• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Advice/thoughts on large collection
1 1

48 posts in this topic

A big hello to all! My name is Nick and I am from the tri-state region (NY/NJ/CT).

A little about myself.  I was a big comic book reader back in the late 60’s through late 70’s and then as with everything else, life took a turn (for the better I may add) and my passion was re-directed to other things including collecting/selling vintage Star Wars toys back in the early 90’s through early 2000’s.

Spring forward to today……..I would greatly appreciate any thoughts/path forward on the following.

About 10 months ago, I purchased a large comic collection from my nephew spouse’s who had inherited the collection from his brother. It was a one-owner collection which was started sometime in the early 70’s. The majority of the collection was stored in two climate-controlled storage rooms and the rest in the apartment which was then transferred to the storage units.  The collector was extremely careful collecting/storing/separating his comic collection as you will see with the details below.

Based on immersing myself in viewing a ton of sites on grading comics (youtube, various Comic sites, purchased Overstreet’s guide to grading comics), I took on a whole new adventure to gradually check each and every comic for condition. As I was checking condition, I mostly took individual pictures of all the books and entered everything into an excel spreadsheet to allow easy analysis of the collection. What I didn’t realize was how long this endeavor would actually take (wife kept asking if I was nearing completion or whether I had “new dates” when I would be finished for many months!).

Safe to say that I finally was able to break through the logjam of 139 long and 1 short box of comics (~37,700) in total.  It was a labor of love to say the least and brought back many memories of 60’s – 80’s while I read comics in Brooklyn.

What I would really appreciate from anyone is how to approach my next steps.  I would prefer to sell the whole collection vs. piecing it out.  I have done a lot of research on pricing the past 6+ months and it appears that the collection has some worth to it.  Although it does not have some of the major Keys (i.e., ASM 1, ASM 129, Hulk 181, etc., etc.), it does have a number of other Keys although none have been officially graded.

Here are the details on the collection:

  • This is a one-owner collection. It appears to me that the owner did not read many if not the majority of comics because the conditions of over 95% of the books are in NM and up condition.
  • 99% of the books are bagged and the owner, instead of placing a cardboard in the back book, inserted a pre-cut board in the middle of the book.  This allowed me to view the front and back of each book quickly.  What is interesting about this approach is that it did not impact the condition of comics.
  • I ordered and replaced 40 of the long boxes and re-bagged over 200+ of the higher end books.
  • What made going through this a ton easier is that the owner had hundreds of file separators to separate all the various series and sets of books!
  • Here is the breakdown of the 37,700 books.  The collection spans multiple publishers and characters
    • Marvel: 20,100
    • DC: 15,031
    • Other (Dark Horse, Valiant, etc.): 2,580
    • Out of the 140 boxes, 5 1/2 have doubles/extras which means that the bulk of the collection are series of characters, etc.
  • There is a total of ~1,650 series/sets of books.  Of these, 108 are missing one on book to complete the series and 50 are missing 2 or more books.
  • Based on the following comic book periods (SA: 56-71, BA: 72-85, CA: 86-92, MA: 93+…Please let me know if I should use different time frames):
    •  SA:  341
    • BA:  4,485
    • CA:  6,963
    • ’93 - ’99: 9,300
    • ’00 – ’09: 9,559
    • ’10 – ’18: 7,066
  • Based on my research/analysis and grading guidelines, etc.  here is my grading analysis:
    • 0.5 – 4.5: ~300
    • 5.0 – 8.0: ~1,400
    • 8.0 – 9.6+ ~36,000
    • I tried to be as strict as possible when it came to grading the collection based on research/reading materials. In most if not all cases, I provided a tight range (e.g., 8.0 – 8.5, 9.0 – 9.4, etc.) because grading is truly an art vs. science. I was truly amazed how well the books were preserved especially from the 70’s/80’s/’90’s.
  • As per the major characters, here are some stats.  Most of the series below (Marvel) have some missing issues here and there:
    • ASM: 168 – 500
    • Iron Man: 1 – 500+
    • Hulk: 122 – 500+
    • Avengers: 10 – 400+
    • Fantastic Four: 48 – 450+
    • Captain America: 101 – 450+
    • Thor: 132 – 500+
    • X-Men: 58 – 500+
    • Daredevil: 10 – 400+
  • Here is a sampling of the other series/sets:

image.png.812cc3e6fd0f23d6feb01b75c0f03bc8.png

This would appear to be great collection for a collector either starting out collecting books or who would like to upgrade a good number of books.

What I would appreciate from all the great collectors out there is any recommendation on how to proceed forward on selling the entire lot and whom to contact and any experiences, etc. Should I first solicit offers from various dealers/collectors?  Should I maybe keep the 5 ½ boxes of extras or just include them in the over-all collection? What pitfalls to avoid? I should note that I had contemplated sending in ~200 books to CGC that were mainly keys/high value books in 8.0+ condition but given time-frames and cost, now considering selling as is.

If there is anything else I can provide to help assess the collection, please let me know.  Many thanks ahead of time!

Nick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/24/2020 at 4:02 PM, swtrilogy said:

Should I first solicit offers from various dealers/collectors?

If you go this route you should be willing to accept 40-60% of value. Don't go in expecting higher cause it more than likely won't happen(not saying it couldn't but, probably won't)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could easily move a lot of it here on the boards though by just posting a sales thread in the selling forum.

It seems like you've put in a lot of work in this so, personally I'd go this route just to try & get the most money out of it as I could...my 2c

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Selling the entire lot as a whole will get you the least amount ogf money. Since you say you are in the NY area, try local dealersif you want to go that route. I'd also try Gary Dolgorf. He buys large collections. The vast majority of comics from 1988 on are not worth much of anything and you have 25,000 of those. 

Myomicshops consignment service is usually a good option for older books, but because of the virus it is only taking in a fraction of the books they usually accept. Selling them here would be a headache. People want individual scans and you'd have to price every book, not to mention having to ship them out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

here's the thing, if you want to sell the whole thing at once, it would be to a dealer and the going rate is 5-10 cents a book. So you're looking at around 2000-3000$ for that entire collection. As someone else suggested, before doing that, just sell the pricier ones here on these boards, since you already did that work. Sell the ones worth $30 and up and then dump  the rest locally at that 5-10 cents rate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Deadpoolica said:

If you go this route you should be willing to accept 40-60% of value. Don't go in expecting higher cause it more than likely won't happen(not saying it couldn't but, probably won't)

I would think 40-60% is too high as I would think most of the books aren’t keys - a full list would be helpful.

To maximize his return, the keys should go to CGC and then sell them. As for the drek, dealers will maybe pay 10 cents a book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

If the keys are not high grade, sending to CGC will just eat up his profits. He's better just selling them raw

True and that is why a list and pictures would help us give him the best advice possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all.  Thank you for all the great tips.  Would you also suggest contacting Sparkle City Comics and/or High Grade Comics (Bob Storms)?

Depending on the offers, it could make sense to send in the higher grade keys to CGC and then sell many through this site and/or eBay (although I would like to avoid eBay as much as possible).  There are many complete sets of comics in high grade condition.

Anyway, I have provided a link to the spreadsheet which also contains pricing that I obtained from various sites (not everything populated) although mostly avgs from eBay.  I also provided links to pictures from 3 of the long boxes for viewing. 

Let me know what you all think.  Many thanks!

 

(working on correcting issue with access to spreadsheet)

 

Box 1: https://www.flickr.com/gp/189076392@N04/a50Y2g

Box 3: https://www.flickr.com/gp/189076392@N04/658856

Box 10: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmPGwfHe

Edited by swtrilogy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all.  Thank you for all the great tips.  Would you also suggest contacting Sparkle City Comics and/or High Grade Comics (Bob Storms)?

Depending on the offers, it could make sense to send in the higher grade keys to CGC and then sell many through this site and/or eBay (although I would like to avoid eBay as much as possible).  There are many complete sets of comics in high grade condition.

Anyway, I have provided a link to the spreadsheet which also contains pricing that I obtained from various sites (not everything populated) although mostly avgs from eBay.  I also provided links for viewing. 

Let me know what you all think.  Many thanks!

 

Spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DYFR6lYY3HtNLGwPbPK4RlCKTIBIrTBZ5xfgfnYm4IQ/edit?usp=sharing

 

Amazing Spider-Man Box 10:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8vkT13HuQf4BQZai7

Hulk Box 3:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/So1wmQF7TkL3v6aw8

X-Men Box 67:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7JpwrjNyXgj5YCCv9

Creatures on the Loose/Amazing Adventures/Marvel Team-Up Box 1:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yYtk1uTTyqCTNM9C9

Iron Man Box 8:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dAxM5mXuU5cMd6c59

Thor Box 11:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Xq7DQBabggPGJCEi7

Daredevil Box 36:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rna76kkas6BYSt499

Doctor Strange Box 4:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vXv6FgvekoxSkmF98

Captain America Box 9:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PocHyU3rQQpKzZL37

Fantastic Four Box 2:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5RNURpaA3bATZBsQA

Avengers Box 6:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uwSdBDn6guM2WnK77

Silver Surfer Box 5:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YP9yVtX1k9Sz7K2B9

Marvel Magazines Box 91:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tCTz8UD8hQzdYeew8

Marvel two-in-One Box 13:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/e2xaoA1SUg84MgSy8

Marvel Premiere Box 30:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7aMXTMsKh9Jgy3hWA

Batman/Superman/Infinity Earths Box 35:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4Ki3xYprJ8zWNrfK7

Strange Tales/ Astonishing Tales Box 39:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hikz5gzaw6iFwkRAA

Master of Kung Fu Box 40:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SvuMndLdJYkEqWEg8

 

Sampling of other boxes:

Box 33:https://photos.app.goo.gl/XFReFUDP7MKkbHwS8
Box 90: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jBUkVLzUtw7xRTGJ8
Box 71: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4kyCYPy6RC86YWoP8

 

Edited by swtrilogy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You have put so much work into looking at every book that I don't think selling it all at once is your best move.  Knowing exactly what you have probably won't get you much more money than if you had spent a week or so digging for keys to figure out approximately what you have... not if you are going to sell it as one lot.

I'm going to guess that you like to focus on details or you wouldn't have catalogued it like you did.  It would probably be just as fun to take on the job of selling them in small lots: here, there, everywhere.  It's the same kind of meticulous detail work that you already did to catalogue it. You'd make a lot more money if that's any incentive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/31/2020 at 10:58 PM, swtrilogy said:

Hi all.  Thank you for all the great tips.  Would you also suggest contacting Sparkle City Comics and/or High Grade Comics (Bob Storms)?

Depending on the offers, it could make sense to send in the higher grade keys to CGC and then sell many through this site and/or eBay (although I would like to avoid eBay as much as possible).  
 

Ok, well if you are getting them graded, then avoiding e-bay will be super easy, barely an inconvenience. You can just ship them all to be consigned to comiclink. They tend to mainly take graded books for consignment. I used them before and it worked well.

BUT if you want to maximize revenue then grading them would not be wise at all. I see endless amounts of wastefull slabs where people who sent some comics to get graded and because they are not as high a grade as they think they are (check your book, if you see a rounded corner, a single tick on the spine, any place on the cover that breaks a little colour, your book is not "high grade"), end up selling for less than they paid to get them graded. I make it a habit almost of buying slabs that could simply not have been profitable to anyone aside from the grading company. If you want to maximise revenue, then it's only logical to keep your costs down as much as possible and sending them in for grading increases costs substantially with 0 guarantee that those costs will be recuperated. Yes, you could spend $40 getting a book graded that would sell for $200, but you could also just sell that non graded book for $180. Or worse, you spend $40 getting a book graded that would sell for $50 regardless if it is graded or not. Or even worse than that, you spend $40 getting a book graded that will sell for $30 regardless if it is graded or not. Clearly no member on these boards would send books like that in, but we see them dumped on auctions all the time and it must mean that someone out there found a collection, thought they hit gold and sent them in for grading hoping to maximise revenue when instead they just maximised their costs. I am assuming no one sends books in wanting to lose money and yet I see more people losing money than making money when getting books graded.

So, you can avoid extra costs and just get maximum revenue by sending the keys to My Comic Shop under consignment. They will even grade it for you. They are my main choice when I want to sell a non graded book and want to make the most from it while avoiding e-bay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All the aforementioned is good solid advice.. Especially @William-James88.. You have put in a lot of work... you've made one thing clear.... you want to sell this collection... you've put in the time and hard work of taking decent pics.. You can just upload those photos and assign accurate grades and list 7 or 10-day ebay auctions.. you will surely get fair market values

I would love for this collection to land in my hands.. best of luck

also ebay is giving away hundreds of free listings so insertion fees should not worry you. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
1 1