The Situation
In 1985 I was stationed at Beale Air Force Base in California and nearing the end of my first enlistment in the USAF. I had a primo job working in the flight simulator for the SR-71 spy plane, and my childhood passion of collecting comics was just about the furthest thing on my mind. So when my best friend from high school, who’d been storing my comics, called to tell me I needed to find them a new home, it didn’t trouble me. For nearly four years he’d stored a dozen cardboard boxes full of comics in his garage, so I couldn’t blame him for wanting them out of the way. Four thousand comics take up a lot of space!
The Offer
That summer I took leave and flew home to Scottsdale to gather up my collection and find a buyer for it. My relationship with my favorite comic book dealer went back to when I was eleven and I felt certain I could trust him to offer his best deal. So I drove my comics out to his business in Mesa and dropped them off. I trusted him, after all we’d known each other for more than fifteen years.
A day later he called me with the amount he was willing to pay: $2,600. It was the best he could do, he said.
Needless to say, I was crushed. Among the comics in my collection was a mid-grade copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 and a higher grade Amazing Spider-Man #1. Those two books had been gifted to me by my father on the occasion of my 16th birthday. (That’s right, my dad gave me comics the year I got my driver’s license instead of a car! He knew me so well!) Also in that collection was a super-high grade Daredevil #1 (what we’d call a 9.4 or better today), Fantastic Four #1, 2, 3, 6, 8, etc. Avengers #1, Tales of Suspense #39 (first appearance of Iron Man), and so many more awesome keys. More than 4,000 books in total, the bulk of which I have only faint memories now.
$2,600.
When I think about it I still want to cry, and it’s been forty years. I was out of options. I had just three days to sell my collection and time was up. And no, $2,600 wasn’t good money for those comics back in 1985.
The Lesson
The thing about collecting comic books was, it never really got out of my system. As it turns out, the stories I read as a kid were full of dramatic tales of conquest (Conan the Barbarian), universe-spanning battles (Fantastic Four, Thor, Avengers), and some good-old home family drama (Amazing Spider-Man). The heroes of comics were my friends, and they never really left me, even if I left them for a time.
The point of all of this is to say I know what it’s like to sell a comic collection for fractions of pennies on the dollar. It hurts, I get it. I really do.
How to Sell a Comic Book Collection and Not Get Ripped Off
How can you avoid getting ripped off when you sell your comic book collection? Here are a few tips.
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- Know something about what you’re selling. Even if you’re not a collector yourself, it’s possible to gain some knowledge about what you have through online resources such as eBay. Pro tip: When checking comic book prices on eBay, be sure to check sold prices, and not the listing prices. There are a whole lot of inflated values on eBay, and sold prices are the only fair indicator.
- Take time to familiarize yourself with the basics of comic book grading and condition. I’ve got a page here that can help, but there are plenty of resources available.
- Accept that you won’t get fair market value (FMV). No matter how awesome your collection may be, a dealer simply can’t offer market value for your comics. Dealers are businesses with overhead in the form of rent, employees, insurance, utilities, etc. On top of that, comics that don’t sell quickly take up space which could be used to sell other books.
- If time permits, get more than one offer for your comics.
- If your collection is large, or if you’ve got a lot of high-value books, generating a fair offer can take time, so be prepared to wait. If you’re in a hurry, be prepared to take less money. And be wary of anyone who offers ‘fast cash’ and pressures you to make a snap decision.
- If an offer doesn’t suit you, counter-offer. Even if you’re far apart, counter. If that doesn’t work, remember it’s okay to walk away.