Learn how to appraise the worth of your comics collection
How much is my comic book collection worth? This is the question that concerns many pannapictagraphists, or those lucky individuals who have inherited a collection of comics from a deceased relative.
The answer is greatly important as it will help the owner gets the best financial value of his or her comic book collection, especially when he or she decides to sell them to a buyer.
To determine the worth of one’s stock of comics, there are factors that need to be considered.
Factors that influence the comic book collection value
First off, when we speak of the worth of a comic book collection, it depends entirely on the individual issues that constitute the entire collection. High grade comics, demand, rarity, and age are other factors that set the value of your collection as a whole.
You need to bear in mind also that not all comics in your collection are worth something. Go over your collection individually and evaluate each comic book based on the following criteria below:
• Comic book grade
You need to know the grade of each comic. If you are a little bit familiar with comic book grading, this would be very easy for you. If not, refer to the article on this subject found in this directory.
Grading concerns mainly with condition. From the number scale of 1 – 10 and with its corresponding descriptions such as Gemstone, Mint, Near Mint, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor, each number scale and term describes the condition of a comic book.
Examine each item in your collection and grade each one carefully. It is important to be as objective as you can when doing this.
• Demand of each comic book in the market
After grading your comics, check the demand for each comic book you have in the market. Goes without saying, the more highly grade comics you have in your collection that are also in high demand, the greater the value you will get from your comic book collection.
How would you know what are in demand comics today in the market? Read this article: Rare comic books, which can give you the list of the top rarest comics in the world.
Also, refer to auction sites and check out comic book price guides where you can find lists of comics that are highly sought by collectors or buyers today.
• Rarity of comics in your collection
Comic books that are generally considered rare include those key issues, first issues, first appearance of a popular character or a superhero, death of a popular character issues, and special variants.
• Age of comic books in your collection
Classify your comics according to the year they were published. Publication history of comics is divided into different ages such as Golden Age (1938-1955), Silver Age (1956-1972), Bronze Age (1973-1985), and Modern Age (1986-present).
Like other collectibles, the older your comic book collection the higher value you will get. But again, other factors mentioned above should also be considered such as its grade and demand.
How to price my own comic book collection?
This is the next step. After you have considered and properly evaluated the factors above, it is now time to estimate the price of your collection. Yet again, it is important to have a very realistic approach when doing this.
Here are some important things to remember when estimating your comic book collection worth.
- Based your estimate on trusted comic book catalogs such as the Wizard Magazine, the Official Overstreet Price Guide, and respected online auction sites like eBay and comicconnect.com.
- Stick to your decision, if you will, to sell your comic book collection as a whole to a buyer. This is to your advantage. Most buyers would prefer more to buy selected key issues or high grade comics from your collection.
If you allow them, this will diminish the value of your entire comic book collection, and only worthless comics will be left to you.
- Compare and update the price of your collection when necessary by checking out from time to time various reputable comic book price guides and catalogs. This will take flexibility and patience on your part, but at the end it will all be worth it.
Comic book collection appraisal services
One best option is to appraise your comic book collection through professional services. For a considerable fee, appraisers will examine your comics one by one and tell you the estimated value of your collection.
Another good option is to go to free online valuation websites such as stashmycomics.com and comicspriceguide.com. These sites offer their services for free.
All you need to do is to enter your list of graded comics in your collection into their database, and the people behind the site will evaluate the value for you. But this may take some time before you get the information you need.
