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Extremely Newbie Here, Please Help
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52 posts in this topic

9 minutes ago, MeganB said:

N the rest definitely do not look like tht 1

I will say this, judging by the consistent collection of Amazing Spider-Man books, you will want to at least check to see if your brother had issues 298-300, 301-(about) 320, and 360-363.

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1 minute ago, ExNihilo said:

I will say this, judging by the consistent collection of Amazing Spider-Man books, you will want to at least check to see if your brother had issues 298-300, 301-(about) 320, and 360-363.

I cant tell u rn hold on, I have them too

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12 minutes ago, MeganB said:

$550 for the Annual #1 when graded?! 

Yes, that's what recent sales appear to be.  Frankly that's a crazy price and I would never pay that much for a 0.5.  That's the absolute worst condition a book can be in before it gets a NG (No Grade) designation.  Personally, your book looks worst than what I'm seeing from these 0.5s and that will have a negative effect on the value of your book.  I would not expect to get $400 for your book ungraded.

 

9 minutes ago, MeganB said:

I cant tell u rn hold on, I have them too

I would recommend taking photos of 298-300 and posting them in the "Please Grade My" section of the boards.  And I don't mean one grainy group photo.  I mean high quality scans or close up shots.  Generally, one with the book that fills the entire image, then at least 4-5 of each corner plus a shot of the spine.  Front and back.  The guys in that section of the board can tell you what condition the book is in and from there you can get a better idea of valuation.  That might also help provide a basis for you to determine how the rest of your brothers collection would grade out.  Best thing to do would be to make a full list of books and provide it to a trusted comic shop and they can tell you which are the key books to look up.  Most books are likely to be completely worthless though.  If you're looking to sell, your best bet is either to sell the keys individually and sell the rest as a lot, or to just sell entire runs as one lot.  "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush."

Edited by ExNihilo
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6 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

If you thought $550 graded was a lot, you're gonna want to take a seat before looking up the price range on Amazing Spider-Man 300...

I had a friend of a friend come over n he went through almost all 14 totes of the comics n made me put the better 1s off to the side, I have alot of complete runs but said i would probably get more chopping them up...

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Just now, ExNihilo said:

Yes, that's what recent sales appear to be.  Frankly that's a crazy price and I would never pay that much for a 0.5.  That's the absolute worst condition a book can be in before it gets a NG (No Grade) designation.  Personally, your book looks worst than what I'm seeing from these 0.5s and that will have a negative effect on the value of your book.  I would not expect to get $400 for your book ungraded.

 

I would recommend taking photos and posting them in the "Please Grade My" section of the boards.  And I don't mean one grainy group photo.  I mean high quality scans or close up shots.  Generally, one with the book that fills the entire image, then at least 4-5 of each corner plus a shot of the spine.  Front and back.  The guys in that section of the board can tell you what condition the book is in and from there you can get a better idea of valuation.  That might also help provide a basis for you to determine how the rest of your brothers collection would grade out.  Best thing to do would be to make a full list of books and provide it to a trusted comic shop and they can tell you which are the key books to look up.  Most books are likely to be completely worthless though.  If you're looking to sell, your best bet is either to sell the keys individually and sell the rest as a lot, or to just sell entire runs as one lot.  "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush."

Oh I definitely knew I wasn't getting nothing for tht spiderman #1 its jus in plastic for looks now... but all my books are in plastic n r in fairly great condition a lil discolored from age but nothing major

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1 minute ago, MeganB said:

I had a friend of a friend come over n he went through almost all 14 totes of the comics n made me put the better 1s off to the side, I have alot of complete runs but said i would probably get more chopping them up...

If you want the most money, selling them individually is the way to maximize profits.  If you want the easiest way, selling entire sets/runs is the best bet.  From personal experience, it's far better to sell complete sets and just be rid of the collection than it is to sell individually.  You're ultimately going to be left with a mish mash of books that no one wants.  That's why I said "a bird in hand is better than two in the bush."

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3 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

Yes, that's what recent sales appear to be.  Frankly that's a crazy price and I would never pay that much for a 0.5.  That's the absolute worst condition a book can be in before it gets a NG (No Grade) designation.  Personally, your book looks worst than what I'm seeing from these 0.5s and that will have a negative effect on the value of your book.  I would not expect to get $400 for your book ungraded.

 

I would recommend taking photos and posting them in the "Please Grade My" section of the boards.  And I don't mean one grainy group photo.  I mean high quality scans or close up shots.  Generally, one with the book that fills the entire image, then at least 4-5 of each corner plus a shot of the spine.  Front and back.  The guys in that section of the board can tell you what condition the book is in and from there you can get a better idea of valuation.  That might also help provide a basis for you to determine how the rest of your brothers collection would grade out.  Best thing to do would be to make a full list of books and provide it to a trusted comic shop and they can tell you which are the key books to look up.  Most books are likely to be completely worthless though.  If you're looking to sell, your best bet is either to sell the keys individually and sell the rest as a lot, or to just sell entire runs as one lot.  "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush."

Exactly uro the 2nd person to mention the "please grade my" section.. how does tht work? Will he tell me what he thinks I would get for it graded or will tell me to send it in?!

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4 minutes ago, MeganB said:

Exactly uro the 2nd person to mention the "please grade my" section.. how does tht work? Will he tell me what he thinks I would get for it graded or will tell me to send it in?!

The "Please Grade My" section is where veteran boardies assess a book and provide their best guess as to what grade/condition a book appears to them.  It's obviously not guaranteed, but it should provide you a close estimation of what they think the book would grade out as if you sent it in.

7 minutes ago, Shrimp Imp said:

I wouldn't give you $20 for it 2c

You and me both.  I wouldn't spend any money on it, but I would say the same of 99.9% of "fair" books.

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14 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

The "Please Grade My" section is where veteran boardies assess a book and provide their best guess as to what grade/condition a book appears to them.  It's obviously not guaranteed, but it should provide you a close estimation of what they think the book would grade out as if you sent it in.

You and me both.  I wouldn't spend any money on it, but I would say the same of 99.9% of "fair" books.

Agh I gotcha, thanks for all ur help n advice 😁

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12 minutes ago, Shrimp Imp said:

Says the OP who waited over 6 months to return to the thread lol

Well I'm sorry I got a family n 3 kids to tend to first.. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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@MeganB Your list is great.  Probably the best thing for anyone to do coming into any collection is to make a list of all items.  Even in lower grades, some of the books you have listed sell very well.  There has been some very good advice provided so far.

Certain issues (the Spiderman's 298-300 noted above and Xmen 94) will draw bidders all day long.  Carefully pull those out and take several photos.  Share them in the "Please Grade My Comic" section (review other people's posting to see what kind of photos to take).   Once you have an idea of the condition of each, you will better be able to research sold listings on ebay (search for raw/ungraded sales only).  Then search for the equivalent sales of GRADED copies.  Sending books to CGC for grading is not cheap and it takes a lot of time.  You will have to determine if having them graded will be worth the extra expenses.

Regarding the other books in the collection, sell them in short runs.  Maybe five to ten books in a lot.  Shipping an excessive number of books in one package can create a higher potential for postal handling damage.

I feel that the best way others here can help you is to point out certain issues from your list which you should research first.

 

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1 minute ago, Yorick said:

@MeganB Your list is great.  Probably the best thing for anyone to do coming into any collection is to make a list of all items.  Even in lower grades, some of the books you have listed sell very well.  There has been some very good advice provided so far.

Certain issues (the Spiderman's 298-300 noted above and Xmen 94) will draw bidders all day long.  Carefully pull those out and take several photos.  Share them in the "Please Grade My Comic" section (review other people's posting to see what kind of photos to take).   Once you have an idea of the condition of each, you will better be able to research sold listings on ebay (search for raw/ungraded sales only).  Then search for the equivalent sales of GRADED copies.  Sending books to CGC for grading is not cheap and it takes a lot of time.  You will have to determine if having them graded will be worth the extra expenses.

Regarding the other books in the collection, sell them in short runs.  Maybe five to ten books in a lot.  Shipping an excessive number of books in one package can create a higher potential for postal handling damage.

I feel that the best way others here can help you is to point out certain issues from your list which you should research first.

 

Thank you very much for this advice, I have a whole 1 subject notebook of all the comics I have on hand, I have done a ton or research n Google alot of the comics I jus dont know how or where to start n asking price for them..

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1 minute ago, MeganB said:

Thank you very much for this advice, I have a whole 1 subject notebook of all the comics I have on hand, I have done a ton or research n Google alot of the comics I jus dont know how or where to start n asking price for them..

On ebay, if you choose the "advanced search" option, next to their regular search box, it allows you the option to scroll down and choose "sold items only".  Then you can see past sales (you still need to enter an item description in the search field).  Set the results order to "most recent sales" and you will see how crazy prices are going up.

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19 minutes ago, MeganB said:

Well I'm sorry I got a family n 3 kids to tend to first.. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think most of the things pointed out have been right and certainly well-intentioned, but I would offer an a couple alternate suggestions and comments.

If you truly want to maximize your money, it is true that you should sell individually for many comics and attempt to sell runs or groupings.  

The steps to do that would be (and the CGC chat board can help in many cases):

1.  Make a list (good job!).

2.  Identify what MIGHT be best sold individually.  (for seasoned comic folks this make take literally 2 seconds a comic, for a newbie it could be 5-10 minutes or more per comic).

3.  Learn to grade and grade those individual comics.

4.  Identify comics that might need to be graded to maximize value (this will depend on your own preferred profit margins and opportunity cost of tying up your money and how quickly you want turnover to be, as well as risk preferences.).  This part is actually a decent amount of research for a newbie, depending on how much business experience you have.

5.  For those comics identified as needing grading, you need to pack them up, pay for a membership (or find a local comic shop to help submit), then submit and PAY MORE MONEY UP FRONT, then wait 1-6 months to get your comics back.

5a.  There may be a situation where some or many of your comics should be pressed (essentially ironed flat) before grading to get rid of minor defects hopefully resulting in higher grades.  Of course learning about that takes some effort too.

6.  So eventually you want to sell, you gotta find the right place to sell, take pictures, set up accounts, deal with selling fees, shipping, returns, possibly taxes (if you're already savvy then great).  You might be the kind of person who wants to do the accounting for all this to make the tax situation cleaner.

 

So this is all a lot of work, but many of us here do it because we love comics and want to make money on the side or make money to buy other comics, and some also for a living.  But most people here at least kind of like comics and have some experience with them.  If you don't have a passion for comics and are starting with very little knowledge, this can all can be EXTREMELY daunting, and then some people that you ask for help will talk down to you.  I'm not saying this is not for you, but I'm definitely saying doing all this is not for everyone.  If you've been looking for a hobby or you are truly passionate about comics or its a fun thing to get into with your kids, then great.  Otherwise here's a few options to consider:

1.  SELL IT ALL AT ONCE:  Let's say you find the right venue if we got conservative but reasonable grades, and achieved reasonable but conservative prices on all your comics, your expected revenue is $10K-$15K (purely for sake of example - it depends largely on the grades of your books).  Sounds great right? Well what if you have to put in $500-$1000 up front in grading.  And selling fees are somewhere between 5%-10%.  Then lets say 20% taxes.  Then you divide by how many working hours you think it will take, spread over how many months.  BUT lets say you sold it right now today for $2000-$4000 to a dealer, a comic shop, a random craigslist person for cash, and just got rid of all of it, out of your house, and never had to think about it again.  Would that be of interest to you?

2.  CONSIGN IT TO SOMEONE.  Pay someone else (that you hopefully trust) to sell them for you, and they keep some percentage of the sales.  Yes they will take a hefty cut, but you'll make more than option 1 AND you still get them out of your house and don't have to do any work.  The best consignors will also help you grade the right comics because its in their interest as well.

 

The problem is its hard to know which is right because you don't know much about it.  And of course it depends on your financial situation.  If you need money more than you need spare hours in the day, that's totally understandable, especially with three kids.  BUT if you're not sure if you're going to be making 9$ per hour or $30 per hour (which you can't really know till you've done at least half the required work)...and you don't have passion for comics.... then maybe consider something other than selling yourself.

 

Didn't mean to confuse you more, but if you're a parent with three kids as opposed to a college student with no summer job, factors are different.

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4 minutes ago, revat said:

I think most of the things pointed out have been right and certainly well-intentioned, but I would offer an a couple alternate suggestions and comments.

If you truly want to maximize your money, it is true that you should sell individually for many comics and attempt to sell runs or groupings.  

The steps to do that would be (and the CGC chat board can help in many cases):

1.  Make a list (good job!).

2.  Identify what MIGHT be best sold individually.  (for seasoned comic folks this make take literally 2 seconds a comic, for a newbie it could be 5-10 minutes or more per comic).

3.  Learn to grade and grade those individual comics.

4.  Identify comics that might need to be graded to maximize value (this will depend on your own preferred profit margins and opportunity cost of tying up your money and how quickly you want turnover to be, as well as risk preferences.).  This part is actually a decent amount of research for a newbie, depending on how much business experience you have.

5.  For those comics identified as needing grading, you need to pack them up, pay for a membership (or find a local comic shop to help submit), then submit and PAY MORE MONEY UP FRONT, then wait 1-6 months to get your comics back.

5a.  There may be a situation where some or many of your comics should be pressed (essentially ironed flat) before grading to get rid of minor defects hopefully resulting in higher grades.  Of course learning about that takes some effort too.

6.  So eventually you want to sell, you gotta find the right place to sell, take pictures, set up accounts, deal with selling fees, shipping, returns, possibly taxes (if you're already savvy then great).  You might be the kind of person who wants to do the accounting for all this to make the tax situation cleaner.

 

So this is all a lot of work, but many of us here do it because we love comics and want to make money on the side or make money to buy other comics, and some also for a living.  But most people here at least kind of like comics and have some experience with them.  If you don't have a passion for comics and are starting with very little knowledge, this can all can be EXTREMELY daunting, and then some people that you ask for help will talk down to you.  I'm not saying this is not for you, but I'm definitely saying doing all this is not for everyone.  If you've been looking for a hobby or you are truly passionate about comics or its a fun thing to get into with your kids, then great.  Otherwise here's a few options to consider:

1.  SELL IT ALL AT ONCE:  Let's say you find the right venue if we got conservative but reasonable grades, and achieved reasonable but conservative prices on all your comics, your expected revenue is $10K-$15K (purely for sake of example - it depends largely on the grades of your books).  Sounds great right? Well what if you have to put in $500-$1000 up front in grading.  And selling fees are somewhere between 5%-10%.  Then lets say 20% taxes.  Then you divide by how many working hours you think it will take, spread over how many months.  BUT lets say you sold it right now today for $2000-$4000 to a dealer, a comic shop, a random craigslist person for cash, and just got rid of all of it, out of your house, and never had to think about it again.  Would that be of interest to you?

2.  CONSIGN IT TO SOMEONE.  Pay someone else (that you hopefully trust) to sell them for you, and they keep some percentage of the sales.  Yes they will take a hefty cut, but you'll make more than option 1 AND you still get them out of your house and don't have to do any work.  The best consignors will also help you grade the right comics because its in their interest as well.

 

The problem is its hard to know which is right because you don't know much about it.  And of course it depends on your financial situation.  If you need money more than you need spare hours in the day, that's totally understandable, especially with three kids.  BUT if you're not sure if you're going to be making 9$ per hour or $30 per hour (which you can't really know till you've done at least half the required work)...and you don't have passion for comics.... then maybe consider something other than selling yourself.

 

Didn't mean to confuse you more, but if you're a parent with three kids as opposed to a college student with no summer job, factors are different.

Wow, ok tht was alot but I do understand what ur sayin I have made a list of the entire collection, I also had a friend come over n put aside all the comics he knows are worth value (alot of first appearance issues, as well as full runs), yeah I was just trying to make the most $ I can for my boys 14, 10 n 3  n my oldest just started football. So again i understand, this was very helpful though.. Thank you 

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41 minutes ago, MeganB said:

Wow, ok tht was alot but I do understand what ur sayin I have made a list of the entire collection, I also had a friend come over n put aside all the comics he knows are worth value (alot of first appearance issues, as well as full runs), yeah I was just trying to make the most $ I can for my boys 14, 10 n 3  n my oldest just started football. So again i understand, this was very helpful though.. Thank you 

revat makes an excellent point.  He's trying to express that there is a time value in money.  As I mentioned originally, you can maximize your profits by selling the books individually, but the amount of time it will take to do so may not be worth it.  Or you can sell it all off in various bulk lots and wash your hands of it quicker.  Would you rather sell $3000 of books now and then be left with an inventory of 2000 books that you try to sell individually over the next 20 years (with the chance that many of them go unsold)?  Or would you rather just sell the whole lot for $4000, take the money now and not have to worry about it for 20 years and beyond.  Your time has value even if that means you get less (physical) money overall for everything.

Edited by ExNihilo
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44 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:
1 hour ago, MeganB said:

Wow, ok tht was alot but I do understand what ur sayin I have made a list of the entire collection, I also had a friend come over n put aside all the comics he knows are worth value (alot of first appearance issues, as well as full runs), yeah I was just trying to make the most $ I can for my boys 14, 10 n 3  n my oldest just started football. So again i understand, this was very helpful though.. Thank you 

revat makes an excellent point.  He's trying to express that there is a time value in money.  As I mentioned originally, you can maximize your profits by selling the books individually, but the amount of time it will take to do so may not be worth it.  Or you can sell it all off in various bulk lots and wash your hands of it quicker.  Would you rather sell $3000 of books now and then be left with an inventory of 2000 books that you try to sell individually over the next 20 years (with the chance that many of them go unsold)?  Or would you rather just sell the whole lot for $4000, take the money now and not have to worry about it for 20 years and beyond.  Your time has value even if that means you get less (physical) money overall for everything.

I agree with myself AND Exnihilo.  Also not just the cost of your time, but depending on which comics you decide to get graded, you could be putting in hundreds OR THOUSANDS UP FRONT to get your comics graded (and possibly pressed, in event you figure out how/what that is), and then waiting 6 months to get them back while your money is tied up.  And then you have a bunch of comics (worth hundreds or possibly thousands) in sturdy but still breakable slabs in a house with 3 young (but not too young) boys who are in the perfect age bracket to WRECK ANYTHING BREAKABLE OR VALUABLE IN THE HOUSE.  And then to figure out how/where to sell, packaging, shipping, insurance, returns, fraud, damage, etc.  

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