Best Practices that work for me

Over the years I?ve learned a few tricks of the trade or I suppose best practices that have worked for me and I thought I would share them. These are the practices I try to remember while I?m engaging in comic collecting.

1. Patience ? If you think that you have only one chance to get a coveted item the chances are you?re wrong and another opportunity is right around the corner. The internet has more comic deals than you could ever spend your money on. There?s almost never a reason to overpay.

2. Don?t get desperate ? I had the goal of acquiring as many of the highest graded issues of Captain Marvel Adventures as possible and I?m pleased that I?ve managed to purchase a dozen getting me close to 10% of all the highest CGC graded issues in existence. Believe me I never would have thought it possible. The funny thing is that there are two more available right now in EBAY, both 9.4 and both sitting alone as the highest grade. But I won?t buy them. They?re way overpriced and nobody is willing to pay the asking price. I don?t know how long they?ve been up for auction but I?ve seen them there for well over half a year. They are not priced to sell and I?m not going to be the sucker that bites even if it would get me closer to my goal.

3. Completionists vs Scavengers ? When I look at collections on the CGC website I find myself magnetically drawn to the collections of completionists. It?s so neat to see so many issues from a set together in one place particularly if they include images. Tnerb?s New Mutants collection is meticulously put together and a joy to view. The one problem with being a completionist is it tends to cause desperation and over paying. I lean towards being a scavenger mostly because the collections I?m working on would be prohibitively expensive to complete. Unless you truly don?t care if you lose money on building your collection, if you?re a completionist patience is imperative.

4. EBAY is my choice. I will buy from other places but I love EBAY. The difference between EBAY and a site like Comic Connect or Comic Link is transparency. EBAY sellers bend over backwards to please the customer while sellers on Comic Connect and Comic Link are completely shielded. I wrote an email to Comic Connect complaining that the auctions on Comic Connect always favor the seller and how a seller might wait weeks or longer after an auction is completed before sending the item because customer satisfaction is irrelevant. The reply from Comic Connect said that they were attempting to send the items faster but the speed is only a symptom. Shielding the seller is the cause of the problem.

5. Haggle ? Even if a seller on EBAY does not have the ?or Best Offer? option available I still suggest contacting them and asking for a lower price. Some dealers will suggest dealing with them directly cutting out the EBAY fee. I have to laugh at some dealers that don?t haggle. I friend of mine used to manage a comic store and he always said with the product you need to ?turn ?em and burn ?em?. A comic that sits there does the dealer no good and it?s surprising how many dealers are willing to lock up their money to squeeze out a few dollars more. There were some really neat golden age Superman comics but their prices were way over guide. I asked the dealer to lower the price but was rebuffed. Eight months later the comics still sit on EBAY and I have no idea how long they?d been there before I looked.

6. I always put together a matrix of comics I?m looking at purchasing. I have a hard limit on what I?m willing to spend on an individual issue regardless of how much I may want it. Of the comics that are in my price range I lean heavily towards any comic that is the highest known grade. Bonus points if it sits alone at the top spot. My second criteria, and this one is a deal breaker, it must be at or less than the guide price unless the dealer is willing to negotiate down. As I said before there are too many great deals to be overpaying. I also like to see lots of registry points for my dollar amount but that one is really low priority. I just got a comic guide priced at $800 worth 1100 registry points for $300. I actually was caught by surprise when my offer was accepted.

7. Please ignore this one if the value of your collection is immaterial to the pleasure of collecting. Read no further if this is the case. You have been warned. Collecting ?hot? items or items everyone else is collecting will almost guarantee you a loss. I know people don?t want to hear that but it?s a fact. Suppliers are more than ready to feed a hot market but once it cools down supply exceeds demand and the prices plummet. The counterintuitive fact is that the more popular a character the less likely the comics are to be valuable except in the case of early issues. Popular characters have more issues printed, more comics preserved and a supply so plentiful that long term they are about as collectible as a lovely seashell found on the beach. The same brand of collector that is drawn to hot items will also lose interest once the newest hot item comes out and the money dries up.