Alright, so hypothetically speaking here. I might have just recieved boxes and boxes of old comics. Now, truth is that I’m not much of a comic book fanatic. I read them growing up but I never really got into the culture of it. Hypothetically that is.
See, my grandmother used to own a book store in Tampa and she hypothetically could of possibly left me several thousand old comic books. And theoretically, were they in great condition, would pay my college tuition and a down payment on the house.
Now unfortunately (and hypothetically still) these books aren’t in the best of condition. The quality ranges from utter crap to good, maybe.
So now for the theoretical possibly interesting question. What exactly should one do with all of these? Most of these are out of collector’s quality range, and it’s a lot to sort through. Is an Ebay store in order to try and sell them? Or should I look for collectors and see what they find?
In the Detroit area there’s a store that buys comics by the box. They look at a few and estimate the value of the whole thing. You could call local coimc shops and see if they’ll do that.
The Ebay thing might be fun “Comics Grab Bag! 5,000 comics, mystery titles!”
I think a number of comic fans might take the chance, but the shipping cost would probably be pretty high.
I’d sort 'em by title and issue number and pick up an Overstreet or similar price guide. It may take a weekend or so to go through the collection, looking for an issue that might potentially be worth a few bucks. Put anything valued under a buck in stacks of ten and sell 'em as grab bags, as described above, or hand them out to neighborhood kids.
ronincyberpunk: I’m sorry to learn of your loss (assuming that I’m interpreting your OP correctly). I’ve been a Tampaniac for several years now, and I’m trying to think of now-defunct bookstores with large comic selections that I’ve patronized over the years. The name of your grandma’s place didn’t begin with an “M,” by any chance, did it? Just curious.
In any case, I’m also interested to find out what your collection may hypothetically contain, so feel free to shoot me an e-mail as well when you get the time. I’m especially interested in late Silver/Bronze Age DC, horror comics, and any Disney titles you might have. I’m also remarkably indiscriminate as to the condition of said books, so if you have any left over that you think are otherwise unsaleable, I’d still be interested to see what’s there. I’ve been known to grab up discarded comics blowing around by the side of the road.
If they are really trashed and not especially valuable (which is usually the case for old comics) you could explore loaning them to nieces and nephews. Comics back then were far more focussed on capturing children’s imaginations.
One thing which you’ll notice is that there is a small market for individual issues of less popular comics. The big two have been pursuing an agressive reprint policy for their banner books, but a lot of less popular books get left by the wayside. So you end up with a 40 year old man who really wants to know how the story arc at the end of World’s Finest 46 finishes up. (What does happen with Superman’s and Batman’s kids anyway?) You can google for collectors sites and trade sites pretty easily.
Ebay generally does not succeed very well at this, because of the small window you have to sell in.
I would be a prime example of this market, as I ended up spending 3 dollars a couple years back on a book to find out how superman recovered from his death by fungal infection. (White Kryptonite kills all plant matter, and killed the fungus when his coffin went to near an asteroid cloud of it, I think)
In the meantime, be SURE and watch “Comic Book Villains.” It’s a hilarious movie with Donal Logue, Cary Elwes, Natasha Lyonne and Michael Rappaport, among others. And it’ll help if you’re having trouble staying awake nights …
Opps… not until just now, I’m afraid. Somehow I successfully managed to entirely overlook that last post. I assure you, however, that I had a really good excuse for doing so (holds up card that reads: “Official Card: Bearer Has Really Good Excuse”). I’ll peruse the contents further and contact you with my wish list.
