Many new collectors focus on the accumulation aspect of collecting, but what about selling, should new collectors sell their comic books?

As a new collector, you want to amass a carefully curated and extensive comic book collection that brings you joy and hopefully value in the long term, so where does selling fit into this strategy of building a collection? Let’s take a look at the top 3 reasons to sell a comic if you are a new collector.

Speculation/Short Term Profit

Many experts in the collectibles and antiques industry will tell you that the value/wealth they have accumulated over time has not been through buying and holding like traditional assets (stocks, real estate, etc), but rather from the compounding of many short-term sales that are profitable. This is due in large part to the volatility of the collectibles market, which includes comic books.
Although we are in a bull market for comic books right now, that will change eventually, and when it does you don't want to be holding books that you bought solely to turn a profit on. It makes sense to sell speculation books when they are rising/have risen to a point where you will make a healthy profit. If it continues to go up, you might miss out on some profit but when it eventually goes down there's no getting that profit back (at least not for quite a while).

Upgrade

Do you own a graded comic book that is a key in your collection, and the value of that book has risen? Bringing up lower grade books, you may want to consider selling that lower grade to put the proceeds towards a higher grade. Many times the higher-grade books hold their value.  Lower-grade books are more volatile, depending more upon the popularity of the book. So, if a certain book becomes popular, you may be able to sell your low-grade copy for a higher price than normal. This helps to close that gap that usually exists between high-grade and lower-grade books. You could also consider trading it to a collector.  They may want to downgrade to take get money out of his key book.

Curate Your Collection

As many collectors know, when you are growing your collection you will inevitably happen upon some good deals here and there. You purchase them just because you couldn't pass them up, rather than focusing solely on your long-term goal. For example, if you are focusing on high-grade Silver Age keys but you happen to pick up a 1980s run of a book that is tied to an upcoming movie, you may consider selling that run or selling the individual keys from that run while the books are climbing in value so that you can use those proceeds to purchase another silver age key.
When it comes to your collection, only you can say exactly what fits. Still, having additional funds available for a key that fits within your collection is never a bad thing.
What do you think? Should new collectors sell their comic books? Let us know in the comments! As always, find what you enjoy collecting, do your research, and have fun!

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