Your local comic book store is often a great first stop to check if they buy collections. They have the expertise to properly assess the value of your comics and cards. Being a niche specialty business, comic book stores aim to build relationships with customers. As such, they may be willing to make a fair offer to purchase your items, especially if they can resell them on their shelves to other collectors.
It’s best to visit the store in person to get a feel for how they do buybacks. Bring a sampling of your highest value comics to show as examples. Make sure to do your research beforehand on recent sales of comparable items so you have realistic expectations. Store owners will also appreciate you having estimated values handy rather than just dumping a box of unknown items on their counter.
If the comic book store isn’t interested or their offer seems too low, you might expand your search to dedicated pop culture collectibles stores and card shops. Like comic stores, these specialized businesses aim to please serious hobbyists. As such, they employ buyer’s with deep product category knowledge. Their larger selection compared to a comic store often means more flexibility to take on larger collections too.
A good option is to look on Google Mapsnear your location for stores labeled as “Comic Books”, “Collectibles”, “Trading Cards” or related terms. Read their online profiles and reviews to get a sense of the types of items they handle and their reputation for fair dealings. Then give them a call beforehand to schedule an in-person visit with your items. Bringing photos on your phone of key items can help facilitate initial discussions too.
For large and valuable collections, you may find more sucess contacting local auction houses that specialize in pop culture memorabilia sales. Established auctioneers have the expertise and large client networks to properly assess, organize and maximize value from comic, card or other collections. They can work with you to selectively group and describe lots to draw serious bidders. Auction houses also have the capability and licenses to facilitate transactions of significant financial value.
The downside is they will take a commission, usually around 25% of the final sales price. Another option is contacting specialist dealers directly through online marketplaces and industry conventions. Dealers buy large inventories to resell for a living, so may have more flexibility than a local store. They naturally aim to turn a profit too. Extensive research is important to ensure fair offers from auction houses or dealers unless relationships already exist.
Online sales through platforms such as eBay can work well too provided you’re willing to invest time in proper photography, description and shipping of individual items. Know that fees and potential shipping costs eat into profit margins versus an outright collection buy. But online exposure opens your items to a huge international collector base versus strictly local options. Ultimately, a mix of local in-person visits plus online research will likely uncover the most and best options for selling your comic and card collections. Taking the time for correct assessment and leveraging specialist expertise can help maximize returns.
Carefully exploring the options of local comic and collectibles stores, auction houses, dealers and online sales represents the most thorough approach for turning comic book and baseball card collections into cash. Going directly to niche specialty businesses with knowledgeable buyers and established track records helps ensure fair deals. Proper research and assessing realistic values beforehand also puts sellers in the best position to get fair market price for their pop culture and card memorabilia collections.
