I have a ton of comic books (maybe half a box full) from the late 80s early 90s. I think reading Noun’s thread, these are considered the shitty years of stupidly high prices for shit. Well, I have a lot of shit. And I’m moving What do I do with it? I don’t think my kid will be particularly interested in them vs. newer comics when he’s old enough (if at all), and I don’t really want to sell them individually, but will if I can get some money for them. I could also sell them in a garage sale.
What do I do with these?
I guess I can ask the same of my really old Magic: The Gathering cards. They’re from the 3rd or fourth edition.
I had two long boxes of late 80’s DC comics, Justice Leagues, Batmens, Ambush Bug, Mister Miracle…with a healthy smattering of X-men and New Mutants.
I just pulled out the ones that were obviously adult themed…Mike Grell’s Green Arrow, Swamp Things, Hellblazer.
Threw them in plastic grocery bags and dropped them off at the hospital for the kids room. I don’t even know if they actually used them or not. But the other options, straight tossing them out or trying to sell them (what? that sounds suspiciously like work) were both much less appealing.
I actually asked this question of iFanboy recently, what with me considering picking up the DC stuff and having nowhere at all to put these damn things when I’m done. The answer that I got is that you should do what you want to with them. For all that old stuff, I might consider checking to see if any of the libraries in the area would want to take them, or a children’s hospital, or an elementary or middle school in the area. If you don’t care about getting money for them, put it on eBay with a reserve of whatever shipping costs and let other people fight over the privilege of getting your junk.
As for selling them for an actual profit? I wouldn’t bet on it. The speculation market fell out from under comics, so the only people that will buy them from you are people who actually want the books. If you’ve got a shop in your area (or a Half Price Books), you might drop the long box off and ask if they want to give you anything for them.
I have about 10 long boxes in the basement, most of the comics are in less than mint shape, (I bought them to read). Most of them are probably not right for kids. I have some room now, so I don’t have to make a cull, but the day is coming…
I did have a huge stack of Richie Rich comics in terrible shape (worn, broken backs, no covers ect) that I kept in a box to give to kids. (“Chris Hansen! What are you doing here?”) I gave a bunch of them to my nephew who loved em and asks for more every time he comes over. He is the same age I was when I bought the stupid things.
Keep them around and put them in the guest bathroom for reading material. I guarantee you, they’ll be fun conversation starters at parties. “Hey, Eduardo, what the fuck do you have in the bathroom?”
And for serious, what about my Death of Superman comic? How many millions of people have those abominations?
This question comes up once every six months or so. Several people here, including me, have even tried giving their collection away to anyone willing to pay shipping/pick them up and received no takers.
I ended up selling mine on Ebay (via one of those Ebay stores because I was too lazy to do the heavy lifting myself) as “grab bags” with no reserve. I listed the date ranges and potential titles but made no inventory of the specific boxes. I think I sold about 14 boxes this way and got between $45 - $80/box for them.
One thing I considered was removing my favorite covers and having them bound into a book celebrating comic book cover art but this idea drew horrified gasps from comic fans everywhere and, in the end, I thought it was better to release them into the wild where they might be eventually be scooped up by an excited comic fan than to deposit their maimed corpses at the local recycling center.
I’ve got a near mint full 1st run of Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth, that was in a box I bought from a neighbor for $20 (he was moving to Japan). I see that they are worth something, but honestly, I’ll never bother to take them to the comic store (the awesome Excaliber here in Portland) or have the patience to ebay them.
Ebay’s got the black bag issue and the white bag issue bundled for less than 7 bucks. Then there are also loonies trying to sell it for 5 times that, so whatever works I guess.
I worked at a comic store at the time that came out, and I still remember the owner and his friends giggling maniacally about all the Superman #75s (the death issue) they were hoarding. Similar behavior occurred surrounding the white polybagged Return of Superman issue. I’d wonder how that turned out for them, but the number of them who fled the country hounded by creditors a few years later pretty much answers that question.
I can’t answer about comics, but I do know what to do with old M:tG cards from the era of 3rd/4th Editions. I had a nice collection of similar cards I sold a couple of years ago, and I was frankly surprised they were still worth anything. Turns out even through all the reprints and whatnot there is still value in some of the cards from that era (3rd, 4th, Ice Age, Alliances, etc.) that either didn’t get reprinted or are considered valuable because of the edition.
If you have an inventory of your cards in electronic form try sending it to places like CoolStuffInc.com and see what they would offer for it. I sold my cards to CoolStuffInc. com at a convention, and they gave me more than I thought I would get for them. Other online vendors try try sending your list to are GamingEtc.com and TrollandToad.com. It probably wouldn’t hurt to get offers from multiple shops and compare.
I just threw out about 1200 old Marvel comics. Just seemed like too much time and effort to bother doing anything else. It’s not worth hours and hours of time for a few hundred bucks.
Tried to find a recipient, but ultimately was just annoyed at stores just trying to cherrypick the issues worth more than average - if they weren’t going to bother with the whole lot, they I didn’t want to just enrich them.
