.0-8.0 but I had limited time and limited funds to really look through them closely.  He told me he knew for sure there was another box that was almost all X-men that he hadn't brought :headbang:

Of everything I saw the early Spideys looked to be the most valuable so I decided to concentrate on those on this trip.  I think he's going to be patient with me coming over multiple times, but another part of me thinks I should try to get everything as quickly as possible.

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I found an insufficiently_thoughtful_person who doesn't know what he has,.. I filled my boots, bought a new pair and am going back to fill those too!

So those 16 books... Tree fiddy? Worth five grand or more

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15 minutes ago, Dan82 said:

I found an insufficiently_thoughtful_person who doesn't know what he has,.. I filled my boots, bought a new pair and am going back to fill those too!

So those 16 books... Tree fiddy? Worth five grand or more

Is this true? Don't play games with my heart.

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3 hours ago, gadzukes said:

The X-men were in great shape 7.0-8.0 but I had limited time and limited funds to really look through them closely.  He told me he knew for sure there was another box that was almost all X-men that he hadn't brought :headbang:

Of everything I saw the early Spideys looked to be the most valuable so I decided to concentrate on those on this trip.  I think he's going to be patient with me coming over multiple times, but another part of me thinks I should try to get everything as quickly as possible.

You need to get everything as quickly as possible. No question.

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13 hours ago, jharvey said:

You need to get everything as quickly as possible. No question.

Yeah...... I think that would be prudent.  I'm going to go back over this next Friday with as much $ as I can wrangle up.  Probably about $4k.  I'll post what I come back with.

Edited by gadzukes
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