Buying Comic Runs and Lots for LOTS of savings!!!

For comic collectors who want to quickly and inexpensively build large runs of comic books for their collections, there really is no better place to shop than here on Ebay! Unless you are independently wealthy and can afford to pay top dollar for each and every book you add to your collection, buying large or small runs is the way to go! I was able to purchase full runs of Ultimate Spiderman, Superman/Batman, Countdown to Final Crisis, Batman Hush, New Frontier, Identity Crisis and others in Near Mint condition at LESS than cover price. In addition I have picked up large non run lots of Silver Age books at a fraction of guide price. Targeting runs and collections can reap large benefits if you know what you are looking for and if you can read between the lines!

The first thing I did was set up saved searches keyed to look for “Runs” and “Collections” in various categories within “Comics”. For instance I created one to look specifically for Superman runs in the Silver Age category of Comics. You can create lots of these searches and you will get email updates from Ebay on a periodic basis. Of course nothing really replaces a brute force search! A lot of great deals are up there but not with an easily searchable key word or category. The only way to find those is to look for them. Being a confirmed “browser” in real brick and mortar stores I don’t find this to be too much of a chore!

OK, you have found a number of listings for “runs” and “collections” and you are ready to start bidding on those great bargains! NOT YET! Like any other listing you really need to take the time to read the details and look at the scans. ESPECIALLY where a lot of comics are involved. I got burned more than once this way. One of the most common things you will see is a misleading or unclear title to the listing. For example you might see this:

“HUGE lot of Silver Age Comics!!!! Low Bid!!! 500+ comics!!!”

Sounds great right? But when you open the listing and read the details it turns out that only 10% of the comics are truly from the Silver Age period. Or looking at the scans you only see modern age books. This is not necessarily a case of the seller being deliberately misleading. It IS true that there are silver age books in the lot. It is just not ALL Silver Age. So be careful there. Also in the case of larger lots you will not see detailed descriptions of conditions so ask many questions before committing a bid. Where modern books and lots are concerned it is also very important to make note of the “Printings” of the books involved as well as cover variants. When I bid on a modern age lot if the listing does not specify which printing the key books are, I shoot out an email. If I don’t get an answer, I let the listing slide. No bid.

At the end of the day, you can add huge chunks to your beloved collection at a very low price per book by buying large lots. But there are pitfalls. Watch for them, avoid them and you will get great bargains right here on Ebay.

That’s 30!