spreads

I really don't get that, all I can say is that maybe they don't really enjoy the hobby. If you're out to just make a buck you won't be successful, and that's for any business. Last show I did I was ready to pack-it-in with about an hour left (the show was winding down and it wasn't a great day for me); I wanted some time to relax when I get home for a little bit before I ran out for ball hockey. Anyways, there was a guy I had seen before that was looking through my bins for the last 30-40 minutes, I had chatted with him (and the dealer beside me) throughout this time and he ended up buying $50 (granted he got a pretty sweet wolverine #1 in there). Anyway, the point is you have to be completely engaged throughout the whole show. You can't expect to have buyers come to you only when you're in the mood. Don't overlook those small wins, they all add up.

Yes, regardless if you think it's drek or not it might have changes in value - especially with indie or low print run books, you never know if it takes off. $270 ain't bad, a couple nice bottles of scotch!

I picked up some cheap labels, similar to my sticker for book prices but it's a horizontal bar. Where do you guys get bags/boards? I spent quite a bit of time researching but found a local source that enables me to get regular size boards/bags at a touch over 11 cents a book. I think different size bags are about the same cost (maybe golden slightly more) but I can easily fit silver books in these same bags. Plus I have loads of mylar/full-backs/half-backs I just for bigger books (that supply will be there forever, haha).

That's a good idea, let's see some colors! The other thing about organizing stuff is it's usually a one-time investment, do it at the beginning then further sorting (locating books) makes it easier. I had a few boxes that were sorted but not labeled at home and I still have to spend time to fish in there every so often....

Haha. My partner works for EC and my mom works for the RCMP; they love these comments but admit there's some truth!

That's a great setup, and thanks for putting in a detailed and thorough summary. I think your sales were fantastic especially considering you never sold a wall book! Moving sets, moving a lot of inventory, and moving stuff that you'll be able to replace in further collections will all keep having buyers coming back to you! I just had a repeat online sales buyer the other day and I'm starting to just grasp the significant of recurring buyers. I couldn't imagine those kinds of sales with a top book being only $30, that's really solid. Regarding lesser known books, I agree with you there and I'm slowly diversifying more and more...I do get odd requests, 'archie', 'star trek'???, but I did have a kid ask me about dell/gold key and he flushed a bunch of those from my $2 box. So I think it's fair to say people asking about obscure (or less popular) titles are MORE likely to buy it if you have it than everyone chasing the latest hot book - ASM 300 (not that this is a latest hot book but you see my point).

You can always hedge the CAD dollar by increasing your online presence! I know a buddy who's worked in G.P for years, in a small engineering firm, I understand the boom/busts to some extent. It's nice to have those kinds of blue-collar types with high disposable incomes (when they're being paid), they tend to spend their money - unlike here with the highest medium income in the country, I think a lot of public servants are cheap!

That's a good day, structured community sales are always fun if nothing else sells. There's a couple real big (and popular) ones in my town, they don't offer much value and you can't even get near them because they're so packed with people, but it's still fun....Hopefully you managed to sell some copies of that book where you have 75 copies?

Seriously, I would have been doing jumping-jacks.

Great post. I would have followed-up with, while you were not accurately (intentionally or not) representing this item for sale, how many flaws of the world have you solved? What a person_who_is_obnoxiously_self-impressed.

What would you say would be typical or average if you had that kind of inventory for a show? I hadn't put any metrics behind this, but it would be interesting to see what kind of sales turnover ratios you can calculate, e.g. percentage of value of inventory-brought that was sold. There's a couple big dealers that bring some massive keys to the monthly show, and one in particular has multiple copies of books like X-Men 1. You would think there should be some intangible cost factored into the sales to put a dollar value to the risk of bringing those books (damage, theft, lost books, etc.). I really hate to think what would happen if you were driving to a show and comics got severely damaged in an accident...

So earlier today I spent time sorting/bagging/boarding and pricing some recent collections. It took me about an hour to organize, sort, bag/board a run of X-factor 1-60+...from now on I'll factor that in with collections I'm pondering, if there's lots of good stuff that I know I will be bagging/boarding I'll try to put a value on that time based on number of comics. I would really like to recommend for those guys that underestimate the amount of effort that involves to do a long-box sometime. It will change your perspective on collections.... FYI, in case anyone wants some granular details, I've tallied the total gross sales multiple of each show. I've done nine shows so far and have an average gross sales multiple of 8.96. The highest being 24.64, the lowest being 2.8. You can see how a few months have/can skew the average, also of note the last 4 shows have been considerably worst than the first four but that could be seasonality. The offset to this is that I've sold considerably more online during these slower months - with an emphasis to really build out that presence a lot more. For now I have been continually bringing more inventory, so I wouldn't say lack of inventory is a factor at all during these recent months. I may even stop brining bigger ticket books - put a cap at like $50 or something. Just an idea.

Will the prizes be tiered? Maybe suggest three hourly-prises, like a $10/$15/$25 prise? I think you could do a TPB, a Set, and maybe a semi key issue? If it's comic guys, a story arc like a trade or a series of comics would be appreciated - I mean it's free! And throw in your business cards in each one!

I don't think he would know the value of them and who's to say he would care? Good carpenters in my area can make a mess ton of money flipping homes, going after comics wouldn't be worth his time. While house-hunting two months ago I looked at a semi detached that was purchased last year for 189k, it was completely gutted and listed 6 months later for 350k - sold for 400k no conditions. If you can do this, do you think trying to eek out money selling comics is an effective use of his time?

That's awesome, I wonder if you could have found a cheaper book (or blank slab)? to have sitting in the drawer for the carpenter to use. haha. It looks great!

That's amazing, I've only just skimmed that thread but will read over it when I have sufficient time. It takes a certain level of status in the collecting/dealing world to close on something like this, congrats. Can I ask how you developed a valuation for some of these items? I have only one truly 'priceless' item that's in my collection and I doubt I would ever part with it, but I should put some kind of insurance number on it. Edit: Scroll half-way down the page to get to my story on this item, I just realized I posted it on my birthday last year, haha. https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/417874-batman-324-whitman/?tab=comments#comment-9854181

These books also look like they're from either a dealer, or a strong collector. They look like they don't even need to be bagged/boarded and they're already sorted. It's about as turn-key as you can get - which would definitely factor in your buying decision. Nice pickup, big fan of those EE books, I have a few super rare Purgatori ashcans - it's nice to add that to your stock because I doubt other people would have that stuff at the shows you're setting-up at.

I think payment they got some cherry-picked books (remember most of the movers are guys that are friends and know what keys are)....but yes, an insane amount of books.

Well it wasn't over a weekend, at least 8 days with comic-guys so I'm guessing they weren't paid. I think they went through *some of the boxes, but for the most part it is all unsorted and randomized so you can't even dump a box without having to go through it first. EG he said he has two copies of DD1 but no idea where they are. I imagine there is a significant amount of garbage, over half for sure. And not moving books (or refusing to blow things out) is the root cause of this mess....clearly it wouldn't be that bad had he been more structured in the beginning and put some ground rules in place.

I was smiling when talking to this kid, but you have to understand he wasn't there because he wanted to go to the show, he was killing time after playing hockey. All the people around me found it amusing, a lesson in not running-your-mouth!

On another note, one of the big dealers in town had a move last weekend....a bunch of people helped, I have two sources on the number of long-boxes: 2000 and 4000. I had a chat with one of the people that helped, you'd think this would be the epiphany to unload these books. It's sad to say but I think he'll have the bulk of these until he dies....

The gold is definitely more rarer, not sure on the print run. The gold barcode is a big book as mentioned as well as the platinum.

It could be hard to overcome that established-relationship, similar to buyers that always flock to the same established seller. I also have been offered books for sale; but I've been extremely picky lately and will probably be a bit more aggressive at some point in the future - maybe after I get a bit settled later in the year or next year. Here's a story from yesterday's show...I had a discussion around the viability of setting-up with a dealer that's always besides me. We chatted about sales and trends, and I showed him the history of my sales. He's smaller than me (comics wise) but is more diversified because he has toys and other items. During this time these two lads stroll by (I think they were hockey players from the tournament going on), couldn't have been more than 11, one of them blabs out: "you can get these toys at the dollar store!". I tore into this kid. "Not these toys. You should buy these toys for $15 and sell them to your friends for $20. In fact, buy one, go to the dollar store and tell them if they offered these toys for sales their sales would improve." He was stunned, the look on his face was priceless meanwhile his buddy was smirking. I'll give him credit for having the balls to come up and say that, but when dealing with an adult be prepared to defend your criticism - haha.

Hey at least you won't have any regrets of not having seen it? There's only so many frogs out there before you find a toad...

Great stuff chip! Is that Macfarlane Spider-Man worth anything? I must have at least 10 copies of it..I don't know what I'm gonna do with them...