How many Comic Books do you Own? + MORE CHECK IT OUT

[dam60]

Lighthouse, that's awesome! Something useful for those books, although Valiant did have some stars . . .

 

How many people would you say come into your bricks and mortar stuff each month to sell you stuff? Would you say that most of it is just ? How do you come across these deals for buying so many comics for just 3 - 5c?

 

Thanks,

 

[lighthouse]

In a typical month I see around 70 collections that are at least a short box, probably 50 that are at least a long box, and around 10 that are at least four long boxes. At my old store I had one stretch where I bought at least 10,000 back issues every single month for six months. I buy around 75% of all the collections that come in, with the rest split evenly between people who think their X-Force #1's are worth $5 each and people who have quality stuff that I just don't have a market for. If I can't give someone a fair price and I know someone who can I will gladly steer them to another dealer.

 

Most of the stuff that comes in to my shop is stuff other stores think is , which is why it makes it to me. But there is a buy-price for anything. I sell in the shop, at shows, on eBay, on my website, via wantlists and via mail order. Most dealers are only in one or two of those markets, so if a collection won't sell in the market they specialize in, they won't buy it. Ask Donut how often he finds price variants in dollar boxes because the shop doesn't know what they have. It's not that shop's fault. It's just not their market.

 

The 3c-5c deals are all over the place, but they are not for the timid. It takes a lot of work to get your money back out of some of these. The real cost of the books isn't the 3c you pay the previous owner, it's the 7-9c of your time you have to put in to get your money back. Bulk comics are worth about each. They are worth another 1c if they are in comic boxes (you'd be amazed how many are not), another if they are approximately alphabetized, another 1c if NONE of them are bagged or another 5c if all of them are bagged and boarded. If some are bagged and some are not, they are worth less than if none are bagged at all because they are harder to process. And if they are bagged 2 to a backing board they are worth even less. In many cases I would willingly give away the 2nd book to have them all removed.

 

When I look at a 10,000 book buy, I am not looking at the $500 I have to pay the owner. I am looking at how many man-hours it takes to get it saleable and how much I will pay in storage fees until they are gone. Usually that number is more than double the 'purchase' price. And the previous owner has done the same math in his head, is it worth investing additional money into the inventory to sell it or is it better to just have it gone and stop paying for storage on it... All of that factors in much higher than what the 63 copies of Uncanny 233 are worth...

[FlComicFan]

well said It takes a lot of gumption and hard work to move that many bulk books. I've bought 100,000 books in one shot and several times between 10,000-30,000 books along with many small lots . I havent done one in a while as moving the 100,000 books wore me out. Curious what you did with the Valiants/Image/Glut books of 1992-1994? I donated a ton to charities/hospitals/etc it was more efficient than trying to sell 200 copies of Deathwatch silver, Chet

[lighthouse]

Curious what you did with the Valiants/Image/Glut books of 1992-1994?

 

I sold a bunch in quarter boxes, and used a few thousand as filler in bulk lots, but I would guess that I have thrown away around 50,000 comics over the years... Many of them are content-inappropriate for donation to charity and they are not exactly a great choice for someone to get their first taste of comics anyway. Since I was already donating 5000+ books a year that were far better quality, many of the Image/Valiant books went to the landfill... The titles that ran 10 issues or more I sell in runs, and only throw away copies beyond the first 100 or so. But an awful lot of them meet the same fame as if Mom found them...

[FlComicFan]

I kind of figured that. I tried moving them in 25 cent boxes but didnt have much luck. I used to seed the 25 cent boxes with 1970's stuff to try and get people to start making a stack but it usually ended up being a stack of the older books, . Best thing I got out of the bulk stuff i bought was several longboxes of uncirculated Gold Keys from 1976 a few of the titles were still brown paper wrapped and wire bound. I may buy sme again but 2-3 cents is right unless there is some older stuff I can use for myself. Chet

[Jeffro.]

I just voted in a 9 1/2 year old poll.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I just voted in a 9 1/2 year old poll.

 

 

You mean 7 1/2....?

 

[Jeffro.]

Listen Cronze boy, facts have no place here.

[RockMyAmadeus]

The coming of....CRONZE!!