Comics

How to sell comics on Metzee

Spine, staples, pages and the indicia. Show all four and the room can price it.

buying

Buying comics in a live auction

Ask for the spine edge-on, the indicia and the page colour. Three requests that settle most of it.

Pricing comics for a live auction

Printing first, condition second, and lot the rest.

delivery

Packing and posting comics

Board it, bag it, and make the parcel rigid enough that the comic is not the stiffest thing in it.

How comic condition is described

The 0.5-to-10 scale, page quality, and why restoration must always be declared.

What are your comics worth?

Issue, printing and the spine. A first printing and a reprint are the same story and different objects.

Photographing comics

Cover square on, spine along the edge, and the indicia held still enough to read.

delivery

Delivering comics: courier, local or collection

Light individually, heavy in runs, and ruined by damp whichever way they travel.

buying

Questions to ask before bidding on comics

The indicia and the spine. One tells you what it is, the other what it is worth.

How comics are graded

A half-to-ten scale, a universal rule about restoration, and a spine that decides most of it.

Storing and caring for comics

Bagged, boarded, upright, and nowhere near an outside wall.

Starting a comic collection

Buy a run you want to read. Keys in poor grade at key prices are the trap.

Common mistakes selling comics

Selling a reprint as a first, and finding out on camera that you never looked at the indicia.