Cruzin' Thru Comics

2 minutes ago, porcupine48 said:

Looks fab and I wish you success!

Appreciate it!

2 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

good luck with your shop!

I have 2 of the "Best In Comics" display stands. One will hold up to bronze age books and it is in beautiful condition, the other I manipulated the pockets so I could get slabs into it.

Thanks! I’ll post more pics and info on the shop as soon as we get opened. Finally moving books an inventory in now. 

I’m opening a small shop in Santa Clarita, Ca. I have these two. Sure tough to find them. 

Thinking about this situation as well. What if instead of a new mutants 87 it had been a high grade house of secrets 92 worth a few thousand? I doubt I would have let the customer have it for $1. It’s a complicated issue. 

How about on the flip side? I was selling at Stan Lee’s comic con a few year ago. I had about 5 long boxes of $1 books on a table. I remember when I got those boxes I went through them kind of quick and most were just $1 books. We had been selling for awhile and I told my son to man the booth while I walked around a bit. He called me a short time later and said a customer had found a new mutants 87 in the dollar boxes. Wasn’t near mint (about very fine or so). I considered it and told him to honor the sale at $1. I feel it’s the sellers responsibility to have their items priced correctly. Believe me, the buyer sure didn’t offer more for the book. He bought it and left. 

Take the dc lot, thanks 

I’ll take the venomverse 1 and venom flashpoint 1, thanks 

Got a 10.0 on the one I sent in. Just glad I sold if for $400 cash. 

4 hours ago, mec3437 said:

I don't think the Bookery is hurting for business by not slabbing the hot, flavor of the week variant.

Seems to me not trying to make more sales and more profits is bad for any business 

2 hours ago, Bookery said:

A 10 of pretty much anything will sell because it's a 10.  But I don't think I could give away Batman Damned in 9.8 around here... at least not 30 days out from its release.  And that's another problem not addressed here... a lot of those Diamond books you refer to are "hot" for only a brief period.  By the time books are returned from grading, it may already be too late to sell them... certainly to sell them for enough to cover grading, shipping, insurance costs.

As for mail order... I rarely do it.  And I don't do conventions.  I sell here in the shop, period.  But since my sell-through on all but the slowest drek, which wouldn't sell online either, is pretty near 100%... why would I?  If you grade correctly, price fairly, pay fairly, and have your stock organized... it's true that if you build it, they will come.  Yes, I might get higher prices online or at a show... but not enough to compensate for what I save on eBay and PayPal fees, convention fees, travel, hotels, etc.  I sell a lot to dealers, and let them handle those costs.  The model works for both me and them.

From what I understand 3rd party grading came about due to the internet and online sales. I can see them not flying off the shelves in a shop or even at a convention. But you make my point by stating you don’t sell mail order/online. I just think shops are really not taking advantage of those sales opportunities. I’d be listing, packaging and shipping during down times in store. Also, I think most shop owners are pretty informed as to which books are going to be keys, hot covers, variants etc...  Not saying send a bunch in but a few select moderns fast tracked as soon as you got them. You’d have the first cgc books up on eBay and I think could do quite well. 

I think comic shops that have a diamond accounts leave a lot of money on the table not dealing in grading books. Also, most shops I’ve seen in the Los Angeles area don’t usually have a big online presence. Not sure why. I do most of my sales online. For instance, I bought one copy of Batman Damned #1 from a local shop at cover price. I sent it to Ccc and it came back a 10.0. I sold it for $400 cash. I realize that a 10.0 is a rare occurrence but even so the shop had cases of that book. Even if only got 9.8’s you’d be making a bundle on them. I would be sending in select books or hot covers as soon as I could to Cgc and list them online. 

8 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Ever watch the show "Life In Pieces"? Its a fun show, definitely on the surreal side, but still grounded in family humor. 

A lot of the humor surrounds the "missed takeaway", where the point being made by one character is completely missed by another. 

That's what's happened here. You're assuming things that may, or may not be true, but ultimately, you're missing the point. If you're going to be defensive and worry that everyone might be trying to pull a fast one on you...and that's not a personal slight, just an objective analysis...then you'll have to recognize that those attitudes will turn off a significant portion of your potential customer base. It's like I said above: assume the best intentions in everyone, until and unless they prove you wrong, and don't transfer that to anyone else.

Do you own a store? Because this thread is essentially about actual stores, rather than "dealers."

As to your earlier comments about customers switching books and whatnot, there are ways to mitigate that. First, and perhaps most important, is to realize that the odds of someone paying a substantial sum of money on a back issue and then ruining said back issue by "restoring" it, then getting it graded and then blaming you for "missing" said resto is phenomenally small. Possible? Sure. Likely? Well as Mr. B said, he's never had anyone, in 30 years of retailing, have anyone actually do all of those things. You'd have to have a customer who was realllllly mad at you for some reason, but we clever enough to disguise it so that such a scheme would be possible. Most buyers who drop a considerable chunk of change on a comic, the last thing they'd dream of doing is trying to restore it.

Second...the way you protect yourself is to scan anything above the value you don't think you can "eat." Be it $25, or $100, or $500, or whatever, scan your inventory. That way, if someone tries to "switch books" on you, you can pull up the scans and say "I think you may have mistaken another copy for the one I sold you. Look, clearly different copies." 

Third, track your inventory. This requires diligence on your part, but knowing what you sold, and to whom you sold it, can make all the difference if a dispute ever arose.

These are all pro-active steps you can take, to protect not just yourself, but your customers, too. 

There are. But assuming everyone is a potential miserable customer is going to hurt you in the long run. You'll burn out real quick carrying that burden around all the time. Not everyone is out to screw you over...and trying to protect yourself from any potential "screwing" is just going to alienate people in the long run, because they'll sense that in you.

30 years for me in comics, as of this summer, 28 years as a seller. Set up at my first show in the spring of 1991 with Fred Tiu. What an experience that was.

I appreciate the advice. I know most of the shop owners in the Los Angeles area. I listen to all of their advice. I’m actually trying to open my own shop soon and the way this industry is nowadays we need all the customers we can get. 

2 hours ago, newshane said:

This is part of the problem with some dealers - the suspicious, adversarial, paranoid attitude towards customers. 

I just about aborted a deal not too long ago over this very thing. 

Stand by your product. Stand by your grading. Make it right if it's wrong. 

I’ve been selling at shows, on eBay and to local customers for over 10 years now. Haven’t once had a problem with restoration yet. I would definitely work with customers on a solution. I just hit 1000 perfect feedback on eBay a couple weeks ago. I’m sure if this issue came up we’d work something out so both parties were happy. It’s easy to say these things about dealers until you actually become one. There are lots of miserable customers out there as well and I’m going to try my best not to get screwed over by them. 

10 minutes ago, newshane said:

Wow...

I strongly disagree. 

Look, I understand. There are quite a few variables. If it’s a 10 dollar book thats a big difference from say a $900 key issue. I would check the book for any resto to the best of my ability. I would advise the customer that I don’t think it’s restored but can’t be 100% sure. Let’s say it comes back trimmed. What if the buyer brings in a different book thats graded? What if the buyer did the resto themselves? If its a customer you’ve worked with for a long time thats a big difference from a new one that just came in once. If a customer is that worried about it I would suggest they buy a book thats already been professionally graded. 

6 hours ago, dupont2005 said:

It’s unrealistic to expect them to be restoration experts but if it’s sold as unrestored at an unrestored price it’s not unreasonable at all to expect them to accept returns 

If the resto is obvious (visible color touch, glue, tape etc..) of course you’re going to point that out and disclose. I’m talking about restoration that would take a professional to determine. You can’t expect a shop owner with thousands of books process to be held responsible if one happens to come back restored. Buyer takes that chance when purchasing raw books. 

5. If you sell me something that turns out to be aproblem...don't hassle me about it. Just take the damn return. You sell me something that turns out to berestored, just take the book back.

unrealistic to expect shop owners to be restoration experts. Processing hundreds if not thousands of back issues. Probably not enough time even if knew how. I would just place a sign stating no guarantees of non restoration. All sales final. 

Take per pm, thanks 

I’ll take the western comics, thanks 

54 minutes ago, Bird said:

that is some real duty doody!

58 minutes ago, pemart1966 said:

I live in Canada and I won't buy off anyone that uses Global Shipping Program.  This program automatically adds on duty to your purchase - a colossal rip off.  I have no idea on what they base their duty calculation but anytime I've seen amounts they seem exorbitant.

I have no idea whether the item then has duty levied on it when it reaches Canada or not.  Anyone from Canada experienced a double shot of duty?

I hear you. But shipping international on your own is really a hassle. I don’t have the time to do it. I usually discount books for international buyers (when I can). 

1 minute ago, VintageComics said:

I just don't understand the mindset of people who refuse to ship outside of the US.

There is an entire world out there.

Sure, it's a bit more work, and you need to do some diligence but the Us only comprises a small percentage of the rest of the world. And yes, I understand the risks, the hassles and everything else. But as in everything there is going to be a learning curve.

I guess it all depends on why you're selling. As a business person, you're just shooting yourself in the foot if you avoid the rest of the world.

You just have to make sure item/s are really well packaged. They are traveling pretty far. 

I think maybe items valued around $300 or so I’ve shipped international. Most of my items are under $500. I’d probably be worried about anything worth more than $1k. 

When a buyer clicks to buy your item eBay shows them the international shipping price. If they agree to price they just buy it. If you’re charging the buyer a shipping cost it’s only to get the item to ebays warehouse in Kentucky. 

I use ebays global shipping program. Works great. Haven’t had a problem yet. You just ship the item to their warehouse in Kentucky. They take care of it from there. Way bigger market for sales when you include intl. sales 

Take night nurse