Gatchaman

#1 for me is to set your goals. How do you know what you're doing if you don't know where you're going? "Make as much as I can" is never the right answer. Listen to these 2 folks Gabe - one is the king of hoarding future monster books and establishing relationships with writers, the other works his behind off and is out morning,noon and night searching for deals and collections. They aren't lucky, they just work hard and smart. It's seeing Chips results (100k) last year if memory serves, that inspires me to hit up sales, run ads, and network constantly. It works! See the "garage sales" thread for examples of my very modest scores. But each one, despite being modest, turned a respectable profit that enables me to purchase book I want to keep. So listen to them Gabe, for your own sake. I agree with this. You wouldn't believe the inventory I have built up in just around a year for very little money. You can see here the different things that I have sold - http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=wa-collectibles&ftab=FeedbackAsSeller I read ads every day and even post my own "buying" ads. Works out very well.

Yes I make lots of mistakes but I'm learning from them and maybe if I think of this as a game it'll do better something along the lines of risk. To get ahead you should treat it like a job, not a game. It takes hard work and experience to succeed. Put ads on kijiji, go look at collections, buy collections, grade and price the books, bag and board, list them on ebay or here or wherever. My partner and I have bought dozens of collections this year. Some small and some big. Most aren't exactly key laden but we're willing to buy anything if there's a profit to be made. Same goes for finding a job. Go and ask employers why they didn't hire you. Take their feedback objectively - don't get mad and don't embrace denial - and use their feedback to turn things around. Don't just sit there,, do something. Make up a big sign that screams "I WANT A JOB' and walk down the busiest street in town. Employers want employees with skills and experience but they're always looking for motivated people who want a job and want to work hard. I agree with this and do the same thing. Comics aren't the only things I sell. Magic and Yugioh cards are very lucrative. Back in 2004, before I got back into comics, I was selling $1,500 a month in Yugioh and Pokemon cards. Now I sell a lot of different things. Before the summer I bought an ash tray collection for $130 and sold them for over $600. I bought a over 100 White Dwarf magazines for 50 cents each and sold them for mostly $3.50 each. Every little bit helps when you doing this for extra household money.

So, with that remaining stock you are $5,333.41 "in the hole"? How much profit do you hope to make off of your remaining inventory? With the remaining inventory I believe I'll make 200-300 dollars on this. That is a lot of money to tie up to make just a few hundred dollars. I also buy and sell comics, but I look for the small books and make a lot on what I purchase them for. Over this last summer I have bought and sold the following - Bought for @ 3/$1.00 and sold for - Batman #428 $15 Batman The Long Halloween #3 1st Print $15 Amazing Spiderman #300 NM $230 Batman #426-429 Parts One Thru Four $50 X-Factor #5 and 6 $70 New Mutants Annual 2 VF/NM $30 Bought for $1.00 and sold for - Batman:The Killing Joke $50 Batman #426 $20 ABSOLUTE VERTIGO Winter 1995 1st appearance of Preacher $13 Batman #427 $10 Batman #404 - 407 ($1 each) $40 Batman: Year 100 1-4 ($1 for all) $15 X-Factor #6 (VG) $25 Alias #1 NM/M $40 Marvel Graphic Novel #4 1st Printing $25 Runaways #1 $20 Others bought earlier, but sold recently - The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies vol 1-5 Paid $40 and sold for $120 The Phantom: The Complete Sundays Volume 1 & 2 Hardcover bought for $16 and sold for $80 There are a lot more sales I have done, but this is just an example This isn't for bragging purposes. I just wanted to show that it is possible to purchase cheaper books and make the same profit without locking down a lot of money on one or two books. I travel all over my area looking for sales and have found some great books and great deals without putting a lot of money into it. I had earlier promised it to my son, but a couple weeks ago I picked up Nyx #3 and 4, both NM/M in a 3 for a $1 bin. Imagine the profit margin on those. I have around 22 long boxes of $1 books that I have no more than 25 cents invested in and they are all bagged and boarded. I have around another two that more expensive and they are always selling and I have only around 25 cents average invested in them. I chose not to chase after prospects because they can fail faster than an established grail. With what I have done I have created a following of customers and good standing relationships from sellers from Olympia to north of Seattle. I am passing my business to my two youngest teens and teaching them to follow this formula. They see that it works. see how I deal with customers, and my relationships with other business owners. uchiha, I hope you find your niche and everything works out for you.

Nice Charltons. I love them. I have this one. (thumbs u

HOLY HANNA!!!!

Bought an Avengers Ann. #10 and got a couple free books. Claudio is great to deal with and great communication. He shipped fast and well packed. Love the books and would deal with again any time.

I love these. I have over 100 bound volumes.

Picked up a few books today. Some of the mags I got for $1.00 each, the Battle Star Galactia I got for $10 for the set, and all of the comics I got for 50 cents to 3/#1.00, except for the Fighting American. I wound up getting probably 200+ books with most costing 50 cents to 3/#1.00. Yes, the Nyx 3 and 4 in the 3/$1.00.

Nice woman cleaning her house out brings me a binder or 2 a week. Still waiting on the binder that starts at 123. No 121 but a 122 and two 194's. on the 129.

Sorry, you are having to go through this RMA. It seems this generation thinks they are entitled to anything they want. Empathy and logic escapes to many people.

Sorry to hear about this. I can't stand that and then the books are locked in limbo until everything is taken care of.

They are mostly in VF except for 2 and 3. They are in a fine condition. I will be looking to replace them as I bought these two as fillers until then.

Thank you. I am a huge fan of 70's mags. I am still trying to complete my Space 1999 run.

Here's some recent books I picked up from some great boardies.

Starlog #2 I collect Space 1999.

Congrats, very nice book. (thumbs u

Great haul. I have most of the annuals that were printed. Love every one of them.

Comics cannot legally be sent via media mail if they contain paid advertising. Some people may do it, but it's illegal. Some independent comics or fanzines may not contain any paid advertisements; those books could be sent via media mail. That a simple matter of USPS regulations. (I used to work as a letter carrier.) I had no idea there was even a dispute about that topic; the regs are very clear. It's also illegal to use Priority Mail material for anything other than Priority Mail as people cut up boxes to use as cardboard protection and padded envelopes as protection in Media Mailed packages, but people do it anyway.

I would like to share my fondness for TPBs and graphic novels. One thing I like more than collecting comics is reading them. For financial sake I chose to collect more of these than comics so that I had more to read for my money. I will be posting the various kinds that I like and why I chose them. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I have been on the phone with numerous people at USPS about their lackadaisical attitude towards the handling of mail and they are a no fault company. They will refuse to take any responsibility for their losing, misdelivering, and damaging of mail. They will always put that back on the sender.

Something like that happened to me, but with a NYX #3 and a Batman (52) #1. Sorry that happened to you. More and more of this swapping is going around. Same thing happened to a friend of mine,a while back but he got his money back from Paypal. He sold a raw Deadpool 1 for about a $100, the buyer messaged him and said the book arrived damaged.The buyer sent back a beater VG copy of Deadpool #1. The buyer apparent;ly went on a crime spree and pulled simiiar scams with other sellers as he was suspended.Eventually, my friend got his $100 back. Point being, Paypal has been changing up their policies on seller protection lately. I tried to put out a warning about this, but to many people couldn't comprehend. Here is proof that the comics were swapped out, eBay didn't seem to care. This is only one of the many that were like this... Original auction photo showing no damage: Book I received: This is a cheap or free way for people to upgrade their comics.

Something like that happened to me, but with a NYX #3 and a Batman (52) #1. Sorry that happened to you. More and more of this swapping is going around. Same thing happened to a friend of mine,a while back but he got his money back from Paypal. He sold a raw Deadpool 1 for about a $100, the buyer messaged him and said the book arrived damaged.The buyer sent back a beater VG copy of Deadpool #1. The buyer apparent;ly went on a crime spree and pulled simiiar scams with other sellers as he was suspended.Eventually, my friend got his $100 back. Point being, Paypal has been changing up their policies on seller protection lately. I tried to put out a warning about this, but to many people couldn't comprehend.

Was the first one at a sale in Lacey and got nine short boxes filled with current books. Paid $100 for all of them.

Another blocking consideration - myspawngabriel. Purchased one of my books and days after filed a cancellation request. Waste of time.

FWIW when I ship out multiple books I use extra large twist bags, which is only a couple dollars for 100 in the box. They hold around 40+ books.