How to sell comic books

How to sell your comic books

Want to sell your comic books? This article tells you everything you need to know to sell your comics at a great price and with ease. We cover how to look up what your comics are worth, when to sell online vs. offline, and tips and tricks for listing your comics on eBay that will save you time and money.

To get the highest price…

Sell your comic books on eBay. You’ll get the best price when you’re selling them on the largest market… eBay.

Step 1: Organize your collection

If you have a big collection of comics to look up, it helps to first sort them by the title, for example: Spider-Man, Superman, etc.  Then sort each pile by issue number… so you’ll end up with a pile of Superman comics in order #20, #22, #23, #30, #31, etc.

Step 2: Look up what they’re worth

Now that they’re organized, let’s figure out what your comics are worth. Type the title and issue number into the search box below.

Mavin shows you an estimated worth based on your search. Use the checkboxes to pick a few comics just like yours. This will give you a very accurate estimate of what your comic should sell for. If you need help using Mavin, check out the article on how to look up your comic books worth.

Step 3: Decide how to list them

After you’ve looked up what they’re worth using Mavin, you need to decide how you want to sell them: one at a time, as a “lot” (group of comics), or you could sell the entire collection all at once in a single listing.

If your comic books are valuable it might be worth your time to list them individually. If the comics are worthless,  group them together and sell the group as a “lot”. If you list them as a lot, consider logical grouping like all Superman, all DC comics, all Marvel comics, or all the same era.

Step 4: Create an eBay listing

Do you have an eBay account? Do you have a PayPal account? You’ll need these free accounts to list stuff and get paid.

For the title – enter the title of the comic and the issue number, for example “The Amazing Spider-Man #5”.

If it’s a well known creator, you can include that in the title. If it’s professionally graded you can include the grade, otherwise don’t try to guess at the grade if you don’t know what you’re doing. You can also include a key details, like first appearance of a character, or a first issue, last issue, etc. If you’re listing a group of comics at once, include the word “lot” in the listing title.

Don’t include words like “rare” or “hard-to-find” or anything subjective. Stick to the facts.

For the pictures – take good pictures of your comics. You need good lighting so take them in the daylight or have good indoor lighting. You’ll want pictures for the front, back, a few pictures of the inside (especially if it’s older people want to see the color of the inside pages). Include pictures of any damage or flaws, don’t try to hide it.

For the details – describe any details of the comic book. Use this space to describe the grade and condition of the comic. If you don’t know how to grade your comic book, don’t guess on the grade. Explain any damage or flaws or anything else a buyer should know about your comic book. You can include a personal story about where you got the comic or any extra details that will make your listing stand out in someone’s mind. If your listing is a “lot”, include a list of the comic titles and issue numbers in the description.

Use the details section to specify your terms of payment (for example PayPal only), shipping, and handling. Tell the buyer what countries you ship to and how much shipping will cost. If you’re listing a bunch of comics all at once, you might want to mention how you’ll handle combined shipping – if one person buys a bunch of comics from you, you can combine the comics into one package and charge them less overall.

Listing format – choose auction or fixed price.

If you choose auction you can also allow people to “buy it now”, allowing someone to buy it at a fixed price before the auction is active. Start your auction at .99 or something very low. If you really want to sell your comics, I recommend the auction format. If you do it right it’s almost guaranteed to sell.

If you choose to sell it at a fixed price, it’s imperative you know what you have and what it’s worth. You don’t want to underprice it and lose out on profit… you don’t want to overprice it and have it never sell. It can be hard to sell your comics this way if you don’t get the pricing right.

Duration and Timing – set the listing duration to a week. Set your auctions to end on Sunday night. People are at home on Sunday, with time to browse eBay and bid on auctions.

Insurance – If you’re selling something valuable, opt for the insurance… eventually you’ll have a package that gets lost, stolen, or damaged in the mail and you’ll thank yourself.

Automatic Relist -Make sure to check the checkbox to “Automatically list this item 2 times if it doesn’t sell”. This will save you a lot of time later if the comic book doesn’t sell.

Step 5: Ship it!

If it sells, package and ship the comic. Make sure to pack it so the comic is protected and won’t get bent or damaged. Get a tracking number from the shipping company.

Log into eBay and mark the item shipped. Include the tracking number for maximum buyer satisfaction.

The fastest way to sell your entire collection

If you want to get rid of your entire collection quickly (you favor speed in terms of return on investment) I suggest taking them to a local comic book shop or posting an ad on craigslist.

The comic book shop will buy them if they think they can be resold at profit. But don’t expect a comic book shop to pay top dollar. They’ll need to take a significant margin to account for their time, expense, and risk in selling your comic books. Expect to get less than 50% of what you would get selling them online.

If you have a big collection of worthless comics and you want to get rid of them, Craigslist might be the answer. Craigslist can be a good way to get rid of a big collection… but don’t expect to get very much money, more like garage sale prices.

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