Where Do You Buy and Sell Your Comics?

Hemos asks: "I've been collecting comics for almost two decades now, and have been looking around for some back issues that I've never been able to find in the local shops. I'm also looking to sell some of the comics that I already have. Any recommendations for the good places online (or offline) for buying and selling comics?" Come to think of it, so would I!

Comments

Editorial Fiat

[Cliff]

OK, just to beat some of y'all to the punch.

<COMIC BOOK GUY>
Worst. Topic. Ever.
</COMIC BOOK GUY>


Please take this humor in good spirits. Move along, now. ;)

[Yes, I do expect to be moderated accordingly...]

Re:Editorial Fiat

[Anonymous Coward]

FUCKER. Took my angle...
Okay, sosuretryebay.

Re:Editorial Fiat

[Apreche]

yeah, this probably is the worst topic ever. Try a local comic book shop lately?

Re:Editorial Fiat

[mbadolato]

Try a local comic book shop lately?

Read lately? They said:

"and have been looking around for some back issues that I've never been able to find in the local shops"

umm it's thanksgiving...

[shaitand]

We're supposed to be giving thanks for OSS software and bashing microsoft until we eat. Not posting cheap classified ad's to slashdot to sell our comic books. Bad dog, bad.

Re:umm it's thanksgiving...

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

What's with the Crowley quote? You do know, don't you, that that guy was a drug addict, a rapist, and a con man, right? I mean, you're not exactly associating yourself with credibility here.

Then again, I kind of imagine ol' Aleister as being kind of like Groundskeeper Willy from that Halloween episode of The Simpsons. "Boo! Augh! Bleah! Uh-- oh, stop! Aw, I left ma' gun on the seat. Stop! Uh... wait here, please." (runs off)

Re:umm it's thanksgiving...

[shaitand]

so... what's your point? I don't really care if I'm credible, credibility is defined by the opinions of other's, the only one I'm concerned with on the matter is my own ;)

Re:umm it's thanksgiving...

[Twirlip of the Mists]

so... what's your point?

My point is that people read your sig, know where it came from, assume that you also know where it came from, and then reach the conclusion that you are either a complete moron, a precocious but disaffected teenager, or, more likely, both.

If that's fine with you, then by all means, go right ahead. But in the meantime I will hold on to my impression of you as a mouth-breathing fifteen-year-old who read on AOL that Crowley was a Satanist and whispered, "Kewl!"

Re:umm it's thanksgiving...

[shaitand]

I admit, I was actually more in the area of 13 when my interest in crowley first emerged, although he wasn't a satanist. He also wasn't a rapist, he was a homosexual. As for drugs, there is no evidence I've ever heard to support this. These are misconceptions from someone who has obviously only read those places that say he was a satanist (ie conventional religious sources).

I actually find some of his ideas (though they aren't really his they've been around a very long time) interesting. That particular sig is a remnant of an idea I once toyed with that since we are after all inheriently animal and are programmed by our experience, instinct, and possibly dna, that in reality, just like with animals. This would obviously mean, that most of our stigma's, moral's, and inherent beliefs that boils down to someone saying "it's just wrong" or "it's the word of god!" are obviously falacies of those who enjoy some sort of self importance.

Re:umm it's thanksgiving...

[Twirlip of the Mists]

This would obviously mean, that most of our stigma's, moral's, and inherent beliefs that boils down to someone saying "it's just wrong" or "it's the word of god!" are obviously falacies of those who enjoy some sort of self importance.

Congratulations. You've discovered that there is no natural-law basis for behavior. Pat yourself on the back.

But don't break your arm. This "insight" is blindingly obvious to anybody with the slightest intelligence, and it doesn't serve any useful purpose. The world works better with rules for behavior-- morality, ethics, laws, etiquette-- than without. There's no natural law that dictates that I should say "excuse me" after I burp, but I do it anyway. Why? Because my world is better if I do; in this example, "better" means fewer people think I'm an obnoxious ass, which has all sorts of obvious benefits. That's the same basic principle behind all of ethics, although there it's applied on a grander scale.

I would suggest that you put this little insight of yours on the shelf and move beyond it. Living in a modern (i.e., "crowded") society, this idea is of no practical use to you.

Re:umm it's thanksgiving...

[shaitand]

Whether or not the world works better with rules for behavior is debatable. Whether it is neccesary to adopt the rules of behavior that exist in an imperfect world is another matter entirely. In any case, to answer your question, yes my sig is a quote of aleister crowley. No I'm not a teenager but I was when I gave crowley and his beliefs of "will" significant thought. Both in the sense he was using it, and in the more obvious interpretation I gave you a simple thought chain for. It's my sig, get over it, move on with your life. Or if your so concerned with my sig that you actually feel the urge to say more about it. I'm glad it's somehow caused a reaction, that way it's more than something I decided to fill in because I was bored at work.

Come again?

[theridersofrohan]

Come to think of it, so would I!

What you say????

One word

[dpoulson]

Ebay!

Just look under collectables, there's approx 7000 entries in it for the uk alone!

Re:One word

[jbolden]

Just to add to this.

I agree completely regarding ebay. A knowledgeable seller can often sell for close to or more than what it would cost them to buy a replacement. Make sure to figure out by looking at past auctions the best way to raise revenue: that is high finally to break up the comics. Take into account shipping and hassle.

For example you might find:

whole collection will go for $20k
import series DD $1-285 will go for $2k each
series as individual issues might only go for $1k each and take hundreds of hours.

Batman

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I've been thinking about getting rid of some Batman comics I have from the late 80's. You know, the "Death in the Family" set, "10 Nights of the Beast", "Gotham By Gaslight", stuff like that. The prices on ebay don't exactly excite me enough to start an auction, so they just sit in a box unread. (Well, since I read them initially, they aren't sealed or anything.)

flea market

[den_erpel]

OK,

Let's start off that I'm talking about the European situation here (Brussels and around).

The best place for finding comics that were missing from your collection (particular edition or so) used to be flea markets before they caught on. Now, I have the impression that, if you are not there at 8 o'clock or so, you can only find rubbish.

This way, I was able to find a number of comics with the old "newspaper" look (Actually, Jommeke, mainly because they were missing from my all-newspaper-look collection nrs 1-96 IIRC).
The same for Tintin (or Kuifje) in an older 'Flemish' edition (As opposed to the newer 'Dutch' editions). And yes, we were reading them before that Spiel-guy got interested ;)

If you are very lucky, you might still find something there if you get there early.

There are a number of comic book stores that do second hand comics, which might give you the possibility to complete your collection at a fair price (to my experience, these are also getting more rare).

If you are very lucky you'll be able to get your hands on some old editions by asking around to friends and family. It's amazing what ppl have stashed away in their homes (e.g. 1st edition Nero's).

Comic books in the Bay Area, CA

[MoodyLoner]

M4d pR0Pz to Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz. My wife and I have been buying comics there for ten years, even after we moved over the hill. Joe worked a mail order deal for us, he probably can for you too.

Contact information is at the Atlantis site

Sell... them?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who does that?

Conventions.

[Baloo Ursidae]

I buy my comics close to exclusively at conventions. I tend to only like a few obscure titles, so I get by damn well at Conifur.

selling is hard

[ghostlibrary]

Hi,

Selling is hard-- most folks want the 'valuable' issues in your collection so, after lots of sales work, you'll be stuck with, oh, 95% of your comics and all the really good stuff missing. That's the worth of both worlds, really-- still stuck with boxes laying around but no good stuff hidden in it.

In "Comics Retailer" a few months back, there was a great bit from a comic book shop owner on how he buys comic collections-- by the pound, $1/pound. "But I have X-Men 128! What's that worth?" '$1/pound'.

Rather than cherry pick collections, evaluate quality, etc, he just made the simple business case-- take it all at a fair price. I wish he was in this area. It'd be nice to regain storage space.

Mycomicshop.com and WizardWorld.com both profess to be comic-specific sales sites, you might want to try those. I plan to, once I get organized enough to sell my back stuff.

eBay

[iosphere]

Nuff said...

Seek Global, Support Local

[afabbro]

For back issues, the Internet is your friend. rec.arts.comics.marketplace and eBay. They're certainly the cheapest. Post a WTB (want to buy) in rec.arts.comics.marketplace. Comic book conventions are also a good place to check, though this is more like panning for gold. Now, I happen to like panning - flipping through those 50-cent long boxes to find something I would have paid $10 for to finish a run ;)

Another resource is ComicFind which is a sort of Google for back issues...no really, check it out.

There are some big stores (e.g., Mile High) that sell back issues. I just dealt with Impulse Creations and was pleased. There's also Comic Link, which hooks up buyers and sellers - they are slanted towards Silver/Golden age.

As for selling, forget it. If you have some genuine key issues (hey, Fantastic Four #1 is always in demand) or a very limited number of hot issues, you may have something worth selling. The back issue market is dead, dead, dead and has been for many years.

Tangent: After the bubble of the late 80s (when stamp, coin, and trading card collecting also became hot as baby boomers reached nostalgic middle age and began spending their money on teenage memories), the market collapsed. And since the new comic book market was already in severe decline (as kids found video cames, computers, and a million other things were preferable to $2.50 comics), lots of shops closed and dumped their inventories on the market. End tangent.

Of course, the price guides are pure fantasy - check eBay's finished auctions or RACM for real values. As a collector, this is great for me - I buy and never sell ;)

I would give the required pitch to support your local shops. I've lived in four cities in the US and in each one I found Ye Olde Comic Shoppe, with a veteran behind the counter who was happy to talk comics, suggest good titles, heck sometimes even let you try a book or two on a trial basis. I buy the few new books exclusively from the local shop. There's a store about a half-mile from my house that sells trading cards, Magic cards, games, and oh yeah a few comics...I'll gladly drive to the other side of town to go to the place run by the guy who loves comics. At least in his store I sometimes see kids ;)

Oh, and re: back issue value, local shops also may be willing to take your back issues on store credit (trading) which will give you more value (if they have what you want, of course).

Excelsior!

worst episode ever

[farnsworth]

worst

ask slashdot

ever.

Where can I *sell* comics?

[Wolfger]

Depending on what you're looking for, I would be happy to part with my back issues that are collecting dust, and my wife would be very happy to be rid of the lot of them.

As for where I buy them, I currently am subscribed. I don't buy back issues at all, ever. (well, okay, I shelled out for Wolverine #1 way-back-when since my subscription started on issue #2)

I don't sell 'em (yet), but here's how I buy 'em

[jht]

I've been collecting for a little over 20 years (since I was a teen). I used to buy primarily from actual stores, now I buy mainly from Federation Comics - they used to have a retail store but now they're just a cyber-only shop. For fills and back issues I mainly go to Harrison's Comics in Salem MA (I don't think he has a website), it's convenient to me and a pretty good shop.

I also really like New England Comics (the company that brought us The Tick), but all their stores are fairly far away from my home - I used to go to their Norwood store regularly when I worked there. Million-Year Picnic in Harvard Square is good, too - assuming they're still around (rents there got pretty nutty since the last time I went there).

I'm not so sure on selling. I virtually never do - I even built a storage room for my collection when we were doing some house renovations this year. I like to fantasize that my collection will pay for our dream vacation house some day, but it's likelier that our six-month-old will just find them and chew on them instead.

Mile High Comics

[l1ghtfoot]

You can try Mile High Comics. I've found them to be pretty helpful at rounding out my collection.

wizardworld

[mauztek]

www.wizardworld.com good online place where i've sold a few of mine.