The Less Blob

$100,000 books are kind of hard to come by. But I bet this happened a bit more when some of today's $100K books were $2-3K books like 20-30 years ago. I bought a coverless, first page missing, JIM 83 from a homeless guy (he lived in a van) who sold books and stuff from a table near my house for 50 cents along with some other early SA coverless books (the JIM 83 was the best of the group). Made me wonder what had been cherry picked before I got there because the guy said he had sold a bunch already.

I wish a lot of people dead. Nobody here though.

Clearly not talking about politics here. Not US politics. Maybe comic book politics.

In the comic books sometimes they become President, like when Lex Luthor became President. That's all I'm saying.

But sometimes they become President. (Not of the USA, of course, some other hypothetical country.)

You take them to a dealer and pay for an appraisal with the understanding that you will not be selling to them. You take them to a reputable auction house and they will figure out a ballpark for them. There are lots of ways of limit how skrewed over you get.

Sales tax is irritating, but this is the system we have. Theoretically lower taxes elsewhere because of it. But paying sales tax on shipping is REALLY irritating. With that said, if you are selling as a business, reporting, etc., shouldn't you be exempted from sales tax because you will be charging it later? Is There a mechanism for registering that status with ebay or getting the taxes paid refunded?

I guess a line may be crossed if you affirmatively state that the $50,000 collection is only worth $20 when you know otherwise. Then again, none of us owe a seller a fiduciary responsibility. It's tricky. I should probably know the law on this. As a lawyer I would keep my mouth shut as much as possible and make no statements like that. Don't want an ethics complaint later.

My friend who ran a shop told me why he was such a lowballer.... When his shop was newer he used to pay better. He sold cards and comics. One day a guy walks in with 5 copies of a ted Williams rookie card to sell. Friend actually offers a reasonable % of FMV because he figures the guy has a clue and he really wants the cards (this is like 30 years ago)... So a few hundred each or whatever. The guy freaks out and walks out. He figured they were worth $20 off something. Getting a real offer made him think he was getting ripped off. He learned his lesson after that: start with an extreme lowball and work upward.

Ebay has been around for 20 years. There Is no reason to be angry at a shop trying to get a windfall. Few are making any real money overall anymore. A $500 profit on an ASM 129 is wiped out by $2500 in overhead in a slow sales month. I am guessing this was pre-ebay. Otoh, did they not gave a wizard or priceguide handy?

Yeah? My point is that Scooby 1 is cool and all, but was post-tv cartoon.

I was thinking the same thing. It is hard to gauge "market" on stuff like that, but I guess 2-4x any recent comparable recent sale might make it qualify as overpriced.

All this con talk is getting me antsy. Haven't been to one since 2017. Not that it is such a great buying con, but I really hope my free pass connection for NYCC has some juice this year (he missed last year) and I hope I'm not broke in October. I know, I should probably just go to a small NJ show. Probably better buying opportunities.

I have a bunch of Raphel 1s that could definitely use a press. Dunno where it might get them, but they all got bent at the same spot because they were too big and popped out above all the other books. I did not mind getting them 3 for $2 though. Sell them for $35-$45 every time I put one up. I can't believe my shop didn't know what they were.

If sales tax must be collected I am thrilled that ebay is doing the legwork. Dumb question: Is ebay collecting for within state sales (in my case selling to a fellow new Yorker?). I really don't want to have to do the paperwork for 7 or 8 sales a year.

Why? I've done fine. Have been gainfully employed for 23 years. I lived cheap and paid off my loans in less than 3 years.

Law school is what blew me up, even in the early 90s. I got out of college owing like $10K.

Right now I am thinking about how to get back the $100,000 I spent paying off my student loans and have those loans reinstated. Of course, compounded interest for the last 20 years might be a brute, but it's all going away. yay!

I usually charge to listen. My rate is $700 an hour.

How about a copy of Thor 339?

Thing is I doubt it was broken out in guide until recently. It really was a nothing book. Arguably not even the 1st app. Eternals 1 and some others, people knew they were firsts and guide even claimed they were worth a few bucks, but there was no market. Moon knight 1 and rom 1 also had long dead stretches in $1-2 boxes.

Eternals 1. Fished nice copies out of dollar boxes for years. In quantity.

I bought at least 10 9.0-9.2 copies from joe Koch for $9.99 a pop circa 2004 the book was so dead. He rarely got more than the starting bid. He had a ton of them. I gave up on trying to sell them about 6-7 years ago. Could not get $24.99 starting bids despite being around $100 in guide.

The comic book came out after the cartoon though? I found this interesting: In 1968, parent-run organizations, particularly Action for Children's Television (ACT), began protesting what they perceived as excessive violence in Saturday-morning cartoons.[4] Most of these shows were Hanna-Barbera action cartoons such as Space Ghost, The Herculoids and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and virtually all of them were canceled by 1969 because of pressure from the parent groups.[5] Members of these watchgroups served as advisers to Hanna-Barbera and other animation studios to ensure that new programs would be safe for children. ..... So, basically, the Archie Cartoon, Josey & the pussycats and Scooby doo came out because space ghost, etc. were cancelled for being "too violent"

Offer what you think is fair. Maybe a bit less so that you can move up a little. You are in the $ ballpark where negotiation is assumed.