blazingbob

Am aware the website is down, working on it with my web developers and hosting company

I will be in Seattle, my wife/son/and another person will be in Chicago with my regular inventory.

I would also like to point out that States declare a state of emergency so that they can get access to the Federal funding for additional costs in dealing with this. Lets not forget that panic drives "Money". Where one area is losing money another is raking it in.

You should read the comments on the news article you are posting about. I have family that live in Seattle, nothing is farther from the truth then this article. Here is another article disputing the article you are referring to - https://mynorthwest.com/1749390/rantz-seattle-unifies-to-mock-coronavirus-ghost-town-report-nbc-news/? While I am concerned with the Coronavirus I don't plan on living in fear, spraying down my customers with disinfectant spray or hiding in my house because of a virus.

That's the manga version

You had me until you said Superman, Superboy and Lois lane. DC collections are very slow to sell after selling Batman/Detectives. So that $14/book cost doubles when you are looking at what is left. Just my 2 cents

There will come a time when collector's/dealers need to share their experience or this hobby/business will go to the grave with them. I understand the need to protect what you know and my wife is always yelling that I'm a little to forthcoming with information but if somebody doesn't share with the younger generation then there will be NO future. What the younger generation needs to learn is that experience isn't FREELY given. If you want to learn you need to EARN. Making money for that dealer/splitting deals/bringing something to the table other then your hand out can work out for the both of you. I have very few partners but the ones I do work with have taught me a lot and I hope the same is true from my side. If the partnerships weren't successful we wouldn't be doing more deals.

To me while the movies were a big part of the last 20 years CGC grading had a lot of impact to the comic "hobby" You would not be seeing the same sales numbers if CGC wasn't introduced/accepted in the marketplace.

Problem I have are the customers that are asking for books I have at home. My show schedule is a FULL year in advance. Go to the website and ask me to bring the books you need to the show. Problem solved. Nope, ask me when they see me and I then have to remind me I can't bring 35K books to the show.

$1500 for a 2 booth cost would = 100 separate shipments. For 3 days I don't ship 100 packages. The costs for online sales are always cheaper then a 3 day show. As far as not selling books at a show this goes back to my convention rants. No customers to even negotiate with - Promoters fault No customers with money - promoter might be charging too much to get in, regional economics Customers looking but not buying - My prices could be too high, could be too many dealers in the room. Sometimes my perception of what a customer thinks is high grade is higher then their perception. No big buyers - Either I don't have the price points on keys or I just don't have what they are looking for. If you are at shows where the dwindling want list is in effect you have to wonder what new customers will step in to fill that void Not enough dealers - You may have the best inventory/best priced but if the shows word of mouth is there aren't enough dealers to warrant customers coming then you might be the LAST man standing. Might be good for you but Greg and I were the last man standing at Wizard Philly and I finally had to bail. Which is why when posters bad mouth shows the more specific WHY they aren't coming is better then "There was nothing to buy". If you are coming to most shows looking for hard to find books I can go a whole year without seeing certain types of material and I'm doing 15+ shows a year.

Please note the merchant service fees for international credit cards are higher also.

"Encapsulated copies will almost always fetch more online" Huh? I would not agree with this statement. I will pretty much get the same price whether I'm at a show or the book is bought online.

I can even sell it to the OSPG buyer.

Getting a book graded doesn't always add value. If you got a AS #103 graded you are looking at around $30-$35. If you paid 1/2 guide for it $55 your cost basis is $90. You sell it for $100 and made $10, if you sold it raw for $100 you made $45. Did the slab add value in this case? No. Only people making the most money is the seller of the book, the grading company and the shipping company. You made 10% if cash, 7% if paypal or CC.

AS #103 guides for $110 which means I would price it at $120/discount to a $100. If you are paying $100 for a CGC 9.2 you are buying it for less then guide. I tell a lot of customers that a majority of those books in slabs started out with raw pricing. Lastly when you are grading books you really should be figuring out if CGC is MAKING YOU MONEY or COSTING YOU MONEY. Price out the submission at your prices with discounting, when the books come back graded price them again. Is the invoice PLUS OR MINUS when factoring in grading costs? If you are consistently getting NEGATIVE results CGC isn't adding any value at all. If your grades are consistently lower then CGC's maybe you need a grading check. Or GLASSES

I will be there

For me to use GPA pricing on a raw book it would have to be a key or a movie book. I would not use GPA to price raw books that fell outside of those parameters.

I appreciate the examples and was just giving my dealer guess on why he might be pricing the way he does. Besides the Us versus them mentality is the "Nobody wants to leave any money on the table" mindset that is out there. And that is from both sides of the table.

There is a difference between arguing and discussing. The Us versus them mentality comes out when the customer does this Asks what is the best you can do. Wants below market price (10%) Wants to pay by credit card (1-4%) Doesn't want to pay sales tax when paying by cc (6-10%) Lets see when I get to the net I'm 20% off market

Now the other thing I caution is if you as a buyer do make an substantial offer less then the sticker and the dealer accepts it you better not come back with "I'll think about it". I had a customer do that on a Superman #14 and believe me I wasn't happy with that response.

Only way he thought it was worth $400 was if he used the 9.2 Apr 2019 GPA price. That's the only logic I can apply to that price.

I am not assuming that they are overpriced. I'm trying to understand how they priced it. When somebody is typing on their phone for GPA I'm in my database looking up when I bought it, when I priced it, how long I've had it and if the deal it was in is profitable or not. I've sold a $1200 list price for $750 when the buyer asked me. Does it happen all the time no, but he got the book at his price because he "ASKED".

I guess I missed the FMV 15-20% range memo since I didn't even think it was acceptable for a seller to ask over GPA. And as I've stated if a book is 100-200% over it could have been priced a year or 2 ago. I'm sure a lot of dealer inventory looks overpriced after this November/December auction results.

Try telling that to the customer that he is a dinosaur with one in his hand as he is checking your prices against it.

If you were interested did you tell him a 4.5 CGC copy just sold in Jan 2020 sold for $1125. At small shows this could have been the first copy the guy ever had and is pricing it like he will never have another. As far as the Vampire tales goes a CGC 8.0 sold for $115 in Jan 2020. I'm assuming it was a lot nicer and again I would have questioned his asking price.