pricing my comics

[olgirl31]

I have just been given at least 100 comic books that are still in the plastic & never been opened. They date from 1980 to 1992 . I am trying to find out what they are worth. Is there a place online that has a price guide? That I can see the prices online & not have to wait on a book to come in.

[Crimson]

http://www.comicspriceguide.com is meant to do that... however it's just a guide. It's hard to know the proper conditions and while it may be valued at that price no one may be willing to pay that price.

An example if this is they have #1 of the Sentry mini from 2000 on there listed at $10. However I waited for the hyped to die down and got it for about $3.

A better idea is too look on ebay to see how much your issues are going for to get a feel for the demand for them.

[Tony Starkz]

Whatever it's guided at isn't always the price it will sell for.

Plus,it's a matter of what books you have.Just because they're from the 80s or 70s doesn't mean they automatically have value.

[ednemo]

Price guides are based on actual sales. Comic store to patron, physical auction, and online auction. At the end of the day it is only a VERY rough estimate. Hanging out at the comic store, I have seen numerous people come in with comics saying, "But Wizard said this comic is worth $40!!" Comic shops only buy comics if they are extremely valuable and even then you are lucky to get 1/4 of the supposed worth!

You have to sell to collectors, and unless you have something very old 50s-60s, or an early 70s first appearance. You arn't going to get much unless you find a soft-headed kid on the internet. I have sold tons of collectables on Ebay. My Star Wars Sears Cantana set went pretty high. A couple of random original Star Wars figures went fairly high. But the rest was sold in bulk. Comics as a general rule, don't go for very much. Anything mid-80s and above will not get you anything. I have Spawn #1 in Mint Condition bagged and boarded! And you know what the actual worth is? Not a damn thing is no one will buy it.

[K'Nort]

eBay gives you a pretty good idea of what people are paying for your titles, as well as how many other people are trying to sell the same ones. Also, see what your local shops are charging and keep in mind how much they mark that up from what they paid for them. But the short version is that most things from the 80s and up are in the quarter bins. The speculator market is busted.

[zzn]

Ebay is the real comic book priceguide.

[Gargus]

Ebay is the real comic book priceguide.

Not quite.

From sellers of equal feedback and such one person may sell something at 75 bucks while the other may only get 30. Hell last week I got a set of first print 1-4 batman dark knight returns for 19.99 and 4 dollars shipping that was NM in the mail and they are in great condition, I practically stole those for what most sell them at on there.

Or you get alot of people on ebay who seem to think "Dude, its the first issue it has to be worth alot". Yeah its a first issue....of Riptide, no one cares. Or for awhile when 30 days of night was really popular damn near anything that had steve niles name on it rocketed in price and after awhile it all dropped back down as his name wasnt said much.

While there are a couple so called "standard price guides" none of them are the same. And when you consider most people will never agree on what is considered NM and what is considered VF its hard to price comics really, the seller will always want more while the buyer will always want less. I know thats true in most things but comics are the great example of that.

The pricing of comics at one time was fairly standard but I think wizard helped to destroy that with their price guides. Since a great many comic people buy wizard and see how they rate a comic in price they think they can get it. But they just try and hype a comic is all based on who is popular at that point in time and I also noticed "new and hot comics" they have a sidebar on big prices are often times ones I get a email from the wizard store with a "deal" on.

Even online stores are hardly ever near the same price as the other. mycomicshop.com is a bit pricey on anything halfway decent while milehighcomics.com will gouge anyone. I was looking at iron comics at my local shop in back issues and I saw halle the hooters girl for like 25 bucks and I laughed. I got home and looked and found it was recalled due to hooters suing them for using the hooters name and logo. Out of curiosity I looked on ebay, 1 dollar was what most of the issues ran at and no one was bidding.

Ebay much like anyplace is to flightly and people make up their own prices there. Unless your holding a direct edition of ultimate spiderman 1 or action comics 1 then you can never tell exactly what youll get in terms of money.

On my final thought though I dont care what my comics are worth as I wont be selling them. I like my comics to much to worry about getting rid of them. so 1cent or 1000dollars I wont be parting with them. Much like my video games, Ive got a couple games worth 100+ dollars according to ebay but Im not getting rid of them. Maybe when I am old I might sell them, but only then it will be to a real collector so Im sure my effort wont be wasted and they will be taken care of after Im dead since I doubt Ill have anyone to pass them onto.

[karik]

I watch ebay for comics a lot. The thing about ebay is that it's a wholesale market, and as such, you aren't going to get full price there. That's why I buy comics on there pretty often, because there are great deals to be had.

Unique issues like first appearances or very old ones in great condition fetch good money on ebay. You can also make some good money if you have a long run of a certain comic - say 100 consecutive issues or something. But you probably will never sell your AverageComic #147 from 1982 for the Wizard price of $10. For one, there aren't many buyers out there for unremarkable single issues.

You can't use ebay to judge the price of a book, because it's volatile. One week there might be 10 people who want UberBook #1, and it sells for $50, the next week no one happens to be looking for one and it doesn't get a single bid.

Plus the true cost doesn't show at the end of the auction. Frequently, sellers don't list the shipping cost, list a ridiculously high shipping cost, or they'll have the "Calculate" button set up where they have said this comic weighs 20 pounds, to rake some more money out of you. As a rule, if the shipping cost is not listed or is too high, I won't bid even if I want the issue. It seems pretty deceptive to me, and if someone is already displaying that behavior, why would I trust them to give me a good transaction?

[freakna]

pricing comics can be a pain. i just pulled a box out of storage and i cant find any good sites. i tryed the site listed in this thread. it just over loaded my psp and it crashed. grr. one i cant find listed was teenage mutant ninja turtle #2, cant seem to find it any where. im actualy giving up on trying to price these things online.

[Kirk G]

Ebay is the real comic book priceguide.

Naw.... OVERSTREET is the real comic book priceguide...
Ebay is the marketplace....


PS: Do you have a master list of the comic titles and issue numbers to share?