I have about 6000+. From the '60s to the early 2000’s.
Fantastic Four 15 thru 350
First appearance of Wolverine(Hulk 181)
Byrne era X-Men
All collecting dust in my basement
I’ve got quite a few from the 1960s to 1970s, about half of them in good shape.
I’ve got almost a complete run of the Fantastic Four from #1 to #300 and the first ten years of Conan the Barbarian, along with a lot of Marvel comics and DC from those years. Not to mention lots of odd brands like ACG, Charlton, Treasure Chest, and the like.
we also have my sister-in-law’s collection of 1970s-1980s comics in perfect condition.
Unless it’s a really landmark issue (like the very first, or one introducing an important character) and in almost mint condition, most of these are worth a surprisingly small amount. Even “landmark” comics like the Dark Knight Returns series or Batman – Death in the Family or the first Rocketeer story aren’t that valuable, it turns out. Comics from the later 70s, 80s, and 90s , even in really great shape, aren’t worth all that much (unless, of course, you’re trying to complete a series run. Then each issue seems to be at least $5, and that can kill you). So my sister-in-law’s vat collection in wonderful shape isn’t all that alluring to comics buyers.
So the main reason to collect the damned things is that you really loved them. Nowadays you can read most comics online. You can pay Marvel or Comixology for the privilege, but there are also places online where you can read comics for free, if you look.
So who’s had any success selling comics? Anyone had luck with comic web sites? Comic book shops? Or basic sites like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace?
I sold one box (actually a huge rubbermaid container) of my sister-in-law’s comics. But, as expected, it didn’t bring a huge amount. I haven’t tried to sell any of the others, which are now in a storage locker. If I tried to sell my rarer comics, I’m certain I could do so at a profit, but I’d probably have to have them graded and go through an intermediary.
I wouldn’t sell it either. Whatever the cash value I think it’s worth more than that as a piece of history. But I would want to preserve it. If you were taking it out of the bag anyway you could just grab your phone and take pictures of every page before sealing it in a slab, then you don’t have to feel like you can’t ever read it again.
I do have complete runs of the original Swamp Thing and Howard the Duck. My wife gave them to me for our first Christmas. But they aren’t pristine.
She went to the comics store with a list of what I had and asked to fill everything up. The store owner asked if they were for reading or collecting. She told him “reading.” The owner’s eyes lit up and he easily found the issues. Evidently he found them all; he probably thought he’d be stuck with them.
That’s almost exactly my history of collecting. After discovering eBay around 2000, I went nuts buying silver and Bronze Age books, including completing a run of the Fantastic Four from around 50 to the present. I also started spending about $150 a month on subscriptions, including the weekly 2000AD (Judge Dread) from the UK. That lasted about 12 years until things like events, renumbering, confusing plot lines, and, most of all, cancellation of The Fantastic Four drove me away from all but a digital subscription to Marvel Unlimited and online sites with public domain Golden Age scans. Now I have about 50 short boxes of potentially valuable paper collectibles I really have no interest in. It was always the stories, and they’re almost all available digitally at a reasonable price. Selling them is a chore not worth the return. If one of my friends’ kids showed the least bit of interest, I would dump the whole lot on their doorstep.
Big event multi-comic stories are the reason I stopped buying comic books. When Nightwing’s story line was interrupted because Batman needed something I decided I had had enough. I wasn’t interested in the Batman story line at the time, and, if I was, I would have had to purchase not only Batman titles but Birds of Prey and probably few others as well.
I don’t collect comics but my boyfriend and my brother do. We spend a lot of time on weekends hitting up different comic shops to see if we can fill in his Amazing Spiderman collection (he’s trying to fill out #1-300). He also likes the Robin series. My brother has a few odd DC series he’s in to so I’ll scrounge for books for his collection. He is only able to get to his local shop, and I’m traveling further out. We don’t buy anything over $20 usually. I do know that both of them read every book we buy.
Sometimes boyfriend will come in with a stack of books to trade for store credit. He has made a little profit on selling stuff he’d bought years ago in a lot.
Boyfriend and HIS brother did build quite an impressive collection of more expensive, rare books back in the 90s when they were teenagers with more money than sense. They’ve got some tens of thousands of dollars worth of rare/popular comics. “First appearance” kind of stuff. It drives me nuts because they’re both pretty broke now but they would never sell those books. Sentimentality or something. Argh.
Anyway if anyone has any Amazing Spiderman 1-300 that they’d like to part with, hit me up with issue numbers maybe you can make a sale 
Since no one has mentioned much of the mutants yet…I’ll point out for those that have random books sitting in the basement…the first appearance of Deadpool in New Mutants (A mostly unremarkable run) is worth a pretty penny.
I have some comics, but it’s really my Mad Magazine collection that shines. I had a subscription all thru the 70’s so I have every issue including all the specials (with stickers and posters intact) they’ve all been read, but they’re still in excellent shape. I should really get it appraised some day.
I have about 8 years worth of National Lampoon, beginning in 1973’s “If you don’t buy this magazine we’ll shoot this dog” cover, including Sunday Newspaper and High School yearbook. I think the only one I’m missing is the one that came with 3-D glasses, which my daughter surreptitiously sold off to a classmate.
Back covers unfolded?
Do tell, @Elmer_J.Fudd!
I like https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/ but that’s recent work, heavy on LGBTQ inclusion “and otherwise discrimination and harassment free”.
And I constantly check the free issues and sales at Comixology. A while ago they were selling almost every Marvel Masterworks for $3/ea. I almost went broke saving money!
Although nothing beats the smell of an old comic.
(I keep thinking the people at my coffee place must wonder what’s up with the old guy who stops every ten minutes to smell his reading material…)
My favorite place on the Internet: (Sorry, Dope!)
Helpful hint: When using this site, don’t download anything; just read the whole books using the preview button.
I collected every Marvel comic book I could find, back in the 60’s-70’s. I loved Thor, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Sub-mariner. I bought them all, 12 cents each. I was the only girl who liked Marvel comics (or any, AFAIK). My mother threw them all out, a huge 3 ft. high box crammed…Decades later, I hauled her tottering old azz around shopping at Target and so on, and we passed a table to t-shirts with the Hulk and Spiderman and so on on the front. I said, ‘do you see these? They’re the characters from those comic books you threw out. I could have been a millionaire today.’
Yeah, every once in a while I’ll say to my mom “Will you look at that, Spider-Man #13 just went for $1200 at auction…”
The sheepish look from the woman I’ve dubbed The Comics Ink-cinerator is classic.
Most of my comics are from the late 80s through the 1990s. Spider-Man, Batman, Nightwing, Alien, Spawn, Savage Dragon, Bloodshot, etc., etc. Last I checked, they weren’t really worth all that much. I had a lot more comics from the mid to late 1980s but I let a friend borrow them and he disappeared.
I’ve got the full run of “The Creeper” but not in the best shape.
I have a filing cabinet filled with comics from the early to mid-80s. It’s still in my mother’s basement.