F.A.Q. : Buying & Selling

How do I buy stuff?

To buy stuff, try the newsgroup or auction sites like eBay and Amazon Auctions.

Plus, we do have some links to some of the larger online Comic Shops on our Links Page.

Other than that, I'm sorry - I can't tell you where to buy Spider-Man Pajamas in Basingstoke, or a Spider-Man Bicycle in the Tri-State area. I can't even help you find Spider-Man vitamins in Indonesia, or Spider-Baby Diapers in Botswana.

Anything else, we can't help. Please don't ask. Try a search engine like Google.

How can I buy the Spidey Collectable Series newspaper giveaways?

How do I sell stuff?

Even if you don't have a lot of stuff I need, if you have a big swag of comics to shift and don't know where to go, then you can always Mail Me, and I can put you in touch with one of the more friendly/reputable dealers, depending on what kind of stuff you're looking to shift.

If you want to choose your own dealer, then buy the latest Overstreet Comics Price Guide. You'll want to do that anyhow, in order to get an independant set of comic valuations. But it also has a lot of advertisements for dealers looking to buy.

Or you can just find your local comic shop, and see what they might offer you. Some comic shops will sell on comission. My local shop will buy for 33% guide, or sell for 50% commission, both of which are fairly typical. Hey, they have to make a living.

You may be able to get a higher price for a bundle of comics if you sell privately, for example on a newsgroup like rec.arts.comics.marketplace, but eBay seems to have taken a lot of the ground that the newsgroups used to cover.

If you have a few special, interesting items, and if you're an organised kind of person, the you can consider selling on eBay. If you're good at presenting yourself, you might get top dollar, or maybe you'll get next-to-nothing... that's the fun of auctions!

Want to know what your comics are worth? Read on.

What is my Spidey stuff is worth?

To give a value to a book or comic, you need to know firstly what the comic is worth in Near Mint condition. Then you need to reduce the price if the comic's grade is less than perfect.

To get a valuation for a near mint copy of a Spidey book/comic, you can use our Comics Database. Our NM prices are collated from a variety of difference sources. Alternatively, there's a couple of comics price guides online, you can find them on our Links Page.

If you have a big batch of comics, you probably should invest in a printed price guide. The monthly Wizard Magazine will cost you around US$5, but it's a bit fickle. Most serious collectors refer to The Overstreet Comics Price Guide for comics - it costs more, but it's far more complete and reliable.

Then, you'll need to determine the actual grade of the comic you have, and adjust the price downwards from near mint. To determine the grade of a comics, check out our Grading Guide, which is pretty similar to those you'll find in all the other sources mentioned above.

Books, trading cards, figures, and odd-ball items can be a bit tricky to value. We cover most books in our Comics Database. Wizard Magazine has special editions now and again for non-comic items. For really weird stuff, you'll just have to look on eBay and compare it against similar items which are up for auction.