W16227

look at the math again- the way you are running your business - they are selling for a loss the MAJORITY OF THE TIME 90% of your hype deals end up with you losing money 90% in school - this would be an A- ....... in losing money Hype books sell - so do others. Ebay --- sales of thousands of comics every day. a couple of books I sold in the last week - green lantern 29 VG 1st etch a sketch guy batman 161 GD the 15 1/2th appearance of bat mite.... X Men 25 FN/VF el tigre baby!!!!!! None of these books sets the world on fire. Nothing special. But they all sold.

Take current top GPA --- offer it to Gabe at 20% more. Think I figured out how this works....... we are in bizarro - world

Yea --- he keeps using his own form of logic to justify the purchases--- just really want to state simply to - that the budget is shot if he does not follow it. I used to see the same behavior from poker playing buddies - who kept playing over their heads. I used to play online a lot- knew a bunch of people who kept trying to move up in buy-ins --- to "get back" losses quicker. All kinds of lame justifications used to justify the poor moves. Gabe somehow thinks he has to jump on every movie bandwagon ( or hint of one) or he will fail. He gets panicky. Feels he has to have the book no matter what, then pays OVER FMV for it. The real truth is that modeling a business after someone like ft88 can result in steady cash - and the ability to build a larger inventory of books. Then when something hits - you might already have the book. Or at least - you have built knowledge and contacts that might lead you to reasonable priced ones to flip.

how do you know the sold SW1 was a 5.0/5.5

Was the Darth Vader #3 only $11, or has that gone out the window already? I haven't been hanging on every post lately, so maybe that has changed... Nope that's the one I bought for 75 dollars but I sold my star wars 1 for the exact price. So the pretzel logic is that it's okay to spend over your weekly budget as long as the purchase is funded by a recent sale? No it's not pretzel logic, one of my other problems I've had is buying too much and not selling enough. I will still keep to the budget but I will make a exception if I sell something I can buy something and if I don't sell anything then I don't buy anything but used the money I've saved up. that's called not keeping to a budget - the budget is there for you to make low risk decisions and LEARN not make exceptions when you think paying above GPA is a good idea.......

- I sense a pattern here....

its a good addiction...run with it! I've always told myself that comics were preferable to heroin or cocaine. I've not been able to find any hard evidence to support my thinking though so I'm soliciting expert opinion. the only thing I can see wrong with this ---- is that you are asking a dealer of said addiction for advice,,,,,,,,

man - forgot to add in that you should not respond to my post - but since you did - The JLA cover and consignment - I am establishing that you have been trying to make money with comics for more than the 2 1/2 years you claim. You started trying to make $$$ in this game right around the time I did. The difference - I researched a LOT and used what I learned. Which one of us is making $$ and which one is still losing on recent deals? TEC grading - book was listed as a 2.0/2.5 with no staple pull - now listed at same grade with FC detached at one staple - might think that 2.0 is more appropriate? Added creases and such might not further degrade - but a popped staple is a major flaw that was not on the book to begin with. Comic Con - you are trying to be a comic book dealer - went to a con - and do not think it is an expense? I was not able to go to WW Chicago - but I made it to the collectors dinner. This is networking with other dealers and can be considered a business expense. I will probably not include it in the year end taxes for various reasons - but if I had gone to wizard world you can be sure that I would have it listed as an expense. Your computer blew up - did you buy a new one or get the other one fixed? part of this is an expense for a business. Things like the camera - if you already had it - then great not really an expense - but having to replace it? - yep. still waiting for a pic of "janet" in a bikini

Some quick thoughts - ______________________________________ You have been attempting to do this for more than 2 1/2 years - 2 1/2 years ago you were asking for a repro cover for the JLA 1 you purchased. This was after the whole - who will consign things for me time - as well as the "do I need to bag and board comics for sale" threads..... In reality - not like this is years - or makes much difference in the story - but attention to detail is what makes that extra $$$$$$$. _____________________________________ Resist the urge to answer many posts. In some cases you are only feeding trolls - in others, you are answering questions 25 times. No mater what - you re scrambling yourself up more if you are trying to give everyone an answer. _______________________________________ See above - you have answered the question of how you are accounting for items like shipping several times. If the person consistently asks - send them the link to your last post about it. ______________________________________ Expenses - you probably are in the ballpark with some - probably well off with others. Example - your computer blew up. You need a computer to do this job. You have to buy a new computer - so you will need to think of a fair % to use for an expense and this goes against profits. Same for scanner. Camera. Blacklight. GPA. Overstreet. The tools of the trade. Comic Con - did you not attend one? - if your intentions were business related at all - this counts against profit. Travel - how many times have you taken the bus for comics? Any credit card interest? So may little leaks that can crush you. _______________________________________ Grading One example you gave of a book that was not selling at a reasonable cost - you stated the board graded. Your TEC - I had to point out to you at least 2x that you had listed 4 separate grades for the book before you reduced that to 2. These are the kind of issues that lead people to believe you are not that good a grader. No idea how to fix them other than really learning and showing you know how to grade. I read your new TEC description- do you really think it is the same grade as before ? ________________________________________ You keep taking about getting scammed Being scammed is the failure mode - part of the result. You were scammed/lost money, The root cause (what caused the failure) - is POOR DECISION MAKING. This is a pattern we still see - with the latest ASM issue. ________________________________________________________ The budget you are on is a good thing - bit stop any buying for the time being to identify a real plan for the money - while learning how to sell using your existing stock. I have you a strategy a long time ago for the IG 1 books - same thing applies but with smaller numbers. Get 2 on the market now - over the next year as the movie builds add more. There is no reason to wait and try to sell all at once. _______________________________________

following this thread for so long -- so hard to leave - Gabe definately needs more accounting skills - but I think I can translate - Total Comics Bought $11,048.55 Total Comics sold $10,424.16 Inventory $1448 Loss $624.39 translates to ---- Total cost of comics sold $11,048.55 (may not include all expenses or COGS - but most likely ebay fees, paypal fees, shipping costs) Revenue from comics sold $10,424.16 (the total price the books sold for - hopefully calculated before the fees) Inventory $1448 (the price paid for the remaining books on hand - most likely underwater on a lot of them) Loss $624.39 is- 11048 minus 10424

eh - just like his rush to buy things - he is posting the accounting too quickly - he is probably taking into account buy price - sell price - maybe even fees.... but he is most likely leaving out a lot of stuff - First of all you're going to have to grease the local politicians for the sudden zoning problems that always come up. Then there's the kickbacks to the carpenters, and if you plan on using any cement in this building I'm sure the teamsters would like to have a little chat with ya, and that'll cost ya. Oh and don't forget a little something for the building inspectors. Then there's long term costs such as waste disposal. I don't know if you're familiar with who runs that business but I assure you it's not the boyscouts.

holy I go away for a little bit and things just go I need the last hour of my life back I might have missed it - but did anyone ask for Janet to pose in a bikini yet?

+ ugh - they did not know how - or said that the package was not compliant ( like a media mail thing)....

Might want go read your user agreement..... you are not allowed to advertise on their page - then offer to do a deal elsewhere for less. Why would they? This is unethical at the very least - and you would be cheating ebay. Not a person, but a very large entity that could pretty quickly shut you out of one of the best "lower end" marketplaces out there at the moment,. Having it listed in multiple places - as long as it does not violate the rules of the location - go for it. But using one site to advertise sales for another site or transaction type? Seriously - this is the kind of activity you should know NOT to do.

ebay kind of frowns on that sort of thing...... You need to decide what to do with the book. If you do not care when it sells - put whatever price you want for it and place is on ebay - you can then let it sit until the market catches up with you price. If you want to move it right away - you need to listen. 1cool gave you some great advice - and you used your incorrect logic to say why you needed to list it for more. He is much more knowledgeable than you with respect to ebay pricing and what books actually sell for there. Yes - everyone wants to maximize their sales price - but you have to know what a realistic number will be for sales - THEN calculate backward after the sale to see what the profit or loss will be.

more from the digging... probably 2 long boxes more here - not even going to unearth the others at the moment....

I've tried that a couple of times and ran into a few problems - If it's online shipping must be cost effective since I usually buy from the states - I find something on kijiji people want me to drive for it and they want top dollar not listening to the fact that I can't buy it at that much - I found a couple good comics at a shop before and he took out of my hands and said he couldn't sell it for that price because "They're hot" and I knew that of course but it's his fault that he messed up. I have done that a handful of times and I had great results in most cases but at lot of the times it's misses So I'll list a couple examples of little comics I made a profit on. Archie comics bought for 25 sold for 100 ASM 101 Bought for 55 sold for 75 Free comics got for free sold for 18 bucks IM 305 Bought for 7 sold for 12 X-Factor 5,6,15,18, 23,24 bought for cover price and sold for a total of 135 FF 67 Bought for 8 bucks sold for 15 Strange adventures 180 bought for 23 sold for 55 For those that are going to ask yes this was all calculated after fees and shipping now list all of the losses...... look at the list - so many low purchase books with flipping potential..... FOCUS ON THESE LOW COST HIGH % RETURN BOOKS

Berkeley Breathed?? ----

keep finding decent little pockets as I run through the boxes.... nothing spectacular - but lots of $5 and $10 books

Stop trying to lowball him Actually if he's not in too much of a hurry, he could just wait until the first real punisher trailer on Netflix then throw it up. I don't think the comic will get cheaper, but the OP could become more 'experienced' by then. I guess I'll do something to that degree and the comic has gotten cheaper according to recent sales of gpa but not by a large amount Which GPA are you looking at? This book has lots of sales - so you can easily see trends. When you have trends - the averages and trends are decent tools. Individual sales - can vary up or down to average for many reasons - like that staple tear. Book is trending upward - but depending on fees and shipping and such - you will not break even any time soon.

Looks like some searching and sorting ahead for you. Let us know what you find! those big finds are rough - the one I picked up ( 40+ longboxes) --- still hunting. Think I sold off like 1000 of them at the show in the $2 bins - but still a ton of work. fun work, though..... no other big keys unearthed - but some nice hits...

I wish it would come back a 9.2 but I don't see that happening. get the blinders off man the staple tear is a HUGE pressing risk far more likely it downgrades - realize this your best bet is to leave it as is sell it for a loss - or hold it and sell for hopefully less of a loss in a year