When evaluating ways to sell your comic collection, it’s important to understand the different benefits of each method as well as the time and effort required. As the owner of a comic collection, you should aim to find the option that works best for your interests. This guide will give you an overview of selling online versus in-person, as well as what you should know about each option. You can also request a free valuation from North Comics using the form below, and we will gladly discuss your options.
How to Sell your Comic collection Online
- Online: selling online allows you to potentially reach more buyers, but may also require a lot of work in terms of organizing, listing and presenting the comics. You can decide to list your comics individually or in lots (groups) which could potentially save you time. Keep in mind that most buyers on these sites will want a lot of details and pictures (including estimated grades) which may make it time consuming to organize the collection and you’ll also have to pay significant fees. If you decide to go this route, you will also have to manage the auction listings including the photographs, responses to questions and handle all of the shipping as well as returns. As a result, it may take considerable effort to properly sell a collection online.
- Benefits of Selling Comics Online
- The major upside to selling online is that you can reach many more potential buyers than you could locally. On larger sites such as eBay and Instagram you have a wide reach. However, that also means you will have a combination of good buyers as well as those who potentially create complications in terms of customer service.
- You can also set the format of your sales online – you can decide on an auction (with a reserve or not) or fixed priced listings, as well as formatting the listing. This gives you more flexibility to offer comics in the way that you prefer. However, auctions do rely upon multiple interested bidders to realize fair prices.
- There are also full-service auction sites that will sell your collection on consignment for a fixed commission. Some of these sites offer fair commission rates (generally around 10%) while others can charge significantly more (up to 35%.)
- Drawbacks of Selling Online
- Selling online can bring challenges when buyers ask for returns, or need extra customer service in the process. Since you are required to handle fulfillment and service, this can mean a lot of extra time you have to invest in the process.
- Another major challenge to selling online is the sheer amount of time you have to put in to take photographs, format listings and plan out the collection. Larger collections can take thousands of hours.
- One other major factor to consider when selling online are the fees which range depending on the platform – some sites can charge as little as ten percent while others can be over 35% of the sales price.
How to Sell Your Comic Collection in-Person
- In-Person: Many comic stores only pay a small percentage of the actual value of the collection because they have overhead. As a result, you may not always get a fair price for the contents of your collection at a comic book store. Make sure you fully understand how the value of your collection will be determined. Often comic book stores will offer a low percentage of what you collection is actually worth.
- Selling to a Comic Book Store – selling to a comic store can allow you to interact with the buyer in person, to get a quote and to have a face-to-face discussion about the value of the comics. However, since most comic book stores have overhead costs such as rent, they generally are able to offer only a percentage of the value that can be less than selling online or to a collector.
- Selling to a Comic Collector – working directly with a comic book collector to sell your books can offer all the benefits of selling in-person and you can generally get a higher percentage of the overall value. This can be a good route to get better share of fair market value, while also giving you a chance to deal directly with one buyer.
- Comic Conventions: comic shows and conventions provide a way to connect with different types of buyers, however, you may be limited in the amount of books you can safely transport. As a result, comic shows may require you to get a table in order to properly sell all the comics – in those cases you will have to pay fees for the tables, as well as ensuring the tables are available to rent – many larger conventions have high fees as well as a waitlist for purchases.
- Local Comic Book Swap Meets – many cities over smaller, one-day comic book swap meetups where you can sell, buy and trade comic books. These are a good option for those looking to sell comics to the public without paying the high table fees that come with regional and national comic conventions.