Sales Forum more like the Bermuda Triange

[DawgPhan]

Recently I was looking to flesh out a Daredevil 1-25 run in very good to fine range. Mostly looking at raw, but slabs were alright as well..I would spend time looking through the sales forum, but I found it incredible frustrating to use. The thread titles were mostly pointless "Stuff for sale" or "I need a new something sale" and didnt offer any insight as to what would be listed...and then they list 1 book per post with a giant image. I just stopped looking after a while because it took too much time for basically nothing to turn up. Not when I could just head over to ebay and pop BINs on books I wanted.

 

I would say that with some small changes to the format of the posts in the sales forum sellers might see an increase. Things like listing the titles you are selling in the title and then on the first post just list the books you are selling with prices and no scans. You can start adding the scans of the books. But some of the sales threads would be 5-6 pages in and still listing books and you have to scroll through all the comments about the books and everything else just to see what someone is selling so they can fund some other purchase...make it a little easier to buy from you if you want to sell..

[ft88]

Besides the obvious on having a good reputation, good demeaner, good return policy, and good pictures/descriptions; it really comes down to what you have to sell.

 

I sold about 2/3 of some Bronze Age Atlas/Seaboard books all pretty high grade. Now most people think these things are garbage but I guarantee you they are collected, especially in 8.0 and up. Plus these hadn't been offered for sale on the boards ever. Plus I had very good supply so the 4 or 5 buyers all bought mulitiple books. Looking at it from the buyers POV, ebay will likely be overgraded, overpriced shipping and uncertain service/return policy.

 

Now if you are offering up VG Silver Age superhero books, you just can't expect a lot of attention. Generally speaking I sell those as lots for about $3 each and do pretty well.

 

My recent failed FS thread was for some very high grade Bronze Daredevils. And really they either needed to be 9.6's instead of 9.2's or priced at $2 each to make those move. Daredevil has huge supply and no demand other than key books or a low priced Miller run etc.

 

I'd rather try to sell generic NM- to NM Whitman cartoon books for $5 each than X-men 144-200 NM- to NM for $5 each. This can carry over to Bronze, Silver and even Gold.

 

One reason CGC books are so hard to sell here is that there are so many outlets for CGC books. But really only one outlet for raw books and that's ebay. It's no wonder raw books sell so much better here.

[Annihilus]

I personally have found the sales forum awesome. I have pretty much given up on Ebay. I probably buy 99% of my books here and have no complaints except 1. Low funds. There is so much awesome books and great people to deal with here. For my Ebay is like just sending your money in for a mystery grab bag. For the most part I agree with others saying here:

 

- Sellin rep in regards to grades and pricing

- Workablility with seller on package deals, shipping, time payments

- And for most of my experience here honesty and not tryin to bend over the customer with bad deals

 

 

:shrug: Sell hulk books.

 

+1 to all of this. I buy almost all my back issue stuff here and some new stuff too. I've met a lot of good people doing it too. The sales forums create much of the community spirit that exists on these boards, IMO.

 

Unrelated to all of the above: another thing I've noticed is that sellers that carve out a niche for themselves here do very well.

[drbanner]

Books priced cheap (below market) will get scooped up here in a NY minute, and if they're key or expensive books, they're bought by dealers or flippers before "collectors" get a crack at them. When folks don't know what their items are worth, they're gone in no time flat. So, price it cheap and it will sell.

 

I've spent more on books here in the last 6 months than I've ever spent here in a year, so as others have said, it just really depends if the "buyer" just happens to be perusing the board listings at the same time that the "seller" offers their books.

 

Quality material sells here if priced right (aka, at market), but I'm sure many books go unsold here that later sell higher on ebay simply b/c of timing.

 

 

[jonjesper]

There are plenty of sellers that do very well here (I am one of them) and there are plenty of sellers that continue to keep offering and I applaud them for it. Eventually items sell, but it is a 'market' and with any market you have to know what types of books sell to your customer base.

 

I would also agree that I spend more on these boards then I do on ebay. Almost every book I have purchased has been graded accurately or close to it. I can live with that.

 

Bottom line, another venue to offer books for sale and/or trade. It makes it fun and keeps a line of communication open to offer books to that buyer again, who becomes a friend most times and someone to share the hobby with.

JJ

 

 

[Annihilus]

There are plenty of sellers that do very well here (I am one of them) and there are plenty of sellers that continue to keep offering and I applaud them for it. Eventually items sell, but it is a 'market' and with any market you have to know what types of books sell to your customer base.

 

I would also agree that I spend more on these boards then I do on ebay. Almost every book I have purchased has been graded accurately or close to it. I can live with that.

 

Bottom line, another venue to offer books for sale and/or trade. It makes it fun and keeps a line of communication open to offer books to that buyer again, who becomes a friend most times and someone to share the hobby with.

JJ

 

 

You are a prime example of the 'niche seller' that I mentioned earlier. I always know what I'm going to get in one of your sales threads (including consistant product and service)....I also know that if I want something, I'd better be early to the party

[jonjesper]

Thanks Gary, you know I am always down to check out what ghoulish stuff you have up for grabs!

Booyah!

[gaz973]

and then on the first post just list the books you are selling with prices and no scans. You can start adding the scans of the books. But some of the sales threads would be 5-6 pages in and still listing books and you have to scroll through all the comments about the books and everything else just to see what someone is selling so they can fund some other purchase...make it a little easier to buy from you if you want to sell..

 

This is a very good point. If all the books that are being sold are listed in the first post then everyone gets to see what's for sale straight away. I'm not on the boards for long enough to keep refreshing a sales thread so I miss a hell of a lot of books like that.

[paperheart]

I had great results selling on the forums before I joined HA. I think it was about an 85% sell through. I feel my prices were "good" for the buyers and sometimes I would negotiate a lower price, if I had room on the item, through pm's.

 

I enjoy buying on the boards from time to time, everything from cheap trades to GA books. Bought a Men's Adventures #28 yesterday

 

I think to sell here, you need to have what people want at the right price. This group are not stupid, most are very aware of what they want and what they want to pay. Trick is catching them when they check out the selling part of the boards and that they have $ to buy it at the time. [font:Arial Black]Offering time payments have helped me sell and buy here as well.[/font]

 

But, of course, you should all be buying from HA now that I am there

 

people were just sucking up for the grade bumps

[topofthetotem]

That's a great idea of a list of books for sale in the first post.

 

I think I'll try that this weekend.

[piper]

Seems like it takes the special secret handshake to get anything sold in the Sales Forum. I really can't get a handle on it on the several attempts I've tried to sell some CGC books for reasonable prices seems like there is little or no action.

 

Help me out with some suggestions. I try to stay away from raw books and sell my CGC books. Is that the right way to do it?

 

 

 

 

WEBHEAD Class of '03

 

Good Scans and fair pricing =

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Forum sales threads are always a mixed bag for me. Most of the time, I'll list 30-50 slabbed books and sell 1-5. This last time, however, I sold quite a few and had my best sales thread ever dollarwise.

 

Truth is, you just never know who is looking and who at any time has the cash ready to spend.

 

And I agree on the time payment part...most of the time, folks just want a few weeks to come up with the money, and that's more then reasonable in my mind.

[etanick]

at the end of the day, I think if you want to sell, use all the venues available and the books will be gone eventually. I think some sellers are too impatient sometimes. I don't sell all that often but I tend to keep the thread going for a week or 2 and then after that on to Ebay or CL. This community is only a part of the collecting community and most common books, high grades or not are already owned by all those that are here that care to own them so I have better luck on Ebay.

 

There are many reasons why books/slabs aren't sold and it is not always the sellers's faults for overpricing them or selling junks no one want.

 

As far as selling things that people want, I have got plenty of example of people Pm me with things they wanted but by the time I list the books/slabs, they are no where to be found so one can do all the necessary things possible such as getting the books requested, pricing the books below GPA and they are still not going to sell. The tough economy is really hard on a lot of people.

 

[Hamlet]

I've only had one sales thread here. It was selling a bunch of lower grade SA at about half guide. The only interest it generated was from catrick339, who eventually bought everything at a wholesale price.

 

Thanks catrick339!

 

I think most low grade common SA stuff is going to sell better on Ebay than it will here. I think most buyers here are pretty savy about how common this stuff is and don't really want to buy it unless it is at a very reasonable price. It's also sometimes hard to buy some of this stuff and make the shipping makes sense. Unless a sales thread has several books you want, the shipping can be prohibitive.

 

I'm constantly looking at threads and finding a $5 book I want, but unless I find 4-5 more, the shipping is going to make the transaction a little silly.

 

The rarer stuff seems to move pretty well here though. I see a lot of books that I would have wanted sold in minutes after they are posted.

[zzutak]

As far as I'm concerned, there are far too many "wannabe dealers" floating around these parts. I'm not talking about the full-time dealers who are out there working hard to bring new stuff to market, the collector-dealers who spend hours at cons and local shops trying to find unique specimens and under-priced gems, or the collectors who have held their stuff for years. I'm talking about the folks who think they can get over by buying stuff from a well-publicized auction (ComicLink, Heritage, Quality Comix, etc) one month and flipping it here for a 20-400% profit the next.

 

Dude, if I wanted the book at that price, I would've competed for it more aggressively during the auction. I'm sure not going to reward you for running up the bid on me last month by helping you turn a profit today. And don't be surprised if you can't even recover what you paid. Remember, you were the winning bidder (which, by definition, means that you were willing to spend more on the book than anyone else).

 

Prospective buyers: the ComicLink, Heritage, and Quality Comix auction archives are your friend.

[divad]

I buy on the boards

 

I sell on the boards

 

slabs

 

raw

 

sometimes by pm only

 

sometimes without the books being posted

 

I generally avoid eBay and haven't sold there for years. Leaving all the profit potential to donut.

 

Link once or twice buy and sell

 

heritage bought a couple times

 

love to buy when I travel and pass on some cool finds to boardies and keep a few things for myself

 

some books I'll never sell

 

some books I'll never buy

 

 

Is this a Haiku?

[Boboset]

I buy on the boards

 

I sell on the boards

 

slabs

 

raw

 

sometimes by pm only

 

sometimes without the books being posted

 

I generally avoid eBay and haven't sold there for years. Leaving all the profit potential to donut.

 

Link once or twice buy and sell

 

heritage bought a couple times

 

love to buy when I travel and pass on some cool finds to boardies and keep a few things for myself

 

some books I'll never sell

 

some books I'll never buy

 

 

Is this a Haiku?

 

No, it's a Faiku.

 

Zing!

[Foolkiller]

I have a very basic formula... I generally buy some books with an eye towards slabbing. Those books will be offered here first, but usually get sold as a block to a dealer or on ebay. I have a lot of success selling slabs to dealers because I favor reducing my labor and selling as a block. Generally the dealers are paying very good percentages on these slabs.

 

For raw stuff, I buy most of my stuff through collections or stores and a very small percentage through shows, major dealers etc. My cost basis is generally very low in the book unless we are talking about a key. Anything I buy from a major dealer is generally looked at as for my collection or a book or a book I may have to less at a loss or break even. That's okay. As someone who does this for fun, I need to, overall, make money rather than lose money, but almost all of this comic money gets funneled back into comics or new collections etc.

 

The idea here is to know who you're catering to. For the most part, I think that I want to give bargains where I can, and I leave something on the table that's cool. I hope some people make some money off of me, just like I hope that there's some good deals for collectors.

 

That being said, my high quality stuff I don't want to give away. And people here do pay when you offer them really high end stuff and i've never met with pushback when you offer super high end material (white pages, perfectly wrapped stuff or rare books)

[Annihilus]

I have a very basic formula... I generally buy some books with an eye towards slabbing. Those books will be offered here first, but usually get sold as a block to a dealer or on ebay. I have a lot of success selling slabs to dealers because I favor reducing my labor and selling as a block. Generally the dealers are paying very good percentages on these slabs.

 

For raw stuff, I buy most of my stuff through collections or stores and a very small percentage through shows, major dealers etc. My cost basis is generally very low in the book unless we are talking about a key. Anything I buy from a major dealer is generally looked at as for my collection or a book or a book I may have to less at a loss or break even. That's okay. As someone who does this for fun, I need to, overall, make money rather than lose money, but almost all of this comic money gets funneled back into comics or new collections etc.

 

The idea here is to know who you're catering to. For the most part, I think that I want to give bargains where I can, and I leave something on the table that's cool. I hope some people make some money off of me, just like I hope that there's some good deals for collectors.

 

That being said, my high quality stuff I don't want to give away. And people here do pay when you offer them really high end stuff and i've never met with pushback when you offer super high end material (white pages, perfectly wrapped stuff or rare books)

 

Your philosophy is exactly how I approach it (minus the slabbing, which I don't really deal with much), the main difference being that I'm jealous as hell of your books and wish that I had all of them.

 

It's all about having fun, or what's the point?

[sborock]

I had great results selling on the forums before I joined HA. I think it was about an 85% sell through. I feel my prices were "good" for the buyers and sometimes I would negotiate a lower price, if I had room on the item, through pm's.

 

I enjoy buying on the boards from time to time, everything from cheap trades to GA books. Bought a Men's Adventures #28 yesterday

 

I think to sell here, you need to have what people want at the right price. This group are not stupid, most are very aware of what they want and what they want to pay. Trick is catching them when they check out the selling part of the boards and that they have $ to buy it at the time. [font:Arial Black]Offering time payments have helped me sell and buy here as well.[/font]

 

But, of course, you should all be buying from HA now that I am there

 

people were just sucking up for the grade bumps

 

 

Problem with that is, I was not working at CGC when I was selling on the boards.