Comic Book Secrets

Cheap Comic Books – a little E-bay Trick

By admin on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 | 1 Comment

How do you search for comic book deals on E-bay? Do you have a method? In this post I want to share a simple technique that can help you score some significant discounts.

I was reminded of this when I was looking over one of the Members Only RSS feeds for Iron Man #1. One book stood out with a lower price than expected. When I looked at the listing I noticed that the seller had put this book under the “superman” category on E-bay. It brings up the point, do you do a focused search or a broad search?

If you are only doing a focused search you may be missing out on some great deals. Think about it. Let’s say you are searching for a Superman #233 comic book and you only look in the Superman category. First, a lot of knowledgeable collectors are probably doing the same thing. Also, the person selling the book is probably knowledgeable too since they knew enough and took the time to list the book in the correct category. Large number of bidders combined with smart seller = higher final value.

Now, think about a broad search. This could be over all of E-bay or just the comic book section as a whole. You stand to gain in two ways. First, less people may be doing a broad search. Second, the person listing the book probably doesn’t know what they are doing since they listed the book incorrectly. Less bidders + inexperienced seller = less final value. If you are lucky, you may find something like the Iron Man #1.

The lesson here is think outside the box. Sometimes being less precise could snag you a great deal!

Posted in Buying Comic Books | | 1 Comment

JLA Movie on Hold

By admin on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 | No Comments

Warner has decided to put the Justice League of America movie on hold pending a script rewrite. This will have to wait until after the writers strike. Your guess is as good as mine as to when this will happen.

Should you still pick up some JLA comic book picks?

That depends on your timeline. If you don’t mind waiting an unknown amount of time before you sell, this could be a good time to get the books. If you want a solid plan and date, then wait. The speculation risk of this play has increased. Once the delays begin, you never know when the will end if ever. Decide what is right for your situation.

Posted in Comic Book Movies, Comic Book Picks | | Leave a comment

Free Comic Book Value and Price Resources

By admin on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 | 172 Comments

If you want to find comic book values and the online price guide now, please visit our new page here:

Free Comic Book Values and Online Price Guide – Click Here

In the previous comic book value post I talked about using the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide as a source. I also discussed the problems with “the guide.” Today I want to give you few free resources to help find the true value of your comic books.

UPDATE: Comic Book Secrets now has a quick Free Comic Book Values Page for your use. It walks you through finding comic book values and prices and helps you decide the best method for your situation. You can visit the free resource here: Free Comic Book Values

Since these resources are free, you know the old saying: ” you get what you pay for.” Don’t use just one of these sources as the means to come up with the value. If at all possible check out a few.

First off is comicpriceguide.com. This site has a semi-active forum, the ability to actually track your collection and several other features. You can use it to get some ballpark figures for your comics. The search can take a little time do to their tool and you do have to become a member to search, but it’s free.

Next we have nostomania.com. Again, it is free but you have to signup. It’s been a mixed bag for me, but you can use it in your value search.

Finally we have E-bay. I always use E-bay when I start my value search because it is free, easy to use, and contains so many up-to-the-minute sales prices. Anyone can go to E-bay and start searching for current auctions and get an idea of some prices. But to really get useful information you must do the free signup and it will let you search completed auctions. You must do this important step to get the most accurate information.

Here are a couple of little tricks for using E-bay. When you do an initial search for your comic books on the site, look for the “completed listings” box on the left of the page and then click on Show Items. Once you do this you will get a listing, if any, of the closed auctions.

The second little trick I use is to click on some of the actual auctions, especially if the price looks high, and then check the feedback. If the buyer, seller, or both have left positive feedback it is a good indication the sale went through and I can count on the value. If not I discount it and look for more reasonable numbers to arrive at my value. This helps weed out the scam auctions and bidders.

Finally, you can use the Google search tool to search for current retail values of your comic books. You’ll find the tool just below this text. The best way to use the search is to type in the title and issue number of your comic book, plus the term “value”, “price”, or “for sale”. An example would be “X-men 1 value”,”x-men 1 price” or “x-men 1 for sale”. Remember, this will give retail prices, if you are looking to sell your comic books a dealer will typically give you between 10% and 100% of the price depending on the desirability of the comic book.