What is the best way to sell a comic book? or books?

[bminor]

The question is this.
If you want to sell off some of your books what would you consider being the best manner to do so to make the most money from your books?

I have been pondering this for some time now and am not sure of the correct manner in doing so.

The way I see it there a few ways.

1. I contacted Heritage auction the other day. They said send in a list of books as well as digital shots of the same. They will go over the list and let you know what they consider the best course of action. They also have a $10,000 minimum. That is to say the value of the books you want to sell has to add up to $10,000. When the sale is done they keep 15% of the total sale, you get 85%. This does not seem to bad.

2. Sell on Ebay. To get the most out of your good books you need to the valuable ones slabbed to get the big $. Sending it into CGC or PGX is not cheap. I have read online some stories about PGX that are none to flattering. But being online it is hard to say how much faith you can put into a story online.
What exactly does Ebay get from each sale? From what I understand they get fees upfront for putting the book for sale. They get a percentage of the sale, and now they get some of the postage?
So you sell a book for $100. How much does Ebay get and how much do get to keep? Does this fee increase if the value of sale is now $1000?

3. Bring them to your local comic shop. Here you get a fraction of the cost of the books, typically 40%-50%? Does that sound right to you guys?

4. Rent a table at a convention. You know they used to have those in Minnesota, but not so much anymore.

5. Craigs List?

Any ideas and thoughts? Has anybody anything that might help me and in turn everybody else out?

Yours,
B.

[narfstar]

My books are not valuable enough for Heritage. My LCS would put them on consignment but not buy them. If you have checked what places like Mile High or Lone Star pay it is far less than 40% and unless you have the books everyone wants most shops are not interested. If it is the books that most want then you can probably get more on ebay. Ebay no longer charges for listing but increased their percentage not sure what it is now. They do also charge on postage because people were putting large amounts on postage to make their money there. I understand why they had to do it. Also if you sell on ebay you will have to take paypal which also charges a fee. There is also AtomicAvenue which is sell it now. I am not sure what their fees are. Much is determined by how long you can wait to sell them.

[Roygbiv666]

I still have mine, and they generally aren't worth anything, so these are just my opinions.

If you want to maximize your profits, then comic shops are definitely NOT the way to go. They are retailers. In order to make a profit (i.e. stay in business), as you say they can't pay you more than 40-50% of the collector's value. Although it sucks from the seller's perspective, it makes sense when you think about it - they aren't in the business of buying, they are in the business of business. Selling direct to other collectors would be the most profitable, but also time consuming.

eBay fees are spelled out here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

PayPal fees are here:
https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees
It's around 3%, so for a $1000 sale, you get $970.

I'm not sure about needing to get them slabbed - as long as you are clear on the condition of the book(s), I'm not sure it's worth the extra cost. That said, some people won't touch them if they aren't slabbed.

[Amberjack]

Other options would be:

• Craigslist
• Setting up at a convention (maybe the overhead wouldn't be too bad if you live nearby and you have lots to sell).
• Classified advertising in Comic Buyers Guide or even your local paper.

Right now selling comics is tough. You really don't have many good choices when trying to sell off non-superhero, non-Big Two comics.

[deucedriver]

B.

What type of books are you looking to sell?  How many total books?  Are they modern or old Gold/Silver Age?  Are they in great condition?  Do you have an idea of the value of the books at retail level?

All of the options you mentioned are valid, the best one for you depends on the answers to the previous questions.

Deuce