Consignment
What is consignment?
When you consign a comic book with us, we help you sell your comics through our web site. You don’t pay anything until your item sells. Once a consigned item has sold, we charge a commission based on the sale price. We pay you the amount of the sale minus our commission. When you consign a comic with us, you choose how you want to sell it: either as a fixed price listing where you set the asking price, or in an auction.
Fees
The only fee we charge is a commission when your comic sells, as detailed below. There are no hidden or further fees. The commission is the same for sales made via the fixed price and auction formats.
Consignment Fee
- 10% commission on sales less than $300 CAD, with a minimum commission of $10.00 CAD per item sold.
- 9% commission on sales of $300 CAD up to $2999.99 CAD
- 8% commission on sales of $3000 CAD or more
- Comic lots only: The minimum commission on lots (aka groups of comics auctioned together as a single item) is $10.00 CAD for up to 10 items, plus $1.00 CAD per item for any additional items beyond 10. Otherwise, standard consignment rates apply.
Alternative option: full service consignment
If you have a large collection of consignable comics but you would like us to handle all pricing/auction decisions for you, you can choose the full service consignment option. The rate is higher than our standard rate, 25% instead of 10%, but all you have to do is ship the comics to us and we will take care of everything else.
Upon receipt we will review the collection to determine what is and is not consignable. We will list as much of the collection as possible as individual listings to maximize your return; any remaining books not worth enough to be consigned individually but that can be grouped into multi-item lots will be sold as multi-item lots; and any remaining low value items will be sold directly to UKIC. We will handle all pricing or auction decisions according to your priorities.
For comics with an estimated retail value of $100 CAD or more, we will screen your comics and determine which, if any, would benefit from being submitted to CGC or CBCS for grading and encapsulation, as well as any that might benefit from being pressed. Decisions about what should be encapsulated and/or pressed will be made at our discretion with the goal of maximizing your return.
Full Service Consignment Fee
- 25% commission, with a minimum commission of $10.00 CAD per item sold.
- Comic lots only: The minimum commission on lots (aka groups of comics auctioned together as a single item) is $10 CAD for up to 10 items, plus $1 CAD per item for any additional items beyond 10. Otherwise, standard consignment rates apply.
What comics are currently consigned with UKIC?
Recently Added Consignment Items
What can be consigned?
- Any comic book with an estimated retail value of about $100 CAD or more is eligible for consignment. You can look up any issue in our online buying database and it will tell you the minimum grade that would be eligible for consignment based on our estimated retail values for that issue. If you are not a comic collector and are unfamiliar with comic prices, please be aware that most comics published 1980 or later, and many lower grade comics from the 1960s and 1970s, will not be valuable enough to be eligible for consignment.
- Comics graded by CGC, CBCS, and PGX: all slabs graded 9.8 or higher are eligible for consignment. Grades lower than 9.8 are eligible if the estimated retail is about $100 CAD or more.
- Comic book original art is eligible for consignment.
What if I want to consign something that your site says is not eligible for consignment?
Sometimes our database prices are too low, and so our web site will say that an item isn’t eligible for consignment even though the item should really qualify. If you have an item that you know is worth enough to qualify for consignment (likely retail value around $100 CAD or more), you can still offer it to us for consignment by using the override item listed as ineligible for consignment page.
What if I want to consign something that isn’t listed in your database?
If you have a rare variant edition or other item that you know typically sells for more than $100 CAD, but the item isn’t listed in our database, you can use this page: record items not in our database. Or, if your item is not a comic, book, or similar published, paper-based item, you can use this page: record any other type of comic-related collectible
How do I start consigning comics?
(Optional) If you have not consigned with us before, we suggest that you first contact us so that we may any questions you may have.
Use the Record Items page in our online buying system to record the comics that you have, as follows:
On the Record Items page, type in the title of the comic you want to record in the “Title” box and click the “Search” button. For example, if you typed “Green Lantern” in the search box, you would see these results with Green Lantern in the title.
Review the list of titles matching your search, and click the title corresponding to the issue(s) that you have. Continuing the example, I might click the title Green Lantern (1960 1st Series DC).
You will then see a list of all the issues belonging to that title. Locate the issues you have. To the right of each issue row, it will tell you what grades, if any, are eligible for consignment, as shown in the screenshot below:
What grade should I list?
If your comic has been graded by CGC, CBCS, or PGX: Click the “CGC”, “CBCS”, or “PGX” link in the upper right corner of the issue row to bring up the recording panel.
If you are an experienced comic grader: Specify the grade to the best of your ability. Please do not intentionally overgrade your comic to meet the minimum grade eligible for consignment.
If you are not familiar with comic grading: Please select the grade highlighted in green, which represents the most common grade based on the age of the issue. Choosing the highlighted grade will help you avoid overestimating the value of your comics. Regardless, we will grade the comic when we receive it and will grade your comic higher than your listed grade if appropriate.
To record a comic, put a “1” in the Quantity column box to the right of the grade you have selected, then click the “Submit” button. If you have multiple issues on the same page, you can put the “1” in the appropriate Quantity box for each issue, and only click the “Submit” button once after you’ve listed all issues on the page.
You can review the comics that you’ve recorded at My Comic Books.
When you’ve finished listing your comics, click the Submit items for consignment link in the yellow box at the top of the page. You use this page to open a new consignment transaction with us. We will ask for your return address, so we know where to mail your payment.
What happens after I start a new consignment transaction?
After you submit a new consignment transaction, we will review it and approve it. As soon as we’ve approved it, we will email you a link to information about packing and shipping your comics to us.
You will print out a shipment invoice we provide that lists the comics you’re sending in, and you’ll include this invoice in the package that you ship to us. The invoice helps us identify the comics when we receive them, and helps us verify that everything is present and accounted for.
If you have multiple consignment or sale transactions to send to us at the same time, you are welcome to include all the transactions together in the same physical shipment. Please just include the invoice for each transaction.
After we receive your shipment, we will grade the comics, record high quality scans of the front and back cover, and file them into secure storage. While in our possession, your comics are stored in our high-security inventory storage facility and are fully insured against flood, fire, theft, and damage.
It may take up to 10 days from the date that your comics arrive at our office for us to finish processing your items. Some items will be processed more quickly, typically 5 to 7 days, but please allow for up to 10 days of processing time before your items are ready.
Once your comics have been processed, we will send you an email letting you know that they are ready. You then use your consignment account page to set them up for sale. For each item, you can either specify an asking price to list it as a fixed price item, or you can assign it to an upcoming auction.
You can monitor the status of your consignment items at any time from your consignment account page. This page lists both the items you currently have available for sale as well as the items you have previously sold.
What if my comics grade lower than expected?
You should not send comics in for consignment unless you are willing to accept our grading. All consigned comics (except for CGC, CBCS, or PGX slabs) will be listed for sale at the grade that we assign. We take care to grade your comics fairly and accurately according to our grading standards. Our customers know our grading and trust that they will receive a well-graded comic from us, which helps you sell your comics faster and for higher prices than they would go for if the buyers weren’t confident in the grade.
If we grade a comic a little lower than the grade you assigned when submitting it, it’s usually not an issue. However, if you’ve listed a comic at close to the minimum grade eligible for consignment, and we grade the comic lower, we will decline to accept the comic for consignment if the expected retail value at the grade we’ve assigned is under $100 CAD. In this case, we will make you an offer for those comics that were not eligible for consignment, and you will have the option either of selling them to us or having them returned to you. If you choose to have them returned to you, the return cost is calculated as follows: $25.00 CAD base charge plus $5.00 CAD per item for grading, handling, and shipping. If you would like insurance on the return shipment, we can provide it for $1 per $100 CAD in insured value.
When and how do I get paid?
We issue payments weekly. We can issue your payment by mailing you a check, by sending the money to your PayPal account (subject to PayPal’s 3% fee for receiving business-related payments), or by issuing the payment directly to your account as cash-equivalent online credit (cash-equivalent credit can be spent on anything we offer, including auction and consignment items). Most payments will be issued within 7-10 days after your item has sold, though payment for more expensive items may take somewhat longer, at our discretion.
Buyer’s premium
A 3% buyer’s premium applies to all purchases of consignment items. This amount is charged to the buyer during checkout. The buyer’s premium does not reduce the amount paid to you, the consignor. For example, if somebody bought a consignment comic priced at $100 CAD, he would pay $100 CAD plus a $3.00 CAD buyer’s premium. The consignor would be paid based on a $100 CAD sale. The buyer’s premium helps us cover our operating costs while allowing us to keep our commission rates as low as possible.
Do I have to commit to a minimum amount of time? What if I want my comics back?
There is no minimum commitment period for your consignments. It has been extremely rare for a consignor to request the return of an unsold comic. If you are willing to price it at a reasonable level or put it in the auction, you will be able to sell it.
If you request that we return comics to you, we charge $5.00 CAD per item plus return shipping costs.
How does the fixed price sales format work?
Once your item has been scanned and filed, you set an asking price. We provide information to help you determine the appropriate price for your comic, including the prices of any other copies of the same issue currently for sale, and previous sales data from UKIC and GPA, a comic pricing research service. We can also provide free personalized pricing recommendations upon request.
Your fixed price item will be listed for sale simultaneously on theUKIC web site and the UKIC store on eBay. The UKIC web site is the highest traffic comic book sales site on the web: view our traffic stats. The UKIC eBay store is the highest volume, most-viewed comic seller on eBay. This combination provides maximum visibility for your consignments. When a large number of potential buyers are looking at your comics, you will be able to sell your comics faster and at higher prices than if you were selling in a market with fewer buyers.
You can modify your prices at any time from your consignment account page. For example, you might start something out at $200 CAD, and if it hasn’t sold after a month, decide to drop the price to $180 CAD, and so on, until the item has sold. You can also switch an item from fixed price to auction at any time.
Free eBay listings for fixed price items
All fixed price consignments will receive free listings in the UKIC store on eBay. You do not pay any listing fees because we cover the listing fees for you. When the item is posted to eBay we bump up the listed price to essentially cancel out the eBay and PayPal fees, so that you make the same amount of money regardless of whether the sale occurs on UKIC or eBay.
Example: If you currently have specified a $100 CAD price on a comic, that comic would be listed for sale at $100 CAD on UKIC, but it might be posted to eBay at $112 CAD, so that after eBay and PayPal take their cuts from the sale price, the amount remaining is $100 CAD. You would be paid based on a $100 CAD sale, and our commission would be calculated against a $100 CAD sale, not a $112 CAD sale.
How long will it take my comic to sell?
The quickest way to get a guaranteed sale is to put your comic in our monthly auction and let the market demand determine the price. If you list your comic as a fixed price item, the time to sell depends on the demand for the comic and how aggressively you price it relative to the current market rate. If priced competitively, it’s not unusual for fixed price consignments to sell within first day to first month of being listed. How aggressively you price is up to you; if you have a rare comic that does not come up for sale very often, you’re welcome to price it somewhat higher and wait for the right buyer to come along, or price it lower and move it more quickly.
What if I have a comic in a damaged case from one of the grading companies like CGC, CBCS, or PGX?
If you have a consigned comic with a damaged case, we can send it in to the grading company to replace the case. This service typically costs $15.00 USD per comic, possibly more if insurance is required. If the damage to the case is severe enough, we will not allow the comic to be listed as-is and will contact you to see how you’d like to handle it. We can either send the comic in to be re-cased, or we can remove the comic from the slab and sell it raw, whichever you prefer.
What if I want to get my comic graded and encapsulated?
If you have comics that you would like to have graded by CGC or CBCS, we can handle the submission for you. We can also provide recommendations about when it would be cost-effective to have a book encapsulated and when it might not be worth the expense.
How do I consign multiple comics together as a “lot”?
If you have items that are not worth enough individually to qualify for consignment, in some cases it is possible to group them together as a lot. The following restrictions apply to lots:
Comics consigned as a lot must be auctioned. Lots cannot be listed for sale at fixed price.
Although it can sometimes be tough to estimate the retail value of a lot, we try to accept only lots likely to sell for about $25-30 CAD or more.
The minimum commission on lots is $10 CAD for up to 10 items, plus $1.00 CAD per item for any additional items beyond 10. Otherwise, standard consignment rates apply. For example, if a lot sold for $120 CAD and the standard commission rate was 10%, the commission on the lot would be $12.00 CAD rather than the minimum, $10.00 CAD.
Golden Age, Silver, and Bronze Age comics are eligible to be grouped as lots as long as the expected retail value of the lot is high enough. Comics published after 1980 will be accepted as a lot only if they belong to a popular, high-demand title or miniseries, such as Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Walking Dead, Saga, Amazing Spider-Man etc. Lots are not intended to be used to clear out your collection of bulk, low-value modern comics. If you’d like to sell your modern books that aren’t a good fit for lots, please use our Want List buying system.
All comics grouped together in a lot must belong to the same title, miniseries, or story arc, or otherwise have a clear collector-oriented theme.
Lots do not have to contain complete runs without gaps, but issues in the lots should be relatively close together or of similar interest to a collector. Lots may not contain any duplicate issues.
Slabbed comics graded by CGC or PGX may not be grouped together as lots; they must be consigned individually as regular consignments.
Acceptance of lots is up to our discretion. After you submit a new consignment transaction with your lot(s) listed, we will review them, and will decline any lots that we do not feel meet our criteria.