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The Official The Walking Dead Discussion Thread
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Started by MutantKeys,

40,452 posts in this topic

Holden Caulfield

Holden Caulfield

Posted
Posted
Where's bffnut with his formulas?

 

lol, sorry I've been busy prepping for something my friends and I call, "Nerdsgiving." It's Thanksgiving for just my group of friends.

 

I just checked CGC's website and the cheapest shipping method is UPS at $10 for the first slab and $2 for each additional slab.

 

Assuming a submission of 30 books, at $14.40 per book ($18 w/20% discount), a $5 invoice fee and $68 shipping, a total of $505 is $16.83 per book.

 

If you sell a slab for $25, the PayPal fee on that (separate of the fee on the addl amount paid for shipping) is $1.03 (2.9% + $0.30), which leaves a profit margin after slabbing of $7.14. That is over twice cover on most comics.

 

The same slab on eBay yields a fee to them of about $2.50, and reduces your profit to $4.64.

 

And since the turn around times are around 6 months right now, that means any slabbed modern that was released in the past few months had to be fast tracked. So that reduces the profit to -$6ish

Don't forget the cost of the book ($2.99-$3.99)+shipping supplies and now you're breaking even. :screwy:
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nikocb

nikocb

Posted
Posted (edited)
Where's bffnut with his formulas?

 

lol, sorry I've been busy prepping for something my friends and I call, "Nerdsgiving." It's Thanksgiving for just my group of friends.

 

I just checked CGC's website and the cheapest shipping method is UPS at $10 for the first slab and $2 for each additional slab.

 

Assuming a submission of 30 books, at $14.40 per book ($18 w/20% discount), a $5 invoice fee and $68 shipping, a total of $505 is $16.83 per book.

 

If you sell a slab for $25, the PayPal fee on that (separate of the fee on the addl amount paid for shipping) is $1.03 (2.9% + $0.30), which leaves a profit margin after slabbing of $7.14. That is over twice cover on most comics.

 

The same slab on eBay yields a fee to them of about $2.50, and reduces your profit to $4.64.

 

And since the turn around times are around 6 months right now, that means any slabbed modern that was released in the past few months had to be fast tracked. So that reduces the profit to -$6ish

Don't forget the cost of the book ($2.99-$3.99)+shipping supplies and now you're breaking even. :screwy:

 

Actually factoring a fast tracked book at retail price would mean you're in the hole for $10 :screwy: :screwy:

Edited by nikocb
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bffnut

bffnut

Posted
Posted

Like James said, most of these sellers are subbing hundreds of books at a time. Let's say you sub 100 and sell thru 90 of them. What makes more sense from a business standpoint: sit on those slabs forever at $35-45 ea or move them at $25? You might be taking a loss, but now you have about $250 that you can reinvest as opposed to sitting on dead inventory.

 

Now, some people are obstinate and will sit on that product until they can sell it for a "profit" but I'm sure you've all walked into a store that had tons of old stock, be it 90's comics or baseball cards, and refused to sell it for anything less than the going price when it came out. These people fail to understand concepts like opportunity cost.

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nikocb

nikocb

Posted
Posted
Like James said, most of these sellers are subbing hundreds of books at a time. Let's say you sub 100 and sell thru 90 of them. What makes more sense from a business standpoint: sit on those slabs forever at $35-45 ea or move them at $25? You might be taking a loss, but now you have about $250 that you can reinvest as opposed to sitting on dead inventory.

 

Now, some people are obstinate and will sit on that product until they can sell it for a "profit" but I'm sure you've all walked into a store that had tons of old stock, be it 90's comics or baseball cards, and refused to sell it for anything less than the going price when it came out. These people fail to understand concepts like opportunity cost.

 

But even if you plan on selling the book at $35.. if it's fast tracked then you're only breaking even without factoring in the cost of the book. If it's a hot modern, they could potentially make more just to sell it raw.

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bffnut

bffnut

Posted
Posted
Jim is the Math at fast

Track or no ?

 

My math was for slow track.

 

But even if you plan on selling the book at $35.. if it's fast tracked then you're only breaking even without factoring in the cost of the book. If it's a hot modern, they could potentially make more just to sell it raw.

 

Let's look at things from a marginal standpoint - how much does it cost to get one more book graded? Modern fast track is $28 - or $22.40 with a 20% discount. Let's assume marginal shipping to CGC is the same as return shipping: $2 each way, or $4 total. With a comic costing $2.99 retail, and assuming a discount of 40% as if bought from DCBS, you are looking at a total cost of $28.19. Shipping materials really are not that much and most can be obtained for free for endeavorous individuals and are included in that $2 marginal cost.

 

$28.00 - grading fee

(5.60) - less 20% discount

22.40

4.00 - total shipping

1.79 - raw comic cost, less 40% discount

28.19 - Total Grading cost

 

 

So you are now looking at an estimated profit of about $6.81 per comic at a price point of $35. That is much more than you will make on a raw comic sitting on your proverbial new release rack. Multiply that by a large volume (let's say 100), and your are sitting at $681 gross profit. I would imagine someone like Dre goes thru hundreds of comics each week. Also keep in mind some of the comics getting graded are variants/con exclusives/etc that may not have much higher of a raw cost (to dealers, that is) but will yield a much higher price point and profit.

 

For the nonprofessional, $35 seems like the breakeven point ($28 grading, $4 shipping, $3 raw cost), but you can now see where dealing in bulk can make a difference.

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comicsnyc22

comicsnyc22

Posted
Posted (edited)
Sorry a published page :)

 

For some reason I always use the term OA to describe work created for Print and Sketch for those that are commissioned for a fan. I guess in reality they are all original art lol

 

It really depends on if you're buying from Mark or the secondary market. There was a double page splash that just sold for $6,000 on splash page. To be honest, anything with a decent zombie on it is probably going to set you back at least $1,000, if not more depending on detail, who else is on the page, page significance, size of the OA, if it was pre-100, pre 48, post 114 w/ Stephen, etc.

 

If you're buying secondary market, it may be even higher. For a book with 100+ issues and zombies everywhere, there aren't really as many crazy zombie pages as you would think. Which is probably why it's been so good. :tonofbricks:

Edited by ComicsNYC22
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gaz2810i

gaz2810i

Posted
Posted
Sorry a published page :)

 

For some reason I always use the term OA to describe work created for Print and Sketch for those that are commissioned for a fan. I guess in reality they are all original art lol

 

It really depends on if you're buying from Mark or the secondary market. There was a double page splash that just sold for $6,000 on splash page. To be honest, anything with a decent zombie on it is probably going to set you back at least $1,000, if not more depending on detail, who else is on the page, page significance, size of the OA, if it was pre-100, pre 48, post 114 w/ Stephen, etc.

 

If you're buying secondary market, it may be even higher. For a book with 100+ issues and zombies everywhere, there aren't really as many crazy zombie pages as you would think. Which is probably why it's been so good. :tonofbricks:

 

Thanks as complicated as that lol

 

It would be secondary market pre-100

 

How about this... Walking Dead #73 page 16 - Half Splash with 2 Zombies, Abraham (2 panels), Bruce, Holly and Tobin (2 panels). The book is the first appearance of Holly, a minor character still around (3rd page appearance)

 

wd_73_018_zps5b8ea20e.png

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retrothecollector

retrothecollector

Posted
Posted
Sorry a published page :)

 

For some reason I always use the term OA to describe work created for Print and Sketch for those that are commissioned for a fan. I guess in reality they are all original art lol

 

It really depends on if you're buying from Mark or the secondary market. There was a double page splash that just sold for $6,000 on splash page. To be honest, anything with a decent zombie on it is probably going to set you back at least $1,000, if not more depending on detail, who else is on the page, page significance, size of the OA, if it was pre-100, pre 48, post 114 w/ Stephen, etc.

 

If you're buying secondary market, it may be even higher. For a book with 100+ issues and zombies everywhere, there aren't really as many crazy zombie pages as you would think. Which is probably why it's been so good. :tonofbricks:

 

Thanks as complicated as that lol

 

It would be secondary market pre-100

 

How about this... Walking Dead #73 page 16 - Half Splash with 2 Zombies, Abraham (2 panels), Bruce, Holly and Tobin (2 panels). The book is the first appearance of Holly, a minor character still around (3rd page appearance)

 

wd_73_018_zps5b8ea20e.png

:takeit: Go for it bro. That's a sweet page. You got Holly and Abe. $1000++ on that one, all day long.

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Garf

Garf

Posted
Posted
Go for it bro. That's a sweet page. You got Holly and Abe. $1000+ on that one, all day long.

 

Pass the crack pipe.

No thank you gave it up... lol

Really? You don't think it will sell for that? I think it will 100%

 

Ok I took one of the + signs out.

 

 

There's always a possibility it might do... but I think on a $0.99 auction it wouldn't due to the real competition lying elsewhere. Usually at this point I'd spout some rhetoric about how a bit of patience and waiting for a decent older page at a better price would be the best thing.... but it isn't. Not now. This is where the real contest lies, you are going to be up against James / Jerry / Gene and anyone else that has decided to partake. It might just keep the prices lower on these because people aren't going to want to diminish their purchasing power if something better is coming up around the corner.

 

... there is always going to be something better coming up around the corner.

 

2c

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comicsnyc22

comicsnyc22

Posted
Posted
Go for it bro. That's a sweet page. You got Holly and Abe. $1000+ on that one, all day long.

 

Pass the crack pipe.

No thank you gave it up... lol

Really? You don't think it will sell for that? I think it will 100%

 

Ok I took one of the + signs out.

 

 

There's always a possibility it might do... but I think on a $0.99 auction it wouldn't due to the real competition lying elsewhere. Usually at this point I'd spout some rhetoric about how a bit of patience and waiting for a decent older page at a better price would be the best thing.... but it isn't. Not now. This is where the real contest lies, you are going to be up against James / Jerry / Gene and anyone else that has decided to partake. It might just keep the prices lower on these because people aren't going to want to diminish their purchasing power if something better is coming up around the corner.

 

... there is always going to be something better coming up around the corner.

 

2c

 

I don't know. You've got two big players buying everything and keeping them stored up. Then you have a ton of other players buying up good pages as they come along. I just don't see how you can say there's always something better coming up around the corner when long term Tony Moore and older Charlie stuff to many trumps the new items from a (and I know how insufferable this is about to sound) purists standpoint (pre 115 with the additional inker, etc:

 

Good pages barely come up on Ebay, CL & other sites as it is. Zombie pages are even tougher. Great zombie pages? Get them while you can.

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