Thanks for that advice. My dad has been really hesitant to sell them, not because he doesn’t want to get rid of them, but because he simply didn’t know the best way. I’ll suggest E-bay and waiting until wintertime. Are there any other auction sites that might be a better bet? Or even a straight up auction house or something like that?
A comic store will maybe give you 25% of what they’re worth. At best. (Much less if they can get away with it. For example, if you don’t have any idea what your comics are really worth.) It’s understandable. They have overhead, and they have to make a profit.
If you have high-end comics, and you want full value (and if you are willing to devote the time), eBay is the way to go.
The first thing to do would be to have these comics professionally appraised for condition:
Once the condition is accurately known, he’ll have the information he needs to get an idea of what they’re worth. Something like Amazing Fantasy #15, if it’s in decent condition is worth a bundle. The Amazing Fantasy listing at Comics Price Guide shows that a 9.4 (Near Mint) condition AF #15 having a value of $72,000, with a note that says, “A CGC 9.4 sold for $210,000 in 2007”. This is where having CGC grade the comics is pretty essential - the serious collectors will (likely) accept CGC’s evaluation and your dad won’t have to worry so much about buyers wanting to examine the comics themselves, especially since trying to sell them over the Internet would make that difficult.
D’oh!, I wanted to post this, Curses, foiled again! <BAMF!>
That’s very expensive to do, and generally not worth it unless the comics are in pristine condition. A CGC grade of “Good” really doesn’t help you. CGC grading really only adds value on the high-end of condition (Very Fine to Near Mint to Mint) and very very few comics of the age you are talking about survive in that condition.
For lower grades, you can accomplish the same thing much cheaper by providing large, clear scans, and describing all defects. Then let the buyers judge for themselves as to grading.
It would be worthwhile for you to pick up a copy of the Overstreet Price Guide. Read the section on grading and common defects. This will help you better describe the condition of your comics. (I wouldn’t try to ascribe a grade to them in your eBay listing. That will get you into trouble if your buyer disagrees. better to just give a good scan and describe all defects you see.)
Valid points. I certainly wouldn’t have anything in my collection graded by them, though in my case it’s simply because nothing in my collection is old or valuable enough to make it worthwhile — my most valuable comic is a 9.9 “mint” (my own evaluation) copy of Uncanny X-Men #266, wherein Gambit makes his first appearance, currently valued at $93.60.
That said, even a less-than-perfect copy of something like Amazing Fantasy #15 is going to be worth something. A rating of 9.4 (Near Mint) is considered “new condition”, as you would generally find a new issue on the shelf at your local comic shop. I would guess that something worth $72,000 or more at 9.4 is still going to be worth a modest chunk of change at 5.0. If nothing else, an accurate appraisal is good to have should you wish to insure the comics (I’ve included my collection among my assets for the purpose of my renter’s insurance). Even so, I’d reserve the grading for only the most potentially valuable pieces - not an entire collection, unless of course the entire collection consists of potentially valuable pieces.
Give 'em to me… I’ll sell them for you. 
Here’s the problem, though (if you’re going to sell on eBay):
The folks at CGC are exceedingly tough graders. So you might send them what you and I (and most collectors) would call a 5.0(Fine) or better comic, and it may come back to you graded 3.5 (Very Good minus) or worse. This happened to me with several of my own comics. I spent a lot of money only to have CGC downgrade my comics and significantly undercut their value.
I sold the better part of a large collection of older comics on eBay, and I had much better luck just listing comics with good scans, and honestly describing the defects I could find. The average collector tends to grade comics more leniently than CGC, and so the average collector, seeing a good scan of a nice-looking comic, will often give you a higher bid than you would get if the comic is CGC-graded as Good or Very Good.
Because of this, unless the comic is in truly pristine condition, I wouldn’t recommend blowing a bunch of money on CGC grading.
Now I’m wondering if I should bother getting my five Gretzky rookie cards checked.
And I guess my stacks of 1980s Spider-Man and Superman may as well just go to my nephew, with a few minor exceptions like Spider-Man #252.
I should also add that in my opinion, selling comics on eBay is only cost-effective with comics worth at least $15 or so. Otherwise, between the time you spend creating the listing and the fees charged by eBay and PayPal, it ain’t worth it. (At least for me. If you have a lot of time on your hands, it might be another matter.)
With comics worth less than $15, I think I would just list them in lots of three or more.
<johnny carson>
I did not know that!
</johnny carson>
I didn’t say that you should sell the good stuff at the comic store. I’m saying that the guys at the comic store might be able to help you sell your stuff. If it’s the real good shit like you say it is, they’ll be… well, interested. Be polite, be interested, be aware that you’re clueless, and let 'em talk. Hell, they may even sell 'em on consignment on Ebay for you, and you’ll get a better deal with an existing name rather than a new unknown name for something that rare… people will think it’s a scam.
These are comic shop guys, and you’re talking about the heart of comics.
I think if someone e-mailed you a list, you’d know on some level if there was anything in there you wanted to see in person. A thousand pristine Archie At Riverdales are harder to carry around than a dozen pre-1965 Fantastic Fours and Spider Mans of any condition at all. I think you could tell from a list if it was worth their making a lengthy drive or not.
Possibly, but they definitely couldn’t make an offer or an estimate. If it was older stuff like in your example, I’d sure they would have been more receptive than if it was for a bunch of '70s and '80s stuff like in the OP.
They also are wildly inconsistent graders. Some of the shop’s customers felt this was the case based on several books that came back, so one guy sent the exact same book through twice as an experiment. The same book got graded about a point and a half different with absolutely no changes to its condition.
Plus, CGC traps the book in a plastic coffin. It fails to be a comic book if you can’t look at the pages. You might as well print out a copy of the cover and frame it.
The owner of the shop my husband manages (one of a chain of three stores) is a serious Golden Age collector, past-president of the Golden Age Society, and has been quoted in the Overstreet Guide, so we saw a lot of rare, high-grade books come through and dealt with many serious collectors. I know a lot of dealers might not be so scrupulous, especially when dealing with high-dollar books, but from what I observed, the owner was always fair and honest about what books were worth and what he was willing to pay a seller for them. If you can find someone like this to deal with on your Amazing Fantasy and such, do it. But eBay probably is a better route if you’re not sure about a dealer. At least then it’s all in your hands, and you can always place a reserve on a book to make sure it doesn’t slip away for a ridiculously low price.