Tips for Selling Comic Books on Ebay: A Guide that Pays the Bills

Selling comic books is actually a lucrative field if done right. In my experience, comic books can sell for upwards of a hundred thousand dollars, or a few pennies. There is no secret to selling them. A lot of buying comic books for profit is luck and careful consideration of the comic series.

While I think just trying to make off comic books isn’t very fun, it can pay off some bills if you’ve been collecting for years.

The top venue for selling comic books is Ebay. Ebay has revolutionized the buying and selling process of comic books. It used to be, a seller would have to go to a comic shop to sell. With Ebay that isn’t the case anymore. A comic shop will likely not give you half of what the comic will actually sell for. That isn’t to say getting offers from comic shops is wrong, but the real money for key comics can be had on Ebay.

As with much collector material, the older the item the better the chance it will hold value. Also, with comic everything is about the size of the print run. If you purchase an issue of X-Men or Batman that have over 100,000 copies sold, that issue will only have value to you as a reader or collector. If you buy an independent comic with a low print run – perhaps a #1 – that comic just might return your investment. Still, that doesn’t mean higher print runs won’t hold value. First appearances of characters and first issues of any comic will often hold there value or turn a profit. A first appearance of Wolverine (which was in a Hulk comic) in good condition will hold far more value than the next regular issue of the Hulk, no matter how old.

As Ebay has revolutionized comics, so has the grading system called CGC. CGC is a comic grading company that sellers send their comics to. A comic can be graded from poor to Mint, with poor comics holding very little value while a mint comic could actually give you double what that issue is said to be worth. CGC is good because they’re an independent grading system – it isn’t just the seller’s opinion on the condition of the comic – so potential buyers are far more willing to invest their money into the comic. Even if the comic is nothing special, say a Punisher comic with a high print run, if its in almost perfect condition, it may yield a profit for the seller.

As an end note, here are a few tips for selling comic books on Ebay:

1.Overstreet Price Guide is the best thing you can buy if you want to make money off of your collection. It will give you a general idea of what your comic will go for, as well as information on how to grade the comics. It’s a reasonably priced book that a serious seller should get at least every few years.

2. Watch for steals on lesser known titles on Ebay. Often sellers won’t know they’re sitting on a gold mine, so they won’t provide a picture or a general idea of what condition the comic is in.

3. Get complete runs, as people don’t want to read a cliffhanger. Most of your buyers won’t be interested in selling the comic books unless it’s a major comic book like X-Men #1, just reading the stories in them. Complete runs will increase the value of the collection.

4. Don’t buy huge lots of unnamed comics unless you just want to read them. You won’t turn any profit doing this unless you get really luck and the seller puts in some rare issue (which never happens).

5. Consider that CGC charges money to grade the comics. Yet if the comic is in exceptional condition you could make some money off of it, just look hard for the defects in it before deciding to send it out.