List of the 6 best ways to sell your comic books online and locally. Comic books are an essential part of many people’s lives, whether if it’s for entertainment, nostalgia, etc. People love to collect them. However, if you have a substantial amount of comic books, you may want to consider selling them.
There are plenty of motives you may have in regards to why you’re considering selling your comics. For example, you may not be interested in the content anymore, have more than you need to the point where they’ve just become extra clutter, or just need extra cash for whatever reason.
Selling your comic books isn’t as difficult as you may think it would be, even if you think that your comic book isn’t worth much or isn’t that popular.
Tips to Sell Your Comic Books Online and Locally
Here are some tips on how to have a successful selling process:
Organize
The majority of people won’t want to sift through boxes of old cluttered comics book to pick out the salvageable and valuable comic books.
If they are willing to do so, they will likely low-ball you in terms of the price. Therefore, you should make sure to have your collection organized beforehand. A good idea is to divide them by their titles and then arrange them based on their issues. You can also organize newer comics by arc if you’re trying to sell the entire storyline.
Don’t Commit Right Away
Keep in mind that stores want to make a profit. Therefore, they may attempt to low-ball you to maximize the amount of money that they can make off of your collection. While unethical, businesses aren’t always focused on the morality of their options.
So, while you should definitely consult with stores to see how much your comic books are worth and how much they’re willing to pay for it. You should compare their price with those of other locations.
Sell in Person
Working with a specific dealer to be able to get a proper assessment of how much your comic book is worth may be better than using an online marketplace such as eBay in regards to getting a good deal.
Sell Somewhere Legit
You may be eager to sell, which is understandable. But, you should also be eager not ultimately to get scammed. You wouldn’t want to lose access to valuable comics, especially if they had some sort of sentimental value in your life.
Therefore, make sure not to sell to that random guy in an alley. Sell to reputable sources. Check reviews. Ask for recommendations from people you know. Check this article.
Where To Sell Comic Books Online
1. Sell My Comic Books
Sell My Comic Books is best for a beginner comic book seller. This is because the site has various valuable aspects for amateurs, such as advice, appraisals, resources, etc.
Their service also has a large number of positive reviews and testimonials from sellers.
Pros:
- Rapid Service: You’ll quickly be able to learn how much your individual items or entire collections are worth rapidly.
- Entirely Free: You won’t have to pay for any insurance/ settlement purposes
- Quick Payment: You’ll get your cash immediately if you sell your comic books
- No obligation: There’s no form of pressure in regards to selling. If you ultimately decide to keep the comic books, then that is fine.
- Beating Prices: If you contact them after other you feel other dealers are looking to low-ball you, then you can tell them the price you were offered and they will beat the price.
2. Lone Star Comics
Lone Star Comics or MyComicShop.com is a low tech, yet pretty good service. In fact, this platform is one of the largest retailers that distribute comic books in the entire world.
They also have the useful resources that Sell My Comic Books have. They have even more, actually.
They are seemingly a very reputable source based on testimonials they have received from their sellers.
3. Sparkle City Comics
Sparkle City Comics is mainly for vintage comics (from the 1970s and prior); however they will purchase comics that came out more recently and other collectibles.
They prefer taking large amounts of content at once. Therefore, this is your best option if you’re trying to get rid of a lot of comic books at once.
4. eBay
eBay is a good option to use because you’ll reach a massive audience. However, it does take a bit of experience to be able to complete the selling process successfully.
For example, you need to have proper knowledge in regards to knowing when to begin and end auctions, what the starting price should be, and other related factors.
Pros:
- Quick: You’ll be able to monitor how many people are viewing/ potentially interested in what you are selling and the most recent price for your comic books
- Huge audience: There are over 180 million eBay users. Therefore, you’ll be reaching a huge number of people.
- Fun!: It can be fulfilling to view how many people are interested in your merchandise as you anticipate the ultimate transaction.
Cons:
- Time-consuming: For your listing, you’ll need to take a photo of and describe each comic book that you have so people can have a sound understanding of what they may be purchasing.
- Potentially confusing platform: If you’re someone that isn’t the best in terms of understanding technology or just don’t have much experience, some aspects of the platform may be confusing. For example, some of the settings and rules of the site aren’t the simplest. Therefore, you should make sure to study and or play around with eBay before selling.
- Shipping: Comic books, especially old ones, are particularly fragile. Therefore, they’ll need a substantial amount of protection during the boxing and shipping process. Also, once you’ve made a sale, you’ll likely receive many emails inquiring where the package is from the likely eager buyer. Therefore, you may need to consider creating tracking IDs.
- Returns: If you try and fabricate the condition of your comic books or whoever purchased it views the shape of the items differently than you, then you’ll have to deal with the return/ refund process.
- Fees: eBay does have expenses, of course. That’s how they make a profit. You’ll need to have a PayPal as well, which will also deduct a fee.
Best Ways To Sell Comic Books Locally
5. Local Classified Ads
To sell your comics, one option is to use classified ads.
Pros:
- Pricing: Putting your ad in the paper shouldn’t be too costly. In fact, you may be able to do so for free.
- Convenience: You won’t have to ship anything to anyone. It’s most likely that whoever is interested in purchasing your comic books will be a resident of your area.
- Speed: You’ll likely begin getting calls rapidly. If you notice that the calls are too fast, however, you may have set the pricing of the comic books too low.
Cons:
- Little to No Privacy: You need to reveal your personal information to a plethora of strangers. This includes your home address and your phone number. Keep in mind that not everyone has good intentions.
- Lowballing: A good amount of people that will call you will likely be dealers. They’ll try to pressure you into talking down the amount that they can purchase your collection for.
- Lower Prices: By using this method, you’re probably not going to get the highest prices that you possibly could other ways. While this is the quickest and easiest option in regards to convenience, it’s not the best option for your wallet.
6. Craigslist
Craigslist is an online marketplace on which you can both offer and pick up jobs and services. You can also buy and sell merchandise on the platform, including CDs, clothes, games, and comic books.
It is an extremely simple platform. When you want to sell something, you just need to create a post and people in your area will respond to your posting with calls, texts, or emails if they become interested in your merchandise. When you create a listing, you’ll need to add photos and descriptions of your products.
You have the option of selling your products individually or in bundles.
The amount you earn will be dependent on what you post and how much people are willing to pay. You may post a price, but you may ultimately need to negotiate. The best part is that you get to keep 100% of your profits.
When you complete a sale, you will then meet the buyer in person and give them the item, so that they can pay you in cash.
Quick note.. Some people give away free stuff on Craigslist if they are too lazy to sell and simply want to get rid of some extra clutter. This is perfect, because you can collect some free comic books to ultimately sell them and make a profit.
Keep in mind, however, that you likely won’t get super pricey comic books for free, but you’ll be able to make some sort of profit.
In fact, there are some pages on Craigslist meant specifically for dealing out free stuff, organized by the area that you live in.
These are some examples:
- New York Free Stuff
- SF Bay Area Free Stuff
- Boston Free Stuff
- Chicago Free Stuff
- Los Angeles Free Stuff
If you live in any of these areas, you should definitely take advantage and try and find free comic books in these links. If not, you can just search for your area.
Sell Comic Books Q&A
Selling comic books is an extremely convenient way to get rid of extra comic books. This way, you won’t need to continually negotiate in person.
You can make final calls from the comfort of your own home, making it an expedited and straightforward process. There are plenty of websites you can use to sell.
Are Comics Worth Anything?
Yes, comic books can definitely be worth significant amounts of money.
For example, for reference, these are the top most valuable comics worldwide:
- Showcase #4 – $179,250
- Action Comics #13: $185,000
- Action Comics #10: $258,000
- All American Comics #16: $203,150
- Avengers #1: $274,000
- Journey into Mystery #83: $275,000
- Whiz Comics #2: $281,000
- Fantastic Four #1: $300,000
- Captain America Comics #1: $343,057
- Incredible Hulk #1: $326,000
- Marvel Comics #1: $350,000
- Tales of Suspense #39: $375,000
- All Star Comics #8: $411,000
- Flash Comics #1: $450,000
- X-Men #1: $492,937
- Superman #1: $507,500
- Batman #1: $567,625
- Detective Comics #27: $1.075 million
- Amazing Fantasy #15: $1.1 million
- Action Comics #1: $3.2 million
Now, you may wonder why these comic books were so valuable that they were sold for this much. Well, the comic books are only as valuable as people make it. This means that the amount that issues are worth are based on how much people are willing to pay for it.
When old comic books originally came out, they were simply like any other form of entertainment for kids. Kids enjoyed them until they became raggedy and or fell apart, or they forgot about them.
Now, they’ve become like many other vintage items have become: collectibles. Many people are set on creating an extensive comic book collection for the sake of their own enjoyment. Others want to feel a sense of pride and or nostalgia.
How Do I Grade And Evaluate My Comic Book Collection?
‘Grading’ is the term used when evaluating the condition that a comic book is currently in. The grading works as though they are grades in school. For example, the higher the grade (A/ Mint), the higher the condition. The lower the rank (F/ Poor), the worse the condition.
Some factors that will be taken into consideration during the grading process are factors such as:
- Bends
- Tears
- Writing on it
- Discoloration
These are all variables that may make somebody less inclined to purchase comic books.
There are various ways to grade. For example, you can grade the comic book by yourself. Or, if you are more of a beginner, we recommend having a company grade it for you. A good option is the CGC company.
Comics Guaranty Company (CGC)
CGC (Comics Guaranty Company) is a business that will grade your comic book(s) for you.
How it works: You ship your merchandise to them or take it to a convention that they will be attending. Then, they will tell you what grade your comic book would be given. Next, you’ll be provided a protective sleeve to put on your comic books that will then be sealed. Doing this tells prospective buyers the professional opinion in regards to what the grade is.
This is a trusted company, so having their opinion can maximize your profit.
Cons
However, even this fantastic service has cons. Not every comic book is worth being graded by CGC as grading comes with a price. If the classification costs almost the same as the selling price, what’s the point?
If you know your comic book isn’t in good condition, you probably shouldn’t bother. Also, if you have a large collection, you don’t need to get them all graded. One or two should suffice, even if you have a large selection, as they should be in similar conditions.
Grading Your Own Comic Books
You also have the option of giving your comic books a grade on your own. Scrutinize them, and then you’ll be able to pick from the following list of grading terms to accurately describe the condition of your comic book(s):
Study the terms and then decide whether your comic book is the same as, better than, or worse than the description. If better, pick a term higher on the list. If worse, pick a term lower on the list.
Also, this should be a given, but make sure that the grade you give your products is as accurate as possible. Make sure not to fabricate anything, as you’ll face a lot of scrutiny and negative feedback from any buyers.
This will destroy any potential trust you could have created between you and buyers, even if unintentional.
Knowing how to grade comics accurately is useful to you as both a buyer and a seller if you ever decide to buy. This way you can call out any sellers that attempt to lie about how much comics are worth.
Sell Comic Books Conclusion
By now, we hope we’ve motivated you to go out and embark on a journey to get profit for your comic books. Do some research on the value of your comic books, grade it, and you’ll be on your way.
Now, even if one or two dealers try to lowball you, you shouldn’t give up on eventually getting the price you deserve. You also should never give in to low pricing, because that’s unfair to you and you’ll miss out on potentially large amounts of profit.
Selling can be a tedious process, so it can be easy to become frustrated. Hence why you can always get help from companies and should be patient.
Happy selling!
