17 THINGS I LEARNED SELLING COMICS ON EBAY
By Barry Dutter
I started collecting comic books in 1974 when I was 9 years old. Over the next 30 years, I amassed a collection of about 10,000 comics. There came a day when I didn’t have room for the comics any more and I needed to make some cash. So I sold the comics, piece by piece, on eBay. I didn’t think I could do it, but once I started selling, it just got easier and easier.
I had so much fun selling my comics, that I decided it might be fun to sell other people‘s comics, too. I
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| One of the few 90s books that is actually worth money today. |
started going around to local garage sales, and scouring Craigslist, buying up all the collections I could find. Now I buy and sell comics on eBay all the time. It’s turned into a pretty profitable sideline for me. Best of all, it gives me an excuse to go to comic cons and it makes me feel like I’m still working in the comics industry, as tenuous a connection though it might be.
Here are the things I learned selling comics online.
1)
All comics from the 1990s are worthless. That’s right -- all of them! Marvel, DC, Image, Valiant, doesn’t matter which ones. All completely worthless. There are a few of exceptions, to be sure, (X-Men #266, New Mutants #87 and 98, to name three) but for the most part, comics from the 1990s were brutally overprinted. Doesn’t matter if the price says “$2.00” on the cover. All are worth pennies or less.
That was perhaps the biggest shock to me as a reseller -- that even comics that were deemed “hot” at the time (like Todd McFarlane’s Spider-Man or Jim Lee’s X-Men) all completely worthless now. Obviously there are exceptions -- “First Appearances” will always be hot. But these days, if someone is selling a huge collection of 90s comics, I run the other way. Even if someone were to give me a box of 90s comics for free, I would take all the comics out and give them away and keep the bags and boards. They’re worth far more than the comics.
2)
Buyers love complete sets and TPBs. These days, most comics stories are mult-part epics that are usually reprinted as TPB’s. When buying online, people want the complete story, whether it be in collected form or as the original “floppies.” There’s no reason for anyone to buy an incomplete set online when they know they can always get it complete from another seller. If you are selling a bunch of comics, make sure you have a complete set. Because if you don’t, you’d better be prepared to take a huge loss on the comics.
3)
The New 52 made old DC Comics Obsolete. In September, 2011, DC launched The New 52, a reboot of their whole line, starting every title over with #1. This was a great jumping on point for new readers, making it possible for a fan to own every single title in the current continuity. This also had the effect of making the previous four decades worth of DC Comics undesirable to collectors. There will always be a demand for Golden Age and Silver Age DC Comics, but interest in Bronze and Modern Age DC comics has dropped off considerably. Thanks to the New 52, those stories no longer count, and therefore, are a lot less collectable.
4)
The Punisher’s life is not worth a plug nickel. Comics are very cyclical. What’s hot today might be ice cold tomorrow. No character better illustrates this than the Punisher. At the peak of his fame in the 1990s, he had 3 monthly books (not to mention various one-shots, graphic novels, guest appearances, crossovers, etc.) Now he can’t even sustain one monthly book. The end result of all those 90s appearances is that people got tired of the Punisher. The same thing happened to Lobo over at DC. Once one of DC’s most popular heroes, Lobo couldn’t even get his own series when DC rebooted 52 titles. Nothing kills interest in a B-list character like overexposure.
5)
There is a Mind-Boggling lack of interest in Bronze Age Marvels. I grew up in the 1970s, which was an incredibly fertile time for Marvel Comics. So many talented writers and artists came up in the 70s with work that was exciting and fresh: Jim Starlin, Steve Englehart, John Byrne, Frank Brunner, Steve Gerber -- the list is a lengthy one. And there were so many radically different types of comics offered by Marvel at this time. Everything from HOWARD THE DUCK to MAN-THING to MASTER OF KUNG FU to IT THE LIVING COLOSSUS.Yet most Bronze Age Marvels generate very little interest in comics buyers online today.
As a huge Marvel fan, it blows my mind that comic buyers today don’t want to read the books that I grew up with. But I guess I can understand it. When I was a young man reading comics in the 1970s, I probably would not have enjoyed comics that my father was reading in the 1940s or 50s. They were made a for a different generation.
6)
Key issues always sell well. When Action Comics #1 sold for $3.2 million on eBay recently, I was not surprised. That is not just a key issue --the first appearance of Superman -- it is one of the most important comics of all time. And if there is one thing I know about key issues is that they tend to hold their value. The person who bought Action #1 this year could probably sell it for $5 million in a year or two. And that buyer could then sell it for $10 million down the line. Books like that never go down in value.
It’s the same with most key issues. New Mutants #98 -- the first Deadpool -- was a solid $50 book for me in recent years. But now that a Deadpool solo movie has been announced, I see it selling for no less than $150 on eBay.
Which brings me to my next point…
7)
Movies are now driving up the back issue sales of comics. One of the fun things about living in a time when so many comic book based movies are being released is that for the first time in memory, comic-book based movies are actually increasing back issue prices of comics. (OK, fun for a seller, maybe not so much fun for a buyer!)
Case in point: a few years ago, I had a bunch of old INCREDIBLE HULK comics from the 80s. One of the issues was HULK #271, the first appearance of ROCKET RACCOON. I ended up selling them for about 25 cents each. There is very little interest in this particular period in the Hulk’s history, so I was happy to find a buyer at any price.
Flash forward to 2014. Rocket is now starring in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, the biggest movie of the year, and his first appearance is now selling for $100 or more!
No one could ever predicted that a goofy minor character from a 1982 issues of INCREDIBLE HULK would be starring in the biggest movie of the year.
Other examples: the first appearance of THANOS went up after his cameo in the AVENGERS movie… and sales of Ultron comics are going up in anticipation of the upcoming AVENGERS sequel.
Conventional wisdom says that TV shows never boost the sales of comic books. But THE WALKING DEAD has certainly disproven that. The TV show seems to be feeding fans back to the comic and vice versa. THE WALKING DEAD is really an anomaly in both TV and comics. The success of this franchise defies all the rules.
8)
Marvel’s Ultimate line is a bust. When Marvel introduced their Ultimate line in the year 2000, it was a good idea in theory: a reboot of the Marvel Universe, starting from scratch, with new origins, now powers, new costumes for all the heroes -- with stories crafted by the biggest names in comics! How could it lose? Well, it turns out that comics fans are extremely loyal to the OMU (Original Marvel Universe.) This means that any attempt to do a different version is going to have to be better than what has gone before.
The consensus seemed to be that while the Ultimate Universe was pretty good, it was not significantly better than the OMU, which was still being published simultaneously. Fans voted with their wallets, and the OMU continues today, while the Ultimate Universe just keeps limping along, with fewer and fewer titles all the time.
When Galactus from the OMU visited the Ultimate Universe and attempted to devour it in a limited series, it seemed that few Marvel fans would have minded if Galactus had finished his “meal.”
Ironically, one of the key selling points of the Ultimate Universe -- the fact that all the books were starting from number one, thus making it easy for new readers to come aboard -- quickly became a moot point. Fourteen years later, the Ultimate Universe is just as bogged down in continuity as the OMU.
I find I get zero interest when I list Ultimate Universe comics on eBay. Other than Ultimate Spider-man #1, and maybe the issue where Peter Parker dies, no one seems to care about the Ultimate Universe. It’s reached a point where I won’t even bother trying to sell most Ultimate Universe titles. Not worth my time. (The same goes for Marvel’s New Universe from 1986!)
9)
If every Marvel and DC hero went away except for Batman and Spider-Man, fans would be fine with that. Occasionally I will have comic fans stop buy the house to did through my comic boxes, looking fir books to buy. I always ask them, “What are you looking for? Then answer is the same every time: Spider-Man and Batman. When buyers pick through a box, they always pick out all the Spider-Man and Batman comics and leave everything else behind. Some times I think if Marvel published nothing but Spider-man comics and DC published 52 Batman titles a month, fans would be fine with that.
10)
The only Spider-man book that counts is AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. When I was a kid, I used to enjoy 4 different monthly Spidey books: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, and MARVEL TEAM-UP. All would vary in quality from month to month, but I never considered any of the books to be more or less important than the others. All were books that featured my favorite hero, good ol’
Spidey! After I started selling on eBay, I quickly learned that as far as most fans are concerned, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is the only book that matters. I sold off my collections of WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, and MARVEL TEAM-UP for pennies. But AMAZING SPIDER-MAN -- particularly the issues from 1962 to 1985 or so -- can bring in big bucks.
It seemed that Marvel gradually learned this lesson over time. They used to publish 4 different Spidey books a month, but eventually they figured out it made more sense to simply publish the one Spidey title that people actually care about -- AMAZING -- as many times a month as possible.
11)
DC fans love Nightwing. Based on my eBay sales, I would say DC’s 3 most popular heroes are Batman, Harley Quinn, and Nightwing. (National comic sales seem to echo this trend.) That’s why I was so surprised recently by the events of DC’s FOREVER EVIL mini-series, which had Nightwing’s secret identity exposed to the world. Following that, they canceled Nightwing’s book and launched Dick Grayson in a new ongoing series called GRAYSON. The character is now a secret agent instead of a super-hero. Aside from the fact that this makes no sense (the most publicly known super-hero in the DCU is now a secret agent?) it also robs the DCU of one of their most popular heroes. I know that most changes in comics are temporary, but I think DC needs to get back to the status quo on this one ASAP. DC fans cannot live without their Nightwing!
12)
American comics are beloved all over the world! There was a time when my biggest buyers on eBay were other comic book sellers from around the world. They would buy up all my comics for as cheaply as possible, with the intention of selling them overseas for big profits. I had buyers in France, Australia, England, and one ultra-competitive buyer in Russia who was like the Terminator of buyers. He would ruthlessly outbid everybody!
The only problem I found with selling to overseas is that foreign comic book dealers are always broke! They would never have any money to pay me. They were really good at bidding and winning auctions, but when it came time to actually pay for their items, their wallets were always empty. I would have to wait a few weeks for them to make some money before they would have enough to pay me for their books.
Many foreign buyers will lie to you and say the reason they can’t pay is because they are “having trouble with their Paypal account.” The actual trouble is that they “have no money.” I finally ended up banning all international sales from my eBay store. I got tired of hearing the same old lies from buyers who have no money.
13)
Modern Comics are where it’s at. One of the most shocking things I’ve found is you can actually make money selling Modern Comics on eBay. By Modern I should note here that I am only referring to comics released after the year 2000. Comics have very low print runs these days, making many of them hard to find. You know the old saying about “Supply and Demand.": Well, it definitely applies here. Modern comics are so expensive at retail -- most of them are in the $3 to $4 range -- that if you can pick up a few boxes of them for 25 cents or even 50 cents per comic, you can sell them for less than cover price and still make a decent profit. I know a few sellers who won’t even bother selling Golden or Silver Age comics. They just don’t want to deal with having to grading books and disappointed buyers asking for refunds because the books were not in the exact condition as advertised!
14)
A collection of Silver Age Marvels is worth way more than a collection of Silver Age DC’s. If you ever have a choice to buy a collection of Silver Age Marvels from 1961-65 or a collection of Silver Age DC’s from the same time period, take the Marvels. The DC Collection could be worth a few thousands dollars. The Marvel collection could be worth millions.
The reason? DC was basically treading water in the 60s. They didn’t introduce many new characters, and the old ones were just maintaining the status quo. Marvel, on the other hand, was revolutionizing the industry, introducing a spate of new characters like the X-Men, the Hulk, the Avengers, Iron Man, and a certain Webbed Wonder.
The characters that Marvel launched from 1961 to 1965 were so popular and so beloved by fans, that they formed the foundation that company is still built on even today.
15)
Variant covers are overrated. These days, there are at least two versions of every major Marvel and DC comic -- the standard version and at least one “Variant cover.” Most comic sellers (both online and in comic shops) usually jack up the prices on these Variant covers, with the thinking being that the variants are more valuable, because they are more rare. But my experience has been that most variants are not worth much more than the standard versions. Unless you have something truly rare, like a 1 in 50 variant or a 1 in 100, you’re not going to make much money. 1 in 10 variants are actually fairly common and usually not worth the effort to list.
16)
Indie Comics from the 80s = No Sale today. The 1980s were a fun time to be a comics fan. So many new companies were sprouting up (First Comics, Now Comics, Eclipse, Pacific), introducing new characters by a mix of older creators and young upstarts. Among the more popular characters from the era: Dreadstar, Jon Sable, Grimjack, American Flagg, Badger, the Elementals, Nexus. As much as I may have enjoyed these titles back in the day, I can’t give those books away today. For the most part, I won’t even bother trying to sell them. Sadly, I find that nobody cares about any of them, other than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Times change. Tastes change. And as history has shown us, only the Ninja Turtles shall endure!
17)
B-list Marvel Heroes are a Tough Sell: With Marvel, there are the A-list heroes like Spidey, Hulk and the X-Men. Then there are the B-list heroes, like Captain America, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four. I always have a tough time selling the B-list Marvel heroes on ebay. Although these second-tier heroes have found some success in the movies, the fact is that when it comes to most issues of THOR (post-Lee/Kirby) or DAREDEVIL (post Frank Miller), I can't give them away.
Those are just a few things I’ve learned over the past ten years selling comics online. I could, tell you more, but I have to get back to work. I have a few more boxes of comics to list on eBay!
identity exposed to the world. Following that, they canceled Nightwing’s book and launched Dick Grayson in a new ongoing series called GRAYSON. The character is now a secret agent instead of a super-hero.
Aside from the fact that this makes no sense (the most publicly known super-hero in the DCU is now a secret agent?) it also robs the DCU of one of their most popular heroes.
-- all completely worthless now. Obviously there are exceptions -- “First Appearances” will always be hot. But these days, if someone is selling a huge collection of 90s comics, I run the other way.
Think you know everything about Batman? So did I! Then I sat down
and read a book reprinting the first dozen or so Batman stories in
chronological order. Turns out I hardly knew the Caped Crusader at all!
In honor of Batman’s 75th anniversary, join me as I reveal… 
3)
BATMAN CARRIED A GUN! It’s true! He didn’t carry one very often, and he
rarely used it. But the splash page to one of his early appearances in
DETECTIVE COMICS shows the Caped Crusader proudly brandishing a pistol,
as if it were a regular thing for him. Back in those days, pulp heroes
like The Shadow and the Spider always carried guns, and I guess in the
beginning, the creators of Batman were thinking that was the logical
direction for him to go in. I’m not sure when Bats stopped using a gun,
but certainly by 1954, with the formation of the Comics Code, that was
the end of that. 
Batman with a knife or a sword, Bats always finds a way to turn the weapon back on his attacker and stab them real good. You have to wonder how many times the police showed up at a crime scene and yet another dead hood who had “accidentally fallen on his own knife.” In another issue, Batman encounters a deadly vampire, and shoots the monster with a silver bullet -- while the vampire is asleep in his coffin! Comics were so much more fun before the Comics Code came along in the fifties and neutered everything for the next 30 or 40 years. 
6) BRUCE WAYNE WAS ENGAGED! In one of his earliest adventures, Bruce Wayne reveals that he has a fiancée, an actress named Julie Madison. But Bruce doesn’t seem interested in spending much time with Julie. Mostly Bruce wants to go out and catch bad guys as Batman or hang out with his friend, Commissioner Gordon. Sometimes it seems like the only way Julie can spend time with her fiancé is when she gets involved in one of Batman’s adventures. The engagement didn’t last long before it got called off. According to Wkipedia, “Julie…ended her engagement to Bruce on the grounds that she felt that he ought to do something worthwhile with his life rather than just being a fun-loving playboy (she still did not know of his secret activities).” She was gone from the book after about a year and a half. A modern version of Julie was recently introduced in Batman comics. She is referred to as a woman from Bruce Wayne’s past. 
