Comics = selling them fast/recommendations

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A double-purpose thread.

1. I have about 300 comics from my younger years (all dating from late, late 1980s to mid-1990s) that I need to sell FAST. They are probably not worth much, the majority of them being X-related (Men, Force, Factor, New Mutants), The Punisher, or some DC - Lobo and Sandman. But I would like to try and get something...anything for them before instead of dumping them at my parents' house. How and Where(preferably in the UK) can I do this? Ebay is proving fruitless. NB This is not a subtle "plug" for ILX0rs, btw.

2. This may seem funny given that I am trying to offload a bunch of comics, but any recommendations for new stuff? I haven't been a regular buyer/reader for almost ten years, but I'm more into the Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes stuff now. I'd like to pick up one or two at least.

Thanks, folx.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Friday, 25 April 2003 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think you'll get much for the Marvel stuff - since supply far far far outstrips demand these days. Anyhow, New Mutants #100 is great! Speedball is my favorite.

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll give you 10p

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

bollocks, will people really not buy comics on e-bay? I've been limbering up to offloading my rubbish old comics there (in the hope that selling them would see them find a more appreciative home than throwing them in the bin).

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:39 (twenty-two years ago)

A year or two ago, I got the entire #1-6 Infinity Gauntlet series plus all the tie-ins, and there were like 20+ of them [some of the silver surfer/thanos issues were sort of valuable at the time] for $10.

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 25 April 2003 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The comics market has pretty much collapsed as far I'm aware. You could try placing an ad in "Comics International".

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 25 April 2003 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I've emailed a pal who co-owns a comic shop, but I'm not sure he's likely to be interested.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 25 April 2003 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

kee-rist, you are UK me.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 25 April 2003 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

ps checkout: http://www.comicreaders.com

won't help with A, but maybe B.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 25 April 2003 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

oh. you could try the books and comic exchange in Notting Hill. Depends on how much you want for them. And what condition are they in? And what years are they from? Some '80's X-Men may turn a penny or two.

Anything less than mint or near mint and you are probably looking at giving them to a charity shop, I'm afraid.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 25 April 2003 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Martin-thanks!

jel-They are in very good condition, but mostly late 80s. Thanks for the advice.

kee-rist, you are UK me.

Horace, do you find Zoolander funny, but feel guilty for it? Do you like cream cheese bagels with lemon juice, pepper, and cucumber? Do you miss LA Law? Do you often think crazy street people are "just pretending"?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Friday, 25 April 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Substitue LA Law for Suddenly Susan and we're there!

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 25 April 2003 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

i am afraid your comics are not worth much. ive seen entire lots of marvel, dc from the 80's and 90's go for maybe $10.00

clowes is still writing 8ball i think.

― kephm, Friday, 25 April 2003 19:09 (twenty-two years ago)

If you like Clowes, then you may like Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve, which is oh-so conveniently available in three anthologies: 32 Stories, Sleepwalk, and Summer Blonde. All are great, but Adrian would prefer that you not start with 32 Stories (since the artwork is a bit rough in places).

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Friday, 25 April 2003 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Unless the market has substantially changed in the last few years, Marvel, Image, DCs etc. from the late 80s to mid 90s are as common as muck and virtually worthless, I'm afraid. This was the final, disastrous 'glut' time for mainstream funny bks, and there are hundreds of thousands of unread copies of these notionally 'hot' bks clogging up warehouses, landfills, attics, skips etc. Early Sandmans might still be worth something, I suppose. More often than not, shld a comic bk dealer have a use for these titles, they cld pick up mint copies in bulk from one of the many comic bk wholesalers flogging off ultra-cheap bankrupt stock. It is v. v. much a buyer's market.

Either: buy a table at a local comic mart and flog 'em off cheap, put an ad in a free paper like 'the' Loot and see if anyone will take them off yr hands, or else donate them to a children's charity or hospital ward.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Friday, 25 April 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Why do you all think this happened late-80's / early-90's? Was it a case of comics becoming "hot", leading to overproduction? Why did they become hot - graphic novels getting serious attention, Batman movies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles phenom, something like that?

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 25 April 2003 20:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Excess supply, fueled by the collector mindset (buying multiple issues). Though, yeah it'd be interesting to know how this situation came about. Was it the "oh comics are valuable, I'll keep them safe and buy an extra copy or five, ker-ching" or was it more cynically managed by the industry (ie 5 different hologram covers).

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 25 April 2003 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

And there is the whole "hot artist" thing, you know Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane and all that.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 25 April 2003 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Was the "Death of Superman" perhaps the nadir of this? I remember all the stories about the large print run because everyone was anticipating the "collectors" buying like 10 copies of it.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 25 April 2003 20:52 (twenty-two years ago)

There'd been hits and the collecting market got madly overheated. By this point everyone was buying five or ten copies of every first issue, and the end result was that everyone with even a faint interest in this sort of thing had at least 4 copies of the same comics that they were trying to shift. This was the same time general readers vanished - other lures (computer games are most cited), plus the fact that they were all comics written by comic fans and drawn by comic fans and edited by comic fans in companies managed by comic fans, and everything was aimed at comic fans until hardly anyone who wasn't a serious comic fan could understand the damn things, and even fewer cared. Sales are now a fifth what they were then.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 25 April 2003 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the nadir of the collecting craze was DeathMate.

― jonas lefrel (jonas lefrel), Saturday, 26 April 2003 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's interesting to note that at the same time as the 12 different collectible covers craze was peaking, the "underground" or "indie" or whatever scene started growing big time, motherfuckers.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Saturday, 26 April 2003 02:59 (twenty-two years ago)

but it sucks to take a few boxfuls of stuff that meant sooo much to young you and have some nerd offer you $10 for what basically amounts to the best part of your puberty.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Saturday, 26 April 2003 03:01 (twenty-two years ago)

This is all v. depressing as I have about 1,500 comics from that exact period (mid-80s to early 90s) which I was hoping to get rid of. I'll probably sit on them for a few more decades and then give them to some curious youngster. My comics are mostly DC which I suspect makes them even less valuable.

― amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 26 April 2003 03:13 (twenty-two years ago)

at work the past couple years i bought a few old comics from that period for a quarter each during lunch hour cuz i was bored. i abandoned them all when i moved except for some gi joes with lady jaye covers.

i say burn them all.

― brian badword (badwords), Saturday, 26 April 2003 06:02 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

Wow! Berkeley has a great comic book store/culture and Joe Sacco is just great!

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Saturday, 26 July 2003 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Diana Shutz (ex?) Marvel Editor used to work at Comics & Comix on Telegraph!

― Leee (Leee), Sunday, 27 July 2003 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Do you mean Dark Horse Comics' Diane Schultz?

― David R. (popshots75`), Sunday, 27 July 2003 00:35 (twenty-two years ago)

The very one. (God I butchered her name.) Her intro for the Frank Miller Visionaries vol. 2 sez so much.

― Leee (Leee), Sunday, 27 July 2003 05:26 (twenty-two years ago)

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