Is your comic book worth $30,000? Check your shelves for these high-value books.

When baker Peter Pagano, of Islip Terrace, died last March at age 82, his widow and children inherited his collection of about 2,000 comic books. No one wanted them, so like many families who have read of old comics going for thousands or even millions of dollars, they decided to sell.

Most who do can find themselves disappointed. Comics, particularly those of the last few decades, generally are worth less than one might think. But Pagano had mostly older books he had kept pristine — protected in individual clear plastic bags with acid-free cardboard backing, stored upright in a cool, dark place with little moisture. And his family reaped the reward.

"The biggest one we sold," recalls daughter Josephine Varrichio, 59, of Nesconset, "was the ‘House of Secrets’ that introduced the Swamp Thing," a mystical muck-monster who has headlined movies and TV series. The book, a 1971 issue of DC Comics, netted more than $30,000.

Varrichio, a stay-at-home mom entrusted by the family to sell the collection, had educated herself before taking books to market. That’s critical, says graphic artist Rich Cirillo, 58, of Oceanside, a collector who sells comics on the side. "Do some research so you know going in what something is worth," he advises, "because sharks are in the water and they will smell blood."

How can I nail the presentation before the sale?

After doing her research, Varrichio had her father’s "House of Secrets" No. 92 professionally graded and "slabbed" — encased by a grading company in a hard plastic shell with a condition based on a 10-point grading scale. "It came back at a 9.6," she says, from the Certified Guaranty Company of Sarasota, Florida, which along with the Comic Book Certification Service of Plano, Texas, is one the two largest grading firms.

She then consigned the book to an auction house — in this case, the massive Heritage Auctions, headquartered in Dallas. Others prominent in comics include Hake’s, based in York, Pennsylvania; ComicConnect, in Manhattan; and Weiss Auctions in Lynbrook. Someone from Heritage’s Manhattan office came to Varrichio to pick up the various comics she was consigning, and in November, that "House of Secrets" sold for $45,600. That total included a typically 20% "buyer’s premium" that the buyer paid Heritage, leaving the family more than $36,000, minus a seller’s commission of generally 10% to 15%.

It was the comics' condition that proved golden: Two 8.5-graded issues Heritage auctioned a month later went for only $2,880 and $4,200. And it’s judging condition where many sellers trip up.

What should I know about the grade?

"Unless you handle these books day in, day out, you don't understand that each little flaw adds up," says Hake’s general manager, Kelly McClain, 40. "You may think a good-looking book in your hands is a 9.2 or 9.4 but it’s probably more like a 7 or 8."

Heritage vice president Barry Sandoval, 55, agrees. "I think the degree to which tiny differences in grade can affect the value tends to be very surprising to the layman," he says. "A copy that's only a little bit nicer is triple or five times or 10 times the value."

The other key to a comic’s value is, well, keys — the term for particularly noteworthy, valuable comics. These generally include first and early issues of a series; the first appearance of a character who became a star; or an issue that changed the status quo, like with the introduction of a new costume.

"There are comic books that even though they're in perfect condition, don't have much value because they're too new or they were overproduced," says Nick Testa, 41, of Westbury, an owner of the Massapequa comics shop The Comic Box. "And then there's some things that are beat-up that are going to be very valuable."

Which books are most valuable?

Some key ones to look out for are no-brainers:

• "Amazing Fantasy" No. 15 (1962), which introduced Spider-Man.
• "The Incredible Hulk" No. 181 (1974), with the first full appearance of Wolverine.
• And, of course, "Action Comics" No. 1 (1938), Superman’s debut, which ComicConnect recently auctioned for a record-setting $15 million.

While most comics published since about the mid-1980s, when people began buying them as collectible investments, are not particularly valuable, a handful that you may have tucked away might be.

The less-obvious players worth the big bucks, according to Testa:

• "The Batman Adventures" No. 12 (1993), the first comic appearance of Harley Quinn.
• "New Mutants" No. 98 (1991), the first appearance of Deadpool. 
• "The Amazing Spider-Man" No. 300 (1988), the first appearance of Venom.

"Those are some cool books that people now in their 40s or 50s might have picked up in the ’80s or ’90s that are worth good money these days, depending on condition," Testa says.

Yet as for the non-key bulk of your comics, "Sometimes we'll look through a collection and just have to say, ‘Hey, this is more something for Goodwill than for an auction house,’ " says Sandoval — who adds that sometimes, an auction house may be willing to handle such collectible but otherwise nondescript comics. "We might sell a single lot of stuff from the ’80s or ’90s and just say, ‘This is a long box of 330 miscellaneous modern Marvel and DCs, average condition.’ "

What if the auction house doesn't want it?

If an auction house isn’t interested in your bulk of everyday comics, is it worth it to try to sell them individually on your own online or, with the cost of a table and your time factored in, a flea market or a comics convention? Or should you unload your collection at wholesale to a retailer? The latter could mean getting as little as 10% of the comics’ potential retail value — strong emphasis on "potential," since most non-key comics can languish on the shelf.

And there there’s the in-between stuff, such as comics from what’s called the Silver Age (1956 to about 1970) or the following Bronze Age (early 1970s to mid-1980s) that are in perfectly OK but not high-grade condition. Or maybe you have a fan-favorite series from more recent years. What do you do with those?

• First, check what they’re worth, in case you do have a key buried there. You can look to books like the annual "Overstreet Price Guide," apps such as CLZ Comics or HipComic’s My Collection or auction-house results online.
• If you find something that could be worth a couple hundred bucks or more, it might be worth slabbing. This involves sending the "raw" comic to a grader like the Certified Guaranty Company or the  Comic Book Certification Service and waiting anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for the slabbed comic to come back graded and in a case. Alternately, you can send the raw comic to an auction house to deal with the grading company for you and recoup the cost of slabbing from your auction proceeds.

Fee structures can be confounding, but Sandoval, giving the basics, says modern comics (defined as 1975 to present) are $30 to slab if their value is low. "If you have something worth $1,000, it would cost $105 to grade, and if you have something worth many thousands, they charge 4% of the value to grade it," Sandoval says.

Where else can I sell?

Where do you sell these in-between comics, whether slabbed or not? Some seller turn to eBay, Facebook Marketplace or similar online venues. That works for many people, particularly experienced online sellers. But, warned The Comic Box’s Testa, online selling "has a lot of dangers. There are a lot of scammers out there." Hake’s McClain agrees. A buyer "can claim the book isn't how you described it, and there’s just a lot of ways to get scammed."

Notes Sandoval, selling comics online involves a certain amount of dedicated work, from the minefield of self-grading to shipping it properly packed.

An alternative to online selling is to try your local comic-book store. "I sold all of my ‘New Teen Titans’ " — a popular 1980-84 DC superhero series — "which I didn't want to get rid of but I hadn’t looked at the actual books in forever, and I got a good price for them" at The Comic Box, says Patrick Kennedy, 55, a convention organizer from Massapequa Park.

A comics shop generally will offer you more than a retailer buying your bulk wholesale, says Testa — who cautions that, "There is some stuff out there that you're only going to be able to get a wholesale rate for, because it's undesirable for one reason or the other."

"It depends on if the store needs inventory," says Cirillo, the collector. "Usually newer stores will look for a lot of inventory. ... We just had a store open up last year in Lynbrook and they were looking for inventory because they're just starting out and they needed to fill the store."

"The most important thing, I think, is that every collection is different and unique," says McClain. "You might have the same exact books that your neighbor has but you’re in a different situation and you have different reasons for selling."

Whatever the reason, do your research and have realistic expectation. "Unless," quips Cirillo, "you really don’t care since it was Uncle Arnie's collection and he passed away and you just want to get a few dollars for it, whatever, then, I mean, do a yard sale."