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hey comic book collectors
I need your expertise. The guy next door is moving out. He's having an estate sale today. This guy is a very nice guy, keeps to himself but we have occasional conversations. He's eccentric (sp), odd, 60ish years old. Anyway, he has a collection of comic books, 3 boxes, at least 1000 books. At least 50% are still in wrappers. They're clean, dry dust free, blah, blah, blah. Is there any way to put a value on this? He's not a collector, he bought out inventory of a closing comic store. He's never looked through the boxes. He wants $300.00 (firm).
Those of you that are into this kind of collecting, and have a knowledge of this. What would you do? Should I run away? I'm thinking at the very least, I can get my money back by reselling as is, or do a little investigative work and I might make a little profit. What do you think? I told him to hold the magazines for me. |
Great thread on a football Sunday.
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That's way too much to spend for possibly no value.
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Take a shot and buy them. I bet you at the worst, get your money back. At the very worst!!!! |
The guy I work with has one comic book worth 30k.
You never know...do it!!!!!! Does he have baseball cards???? |
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This also depends on when the store closed down. Was it recently? The comics probably aren't worth much of anything if so. |
I bought them. One box has at least 300 - 400 books, all in store packages. I just pulled one out with a store price tag of 22.50. It's a DC BATMAN SWORD OF AZRAEL. Oct 92. I got me some googling to do. I feel like
Sheldon. By the way, my wife and daughter are leaving the house in 30 minutes. I am recording the game and will crack open an ice cold Arrowhead sparkling water with lemon in 30 minutes. In the mean time, it's all about these books! |
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At least you get most of your money back reading material. But a lot of comics from 90 to 00 are worth less than their cover price. But go through each one and see and check print. |
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You won't go wrong buying comix in wrappers/good condition for $1 each - but don't expect to pay off the mortgage. If you sell them 1 at a time you get 'full value' but if you go sell them to a comic store, you'll get a lump sum. It may be higher than you paid but don't be insulted if they offer less. Just go elsewhere. Your best marketing scheme is probably to figure 'full value' then go offer them for a little less at comic collector geek shows. You can write off the vendor fees on your taxes if you jump thru some legalese hoops. Again, might be worth it. Plus hey...you get to read 300 comix! Win Win! Now, go watch some football.
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check ebay is wizard still pricing comics? |
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off the subject, but wizard changed their format a few years back. went to a coffee table book setup (does that even make sense).
they still had decent articles, etc, but they really scaled back on their price guide. i quit reading shortly thereafter. good luck with your purchases. |
Buy them if you like comics and want to add to your collection. Don't buy if you're looking to turn a profit. 99% of comics made after 1990 are worthless.
By the time you price them out and sell them, you could have made more money mowing lawns. |
Scorpio beat me to it - discount everything after 1990.
So comics are generally broken down into a few 'ages'. The 'Golden Age' had its heydey in World War II, and lasted through the 50's, though social pressure really hurt the business then. The 'Silver Age' started in November of 1961 and ran through the early to mid 70's (the exact end is up for debate). Comics from those ages are generally going to (generally speaking) be worth something, more if they are in good or great condition, a lot more if they are the first appearance of a major character. The 'Bronze Age' then runs up to about 1990, and they (with only a few exceptions) are probably worth something as well. After 1990, the industry turned to s*** and only comic shops with a lot more space than inventory will even look at them. Let us know what you find! |
I've got so many comics in my walk up attic I could build a second garage with them.
Due to the mans age due to the fact hes taken care of them and how many you say are there I'm sure you'd at the very least break even. I'd love to help you further but knowing whats actually in the boxes of course is the important part. I'm going to go run up to the attic and make sure the wife hasnt gone thru with her threat of tossing them out the window or burning them in a fire when I'm at work.... |
Except that Bogey said the old man bought them from a collapsing comic shop, rather than saved them up himself. That makes me think they're unsold inventory, which (to be honest) does not fill me with a lot of confidence.
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If you don't like comics and are only interested in the possible financial value, then you are going to need at least a few of them to be worth a lot. If you get 1,000 comic books that are worth $2 each, that might sound like a great deal at $300, but it'll take you FOREVER to sell them all. The time, hassle, shipping, etc may make it not worth it.
If there are 10 of them that are each worth about $40-50 though, then obviously it would be worth it. |
List some titles and issue numbers and we can talk. I have 1,000 of 50s and 60s books.
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buy it
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If they are pre-1980ish, you might have some value. If it's 80s-present they aren't worth much or anything.
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I sell comics at conventions as a hobby. You need to spend around .10 cents a book to make a profit. Most books from 1990-current aren't worth anything, and they'll be the .25 cent books I sell at conventions. There are notable exceptions such as New Mutants 98 (First Deadpool) and pretty much most of the Walking Dead books. There are some others, but it's most likely crap.
edit: .10 for most books...obviously things like Amazing Fantasy 15, ASM 1, etc you will be spending more than 10 cents on. |
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Sounds about right, when I sold all of mine (a number of long boxes full of 80s-early 90s) I got about $.30 a book
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Don't trust the price tag that is on those books. In the early 90's a ton of people hopped on the comic book train thinking they were a decent investment. Prices were pretty high on stuff at that time because of all the new speculators and Superman died, Batman got his back broken, etc.
So Sword of Azreal Batman might have sold for 22.50 then, but maybe not so much now. To find out the value, you could buy a pricing guide, go through each of your newly acquired comics and check them, then cut that in half, and you MIGHT get that much for them. |
If you aren't getting any return on your investment and you don't want them for yourself, you can also ask a children's hospital if they would take donations in the form of comic books.
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If he's a collector, those things have definitely been picked through, You should pass.
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