Sell/Trade Frequently Asked Questions

What is your mailing address and contact information?

Lone Star Comics
511 East Abram St.
Arlington, TX 76010

Phone (817) 860-7827 (Monday through Friday 9AM to 6PM Central Time)
Email buytrade@mycomicshop.com

We respond as promptly as possible to all email inquiries. Most replies are made within two business days. Our reply to you nay take longer if we are especially busy processing a higher than usual volume of incoming buys and trades.

Why trust us with your comics?

Lone Star Comics (with seven stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area) has been dealing fairly and honestly with comic collectors and sellers for over 25 years. We are a member of the Better Business Bureau and have maintained a perfect record through our many years of doing business.

Buddy Saunders, the owner and president of Lone Star Comics, began collecting comics in 1961, and began trading and selling comics soon thereafter as a means of supplementing his own comics collection. Some of his first sales included Amazing Spider-Man #1 and Fantastic Four #1 at 35c each. Our dedication to providing superior service has made Lone Star Comics the largest comics retail chain in Texas and one of the largest in the nation. And it is that same determination to offer the best that has established Lone Star's mycomicshop.com as the largest comics retailer on the internet.

How do you grade the comics that you buy?

See our Grading Standards. We use the grading standards most commonly used by comics retailers and collectors. It is our policy to never buy at one grade and then sell at a higher grade. A comic bought at a given grade is always posted to our inventory database at that same grade (or a lower grade if an overlooked defect is discovered).

People with little experience as comics collectors often overestimate a comic's grade. However, the reality is that older comics maintained in NM condition are the rare exception rather than the rule. NM copies of older comics are extremely rare compared to the number of copies available in lower grades. For every copy of a thirty year old NM comic offered for sale, there are often hundreds available in grades FN to PR, with frequency of availability expanding with each drop in grade.

Spine Stress

Spine stress marks most often occur in otherwise like new/NM comics and are the result of poor handling. Comics are best stored upright as this prevents spine roll, but if comics stored upright are allowed to "slump," resulting in curving of the spine, stress lines result--small creases projecting at right angles from the comic's spine. Stress marks on otherwise "new" comics are a sure sign of poor handling. Be aware that stress marks, depending on how serious and how numerous (and especially if found on comics from the past 10 years), can result in an otherwise great looking comic being graded down to Very Fine, Fine or Very Good, depending on the number of stresses and their severity.

How should I package and ship my comics to you?

You may ship your comics to us via the service of your choice, although most people use the post office or UPS. Both the post office and UPS can be rough with parcels. Please pack with that in mind. In the case of smaller lots, we recommend "bricking" comics in 2-in thick bundles with a sheet of corrugated cardboard on each side, all wrapped in plastic. Place bricks so that at least an inch of padded dead space exists between the comics and the packing box. This protects against corner damage--the shipper drops your box on a corner, crumpling the corner, but not the protected comics.

Large quantities of comics may be shipped in conventional white comic "long boxes." Again, we recommend some dead space at each end--just add a few sheets of corrugated cardboard. Strengthen any large box--comic box or otherwise--with bands of strapping tape. By investing in a sturdy box and just a little extra tape, you can insure that your box won't break open on a mail facility conveyor belt and the contents lost forever.

We recommend that you take your parcel directly to your local post office or UPS office if possible. Mailing centers often charge much more and if your parcel is lost or damaged, you may experience greater difficulty getting the matter resolved.

Shipping a transaction consisting of multiple boxes

If all your comics don't fit in one box and you are shipping two or more boxes, please number each box: 1 of 5, 2 of 5, 3 of 5, etc. Multiple boxes often arrive spaced out over a week to ten days. We do not want to begin unpacking your boxes until all have arrived and been accounted for.

Should I get insurance and delivery confirmation?

However you ship your merchandise, we recommend that you insure your shipment against loss or damage. If you ship by UPS, you also have a ready means of tracking a package should it come up missing. Items shipped by UPS are automatically insured for up to $100 with additional insurance available at a reasonable cost. Items shipped via the post office may also be insured at a nominal cost. You should also request "Delivery Confirmation" service if shipping via the post office. While it is rare that a parcel is lost or damaged, we believe the wisest course is to insure and have a means of confirming delivery should it become necessary to determine what happened to a package.

When and how can I use my trade credit?

When submitting an offer to us, you choose whether to trade your comics for mycomicshop store credit or to sell them for cash. If you choose to trade, your credit can be used for any purchase from mycomicshop.com except for Subscription Service items. Trade credit may be used only after your trade transaction is completed and you receive an e-mail notifying you that credit has been issued to your account. If you place an order before credit has been issued, you will not be able to use credit for the order and must pay for it normally.

First printings and later printings

All comics we list are first printings unless otherwise noted. Unless specifically noted, we do not buy second printings.

Newsstand and direct editions

Newsstand editions are acceptable if the direct edition has the same cover price and the two versions are identical except for having different barcodes. In the case of clear variants, we typically list them separately both our selling and buying lists.

Comics that have been restored

Any comic that we list for sale that has undergone restoration will have the nature and extent of the restoration clearly noted. Restored copies may be submitted for sale to us. Such comics will be graded by mycomicshop.com based on the original grade (before restoration) with further upgrading as appropriate based on the type and quality of the restoration.

Some common confusing titles

• Dell Four Color series one and two

  These two series, the first running only a few issues, the second running to more than 1,300 individual issues, is among the most confusing for many collectors because every issue is different. For example, #1103 is Leave It to Beaver, #1104 is Yogi Bear Goes to College and #1105 is Gale Storm. However, any issue may be quickly located using title search.

• Gold Key and Whitman Editions

  For a number of years, many Gold Key comics were simultaneously issued under the Whitman imprint for release through a different distribution network. While not reprints, Whitman editions generally sell for 25% to 40% less than their Gold Key counterparts.

• Walt Disney's Comics and Stores

  This title has the issue number printed on the cover for part of its early run, but later issues are not numbered on the cover. The volume/issue number that appears inside is not used by collectors. To find the "running" number for this series if there is no issue number on the cover, look at the bottom of the bottom panel of the first page. The small number you see there is the issue number.