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spreads

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Journal Comments posted by spreads

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

    Thanks Torch!  No, apparently not!

    The best part about this, I did not leg work (per se) to get this collection.  Again it speaks to the importance of making connections...A guy I became acquaintances with through the local con circuit reached out to me and asked if I was interested, I asked him what he wanted and when I heard his asking price, I didn't even negotiate. One quick Ontario Northland parcel delivery and instant Spawn collection. 

    Hope you are doing well!!!

    Couldn't agree more with building relationships.....twice in as many weeks I bought books but didn't buy the whole collection.  The second buy, today, was a guy I actually sold at during the shows and I connected with him on FB to see if he will sell his bigger books down the road.  

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

    Collection of 10,000 books? Nice! Store closing or what?

    What is your eBay handle? Also, nice to hear from you again!

    No.  Original owner, the family was selling on his behalf - the dad was aware, but not in the picture.  Top book was a 181 that I had graded and pressed at 8.0; it was a great buy, lots of stuff went into my PC.....I've seen many collections in the past 16 months, a few that didn't pan out, including one posted on FB that looked like 150 longs, lol....handle is o-town-comics, I can't believe how many slabs I've sold in the past year, ebay has been pretty amazing during COVID.....

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

    The buying drought is over!!!!!

    Picked up an awesome 170+ book Spawn collection that includes many of the low print run issues.

    The List:

    SPAWN

    173 Books Total

    4x #101 (1st Jake & Katie Fitzgerald)
    124
    126
    3x 138
    3x 142
    2x 143
    2x 144
    2x 145
    4x 146
    3x 147
    4x 148
    4x 149
    2x 151
    151 Variant
    2x 152 (COBR 15,904)
    2x 153
    154
    2x 155
    2x 156
    2x 157
    2x 158
    2x 159
    2x 160
    2x 161
    162
    163
    2x 164
    167
    2x 168
    171
    172
    2x 181
    186
    2x 188
    2x 189
    2x 190
    2x 191
    3x 192
    2x 194
    2x 196
    4x 198

    4x 200A McFarlane Cover
    2x 200B Finch Cover
    3x 200C Jim Lee Cover
    3x 200D Liefeld Cover
    4x 200E Silvestri Cover
    4x 200F Ashley Wood Cover

    2x 201
    3x 202
    2x 203  (COBR 15,572)
    3x 204  (COBR 15,591)
    2x 205  (COBR 15,320)
    206
    4x 208  (COBR 14,468)
    209  (COBR 13,964)
    2x 210  (COBR 14,100)
    3x 213  (COBR 13,369)
    4x 215  (COBR 12,794)
    4x 225 Romney Wins Cover
    2x 225 Obama Wins Cover
    230 (VF+)
    2x 232
    4x 233  (COBR 15,701) (Origin of Spawn’s Costume)
    3x 234
    3x 235  (COBR 15,081) (Origin of Blood the Vampire)
    2x 236  (COBR 13,368)
    237  (COBR 14,411)
    2x 238  (COBR 12,459) (Origin of Dead Zone)
    2x 239  (COBR 12,369)

    2x 240 
    Tied Third lowest quantity of copies ordered by retailers in series  
    (COBR 11,827)

    2x 242 
    Tied Third lowest quantity of copies ordered by retailers in series  
    (COBR 11,827)

    244  (COBR 11,837)
    2x 247  (COBR 12,023)
    251
    253
    254  (COBR 15,421)
    255  (COBR 15,717)

    Spawn Resurrection #1
    2x Cover A
    2x Cover B

    I have not looked at all of them yet but here are some sample pics...From out of back of my car 😂

    20200625_080820.jpg

    20200625_181841.jpg

    20200625_181805.jpg

    20200625_080751.jpg

    Awesome!!

    I would be interested in all the spawns in the 200s....if you're looking for a cash or cash/trade deal.  That big collection I bought had almost a full run of Spawn up until the 190s, but I already had about the first 100 issues in my collection.  

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted · Edited by spreads

    On 5/3/2020 at 7:43 PM, Wall-Crawler said:

    Anyone still out here?

    lol

    How are fellow small time dealers/hobby flippers doing while the pandemic is going on?

    Personally, things are going rather slow but I have not exactly been "actively" selling either...A few eBay sales here and there but I am not posting new stuff often either.  Recently unloaded two long boxes of stock I would likely never get to to a fellow flipper, but that is about it...More important things going on but still wish I was selling more and will likely ramp up a bit when this is over again. All of the local shows are cancelled (obviously) until Ontario is "open for business".

    It will be interesting to see what arises when this thing clears, particularly with the bigger shows, how long it will be before things get back to "normal" or what the long term implications for conventions of all sizes may be.

     

     

     

    HELLOOOOO ELAINE!!

    I need to change my settings, since somehow this thread got buried and I missed the updates.  So I really appreciate your year in review! lol

    I'm in a bit of a different boat, halfway through last year I made the decision that I would only do 1-2 marquee shows a year.  I found the monthly shows, despite having decent dollar sales I was selling the low hanging fruit that could be easily sold elsewhere, so I stopped doing them.  I also felt the time of a full day+ could be better spent elsewhere....this came right after I bought a collection of 10,000 comics lol   

    Late last year I made a professional change and left my employer to move into real estate, which I'm close to being ready for.  So as I navigated through the real estate program, I expanded my sales significantly online, especially making a push on ebay where I forecasted sales would be very strong during covid, which they were.  I'm now looking at facebook sales too, as well as my kijiji lots.....I have snagged multiple deals and lots in several transactions this year, and also last year, in addition to the large purchase.  

    Remember that link I sent you about the Capital convention last year?  That was the only show I've done, and probably with do, but it was fantastic for me.  We'll see if my new career in real estate permits these shows, although I can see how comic buying and selling would leverage well with this industry.  Three times in the past year I've gone to look at a collection of comics of a seller that's selling their home....pretty common I suppose, people declutter when they realize they need to move on....

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    18 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:


     

    Not quite sure I follow this...

    Maybe I didn't explain it well enough...The owner has two 5" tables available for rent.

    One spot was offered to me, the other to a former employee who has a long standing relationship with the owner (far longer than me). 

    As stated above, yes. He will have a table set up.  

    As for why the other guy gets the call when collections come in, he has known the owner longer, basically, closer relationship. I'm not annoyed with that (at least not anymore lol), just if I am now paying for a table and allowed to do deals there as part of it, kind of muddies things? Regardless, I stopped really caring long ago being passed over with walk ins. The owner doesn't buy collections and owner/other clerks are well within his rights to send leads to whomever they want.

    I'll just keep working my contacts, setting up at local shows, etc. and hope better things come my way this year but even still, I have still have stuff to sell, not like I have zero inventory :) 

    On a selling note, I have bumped up my eBay store (up to 70+ items so far) and seeing good results already. My last Zenescope themed auction did great and I have already sold one slab, offers on a few others and a set or two, sold a few variants, so I may just work more on building my eBay store. Even if I only add a few books here and there, gets them out there so to speak.

     

    Thanks for clarifying, sorry if I wasn't clear in my previous responses I had a combined 7 hours sleep over the last three days (new born girl!).  I wanted to mention that Zenescope does have a strong cult following and things like those prints would best be served moving online.  Ebay is definitely worthwhile, I'm in the same boat - sitting with an average 45-50 listings for sale - not maximizing my store enough....increasing those auctions are one of those 'to do' list items but I am getting close to being caught-up in my personal comics and dealer obligations so maybe I'll work on that.  

    I have stolen your idea of using store connections and worked-out a deal with one of the local shops in town, I make it a point of telling everyone when I give them a business card that I offer referrals....you gotta hit the pavement! ;) 

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    You bring up some good points, the most obvious being not being able to quickly restock.  It does also seem odd you don't have an autonomous relationship with this owner, the other employee setting-up and then the existing relationship with a different buyer?  I think you're well within your rights to request a shot at collections that stroll in; do you know if the owner asked this competing collection buyer a table like what you've been offered? 

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted · Edited by spreads

    Hi guys, somehow I've missed this thread....

    I think it sounds like a box of 'cheapies' is really the only way to approach this, the consignment deal is wrought with a number of reasons:

    1) A store that appears profitable and well-run can change quickly and suddenly over time; the largest established LCS here in Ottawa is in financial distress (three locations, two of them being comic shops) has a large consignment collection for sale.  There isn't a lot of big books there, but there's a ton of books priced in the double digits, several hundred at least....I doubt the owner will be getting all of those books back!

    2) Knowing a guy that seems decent is not really any type of added security.  As THT pointed out with his partner; I also got ripped off a year ago shipping comics to a dealer (low amount) that I had known for over 20 years - he ran the local LCS that I visited as a kid!  It was a small amount, but the principle of it really, really pissed me off. 

    ...why I think a longbox of cheapies is the only way to go.  I don't know if it's the stigma of LCS being expensive for back issues, but I don't know many people that shop or look to shop there for those type of comics.  Also, I find that being in a retail setting, LCS do better moving books at prices ($2/$3/$5,etc.) than I would have at shows at those same prices.  So if you can get 2-3 $1 longs, 2-3 $2 books, 2-3 $3 books and one $5 box you should be able to move $3-400 in inventory with just the minor additional operating costs of stocking the boxes maybe twice a month?  Not really additional work needed and you probably already have buyers lined-up like you suggested.....factor in maybe 5-10% of this cannabalizing some of your existing sales and theft/damage and you're still doing well!  

    Wall-Crawler
    Wall-Crawler

    Posted · Edited by spreads

    The show is called, Capital Comic Book Convention.  It was so popular they've expanded the dealer space, the admission is $6 (up from $5 and I hope they don't continue to increase the price for attendees).  In my monthly show that I setup at, there were many of the dealers there and all of them told me it was a great event.  For me, I won't ever have the capability of doing a bigger show (at least not in the foreseeable future), so this is nice that I will be able to setup at a larger venue in addition to my monthly show which is very cost effective!  

    The location is right downtown Ottawa (Ottawa Marriot), try to convince your family to visit the capital for the weekend, there's loads to do!

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    Hey WC,

    Thanks for continuing this thread, it's been a great read and I hope you continue posting entries.  As for pure comic shows, there is one coming up in March in Ottawa that I'll be setup at.  The inaugural show was in the fall and everyone I spoke with said it was a huge success, if you feel like making a trip down to the Nation's capital around that time you can dump a couple hours into this show on that day.