Comiclink...Truth and Fiction

[4GEMWORKS]

Now that the January auction is well behind us I wanted to comment on my experience past and present. Comiclink gets a lot of praise, but they also get a number of unfair digs.

 

I sold my ASM collection through ComicLink, previously designated as the 5th highest rated collection on the Collectors Society site.

 

Prior to the sale, I went through the entire 200 or so comics and evaluated what I thought the collection would be worth. The number I came up with was about $216,000. A lot of these books don't sell often and the numbers were the best I could derive.

 

The final sale price totalled close to $240,000, a premium of over 33k. That was nearly a 15% premium to the estimated value and more than paid for the 10% that went to Josh.

 

How this happens or why, I cannot say for sure. In compiling this collection I quite often overpaid what I knew the fair value of a book was because I knew the odds of it coming up again were remote. I can only assume that this is what happens at some of the Comiclink auctions. Comiclink seems to have cultivated an audience for high grade stuff that simply cannot be found very often anywhere else.

 

Let me also respond to a few thoughts I have heard expressed previously:

 

1) The bids are bogus.

 

Over the years I have sold a large number of items through ComicLink as well as been a buyer. On the sell side, I have received every dime of money that I had expected at the agreed upon time. Josh has even renegotiated terms with me when I realized there was a problem in timing. On the buy side I have had at least a two dozen experiences where I won or lost a book by less than a dollar.

 

Heritage and virtually every auction site except for eBay keeps bids private. Even eBay has gone to an identity protection system to keep bidder identities secret except for the winner.

 

Fine art and many other high price collectibles have been run in a confidential manner for years. To assert that ComicLink should identify bidders so that you are satisfied shilling is not occuring is simply naive.

 

If ComicLink were ripping people off, do you really think they would be operating at their current level of business? I must admit I wish I knew more about their financial status, but that is not a right I have. I have had my comics fully insured while on their premises as a matter of good business practice.

 

2) CL has "sold out" by going to an auction format.

 

I think this is 180 degees backwards thinking. While listing at a fixed price relieves anxiety, it does not provide the best market price. In looking back at my collection, I would say that my experience has been that books I paid fixed prices for were often my "worst" deals. I am now far more willing to pay a higher price whenI know I am bidding a gainst a legitimate competitor. The net resul;t is that I actually end up paying a lower price more often than I would expect. I have also ended up paying more than I expect, but that's OK too.

 

The basic problem that I believe most comic collectors have is an inability to sell a comic for less than what they paid for it. Therefore no format that results in a lower price is a "fair" price. Therefore they list items at unrealistic prices and wonder, I suppose, why it never sells.

 

Many of my ASM auctions had 30 or more bids. This is more action than almost any book I have listed on eBay. When you have this type of participation in an "auction format", proper price discovery is the usual conclusion.

 

3) Is the 10% fee competitive?

 

As norted above, I did the analysis and the only factor that explains my higher selling prices is the marketing of the event by ComicLink.

 

I sold a number of duplicated on eBay over the past year, prior to making this final batch sale. I consistently got under GPA pricing on most of the books, despite incrediibly good feedback ratings. Additioanlly once you factor in the paypal fees, listing and final value fees, EBay gets pretty close to 6-7%.

 

When you throw in the time to scan and list, the extra three to four percent differential becomes pretty meaningless, assuming sales prices are even. But my books sold for almost 15% more. My exprience leads me to believe that the 10% at ComicLink is a real bargain.

 

Heritage reports to GPA on a regular basis, their results are certainly no better except that they want at least twice as much in fees/commissions when all is said and done. I love to buy books through Heritage, but after this experience I doubt I would ever sell via Heritage.

 

4) ComicLink does not report sales to GPA, reducing transparancy.

 

Personally I believe GPA is a critical tool for evaluating relative levels that I might be willing to bid. As part of my deal with Josh, I asked him to report all my sales to GPA. He agreed. Maybe more people on the sell side need to ask?

 

In conclusion I can only say that Josh seems to have been far ahead of the crowd either by luck or incredible insight or both. Places like Pedigree now try and copy what Josh has been doing for a while. I'd guess a lot of criticism is from people wishing they had thought of this concept before Josh. Really, would you rather be shlepping boxes of comics to a new convention every other week of letting a computer do most of your work for you in a stable office environment? The biggest job CL has these days seems to be the labor involved in marketing and shipping books. He now has at least 3-4 emmployees, all of whom seem quite competent.

 

It's all praise from me, a very satisfied customer-

 

 

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

I don't know what other people think, but to me this is an exceptionally well-throught out post.

[Darth Corgi]

I agree. Sounds good. I have been dealing with ComicLink since I've gotten back into collecting back issues. For selection and great scans (most of the time) I'd say they are excellent. I usually pick up at least one or two books at every auction.

 

[djpinkpanther67]

Great post! :thumbsup:

 

I for one, don't have a problem with CL. :shrug:

 

True, books have been getting crazy high prices in their auctions, but I think that's more in line with people with deep pockets bidding on potential, rather than actual FMV of the book as graded.

 

I have had no complaints, buying or selling. I have gotten great wins in auctions past and hope it will continue in the future

[PokerKid]

Great post with personal perspective and logic, plus is very useful. I don't know if this is allowed here.

 

If they could just clean up the posted links to 1) get rid of books that have sold instead of listing items as "pending" for months and 2) Have an expiration for books posted by sellers so they at least have to renew every so often - 60 days perhaps. I am tired of putting in to purchase a book, filling out the information to complete the purchase only to have the order ignored or come back as not available, especially when I am trying to group books for shipping.

 

Oh, and I am tired of constantly being outbid on the drek I collect.

[Seadevils]

Great read.

[codfish]

How would you, or anyone, respond to the claims that CLink reports inflated realized values?

 

Personally I wouldn't know because I don't play the market for most books that would get reported.

[thirdgreenham]

How would you, or anyone, respond to the claims that CLink reports inflated realized values?

 

Personally I wouldn't know because I don't play the market for most books that would get reported.

 

Interesting question. I think I heard before that ComicLink cannot pick and choose which comics that they'd like to report to GPA, it's either all or none. With that being said, when Josh says to you he will report your sales to GPA, I believe he was just telling you what you wanted to hear, in order to get your books in his auction.

 

Andy

[awe4one]

How would you, or anyone, respond to the claims that CLink reports inflated realized values?

 

Personally I wouldn't know because I don't play the market for most books that would get reported.

 

Interesting question. I think I heard before that ComicLink cannot pick and choose which comics that they'd like to report to GPA, it's either all or none. With that being said, when Josh says to you he will report your sales to GPA, I believe he was just telling you what you wanted to hear, in order to get your books in his auction.

 

Andy

 

It would be interesting to hear from George concerning this...

 

Jim

[Flash105]

I have nothing but good things to say about Comic Link as well. I have overpaid for books and I have gotten great deals on books. All that tells me is that people want some books more than they want other books.

 

Bashing people on the internet without recourse, proof, or accountablilty is out of control and the norm. Of course, this thread only has a few responses. If stalkinggoat had wrote the same thought out post bashing CL, I bet we would have 10 pages of responses by now.

 

BTW- Awesome sell on the ASM. It is nice to see someones hard work pay off with some return.

[Flaming_Telepath]

How would you, or anyone, respond to the claims that CLink reports inflated realized values?

 

Personally I wouldn't know because I don't play the market for most books that would get reported.

 

Interesting question. I think I heard before that ComicLink cannot pick and choose which comics that they'd like to report to GPA, it's either all or none. With that being said, when Josh says to you he will report your sales to GPA, I believe he was just telling you what you wanted to hear, in order to get your books in his auction.

 

Andy

 

It would be interesting to hear from George concerning this...

 

Jim

 

Yeah, I'm calling BS on this one.

 

Josh wanted to report select sales figures (which this would be).

 

George wanted the rough with the smooth.

 

Result = no CLink results are shown in GPA.

[He11blazer]

$240,000

 

Thanks for the interesting post! We don't often get to hear this side of the story

 

 

[He11blazer]

...

 

I sold a number of duplicated on eBay over the past year, prior to making this final batch sale. I consistently got under GPA pricing on most of the books, despite incrediibly good feedback ratings. Additioanlly once you factor in the paypal fees, listing and final value fees, EBay gets pretty close to 6-7%. ...

 

 

Rilly? Ebay's cut feels a lot bigger than that! Seems closer to 20% when I sell stuff on ebay, though I haven't done the math.

[kc120us]

Thanks for the little behind the scenes view and congrats on the ASM sale.

[VintageComics]

Gotta go with the orignal poster on this one. Great back story to your collection.

 

I often list books on the Comiclink exchange at an above GPA price and the BIN gets hit within hours. It's no secret that I love higher grade and tougher to find books but I have never had a problem getting paid, always had great phone service and whenever I've bought shipping has been relatively good.

 

I've listed examples before of previous sales but suffice to say they are great in my books.

 

R.

 

 

[Bosco685]

Rilly? Ebay's cut feels a lot bigger than that! Seems closer to 20% when I sell stuff on ebay, though I haven't done the math.

I keep spreadsheets on all my eBay sales, no matter how large or small.

 

For auctions, it's around 8.6% to 8.8%, PayPal fee is around 3.4% to 6.7% depending on the transaction size. Of course, the Insertion Fee depends on your start price, so won't add that.

 

Now you see why eBay went after PayPal (and now BillMeLater) as combined on an auction sale it can make between 12% to 15.5% minimum, including cutting into your shipping costs as part of the PayPal transaction fee.

[thirdgreenham]

Gotta go with the orignal poster on this one. Great back story to your collection.

 

I often list books on the Comiclink exchange at an above GPA price and the BIN gets hit within hours. It's no secret that I love higher grade and tougher to find books but I have never had a problem getting paid, always had great phone service and whenever I've bought shipping has been relatively good.

 

I've listed examples before of previous sales but suffice to say they are great in my books.

 

R.

 

 

I don't think anyone is questioning the original poster here, Roy.

 

Andy

[VintageComics]

Andy, I just said that to counter all the talk about high dollar sales being questionable on Comiclink. I've gotten "stupid" money for some books and got paid for them.

 

Those comments were not put into this thread but have been prevalent in other threads.

 

 

R.

 

 

[trmoore54]

I'm just curious, as I'm sure many others are, care to say why you sold them all? You had some bee-oot-te-ful books!

[VintageComics]

I sold of many of my books for a few different reasons.

 

a) Wanted to put my Marvel Comics/Marvel Mystery 1-13 run together before it was too expensive to do so.

b) Sold cherished copies because I had found a nicer but less expensive replacement

c) Sold books I had no interest in keeping

d) Sold books that I had simply bought for resale to fund my collection.

 

I still love every comic I have ever owned as I love comics in general...from funny animals to pink cover DC (I know I cut those up a lot but it's all in good fun) to Marvels. I'm in the majority though in thatI can't afford to keep everything.

 

R.