Pondering buying a store's inventory

[Bomber-Bob]

Is your dilemna just the price or if you should even do this ? I'm sorry but if you don't already own a store, why bother ? Your money would be well better spent on a few investment grade comics.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Do you really want to setup at local shows every month? You might even take a loss at the shows. Also, what happens when the items that are of interest get sold and you're left with the worse. Then the shows won't even be worth doing.

 

Not always, but often, at least in comics, you have to spend money to make money. I truly believe this.

 

I think I disagree with this. First of all, it sounds like he does want to set up at local shows. Second, I can't see him ever taking a loss. The little shows are mostly full of bargain hunters and the cheaper you can sell stuff, the better you do. I do poorly at little shows but the guys who have and can blow it out do okay.

 

I also disagree with the have to spend money to make money. Most of the people selling comics invest their time and very little cash. That's why you can get $1 to $20 comics for eight cents each. Your time and storage costs, plus lugging the damn things.

 

The one thing I don't like about the plan is the having to carry them up to the third floor. That's brutal.

 

Btw, if you only take 1-2 tables per show, I think your stock will stay fresh for a long time, because of rotation plus the fact that seriously, you don't see the same faces at the shows. People pop in and out of this hobby all the time.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Btw, I enjoyed reading your story below! (thumbs u

 

For what it's worth to you, I can tell you my own personal experience.

 

In 2004 or so, I bought a complete story inventory. I ended up getting every single thing in the store, even items we hadn't agreed on but when the owner actually realized this was happening and, I guess, the burden was finally off of him, he just started throwing in stuff. I ended up with tons of boxes full of action figures, statues, magazines, supplies, manga and gaming/sports cards. I even got his vending machine and display cases, as well as some electronics he had in there.

 

I also got stuck with 181 Long boxes full of . Probably 120 of them were pure drek. 40 of the boxes I still have!

 

I ended up making my money back very fast because there was some really good items in this collection (not comics), which is the reason I purchased it in the first place. But like some other posters have mentioned. You really need to look at this from a far.

 

Do you really want to setup at local shows every month? You might even take a loss at the shows. Also, what happens when the items that are of interest get sold and you're left with the worse. Then the shows won't even be worth doing.

 

Not always, but often, at least in comics, you have to spend money to make money. I truly believe this.

 

Just my opinion. Good luck either way!

[joe_collector]

There would be no way I'd pay a cent for "mystery back stock" without pulling a few random boxes, then taking a quick inventory of what's there. Also, when the price is agreed upon, the books are yours and there's no "come back in 3 weeks", as some of those sellable BA boxes might suddenly transform into stacks of Image comics.

 

Also, how many longboxes are we talking about here?

[shadroch]

Just a reminder that Lone Star often pays decent money for what some consider drek. I was given seven boxes of modern drek after the Torpedo auction. Turned out LS was paying 50 cents or more for almost three hundred of these books, with a few dozen selling for over a dollar.

[mycomicshop]

Just a reminder that Lone Star often pays decent money for what some consider drek. I was given seven boxes of modern drek after the Torpedo auction. Turned out LS was paying 50 cents or more for almost three hundred of these books, with a few dozen selling for over a dollar.

 

 

Yeah. If you want to spot check a few titles, you can look up comics to sell or trade to see how much we're paying in cash or trade credit.

 

We also have a printable want list that generates a relatively compact text listing of our buying prices, with various options to filter by publisher, year, etc.

 

You can use either one of those to get an idea of what we want and how much we're paying.

 

If anybody has any feedback about how to make either tool more useful to you, PM me and I'll see what I can do. I just got finished making some improvements to the printable want list based on some good ideas from a board member.

[ImageMask]

Just a reminder that Lone Star often pays decent money for what some consider drek. I was given seven boxes of modern drek after the Torpedo auction. Turned out LS was paying 50 cents or more for almost three hundred of these books, with a few dozen selling for over a dollar.

 

 

Lone Star.

 

Those orange colored catalogs back when.

 

Old skool comic times. The memories of days gone bye...

[DiceX]

Just a reminder that Lone Star often pays decent money for what some consider drek. I was given seven boxes of modern drek after the Torpedo auction. Turned out LS was paying 50 cents or more for almost three hundred of these books, with a few dozen selling for over a dollar.

 

 

Lone Star.

 

Those orange colored catalogs back when.

 

Old skool comic times. The memories of days gone bye...

 

Haiku (thumbs u

 

 

[ImageMask]

Just a reminder that Lone Star often pays decent money for what some consider drek. I was given seven boxes of modern drek after the Torpedo auction. Turned out LS was paying 50 cents or more for almost three hundred of these books, with a few dozen selling for over a dollar.

 

 

Lone Star.

 

Those orange colored catalogs back when.

 

Old skool comic times. The memories of days gone bye...

 

Haiku (thumbs u

 

 

You speak the bird brother?

[bug33fouf]

I think $20 a box for the 50 boxes is totally fine given what you've described. It's not Image stuff, or if some of it is, it's $2.99 Image stuff, not early 90s Image stuff. You'd be paying seven cents each and you'd quickly get your money back by doing a few small shows and even bulking out 10-30 boxes after a few shows and keeping what you want.

 

Put another way, for the five best boxes you'd probably be willing to pay $100 a box That means the other 45 boxes are only about 3 cents a book. And I'm assuming a ton of that stuff is from '97 up, which is good high cover price low print run stuff.

 

(thumbs u

[Pirate]

I think $20 a box for the 50 boxes is totally fine given what you've described. It's not Image stuff, or if some of it is, it's $2.99 Image stuff, not early 90s Image stuff. You'd be paying seven cents each and you'd quickly get your money back by doing a few small shows and even bulking out 10-30 boxes after a few shows and keeping what you want.

 

Put another way, for the five best boxes you'd probably be willing to pay $100 a box That means the other 45 boxes are only about 3 cents a book. And I'm assuming a ton of that stuff is from '97 up, which is good high cover price low print run stuff.

 

we'll see. what he has out on the floor of the shop tends to stray away from that '89 - '94 timeframe, but maybe what he has stored up that he'd want me to take is where he has that drek.

 

i guess the problem with this sort of thing is if you don't continually acquire new stuff the inventory gets picked over and stale, particularly if you are staying local for your shows (thankfully I am in an area with about 30 million people), and I don't plan on doing this again and again. i don't have the room for it and the wife would kill me unless I made out like a bandit the first time around.

 

Quarter and fifty cent boxes do great if it's somewhat newer stuff. For those prices I don't organize, just remove all bags and put out in bulk. People love searching the boxes and you can move a ton fast. I usually put a $50 fill a box deal. Whatever is left at end of show, I usually wholesale out for $20 a box to one of the dollar box guys since I maybe do 2 shows a year. Rinse and repeat.

[capt_comics]

I think $20 a box for the 50 boxes is totally fine given what you've described. It's not Image stuff, or if some of it is, it's $2.99 Image stuff, not early 90s Image stuff. You'd be paying seven cents each and you'd quickly get your money back by doing a few small shows and even bulking out 10-30 boxes after a few shows and keeping what you want.

 

Put another way, for the five best boxes you'd probably be willing to pay $100 a box That means the other 45 boxes are only about 3 cents a book. And I'm assuming a ton of that stuff is from '97 up, which is good high cover price low print run stuff.

 

(thumbs u

 

If most of the books are 1997 and after...............you can't go wrong

 

BUY IT (thumbs u

 

 

[Monster's Lair Comics]

When I buy large collections that have a lot of drek in them, I usually cut up the junk into "50 lots" (lots of 50 books, that fit easily into a medium flat rate priority box). I sell the lots on ebay for $5 each with $10 shipping, and surprisingly, I sell them alot! You are not making huge money, but you can use a simple picture of the stack, list what books are in your lot, and you make easy sales. This is especially helpful when you have 25 copies each of about 50 different books. You can make one auction, but list it multiple times.

 

That allows you to have some of the "better" stuff for the 50 cent and dollar boxes at shows.

 

I'm looking to do the same with a collection of 50 long boxes, and 22 short boxes, but I have to see if the owner is reasonable or not.

 

We will see.

[Pirate]

easy way to make a little money

[the blob]

Is your dilemna just the price or if you should even do this ? I'm sorry but if you don't already own a store, why bother ? Your money would be well better spent on a few investment grade comics.

 

He's basically told me he doesn't really care about this krap, but he's not going to give it to me for free, particularly because 10% of it is decent stuff. I'm guessing the Donut pricing structure makes sense, although that little for diosrganized stock sounds harsh, he's been doing this for a while. At that price you're paying for the box, the boards and whatever bags are still good, practically nothing for the comics themselves.

[the blob]

The one thing I don't like about the plan is the having to carry them up to the third floor. That's brutal.

 

----------

 

yeah, that is a stress on my knees. short term I can stick them in my garage, but it's a little musty in there, particularly on rainy days (no leaks, it's just there's no real ventilation, so the wet air gets trapped) I'd need to spend money to fix the garage up for better ventilation, etc. Which is probably something I should do anyway.

[the blob]

There would be no way I'd pay a cent for "mystery back stock" without pulling a few random boxes, then taking a quick inventory of what's there. Also, when the price is agreed upon, the books are yours and there's no "come back in 3 weeks", as some of those sellable BA boxes might suddenly transform into stacks of Image comics.

 

Also, how many longboxes are we talking about here?

 

oh no, i'd be checking out every box to make sure the back room inventory isn't all valiant/image from 1993/4. i'm not sure i'd even want to haul that stuff as i don't think i can even try to donate it to a kids thing.

[the blob]

When I buy large collections that have a lot of drek in them, I usually cut up the junk into "50 lots" (lots of 50 books, that fit easily into a medium flat rate priority box). I sell the lots on ebay for $5 each with $10 shipping, and surprisingly, I sell them alot! You are not making huge money, but you can use a simple picture of the stack, list what books are in your lot, and you make easy sales. This is especially helpful when you have 25 copies each of about 50 different books. You can make one auction, but list it multiple times.

 

That allows you to have some of the "better" stuff for the 50 cent and dollar boxes at shows.

 

I'm looking to do the same with a collection of 50 long boxes, and 22 short boxes, but I have to see if the owner is reasonable or not.

 

We will see.

 

Wow, I'm amazed that works, but I guess people see the "$5" and the $10 shipping is lost on them? Media would be even better, but that could be a problem potentially.

 

 

[MK Ultra]

When I buy large collections that have a lot of drek in them, I usually cut up the junk into "50 lots" (lots of 50 books, that fit easily into a medium flat rate priority box). I sell the lots on ebay for $5 each with $10 shipping, and surprisingly, I sell them alot! You are not making huge money, but you can use a simple picture of the stack, list what books are in your lot, and you make easy sales. This is especially helpful when you have 25 copies each of about 50 different books. You can make one auction, but list it multiple times.

 

That allows you to have some of the "better" stuff for the 50 cent and dollar boxes at shows.

 

I'm looking to do the same with a collection of 50 long boxes, and 22 short boxes, but I have to see if the owner is reasonable or not.

 

We will see.

 

Wow, I'm amazed that works, but I guess people see the "$5" and the $10 shipping is lost on them? Media would be even better, but that could be a problem potentially.

 

 

$15 for 50 books isn't a bad deal though. Especially for kids on an allowance, think of what they get to read and then trade with friends.

[Dr_Neff]

5 cents a book tops

can you imagine how many pages you are going to count

also don't bag and board thats adding another 12 cents a book

then you go to swap meet 25 cents each and 5x your loot. or like JM says the ebay thing but really what is return polcy? and your time to list with good photos.

And keeping track. . .

 

and Blob you know we take alla comics anyone can ever send

 

Comics4Kids, INC.

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Seattle, Wa 98104