Can you help me with the value of my Secret Wars set?

[TheMattster]

Hello
I have a set called Marvel Super Heroes secret Wars. My set is missing issue #10. I have doubles of issue #11. I have seen various prices out there. My question is... If I took these to a comic book shop locally and wanted to sell what I have for cash, what should I ask? What is a fair value? They are all in near mint condition. Thanks!

[Graphic Autist]

Hello
I have a set called Marvel Super Heroes secret Wars. My set is missing issue #10. I have doubles of issue #11. I have seen various prices out there. My question is... If I took these to a comic book shop locally and wanted to sell what I have for cash, what should I ask? What is a fair value? They are all in near mint condition. Thanks!

If you want what they are worth, then a comics shop is about the last place you’d want to sell them.

[My Two Cents]

If these are original 1984 issues and are in near mint condition
than you should hold them and do some research on how to send issue #1 and # 8
out to be graded.

If issue # 8 is original and high grade, you may have a book which after getting graded
could get you back a few hundred dollars selling directly to a collector.

Either way, do not allow a comic shop to offer you ten dollars for the whole set
because you will see your issue #8 sitting behind the counter in a plastic shell case
selling for $300

[MRP]

If you sell to a comic shop, you will get a fraction of what they sell for, as the shop has to be able to sell them to someone else at a profit, so they will offer a price that gives them room for a mark up for their profit margin. For key issues, it's usually about 1/4 to 1/3 of average market price, less for lower grades. For non key issues, it is likely to be pennies on the dollar, as nonkeys often wind up in dollar bins or other such bargain offerings, especially if in lower grade.

You might have better luck selling to or consigning to a major internet seller like Lonestar (mycomicshop). They have a place on their website where you can look up what they are buying at https://www.mycomicshop.com/webuycomics

compare that to what they sell the same issue for and you can see what a typical mark up is for a shop. They do offer consignments, where they sell the books for you to other collectors for a fee, and you will usually realize more from that than selling them outright to a dealer.

Your other option is to look for completed/sold auctions of the issues on ebay to see what they are selling for to get an idea of what market value is right now.

There are also facebook groups that specialize in selling comics that you could look in to.

It all depends how much work you want to put in. The more you put in, the more you will likely get out of them, but if you just wan to get rid of them quickly for a few bucks, then just take them down to a comic shop and get what you get.

One note, look at actual pictures of high grade books and compare them to yours. A lot of people tend to overestimate the condition their books are in (hence the grading services mentioned in a post above) and what some people call mint can actually be mid to low grade because of certain defects they don't know to look for.

If you do have high grade books, #1 and #8 could fetch a decent price. The rest, not so much.

-M

[slop101]

Ooh, I have SW #8 - had no idea it was worth so much. Honestly, after boxing up all my floppies (roughly form the late '70s to the early '00s), I haven't given them much thought as I've been buying hardcover collections since then. I know about 95% of what I have is "worthless", but there's that 5% that I can get good money for - I just have to go digging through it all and research what is what. No time though!

[marvelmaniac6169]

If you want to know actual, real life value then grade your books (See * below) and then check eBay sold auction listings for books in the same or approx grade as your books.

Example, A Marvel Super Hero Secret Wars #8 Raw VF- 7.5 sold for $47.00 on February 15 with 14 bidders/22 bids.

*https://comics.ha.com/tutorial/comic...micdefinitions

*https://www.gemstonepub.com/en/the-o...s-2016-edition

[shooshoomanjoe]

Why did #1 Go up in price so much?

[marvelmaniac6169]

???Up in Price???

2016 Overstreet Value: VF 8.0 $13.00, VF/NM 9.0 $18.00, NM- 9.2 $22.00

February 2019 eBay Completed Auctions VF- 7.5 $18.00(2/27), VF/NM $17.06(2/27), VF/NM 9.0 $15.50(2/25), VF/NM $8.00(2/23), VF 8.0 $10.50(2/17)
A CGC NM+ 9.6 sold for $46.00 with only 4 bidders.(2/19)

Nowadays books are artificially inflated due to "excitement" of upcoming movie/tv show appearances of characters, once the hype dies down so does the price and interest.
IE: Avengers 55, F.F. 45, etc.

Same thing happened in the 90's with multiple variant covers of the same book (X Men 1 Vol 2, Spider-Man 1 (McFarland)), gimmick covers (Ghost Rider 15), etc and that lead to 2nd, 3rd printings to keep up with demand (false demand), however there was no real demand, people were hoarding (buying multiple copies) to sell later and make a profit.
Unfortunately it did not work that way, everyone tried to cash in at the same time, tons of sellers, no buyers that lead to a glut of books on the market that nobody wanted and Marvel stuck with millions of copies they could not sell which lead to Marvel filing for Bankruptcy.
Those same books can now be found in dollar boxes at cons.

Marvel Bankruptcy 1996.jpg

The Moral: Collect and Read what you Like and Enjoy and you will never have wasted a penny.