PhantomStranger

Know the key issues of the era because that is what the store will be looking for in your collection. Whatever they offer, it will be for those issues and the rest will be dumped in quarter bins.

slop101

Nah, we've had people put functioning TVs and other shit out on the curb and no one picks it up - they all end up going in the trash. Guess it depends on the neighborhood.

Josh-da-man

I don't have a HA, so no problem there. We do have to buy a large item tag from our waste disposal company. They pick up trash on Friday mornings, but I can leave a tv out at the curb Wednesday morning and someone will stop and load it into their car or pickup before the garbage truck comes. On the off chance someone doesn't take it, I'll just take it back into the house until the spring or fall clean-up week.

BGPu

From my experience you'll probably get offered $10-20 a longbox. As others have said, if you have anything you feel may be notable - point it out and you may be able to get more.

TheDude

Exactly. I started collecting comics again in the early '90's (after a hiatus of about 5 years), though I had 0 interest in Marvel comics at that time. So I was going to comic stores on a regular basis, and I remember all of the alternate foil/cardboard covers & #1's at the time (X-men, Spider-man) - suckers paid good $ for them, thinking they would increase in value overnight. Thankfully, I never bought into that & never spent any $ on those pieces of trash.

These days, most of those '90's comics aren't even worth the paper they're printed in. They're only good for two things:

1) Toilet paper.

2) Lining the bottom of kitty-litter boxes and birdcages....

PhantomStranger

Marvel and DC were literally selling more comic books in the speculator market of the early 90s than the number of actual people interested in comics.

It was propped up by collectors buying multiples of every issue. I'll admit to ending up with extras of virtually every "big" issue from the era. Stores would order enough supply to get the rare variants.

The market was a house of cards always ready to implode.

TheDude

Yes - pathetic. A lot of collectors/fans unfortunately wasted a lot of $ on that garbage - expecting it to be worth a lot of $. I wouldn't take any of these comics if you gave them to me for free.

I wasn't even too impressed by the Image comics from that era either - they were passing themselves off as being "original", but the art/stories were just in many cases clones (or at least very similar) to Marvel comics at that time.

whotony

I'd be thrilled if I could get 20-25 cents average per book for my collection.

mrhan

I think that's doable but you still got assholes that will still try to lowball you.

List them on Craigslist and let us see what kind of response you get.

whotony

I keep finding things I forgot I had like these signed books.
Signed by the art team minus the colorist

Josh-da-man

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of where a lot of the early 90s boom comics ended up.

There were some collectors who were speculating, and buying up multiple copies of comics.

But there were also a lot of fly-by-night retailers who popped up in flea markets, pushing enhanced covers, Image, and Valiant Comics. And sports card dealers were also jumping into comics, seeing easy money.

I would bet that a lot of the "hot" comics of that era didn't make it past the retail level and never even got into the hands of consumers or collectors, and there are unopened boxes of this stuff piled in warehouses and buried in landfills.

PhantomStranger

I think a lot of the inventory ultimately ended up in landfills.

whotony

Done.


http://orlando.craigslist.org/clt/5964105708.html

mrhan

Good list of key issues you have there.

slop101

Good luck, it's just that those books seem too new to move. Anyone who would want them, already has them, and most likely would want to sell them as well. $3K for 10K books might seem like a deal, but most people just don't want to deal with the hassle of lugging around and storing 33 long boxes. If someone had $3K to spend, I can't imagine they'd buy this, even if they're fans, Me, I'd blow it on a nice guitar - easier to store/transport and it would actually appreciate.

Sell the few desirable books you have individually, then give away the rest to a library or a kid's home. You might be able to claim it on your taxes as charity, which might get you better return than selling them would.

whotony

I actually did get an offer for my asking price on that craigslist add.

I googled the guy and it appears to be a real person going by his FB page and some other things lingering
on the interwebs.

So I expect to speak with him tomorrow so we''ll see.

slop101

Wow. Nice. Good luck!

majorjoe23

I work in a thrift store and we only take panel TVs, anything else will never sell. I'm trying to get the donation truck drivers to bring me a CRT so I can test older video game systems,

Trevor

Wow! That's about triple what I expected. You either lucked upon the deal of the decade, or we're never going to hear from you again.

mrhan

I didn't expect that at all. At least you will be getting a lot more than dumping them at a comic store. I hope the deal happens for you. Good luck.

The Valeyard

It's probably a producer from Storage Wars looking to fill a storage bin for an upcoming episode. "Look at all these comics!"

DVD Josh

As soon as the per issue price went over $2, I got out. I just couldn't justify spending the money for a 20 minute read (if that). I was shocked to see the cover has gone to $5 on alot of mainstream books. Holy hell.

Trevor

Most modern superhero comics are a 5 minute read.

Yeah, $4 or $5 is crazy; heck even $2 is crazy for me. I'm still able to buy pretty much everything at $1 a book or less, just have to be willing to wait a couple months and hit the dollar bins, and/or digital sales. Most stuff I'm able to buy within a few month of publication. Once that dollar price becomes too hard to maintain, I'll be out too.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, I did, too. Price went up to $2.00, everyone started flooding the market with crap, and I cut back big time.

If I'm paying $3-4 for a fucking comic book it had better be brilliant.

So now I'm down to select titles by Gaiman, Moore, Morrison, and a few others like Saga and Walking Dead.

slop101

Most of the Omnibus books I buy come out to around $1 to $2 per issue (I never pay close to retail for an Omnibus like I have to do for floppies - $50 to $60 for a 40 to 60 issue book). And those are over-sized, hardcovers, with better paper and no ads. (not to mention, easier to sell off if need be) Tough to go back to floppies when you get used to that.