Getting Started as a Dealer

[the blob]

last year i bought 60 long boxes for $1000 from a bud that received them as a payment on a debt he had no use for them and flipped them to me

_____________________

 

i'm pretty sure my house would collapse if i tried sticking 60 long boxes in it

 

if you can fenagle great deals like that then great. it doesn't happen all that often that there are that many boxes worth of decent stuff in there.

 

but yeah, at $16 a box you can sell them on ebay for $25 and do o.k.

[MrBedrock]

Different strokes for different folks.....

 

(thumbs u

 

Just don't think that you wasted that time, or that you didn't benefit from your time at york in some way. I guarantee your reading comprehension, writing, and general analytical skills are better for having gone to York.

How can you tell?

 

He was a Psychology/Law in Society double-major. Having attended the same school, I'm somewhat familiar with both programs, and both are reading/writing intensive. If he maintained high grades, he obviously did his work, and regardless of how "easy" it may have been for him, he still had to have spent many hours researching, pouring over texts and writing papers. And the kind of reading and writing that is done in an arts program is subjective in nature, so doing well requires the ability to formulate a strong thesis, and to back up that thesis with reasoned arguments. These are all skills that only improve with repetition, and he's had four years of practice that he wouldn't otherwise have had, had he not attended University.

 

The correct answer is: You can tell because, unlike most Canadians, he no longer drools on the keyboard when posting.

(thumbs u

[COI]

Different strokes for different folks.....

 

(thumbs u

 

Just don't think that you wasted that time, or that you didn't benefit from your time at york in some way. I guarantee your reading comprehension, writing, and general analytical skills are better for having gone to York.

How can you tell?

 

He was a Psychology/Law in Society double-major. Having attended the same school, I'm somewhat familiar with both programs, and both are reading/writing intensive. If he maintained high grades, he obviously did his work, and regardless of how "easy" it may have been for him, he still had to have spent many hours researching, pouring over texts and writing papers. And the kind of reading and writing that is done in an arts program is subjective in nature, so doing well requires the ability to formulate a strong thesis, and to back up that thesis with reasoned arguments. These are all skills that only improve with repetition, and he's had four years of practice that he wouldn't otherwise have had, had he not attended University.

 

The correct answer is: You can tell because, unlike most Canadians, he no longer drools on the keyboard when posting.

(thumbs u

 

I'm glad I took the time to answer your question. (thumbs u

[Designer Toast]

Keep in mind that putting your dealer hat on may very well change your views about collecting, and possibly spoil some of the fun that this hobby now offers you as a collector.

 

Sound advice. (thumbs u

[MR.COMICBOOK]

last year i bought 60 long boxes for $1000 from a bud that received them as a payment on a debt he had no use for them and flipped them to me

_____________________

 

i'm pretty sure my house would collapse if i tried sticking 60 long boxes in it

 

if you can fenagle great deals like that then great. it doesn't happen all that often that there are that many boxes worth of decent stuff in there.

 

but yeah, at $16 a box you can sell them on ebay for $25 and do o.k.

$9 seems like a low profit margin even before you factor in paypal/ebay fees.

What am I missing?

[the blob]

I'm thinking along the lines of that being the dreks of the dreks out of the 60 boxes. i'm guessing someone on ebay might try to play the lottery on something like that if it's cheap enough, although i'm unfamiliar with what random long boxes go for on ebay now. it used to seem like $25-35, but i'm out of the loop. no, a $9 margin per box on the whole shebang is a bit of a waste of time, true, but if you can make a decent profit on a big chunk of the purchase, getting rid of the rest at cost or thereabouts isn't a big deal.

 

or a tax write-off, although you need to go through and pull inappropriate stuff

[Mike Bray]

I'm thinking along the lines of that being the dreks of the dreks out of the 60 boxes. i'm guessing someone on ebay might try to play the lottery on something like that if it's cheap enough, although i'm unfamiliar with what random long boxes go for on ebay now. it used to seem like $25-35, but i'm out of the loop. no, a $9 margin per box on the whole shebang is a bit of a waste of time, true, but if you can make a decent profit on a big chunk of the purchase, getting rid of the rest at cost or thereabouts isn't a big deal.

 

or a tax write-off, although you need to go through and pull inappropriate stuff

 

after pulling the few boxes out of better stuff i contemplated going the ebay route by the longbox but after thinking about all the tapeing and securing of the boxes for shipping , the lugging of the boxes to the post office i decided against -- between 4 shows i was out of the books and made a very nice return on the investment ( at least by my standards, and bulk was`nt the entirety of my booth setup ) and i still have a short box of the better stuff around somewhere

 

 

 

[ft88]

No question any one deal can be pretty decent. It's being able to replicate it that makes it tough. Even on 60 boxes, assuming 4 shows taking 3 months worth of sales to clear out everything you profit maybe $10k. ie 30 boxes sell for $1 a piece and you clearance sale the rest. It's a living and decent enough if you can keep doing it, but it is a lot of work and not replicable with any sense of security.

[the blob]

it all depends on what your monthly nut is. if it's $1K, then bringing in $10K every 3 months sounds good, particularly given that we're talking cash.

 

but really, if you can land a deal like that it's weekend work. it's not like you're spending a whole 3 months on it. you organize and clean up the stock at night when you might otherwise be watching TV or BSing here. good supplemental income. if you have the right stuff.

 

I, for one, couldn't do it, not dollar books anyway. My head would probably explode after about an hour as people mangle and disorganize the stock I spent hours organizing, particularly if they aren't bagged or boarded. A-holes are frigging brutal with unprotected books..if they don't want to buy it they seem to have no problem bending it in half. next show i see someone doing that to some dealer's stock that I want to check out i am going to get in their face...assuming I'm 101% certain i can kick their arse if need be.

 

a friend of mine recently unloaded like 15K of primarily drek for 17 cents a pop or something like that. he was frigging ecstatic, this was the basement inventory of his comic shop that had been in storage for years. i wonder if the purchaser wants to set up dollar boxes at shows?

[MR.COMICBOOK]

 

I, for one, couldn't do it, not dollar books anyway. My head would probably explode after about an hour as people mangle and disorganize the stock I spent hours organizing, particularly if they aren't bagged or boarded. A-holes are frigging brutal with unprotected books..if they don't want to buy it they seem to have no problem bending it in half. next show i see someone doing that to some dealer's stock that I want to check out i am going to get in their face...assuming I'm 101% certain i can kick their arse if need be.

 

I wonder how much it would cost to bag/board this stock you alluded to?

I might be interested in doing 4 or 5 shows a year myself for extra supplemental income.

[HOTFLIPS]

Wouldnt cost that much.

[the blob]

factor in 7.5-8 cents or so for a bag/board combo, although hotflips has a combo deal cheaper than that right now...I'm not as huge a fan of the resealable bags though (not knocking them...i just have clumsy fingers, not so good for me)

 

although, actually, you can recycle...you may buy a bulk lot where total Krap is in bags boards...if the bags boards are in good shape you can use them on decent books. i regularly reuse the boards at the very least. i just rebagged about 100 books that had been with current age (post '76) backs to silver age bags/boards...I used some of those moderns to double back some of the better books, but I have 50 current age boards I'll reuse somewhere down the line.

 

mainly it's a lot of time

 

and yeah, it's probably not worth it for most $1 books and many, when bought in bulk, probably already have them.

 

if i ever did a show again i'd probably be more inclined toward focusing 3/$10 or $5 books and maybe stick the $1 boxes under the table and not care about whether they get mangled. maybe $2 books,, but those would have boards. but i'm probably never going to do a show given that my past helpers have either died (R.I.P. dad) or moved far away (kid 'bro) and my son is 10 years away. of course, the cheap bastardz (like me) at shows probably ignore the 3/$10 stuff thinking they can get the same calibre out of $2 and $1 boxes.

[the blob]

well, never say never i suppose. i just couldn't do it solo. maybe my wife could help. but then i'd just have to hand the money over to her at the end of the day.

[towards2112]

Different strokes for different folks.....

 

(thumbs u

 

Just don't think that you wasted that time, or that you didn't benefit from your time at york in some way. I guarantee your reading comprehension, writing, and general analytical skills are better for having gone to York.

How can you tell?

 

2 ANSWERS

 

A. He only reads old Vertigo titles with big words in them.

B. You turn him upside down and read the label on the bottom.