spreads

My deal is only as good as it is because I'm getting wholesale rates directly from a local store; I'm in Canada so buying boards anywhere is more expensive than what you guys are paying, I know of a few people that have them shipped to the NY border and drive down. I can find the exact brands, I believe it's your standard ultra pro which suits me fine - I have a ton of mylar products for my own collection. I also had a contact that was buying bags from clearbags (?) - he was buying in 17k quantities to get the largest bulk rate - those were really nice and overall sharper than other standard comic manufacturers.

How's this for a promotion? You bag get a free comic out of the box for every 10 you bag/board.

And what if it takes so long to sell those books they'll need new bags/boards again!

Well...yes and no....I had a pile of 50 cent books I was bringing to shows - turnover was pretty good, 20-25% of the boxes with limited attendance. Those four boxes represented a total inventory value of maybe $500....one long-box of semi keys will have an inventory value four times the aggregate of that and you don't have to deal with the hassle of lugging all those boxes.

I've managed to get brand new bags/boards at 11 cents CAD (per book) through serious research to find the best prices with shipping, and developing a local contact to get boards at wholesale prices. I think the assumption of buyers requesting bags/boards is for new bags/boards because the majority of guys that buy collections have old bags/boards already. Regardless of whether it's bagging/boarding books new or replacing the bags/boards (which actually takes more time) the outcome is the same - it is simply not worth the time/effort. I think $2 book is a good metric to use for putting in new bags/boards; assuming these are $2 books that will sell....and here's the caveat, bagging/boarding these books should be the last item on your to do list. It's not efficient to waste time bagging/boarding books if you have a shortbox of $10-100 keys you want to list on ebay....

If he runs a store maybe this is an output of a few things: having a store where new books are always coming in, having a store where new and existing customers are walking in, and having advertised/regular sales that buyers are aware of - no cost of buyer acquisition. I don't know if a dealer could do it, but sounds like your friend has it all figured out.

I've already voiced my opinion that time is the main concern here, and it's not worth it. At what point do you bag/board books? I have my silver/bronze books from the 70s that are bagged/boarded but they're old bags - I think I would move more of them if I put in fresh bags at least. This could be the basis of a good social experiment....hmmmm

Agree 100%. I mean how stupid are the buyers to think one seller is just sitting on drek books all signed by Stan Lee? Regardless of this last comment, something needs to be done with turtlegirl, maybe throw her down the well Borat-style?

Right, that's one way to do it and there isn't a perfect science. There's other sites out there (atomic avenue) that have the 'guide-like' features of using overstreet but is also a marketplace where books are sold. The marketplace is important, because if you see a book that has a small guide value, but there are no copies available despite many other issues of that run being available you might find a book that is in more demand (despite not being identified as a key). These sites are also valuable in help identifying price variants; there are many price variants across all publishers and eras. Some price variants could be the difference between a book being worth a few bucks or $100...definitely something to watch out for.

It's very fierce here, seems like more people are interested in doing this as there are some new guys that show up to the monthly shows that I haven't seen before. Granted a good chunk of them are card dealers, you know the guys - there only comics are a box of $1 turok 1s.

Great insight, I guess with a collection of keys you are getting pretty close to FVM, paying almost 80% would be close to a wash on ebay but books like that you can justify a slight bump. Is it worth it to consign books at 10%?

Agree on both counts, definitely not worth bagging/boarding...

I've been actively selling; we're in the house-hunting game which ties into wanting to whittle some stuff down, I've also had some personal setbacks - losing my vehicle that I only had for 13 months due to water damage (took 6 weeks to settle with insurance) and now a recent sudden death of a family pet. I probably won't be looking to buy anything for awhile and whether I'll continue the monthly show is up-in-the-air.

Wow those are not books you see everyday; there must be a story there and I'm sure you have access to a lot more! Definitely one of the pros of setting-up at the shows, odd person that comes up to you.

Just advertise 'storage auctions, close-by'.

Hi Genesis, Could you provide some color on some of the other lines of business? I'd be interested to know some of the business models on stuff like gaming, cards, etc. I think a lot of us have pretty good knowledge on the comic line of business, but no clue on how different lines of revenue tie into the LCS over-all model. We could probably even factor in some efficiency ratios, (capex/revenue/, gross margins, etc, etc). Thanks!

I have no doubt the structure is solid with that wood used, I would just anchor it to the wall (at a minimum) to prevent the whole thing from tipping over. It wouldn't be hard to do, add maybe four brackets (two on each side) and that should do it!

This is a super cool and straightforward idea; do you use brackets to fasten the back to the wall? These shelves are empty now, but if you had kids or cats that would jump/climb on the shelves would there be a risk of them sliding out?

- 1 time only 10% price drop - only good for 1 week. Anything unsold goes back into the CGC box.

Seriously, huge inherent bias and conflict of interest. If some auctioneer told me that, I'd ask for direct examples or a demonstrated business model how that's executed. A few years ago I was at an estate auction where the auctioneer was quite disappointed with the results, he kept saying things like 'well that's a damn shame'. There was a collection of comics (nothing of real value, mostly copper) that I convinced him to do a buyer's choice a $1 a piece, so I cherry-picked a bunch of filler books I was looking for runs. He was flabbergasted no one else was interested in buying, and you could tell his $1 price was not what he felt they should be sold for. Afterwards out of earshot of the rest of the crowd, I looked him square in the eye and said 'well then you buy them' - he had no answer for that!

Do you think the people on storage wars aren't skids? Aside from Barry, most look and act like dirtbags - they haven't demonstrated any level of education. I haven't watched an episode of Storage Wars in years, but from the few minutes I could stand listening to that Rene guy in this clip he didn't sound very smart or educated.

I'm sure there are junk dealers and guys that sell stuff at swap meets, some are probably okay to deal with while others would be total skids. And trying to push this stuff at flea markets or online, whichever method the buyers use, is not an effective use of my time.

Agreed. And it's not like you're working in a professional, office-environment. I'm sure there are many dirtbags that go to these type of things - no thanks.

You might want to do a quick ebay search on completed sales when you find what you considered a 'key'; that book you referenced in lower grade is not selling for anywhere near $140. I've never used a price guide in determining a comic's value.

I would advise against the Mylar/Mylites since you're looking to move them (not keep them long-term) anyway. Also, I doubt you need to bag/board them all especially if the comics are pretty beat-up at this point anyway. By comparison a month ago I purchased a collection similar to this; 250-300 comics from the 40s-60s. Most had bags/boards, but there were a big chunk of books that didn't (some of those like coverless books and classic illustrated even though they're very old I'm not going to bother put in a new bag/board since they have so little value anyway). I used old bags/boards I had for the middle of the road stuff, and the few big-ticket comics in the lot I put in Mylar that I had. The rest are going in standard golden age bags/boards, the total outlay is not that much. If you can't afford to spend more than 30 or 40 then just prioritize the top 1-200 comics (or however many you can bag/board with what you buy)....it's not like the other ones are going to get that much more damage at this point unless you have some fishing trips planned.