spreads

Also wanted to ask you guys what your opinion is on the top five-ten titles, by popularity what volume of sales. hypothetically speaking, if you could only bring one character (multiple years/series) what would it be? I think most agree with Spiderman and Batman, how would you round out the top 5/10?

Best of luck, keep us posted! We had our monthly show today, while it turned-out to be the weakest in dollar sales for me it was still okay and the foot traffic was high. We got a bit of the rain, luckily very little when arriving, big pours while we were ready to leave. I'm really curious to see how you did and I like your diversified approach. Having some horror stuff is a good idea, there was a guy beside me that had a customer ask about a bunch of that stuff, Aliens, Predator, Bronze/Silver Horror, etc.

I was building a report that takes a few hours, during the formatting there's a few quick minutes here and there I can surf.

So you couldn't get an agreement for fees in place before going out-there?

There should be a disclaimer not to view this post at work! I love that Batman cover, one of my favs! I know I have a low grade copy as part of my collection at home.

Is it possible they view you being an appraisal and buyer as a conflict of interest? If I was selling property, and the appraiser came in to make an offer to buy no matter how genuine and fair it was I would find it an odd and uncomfortable.

Well with dealing with Kijiji (I assume?), it's the the largest online garage sale - you get all types! I get a pretty good idea of someone's demographic and socioeconomic background from reading their response....here's one a few days ago: Me: "Hello, I might be interested in this, I would have to see it in person (check out the size, weight, etc) when would I be able to view it? -N Him: "me just I know when?" LOL, I show my girlfriend this, 'how am I supposed to respond to this?'. I felt like replying with, hey can you try that again with real English?

That's crazy someone would consider driving 18 hours to view a collection, especially when you consider he's going to an area that has a ton of potential buyers (has to think the chance he can close on it when local ones cannot is slim-to-none).

Looks like. You don't want to see my big toes, they take a lot of punishment in ball-hockey.

I posted the pics in the Garage Sale find thread...

First pure Estate Auction win (not counting contents sale auction); shortbox of just Harbinger (all with coupons below)! Shortbox of just Magnus Box of Rai/EW...the shipper could have did one better and filled the box, some of these Rai got bent in half. Some other big gems as well so I can't complain about a few that got damaged, the condition on the rest is solid all-around.

I would think buy and haul collections would be the biggest advantage, two buyers that can be at two places at once or conflicting schedules that provide better flexibility.

I'll post them in the auction/garage find thread since this is actually my first legitimate estate auction score. I'm extremely happy with the result (haven't even gone through the big box yet), but from what I know it's a great score.

Sorry, not to derail the OP's thread, but on the topic of having an SUV (I got this Tiguan a year ago, an upgrade from my corolla and absolutely love it). I picked-up this box at lunch (estate auction from Eastern Ontario), it was so heavy they aren't allowed to lift it at CP (nor would I expect someone else to lift it).

You guys have an interesting dynamic, how did this relationship start? I can see some obvious benefits to operating a joint business versus one person, but have you guys ever considered operating alone?

Great stories! I'm surprised you guys are lugging all that stuff in a sedan? Everyone I know in ALTA has a truck!

I understand there's probably a pending legislation so few details can't be shared, but are there some takeaways you can offer to prevent this from happening to one of us?

The single day shows are definitely were it is - lesser risk. I chatted with a dealer that setup at a major Toronto show (I think it was comic con) and it cost $2800 for rent (not factoring in anything else). As he was describing the poor performance, I thought he was gonna cry! That show was busy, it just didn't work for him - and he's a veteran dealer.

I don't know if you need to get that granular, if you're buying stuff in bulk you know what you're into for a specific comic. This is what I do; I use a spending-app on my phone for just comics. I put all NET income and expense transactions, for example I bought $50 on supplies last month so I add that expense line on the app - It takes about three seconds. You can also do that for non-bulk buys, e.g. if you purchase a few comics and flip you have the net income and expense line. For shows I just do a one-line item for net sales (which is pretty-much gross sales minus maybe other books bought, etc.). A few pros of this approach - within less than a second you have a running tally of net income/expense for the year. Also, each transaction is dated so you can run your own projections or analysis on cash flow. The cons are I'm not taking any kind of inventory for books sold, I have a pretty good memory on my stuff but I can't say with absolute certainty what I have. The other downside is that I'm not calculating any kind of return metrics; I work for a major investment firm so I'm capable of doing serious financial analysis if I wanted to - but this is hobby for me!

I've only been doing shows for three months (once a month), I like to use the Sales X Cost multiple. It's a quick, simplified method that you can use to gauge time and cost of buying/selling collections.

Nice grab! You're a better man than I on the renos; at few years back my mom bought a BBQ that required assembling. After spending my Saturday putting-it together, I told her next time she makes a purchase like that I'll pay to have it pre-assembled...lol

Exactly, just another cash grab. They could have just left everything being listed in USD, or give sellers the option to choose CAD or USD (I think most would take the latter).

Having to list in Canadian Dollars on ebay.ca is a recent change, the past year I think. It's close to being the final nail in my coffin for selling on ebay (which has gone down substantially over the years).

I'm a dealer in Ottawa, I'll let a few people know about this. For the sake of de-cluttering this thread perhaps can we get all participants to keep only pertinent posts/replies. I'm sure I'm not the only one that wants to remain current in details and development - hoping the $@*^#@ get caught!

I haven't been using it, that was my first contribution in this thread "ebay buying has plummeted". It's not your country's laws that are being 'broken', but anyways this argument has reached it's finale.