Collection Question...8640
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OGJackster private msg quote post Address this user | |
| What would you say the easiest and best way is to thin out thousands of books from a collection? And of course to get the highest value. One of my LCS said they offer maybe $25 for a full long box depending on what's in it. After laughing my ass off, I walked away. I've been solicited by a few auction houses but I just don't know if they would bulk them out. An eBay store sounds like a lot of work and I hate the thought of piecing them out for pennies on the dollar. Any other ideas? | ||
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 I had no way of knowing that 9.8 graded copies signed by Adam Hughes weren't what you were looking for.
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drchaos private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Pick out the best 10-50 books and take them to the auction house and see if they will take them on consignment.. Repeat until the auction house is no longer interested in the books. |
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SpiderTim private msg quote post Address this user | |
| nope. unless they are keys. you might fair better if placing lots on ebay but you still will get pennies on the dollar. | ||
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Chino24 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| $25 bucks per long box is kind of standard for most dealers. If you do that make sure to take out everything you know that is worth something. It's sad, but tons of people get overwhelmed with comics and don't know what to do with them or simply run out of space to store them, so they ended up selling them really cheap. Your best bet might be to group certain comics together, like all the Spider-man books, Batman books, Superman books, etc. Sell them in lots for like $1-2 bucks per book. You might be able to move them easier that way. Of course, it will also come down to their condition as well. Best of luck! |
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JMR private msg quote post Address this user | |
| What sort of books do you have? I’ve had luck selling on Local sales sites. I find collectors much easier to deal with in person... and they’ll usually pay far more than your lcs | ||
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 If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Having just sold a bunch of comics to my LCS, they are indeed only going to pay maybe a quarter an issue if you're offering them filler. They might give you a bit more for full runs that they can turn around and sell as a run. If you're offering $5 books and up and no filler at all then you should be able to get 50% or better. My LCS was also happy to do a trade but wouldn't do filler for a mega-key (e.g., there is no number of 90s X-Men books I can give them to get a Hulk 181). But I don't think they would have even taken my filler books if I wasn't also selling them some good books at the same time. Regardless of the actual numbers, you're making a trade. You're taking less money for offloading the effort of storing and selling the books. If you don't think the lower dollar amount is worthwhile, you're basically deciding that you would rather do the work. Even then eBay or auction houses are going to take their cut. The only ways I can think of to avoid fees would be craigslist (or your local newspaper, etc.) or Facebook. Even then you'll need pictures and will probably suffer from a smaller buyer pool. If you don't want to do all the pictures and whatnot to sell yourself, I would separate the good stuff (like $5 or $10 and up) from the rest and take it all to your LCS (or similarly call mycomicshop or another nation-wide 'LCS'). Get the higher number for the good stuff and take your quarter on the rest. If the good stuff is good enough maybe you can talk them up to 33 cents, which is still something if you're dumping 100s or 1000s of books. |
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michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Setting up at a small local con is an option. | ||
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doog private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I have the patience to list maybe 100 books a week on eBay, in lot sizes from 1-8, 8 being the cheapest books. So you could list 5000 books in a year that way. Auctions will sell, but usually you get less, buy it nows will sell, but takes longer.Take a bunch of $2 to $5 boxes to shows, you don’t have to individually price. The real crap I blow out 25 cents each, boarded usually | ||
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Kryptn private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I have bought a lot of comics off FB market place. Also local city group sales sites. No shipping so alot easier for both seller and buyer. | ||
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 It was a one trick pony show but always hilarious.
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GAC private msg quote post Address this user | |
| sell on this forum first | ||
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Darkseid_of_town private msg quote post Address this user | |
| When people sell here I try to to buy things that are of use for my collection | ||
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Drogio private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Here’s what I would do (not necessarily what you should do): Create an inventory of your runs and keys. It can be high level to start, such as “most amazing Spider-Mans 101-299, 301-343.” Post here and see what interest you get. Don’t try to list them all at once...add to the lost as you go; each time you add it’ll bring your topic back to the top and to everyone’s attention again to to see what’s new and still available. You can also post on Craig’s list...but don’t put too much faith you’ll get fair offers. eBay will take more time, as you’ll need photos. No auctions, just buy-it-now. So start with the keys and Be patient wih your keys. Drop the price gradually every so often if it doesn’t sell. Or just wait it out. Once you have your money makers on eBay, you can start to list lots/runs (harder to move multiple comics). I’d still do buy-it-nows for those too. Every month relist what doesn’t sell. If you exhaust your free eBay listings (no listing fees) for the month, wait until mid month or late in the month. eBay will likely send you promotions to list 100-200 auctions without listing fees. When that happens relist as many as you can. Never pay a listing fee. Only pay final value fees, unless you have a store and it’s with it. This takes time, but once buy-it-now auctions are set up and running they last 30 days and if they don’t sell it’s very quick to relist them...very little upkeep involved. Don’t try to list everything....go with your gut with what you think people want and list those first. Consider investing in comic mailers if you think you’ll do high volume. Otherwise be prepared,to spend some time cutting up cardboard and wrapping. If you’re only selling one per day or a few per week, it’s not that time consuming. This is the only way, in my opinion, you will get the highest return for your collection. If listing/relisting becomes exhausting, or you’ve sold all your keys/books of value, then maybe that’s when you take what’s left in long boxes to your lcs and throw in the towel. Or just offer what’s left to people here for $25 per short box. Some likely will jump on it. Good luck! |
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 Suck it up, buttercup!!
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KatKomics private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Could try selling full runs, full sets or lots with similar stray issues i.e. Web/Spectacular/ASM or Detective/Bat/LODK etc?? | ||
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KYoung_1974 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by KatKomics I've found that runs don't sell well, unless it's one with a nice key in it. For instance I flipped a run of Secret Wars and basically sold #8 and threw the others in for what amounted to a few dollars. I feel like most collectors are looking for those one or two issues they need to complete a run and don't want to buy the whole thing. |
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SpiderTim private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Drogio ebay buy it now listings are now forced to be good until cancelled so I would be careful of not getting slammed with listing fees. |
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Enelson private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by michaelekrupp I tried this, and have had varying degrees of success. I think someone posted about this in another thread- but really its all about how much your time is worth to you. Unloading bulk seems to be hard to get full value for. I look at getting rid of boxes now as "I read them, I enjoyed them, I have no space for them, whatever I get, I'll get" Sometimes it works out, others it doesnt. I traded a full run of hulk- 2000 series for a slabbed avengers 196 and about 40 store credit. I thought it was good enough...until devil hulk, pony hulk, hamster hulk, and hulkerina from the run all took off. The only way to EVER get all money back- and its not likely- seems to be to list EVERY SINGLE F@%*ING ISSUE on ebay or somewhere else... But...  |
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brandon77 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| "I would separate the good stuff (like $5 or $10 and up) from the rest and take it all to your LCS (or similarly call mycomicshop or another nation-wide 'LCS')" But what's the good stuff - how do you determine it's real-world value? You can have a group of mid-hi grade X-mens (200-300, no keys) and in Overstreet you'll see: Issue #___ 8.0 - $5.00.. While market reality you'd be lucky to get .50, right? |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by brandon77 I guess on the one hand it's only up to whoever you're trying to sell it to. If your LCS says it's a dollar book they aren't going to give you more than a quarter for it even if you think it's a $10 book. What I did was use mycomicshop (just because I'm familiar with them and they have a pretty extensive list of comics) to see what they were selling a book for and what they would buy it for if they were buying it. So they would buy some of those X-Mens for anywhere from $0.30 to $3.00 and sell them for anywhere from $1.50 to $10ish, broadly speaking. So I figured I could sell a bulk lot to my LCS for average $0.50 to $1 per book. To my LCS, that was optimistic because, like you said, Quote: Originally Posted by brandon77. mycomicshop must be able to leverage their customer base and existing storage space to list books for what they want to sell them for and just wait. If I sell more bulk stuff again I will probably do the same thing though, because you want to go in with a dollar amount in mind, but understand that I will get talked down. |
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KYoung_1974 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| My problem is that my LCS has been in business for almost 40 years. I've tried to sell books several times. The problem is that he has thousands of books in storage so he's not really in the market unless it's silver age or keys. And if I were to sell him those, I'm not going to get market value... I've stuck to ebay for most of my sales. And I'm to the point where the ones that have been up for awhile are about to be donated, just because I need the room. |
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OGJackster private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I've been collecting for almost 50 years now. The more I think about it, the more depressed I get about selling a long box for $25-$30 LOL! I'm not going so far as to call it a waste of time and money because I have had the joy and entertainment of saving and collecting them. But what a bummer! It's even worse looking at all of the current $4-$5 books where, for the most part, we won't see a return on those...ever! All of today's filler books are a big waste of money. This is kind of a reality check for me and makes me rethink how I move forward in buying books. For starters, I think for the most part its time to stop purchasing new books speculating that they will be valuable 40 years from now. As stated above, "ain't nobody got time for that"! | ||
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 Please continue to ignore anything I post.
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southerncross private msg quote post Address this user | |
| 5 years ago I had to sell my collection as I was moving from Australia to the United states.12 long boxes and I got about $25 a box. They had anything from X-Men 150-300 vg copies of first Black panther in FF and vg copies of Ironman 55 and flash 139. I did keep 350 books. Cream of my collection as that was what I could pack in 3 suitcases. Stuff like Avengers and JLA 1 and FF 4 ect. Since then I don't buy new books just buy collected stories on Kindle and old books a limited to cheap vg keys and when I feel like reading a actual book I buy $20 50s crime books. I sold a lot of good stuff for next to nothing. But as I said I had to locate to a different country hence the fire sale. But if you don't have to get rid of books quickly you can go selling them yourself. Even putting together runs and possibly selling them in comic book forums ect. Good luck in thining your collection. |
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OGJackster private msg quote post Address this user | |
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00slim private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I’d say, pull 20 books at a time from your collection & list them here for sale at your convenience. No fees beyond PayPal’s 3%. Just see how it goes. It’s a start. You have an AMAZING collection. I know I’d be interested in what you have. |
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 I live in RI and Rhode Islanders eat chili with beans.
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esaravo private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Make two for one trades and cut your collection in half! | ||
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Drogio private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by SpiderTim Wow, I just noticed a bunch of my expired auctions were re-listed. Fortunately I’m still,in the window of the promotion and didn’t get whacked. This is really stupid of eBay. They’re banking on people setting an auction, exhausting all their fees for the month, and forgetting to remove the listing. All this is going to do is make me list less items, which means less revenue for them. I’m sure others will follow. I would have rather see them raise their final value fees by 1%. Not sure what was broke with he old system. |
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SpiderTim private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Drogio if they had raised their final value fees that would surely have had a backlash on them. I would surely look for other options. | ||
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Drogio private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by SpiderTim Ok, but I’m not listing as much as I used to because it’s hard to manage cancelling BIN auctions minutes before it ends because I don’t want to get hit with a listing fee because I used up my allotment of free ones. Or I’ll when the standard “list 200 auctions with no listing fee” promotion comes out near the end of the month I’ll end all my auctions early and start them up again. But that is also a lot of work and will make me less likely to list as much as in the past. My guess is as people who have 100 auctions renew and get hit with $35 fee they’ll do the same. So what will ebay gain other than suckering people out of 35 cents here or there? |
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ThorneArt private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by SpiderTim I read about that "feature" they will automatically re-list all the auctions but you don't pay a listing fee UNTIL the item sells. So you will not get a big charge for listings. You will get charged a listing fee when the item finally sells. |
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00slim private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I was thinking about this question and thought I’d add to my suggestion to list here: if you list here, and something doesn’t sell, you’ve done a lot of the leg work already, and can easily list the books elsewhere for sale if necessary. You’d have front & back pics, a grade assessment, and a rough idea of what you want for the item. Store that info in a spreadsheet if a book doesn’t sell and you’re on your way. |
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JLS_Comics private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Tough questions, I guess it depends on how much work you want to put in. You could sell to your LCS but expect 10 cents on the dollar. You could sell as bundles or lots or even put together some "Blind Box" type sets. Set up at a local convention if you have any near you or, the most time-consuming, list them all up on eBay for your biggest potential audience. For the keys and such, i think you'll find some buyers here on the forum |
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