chillywill (10/21/2009)
My grandmother passed away early this year, and after going through her basement i found some first issue of tip top comics and famous funnies. They seem to be in great condition. I myself, im not a comic book collector. So my question is should i hold on to them or sell them? If i should sell them what would be the best way of doing that?Congratulations,
First and foremost, do NOT sell them to a comic shop. They'll low-ball you mercilessly. You'd be lucky if they paid you 30% guide. They're in it for a profit afterall.
What you should do is:
Nicely bag and board those comics! You're holding fragile gold. Now find out the market value of the books. Find out the grade/ condition of the books. If these books are prior to 1959 and in good/fine or better shape you may want to hold them long enough to send to CGC (a third party grader) to optimize the books' values.
Where to sell? 
Rare book sell for top dollar to collector's at Comiclink.com and Comicconnect.com.... Heritage Auctions seem to take a higher percentage than the others and eBay is another choice but doesn't offer novices comic sellers support with comic books. In the end it's all about exposing your comics to the largest TARGET audience possible.
To find out what condition your grandmother's comic are in. You have a few choices:
1) Get more familiar with grading look at this web page: http://www.comicspriceguide.com/p-conditions.aspx
2) Carefully take 3-4 of them to a local comic book shop that sells older comics and ask them to "take a look at a couple of books I'm interested in selling." Choose to take books to the shop that, in your own opinion, vary in condition worst to best. Now you wouldn't really be intending on sell them to these guys but you should intice them into looking at the books with some interest. You only want the grades. Make certain to ask for the shop owner to look at the books...he'll have the most vested interest. Let him look at the worst book first- you want to see them treat the book well when grading them; holding the book so it always lays as flat in hand as it does on a table & turning pages gently. Watch and learn. If you think he's brutal with the worst shape book don't let them touch the better condition books. Each book may take 1-2 minutes to assess. Not too fast not too slow. After they've looked at the books ask what grades he believes they are, take note. You may get an offer. At that point thank him for his time telling him you'd like to think about the offer (this gets you out politely).
3) Carefully scan the 3-4 books' worst to best front and back covers. From your computer save them to www.photobucket.com a free picture hosting site. Then post the images [IMG] here at the grading forum. There are lots of collectors here that love practicing grading.
There isn't any substitute for holding a comic. Front and back covers aren't all that involve grading. Page quality, the correct # of pages, coupon cutouts, loose centerfold, loose at the staples covers, dimples, impressions and scratches won't show in a scan. If you go through the book front to back and record what you think are detracting hidden defects you can post them with the comic's image here.
Looking forward to see those basement books,
Dan
