Run by a collector,
not a corporation.

Retro Relics Comics is a one-man operation, and that is the point. My name is Lee. I have been collecting comics my whole life, long before it became a business, and I run this from Teesside, buying collections across the whole of the UK. When you sell to me or buy from me, you are dealing with a person who actually cares about the books, not a buyback desk working from a spreadsheet.

What I do

I buy comic collections: single key issues, full runs, vintage lots, and entire estate collections, from one longbox to a house full. I sell hand-picked issues live on Whatnot most weeks, through my eBay store the rest of the time, and through the shop on this site. Every book I handle gets assessed honestly, priced against what the same book has actually sold for recently, and described straight.

How I price a collection

You send photos. I go through them myself, not a form and not a call centre. I look at what the titles are, what condition they appear to be in, whether anything in there is a key issue, and what comparable copies have actually sold for recently on the platforms I sell on every week. Price guides printed last year do not come into it, because the market moves faster than print.

Then one of three things happens. I make you an offer in writing, with the figure, what it covers and how long it stands. Or I ask a question, usually a cover date or an issue number a photo did not show, because I would rather ask than guess low. Or I tell you it is not for me, and say so quickly rather than leaving you hanging. Most enquiries get an answer the same day.

If you accept, you never pay for postage: I send a Royal Mail QR code, or collect in person if you are close enough. I pay by bank transfer the same working day your collection is checked. There is no obligation at any point, and I explain my reasoning, so if the numbers do not work for you that is completely fine.

Why it is different

The big buyers offer a fraction of what a collection is worth because they are built to flip volume. I am built differently. I base offers on what books are genuinely selling for right now, I tell you which of your comics matter and which do not, and there is never any pressure to accept.

There are more of those on the reviews page, and the pickup tales on the blog are real collections I have bought, from a Spider-Man run in Gloucestershire to ten thousand DC comics in Manchester.

The free stuff

Most of this site is not about selling to me. It is the reference I wished existed when I started: a first appearances database with a page for every character, reading orders for twenty characters with a collector's notes on every entry, collector guides on grading, pressing, storage and variants, a free barcode checker that tells you if your comic is a first printing, and a grading calculator that will tell you honestly when grading a comic would lose you money. Every issue number on those pages is checked before it is published.

Beyond buying and selling

I also run a YouTube channel covering DC Comics analysis and lore, everything from the Absolute Universe to the deep cuts most people miss, and I am on TikTok and Instagram with the same obsession. If you love comics as stories and not just as assets, you will feel at home there.