Pike's Comics

Take some time and read the blog's by Gary Ray with Black Diamond Games and Micheal Bahr with Desert Sky Games. Both have written very good articles on opening specialty stores and the market.

Today is moving day. I was finally able to secure a small warehouse where I will have room to sort and prep the hundreds of boxes I currently have in storage. My one concern... I am not the one managing the move. I am letting the GF handle it as I am busy with my actual work. Left her some instructions on set up so here's hoping everything goes smoothly!

Is his admission here enough to get him put in the hall of shame? It honestly might be the best thing to happen to him if it is...

Every once in a while you catch something interesting happening in the market. It looks like there was a buyout on New Teen Titans which happened this week. I was looking at the pricing of New Teen Titans 26 1st Terra on Monday. MCS and eBay had it at $2-3each. Checked again yesterday and books are selling at $10 each on eBay and $7VFs on MCS! A little more exploring found the prices of 1-10 and 16 had also gone up! It looks like we have s group prepping for Teen Titans or trying to create some interest.

- sorry - my wording may have looked like I though you were one upping him I like your journal MUCH better ------ easier to share ideas, ..... The Shazams - interested to hear your take -- do you think they are worth slabbing? Why or why not? So Shazam 1 is a 1973 book. So to get it graded and pressed $35/43 based on what tier I put it under. Let's assume the book is in one of two categories 9.8/9.6 or 9.4/9.2. 9.4/9.2 sell for $100-125 graded. They sell for around $40 raw. Cost in book say $16. Cost to press is $15. Grade is $20 or $28. So additional profit from grading would be $1-$26 if I pressed. No press add $15. 9.8/9.6 sell for $175-$475 graded. They sell for $100 raw. Cost in book say $16. Cost to press is $15. Grade is $20 or $28. So additional profit from grading would be $16-$324. I group those two graded together as they sometimes are hard to distibguish. Personally I'd grade any 9.6/9.8 candidate and ship raw anything less.

This was more to show the difference in focus than to beat anyone. He focuses on speculation picks. I focus on blue chips. Books that always sell and are in demand.

So I was reading Gabe's journal and I was highly critical of his speculation buys. His last pick ups were for around $125. So I figured I would share a comparative. I went to 2 different swap meets this weekend and made two different purchases that were around $125. 1st purchase (cost $125) -2x Shazam 1 NM+ -- Uncanny Xmen 266 -Avengers 196 -8 random Deadpool issues from 1997 run -Amazing Spiderman 252 This dealer also sold me a box of Marvel Comics mostly in order but more importantly they were all freshly bagged and boarded. I paid $40 just because the labor this saves me. Luck have it I get home and the box had some okay stuff in it which I most likely won't put in my $2 boxes. It included Marvel comic presents, wolverine, Hulk (future imperfect prestige), silver surfer (lots of infinity gauntlet issues) and full runs of the dark horse star wars series!

If you believe you should buy on the way down Uncanny XMen 141 and Thor 344 are great picks.

$115 would have bought a bicycle or a good down payment on a scooter.

You also ignored my advice on turn rates. What percentage of your income is locked up in that one book not making you any money? Which you plan to sit on for a year not making money...

Do me a favor.... It is very simple... STOP SPECULATING! Sure go ahead and buy a book for $1-2 because it has a key appearance and you are hoping and praying for them to appear on a show. But when you start spending $100+ on spec books you aren't speculating. You are gambling; playing the lottery. My father in Law likes to say this, "When you buy a lottery ticket you are buying a dream." This is why when I buy a scratch off lottery ticket I take my time... I enjoy my dream. You just bought $100 worth of returnable lottery tickets. You had your dream. It's time to scratch those tickets and aim for the blue chips.

So you spent $123 plus shipping for those books. Why?

Thanks for the reply. I do live driving distance to the grading companies. I'm actually more worried about the money pit pressing books that won't benefit can be. I definitely won't be fast tracking any of these books. I also agree in regards to pacing out books and what I listed is me pacing. I still have about 5 long boxes of silver age books I haven't even processed yet! It is part of a few very nice and mostly silver age collections I have gotten in over last few months.

Continuation of Lost in Auction: My Goals: During the winter downtime move books that I most likely won't move at conventions. Reasons for Auction vs Selling myself: TIME and costs. If I decide to sell this on ebay my fees will end up being almost the same as if I sold it on most auction sites and for some actually higher. The only two methods for selling which are better are in person sales, here on the boards or on facebook. Grading Costs/Pressing: First question. Do I do this first or do it myself? I have dealer accounts and good friends who do this... But the auction houses offer full service assignments. Why not trust them to get stuff graded and decide what needs pressed? -Issues with this Mycomicshop I do not believe will do these for you. However: Non-Graded books: From what I understand the only major auction house that will take consignments and/or auction off raw books is Mycomicshop. They also will take books worth $50 or higher for consignment. I am fairly certain I will be split submitting with them getting the lower value ones or items that shouldn't be graded. The most important question is: Which gets higher sale figures for these types of books?

LOST IN A SEA OF AUCTION SITES So I am looking to send some books off to Auction. The question is which auction house to send them to? I most likely will send them to multiple auction houses as some do not take raw books. My Graded books for Auction: Annihilation: Conquest 6 9.6 SS ASM 410 9.6 ASM 129 4.5 Needs pressed ASM 9 5 (1st Electro) Marvel Premiere 47 9.2 SS Alpha Flight 17 9.8 Brave and the Bold 200 9.6 Legends 3 9.6 Deadpool 1 9.4 (1997) Deadpools secret secret 2 9.8 Gwenpool variant Fantastic Four 46 7 Detective Comics 742 9.8 Detective Comics 431 7.5 Detective Comics 871 9.8 Jungle Comics 54 6 Color Touch Rat Queens 1 9.8 Rat Queens 1 9.8 Monstress 1 9.8 New Titans 99 9.8 Nightwing 1 9.8 Tales of the Teen Titans 44 9.6 Rat Queens 1 9.8 Fiona Staples Swamp Thing 37 9.6 Thanos Quest 1 9.8 Thanos Quest 1 9.8 Thanos Quest 1 9.8 Thief of Thieves 3 9.4 Preacher 13 9.8 Preacher 13 9.6 Strain 1 9.6 Suicide Squad 1 9.6 1987 Suicide Squad 23 9.6 Superman Man of Steel 17 9.6 2nd print Superman Man of Steel 17 9.6 2nd print Spawn 1 9.8 Swamp Thing 25 9.6 Tales of Suspense 74 8.5 Strange Tales 180 9 Amazing Spiderman 300 5.5 Needs a press Then I have some raw books that are worth some $ but would not benefit from being graded or pressed: 3xBatman Adventures 12 Fan Boy Expo Error Variant, New Mutants 98 Daredevil 158 Birds of Prey 8 Superman Man of Steel 18 4th Print Marvel Super Heroes 13 2xCaptain America 117 Lastly I have a list of books if graded and pressed would be worth at least $125+ if graded: Captain America 117 Captain America 117 Captain America 117 (Color Touch) Hulk 180 Silver Surfer 44 X-Men 100 X-Men 101 Marvel Premiere 15 Fantastic Four 46 X-Men 135 X-Men 115 X-Men 107 X-Men 104 X-Men 103 X-Men 102 X-Men 99 X-Men 93 X-Men 90 X-Men 88 X-Men 87 X-Men 85 X-Men 85 X-Men 84 X-Men 78 X-Men 75 X-Men 62 X-Men 58 X-Men 57 X-Men 56 X-Men 53 X-Men 51 X-Men 42 X-Men 38 X-Men 32 Avengers 118 Avengers 112 Avengers 100 Avengers 96 Avengers 93 Avengers 88 Avengers 87 Avengers 85 Avengers 80 Detective Comics 411 Fantastic Four 86 Fantastic Four 75 Fantastic Four 75 Fantastic Four 62 Fantastic Four 47 Fantastic Four 44 Daredevil 114 Daredevil 92 Captain America 121 Amazing Spiderman 85 I also have a huge number of silver filler books that sell in that $50-99 range that I would consider auctioning. My next post will be my breakdown of what I know and hoping some of you peeps out there provide some opinion or insight from your past experiences.

Bought my first car a 1988 Dodge Diplomat from my neighbor for $800 with the money I made from McDonalds. Loved that car.

NO! YOU DON'T SIT ON HYPED BOOKS THAT ARE AT THEIR PEAK! SELL THEM NOW. Sell everything now. Get out. Buy a bicycle. Learn about turn rates. Accept small losses to protect yourself from complete losses.

A few questions so I can make a fair assessment. How liquid are you at this moment? What inventory do you have? What ability do you have to travel? Do you own a printer/scanner/camera? How many board sales have you done in the last year? How often do you visit: A. Comic shops B. Conventions C. Flea markets/garage sales/estate sales D. Reply to Craigslist or newspaper ads for Comics Do you have an eBay account and Facebook account?

GCSStomp also brings up another good discussion: TURN RATES vs PROFIT MARGIN Lets assume we are just getting started in our comic vending career. Its January 1st and I have $100 dollars. I continually reinvest that $100 dollars in buying one book with a flat non-changing market value. Here is the question. We can sell the book for A, $130 every other month or 6 times a year very easily. Or we can hold on to the book and B. sell it twice a year for $175. Method A. means we have to purchase and sell 6 books which accounts for more work but it is a faster turn rate at a lower profit margin. In the end we would make $180. Method B. will be less work but with a higher profit margin. In the end we would make $150. So we could make more money by selling it for less if we are willing to work more. Of course this little breakdown doesn't take into account market fluctuations, popularity of the character and so on.

The HAND TRUCK! These things hate me. If you are going to be doing multiple show and are hauling more than just 10-12 boxes invest in a good convertible hand truck! Spend the money! I have busted 3 of the ones they sell at U-Hual/Lowes/Home Depot and they are all garbage. There is nothing worse than trying to load in 50 long boxes into a vehicle and having a dolly break. This year I followed advice of an old friend Tom Raupp and bought a Magliner Gemini Jr This has been one of my best purchases ever. It is worth every dollar. Side Note: If you are ever down at a Florida convention you definitely will run into GCSstomp. Great guy who definitely knows his market. He knows way more than he lets on and is a great resource to have if you are in need of something.

My goal for my boxes is when someone looks at my $2 books they see clean looking boxes. Take a look one day and compare a box of perfectly bagged and boarded comics vs one with older boards mixed in or the flaps not properly taped down. The difference is amazing. So to answer your question not all need rebagged but usually over 50% do need rebagged. As for cost I may be off but id rather give myself room to include other supplies such as tape and boxes.

My goal is to ship 50 long boxes off to charity by the end of the month. Clear out and make room for new stuff. I think the oldest book I own is a jungle action. I will post a pic of it later!

Two topics this week: 1. My expectations of a convention organizer as a vendor. I am finding this needs to be discussed. 2. Prepping books to be sent to auction and deciding who to send them to. - I have two events left this year (Daytona Comic Con and the yearly Swap meet) so it is time to move items that move slowly at conventions.

1. Distinguishing between $1 and $2 books. I believe it is based on how much I put into the books. Meaning for me $2 books should be in clean bags and boards and in alphabetical order. For me anything worth under $5 goes in here that isn't drek. Ie stuff that no one is really interested in. I plan on going over my sorting methods next week in greater detail.

I've actually was setup next to Gator. I can only dream to do a setup like his! However let's do a hypothetical. Let's talk about my bulk boxes. Cost per book $.10 Bag and board $.15 Labor $.25 (to alphabetize, sort and bag and board) Cost $.50 a book. Assume 10k in sales. All made from my $2 boxes. That means I sold 5k books (Go Me!) My costs were 4k. My inventory cost was $2500. Therefore I just made $3500 on 5k book sales.... and around 20-22 long boxes of books