Do you ever sell your old comics?

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Jabroniville
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Do you ever sell your old comics?

Post by Jabroniville »

I've found that the clutter in my apartment is rather easily taken care of if I just get rid of some books- my comics were starting to get past the "fits in one big & two small IKEA shelves" zone, and ended up requiring a banker's box and some Reusable Grocery Store Bags to be kept in check. And I find that the local bookstore gives me a bit for them they sell 'em for a buck each; you get half in store credit, and a quarter in cash- though now I'm just grabbing the cash, since I wasn't spending the store credit quickly enough.

Generally, I only sell stuff I KNOW I'll never read again... which is sadly quite a few books. Here's some rambling stuff from my thread:

Ninety comics for $22. Not that bad a deal, but it really brings to mind just how much I'd spent on those over time. Huntress & Power Girl was never a book I was particularly enamored with- not bad enough to outright cancel, but not terrific- it was always the very last book I read, to the point where the final stretch of nine issues sat on my "To Read" pile for literally a year and a half. But I figured "it's only $3 a month, it's perfectly okay reading, and it helps out my local store", so why not?

Of course, looking at 32 issues (some of which transferred over to Earth 2 at the end) at that price, and suddenly I realize that's $90 spent on the course of a run that was never much past "okay". Which is when I realize how ludicrous a comic book habit looks from the outside- 3-4 bucks an issue isn't THAT BAD, but added up over a couple years' worth of books, and it looks insane.

But yeah, I dropped off those (I barely read them the FIRST time; certainly not going to re-read them ever), plus the first Nu52 Birds of Prey, which ventured from "quite good" to "forgettable" to "okay-ish" very rapidly; first off, they made a big deal out of Starling for half the run, only to casually dump her as soon as a new writer took over- to the point where it looked insanely awkward and like Editorial forced someone's hand. Then they stuck Batgirl on the team to sell more books and give it some cred & history (despite her & Canary not having the same relationship as on the previous BoP where they became a tandem. Then they added- and I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS GUY, which tells you how memorable he was- an Asian Telekinetic in Bird Armor who had a thing for Black Canary and a link to their new recurring bad guys, none of whom were particularly memorable. Then they added the "Talon" character from Batgirl's solo book under Gail Simone. It's too bad, because the first issues of the book are decent, and the art was really pretty. But eventually the book became "obvious filler" and not that great.

Also dumped: the first issues of Suicide Squad & Static Shock (neither impressed me, so I didn't collect further- Static Shock in particular was a huge missed opportunity- a young minority hero with some name value, and they made a first issue that was complete impenetrable if you'd never seen the character before. The FIRST ISSUE.), the first seven Red Lanterns (which I'd forgotten I'd owned- it was basically seven issues of Atrocitus giving pretentious narration in an attempt to be "deep", so I eventually dropped it), and then The New Guardians, which I'd forgotten ever existed- essentially "One From Each Corps" teams up to do something, led by Kyle Rayner. It also failed to impress me, so I dumped it. Also left were some New Warriors comics I'd since collected in a trade.
Jabroniville
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Re: Do you ever sell your old comics?

Post by Jabroniville »

aaaaaaaaaaaaaand of course I was curious about Suicide Squad #1, since the guy at the bookstore was happy to see it, despite it being a comic that's only five/six years old, and of course it turns out the damn thing has sold for like 40 bucks on eBay. WHAT KIND OF MODERN-DAY COMIC IS WORTH THAT?!? I mean, so the Harley Quinn outfit inspires the one from the movie- that's all! They must've printed THOUSANDS of these!

Oh well. Not like I was gonna be bartering with sellers over it, or risking putting it up on eBay (especially with Canadian shipping prices).
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Jetstream
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Re: Do you ever sell your old comics?

Post by Jetstream »

I have in the past. I need to again. I've got... six long boxes, at least that many short boxes (probably more) and tons of comics stacked on shelves in places.

I've been sorting through them, but I've been slow about it. And the comic store near me went out of business, so I need to find a new place to sell them to.

There's a part of me that wants to stop collecting floppies and go to Trade only. But I can't bring myself to pull that trigger yet.

They're not accruing so fast now that I'm only buying Transformers, My Little Pony, and Sonic these days.
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proditor
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Re: Do you ever sell your old comics?

Post by proditor »

My collection was once up to 28 long boxes and 12 short. They are almost all gone now. I have about 6 short boxes of select stuff and that's about it.

I used to get a lot of questions about whether or not I cashed in on that sale, but then I point out that my comics were in reader only condition. So yeah....
Jabroniville
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Re: Do you ever sell your old comics?

Post by Jabroniville »

proditor wrote: Mon Feb 13, 2017 10:13 pm My collection was once up to 28 long boxes and 12 short. They are almost all gone now. I have about 6 short boxes of select stuff and that's about it.

I used to get a lot of questions about whether or not I cashed in on that sale, but then I point out that my comics were in reader only condition. So yeah....
haha, yeah, I think if you're in it to make money, you're going to be disappointed. To me it's just a little bit of extra spending money, which also helps clear out some space. Pretty much everyone I know has the same story- being offered a pittance for individual books.

Did someone buy the entire pile from you, or did you sell it piecemeal? How much did you get?
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Arkrite
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Re: Do you ever sell your old comics?

Post by Arkrite »

I rarely try to sell my books.
More often than not if I'm willing to part with them I'll give them away. Mostly I just don't want to see them go into the trash.
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proditor
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Re: Do you ever sell your old comics?

Post by proditor »

Jabroniville wrote: Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:41 am
proditor wrote: Mon Feb 13, 2017 10:13 pm My collection was once up to 28 long boxes and 12 short. They are almost all gone now. I have about 6 short boxes of select stuff and that's about it.

I used to get a lot of questions about whether or not I cashed in on that sale, but then I point out that my comics were in reader only condition. So yeah....
haha, yeah, I think if you're in it to make money, you're going to be disappointed. To me it's just a little bit of extra spending money, which also helps clear out some space. Pretty much everyone I know has the same story- being offered a pittance for individual books.

Did someone buy the entire pile from you, or did you sell it piecemeal? How much did you get?
I sold it in two lots, one of 10 long boxes, and then the rest. They all went to my local Comic Book store, and I took store credit for them. Basically, I loaded up a box with Trades, and when I walked to the front of the store, the owner looked it over, shook his head and said "I know that what we agreed on, but it's not enough. Go get a few more, fill the box." which is why I'll always recommend his store.

I honestly don't remember how much I got, but at the time, I was in decent shape and I could barely manhandle the box of trades, so I think I did okay for a bunch of books that went right into his "50 cent back issues" boxes. :)
Spectrum
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Re: Do you ever sell your old comics?

Post by Spectrum »

Yeah... that was one of my major concerns in my move at the end of last year. 18 long boxes, ~64 feet of RPG stuff. Sucked moving it from a second story apartment (with a long walkdown to the parking lot) to the second story of a house (with a long walkup from the street). I can say that I've enjoyed a lot of it in its time but yikes- how much money did I spend? How often will I go back to them in the future?
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
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