COMICBOOKMAN SEZ: Or maybe not. Recently I received a Facebook message from one of the store's legion of fans on that social discourse black hole. It's the same question I get a couple of times a week at the shop, but since a written question requires a written answer I thought I'd anonymously share it here. It's a common question all stores get and in this instance it came in thusly:

"I have a question. My uncle is looking into selling some of his comics. Where can he go?"

Fairly vague but pretty straight to the point. And while I don't know what condition, type, age or quantity were talking about with the "Uncle's" comics, my response is also still pretty straightforward:

"There is no magic bullet for this. As always, it depends on what he has and if anyone wants it. Most stores are overstocked on back issues and only high grade condition key issues move at all in the current market. Generally, anything after 1985 is still at/near cover price or $2.00-$4.00 each assuming you can find a buyer. This of course excludes any "key issues" (character dies, character introduced, new artist, etc). If whatever he has after this date is "all beat to hell" then a recycle bin or garbage can may be his best bet.

That said, he should get a copy of the current Overstreet Price Guide and find out for himself their value. Then, go on E-Bay or Amazon to see what similar books are actually selling for. At some point he may want to call around to local shops and see if anyone is interested in what he has. However, you'll have to do a fair amount of work if you want to get anything close to guide price.

Finally, depending on his tax situation he may want to look into donating his books to a charity as a tax write off at the end of the fiscal year. Many stores give long boxes to charity for such a deduction."

She thanked me and I wished her uncle luck.

Back in my Comic Emporium days of the late 70's/Early 80's we would get folks in all the time with the same questions, because as we all know: "Old Comics Are Worth Money!". Back then, we were talking about books that were ten to twenty years old, or from the late fifties through the late seventies with an occasional Golden Age book turning up. These books that folks were looking to unload were the cream of the Silver Age through early Bronze Age titles. And there was a market for them because back then collectors were constantly looking to fill holes in their collection. Also having a twenty year old book back then was a big deal because chances were pretty good the books were early Marvels, which even then folks knew were important and valuable. Yes, the same Overstreet Price Guide I referenced above was very much around then. However, today a twenty year old book means an early to mid nineties Image, DC or Marvel. A thirty year old book puts us just past the Crisis/Secret Wars era. Except for key issues in high grade condition, nothing in this era is considered very rare (read "very valuable") because everyone who ever bought them still "has them in plastic" in their basements. Worse yet, all those collectors who were "looking to fill holes" have pretty much done so-so where are your buyers? If everyone has them squirreled away then no one really needs or wants to buy them so their intrinsic value is nil. Anything, including comics, are valuable only because there are so few of them in existence and there is a desire on someone's part to purchase them. A market-any markets exists for this reason only.

So what do you do with those old Backlash, Generation X or Justice League Task Force comics sealed away in your basement? Take them out of their "plastics" and try reading them, because the entertainment value of any book is where that items real value lies. Otherwise, they are, and will probably always be, dead weight taking up space on a shelf. And I'm something of an expert on that, I see it every day when I turn the lights on in the back of the store!
  

At Alternate Reality, we order 99.9% of the comics PREVIEWS solicits. Keep that in mind as you read the numbers below; they not only break down our week, but they're also a good representation of the week in comics nationwide.

New Comic Wednesday for the fourth shipping week of April sees the return of the indy rack's sleeping giant and a 10% drop in the overall number of titles shipping this week over last week. Back again in a commanding 1st Place is IDW with forty three titles. In  2nd place is DC with twenty six titles. Right behind DC in 3rd Place is Marvel with twenty five titles this week. Image comes in 4th with eighteen titles and far behind in 5th place is Dark Horse Comics with nine titles. Indy totals take a big tumble this weeks with fifty eight titles arriving on Wednesday. Parsing through the Indy totals this week finds Archie (that's right ARCHIE!) in 6th Place with eight titles and BOOM! in 7th Place also with eight titles. This Wednesday, you'll find an overall total of twenty three different publishers on the racks contributing to this weeks total of 179 comics.

MORE INFORMATION ON THIS SALE HERE!