Be Excellent To Each Other

Hi folks,

Dimrill’s wife, Helen, is looking to sell Dale’s absolutely massive gaming magazine, graphic novel and comics collections.

She sent me the following messages:



Does anyone know of the best way to do this that will be fair to Helen in ensuring she isn’t ripped off, but also without the job of listing them on eBay. The collection is frankly overwhelming to even stand in front of, let alone to photograph and list.

EBay is going to be the best bet, but that’s obviously a lot of effort and could be upsetting.

There’s plenty of comic buying services though they will all offer at best half the eBay value or less. Any chance of getting some photos?

Gaming magazines can be hit or miss. Some specific titles will be quite valuable but more modern run of the mill fare is not so valuable. Where does she live? There’s plenty of retro gaming shops around here that may be interested.

Not the same thing but I've sold a few guitars (which are similarly a FAFF to deal with) and eBay or Facebook Marketplace have generally worked out well. FBMP is good because they have to come to you but it does lack some protections.

She’s in Burntwood, WS7. All of the magazines, etc are in collectors sleeves. I will ask if she can take photos and maybe do an inventory (title, issues _ to _), but if she’s not up to it I will pop over and do that for her.

I can honestly understand why eBay is just too much to consider. I think if you listed twenty a day you’d not manage to list them all in a year.

Another option would be to sell all together or in lots at an auction house, you’d still need to know a rough idea of their worth (which the auctioneers may know) before setting a reserve. Some auction houses will have specialist days for this kind of collectible.

Would places like Forbidden Planet be any help?

I've recently tried selling a big pile of gaming magazines which I'm sure weren't on the scale of Dimrills but I struggled to find anyone to buy them.

The Retro video game shops that I have nearby all didn't want them due to the space they take up and how long they take to sell.

So yeah, I think that selling them via eBay is the only way to go. You'd be best of selling them as entire collections rather than as one offs.

Actually... Now I've typed all that out, what about Neil at Rmc on YouTube? He might want some for his museum?

I'd sell them as is, as a whole lot, and take whatever I got. I'm on that Swedish Death Cleaning way of doing things. For me, getting rid is the main goal and the money is a bonus. I know they were Dale's passion but they're just magazines ultimately and the space they take up on the house will be more valuable to the family than the mags themselves.

My best mate died four years ago and left an entire home gym set up behind and his fiance didn't want to sell it for sentimental reasons. That's a room that their child could play in but instead it was an unused monument to his memory.

Then they moved and now it is all rusting in a lock up garage.

Just getting rid is so beneficial.

Only just getting my mum round to thinking of letting my Dads model railway stuff go. It’s heartbreaking seeing his prized possessions sat there being unloved.

RMC would likely take the gaming mags as donations but it’ll be worth checking for valuable ones first.

Comics and graphic novels are far more likely to have a decent value.
There’s a chance of a buyer over on Rllmuk which I could possibly help advertise.

What is FBMP? Is that a bit like Music Magpie? I can’t find anything about that.

EBay I think has a higher scope for finding a buyer than Facebook, but collection would definitely be better for Helen. And you could list on eBay as collection only, I’m sure.

This would be a great way. I will have a Google to see if I can find anything localish

would selling as bundles/whole collections work better? It’d certainly be easier to organise. I’ve suggested to Helen that we try and do that and will see what she says, and if she’ll let me help her/do it for her.

Thank you.

Once I have an inventory if I could give an inventory/some pics to see if there is anything that folks might be interested (there or here or anywhere anyone else thinks of, to make a fair offer) before they are listed if Helen decides to go down that route.

Thanks folks. I don’t know much about this kind of thing, and Helen knows less about it than me, so this is invaluable.

Yes, if there are obvious sets of graphic novels then selling them as bundles is a decent balance between effort and reward.

There’s an auction house that specialises in toys and collectibles, and they do comics/graphic novels from time to time.

https://www.vectis.co.uk/valuations/request-a-valuation

I assume it's FaceBook Market Place

Jeez, of course it is. Sometimes I feel like the dumbest person in the world. And it makes complete sense within the rest of the post.

Thanks, Malc.

It must be so difficult though, so much of Dale’s personality is in those things. So much of what made him the person he was.

I’ve still got a limited edition Barbie that Rev Owen sent me. I love it, but it is just something I ‘store’ if I’m honest with myself. I’ve also got some toys and dolls that Dale sent and/or gave me.

The Barbie, especially, has some value. But when I do get it out to look at it makes me smile and feel, for just a second, that I’m getting a little hug,

I know it’s different from when you’ve got a whole house of things, and maybe you don’t need them all to feel that, but if something is sparking that feeling in you it can be hard to let go.

I don't have a lot to offer here, but I did get rid of some old computer magazines on eBay last year (or maybe the year before, who knows anymore).

In general, I just bundled them up (mostly by calendar year, depending on what issues I actually had) and shoved them on buy it now, dropping the price if they didn't sell.

My one useful piece of advice is that if Dale has any of the later issues of Amiga Power (maybe 55-65, I forget exactly where they got rare), then they are quite sought after and are worth auctioning individually as people want them to complete their collections. I think just those issues ended up going for around £600, and that was before eBay stopped taking fees.

That’s great. Thank you. I’ve passed that info on.

Bundling them up by year is something that Helen mentioned to me last night, actually, so I’m glad you’ve said that as I wasn’t sure if that would work.