Expert: Brian G. Philbin - 10/29/2010

Question
From Oklahoma City. Have huge collection. EVERYTHING X-Men, LSH, Avengers,etc. Over 30 years....
Question: Who do I contact to have these books appraised? Do they charge by the hour? Advice please.....

                      Thank you for your help

                                  ALEX

Answer
Hi, Alex - thanks for your question!

There are many, many buyers who travel around the country buying collections and many auction houses who will do the work for you.

My personal favorite is HeritageAuctions.com - they are a high-end service who does pretty much everything you could think of - transporting, cataloging, creating images, selling, etc.

There are a few basic things you should know beforehand about grading and other ideas basic to comic collecting/selling, so, before we go any further, I want to point you toward obtaining the basics from my website:

http://www.metropolisplus.com/comicsbasics.htm

After you've done that, I recommend you read the information about a few of your comics in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide by going to the library and looking them up.  You can also read about grading and the general values and see what kind of percentage your specific book gets, as it varies from comic to comic.

Condition is usually everything in comics that are only 30 years of age.  Anything newer than Golden Age or Silver Age in bad condition is likely not worth a lot of time, but not necessarily worthless, either.

Aside from what I mention on the basics page, in a case like yours, where you're looking to sell a collection, I recommend you consider looking up Consignment advertisers in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.  You'll find a few and, for the most part, they are all good to deal with and the difference revolves around what percentage they charge for the service and what services they provide. The least amount of work for you usually results in the least return, but it allows professionals to get the best price for you.

Hope that helps - let me know if you have any other questions!

Pax, harmonia,

Brian G. Philbin