Recently, I have been on a mission to remove the clutter from my life. I have book shelf upon bookshelf of DVD’s, Comics and Books that are drastically hampering my ability to move in the next 4-6 months. I have come to terms with the fact that I have been collecting these things for years simply out of my inner need to possess material things. I have a history of buying things just for the sake of having them, rather than wanting them and I need to free myself from this bond.
This is especially true for the comics that I have amassed. About 3-5 years ago, I had a major comic collector, and I’ve amassed a collection of monthly issues and all the classic trades, but I don’t feel that I am able to properly enjoy them on a regular basis. No matter how often I tell myself that I don’t care about comic conditions or value, I end up treating them as ancient treasures that cannot be damaged. I would say that 99% of issues that I have have been read through once and stored bagged and boarded in alphabetical order by series for years. It’s a rather sad existence for some wonderful art that someone put so much time into to write, draw, ink and color. By selling them, I hope that someone else is able to get better overall enjoyment than I ever was.
I started the process with comics, because I find that I care less and less about the characters that I once loved. At the time, I was obsessed with super hero comics, especially Batman, but in hindsight these are characters and stories that I can relate to less and less as I get older. When you take away some of the magic around ’super heroes’, I don’t think that I am able to properly appreciate the books any longer.
Thankfully, this is stuff that holds it’s value pretty well on the open market due to the success of the recent movies. I have been putting up a bunch of them up on eBay every week in an effort to clean things up. So far, I have been fairly successful, almost everything is selling because I am setting the starting prices super low in an effort to unload it. Once the comics are done, I hope to undertake a similar effort on the books and DVD’s. Due to the bulky, heavy nature of these things, I haven’t come to terms with how I am going to post them up on eBay. I think I am going to just post them up in lots and let people have at it. At worst, I will end up giving them away, because this is more about removing the clutter than it is about recouping the money.
Do you have any tips to unloading unwanted comics, books or DVD’s? Any success stories to keep me on this path would be greatly appreciated
No good tip on unloading comics exactly. (This is a comic artist typing.) But I can tell you that I saw someone with a table at a comic convention trying to sell his collection and did not. So try your local comic trader shop. You probably won’t get what they’re worth strictly, but they’ll find homes.
You can also try comic collector forums. I know there are some out there where people put their “want to buy” lists up.
I also recommend you find out what they’re worth before you step out the door with them.
Good luck.
Good thoughts – I will check out the local comic shops, at least for the things that I can’t easily sell on eBay. I guess this is a downside of the current state of comics – I’ve always bought online and I don’t have a good relationship with any local shops.