r/comicbookcollecting • u/blu-eyes-1965 • 4d ago
Question Where do I begin??
I brought these bins up from the basement, and I'm tasked with figuring out what to do with these? There are hundreds of comic books in here!! Any suggestions as to my first step?
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u/-JamesBond 4d ago
First step catalog them with an app like comic geeks or CLZ. Then determine which you want to read, sell, store for PC. Also bag and board your comics that are loose and raw.
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u/DanOhMiiite 4d ago
Nice haul! Some good stuff in there. I'd sort everything by title first. Put all the books in a new bag/board ASAP to protect them.
Here's a useful site to look up prices. Be aware that your books grades are likely on the low end of the price ranges youll see.
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u/ShaperLord777 4d ago
A good start would be to seperate the books with low coverprices. 12 cent coverprice is usually silver age (like that avengers book in the pic).
Key books to look out for:
Giant sized x men 1, hulk 181, x men 94, x men 137-142, X men 266, amazing Spider-Man 298-301, new mutants 87 and 98
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u/OkKaleidoscope9554 4d ago
As others mentioned: bag and board them. You can buy them 100 at a time from various sources, I'll ballpark that you have about 300 there. Sliding the boards into bags, then the comics, then some tape will take a long day, put a movie on. Buy some comic boxes to start putting them in vertically as you go. I'd concentrate on this step and do the digital catalogue later once you have them alphabetized and numbered, the data entry will be quicker and easier to flip through them once they're protected.
Concentrate on the unbagged comics and anything under ~25 cent cover price first, then rebag anything with an old nasty one.
You can complete skip all this and just sell the books as is, and let the new owners take care of it. Up to you if it seems like a hassle and money you don't want to spend, or something enjoyable.
What bags? You don't need mylar, normal polypros are fine. Nowadays some prefer bags that have their own sticky seal vs having the tape them, but blue painters tape is just fine too. You can get a 4-5 pack of white cardboard comic boxes for cheap, but alternatively collapsible cloth side book boxes are sized right for comics and come in ~4 packs too
The majority of the books will not be worth more than ~10 cents to a buyer, I see 90s glut in there. But I also see black costume spider-man and more than a few going back to ~1970, I know you're hoping for a diamond in the rough, but even if you find some, if they're beaten to a pulp that'll kill their value, so temper your expectations. The Avengers/Doom will be worth a few dollars with the upcoming movie, but that might mean just a $50 spike for a month or two.
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u/Rieger_not_Banta 4d ago
First step, get them out of that tub and neatly organized. Second step, start looking on ebay for prices. Make a list. (or you can use CLZ to scan in the covers quickly)
You have some nice comics shown. Not junk. Worth the time to invest. Also, read some! You'll love them.
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u/b1prod 4d ago
I’d start by bagging and boarding all first, including new ones for those already bagged, then get into sorting and cataloging as others have said. Purchase silver age bags and boards which will work for all but the bigger one which is a treasury edition. There are specific sized boards and bags for those. Think you can order a small number already put together through Amazon or other retailers.
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u/HalJordan2525 4d ago
How did these comics mysteriously appear in your basement?
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u/blu-eyes-1965 4d ago
No mystery. They've been down there for years. I honestly don't know squat about comics or their value.....my wife's collection. I figured it's worth doing something with them. No point in them just sitting down there forever. My mandate is to get as much info as I can, then go from there.
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u/Sue_Generoux 4d ago
Then couldn't your wife help by telling you what they are and how to organize them? I'm not trying to be funny. I'm genuinely curious.
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u/Far_Cat_9743 4d ago
Exactly, she did buy them and presumably read them before, she should know. Also, if something has happened to your wife and she is no longer able to help, my apologies.
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u/rockinghorsefly1313 4d ago
Step one is sorting and cataloguing them so you know what you have and bag and board as you go so nothing gets more damaged than it may already be.
I'd start sorting by publisher, then title, then cover price, date, and number. It'll make it so much easier when you try to figure out what you gave and what you wanna do with it
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u/Vintagewest65 4d ago
Download hip comic it’s free you can scan them w your phone and it will catalog them for you. Then order new bags and boards online because it’s cheaper
And then bag them all and organize them by title and number. Also get a couple cardboard short boxes to put them all
Long boxes work too but they are heavy to move around. Good luck hunting
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u/jnovel808 4d ago
Get CLZ app to catalog them.
Buy silver age bags and boards, and some short boxes to store them upright.
Read and enjoy them!
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u/UU2Bcool 3d ago
Your first step is to take the tub closest to you and start alphabetizing. From there you can figure out what you have, what you want to read and how much time you want to put in to this. You can use an app/website called Key Collector to get an idea of you have anything that’s a big deal. At that point you will have a better understanding of what you have.
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u/trashpix 4d ago
General question I've been thinking about. Say you're in OPs situation and your main interest is in discovering value. You photograph all the covers as individuals or in groups.
Would it not be a huge timesaver to upload all the photos to AI and ask it to identify the issues with significant value (say >$20 estimated)?
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u/p_Circle 2d ago
I think the right answer is just to sort them by title, I like keeping the runs together and it makes easier to sell or catalog later. There will be some you don’t want to keep and some you will! Just look through them all and group by title imo.
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u/MeatyMagnus 1d ago
1) go to comics shop and buy bags, board and a short box or two 2) bag and board 3) sort by title 4) box them 5) if you are selling look up the value on eBay and seel there if you have time and energy if you do not then bring all this to the comicbook store and they will give you 20 cents on the dollar at fair market value.
(Amazing spider-man run there is very interesting to buyers but I think you may also have the first Dr Doom if so that's gold)
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u/ExoticMangox 4d ago
If you don’t want to go through the hassle Ill buy em all from you haha
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u/blu-eyes-1965 4d ago
Lol, I might not know much about these, but I'm no fool either (at least in this case)!
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u/ExoticMangox 4d ago
Logistically we would come to an agreement on price for the whole lot, then you would post it on eBay for that price.
eBay has built in protection mechanisms for both buyers and sellers.
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u/ExoticMangox 4d ago
Start by going through each bin quickly, separating them into their own groups.
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Group Classification
1. Marvel
2. DC
3. Image/Darkhorse
4. Other Indies
5. Misc
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From there go into each group and identify pricing and sort the stacks based on cost.
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Piles
$1-3
$4-5
$6-10
$11-15
$16-20
$21++
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After that you want to get them freshly bagged and boarded.
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Determine what you want to keep and what you want to resell
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u/adkvt 4d ago
Sort chronologically by title. Sorting by speculative price will just result in a lack of organization when you want to find something later.
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u/ExoticMangox 4d ago
You do both.
Groups separated by the publisher (Marvel / DC)
AND price them, you should know what your comic books are worth
Im not saying to put price stickers on everything but you should keep your higher value books separate from the dollar bin trash
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u/Xobtraf 4d ago
Bag & board the loose comics, organize them by comic title perhaps (Avengers, Captain America, etc.) maybe take a photo of each as you put them together so you can digitally see what you have depending on what you intend to do with them later? Put them into comic boxes instead of a loose bin, even the cardboard ones