Hi!

I recently came across my comic collection from years ago and, despite the nostalgia, was hoping to put them up for sale to someone who would get more use out of them than I. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find some sort of price guide, and I'd prefer not to sell them to a comic shop for $0.10 a piece or improperly list them on eBay for 1/10 what they're worth only to have someone buy them up and sell them for 10x as much. So, I was hoping for some sage advice from the resident experts here... I've attached some pictures, if that helps in your advising. One problem is that out of the 81 comics, there are quite a few different series, so I'm not sure if I should just go for one big lot or separate things out. I'm also not too sure how much to ask, or if I should indeed just try to sell them in a comic shop, etc. Hopefully with your superior knowledge and a look at the comics below, you can help me find a happy new home for these guys. While some of them seem like I'd be lucky to get a nickel or dime for them, others appears as though they could be quite rare and/or valuable... Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide!

Off the top of my head, none of those appear to be very valuable. Most appear to be from the early to mid 1990s. Honestly, you'd be lucky to get a dime for them at the comic book store. I recently tried to get rid of lots (as in groups) of No. 1s, gimmick covers, and special issues on eBay and most of the auctions finished without a bid. I was asking for 50 cents with $3 shipping for about $12 in cover value worth of comic books too. Most were from this era as well. Again, I could be wrong, but I just don't see much monetary value here.

Thanks for the info, despite it not being what I was hoping to hear.

These are indeed mostly from about 12-15 years ago (with maybe 10 exceptions). The ones that seemed possibly noteworthy to me were...
Spectacular Spider-Man, Issue 200 (which has a reflective metallic cover)
Web of Spider-Man, Issue 100 (which has a reflective metallic cover)
Batman Returns Movie Tie-In
Robin, Issue 1

And then a few of the Spider-Man and X-Men miscellaneous comics seemed pretty good. I guess I'll keep a few, see if friends want any, and maybe see if I can do some sort of art project with the remaining ones... some Spider-Man wrapping paper, I suppose.

On the bright side, I can look through a few of these without worrying about further decreasing their value, since they're not worth anything.

Value comes from older comics generally. Older meaning 1970 and earlier, maybe some from the 1970s.

Anything later than that is usually a "hot" issue that has demand.

Sorry to agree with the bad news from the other posters, but I do a lot of BIG comic cons, and much (all?) of the stuff I see there is readily available at many tables (including mine) for between 25 Cents and $1, if a buyer wants to take the time to paw through the unorganized longboxes. And they will, but a dealer won't give you very much for them; they take far too long to sell, if ever.
Not trying to threadcrap at all, but I wouldn't even take them for 10 cents each. Sorry.

It's Labor day. So I mean, worse case scenario you can use those 90's comics to get those charcoals going for your BBQ. Watch out that those foil and holographic covers don't get you a little high.

That issue of Captain America from Heroes Reborn with the female Bucky on the cover is probably worth the most, probably because most of the original copies of that entire run were torched.

Unfortunately the majority of the books you have there came out during the comic boom of the 80s/90s, they made ton of them and were putting out gimic covers just about every week. It really is sad when you see a $4 book you paid full cover price for and you can't even get 25 cents for it. That time period killed the comic book business and some 15-20 years later the comic business is still trying to recover but never will.

As soon as collectibles become widely considered "valuable," any new versions of that collectible become valueless. In the case of comic books, this happened sometime in the mid-to-late eighties. Older comics were originally considered disposable. Very few copies of individual issues remain. That is why they are now worth money. I'd imagine that the the exact moment collecting new comics became a money losing proposition coincides with the invention of "bagging and boarding." The death blow was probably the notion of the "collectible" foil and/or holographic cover.

Apologies for getting OT, but your post reminded me of this: Death Blow: When someone wants to blow you up, not because of who you are, but for different reasons altogether!

Since they aren't worth much, maybe give them to a kid you know? Might turn them off of comics forever, or they might get into the bright colors and explosions.

i recommend giving them away as well. Halloween is a great time to give away spare comics. Last year I gave one to each person dressed like a Superhero. Gave away about 50 or so. Getting the next generation involved is important to keep the medium alive IMHO.

Great idea on the Halloween thing. If I had trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood I'd do the same.

Hmmm. That's a good idea. I might give out some comics at Halloween myself. Some lucky kid is going to go home this year with a large run of Kickers, Inc in his bag.

But, but... what if he slabs some of them?

Good Christ, NOOOO!

Bunnydojo, looking over your pictures I did spot a few Deadpools. You might be able to get a few bucks for them, as they are becoming really hard to locate.

How many issues of Fantastic Four do you have?

The sad thing is regardless of the price, there are a decent number of issues there that I remember being fun to read and some runs that I remember liking.

Thanks for the ideas, guys (although I don't know how helpful the suggestion of starting a fire using them is especially when none of them contain Firestar ). Now that I've put more thought into it, I do know a couple of kids who might like the Batman or Spider-Man ones, so maybe I'll do that, and perhaps give them out when Halloween comes out as well. Nice thought.


Deadpool doesn't seem particularly kid-friendly anyway, so maybe I'll keep that on the off chance of it becoming valuable.

I think a lot of it has to do with the creation of the direct market, when comics moved away from newsstands and into the collector shops. That's the point where comics almost exclusively began to be sold to collectors and speculators. (This was also the time that gave rise to the TMNT and the black and white explosion/implosion.)

That's only sad if you bought them at high prices. If you bought them at cover price, and they are enjoyable to you, why lament it? I have several comic books I doubt anybody would want to offer me more than a quarter for each one but hell...I like them and I will hang on to them so nothing lost, and comics I enjoy to be gained!

But it's that kind of mindset that killed off comics...too many people buying them to just own them hoping they would go up in price (and clearly not you...you obviously read your comics to enjoy them) and when the values didn't sky rocket, people just gave up on them. You gotta be into comics to love them first. Getting high valued comics along the way is just one of the perks.

No, I think its sad because that era of comics may have had good stuff, its still when the industry killed itself. The one good thing about that is a lot of issues from that time are now available really cheap.

Sharing them with kids is a great thing to do. I remember my first comic that I remember closely. It was a Justice League issue where Blue Beetle was beaten to a pulp. Since then I was hooked. And even though that Justice Team line up may be the laughing stock of any line up, I still treasure it.

So share the books with kids and share the fun of comics!

The only thing sad about the 90's was the "exxxxxxtreme" attitude and the idea that those comics printed in the millions would ever be worth anything other then the enjoyment you received from reading them.

You should probably keep that issue of Captain America where he turns into Cap-Wolf. That kind of treasure needs to be passed down through the generations of a family.