How not to flip books

[drewincanada]

On June 19th he buys Avengers #4 and a coverless #1 together in a single Ebay auction. Total cost: $147.

 

What he bought, Round 1

 

On July 1st he sells the Avengers #4 for $81:

 

What he sold, Round 1, Part 1

 

And then on July 22nd he sells the coverless Avengers #1 for $21:

 

What he sold, Round 1, Part 2

 

Deduct the Ebay and Paypal fees, and do the math...

 

------------

 

Now he's at it again.

 

On August 1st he bought FF #1, Avengers #1, X-Men #1 and Hulk #5 in a single auction for $1250.

 

What he bought, Round 2

 

And so far he's sold the FF #1 for $665:

 

What he sold, Round 2, Part 1

 

While the Avengers #1 is up to $200.39 with a few hours to go:

 

What he sold, Round 2, Part 2

 

I'll be watching to see what he gets for the X-Men and Hulk when he eventually lists them. It looks like he has reserve bids on this round. Hopefully they were high enough that he won't lose money.

[drewincanada]

Aha...

 

His X-Men #1 has a reserve bid of $350. Looks like he doesn't want to be burned twice:

What he's selling, Round 2, Part 3

[drewincanada]

Here's how the original seller graded the books:

 

X-Men #1 - Fair

FF #1 - Fair

Avengers #1 - Good

Hulk #5 - Good

 

And here's how he's relisted them:

 

X-Men #1 - Fair/Good to Good

FF #1 - Good- to Good

Avengers #1 - VG to VG/F

Hulk #5 - ?? Still to be listed

[Point Five]

To his credit, he pointed out that the coverless Avengers #1 is missing the centerfold when he resold it, even though the original auction said nothing about it. Maybe he negotiated a partial refund with the seller... ...but yeah, probably not his best week.

[Point Five]

Here's how the original seller graded the books:

 

X-Men #1 - Fair

FF #1 - Fair

Avengers #1 - Good

Hulk #5 - Good

 

And here's how he's relisted them:

 

X-Men #1 - Fair/Good to Good

FF #1 - Good- to Good

Avengers #1 - VG to VG/F

Hulk #5 - ?? Still to be listed

 

Yeah, the FF 1 grade was definitely "optimistic".

[Aces]

Here's how the original seller graded the books:

 

X-Men #1 - Fair

FF #1 - Fair

Avengers #1 - Good

Hulk #5 - Good

 

And here's how he's relisted them:

 

X-Men #1 - Fair/Good to Good

FF #1 - Good- to Good

Avengers #1 - VG to VG/F

Hulk #5 - ?? Still to be listed

 

Yeah, the FF 1 grade was definitely "optimistic".

 

Didn't a forum member win that FF 1 and posted about it in the SA forum?

[Point Five]

Yep.

 

[Aces]

Here's how the original seller graded the books:

 

X-Men #1 - Fair

FF #1 - Fair

Avengers #1 - Good

Hulk #5 - Good

 

And here's how he's relisted them:

 

X-Men #1 - Fair/Good to Good

FF #1 - Good- to Good

Avengers #1 - VG to VG/F

Hulk #5 - ?? Still to be listed

 

Yeah, the FF 1 grade was definitely "optimistic".

 

Didn't a forum member win that FF 1 and posted about it in the SA forum?

Yep. That's the one with the fake back cover.

Poor 0.5 (incomplete) No back cover.

[drewincanada]

Just noticed the Hulk #5 is CGC graded, so he can't over grade that one when he relists it... unless he cracks it out of the slab.

[sterlingcomics]

Actually the buyer and seller of these books were probably more accurate in their description...which led to the price being lower. Again, people love to bid on "hope". Notice that on the coverless book he added in another description not in the first---missing pages to the story (as previously mentioned).

 

Flipping books is like gambling---some times you win, and sometimes you lose.

[BrianR]

Isn't that the copy our very own Fedoraman bought. in the SA threads.

[Aces]

Isn't that the copy our very own Fedoraman bought. in the SA threads.

 

I posted that about three/four posts ago.

Everybody have me on ignore?

[sterlingcomics]

*** You ignore this member on a regular basis. ****

 

:shrug:

[BrianR]

Didn't see you posted that. :sorry:I tend to quickly skim the posts and sometimes miss a detail or two.

[Aces]

*** You ignore this member on a regular basis. ****

 

:shrug:

[drewincanada]

Actually the buyer and seller of these books were probably more accurate in their description...which led to the price being lower. Again, people love to bid on "hope". Notice that on the coverless book he added in another description not in the first---missing pages to the story (as previously mentioned).

 

Flipping books is like gambling---some times you win, and sometimes you lose.

 

Yes, the 2nd seller has better descriptions, but worse pics and less accurate grading guesstimates.

 

I agree with you about bidding on hope. Put in a lousy scan, give it an overly optimistic grade, and it doesn't matter what else you say in the description.

 

"Missing a page or two, but this is a sweet looking book with great cover gloss. I'm not a grader, but this is a strong VF+. It just has the general wear and tear you'd expect on a comic this old."

 

I love that last catch-all sentence.

 

"Hey man - the book you sold me has dried up cat vomit on the back cover!"

 

"I told you it had wear and tear. What did you expect from a comic that old?"