Comic Book Values - How to Quickly Find the Value of Any Comic Book

Whether you are looking up the value of your comic books, talking to a collector or trying to sell to a dealer, you will need to know the standard terms.

A comic book is described by the title, volume (if appropriate), issue number and the condition (called "grade" in industry lingo).

An example is:

Uncanny X-men #141 NM

Fantastic Four #1 VG

Magnus Robot Fighter Vol. 2, #1 - VF

The descriptions above contain the necessary elements - title, issue (and volume) and the last abbreviations are the grade. The condition or grade of a comic book takes a little more explanation and we'll talk about it in the next section.

The video below discusses the comic book description.

Grading is the most controversial subject in comic book collecting. What one person thinks is a near mint is a very fine to someone else. With so many pages and so much surface area there is a lot to pick apart on your typical comic book!

There are entire books written on the subject of comic book grading, so we'll only go into the "must know" basics here.

The Basic Comic Book Grades (with common abbreviations):

* Mint and Near Mint (M, NM) - Perfect to nearly perfect. The best newsstand copies you can find.
* Very Fine (VF) - Most novice's "near mint" are really very fine. Still a beautiful copy but with some very minor flaws.
* Fine (F) - Some of the basic flaws shown in the video below, but still a nice looking copy.
* Very Good and Good (VG, G) - Very Good condition is a typical well-read, average, old comic book. It looks like it has been throughly enjoyed but complete. Many flaws. Remember from the video "good is not good!"
* Fair and Poor (Fr, P) - Pieces missing, may be incomplete, could be brittle. Not very collectible.

Watch the video below for some pictures of actual comic books and flaws.

Once you have the title, issue number and grade you are ready to get the value.

The first place to look is the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. This is considered the "bible" of the industry and is the baseline for your value. It is available in both print and instant digital download editions. There is a link below for the download version.

You can also search Google for your title and issue number, or go to one of the free sites such as comicspriceguide.com . Just remember, you get what you pay for.

Finally, you can take your complete description and search actual sales on E-bay. This is a great way to find what comic books are selling for right now.

Now you know the basics to find the value of a comic book. Remember, keep to the industry standard lingo and you will save a lot of time!