Wall-Crawler

He doesn't want insurance just a signature confirmation Uhmm the insurance should be for your own protection not his...

Approximation: Book purchased $108 Sold $220 Shipping fees covered $70 Profit $42 - Not including eBay and PayPal cut That about right?

So he wants signature confirmation which you said you would cover. Using Xpress Post with package dimensions of 16 x 12 x 4 and weight of 1 kg with sig confirmation and insured for $200 CDN is going to be around $112 CDN or $82 USD. So you are picking up $71 USD in shipping or thereabouts now.

Not what I asked. What did you quote the buyer for shipping? If you only quoted him $11 and said that you would pick up the rest that will definitely eat into your profit margin.

Friday

Is he paying $11 BP for shipping and you are picking up the rest? If so $11 BP is only $18 CDN. How is that evening out? You are still short at minimum $40 CDN and that is without sig confirmation...

And now with a sig required, he needs to send express post. That doubles or triples the shipping cost doesn't it? Jim Yes it increases cost significantly.

$11 to the UK? Are you sure about that? Something does not seem right about that quote...Where did you get the quote from? I plugged a 1 kg package in with dimensions that would fit a slab nicely and cheapset I got was $18 with no tracking or insurance....Tracked Packet Intl is looking like about $60...

Yeah...I didn't notice at first as it is the all white until I got home. Had this been an unrestored copy, I would be a little more miffed. I might send them a message about it. I still think, despite the resto, it presents nice for a 4.5 so maybe I will contact them. CGC is going to fix the mistake. No cost to me.

Used book store finds... UXM #165, 166, 167, 170, 178, FF #235, 250, Marvel Tales #150, 166, 167, 152 & Silver Age Classics: Green Lantern Mark Jeweler Insert Variants Issues: UXM #165, 167, 170, 178, FF #235 Mark Jeweler Insert Variants Issues: Marvel Tales 152,166, 167 Oh and this - Dolphin sex...I don't think the operators know what they had here considering the comics are marketed to little kids and they had other issues of a "similar" nature...I let them know.

If you're going the slabbed route, I would steer away from anything under 5.0, unless it's the first issue. I'm just going to take it one book at a time and try to balance grade with eye appeal and price. I might get the non-keys raw still though to help keep costs down...

Because again I ignored my friends advice unlike me he's always on top of things. So maybe you should hang up the speculation shoes until you can get on top of things. I do have some good news though those harambe comics worked out.

Round and round we go, where it stops, nobody knows! ...Wait a minute, yes we do...Back to paying GPA or near GPA for a speculation book that he should have bought 4 - 6 months ago...

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

Now that I "only" have the Lee/Ditko books to complete, I am considering only buying graded books for here on out. Obviously, not all will be high grade but a) it would prevent the resto situation (not that I would buy non-graded keys anyway) and b) it would be nice to have this as a "graded set". The downside is it will cost more to do that. Thoughts?

Hey Piper, no I am not going to crack it open myself...I did check the inside front and back covers initially but don't recall seeing anything. I am going to take another hard look at the spine through the case though to see if I can see anything. For the heck of it, I thought I would look into seeing what it would cost to have resto removed (never looked into it before) and I think I will contact CGC about the dog ear.

Yeah...I didn't notice at first as it is the all white until I got home. Had this been an unrestored copy, I would be a little more miffed. I might send them a message about it. I still think, despite the resto, it presents nice for a 4.5 so maybe I will contact them.

Organizers asking vendors would be interested again. Signed up and was promised my pick of spots and set up, so barring any unforeseen circumstances, I am in for next year. Up next, the collectible show that started me on this is scheduled for April 2017. This is the one where I am really going to try to switch up my set up and display.

I thought about not posting this, but wanted to share the good and the bad. A few pages ago I posted a raw low grade copy of ASM #13 - 1st Mysterio that I got as part of a pick. I decided that it was a nice low grade copy and there was a Stan signing and thought the book might benefit. Whoops. This is my first time ever getting dinged with a resto book. Obviously I am disappointed but I am fortunate that I got this raw in a bulk deal and even with the mishap I am still very much in the black (profitable) from that deal. This was not a dealer who I got the book from just a person who had some books and other collectibles and I doubt they even knew about the resto. Chalking this up to a learning experience and reinforces that for keys, I will definitely only buy graded copies. I'm kind of disappointed that when the book was slabbed, there was a slight tear on the front cover and they slabbed it "dog eared" making it look like there is an actual chip missing when there is not. However, with every step back, there are two steps forward...I hope to have a much more positive post very soon.

Yeah, there was also a booth near us at the Calgary Expo a few years back with some pretty girls in costume. They would pose for $5 and Karl had a lot, really a lot, of $5 bills in his pocket.

Oh yes, I saw that thread! Got it now!

Yep, the voice of reason speaks to them. Honey, you're not serious about spending $500 on a comic are you? Just get Karl to pull her off to the side to take her glamour shots. ...Ok, gotta fill me in...I'm missing the reference...

SOLD! Getting a reader. Thanks guys! Yes, I did have one person that I know for sure say "I have to go to the ATM" and they never came back

Thanks Torch - Yes, there was very little space...As expected, the set up was a bit of a mess at first. I was pleasantly surprised with the results to be perfectly honest. I was not expecting to do that well. Again my one big sale was from a regular (the $217 sale, without him, it would have been around high $500 to low $600 for the day). I received many compliments on how the books were all in nice bags and boards (not dusty or yellowed), that my display looked good and was neatly organized and labelled and that my prices were 'very fair'. A few of my regulars reported some of the asking prices from other vendors, one in particular were very high. Example I was given via text: "Avengers Annual #1 in total mess shape for $100." I have no idea how the other comic vendors did. While my wife is not a comic collector she is a huge help to me (manages cash, receipts for inventory) and I think the fact that we are laid back, will chat with whomever and are friendly helps a lot too. Some guys try to double their money on keys. The reality is that it's difficult to find margin on keys. Quality collections rarely come along for cheap, it's too easy to look up prices for keys and it isn't difficult to sell them. When retailers are selling large TVs or automobiles they make very little on those items but look to make their profit on video cables or servicing or special warranted plans. I use that model for comic sales, aim for 10% above replacement cost for keys and look for margin on cheaper items. I'd recommend Square. It will cost you about 3% but you will get sales that you wouldn't get if you didn't take credit cards. They send you the money quickly and it's easy to track transactions. I will definitely look into Square. I thought it was more than 3% for some reason... As for keys, I get it as believe me, for me to find them they are very, very difficult to obtain (and when I do I usually like to hold onto them for personal collection but that is another problem for another day ) but some though are priced out in the stratosphere. I totally understand needing margins but for some those have to be some damn big margins. I think we all know about making a buck by why hold onto the same stuff, show after show after show? I should say though that for graded books, if I sell in CDN, I am using conversion rates. Say if 90 day GPA is $100, well then I am selling for $140-$150 CDN.