blazingbob

Absolutely great restaurants in Little italy.

Hmmm, a clearly identifiable business/show plan.

Thank you for posting that. I have no idea why the major show promoters don't see this, don't use this to bring the dealers to the show etc. Everybody is focused on the cost when the real "big picture" is who is your (insert dealer name) my true customer base. If you want to sell a lot of books price them fairly, try to leave some money on the table for both parties and you will have a great show. If you think your Hulk #181 is the cats meow and requires you to get full gpa then think again. If you want to just deal in cash and turn down dealers checks then maybe you should wonder why you carry around the same inventory show after show (Disclosure - the "you" in this post is not directed at October)

Terry Stroud was at the show. If Wondercon is the show you feel gives you a better selection then by all means I encourage you to give it a try. Others will say that Terry's one day show will. However, I can't attend Terry's one day show since my expense ratio's are higher on a one day cross country show versus a 3 day or more show. Little dealers are being squeezed out of many of the major shows. I heard the same pricing concerns being voiced for one of the boardie fan favorites Heroes Con. Unfortunately what I think small dealers miss is that if you have the books the major shows will probably be the "best bang for the buck" since dealers are generally the biggest spenders.

Rick, I'm wondering what San Diego show you were at and frankly maybe you should gather a little more information before posting. Since you have a lot of fanboys on the boards maybe you should think a little before you post. Does being there one day really give you the insight to put out a show review? Since you are the "Ask Gator" author do you think that maybe your post will cause some customers to think that the show isn't worth going to? Saturday has always been the media/movie star day and traditionally the slowest sales day at San Diego. My sales were very strong this year. Yeah, Saturday was slow but so what. The show counting setup is 5 and a 1/2 days of solid buying/selling. Sal had to leave Sunday morning because he was attending the Sports card show. You are saying that dealers were complaining and leaving based on slow sales? Greg Reece being there for the first time? I like Greg but when you are leaving a show I question what else you should be doing. Buying books, networking, looking at what is selling. San Diego provides a lot of information. You can choose to use it or not. Bunky brothers who frankly did a lot of strong buying but didn't have one CGC book on the wall. How exactly do they represent a strong cross section of the dealers who setup at the show? Except for Greg Reece and the Loss of Bunky brothers the same stuff was on Dealer's walls? Not sure what walls you were looking at.

I would be able to sell that 5.0 right away. Not sure why the seller has to wait until the fall. If you have a nice gain in the book I'm not sure why holding out a few more bucks makes any sense. And frankly the end of the year is the best time of the year for me to buy keys, not sell them.

Back to school (The fall) and December are the worst months to auction big keys.

Yup, a lot of dealers don't user it. Yourself included ASM 33 9.6 $1600 shipped. $925 last sale ASM 40 9.4 $1800 shipped. $1308 last sale

But if I reported my sales to GPA would I be establishing FMV since that is what a "lot" of the collecting community seem to use. Ebay has fixed price sales that are reported. They are not a "auction" format. Are they not considered for GPA sales? Not sure I am buying your Auction house FMV logic.

Sgt. Fury

Yes, the owner of the book who is a very good customer of mine is very excited to own his first AF #15. So that Peter can rest easy it was a collector who bought it. I seriously doubt that this copy will be up for sale any time soon. However since I'm not a auction house my sale price would not reflect Fair market value.

Thank you for the plug. My 2.5 sold very recently. I just sold a 5.0 2 days ago and a higher grade in the last 3 weeks. Currently I have a 6.0, Qualified 5.5 and a 4.0.

Just did a nice sale to Andy. Easy to work with. Thank you

So did the collection come with deodorant? Not sure I would ever name a collection I bought the "B" OO collection

Golf clap

I hoard them but then I sell them. Oh wait. I'm a dealer. I'm supposed to sell them.

Oh come on you big prude. You know damn well those cosplayers are using those costumes in the bedroom. This was categorized as accessories on the wizard application. I was passing out those butt plugs as free gifts if you spent over $100. KY was extra for those who felt that the transaction was painful.

Now, now, Wizard kicked them out of the show. Why it took so long is beyond me. You think they would have been paying attention on setup day. How could you turn down a company named rabbit.com. Clearly they were selling stuffed animals/code name for butt plugs

Wizard Philly lost the collecting customer base by getting into pi$$$ng contests with Heroes Con. Multiple years of the shows being on the same weekend or even in the same month forced dealers into making choices. Given a choice between doing Heroes and doing Philly most of the dealers left for Heroes. When the dealers leave the collectors come to a show, complain there are no dealers there and don't come back the next year. Last year my sales were good because Greg and I were the two big Vintage dealers at the show. However because of last year and the fact there are only 6 comic dealers in the room collectors do the math and say "Why am I paying $65 or more to see 6 comic dealers?" I'll go to another show or maybe I'll go shop online etc. What a lot of promoters lose sight of is the fact that collectors save up for one or maybe two shows a year. Adding more shows doesn't result in more sales for the exhibitors. The pie just gets smaller. Also lets look at what else is happening at many of the conventions - BARS/ALCOHOL. Do BARS/ALCOHOL result in more sales? Absolutely not. Does alcohol result in lower table fees for the exhibitor? Absolutely not. Does alcohol result in lower ticket prices, Absolutely NOT. Wizard has stated that they are a kid friendly show yet they sell alcohol at it. Kind of talking out of both sides. I've already had to deal with a few drunks at shows damaging books or coming dangerously close to spilling the drinks into my boxes. Nothing like a warm friendly welcome to a customer by stating to them please be careful with your drink. Who benefits from selling alcohol at the show? The convention center and the promoter. Buy a comic or drink a beer? Hmmm, I can tell you that I know what choice is being made at many of the shows I attend.

Granted there will always be Wizard bashing but if you are responding to real business issues those could be answered. I didn't "Wizard bash" at the Sunday meeting. I brought up legit concerns that I have been experiencing doing multiple shows. They are welcome to defend or disagree with my issues. But Wizard is not the only promoter out there that has "Comic Dealers" out of sight, out of mind when it comes to their show advertising/social media etc. My business issue and I believe some other dealers may share this same feeling is that comic dealers subsidize the actors that the promoters bring to the shows. I am not comp'd, picked up at the airport, have my hotel paid for, given guarantees on my numbers by promoters. Wizard brought up that our 2017 retail numbers were lower due to the fact that the Avengers were at last years show. Do comic collectors by Iron Man, Hulk, Thor figurines, JIM #83's, Avengers #1, Hulk #1's, etc to get signed by the Avengers? No. They are paying for photo ops and autographs via the VIP packages which Wizard makes money off.

I was being sarcastic. When was the last time you saw somebody from Wizard comment on a Wizard event on the forum boards?

www.highgradecomics.com

I am talking a business forum where we all sit down, whiteboard, discuss, throw out ideas as a industry. Representatives from all parts of the comic community should be there so that everyone has a voice. Wizard thinks having a facebook, twitter account covers social media. CGC forum board? Why would anybody from Wizard ever read that?

First year back. Could be taking another vacation if it goes like the last time I setup at the show. I've brought along some Goodyear catalogs for the tire kickers this year.