I’m seriously thinking of selling my original issues of Ultimate Spider-Man. I’ve been watching eBay, and the whole run has been going for between $400 and $500. That’s a nice chunk of change, and I have no problem taking the money from speculators.
What do you think? Should I, or shouldn’t I? Convince me.
Basically, I’ve got this big box of comics, and really, I’m not going to read them again. If anything, I could always pick up the trades later on. But basically, I’ve got a box of cash sitting my garage, don’t I? I do have comics I’m not going to sell, but frankly no one’s buying. But with this title, there seem to be a bunch of people willing to spend the money, so why not make them happy?
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Okay..frankly, I think you should sell your collection.
Yeah, we might get a few posts saying ‘WAIT UNTIL THE VALUE INCREASES’, but lets face it: This isn’t the 90’s anymore. Frankly, no one cares about the prices on comics anymore. Sure, MAYBE the value of the first print Issue #1 will go up in a few years, but is it really worth it to gamble? The series may hit a downwards spiral, wherein Ultimate Spider-Man #1 may reach the notorious price that Darkhawk #1 as ‘achieved’. But seeing as how an entire run will go for 400-500, and in all honestly you COULD buy the trades for somewhere in the range of 100-200 bucks? (Or get them in a digitally stored form on your harddrive *cough cough*) That’s still a 200 dollar profit. And with so many titles coming out of Infinite Crisis, and with the upcoming Civil War, this extra 200 would leave you some breathing room and let you experience some fresh titles, such as Superman, Blue Beetle, or the entire Civil War drama. Or hey, if that’s not your way, you could use that 200 to buy all the issues of ‘Y the Last Man’ or ‘Jonah Hex’ that are bound to come out within this year.
Of course, it may be in best interest to sell all the issues MINUS these two current deadpool ones, or just wait until the 100 mark and sell that lot. Whatever you choose to do, it’s gonna be a good decision. Personally, I would sell that lot because Marvel puts out trades all the damn time…It’s not like these issues are going to be lost.
I think waiting until 100 is a good idea. Looks nicer in a posting.
If you sell just avoid ever checking on the value of the collection again, that way you will never know what you could have gotten if you’d waited. Ignorance is bliss after all.
I’ll never forget the horror of my Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie sale.
$19 cash in high school. Actually, it’s not much more than that now, but for a while in the middle there it was much higher.
You could wait till #104 to pass the Lee/Kirby numbers. Big deal? No, but there are people who will pay an extra 20-30 bucks for some record thing like that.
Personally? With the trades as easily available as they are with USM? I’d do it in a second. Maybe wait till issue 100 just to have that as a nice round number to advertise.
Why dont you get them “Slabbed” by the CGC first? Triple/Quadruple your return 😉
If I had more free time (or any free time, really), I always thought I’d start converting most of the single comics I had into trades. Those that are available in trades, anyway. I’d keep the ones that meant something to me, obivously, but there’s no reason why I need JLA: Year One in single issues when I could just have a nice trade on my shelf instead.
Sell them and then buy the hardbounds that have the nice dvd-like extras. Also, the trades are devoid of the stupid ads you guys rail on in the podcasts.
Those are my boxers, bub.
I do fancy the nice hardcovers all the comic comapanies have been putting out – I picked up Vol.1 of Ultimate Spider-Man for my wife to read a few years ago, the oversized heavy stock pages andthe extras do make it a tempting alternative.
You’re surprising me, all.
So the consensus seems to be, go for it, but wait a few more issues. Hurm.
And I wouldn’t slab them, even though it would make me more money because I hate the idea of that, and I wouldn’t want to pay them a cent.
I say sell them. If you don’t have any attachment to them, then go for the cash. Aren’t most of the Ultimate titles collected in trades anyway?
I have a similar problem. I have to have somewhere between 3000 and 5000 comic books at this point. Most of them are Marvel and DC titles from the 90’s through today. I have some that are special to me (you will have to pry my Darkhawk’s out of my cold dead hands if you want those), but a lot of them I am never going to look at again. I certainly do not want to throw away any comic books, but how can a fanboy unload his collection that large? I’d like them to go to people who would want to read them. Does anyone have any suggestions?
If you are looking to make money, don’t sell them to a comic book store. They generally buy collections in bulk for nickels per issue. Unless you’re just looking to unload them and don’t realyl care about the money aspect.
eBay might be the way to go, but it’s a lot of work and there might not be any kind of market for a lot of the early 90s books.
I really do feel like at some point in my life I will systematically sell off my single issues and use the money to buy replacement trades. I just haven’t figured out when that will be yet. Maybe the next time I get laid off – I’ll have time then.
Hey, I saw Hulk 181 in a shop the other day going for ~$1200. I bought mine back in 1982 for $35 at a convention in Charlotte, NC. It was in my collection that I traded away. What a Bummer! then I thought, If I had that book today, would I sell it? The answer is most likely not. Just knowing it had that much value to others would just make me want to keep it that much more.
But then again, Ultimate Spider Man? I think I might sell them…. But wait until they are worth $1000 or so… ;-).
what they’re “worth” is a relative thing. Wizard says they’re worth about $800.
People are willing to pay around $400 on eBay, so that’s really what they’re worth in the real world.
But if you think about it, let’s say there are 100 issues at $3 each, that’s $300. So you’re almost getting them at cost. No real value added. But, like Dave said, I’ve got thousands of books, and I don’t have enough time in the rest of my life to read through them again. I have a box or two of stuff that I want to keep, but unfortunately, I think that early 90’s stuff is nearly worthless to anyone else.
I do know one year I tried to give comics away to kids at Halloween, and they couldn’t refuse them fast enough. Oh well…
I can’t believe kids were refusing issues!
I was thinking of dumping the younger reader stuff I have at the childrens hospital my girlfriend works at (assuming they let me). See if I could create just a couple more comic book fans. I still think it would work, heck who needs a super hero more than a sick kid. Do Marvel and DC do much of this sort of thing in the US?
They’re only worth what someone is willing to pay.
So it looks like the collective vote is too sell it! And fuck slabbing them. That just encourages the medium that comics are only worth something if they’re SUPER PRESERVED. My comics are simply bagged and in a long-box, and that’s good enough to me. I seriously doubt that when I sell Infinite Crisis 1-7 in a few years, people will refuse it because it’s not CGC graded.
And little kids could care less about comics, Josh. They want candy and crazy cartoon crap that requires no brain function whatsoever. But as long as we’re on the subject of converting kids to comics, I actually converted my little sister to comics. One day at one of my comic shops (I have two main ones), the retailer noticed I was only buying Marvel books. He gave me two teen titans issues for free, and after I read them, I wanted to try and wean my sister off of that Japanese crazy comics (some are good, but it gets annoying when it’s all she talks about). I gave her the titans, and lo and behold, she’s subscribed to ‘Teen Titans GO!”. Looks like you can convert people.
Alas, Marvel and DC don’t attempt to give away comics anymore to convert people. Sure, there’s still Free Comic Book Day, but rarely any little kid is going to know the location of a comic book store. Remember when they put comics in Cereal Boxes, or bundled them with an action figure? I think that was probably the most effective means of spreading comic fandom.
I remember a story about a local guy’s collection being donated to a library after his death. They were comics from the 30’s that I do not believe would be open shelf material. They were probably archived and rarely see the light of day, but at least they are preserved for posterity. Now I doubt anything that I have from the 90’s would be worth saving for future generations and I have thought that donating to different children’s hospitals would be a good idea. I would say at this point I am leaning towards keeping a small amount for myself and donating the rest to some children’s hospitals.