You did it! You saved your prized collection of comic books from all the usual hazards that tend to do them in. Your parents didn’t give them away to neighborhood kids when you went to college. You didn’t store your longboxes of comics near a hot furnace or a basement that flooded. And even when you were struggling with rent, you didn’t bulk-unload your books at a pawn shop for a fraction of what they’re worth.
You beat the odds! But now you’d like to move on from collecting comics or at least prune the pile. Perhaps you now prefer to read new comics digitally and don’t want to devote the space to so many print editions. Or you could just want to unload some of the more valuable collectibles for some extra cash while keeping the rest.
Whatever the reason, there are several ways to liquidate your comics library, whether it’s by trying to sell individual comic books or by seeing if there’s a taker for the whole lot.
Before we go over your options, there’s a few things you should know. While there’ve been some spikes in the sales of very old and rare comic lots in recent years, you shouldn’t expect to get rich if your comics collection doesn’t go back much further than the 1980s or ’90s. Even if you still have a 1993 first-printing copy of The Death of Superman, you still might only get $10 to $20 by selling, unless it’s in nearly perfect condition or it’s signed and certified.
Also, the deck is very stacked toward professional comics dealers who more readily have access to comics-grading services that can determine the value of a comic, and who will want to turn around whatever you sell them for a profit.
But if you’re still interested, here’s some ways to embark on a comic-seller’s hero journey.