My husband came into a collection of over 1000 comic books and wants me to sell them here. I'm a novice to comic books. I've done a lot of research but am hoping you can answer a couple of questions for me.
First, since I have multiple copies of some of the comics, how should I list them.
Hi: I'm not a comic expert, but I've bought and sold plenty of them on Ebay over the past few years. For multiple copies, I would list them one at a time so you aren't competing against yourself. When one sells, list another one. As for grading, you should get a copy of the Overstreet comic book price guide and look up the value of each comic. Grading costs anywhere from $10 - $14 (from PGX) to $29 and up (from CGC). So if a comic is only worth about $20, you'll probably lose money if you pay to have it graded. If you have comics in really nice condition (Very Fine or better . . . especially if they are in the Near Mint range) many buyers will pay more (sometimes substantially more) than the prices in the Overstreet price guide if you have them professionally graded. Also, before you list any comics, perform a search on Ebay and make sure there aren't dozens of other people trying to sell the same comic. And also take a look at how much they are selling them for . . . if you have a starting bid of $10 and there are several other auctions for the same comic in a similar condition that have starting bids of $2, you may not get many (or any) bids because people can buy the same comic cheaper from someone else. Hope this helps . . .
Thanks for the advice! I was beginning to wonder if anyone ever responded in this neighborhood. Nothing like some of the other neighborhoods I go to.
I did get the book you mentioned and have done the ebay searches. I didn't realize it cost so much to have the comics graded. Guess I'll just try a few to begin with and see how it goes.
You might have scared us all - you asked a simple question with many long answers. Because you already have an established eBay rating, your biggest challenge will probably be grading. In case the section on grading is omitted fmor the Price Guide you have, here are a couple of reference links: http://www.teako170.com/mint.html http://www.milehighcomics.com/information/grade.html You'll see just form these that there are no established, objective methods for grading out there. That's why the professional graders have become popular for the highest valued books - they're trusted and (maybe) consistent. What works for me is a combination of auction and store - obscure and minor issues are listed in the store to ensure I get the value from them, and key books and early issues of popular runs go into auction. For multiple copies, I would only list one at a time. Dutch auctions and multiple stock items in a store don't work well for comics (in my experience). Good luck and happy selling! Ron
Didn't mean to scare anybody! We're really good at selling Harley parts because Harley's have been our lives for more than 30 years. While comic books were part of our younger years, we've lost touch and are not collectors of comic books.
I can see that the grading is definitely going to be an issue. When we got the comics, they were all organized in the kind of boxes you see in the comic book stores. Well, they rode around in the back of the van for about 6 months so, needless to say, they aren't all in good condition. So much for organization!
I can also see that I've got lots more research to do. I really appreciate your help. Wish me luck!
Another good tip if you want to cut down on some hassle is to see if you can sell a series or concurrent issues as a lot. Sure you may get more money if you sell issues 1-6 of a series separately, but you might find that while issue 1 & 2 sell for decent money right away, the other issues are less desireable or have more copies up for auction on eBay.
Also, this might seem obvious but look around at the spellings and other relative words that people use. Often people don't realize that "Spider-Man" is hyphenated, for example, so I would list "Spider-Man" in the heading and then "Spiderman" somewhere in the body of the ad.
Thanks Lionowk. I didn't think of selling them in a series. As for the spelling, I do that now with our Harley stuff. I'll do it with the comics too. I really appreciate your advice.
As a longtime comic collector and seller, I agree with the advice you've been given about the Overstreet book and also those links. There's no sense in paying to have them graded when a lot of people I've found don't care for those since it's hard to verify condition of the book for themselves since it's sealed once it's graded.
As for grading themselves, my advice is do your homework on how each grade works then leave a little wiggle room in the lower end since all buyers and sellers have a very different viewpoint on certain grades. What may be Very Fine to you may be considered good to a buyer. I've mostly stopped grading and just give a detailed description of the issue, it's flaws, it's creases, etc.
Also, don't get discouraged if something doesn't sell right away or if you don't get the price you want. In this day's comic market buyers don't want to pay price guide listed prices. If a book is listed for $10.00 you'll be lucky to get $5.00 or less. They want perfect stuff at cheap prices. It's a shame for sellers but that's how its been for awhile now.
Since I am not a professional grader (and I don't need the hassle of buyers complaining that they don't agree with how I graded something), I never mention grades in my listings (unless I had the comics professionally graded). I just provide one or more scans and a description of significant tears, creases, color fading, water stains, missing coupons, or whatever. That way, I'm giving the facts rather than my opinion of whether a comic is in "very good" or "fine" or "very fine" condition. The auction number I listed provides and example . . .
Thanks much. I feel much more comfortable about the grading. What I do with our motorcycle parts is never say they're excellent unless there's not a mark on them. Since I've gotten the Overstreet Book, I'll use that as a guideline but not necessarily include a grade.
But now I've got another question...you scan your books. I was going to take photos. What's the difference?
I scan the comics when I sell them one at a time. If I'm selling several comics as part of the same auction, I usually lay them all out and take one picture of the whole set. For example, I'm currently running an auction for 50 comics. I layed them all out on the carpet and took a "group photo" (see link below). For me, scanning is easier for single comics because you don't need to worry about proper lighting or having the camera flash reflect off the comic and leave a big white spot in the middle of the picture. But it's really just personal preference.
A close-up scan of a comic is a better way to capture the positive and negative features of a book, particularly the corners and edges. This is where a great deal of the initial wear of a comic happens, and the tougher buyers are looking closely at those corners and the spine for signs of wear. You'll see some comics images are scanned, but cropped to eliminate the corners - beware of these! If you're books are in really sharp condition, I would recommend a close-up scan to show it off properly. As far as lots go, you can do alot with HTML these days. Check out the link to one of my closed auctions for ideas. Happy selling and all the best, Ron
I can really see the difference! Looks like I'm going to be scanning them since most of them are in really good condition. I'm hoping to get started on them next month.
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