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[Rajah]

Hi all. A friend of my parents found a box of old 1940s and 50s comics in her attic and she asked me for advice on determining their worth. They are a mix of DC/National, Fawcett, Timely, Disney, and other publishers but they are in pretty poor condition unfortunately. However, some are as early as Batman #11 so I figure they might be worth something to a collector.

What I need help with is where to start. What books/websites have you used for determining the worth of Golden Age comics? There

[narfstar]

My experience has been to look for the books on ebay and see what they are actually going for. Overstreet is for dealers to make more money.

[rez]

Yep, that's some common sense right there.

My experience has been to look for the books on ebay and see what they are actually going for. Overstreet is for dealers to make more money.

[OtherEric]

Also, be aware that value drops dramatically as condition drops.  A beat up but complete reading copy can go for as little as 1 or 2 percent of a near mint copy.

Edit:  Excuse me:  Worth, not value.  I value my beat up books quite highly, since I can actually afford them. 

[phabox]

While most of your stuff is sadly 'off limits' to us some of your Fawcett Books might be of use.

Do you have anything that is not yet on our site ?


-Nigel

[bchat]

The Standard Guide to Golden Age Comics is a nice book to have when I'm looking online for books, but the prices don't seem much different than what Overstreet has.

If you're only "determining their worth" out of curiousity, use Overstreet or the Standard Guide, get familiar with grading comics & how to price them, and have at it.  You can also go to Mile High Comics' website which has a large selection of books with their different values listed.  I would suggest if you were going to use eBay to determine the price of your books to look through Store Listings only (sort by lowest price).  Completed Auctions will only tell you what people were willing to pay for the books while fighting with someone else for it, not what they may actually be worth to a serious collector.

If you (or anyone else, really) are going to list the comics on eBay, make sure you put them in the right Category AND Sub-Category.  While that might seem like an odd thing to say, I've picked-up quite a few items dirt-cheap simply because the person listing the item put (for example) an action figure in the "Books & Magazines" category.  If you're planning to have someone else list the books for you, make sure they know what they're doing.  Just because someone makes a living selling on eBay by listing other people's stuff, doesn't automatically mean they're good at what they do.  Again, I've purchased things off eBay at a fraction of the price I should have paid simply because it was mishandledby a third-party seller.  And Last But Not Least, selling on eBay means taking the chance that you won't get full value for the book.  HOWEVER, Golden Age books, even in Poor Condition, Coverless or Incomplete, can generate some solid interest if they're rare.

[John C]

First, as mentioned, the price guides aren't necessarily worthwhile.  The numbers assume the comic shop model:  Leave the book on display until someone eventually pays that price.  For quick turnaround, prices obviously need to be lower.  Unlike comic dealers, places like Wal-Mart understand the bird in the hand/bird in the bush ratios:  You can't buy cool stuff with money that nobody is likely to pay you for another couple of years.

If it were me, and depending on where you're located, I'd call around to the local auction houses and see if anybody gives free or cheap appraisals.  If they know the comic field, they'll have a fairly good sense as to what a particular book in a particular quality is likely to sell for, when a customer is given the opportunity.

[rez]

Rajah-
If the mods might see fit and you have access to a scanner
you could post some of the scans here where we could decipher the grade and give a ball park estimate of their value.

Might be a fun exercise.

Hi all. A friend of my parents found a box of old 1940s and 50s comics in her attic and she asked me for advice on determining their worth. They are a mix of DC/National, Fawcett, Timely, Disney, and other publishers but they are in pretty poor condition unfortunately. However, some are as early as Batman #11 so I figure they might be worth something to a collector.

What I need help with is where to start. What books/websites have you used for determining the worth of Golden Age comics? There

[Rajah]

Rajah-
If the mods might see fit and you have access to a scanner
you could post some of the scans here where we could decipher the grade and give a ball park estimate of their value.

Might be a fun exercise.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. The above sounds like a good plan, if the mods are okay with it. If the price guides are mostly for dealers and ebay prices can vary greatly, I would love to hear the opinion of the members here on what the books might be worth.

They're all in about the same condition so perhaps I could just scan some of the public domain books so I don't violate the site's rules. The books are currently at the friend's house so I won't be able to scan them just yet. I have the list of titles though so I could post that here or look through your archives to see if there are any that haven't been posted yet.

I've started researching them and so far, I haven't found any that are particularly significant. One has the first appearance of Captain Compass but I don't think he's a huge draw for collectors. Some of the Disney ones have Carl Barks artwork. Those are the only notable things I've found so far.

[Yoc]

Hi Rajah,
You can post scans to ImageShack and then paste their Thumbnail Code for forums link in a message here.  Note you do not have to register with them to upload. 

-Yoc

[Rajah]

Thanks, Yoc. As soon as I can borrow the books from their owner, I'll scan a few and post the images. Here is the list of titles, organized by publisher. If anyone spots an issue that has particular significance, please let me know. For the public domain books, I indicated which ones don't seem to be in your database:

DC/National
Batman #11 (missing the cover)
Star-Spangled Comics #83 (first appearance of Captain Compass)
Detective Comics #118
Boy Commandos #31 (Simon and Kirby cover)

Marvel/Timely
Marvel Mystery Comics #74
Marvel Mystery Comics #76

Disney
Walt Disney

[narfstar]

None of the DC, Marvel, Dell or Gilberton are PD but any of the others not already on GAC are welcome.

[Rajah]

Hi everyone,

Sorry I disappeared on you. I have recently moved so my life has been a bit chaotic. But now that I'm settled in, I'm trying to get back to this project.

I tried uploading Startling Comics #40 to the GAC database but received an error message saying that the file was too big. Also, during the upload, the list of publishers did not generate. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. What is the maximum size for files here? Should I decrease the image sizes in Photoshop before creating the .cbz file? (Apologies. I am new to all this.)

In the meantime, here is the link to the files on Image Shack: http://img198.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=scan0051.jpg

And here are a few sample images. If anyone has an estimate for the condition or a fair price my friend should ask for the issue, please let me know. Thanks. Once I figure out the uploading process, I will try to get this and a few of the other public domain issues into the database.

[narfstar]

Just from the scans I would call in VG+ with detached cover. Sorta covers bases as some would consider detatched cover as bringing the grade down so you let them decide. Then be sure to include the cover scan so they can decide. All first timers can only upload to the unsorted directory. Entire book should run less than 30Meg but definetly less than 100Meg. Better to increase your resolution and decrease your size.

[Yoc]

Hi Rajah,
The scans look very nice though they are a bit large in size.
I'd recommend resizing them down to 1000 wide which equals about 1500 pixels in height.
That will bring your final book size in under 68mb.  Anywhere between 30-80mb per a book is not bad.  Some scanners go higher some much lower.  As the scanner it's your final call.

Geo created an Excellent tutorial on how to scan a while back.
You can read it HERE-  http://tinyurl.com/ln6ujx

GL with the scans and feel free to Private Message me or Narfstar if you have any specific problems not covered in the tut.
-Yo

[Rajah]

Thanks, guys. I changed the image sizes and re-did the .cbz. It worked this time. So Startling Comics #40 should be awaiting approval in the archive.

[Yoc]

Now Up.
Great start Rajah.  I can see the spine gave you some problems but a fine first scan.
Thank-you for the thumbnail and using the same name formula as the other Startling Comics on the site.
You made it very easy for us to add to the site.

[narfstar]

Way to go Raj. Picking a much sought after series for your first go is great.

[darkmark]

Roger, Rajah!  Thanks for a great start-out and a new issue of STARTLING.

[Astaldo711]

Just finished reading it and it's a nice clean scan. Thanks Rajah!

[Rajah]

Glad I could help. Yes, the spine did give me some problems. I'm afraid a few of the pages are a bit crooked. I'll see if I can correct that with any future scans.

So Startling is much sought after? I didn't realize. Are there particularly notable creators that worked on it or are these characters in demand because of the recent revivals at other companies?

There's a note on the download page that says "Missing ifc only." What does that mean?

[Yoc]

Hi Rajah,
Your book had 51pgs.  If you look up the title on GCD here - http://www.comics.org/indexstatus.lasso?SeriesID=168
(GCD is a great site but tends to run slow during the day)
You can see your book was published with 52pgs.  The Inside Front Cover is the missing page from your book.


Hope that helps,
-Yoc

Oh, one last suggestion - to keep things organized it's nice if the scans are named after the book being scanned.  In your case I've renamed the scans on my HD to 'Startling40_pg01', etc.  In 2008 we had a server crash and the books with file names like this were much easier to replace than generic named files with names like 'scan01', etc.

[crimsoncrusader]

Thanks for adding Startling #40. I'm looking forward to your future scans.

[rez]

I'm afraid a few of the pages are a bit crooked. I'll see if I can correct that with any future scans.

For finetuning, hitting the Ctrl tab and U tab will permit you to realign the your pages.

Cheers