Both comic shops I’d go to are permanently closing/closed this year. Sucks to see it happen, but I haven’t been much of a buyer these last couple of years.
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I’ve never been to a Half Priced Books store. I would not be surprised to see people dumping their collections there as a means of last resort in a few years. How much does that place give you for a comic? I know it’s pennies on the dollar. Do the comics have to be bagged and boarded? I discovered there is one in the city I live in and thought of seeing if they had anything good from people giving up on the hobby and trying to get quick cash.
Depends on who’s reviewing them to be honest. Sometimes its better than expected and other times not so much. A lot of factors involved but most of the time it’s just an easy way to get rid of books you don’t have time to sell on eBay or other ways that don’t make it worth your time.
No
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I went to a HPB in Sacramento a couple of years ago and I was pretty surprised by what I saw. The comics were stored in drawers and about 90% weren’t priced. There was a sign that said books will be priced at counter at market price.
This wasn’t what I was expecting reading some of the experiences here. Left disappointed and didn’t bother looking through what they had.
Oh crap. They check current prices at checkout? Forget that.
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No not all stores, just the one I was at. It was also during the tailend of the pandemic so prices were going crazy at that time
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The one I went to had most of the books that looked to be of interest stacked in piles in locked, glass cases. I had to ask to see them and I felt like I was bothering the employee to see them. They seemed to be priced too high for the grade in many cases so I just left.
My one & only experience.
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If you’re pricing at checkout I want a 50% discount for doing the shops work. I mean you can’t keep track of everything but shit, I’m not doing your job too.
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The HPB around here are all pretty cool. The employees at the one closest to my house are really nice and I enjoy chatting with them. Whenever I’ve traveled I’ve been to other locations that seem a little less pleasant, but I like the ones in my area!
Just saw a Spiderman #252 newsstand go for $1000 on ebay. these books were going for over $2K a year ago. Will prices continue to drop even on premium books like spidey 252?
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Things are not good out there.
The only books I’m making anything on is Yard/Garage Sale books for dime/quarter that I’m turning for a buck or two at small shows. That’s actually been quite lucrative.
95% of everything else is in the toilet.
The Wednesday Warrior thing is almost completely done for me. Maybe 10 spec books per year, and that’s it.
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Moderns? Yes.
Even Bronze has taken a big hit. Still on a slight downward trends…I’ve been saving up money to buy a few, and even though my sales have been stagnant I keep making ground because prices on the books I want keep creeping down…
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Recent personal situation has caused me to go from 90/10 (Collector/Seller) to 10/90 (Collector/Seller).
It couldn’t have come at a worse time in this train wreck of a hobby
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Damn, Bill. I hope things improve for you.
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Thank you.
It’s actually not bad, though.
I get to eliminate so much that means nothing to me other than the “value”.
I can now keep that which I truly love and focus on actually beginning reading the very few titles I still enjoy (like Titan’s Conan titles, Universal Monster titles).
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This year hasn’t been that bad to be honest, it’s been one of the better spec years in the last few years. We had the Ultimate Spiderman, Ultimate Universe/Black Panther/X-men specs to start off the year. Also don’t forget we had the X-men 97 boom with all the X books heating up like crazy. Then we got the Deadpool/Wolverine and Doom explosion. Don’t forget also this was the year that Dave Stevens blew up too. Even in the last 2 weeks we had Eye Lie Popeye and Aliens vs Avengers blowing up. I’m not even counting all the hot ratio variants like the Bloodhunt EC 1:25 homages and all the other hot ratios this year.
All in all there might have been well over 100+ modern books that have heated up this year. I’ve actually made more money selling this year than I ever had in lifetime and that’s without even slabbing any of my books, thanks to Ultimate Spiderman mainly and all the X-men 97 specs and Dave Stevens.
I’ll go further and say that I’ve made more money selling this year than all the money that I’ve spent in my lifetime buying comics since I started (no hyperbole). Considering when I started back in the early 90s, comics were only $1.00-$1.25 so it’s not much 
Some of the books that I bought back then for cheap like Hulk 340 and New Mutants 98 that I still have would’ve covered the cost of all the books I’ve bought back then.
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I’ve had a decent year. Better than 2023, I think.
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Ebay says I’m up 13% from last year, same time period.
Which seems really odd since the last 90 days have generated less than 10% of my sales this year.
Yea… Sales in '24 not bad.
It’s the profit (and in many cases “lost profit” had I sold last year instead) that is in the toilet for me
Values are just so far down; particularly on slabs. I think after all the mishaps they’ve finally officially shot themselves in the foot
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It has been hit or miss. The year started out really well with books that I could easily find and flip over and over again. Then dry spells. Then another book. Then dry spells. Rinse and repeat.