My husband has passed away and I have probably 5000 comics. I am at a loss as to how I am going to sell these. They are all in sleeves and boxes. I live in Austin, TX.

Edited August 19, 2025Aug 19 by Trish Cooper

Hi Trish --

A couple of quick "rules of thumb" to give you some perspective:

•  The value of the collection will depend on what comics are in the collection and their condition. 
     Comic collectors can be very persnickety when it comes to condition (sometimes referred to as "grade"), what might look like inconsequential amounts of reading wear or aging can have a big impact on how much somebody is willing to pay. 
     The more recent the comics are, the less likely they will be of high value.  The majority of comics published from 1980 onwards are not particularly rare and there is a relatively high supply of them on the market.  There are definitely some specific issues that are exceptions, but generally speaking, the retail value to collectors of these comics is often below $5 each, sometimes even less than the original cover price.  
     Comics published before 1980 are of greater value (again, speaking in broad generalities), especially if they are in very nice shape.  The older the comics are and the better their condition, the greater their value.  

•  In principle, you can try selling comics individually, as groups of issues (for example, a long consecutive sequence of issues of a title), or the entire collection all at once. 
Issues that you sell individually are more likely to get you close to the full collector's value, but it is a long and tedious process and some less popular and/or lower grade issues might not sell as readily. 
On the other hand, selling the entire collection in bulk at once is less likely to get you full collectors' value, but it should be a quicker process and will get the entire collection out the door faster.  

 

Reading between the lines of your short message, my guess is that selling the entire collection would be your preference, and that is how I am going to proceed with the rest of my post.  If I am wrong on that assumption, then post a reply and I can give advice for selling the comics individually.  

  

If you can, you will want to share a list of what is in the collection with potential buyers.  Do you know if your husband used the ComicBase program or some other method of keeping track of what comics are in his collection?  If so, you should be able to generate a list of what is in the collection.  If the list contains information on the grade/condition of each individual comic, that is even more helpful.  

•  If you haven't already, look locally.  You can reach out to comic book stores in the Austin TX area to see if any of them are interested in purchasing the collection.  Some stores don't sell back issues, but some view it as an important part of their business.  

•  If that doesn't work, consider a dealer that buys and sells across the country.  The four biggest online comic book dealers that I know of are:
    
     1.  mycomicshop.com located in Arlington TX.  Go to this link, scroll down to where it says "Ready to Sell?".  There is contact info there.  Drive time between Arlington and Austin is less than 4 hours, so this should work to everybody's advantage.  
     2.  Mile High Comics in Denver CO.  I know that they will travel around the country to purchase comic collections, so it is worth a shot getting in touch with them.  Surprisingly, they don't seem to have anything on their website about how to contact them with collections that you want to sell.  Try sending an email to back_issue@milehighcomics.com and see if they can direct you to somebody regarding buying your husband's collection.  
     3.  Midtown Comics:  they are based in New York City.  See this page on how to contact them.  
     4.  Newkadia.com:  they are based in Norristown, PA.  Based on their webpage, they seem to take full collections and sell the individual comics in that collection on consignment.  If you need the cash from selling the collection in a hurry, this is probably not for you.  But if you don't need the cash right away, this would certainly get your husband's comics out of the house.  

There are certainly other dealers out there, you can find them by just Googling [sell comic book collection].  They may or may not be better for you than the options listed above.  But the options that I have listed should get you started, at least.  

Good luck!  Feel free to post an update, I am sure that some of us will be interested in hearing how things turn out.  

Hi, Trish:
,
I just wanted to say, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Your question is not as simple as it seems.  It is an awful lot for anyone to learn,
Greg Hecht did an excellent and thorough job of providing you with good, solid information. It is a much bigger question than it first seems.
I don't know anything about your financial situation, but if you're not in immediate need of cash, just wait until you feel ready.  Try and make sure you're not taking on additional stress. Your husband left them to you to help you get by, not add to your burdens. If you live in Austin, mycomicshop seems a great idea. They will give you a number of options. It's up to .. They will buy the entire collection, or take some or all of them on consignment, and basically do the work of selling them for you.
The first thing they will  give you an accurate sense of the value of what you have.
I wish you all the best.

Paul,
Miami.