Collector/ Dealer relationship

[Dale Roberts]

A friend of mine sent me this while I was in San Diego. He has been a solid customer of mine in the past, and has forrayed into selling this past year, setting up at MegaCon, NYCC, Motor City, Heroes and he will be at Chicago as well.

 

He is a pretty discerning collector, an attorney(and a nice guy.....Wow!), an entrepeneur of sorts, and he frequents this board, even though I don't think he ever posts..........

I thought some of you might enjoy this though....

 

 

Ever wonder why the collector always wants to be a dealer while the dealer

always wants to just get to the poker game where they can talk about nothing

but the NBA finals?

 

Its because of risk & cost & the meager rewards of small business ownership.

Read on true believer....

 

One risk a dealer takes is having someone put a gun in the dealer’s face

when the dealer goes to buy a collection because the seller thinks the

dealer has a pocket full of cash to buy the books.

 

Another risk is having the van, overloaded with books...heavy as the dickens

with paper product...go rolling off of the road into a crevasse in the

middle of the mountains at 3 am during a thunderstorm because the dealer is

in a hurry to get across the country to the con on time and the Starbucks

coffee wore off.

 

Another risk the dealer takes is buying books at the right price at a grade

that everyone can agree upon as being accurate (because we all know that

grading is an objective science...one simply scans the book into a grading

machine purchased at Big Lots right?) and then having those books that they

truly got for a fair price that should provide a serviceable margin if sold

sit there on the display rack unsold for years for no logical or discernable

reason.

 

Another risk the dealer takes is going into business in the first place,

which is the riskiest venture of all, instead of investing in no risk CD’s

(@ 5% return) or low risk bonds (slightly better than a CD) or high risk

stocks (@ 10% return if his broker isn’t a coke head). Of course since the

risk in business is the highest of anything a capitalist can do with their

hard earned cash (cash that took a lifetime of sweat equity and dues-paying

to accumulate) the dealer shoots for a return higher than 10%; which in turn

pisses everyone off.

 

Another risk the dealer takes is having a 6 year old kid bend his high grade

book back thus popping a staple while lifting it only 50% of the way out of

the box with one hand, rendering a $100 book a 50 cent book right before the

dealer’s eyes (and the indifferent parent’s eyes).

 

But a collector can only dream right? We all love comics right?

 

Add to that the cost of product (discussed above), the cost of buying a van

(thats a lot of $$ folks), huge costs of slabbing (& the risk of getting a

2.0 on a book you were sure was a 10 but finding out the centerfold was

Frankensteined), book bashing on the CGC seller’s forum, thread hijacking on

same, Wizard subscription cost, GPA subscription cost, packing materials

cost, time spent packing one hundred "one dollar book" lots for the mail,

time spent in line at the post office (thousands of hours), Diamond fees,

comiclink fees, Heritage fees, Doug Schmell fees, angry consigners, web

fees, repairs & maintenance on the van, the fickle marketplace (discussed

above), the shaky economy & price of gas, the slump in housing/real property

and the taxes on same, the cost of booth space (almost 1K for a 10' x 10'),

insurance on books, storage of books (huge), show prep (massive time

investment...grading & pricing & organizing), supplies (bags, boards, boxes,

tape...ain't cheap), insurance on: vehicle, life & health; hotels, meals,

time away from loved ones, the back breaking labor involved in loading a van

with 2,500 lbs of boxes (a process that takes 4 times to do one show),

speeding tickets, the impossibility of finding good books that will sell,

advertising, eBay & paypal fees, taxes, returns on books, customer

complaints, theft, tremendous competition, getting stuck in the back of the

con room next to the fumes-emitting General Lee & Adam West’s Batmobile,

negative feedback from a first time eBayer who doesn’t understand how one

negative can kill your business and leave your children starving on the side

of the road and who leaves it b/c his book came with only one backing board

and not two, as well as....

 

[Mike Bray]

true dat

[lizards2]

Wow - sounds like he's about got it covered.

 

One thing I never figured out was why the exorbitant table fees at comic conventions? Especially those with no seeming special offerings - no guests, no amenities, no nothing...., except a bunch of folks selling to each other? The high table fees seem to be a "tradition" of the comic con industry, as I know of plenty of other hobbies (rock shows, gun shows, craft shows) where the fees are really a lot less. Maybe we just really like to hose each other, which seems to be a common theme in the letter above.

[thirdgreenham]

[MK Ultra]

Grass is always greener?

 

When's the card game?

[gcstomp]

On the plus side:

Prepping a pile of funny books with bags, boards, and price labels is time consuming,and is a lot of work. But that work is a lot more fun than virtually any job that involves waking up early and putting on the tie and monkey suit and braving rush hour traffic so that you can get to the meeting with the dragon lady boss and get reamed out in front of all your back stabbing co workers for dropping the Del Monte account, which was really dropped due to errors on part of said sniveling baboon co workers.

Just a for instance of course. But big picture, doing what you want is worth a hell of a lot in trade off.

[Paratrooper]

On the plus side:

Prepping a pile of funny books with bags, boards, and price labels is time consuming,and is a lot of work. But that work is a lot more fun than virtually any job that involves waking up early and putting on the tie and monkey suit and braving rush hour traffic so that you can get to the meeting with the dragon lady boss and get reamed out in front of all your back stabbing co workers for dropping the Del Monte account, which was really dropped due to errors on part of said sniveling baboon co workers.

Just a for instance of course. But big picture, doing what you want is worth a hell of a lot in trade off.

 

Damn straight, give me the risks of a comic dealer anytime of the week. Rather risk those hazards than a fricken IED.

[Mac Man]

Well, you could save money by not subscribing to Wizard. Perfectly good waste of money there

[whomerjay]

So true.

 

In short, the math tells you being a true "dealer" is risky and unlikely to net decent dollars for your time. Most can't do the math because they fail to factor in many of the things you mention. Most look only at what they've sold and forget about the big $ they have in dead inventory they'll never sell. Many on here swear it's profitable but they discount all of their time because they love it.

 

A few really know what they're doing and make a reasonable (although I doubt huge) profit.

 

Despite all this negativity, there's something to be said for working at something you're passionate about, despite the poor return for your effort. Beats making big bucks at a job that's killing you.

[King_of_Batch-migration]

The Wizard is for laughs in order to stay sane. A must in any successful venture.

 

That's what I was saying over here except he went ahead and ran the tally.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1820323&page=0#Post1820323

 

I was going to pro-rate insurance but I didn't want to spend the time listing everything once I chose to open that Pandora's Box.

 

Would un-named collectors, dealers are worse, begrudge the man who got u ur dam comic his due? Show some lese majeste. It feels good and u can brag about how magnanimous u were to the guys at the club. And what DO you think Harley Yee takes home a yr.?

 

BTW, the debit side of balance sheet, above, makes being a "Dealer" (One who derives, his entire (only?) income) seem untenable: too many hurdles. But there are many who don't have those expenses. You can trim half off the top and cut corners on the rest. I know lots of life hacks that make it possible for me not to work a "real" job.

 

 

[Comicdey]

I take it the Con didn't go as planned?

[Foolkiller]

No offense, but but boo friggin' hoo.

 

I'm sorry but this is basically just whining. If he's an attorney who chose to go into dealing comics on the side but didn't investigate everything first then went into it, then he jumped in impulsively like many thinking it would just be "fun".

 

When dealers whine about all the work that goes into being a dealer, they are making the trade off that many small business owners make: Freedom and passion about what they do, rather than a job that they get paid out but don't really care for. As I'm sure FFB and Esquire can attest to, running a law practice is far more complicated and difficult than being a comic dealer. So is running your own accounting firm, your own graphic design business etc., etc. If any of these jobs came on and started whining about how tough it is out for them, I dare say there'd be little sympathy. Being a police man or a fireman or a teacher is far more difficult and demanding than comic dealer as well. While there's a fair amount of complaining that goes on in every line of work -- about certain aspects -- I'd be just as critical of that person who wanted to come on and whine about how "tough" it is for them too.

 

This is the job they chose. You've become a dealer because you love comics first. Quit telling us how hard it is, and use that energy to remind yourself why you do it.

 

I respect many dealers out there -- they are also not the ones whining about tough things are. The organized best dealers may complain in private, but are wise enough not to be trying to garner public sympathy for a job that has its own pitfalls but that many people would be thrilled to make a living off of doing something that they actually love.

[King_of_Batch-migration]

I forgot to ask.

 

I've hear of Chuckles' near-death van experience.

 

Who did the near-death cliff plunge experience occur to?

[comix4fun]

 

Damn straight, give me the risks of a comic dealer anytime of the week. Rather risk those hazards than a fricken IED.

 

 

I didn't know you weren't ready to have kids.....but at least you are taking precautions. (thumbs u

[OldGuy]

Yes, being in business for yourself is hard.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

Yes, being in business for yourself is hard.

 

Yes.

[King_of_Batch-migration]

Response to Foolkiller:

 

Is there a whining thread?

 

Is it human nature?

 

It's best done on blogs instead of in person.

 

SNL annoying Whiners.

 

Just responding to the seemingly infinite "B1tching & moaning about dealers" threads.

 

edit: I hope u guys don't misinterpret this post as being anti-dealer.

Dale's lawyer bud is legit. He's not B-ing & M- ing.

[Dale Roberts]

What a poor attitude... Pity you didn't take the time to read the beginning of the post, instead of just going off about it.

 

This guy sent this e-mail to me, he did not post it on the board to whine. It was his random thoughts about the endeavor he had undertaken.

 

And what is the difference between him " whining" about that, then all of the people that whine on here because someone is charging too much?

[gcstomp]

I dont see Dales thread as a person_without_enough_empathying and moaning thread, so much as a spotlight on the seemingly endless line of bloodsucking nibbles that take a bite out of profits, while still maintaining a sense of humor about the whole thing.

 

Maybe I am alone, but I like the glimpes at the insiders point of view on the circus freak show act known as the pro comic book dealer. (No offense Dale, I want to be you if I could only talk my wife into letting me become the comic gypsy, setting up at shows from Kalamazoo to Timbukto.)

[King_of_Batch-migration]

". . . seemingly endless line of bloodsucking nibbles . . ."

 

Nice prose. No. Really. I'm not being sarcastic.

 

Except I'd edit it to ". . . seemingly endless line of bloodsucking nickel & dimers . . ."

 

or

 

Death By A Thousand Cuts

 

or

Nibbled To Death By Ducks

 

Hey, the dealer's profit margin in most(?) deals is slim as it is. It's ONLY possible to maintain black ink by doing a very large share of deals often enough in bulk.