Where to find old comics value?

Cleaning out the closet in a spare bedroom, came across a box of old comics I bought decades ago and had forgotten all about. Most are bagged and boarded, I guess basically "NIB". Image, Valiant, Marvel, Malibu, DC, Darkhorse, etc - a lot from the early '90's when Image first started up.

Where would be the best place to get an idea of the value of them? I don't expect any of them to be worth very much, but in the world of collectors, who knows? I'd rather sell the whole lot at once and not hassle with trying to get the best price for every single one...but also don't want to get low-balled by somebody who's going to turn around and flip them for a fortune.

Put 'em on eBay? Amazon? IDK.

Check with a couple local comic stores. Let them know that you are asking mutiple places for value estimates. 

I'd check out what some of the popular titles sold for on eBay to back up any comic book shop valuations. I've found some comic book shops to undervalue things for their benefit. However, some also offer credits for old comics on trade-in to use for what they have, which is a good deal, IMO.

P.S. - I might have some interest in early '90s Marvel and Image.

Comic stores can be hit or miss.  I was trying to get just a feel for "do I need to REALLY take care of these, or just make sure they are bagged, boarded, and stores properly?" for literally 7 comics and the owner flat out said "are you gonna pay me for my time?"

7 comics, to look at the covers and give me a "send it off and grade it" or "just bag and board it"

Some people have bad days, but still.

earlybroncoguy1 said:

 don't want to get low-balled by somebody who's going to turn around and flip them for a fortune.

that's what the comic book shop is going to want to do. They're trying to sell to the collectors and pay for their overhead.

during the speculator boom of the 1990s there were printed price guides, I'm sure they're all online now. Get a rough idea of the values from there and try to lump them all together for a little below that to get rid of them quickly.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Comic book folk have rarely been known for their exceptional people skills... 

If you just want them gone, don't expect to get top $ for them.  Shops and other resellers will buy whole collections for cheap with the hope there may be a few gems in there that will pay for the time it takes to dig through them.  The shops I've been in somewhat recently are already buried in collections they've bought and don't really need more books. 

I was a store manager at a comic book shop back in the early 90s.  I also have boxes of comics in my attic... I haven't looked at any of them in decades now and just need them gone to clear out my attic.  Some of them have some value but most of them don't, so the value of the collection averages out.  

Keep an eye out when you're driving around.  I see "I BUY COMICS" signs all over and keep meaning to take a picture of the phone number to call them. 

Google fu should bring up some online price guides.  Expect a buyer/reseller to pay 50% of listed value at most. 

I had a similar situation for BB cards a few months ago.  When I bought them in 1990, they were the top of the line brand at the time.  Now the playing card/comics stores are not interested.  And when I look at the sales on various internet sites, the work for the rather small sales prices made me just donate them.

It's a lot of work selling stuff, and for things so subjective as condition- you are in a losing position more often than not when sending stuff to a buyer.

One other item to note: The 1990s was inundated with speculators, which led to high print runs for comics and baseball cards. In this prime example of supply and demand, there are still a lot of supply for these comics and cards. However, there are some buried gems.

Remember that the vast majority of back issues are going to retail at cover price, or maybe even less.  That means that sellers need to acquire them at roughly 50% of that on average.

Comics Buyer's Guide used to be a great resource when I was collecting from 1985-1995 or so.  Kind of the GRM of comics.  Unfortunately, they folded about 15 years ago.

There is an online valuation guide at https://www.comicspriceguide.com/.  It's free to start an account (I may even have one; can't remember) but I don't know if there is any paywall for important information or not.

[edit]  OK, I do have an account.  The free "Bronze" account limits the number of issues you can store in your collection, and the number of searches you can do per day.

I agree that this time period was the first big boom in speculation.  Most of the "made to be collected" issues ar not going to be worth anything special at this point.  I have a few copies of McFarlane's Spider-man #1 that I happened across at a non-premium price during the frenzy.  At one point they were probably worth $50 each but they printed about 80 billion of them in a dozen variants and I can't imagine they are worth more than cover now, even in their factory wrappers.

[edit] OK, I'm wrong about the Spider-mans.  Apparently they're worth a few hundred each if third-party graded.  Score one for me.

I didn't do much speculation - I bought what I wanted to read.  Which has probably worked in my favor sometimes, but most times not.

Duke said:

 

I didn't do much if any speculation - I bought what I wanted to read.  Which has probably worked in my favor sometimes, but most times not.

 

That is pretty much what I told folks when I was asked "which book should I buy that will go up in value?"   Buy the books you want to read. 

Sometimes a movie will increase the value of the source comic.  When the first The Crow movie came out, the value of the original J.O. Barr comics shot up in value - especially since being an independently published comic, it was not published in huge numbers.  The pending re-boot movie might increase demand, but it's hard to say.  I'm sure retailers will give them a value bump but whether or not people will actually buy them is a different story. 

Oddly enough, the #1 of a book is often worth less than the #2 or #3 issue.  That was definitely the case for the original GI Joe comics of the early 80s.  That was the first comic book I started collecting as a young teen and I kept buying them through the entire Marvel run.  I think I might have bought the first few Image issues, but I don't remember. 

I generally only buy graphic novels and collected series books now.

I have a ton of the Image stuff from that era, chromium, lenticular, hologram, all the bells and whistles lol. I had a bunch of stuff signed in person at Wizard World, but they didn't really do CoAs at the time. I probably have a couple gems in there, but I'm sure most if cover price at best. 

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

Duke said:

 

I didn't do much if any speculation - I bought what I wanted to read.  Which has probably worked in my favor sometimes, but most times not.

 

That is pretty much what I told folks when I was asked "which book should I buy that will go up in value?"   Buy the books you want to read. 

Sometimes a movie will increase the value of the source comic.  When the first The Crow movie came out, the value of the original J.O. Barr comics shot up in value - especially since being an independently published comic, it was not published in huge numbers.  The pending re-boot movie might increase demand, but it's hard to say.  I'm sure retailers will give them a value bump but whether or not people will actually buy them is a different story. 

Oddly enough, the #1 of a book is often worth less than the #2 or #3 issue.  That was definitely the case for the original GI Joe comics of the early 80s.  That was the first comic book I started collecting as a young teen and I kept buying them through the entire Marvel run.  I think I might have bought the first few Image issues, but I don't remember. 

I generally only buy graphic novels and collected series books now.

Timing is everything. I sold most of the various Venom mini series that were published in the 1990s when the movie came out. I was fairly happy with the return.

Yeah, the #2 issue value is weird. I had a hard time finding second issues of Gunsmithcats and Oh My Goddess back in the day. Probably over paid. Wonder what they are worth now.... Dark Horse Manga was my jam in the 90's

Every time I'm looking at vintage Star Wars toys, either a shop or vendor at a Con, they always pull up old eBay auctions to see what they're going for.  Completed auctions, not ridiculous BuyItNow with $$$$$$.

In reply to Jerry :

No kidding.  And to think I gave away all of my Star Wars and GI Joe stuff in the late 80s when I was in high school.  And I had quite a bit of it, including a complete AT-AT.  My GI Joe figures were pretty rough as I figured out you could take them apart and swap around the legs and heads to make your own figures.  

But the fact that so many collections were tossed in the 80s as we outgrew them is why they go for crazy money today.