For investors, the biggest drawback to collecting comic books is the fear that you may have to attend a comic book convention and rub shoulders with middle-aged, pot-bellied delegates dressed in spandex superhero outfits.

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1. If you want to make money from your comics, you first have to find a buyer. Comics are not currency. You cannot spend or eat a comic. A particular comic is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it, not what you think or what the price guide says.

2. For some comic books, it may take months or even years to find a buyer who will give you the price you want. Obviously, you don’t want to tie cash you to live on to buy comic books.

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RARE Barbie First Edition Comic books in a Pack of 2 US $1.95 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 13:30:40 PST Add to watch list

RARE Barbie First Edition Comic books in a Pack of 2 US $1.95 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 13:30:59 PST Add to watch list

3. You must take care of your comics in order to make money from them. Collectible comics require careful handling and careful storage. That $500 Batman comic you have can become worthless if damaged by heat, humidity, pests, or your own carelessness.

4. Make sure you are buying the real thing. Unscrupulous comic dealers of all kinds have taken advantage of the huge demand for comic collectibles to hawk their own illegal fakes and cleverly restored items.

5. If no one wants it, the comic book is valueless. Demand is far more important than supply in determining price increases and decreases. Of course, high demand or low supply books will make prices increase even more rapidly.

6. Comic prices and demand are tied to the whims of collectors. No one has a crystal ball to predict how the tastes of comic collectors may change. When a new movie comes out (X-Men, Spidey, Iron Man for example) prices can skyrocket for key issues of that comic character, but in some cases the prices can drop just as fast after the movie ages.

7. Although prices for comics in general have risen steadily, individual items may still decrease in value from year and year. Know the history of your particular comic before your buy it to resell. Don’t assume that every item will go along with the general trend of increases for comics.

8. Be patient when buying old comics. If you buy an comic for $100 from a dealer. If you take the same book back in the very next day, he’ll give you only $50 for it. You’re going to have to wait until the book is worth at least $200 retail before you can sell it for $l00 wholesale and recoup your initial investment.

9. Be realistic when buying new comics. Today’s comics are published in enormous quantities. A typical issue of The Amazing Spider Man will have a print run between 300,000 and 500,000 copies. With that many copies of an issue available in the marketplace, for most of these comics, you’ll have to wait a long time before the price increases…if ever.

10. Watch the hype. Comic book stores often stockpile crates of ‘collectible’ issues in their store rooms, flooding the market with their overstock the second that the book rises in value. X-Men #1, the first issue of a new X-Men spin-off series published in the late 80’s, had a print run of 5,000,000 copies. Today, despite speculator hopes, that same X-Men #1 book is often sold for less than its cover price. 

If you keep these 10 brutal truths in mind, you can succeed and you can make money from your comic collection. If you need additional information, a great resource for you to use is “47 Ways To Sell Your Comic Books and Get Paid…Starting Today!” To get your FREE copy go to: http://www.ComicsToCash.com

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SPIDER-MAN DAREDEVIL PUNISHER MARVEL COMIC BOOK LOT US $9.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 4:43:18 PST Add to watch list

Marvel Comics 50 Book lot NO Dups FREE USA SHIPPING US $24.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 4:59:21 PST Add to watch list

When it comes to publishing comics you have several options. It is essential for you to be open and aware of the various options available to you, so that you may find what is best for you in
terms of finances and time.

The two primary known approaches for publishing your comic book involves going through a comic book publisher or self-publishing. But it does not end there; within each of these publishing categories you have more publishing options.

For example, if you go through a comic book publisher, you have the option of working with a major publisher or an independent publisher (small press). The same thing applies to self-publishing. You may decide to print multiple copies of your comic book, use print on demand or even go online. I must add
that there are even more options as well in both categories. However, I would not mention them due to time.

Once you have browsed at your options it is as simple as seeing which one is fastest, easiest, and can meet your financial budget.

Why is this necessary? Every comic book creator is not the same. Everyone has his or her own issues and circumstance. For this reason I always see the need to present the different options a comic book creator has. In addition to this, I also like to state the easiest and best option possible for all comic
book creators to implement.

Nevertheless, if you have problems deciding what is best for you, you can start by checking your schedule. See how much time you can sincerely put aside to publish your comic book. People
usually value their time more than money. Therefore, this alone should be able to help many decide. Just in case you are still very unsure, take a look at your finances, and calculate how much you can set aside for publishing. I am sure these two factors would be enough to help you decide how you should approach publishing your comic book.

I have a word of advice to those who don’t feel comfortable looking outside of traditional publishing when it comes to comic book publishing. It is vital that you don’t only focus on Marvel, DC comics, Image or any other major comic book publisher to publish your comic book.

The times are changing and you now have other alternatives that are just as effective as going through the mainstream or independent comic publishers. If you are only focused on getting
your work published by Marvel, DC or even Image comics, you may be disappointed, since they get thousands of submissions every year. Out of all these submissions only one or two are selected.
For these reasons it doesn’t hurt to take action by checking out other options.

Due to the intensive nature of publishing it is best to seek out the option that is fastest, easiest, cheapest and most effective for you.

People from all over the world, kids and adults alike, are now collecting comic books. New titles are coming out regularly and new superheroes are born, if you like the particular title, then chances are, you are going to subscribe or wait for it in comic book stores every month. In time you will soon have a collection.

But for some comic book collectors, it’s the rare and hard to find comic books that are waiting to be the center of their collection. This though can be very risky, especially if it is stolen or damaged. Rare comic books in pristine condition spells thousands of dollars. If anything happens to it, then you can just kiss that money goodbye.

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Batman Comic Collection 51 Books Key Issues US $59.99 End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 5:58:27 PST Add to watch list

LOTS OF THOR COLLECTIONS COMICS BOOKS 12 COMICS US $9.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 6:46:59 PST Add to watch list

You may think that since you have home insurance, then your comic book collection is covered, that may not be the case. Some insurance policies will insure comic collections, but only for the original price of the comic… so that first edition from the 1950s would be valued at 12 cents rather than the hundreds or thousands it might be worth in today’s market.

Most policies do not cover collectibles, others require a full inventory or a professional assessment, so you really need to talk with your agent. If there are indeed some coverage you can get which will be able to extend your limit, then discuss how you can get it to cover your comic book collection. Some insurance companies though don’t have coverage for comic book collections, so you may need to find another one.

There is a company, for which I cannot give any personal reference since I have never used them, called Collectibles Insurance. One would surmise that they would understand better than your normal insurance agent, how to deal with rare and collectible comics.

Before signing up with an agency, you first need to know the value of your collection. So have your comic books, especially the valuable ones graded. A professional grading company will be able to certify the value of your comic books and this is when you will be able to iron out a policy with your agency.

To make sure that the pricing is right, you can purchase a pricing book which will show the price for certain issues at their current condition. This is essential so that you will be able to get the true value if anything happens to your comic books.

Feel safe when comic book collecting, insuring your comic books will give you the peace of mind knowing that your comic books are safe.

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PHANTOM Comic - Issue # 797 - Near Mint Condition US $2.98 (4 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 2:53:51 PST Add to watch list

PHANTOM Comic - Issue # 798 - Mint Condition US $2.06 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 3:07:05 PST Add to watch list

What exactly is comic book grading?

Comic books have a certain grading scale that is crucial to know when you are collecting them. It is also important because knowing the right grade scale of a certain comic book will determine its real value. Grading of comic books is usually subjective, meaning that some comic books may have a high grade or value for other collectors while other people may put a low grade on them.

Comic books -- 1993 Superman Collector's set - mint US $20.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 5:29:29 PST Add to watch list

DC comic book WAR PARTY #1 oct.94~black&white mint US $0.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 6:14:35 PST Add to watch list

Lot of 13 Donald Duck comic books Mint condition. US $14.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 9:07:13 PST Add to watch list

Luckily, there are standardized categories for comic book grading; it’s a scale that ranges from 1 to 10, taking 10 as the highest possible attainable point for any comic book. This scale is first based on the physical conditions of the comic book. If the books condition is from poor to fair, then definitely it is at the range of 1 to 5, conditions that range from fair to best is of course at the 6 to 10 range.

For the average readable comic, it will typically fall in the very good to the fine condition. But as you go up, there are certain nuances and variances on the categories of grading comic books, usually every single detail of the comic book will be considered. With this in mind, prices of comic books may range between 50 dollars to 5000 dollars depending on what category your comic book belongs to. So if you’re collecting you have to educate yourself on what category your comic books fall and what are the factors that would necessarily change the value of your comic book.

How Grading works on the ground

Basically you could grade comic books. Of course, there are things that can be self taught, but most of the time in order to grade properly, consulting someone who is an authority to such trades would be good.

Most comic books will be graded by you as the collector, which is the reason why it is important that you educate yourself on what are the differences of a comic book that is in a very good condition to a very fine conditioned one. Because if you wanted to be known to be a good rater, then basically your credibility would go up, and usually your grading standards would be used by other collectors and investors.

There are a lot of available books which will guide you on properly grading your own comic books. But usually, these kinds of books only teach you of the fundamentals. Other books would basically teach you about the different categories of comic books and later on teach you on how to categorize them. As for any kind of trade, it comes with practice and as you go on with your grading of comic books, the experience would appear on how you will handle different scenarios.

Because as what has been said earlier, grading is purely subjective, therefore only experience will tell you how a certain detail on a comic book will affect its value. A common example would be time stamps on old comic books, some comic book collectors like them but most people don’t like to see any other marks within the book. That’s something you’ll obviously just learn over time when you get more and more acquainted with the trade.

Different Grades of comic books

The industry obviously has evolved with respect to its own grading standards. During the old times, the grading system is based only to 3 or 4, those numbers could mean good, fine or mint. Nowadays however, the comic book industry is now using the standard 10 point grading system in order to have a standard to all comic book collectors and investors around the world.

At the end of the day one thing is certain, experience is still the best teacher in comic book grading.

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Batman Comic Collection 51 Books Key Issues US $59.99 End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 5:58:27 PST Add to watch list

DC Comics collection Freedom Fighters #1-11 Lot(7) US $2.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 6:25:29 PST Add to watch list

Comic books are appraised on two factors. 1) The condition of the comic book, and 2) the year the comic book was published. The older the comic book, the more valuable it is and the better the quality, the higher the value. Also, a good mix of both qualities really gets the prices high.

To appraise a comic book, you will have to have good relations with a reputable dealer. This is because you may get scammed by dealers. Also, you will be paying quite a lot for the process as it is quite long and tedious. Just remember to be careful with appraising your comic books.

What is Appraising?

Comic book appraisal is the process of finding out the value of the book itself after it has been graded. If you want to sell a book that you think to be of particular value, you have to go through both processes to find out whether it is really that valuable. This is important because you don’t want to feel cheated at the end of the day.

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3 Sign/Autographed BLACK TIDE #1,2,3 Comic Books BISHOP US $6.75 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 20:10:40 PST Add to watch list

Star Wars Darth Maul RAY PARK Comic BOOK Signed JSA US $129.99 End Date: Friday Mar-12-2010 8:28:34 PST Add to watch list

Standards

Comic book appraisal works by first getting the comic book graded and then having its value recorded. The older comic books are more valuable while the newer ones are less valuable.

Take this example to illustrate how the standards work: Mint condition platinum age limited edition comics are the most valuable comics you can find. However, some recent editions can surpass the value when certain elements are added to the comic book such as a signature or something else.

Another thing about comic book appraising is that you will also come across dealers who can do the job for you. This method is alright as long as you trust the dealer and as long as the dealer does not try to swindle you. The drawback to this is that the process becomes partly subjective as it involves the taste of the dealer. However, if you find that it is the more convenient way, then go ahead.

How Appraisal Works For You

When you want to do the appraising yourself, you will have to be familiar with the grading process. Also, you will have to know everything there is to know about comic books to be able to give a fair appraising.

Appraising comic books eventually leads to the selling of comic books. And knowing how to sell them and how much to sell them for will go a long way in this business. Appraising isn’t all about knowing the price of the comic book. It’s also about how to sell it to people for the price that you want.

Since you know the price of the comic book, you will then be able to talk other collectors into buying them from you. You will also be able to come up with pricing mechanisms that vary such as selling comic books as a group or as individual comic books. However, you do have to build a reputation before people can start considering you as a credible source.

Another way that appraising can work for you is when you do it as a sideline job. You can actually convince people to appraise their comics for a certain price. You can earn from this as well as learn from it as you will be able to know what the collectors want to see and what they want to have. Furthermore, it isn’t that difficult to appraise. There is already a program that can do those things for you. It’s called ComicCollectorLive. This is a program that actually catalogues, organizes, sells, and even buys comic books for you. All you have to do is to input your specifications and you’re ready to go.

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DC comic book WAR PARTY #1 oct.94~black&white mint US $0.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 6:14:35 PST Add to watch list

Lot of 13 Donald Duck comic books Mint condition. US $14.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 9:07:13 PST Add to watch list

Although it is easy, there’s no argument with that, shopping for comic books online can seem so impersonal. One of the best things of shopping for comic books is the personal communication that you get with a fellow collector. Through these conversations, you will be able to get a lot of tips and information. That’s why going to comic book conventions is still the best way to find comic books for your collection and get to know your fellow comic book enthusiasts.

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RARE Barbie First Edition Comic books in a Pack of 2 US $1.95 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 13:30:40 PST Add to watch list

RARE Barbie First Edition Comic books in a Pack of 2 US $1.95 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 13:30:59 PST Add to watch list

Make a list of all the issues that you want to buy, consult a pricing guide so that you will have a general idea of how much you money will need to bring with you. Set a limit and stick to it, if you could, leave your credit card behind and just set the right amount of cash so that you will be able to stick to your limit.

If the convention is going to be done in a huge venue and there are lots of activities, then be sure to go wearing comfortable clothes and shoes. You may be doing a lot of walking and having sore feet can hamper your fun.

Be prepared, that is always the best advice, even with comic book collecting, being knowledgeable and prepared is the best thing that you could do.

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SPIDER-MAN DAREDEVIL PUNISHER MARVEL COMIC BOOK LOT US $9.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 4:43:18 PST Add to watch list

Marvel Comics 50 Book lot NO Dups FREE USA SHIPPING US $24.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 4:59:21 PST Add to watch list

Having a comic book collection, especially if it’s a complete series, is a great honor for any collector. And most of the time, a collection is not that complete if you don’t have the ever essential early editions. This may cost some money but this is what having a collection is all about. 

But what good is having a great comic book collection if you are not able to showcase it?

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3 Sign/Autographed BLACK TIDE #1,2,3 Comic Books BISHOP US $6.75 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 20:10:40 PST Add to watch list

Star Wars Darth Maul RAY PARK Comic BOOK Signed JSA US $129.99 End Date: Friday Mar-12-2010 8:28:34 PST Add to watch list

Firstly, choose a space where you will be able to display your prized comic books. It doesn’t have to be the whole collection, but only the ones that are most valuable and the pride of your collection. The place must be cool and free from humidity and it should not be in the direct path of sunlight. 

Try to find frames that are especially designed to hold comic books. You can either hang them on your wall, or place them on shelves. Make sure that they are air tight so that the elements can’t seep in. 

If possible, find lockable Plexiglas display cases. If your comic book collection is worth thousands of dollars, then this clear display case would be able to protect them.

With a few artistic touches, you can turn a room into your virtual museum. Your comic book collection would be the main display and adding some collectibles like toys can help break the monotony. If you want, you can even write a few words to describe your collection. The possibilities are endless. 

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RARE Barbie First Edition Comic books in a Pack of 2 US $1.95 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 13:30:40 PST Add to watch list

RARE Barbie First Edition Comic books in a Pack of 2 US $1.95 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 13:30:59 PST Add to watch list

RETRO COMIC BOOKS DC MARVEL LOT OF 13 RARE COLLECTORS US $79.99 End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 14:29:43 PST Add to watch list

When starting a comic book collection, you first have to find a title to collect that catches your interest. You will need the drive of interest to ensure that you will continue on with the endeavor. Most people want to have a comic book collection that other people would have interest in as well. Major names in the comic book industry that have helped create or conceptualize the project adds to the value of the collection as well.

Comic books -- 1993 Superman Collector's set - mint US $20.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 5:29:29 PST Add to watch list

DC comic book WAR PARTY #1 oct.94~black&white mint US $0.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 6:14:35 PST Add to watch list

Lot of 13 Donald Duck comic books Mint condition. US $14.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 9:07:13 PST Add to watch list

Strive to make a complete set. This means doing your research. Try using the internet to find out if it’s still possible to get a complete set of a certain series that you like. Make sure that you can have a ballpark figure of what it would take you to get a hold of a complete collection.

Aside from that, you need to also be armed with the necessary information on how much each would cost you. Meaning, one issue may be worth very low, but one can cost you a fortune. So being knowledgeable with the value of a certain issue, with regards to its grading, is very essential.

Does this look like a lot of work? Well, comic book collecting does require some dedication, but so does any other collection if you want to have a good one.

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