Old (valuable?) comic books - HELP!!

Lounge
1

Found a box of old comic books from the 1960’s-early 1970’s under the old house I am living in. Maybe 50 in the box.

There’s:

DC Comics - Tarzan series - issues 208 - 233, a couple missing, some duplicates, 1972-1974
Gold Key/DC Comics - Korak Son of Tarzan series - issues 45 - 56, some duplicates, 1972-1974
Gold Key - Turok Son of Stone series - issues 77-91, a couple missing, 1972-1974
Gold Key - Brothers of the Spear series - issues 1-10, a couple missing, some duplicates, 1972-1974
DC Comics - Tarzan Weird Worlds series - issues 1 - 7 (issue 4 is missing), 1972-1973

And some random ones:

Dell - Tarzan King of the Jungle - issue 37, 1960
Famous Monsters of Filmland, May 1972
Dell - Kona Monarch of Monster Isle, issue 12, 1964
Gold Key - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, issue 4, 1966
Gold Key - Tarzan King of the Apes, issue 139, 1963
Marvel Comics - Jungle Action, issue 1, 1972
DC Comics - Sword of Sorcery, issue 2, 1973
Gold Key - John Carter of Mars, issue 3, 1964
Gold Key - Tono and Kono The Jungle Twins, issue 1, 1972 and issue 8, 1974
Super-Spectacular DC-19 Tarzan, Vol. 1, No. DC-19, 1973

I did some brief research, and I think they might be valuable. But I have no idea how to go about grading them correctly, and finding a reputable comic dealer or place to sell them. Does anyone know about this kind of thing?

Also, they were found under this house, the owners were old and died some years ago, their daughter has no interest in anything here. I have full reign of the place, I can do anything I want - I actually rescued it from the vines, the termites and vandalism that had occurred. It was totally a trashed mess, it took me over two months to make it livable.

So, is it okay for me to claim these comics, or should I give them to the daughter who lives someplace else, doesn’t even know about them, and couldn’t care less about the house (except for it to not fall down or get vandalized)?

There might even be more under the house, but its dark and scary under there, and there’s no way I’m going to go look right now, lol.

2

Comics will have a grade ranging from poor to mint condition, there are books that describe the qualities that define each grade. An issue will have a base value that goes up or down depending on the grade of condition the comic has. Now, if you’re willing to make a small investment, there is a company called CGC Certified Guaranty Company, LLC - CGC Grading - Grading Process

They will professionally grade your comic same as you would have an appraiser grade an item of jewelry. The comic is then placed in a sealed special bag designed to prevent any further degradation, WITH it’s official grade labeled on the front. One benefit is that comics that are officially graded and sealed will claim a higher market value than an ungraded comic in the same or similar condition.

My advice would be that since having comics professionally graded costs money, pick up a book and find the listings for the issues you have. Guestimate their value based on condition and thus their potential market value. If they’re relatively worthless then don’t bother, but if the issues have a high base value and look to be in decent enough condition, it might be worth a few dollars investment to have them graded and sealed. I guarantee if you have them graded and identified by issue# and condition you can get a much higher price on ebay than you would just selling them as a lot or even ungraded singles.

3

The Overstreet Pricing Guide is $25, and the online resources, at least the ones I’ve found thus far, are complicated and seem to vary widely, and of course cost money too. And, how to know which are reputable and which are not? sigh

And yikes, the CGC service is expensive! Too bad i can’t just send them all to them for grading, but I have no idea is they are even worth it. This stinks! :frowning:

4

Overstreet is the standard for comic grading, go to barnes and noble or borders and read the book in the coffee shop, it’s amazing they let you do that now but yeah. Then as far as the cgc service goes, I’d only do it for books where the overstreet value is high enough that you’ll get your money back and then some. But bear in mind, only serious collectors will pay more than a couple of bucks for a comic, they’ll know all about how a books condition effects it’s value and they look for CGC graded and sealed books.

5

Borders’ etc, is like an hour away, by the time I spend the time and gas to get there, I might as well have paid for the quide.

I caved in today and ordered the online version of the Overstreet Guide, but then it had all this LockLizard key stuff, and its too frustrating. I’m calling them tomorrow, and getting my money back. Who knows if the comics I have are even worth that much anyway, they might not be,

Is anyone going to a major bookstore in the near future (or at least before I get to someplace where there’s one, which I don’t know when at this point.) The entire list is in my first post. Nah, but thats probably too much to ask someone to do. I’ll figure something out.:roll_eyes:

6

Ack, nevermind, I figured out what I did wrong (unfortunately, lol). I kind of wanted to just get my money back, but too late now. Plus the document viewer is a bit awkward, it scrolls jerkily, either too slow or too fast. Ah, well…