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Any Dealer Reports from WW Chicago?

Started by Foolkiller,

41 posts in this topic

Sharkey

Sharkey

Posted
Posted

My buddy Razor and I split a booth in the far west end, one booth away from artists alley. We were sandwiched between a toy booth and a manga video seller. I will let Razor comment about his sales. For me, it was a so-so show. I've sold more in the past, but I had better inventory at the time. At this show I was just trying to move remnants of a couple collections I bought in the past couple years and put a few prehero books up for sale.

 

This time I had some HG pre-hero wall books and some "hot" books like IM 128, ASM 252, stuff like that. Not a lot of new books. I had Silver and Bronze Marvel and DC mostly low to mid grade, in my long boxes, many of them priced between $1 and $5.

 

Preview night I did about $200. Friday I did about $200. Saturday maybe $100 at best, tons of people but most were looking for specific stuff. Then Sunday I did about $600-$700. So the show ended ok, but not great.

 

The real value, as others put it, was having the opportunity to hang out and talk to friends, people watch, and take pictures for my Forum Con report! lol

 

A few significant sales:

TOS 9 CGC 7.5

ASM 252 VF-

IM 128 VF/NM

Famous Funnies 148 CGC 8.0

Zap 0 (2nd print) VF

Zap 5 1st print VF+

Felix the Cat (Ballentine paperbacks)

Misc mid-grade ASM and Iron Mans priced at $1 to $5

Thor V2: 1-24

Thor V1 161, 162, and 168 (Galactus issues)

Daredevil 158 VGF

Daredevil 15 VF

 

 

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blazingbob

blazingbob

Posted
Posted

If other dealers agree feel free to comment.

 

It used to be that whatever show went first did better sales wise. Which meant that if San Diego was the first show, Chicago sales suffered. For me that was true up until 2 years ago. San Diego has come first and yet I continue to have very very good Chicago shows.

 

From a convention and location standpoint Chicago is a bit of a comedown from San Diego. You just can't help it. San Diego makes you feel better about doing the show even though you are exhausted. The hall is nicer, the room isn't as dark and the booths are more professional looking. I hate to say it but putting a curtain on the table and not stuffing something into every inch imaginable actually makes a BIG difference when you are walking around the room.

 

I did some great selling as well as some great buying. As usual the "Reigning King of first in/first out" got a lot of great buys. I got to hear Wes tell me about a guy giving him a hard time when he was looking through boxes. I laughed and told him that was the same guy I almost got into a fight with at last years show.

 

Did some nice trades with a few customers and actually had some nice Golden Age books walk up to the booth for a change.

 

The same hot books in San Diego were the same ones asked for in Chicago. The only difference in Chicago was that I sold more CGC books out of the boxes on the tables. In San Diego I sold more CGC wall books.

 

Revised this a bit

Lastly, I am fast coming to the conclusion that most Silver/Bronze age raw wall books just take up space. Unless they are keys or hot issues I would do better charging for taking pictures of them.

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
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Posted

I think the last comment is very interesting, especially since guys like Ted VanLiew and Al Stoltz only have raw wall books (or a very few slabs). Dale Roberts I believe puts almost all raw books up as well, despite having a relatively large CGC inventory. The problem with most people looking for HG these days is that the price differential for what kind of confidence they can have in a book raw that is selling for the same price, or almost the same price, slabbed. Of course, the other issue is whether people have confidence in their ability to grade accurately and spot restoration. These days, when spending thousands of dollars, I think many high end collectors simply believe that CGC is the best insurance policy they have, albeit an imperfect one.

 

I've heard many dealers say they had good buying shows and that sales were mixed. Next year, I may make San Diego instead of Chicago... and I still believe that while Chicago is a great show and possibly more fun for many collectors, SD brings a lot of west coast dealers who seem to be the ones unearthing newer collections these days. The allure of unveiling a new collection at the largest show still seems to have an appeal (i.e. the Marin County collection from this year).

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blazingbob

blazingbob

Posted
Posted

I'll say it again.

 

If CGC was grading to most dealers standards "the collective we" should be able to walk around the room and buy raw books. Obviously, that is not the case and that's why there is still a lot of raw books up on dealers walls for sale. Mine included.

 

Remember, we all suffer "blind as a bat" when selling and "eagle eyes" when buying.

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MCMiles

MCMiles

Posted
Posted
I'll say it again.

 

If CGC was grading to most dealers standards "the collective we" should be able to walk around the room and buy raw books. Obviously, that is not the case and that's why there is still a lot of raw books up on dealers walls for sale. Mine included.

 

Remember, we all suffer "blind as a bat" when selling and "eagle eyes" when buying.

 

(thumbs u So true!

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walkingdeadite2-migration

walkingdeadite2-migration

Posted
Posted

Con report from another small dealer:

 

We have been setting up at WWC several years now.

 

This was our 2nd best show!

 

We just bought a large Marvel collection the week before the show and processed around 10 boxes of it. The keys of this new product flew out to the dealers before the show even opened.

 

Sales included:

 

Amazing Spider-Man #129

Avengers 2, 4 (a nice #11 was stolen)

Iron Man #1, 55

Fantastic Four 12, 112

Daredevil 2

Defenders 1, 10

Iron Fist 14

Ghost Rider 1

Incredible Hulk 102

Hero For Hire 1

JIM/Thor 85, 112

Sgt Fury 1, 13

Silver Surfer 1

TTA 35

X-Men 5, GS 1

Marvel Spotlight 5

Tomb of Dracula 10

Deadpool (many including tough to find one-shots)

Ultimate Spider-Man 1, 5, 104 retalier variant

 

Other sales for the weekend included:

 

Around 8-10 boxes of 50 cent comics

Between 75-100 collectible paperbacks

15-20 movie posters

150-200 men's mags

Lots of half guide SA & BA comics

Several hard to find graphic novels/hardbacks

Misc toys & non-sports cards

 

Basically.....A little of everthing sold.

 

Sat seemed a little slow this year with Fri and Sun being the busiest days. Sun was much busier than in previous years!

 

Lots of good deals to be had around the room but I had to stay at the table most of the time. I did find a VG Valor #1 EC (Wood-c) for $1 on Sun when I went past a booth that marked all comics at the booth a buck. Found a few other nice ones too!

 

Too tired to think of anything else right now.....

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HouseofComics.Com

HouseofComics.Com

Posted
Posted

Nice report, walkingdeadite. Sorry to hear about your Avengers 11.

 

It seems that a lot of dealers really rely on the dollar books (or fifty cents in your case) to help keep the money coming in. I know a lot of people think of those books as paying the booth fee and then the profits are from the nice books. 8 boxes adds up to some real bucks. My only question is how many boxes does one have to bring and display to sell enough to cover the booth. I've seen Heroes at Wondercon devoting two tables (one corner booth) to dollar books and having half of them gone by late Saturday.

 

Marc

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arexcrooke

arexcrooke

Posted
Posted
Con report from another small dealer:

 

We have been setting up at WWC several years now.

 

This was our 2nd best show!

 

We just bought a large Marvel collection the week before the show and processed around 10 boxes of it. The keys of this new product flew out to the dealers before the show even opened.

 

Sales included:

 

Amazing Spider-Man #129

Avengers 2, 4 (a nice #11 was stolen)

Iron Man #1, 55

Fantastic Four 12, 112

Daredevil 2

Defenders 1, 10

Iron Fist 14

Ghost Rider 1

Incredible Hulk 102

Hero For Hire 1

JIM/Thor 85, 112

Sgt Fury 1, 13

Silver Surfer 1

TTA 35

X-Men 5, GS 1

Marvel Spotlight 5

Tomb of Dracula 10

Deadpool (many including tough to find one-shots)

Ultimate Spider-Man 1, 5, 104 retalier variant

 

Other sales for the weekend included:

 

Around 8-10 boxes of 50 cent comics

Between 75-100 collectible paperbacks

15-20 movie posters

150-200 men's mags

Lots of half guide SA & BA comics

Several hard to find graphic novels/hardbacks

Misc toys & non-sports cards

 

Basically.....A little of everthing sold.

 

Sat seemed a little slow this year with Fri and Sun being the busiest days. Sun was much busier than in previous years!

 

Lots of good deals to be had around the room but I had to stay at the table most of the time. I did find a VG Valor #1 EC (Wood-c) for $1 on Sun when I went past a booth that marked all comics at the booth a buck. Found a few other nice ones too!

 

Too tired to think of anything else right now.....

where were you set up at? What was your name on the booth?

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