selling off comics: cla$$ic or humiliating?

I've got a number of eBay sales decidedly not happening, so I put some stuff up on the Kerraygueslist and immediately got an offer and hey! no postage. Also Kerraygueslist is awesome becuz there's lotsa dudes trying to sell their entire collection of sweatyballs comics for THOUSANDS of dollars, and I am selling a small selection of neatly organized sweatyballs comics for bargain basement prices! One dude is asking $100 for 65 early-mid-80s DCs, including Unknown Soldier, DC Presents and New Teen Titans.

I would buy some cheap original Uncanny X-Men issues that featured Kitty Pryde.

Ahem. Just saying.

humiliatingly classic. worse yet is giving 'em away to friends *gratis*.

Classic when you realize the space you're freeing up (and the back strain you're inviting hauling long boxes all over the place when you move / reorganize furniture / set up play forts etc). Awesome dud when you realize how LOL the collectors market actually is and you end up selling hott books for less than cover price. Dud when you're kinda attached to the books in a nostalgic my-childhood fashion. Though I'm saying this as a guy that sold EVERYTHING eight or nine years ago (via eBay and one comic show), and ending up re-entering the hobby a year or two later and am now planning a more exacting purge.

That first sentence makes more sense if you know what I meant to say.

I need to do this. I have 4-5 longboxes from my 1983-1993 heyday that haven't been read in a long long time.

Ditto, with my seven longboxes. I never bought to collect and/or profit, but to read. So the money loss isn't that big of a concern. I've been thinking about giving them to my 8 year-old nephew in a few years, but am a bit worried that would be overwhelming, and divert from all the outdoor fun he enjoys.

worse yet is giving 'em away to friends *gratis*.

that's way better than selling them. i've been doing that and (shhh) throwing some away.

Yeah, I pulled out my complete run of Nexus a few years ago and pushed them at my daughter and said omg you gotta read these, and it took her a year or so to get past initial resistance. I think she read the first 50 or so and then said "you know, these are fun and all, but that's enough."
xpost

i've been doing that and (shhh) throwing some away.

o_0

I'm finally not breaking out into hives when I hear about this sort of stuff, but my book-anal packrat tendencies still cause me to flinch whenever I contemplate just junking shit.

i realized that i never re-read them and i just want as few things as possible in my apartment these days. i need to find somewhere i can donate them, though.

It's a reach, but what about a battered women's shelter? If they have kids, comics might be an escape from the chaos they're experiencing. Better than a Goodwill, imo.

I love giving away shitey old comics I don't want anymore. And I always find takers!

I might give some comics to kids at Halloween this year if I can find any that are tame enough not to bring down wrath of parents.

oh good idea

I will buy full longboxes for twenty bucks a pop plus postage. I read and give em away. Inquire within.
I really need to post some photos of my multiple walls of comix one of these days.

Probably moving in six weeks to a house smaller than my current apt (but CHEAPCHEAPCHEAP rent and a yard), so naturally I'm whittling down what I got. Anybody interested in runs of Johns Teen Titans and Winick Outsiders? Busiek & Pacheco's mostly really good Superman? 65 lbs of Showcase Presents?

selling em off better than losing track of em after parents' stormy divorce and always wondering how much that run of early claremont/byrne x-men stuff was worth

I will buy full longboxes for twenty bucks a pop plus postage. I read and give em away. Inquire within.
I really need to post some photos of my multiple walls of comix one of these days.

― forksclovetofu, Thursday, October 9, 2008 8:51 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Or possibly better offer. Doc, where you at again?

vancouver

what's shipping a longbox from there run?

to where? pricey, regardless.

New York City.

Breadth of the continent? What's a longbox ideally hold? 300 comics? Not worth the postage. I was quoted something like $30 for shipping two Showcase Prez books during my eBay selling fiasco.

fair enough.

Were I ten years younger, I'd have roadtripped up to get 'em. As it is, I have comics of my own to get rid of.

Were I ten years younger, I'd finish my degree (any!), start socking away money, and own a house with ample storage within ten years. And also not waste time with shit mid-00s DC comics.

hear hear

what has two thumbs and will probably never read all these Gotham Central trades ever again?

Actually, GOTHAM CENTRAL and the early issues of CATWOMAN are back on my "to read sometime" list.

Oh, and I have ample storage, only I'm never going to read the comics I have in boxes again, and they're...basically worthless...

But they didn't seem that way at the time.

Argh, so my mother-in-law thinks I'm an expert on selling things. She's always trying to rope me into helping her sell her old stuff and I have to keep explaining to her that I'm honestly the wrong guy. This time she's dropped off an old shopping bag full of musty comics from the 50s and 60s. Some Classics Illustrated, some Twilight Zone, some old war and horror comics, and an old Superman or two. Some of these have covers, some of them don't. None of them are in perfect shape, but I also have zero knowledge about comic grading.

Before I haul these to my local shop and see if they have any use for them, do you guys have any pointers about getting rid of the must? Even if the shop has no use for them and I end up keeping them, I don't want to keep a musty bag of comics around.

Comics without a cover are worthless (unless we're talking Spider-Man #1 or something, and even then...) Anything complete and in reasonable shape should be put into a new, individual comic bag, which will definitely help with the musty smell. If the horror comics are 1950s, pre-Comics Code titles then they will almost certainly be worth something - again, depending on their condition obv (it's worth remembering that a grading of 'good' actually means the comic is in pretty poor shape.) Look out for comics partially detached from their cover, comics where the centre pages are loose or partly loose, or where panels have been clipped out or written on in some way - all things that will significantly lower the value of a comic.

Thanks Ward!

My aunt recently asked if I was interested in a handful of longboxes from her friend who was cleaning out a storage locker east of Portland (mostly '90s stuff, mix of DC/Marvel/other, that her son didn't have time/interest in claiming). After the initial collector/new reading urge passed, suggested she'd be better served donating them to a charity, like Ronald McDonald House or some sort of shelter for kids. Tax benefit plus good vibes. She ended up doing that, which is cool.

Yeah, it's pretty much the only advisable route re: getting rid of comics these days. Nothing is worth anything unless it's really old & rare.

I don't remember the exact figures but in conversation with a used book buyer, bookstores typically pay 10-20% of what the book will resell for, so if you can find an industrious ebay-er who is willing to sell everything for you for half the proceeds, it's still a good deal. If you have some gems, it might be worth taking to a store who is willing to send them out to CGC to be graded.

nothing is worth sending reading material to CGC to seal into tombs

I'd also be very careful about what '90s material I donated to children, but I'm a moralist prude iirc

I could probably trade my lifetime accumulation of tens of thousands of dollars worth of comics in for a pretty sweet home entertainment system or something. HD-ready, 5.1 audio, the works.

I'd also be very careful about what '90s material I donated to children

yeah for real

Please, for the love of god, let the children familiarize themselves with the normal parameters of human anatomy before exposing them to those twisted masses of overly-crosshatched flesh.

did you say that in a crypt keeper voice?

re: donations, prison book donation groups like superhero comics and graphic novels. I sent off 250 to one here in TX a couple of weeks ago.

they have content rules so I just left out anything rated mature or parental advisory just in case

Thanks for that additional idea!