Doktor

And the problem with establishing a business model where there is a "line jumper pass" available for an extra fee is the inevitable question of "what happens when everybody/most people start buying the line-jumper pass?"

All of a sudden, everybody is buying the line jumper pass, but nobody gets to jump the line because that's just essentially the original line moved over 10 feet and costing an extra $50. Now, do you offer a line jumper line jumper pass and how do you handle the pissed off customer base where everybody is buying an "extra service" and none are able to receive it? There becomes a credibility question and bait-and-switch-like feeling that gets created in your customer base as a result which can lead to a lot of other problems.

It's a short-term money grab strategy and nothing else. It's not a long-term business model.

FT is no different than the line-jumper pass at busy amusement parks. Pay me more and skip the line. I've never been a fan of that, but I can understand why businesses offer it. It's another revenue stream, even if it comes at the price of off your larger customer base. But it works when you're the only game in town that matters (again, like with amusement parks, because it's not like you can just go to the one across the street when there isn't one across the street unless it's along the lines of a fire hall carnival)

I had 2. One was the "first place I regularly bought comics" which was a Woolworth's with a spinner rack that was next door to the place I took drum lessons as a kid.

But then the first actual comic shop was actually closer to my house. I didn't find out about it until about 6 months after I started buying those spinner rack books. Little shop called Infinity that I still stop into every once in a while when I'm out visiting my parents & sometimes pick up a few back issues. It's always been in the same place & has been one of those owner/operator businesses for as long as I could remember. I only have the faintest recollection of the anyone other than the owner ever being behind the counter. Not much in the line of wall books or back issues beyond modern or copper, but still a good dude with a nice little shop. It's gotten quite cramped over the years, but still a great little shop.

Go to a comic book convention! Rummage through the bargain bins! This can be a lot of fun for the new collector.

 

 

I second this! As a recent newbie to collecting, this was and is so much fun to do. Attending local conventions allows you to jump right in. And the prices are reasonable, plus you can get a good look at the condition.

Sometimes you can find serious gold in those dollar or 50 cent bins too. I've pulled a handful of books out of those bins that were modern keys in great shape. Plus, yeah.. it's fun (if tedious sometimes) to flip through 40 long boxes full of out-of-order comics in hopes of finding something needed.

I buy for the collection. If I happen to end up with undercopies or with something that I don't want, it's put aside for the PIF thread or maybe to sell in order to buy something I DO want. I can't remember the last time I sold something. However, I've recently started feeling the urge to sell off some things that I don't necessarily care about & aren't fitting my collecting focus going forward & using that money to buy keys that are in my focus.

Couldn't find this thread before but Eddy's a good dude. Awesome to work with on selling me an IH 181.

Pleasure to do business.

Joe

Just shy of about 6,000. I was at about 8,000 but sold about 3,000 a year or 2 ago. But in the last year, I've added another 1,000 or so since. And in the past year, I've gone from 1 slab to about 35. That's growing a lot faster than I expected.

So if I've done business with you, I'd love to get some feedback.

Thanks everyone. And hope to do business in the future.

Great seller. Awesome Apocalypse sketch SS blank variant at a great price. Jason did a killer job of packing it & it got to me in no time at all.

I've been just kinda staring at it for a day or 3 now.

Good dude & someone I could imagine my wallet would hate for me to know better because I'd buy from him all day long.

I had to laugh. Like I said, fortunately it wasn't high grade. Looking at her listings I can see that comic books are not the focus. I'm prolly going to send her a polite message to let her know that she should consider springing for the extra piece of cardboard.

 

Edit: Update. I sent her a polite message. She responded w/in a minute as follows:

 

"Thanks so very much.....sort of a little hesitant as to how much to protect....but I will do so!!!! Thanks very very much!~!!!"

 

Balance and faith in humanity restored. What a great reply

Had a similar recent transaction. New to selling comics. CGC holder was fairly scuffed up but the scuffs didn't show up in the pictures & the seller didn't mention it. I gave positive feedback & was satisfied because I got it for pennies on the dollar.

But I told him that he should mention scuffs on CGC holders in the future. He apologized, offered a refund (I told him no & that it was fine) & that he will keep that in mind in the future. Even thanked me for the helpful advice. Good seller.

Some stuff I've bought. Some stuff that came back from CGC recently but I didn't take pictures of yet. Thanks to everyone on the boards that I've done business with recently.

Dude. That's awesome. Great Doc Strange costume too!

Apparently Target sells them too in case you're partial.

Couple things I added in the past few days.

It was a birthday gift from my one roomie. I think she got it from ThinkGeek. I found them there either way... They have other lights other than Hulk too. Thor hammer, spider hand. Cap shield. Etc.

Lights

Great seller to do business with. I threw out a WTB thread & got a quick offer & a reasonable price on a good looking UXM 43 raw copy. And it got here lightning quick. Excellent dude!

That's really cool

I think that's what it was like for me too. I think that getting my own stuff slabbed was what pushed me into the addiction. I had that one for a few years. Then I picked up a couple that were similar in price to raw to fill gaps in my X-Men collection.

But then I got some of my own stuff graded on-site at a show last year. That's when it turned into something addicting. Then there was the wait for the couple I submitted later in the show. Then some stuff I dropped at another show. The wait for those was even worse.

And now, I'm sending 7 off for grading this week. That's going to feel like forever.

Exactly. It's why I avoided it for so long. I knew I was going to like the slabbed books too much & avoided even glancing at them. Now? Now I am constantly looking at what to slab next & what slabs I want. It's definitely addicting.

Best of luck! I know how you're feeling. In the past year, my collection of slabbed books went from the 1 (Astonishing X-Men 1 Variant CGC 9.8) that I had had for the past 10 years to about 25-30 slabbed books of varying grades that I have now.

That turned out very nice!

 

Thank you! I put in WAY too much time on it. It would have been cheaper (between labor, paint, primer, new knobs, etc) to just buy a new one, but she wanted to keep this one & I figured we could do something awesome with it. I didn't realize before stripping it that it was just cheap MDF, so I had to re-seal the now-stripped raw edges. But it was worth it. It's a cool original piece that I've never seen anyone else do before, so...

Sweet spaces

Thank you, sir! It's an early stage of the project. We are planning to re-paint the room. I found a great color mix that'll work amazing for the walls/ceiling/built-in storage.

I hope to have it to a presentable level by the spring.

Yes. I found a seller on e-bay that was selling them in a large enough size.

I initially was going to paint it on, but finding/getting printed a stencil big enough to do it was near impossible (since Kinkos won't print anything with a copyright on it anymore & the batman logo is obviously copyrighted). I had even painted the top yellow already in anticipation of laying the stencil & spraying black over/around it. Obviously, that didn't happen & I went for a sticker instead after stripping off most of the yellow paint.

It was a die-cut vinyl sticker that you peal the one side off of, lay it down, and then peal the other side off to leave the section that you want. I painted the whole dresser black and then laid the vinyl over it after everything was dry.

I need some better/newer pictures but we've kinda covered about 2/3 of the house in comic-themed decorations.

But here's pretty much everything. We have 1 room that is our designated nerd room & the rest are hallways & staircase walls & whatnot.

Landing & staircase outside the nerd room:

Our nerd room...

And the basement:

And a dresser that my girlfriend wanted me to re-finish for her. She's a huge batman junkie, so she wanted a batman themed dresser. So I did this for the bedroom:

I plan to re-do the room in the next few weeks. Moving furniture in the nerd room & painting as soon as the weather breaks. Because I think I need to add another filing cabinet & I'm going to be out of space if I put it next to the existing 3. So we'll be re-arraging it.

It's great to have 2 roomies & a girlfriend that all love comics. There's more stuff in the living room & front entry hall that I don't have pics of yet, but it's getting there. Slowly

Picked these up over the past few weeks.