Comic Book/Action Figure Appraisal

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so my boss at work knows im a total nerd and media obsessive, so she called me about this collection that she's inherited. her uncle died, and left a huge, well-documented comic book collection, and a perhaps even larger action figure collection (a lot of stuff in original packaging). he also left a few LPs. the only thing i have any real expertise in is the LPs. i used to collect comics, but i dont really know what the market is like these days.

does anyone have any advice as to how to best appraise these collections? i told her that if we couldnt find a good appraiser, id be glad to sit down with a few price guides (overstreet? is that still a thing?) and tell her what i could come up with. so also, what are the best price guides? is ebay better than any printed guide? any other good sites?

also, ive had some experience on ebay/half.com, so i may offer to put them up online for her, in exchange for some small cut of the profit. now, i really like my boss, so im not trying to gouge her. what do people charge for this sort of thing?

any advice that anyone has would be awesome.

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 14 February 2005 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Ebay might be the best way. I have no idea, having never done this myself, but price guides tend to reflect what comic shops charge for things, not what people are willing to pay for them. And a comic shop will likely pay less than half the listed value for a comic.
There's actually a service that "officially" grades and certifies conditions of comic books, but I can't remember what they're called, nor do I know how much they charge.

― Huk-L, Monday, 14 February 2005 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Is she hot?

Try this for AFs.

http://www.gijoelinks.com/

Guys like the first Stormshadow and the second Snake Eyes still wrapped are worth $100s.

― Rygar, Monday, 14 February 2005 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

In terms of comics, I think eBay is a better indicator of what the going price is - the price guides are nice, but more often than not they're waaaay off in terms of what folks are willing to pay. Still, they're a decent gague. There's Overstreet, and there's Wizard - Wizard might be a better barometer of what's selling RIGHT NOW, but I don't think they cover books before 1960. That's where Overstreet comes in.

Depending on what's being sold, you might want to have the books officially graded by CGC (the service Huk mentioned) - here's what they charge. You send them the books, they'll appraise their condition, lock the thing in an Official CGC SuperMylarPlastic Cozy (containing the official CGC grade certificate), and then, after X number of days (depending on how much you want to pay), you'll get the books back and you can go to town on eBay. If a rare or collectible book gets CGC'd, the $$$$ you can get for it will be well worth the cost of the appraisal - according to Wizard (a mag that's been accused of being in cahoots w/ CGC), the price of a CGC book is 2 or 3 times the price of a non-CGC book. If you search eBay, you can see examples of the discrepancy.

Of course, this depends on the book - X-Men #1 from 1963, you send to be appraised, regardless of condition; X-Men #1 from the 1990s, you bag & board the thing & hope you don't have to pay someone to take it off your hands. (eBay also has multiple examples of auctions featuring CGC'd books that weren't worth the paper they were printed on.) I'm guessing that, given the reference to "well-documented", that your uncle had the goods, & it would be worth having the books officially graded. Still, it'd behoove you to double-check what the market looks like first.

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 14 February 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Buy an issue of Toyfare - it has a price guide in the back of every issue for action figures old and new.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Monday, 14 February 2005 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

awesome - these are all great suggestions. thanks, guys.

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 14 February 2005 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

www dot my comicshop dot com (the middle two are one word)

That's the Texas chain my brother is general manager of, they've moved online heavily and do a bit of consignment and purchasing. I've known the owner (who does the comics) since I was little, he's honest and fair (if right-wing as hell).

(If you or your boss were to contact them about appraisal/consignment, please don't mention that you heard about it "from some dude whose brother is the general manager?" or where.)

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 14 February 2005 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

sure - thanks. we're in maryland, so i dont think shipping to TX is my boss's first choice, but maybe.

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 14 February 2005 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

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