Ignorance in our hobby can cost you a lot of money.  Here are some of the most common ways to sell your books.  Even many veterans of the hobby fail to realize all these options, so knowing them will give you an advantage when it comes time to selling your comic books.

Selling Comic Books on eBay

 

eBay.  The most popular method of selling comic books is in my opinion the most passive.  Sellers describe the product before a sale and mail the item after the sale. On eBay, the buyer does most of the work. They have to conduct the correct searches to find products.  Then when they do find the product it now becomes a beauty contest between all the items that came up on that search.  Price, Seller's ratings, and shipping are all used against the sellers. Competition is fierce. The buying population may be bigger but so are the product offerings.  Unless you have a book that is rare or hot, selling on eBay for top dollar is not usually the end result. You can use tools like the one offered at GoCollect that markets your online offerings on eBay but sadly most sellers never do anything to market their books and just follow eBay's basic template.  The problem is eBay makes the sale process so easy you lose money in sacrifice for convenience.

 

Comic Book Auction Houses

A step above online auctions is selling your books at auction houses. Most of these establishments combine an online auction component with onsite bidding for their auctions.   The more work an auction does for the sale the bigger the percentage that they will take.   This is because some of these companies may also assume the risk for the sale.  If something is damaged in shipping or a buyer disputes the sale, then these companies will handle the problems for you.  Finally,  the sales figures for some of these auction houses usually are not reflected in the data mined by GoCollect, but sale prices at these establishments are usually higher than similar auctions on eBay.

One negative is finding these auction houses.   Even if an auction house sells comics that does not mean it is a comic book auction house.  At these non-comic book auction houses, the comic books are poorly kept, displayed, and may not even be properly identified.  These establishments rarely attract serious buyers and high bids. Avoid them like the plague!!!

Quick Cash at Your Local Comic Book Store

This is one of the easier ways to sell your books.  You go to the local comic book store and the owner reviews your comics and makes an offer.   So what can go wrong with this sale?  Well, first the going rate is usually 25-50% of the FMV.  The owner will probably also limit the books he buys to the ones he knows he can sell.  Stores are in business to make money.   This means that the LCS will be very choosy and pick from your collection the best of the best and leave the rest.  Selling the savaged remains once a collection is picked over is not going to be easy and what you will usually get is a half penny on the dollar type offer for the remains of the collection.

 

Maximizing the value by private sale may not be a good thing!!!

 

The final method is with you conducting the sale.  You can do this at a table at a comic con or on the internet.  Selling this way will require you to put in the most work.  The benefit is that you can wring every dime you can from your books.

One negative to this type of sale is something I have dealt with at my day job. When I was handling criminal cases I met many criminals.  I learned most potential victims fail to realize that when you show the bling you are liable to get a sting.  If you make yourself known to a certain criminal element and talk about what you have they can track you down.  People brag about their assets not realizing that they are putting themselves in danger.  You would not brag that you had a hundred thousand dollars in untraceable dollar bills in your house, so why would you tell a person that you have a hundred thousand dollars in untraceable comics on you or at your house. If you choose this method please be safe.

Final Selling Point

Eventually, there will come a time when you must sell your books.  This can be one book or your whole collection.  Each method has benefits and drawbacks. Choose what is best for you but always remember that comic books can be replaced, but there is only one 10.0 copy of you in the world.