Al Sanders may have spent his entire life reading about superheroes in his vast classic comic book collection, but now he’s turning into a real-life superhero by selling them all to help fund his daughter's college tuition.

“As all parents who have college-age kids, we started putting together what it was going to cost and what we needed to do,” the doting dad from Seattle told ABC News of his decision to sell. “You start looking at those options you have, and my comic books were an option. That’s when I looked at their value, and I’m now trying to find a good home for them.”

Sanders has close to 5,000 vintage comic books, ranging from Iron Man and X-Men to Batman and Luke Cage, Hero for Hire.

“I’ve got them all in 10 boxes, and the boxes in theory hold 500 each,” he explained. “My wife, when we met, she saw them and asked what they were and I said, ‘They’re my comic books and they come with me.’ She allowed me to keep those, but the Sports Illustrateds had to go.”

It’s now time for the comics to go, too.



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Rose is Sanders’ only child. Although she’s only 16 years old, she’s graduating high school early in June to attend Fisk University in Nashville this fall.

“She started kindergarten a year early and she determined last summer that she wanted to graduate a year early,” the proud father said.

He’s traveling to Emerald City Comicon this weekend in hopes of making a lucrative deal for his beloved lifelong collection.

“It’s one of this area’s largest conventions,” Sanders, 53, explained. “I was going to collect cards from some of the dealers to see if there’s interest from one individual to take the whole collection. I’m looking for somebody who enjoys reading them. When I was collecting them I was reading them, not thinking about them as an investment.”

He has no regrets about this decision as long as it means his daughter starts college on the right foot financially.

“We see all these stories of kids having to take out loans to be able to go. We want to try to avoid that,” he said. “If there’s anything that can help defray the cost of her getting started then that’s what we’re going to do.”

He says his daughter “really does appreciate” his efforts.

“She is the prettiest flower in my garden,” Sanders said of his soon-to-be college freshman.