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slg343
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Posts posted by slg343
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I am downsizing and would give up most of my collection for high grade Hulk 1.
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8 minutes ago, blazingbob said:
When it comes to CGC books 9 times out of 10 the customer will check GPA.
When it comes to raw books they generally already have a price in mind on what they want to pay for it. I generally don't have a lot of customers look at a raw book and check out the price on ebay. If we are far apart on price and they won't make an offer I ask what they are willing to spend. Then I will go to my database and see what cost I have into the book, if I can do it I will, if I can't I won't. Same when I am processing bids on my website.
I am not sure how I can help customers who are uncomfortable making offers. I cannot guess where their "price they will pay expectation" comes from unless they tell me.
This is a difficult spot for you. If a book sells normally for 800 and you price at 1k I just thing well no need to negotiate against myself and I love on. If you price at $800 then you set yourself up for low balls. Your job definetly isn't easy.
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28 minutes ago, october said:
Some context would be also helpful.
Saying "people look up keys on eBay" is a pretty broad generalization. From what I have seen, keys like ASM 300, XM 266, NM 98, etc are much more price sensitive than harder to find, older books. People do show up at cons, look at every decent ASM 300, lump them all together in their heads, then buy the cheapest one after checking eBay for comparables. I don't think buyers are following the same process for a fine range Action 242, or a F/VF Batman 121, or a VF Sgt. Fury 1. Potentially very different pools of buyers with very different habits.
I know that the way I approach buying an ASM 300 and the way I approach buying a high grade golden age classic cover have little to nothing in common.
True for raw books. CGC graded books I am 100% checking ebay first.
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2 hours ago, blazingbob said:
Sorry I'm still trying to wrap myself around the new "Ebay pricing model" for my inventory. Being ebay sellers are also "people" I would wonder how they come up with their "prices". Or is the first seller of that book in that grade the "expert"?
My guess would be auction sales, list price that the book sits at for x amount of time so reduced ECT ECT. As a buyer you quickly get an idea of what the cost will be to obtain and item from looking at sold listings. Do some sellers under price the market yes ( I am one of them because it is just hobby to me). The same as a well respected dealer can get over market prices. But think don't understand ebay pricing model is a silly stance.
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19 minutes ago, 1Cool said:
Great question. I find people will know there is 4 nice copies of a book (lets say X-Men 141) up for sale between $50 - $65. They will want it for $45 since the lowest price is $50 so they need 10% under that price. Never mind the actual grade of the $50 copy compared to the $65 copy but all of them are nice enough to be considered high grade so in their mind that is the price point for all the nice X-Men 141 at a show.
People can argue all they like but at the end of the day this nails how people think. You don't need to like and you can fight it to failure or you can find a way to adjust and profit.
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54 minutes ago, mysterio said:
Question to @1Cool and others who expect a discount to eBay at cons. Why would you expect dealers to take a discount to FMV after hauling books across the county for you to see? I guarantee that it’s cheaper and easier for them to sell on eBay, so why expect dealers to work harder for less money? You expect less risk, more choice, AND a discount?
That sense of entitlement seems to me to be part of the recipe that ends comic cons as we know/want them.
This is not entitlement it is marketing 101. Consumers don't care what it cost a seller to make something only what the opportunity cost is to them. So the argument that dealers work harder is moot. The comicbook is the comicbook regardless of how it arrives in the consumers hands.
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20 hours ago, blazingbob said:
So both of you use a business model where you trust the raw grading from Ebay. Which from the many Ebay posts over the years I find is not always very accurate. So if your expecting me to look up raw books on ebay from sellers I don't know to price my books I'm not sure I'm the guy you would buy from. My experience from selling raw books on ebay was that it was a complete waste of time. All I did was pay for the sellers who couldn't grade because if I listed a book a NM-/9.2 raw on ebay I saw offers of VF. Regardless of the book. Besides I have a website with hosting costs of less then a penny versus ebay which nickels and dimes the seller to death.
Also a pet peeve of mine is when a seller using number system like 9.2 is there a refund if a third party IE disagrees. Just use range like NM-
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20 hours ago, blazingbob said:
So both of you use a business model where you trust the raw grading from Ebay. Which from the many Ebay posts over the years I find is not always very accurate. So if your expecting me to look up raw books on ebay from sellers I don't know to price my books I'm not sure I'm the guy you would buy from. My experience from selling raw books on ebay was that it was a complete waste of time. All I did was pay for the sellers who couldn't grade because if I listed a book a NM-/9.2 raw on ebay I saw offers of VF. Regardless of the book. Besides I have a website with hosting costs of less then a penny versus ebay which nickels and dimes the seller to death.
As I stated I am not your target market. Also books at cons are just as over graded as ebay. But with ebay I can find a flaw later and return it. So yes I would expect a bigger discount for something I need a make a quick no returns allowed judgement. With that said what is the excuse for being higher on CGC books?
There are just unlimited markets to buy from now. Facebook, Instagram, here that there is never a reason to over pay. It has becomes a buyers market.
I certainly wish dealers the beston thier sales because I love the hobby but it just isn't for me. I don't want to haggle and just want the best price for the book.
- grebal and WoWitHurts
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5 minutes ago, blazingbob said:
I agree, why would you go to a con if you can buy 9.6/9.8 books for less then the cost of grading them. Which is the general theme of this thread, no? As dealers at shows I don't work off osmosis or Vulcan mind melds so how would we know what the "buyers expectation" is if they don't tell us? Yours is that online buying doesn't make it worth going to a show. And if you do go sellers better have something priced right that interests you.
This is why I gave up on all but the hardest to find books. If I am at a con and to make this easy a graded book is $700 at the con but I can click a button while standing at the booth and buy it for $500 I will just keep walking. And in truth this is almost always the case lately. I understand it from a dealer perspective, sell a NM98 9.8 for 1k and snag some people that don't shop around but the people responding on this board are more informed. I realized that I am not the target market for Con dealers and now just enjoy getting art commissions which at least puts money in the hands of the artist. In order for me to become a customer, I would need prices about 15% under the bay otherwise it is just easier to have it shipped to the house with buyer protection. Just my 2 cents.
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Working on every cover with Bullseye but have slowed down lately. Have most of the original DD run in CGC 9.6 9.8. Now he is so popular I have stopped at just the older titles.
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3 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:
It is like a game of hot potato. If you bought it from your LCS (as per your example), you should be made whole by the LCS if they are reputable. They can pursue the person who sold to them and the chain would continue until you get to the thief -- who likely spent the money on something and is broke/can't repay that first person they sold to.
This is the correct answer in almost every situation. Except, Pawnshops in many states have lobbied well enough to avoid being the one holding the bag.
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I have started moving towards having the back signed on any expensive books. I still have the signature without interfering with the art on the front. And it is mostly an encapsulated memory for me.
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16 hours ago, TheFifthHorseman said:
I'm a bit of both of say. I love my GA and nobody will pry that stuff from my cold lifeless fingers.
But flipping books is quite...exhilirating. I've lost a little bit and have made a little bit flipping moderns and variants. Most of the time I break even.
I have pretty good taste so most of the covers I pick out do well. But that's just it - moderns are about the C O V E R S. Treat them like bartering chips...trading cards.
And dump 'em on someone else
Edit: to add, I'd say you can expect that the QUALITY of your listing and the way you market yourself will affect the final value of a sale on eBay- probably by about 10-15% at least. I see people taking the most ridiculous pictures and writing the worst headlines.
They are your competition and if you can set yourself apart from them and stay ahead of the curve you can make some $$$
I am the guy with crappy Ebay headlines lol. And I certainly lose about 10% to maybe 30% over more well written auctions with patients. Although if I am hitting Ebay then it was my last resort to offload lots. Everything else I sell under ebay prices outside of ebay.
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I think I can answer the original question with my personal experience. I am a non speculator that became a speculator by default because I really enjoy buying lots from people and digging into comic books. I love the sorting, looking up prices ect. With that said I got to a point where I decided I wanted a smaller collection that was higher end items in a clean space. So to balance the two joys I still buy lots but I buy them to sell and will often hold some items I.E. my handful of NM87 until I think its a good time to sell and I will offload the rest below value till a break even on the lot. I enjoy it and have gotten some great finds.
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I like to complete a collection and then upgrade it as I go. Just completed Dark knight returns in 9.8 and finishing up DD 1-10 and once I do I will work towards having them all at 7.0 or 8.0
Next up is Hulk 1-6
To do this I have started selling off some of the other lesser keys and general why did I buy this slabs.
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21 hours ago, Gaard said:
Is it standard to get verified immediately when using the online form? I just sent a 2 book value submission a couple of days ago and it just today was entered into the system ... as verified. The previous value submissions all took about 2 months to get verified, but this was the first time I used the online form.
Yes I believe they just scan the form. Then they do an actual check when it gets to grading, so any mistakes on the senders part will delay the process. I forgot to add a book to the list once. Delayed me.
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When I lived in south Florida in my 20s we just went to the local bar with cash and they would shut the doors before it kicked off.
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On 8/26/2017 at 8:56 AM, Bird said:
I just packed up from a moderately successful sale in the driveway. It was a good test run for selling at Pug's show in Old Bridge tomorrow. I sold 55 comics for $326. That maintains the desired % over investment cost that I am pursuing, the exact number which I will keep to myself for now. I am thinking about how I can approach the other dealers best about trading quantity for quality. I would love to spend all day trading 100 $2 books for one slab at a time, or a whole box or two for one or two comics, or $500 in stock for 2 or 3 books...that type of thing. We'll see how the guys in the room feel about my books I guess.
Some fun fun books in the last batch that I got last night. 1500 more books, What If and Longshot miniseries and stuff like that. Nothing WOW but fun groovy comics.
edited to add that I have now sold 789 books, give or take a few, and appear to have used those sales to pay for 49.8% of the collection. That includes todays yard sale but hopefully tomorrow's small convention can get me closer to paying it off. But I am pleased that I was able to use the collection itself to essentially buy half of it and only pay out half myself in actual money money. I have sold some minor keys but am focusing on the runs and such for now. I have 5 groovy books coming in the mail now from cgc and my sales to date include 6 books from the collection that I slabbed and sold here. ASM 361 was 9.8 and that was a sweet sale. (Thanks again to the buyer!)
I do this myself trading $1 books for higher dollar books but its closer to a long box of $1-5 books for $100-150 book. I couldn't image the glory I would have if I landed someone that would make a straight 1-1 value trade. But the time saved is worth the loss in value to me.
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On 8/23/2017 at 10:32 PM, Comicdey said:
so another $40 randomly spend
all the richies are 8.0-9.4 range
I just sold 350 of these dating back to maybe issue 50 for $400 shipped. Wish I had seen this first I would of sent you PM.
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On 8/9/2017 at 6:45 PM, greggy said:
Plan to offload any of punisher 9.8?
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On 4/22/2017 at 11:21 AM, batman_fan said:
When I was in college I use to advertise buying old comics. I had several good scores but I got the call we all dream of, a very old lady with old comics. I made an appointment to come and see the collection, made sure I pulled together all the cash I could and went to see them. Rang the door bell of this well kept old home and score, a woman probably about 70 answered the door. She didn't let me in but showed me the books she had, two books, a later issue gold key Star Trek and I think a copy of Marvel Super Heroes. Both were beat to death. I politely told her they were nice but unfortunately I already had both issues. I think she was a little disappointed but not angry. I have taken the approach of not trying to educate people but politely decline.
I picked up one collection in New Mexico that the owner would not let me leave without buying. It was all 80s and 90s stuff in decent shape but nothing to get super excited about. I told him he didn't have anything I was interested in and he kept saying "look again". I finally gave him $20 for about 400 books (3 short boxes).
This here works. Don't try to educate it comes across different than you intend it to. Just politely declined with no reason of why. Once you roll on the mansplaining it's all down hill.
Closed
in Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Only
Posted
I will take it
Going to slab this. Might have fijnally found one the wife will like.