Selling Rare Comics Online

Rare comics have always been a major collector's market. There was a time in the 1990s where brand new comics, from a Spawn #1 to a special version of Spider-Man #1, were selling for upwards of $100 apiece. That market bubbled, but classic comics from the silver age and before continued to sell for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today, with special editions of comics coming into hardcover and special deluxe editions, you can sell more than rare comics.

But there's a lot to learn before you sell any comics online. Where do you sell them? What price should you set? Which ones are worth investing your money into? This guide can't answer every questions, but let's focus on those three questions.

Selling Online:
Selling your comics online is now the best way to sell rare editions of any hero. It used to be you'd have to go to the local comic shop or to a specialist in comics to sell your collections. And then, since they had to resell your comics, you'd get a fraction of the value. This wasn't always the case, especially with rare comics from many decades ago, but the choices were always limited.

Today, and in the past years, the online world has taken comic collecting by storm. It's pretty simple. Sell your rare comics on Ebay. Ebay allows you to set your price, earn the full rate, and for a small price to list your comic. You can list as many as you want, to a legion of comic fans, and have fun doing it. It's not meant as a commercial to Ebay, but every single day thousands of comic buyers and sellers go to Ebay.

There are other ways to sell comics, especially special editions of comics. Amazon has become quite the source for both paperback and hardcover graphic novels. Some sellers sell rare titles for double their listed price, and people buy them. it's more difficult than Ebay, but once you build up your account with good feedback and add a plenty of titles, you can make even more per book.

Selling by Age:
You have the golden age, the silver age, the bronze age, and the modern age. In that order, you can narrow down where your comics are from by about a decade. For example, the most popular, the silver age, goes from the mid-1950s to 1970. This is the age of classics like Spider-Man, X-Men, and many other Marvel characters who took the comic world by storm.

But of course golden age comics are even more valuable. These are titles prior to the silver age, and some of the hardest to find issues ever put to print. A rare golden age comic can sell for $100,000 or far more.

Setting a Price:
In order to set a price, you need to know the value. Overstreet has a comic pricing guide it puts out every year, but there are also many free and paid comic price guides online where you can quickly gauge your comic's value. Still, the best way to see what the title is actually selling for. Unless it's a very rare comic, you'll see a few listed on a site like Ebay. You can follow the auction, see what it sells for, and then make a decision as to your price. Setting prices on Ebay works well, as you can make sure you get the price you want. For example, you could list a comic valued at $500 to start the bidding at $100 and have a $500 buy it now price. Buy it now prices are dangerous for rare comics, simply because you might be able to make much more than the buy it now price if you just leave it open to bidding.

Investing Your Dollars:
Investing in comics is back. But because of the 1990s era problem of overpriced comics, modern age titles can sell for pennies on the dollar. Some are still very valuable, especially #1 issues, but for collectors, invest your money into valuable ages, namely the affordable and common silver age comics. An early X-men title could be added to your collection for $100 or less,and will gradually increase in value. It may not spike as much as certain issues, but the more rare your comic the better the value.

Understanding the Market:
Lastly, understand your comic buying market. If Ebay is full of your same title, you may want to wait to list it. And if the comic market is going downhill for a time, you may wait on listing your rare comic.

Collecting rare comics can be fun and even profitable. It's unlikely you'll make millions, but some collectors make a career out of buying and selling. Next time you go to the local antique shop or garage sale, keep an eye on those obscure boxes of comics.