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Moderns that are heating up on ebay!
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Started by thirdgreenham,

63,832 posts in this topic

Whizzer

Whizzer

Posted
Posted
I have some sympathy for smaller retailers with small customer bases. Being able to arbitrage a book like Batgirl 13 can really make a difference to a struggling business if they can do it often enough.

 

If you can do big volume on regular books, plus make the most of variant sales it's actually an exciting time to be selling new comics. Despite a lot of the naysaying on here I'm seeing unprecedented enthusiasm from customers new and old at the moment.

 

It's a great time for comics, it's a tough time for comics.

Lots of new customers and some great new stories but

those new people paying £9.95 on Ebay for a 6 day old comic

won't stick around when the stories over and the price goes down.

They'll be off like they were in the 90s.

I'm looking after the people who'll appreciate loyalty and good gestures

speculators can fend for themselves

 

Absolutely right, there is no better way to build a strong, loyal and growing customer base than by giving great service at a fair price. The occasional giveaway and loyalty reward doesn't hurt either. Squeezing every last penny out of a sale is the ultimate in short termism and the reason why bad businesses fail.

 

It's the old car sales adage; you don't sell a man a car, you sell him three cars over 15 years.

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Whizzer

Whizzer

Posted
Posted
Larry, the sad part is that what you do for your customers is becoming the exception, not the rule. I think it is a result of more and more speculation, more and more people who got out of comics in the 90's returning to the industry and a product of the poor economy (some stores need to do that to keep there lights on). In reality, I probably shouldn't be upset about it either. I don't know how comic shops compete with DCBS for subscribers. My LCS gives its subscribers no discount and charges them for their copy of Previews magazine. lol This is off topic, but it didn't make sense to start a new thread since its not about the Walking Dead.

 

"Originally Posted By: LarrysComics

At NYCC, I sold 100 Batman #13's for $5 ea & 100 Batgirls for $15 ea BY noontime Saturday."

 

 

I guess these customers were just ripe for picking then (shrug)

 

Nice selective post.

Lets call it a lie of omission, shall we?

 

You may not agree with my logic, BUT You missed this:

 

I figure online & conventions are fair game to charge whatever the market will bear & I order for all classes of my business.

 

No, you miss my point.

Are they not customers?

 

Things don't work that way at cons. Think about it this way:

 

Say Larry has a stack of 100 Batgirl 13's on hist table for cover price and they are $20 everywhere else. Every dealer will try to buy them from him, hand him $400 for the stack immediately, etc, and then just add them to their $20 stack at their table.

 

Trying to limit the number books being purchased to one per customer has the same effect. Every dealer gets everyone they have working for them to go buy one. Every person who sees the great price gets everyone they know at the show to buy one, and maybe even enlist people they don't know. You get a whole mess of people who come to the booth, buy that book, and leave.

 

It's a whole different ballgame.

 

 

 

Great post. It is a different beast due to the reasons you mention.

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CBT

CBT

Posted
Posted (edited)
the Walking Dead No. 1 is selling for $800 raw and $1,600 in 9.8 ... it's not a bad time to be a collector of bronze, copper, silver and golden age books though. Personally, I think we're all crazy for spending the money we do on modern comics when you can score real treasure at reasonable prices. That being said, I think the market for modern comics is really fluid.

 

I agree with you, and I think people often forget markets move in two directions. Inflation will always ensure comics with stable prices continue to "rise". The older books with their long sales histories dont move up or down very quickly, but more with the market as a whole.

 

Modern comics are almost by definition speculative plays. A lot of money can be made quickly, if you purchase what no one wants, and then it becomes desirable. The problem is that it can go both ways. If a large portion of Walking Dead's value if from a successful TV show, and other moderns are chased as the "next" walking dead.....What happens to the modern comic market once Walking Dead no longer has a TV Show? Does that then set the maximum possible value for a modern comic? Do prices then go down? Does that limit the possible upside on all other tv/movie based speculative books?

Edited by CBT
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500Club

500Club

Posted
Posted
Larry, the sad part is that what you do for your customers is becoming the exception, not the rule. I think it is a result of more and more speculation, more and more people who got out of comics in the 90's returning to the industry and a product of the poor economy (some stores need to do that to keep there lights on). In reality, I probably shouldn't be upset about it either. I don't know how comic shops compete with DCBS for subscribers. My LCS gives its subscribers no discount and charges them for their copy of Previews magazine. lol This is off topic, but it didn't make sense to start a new thread since its not about the Walking Dead.

 

"Originally Posted By: LarrysComics

At NYCC, I sold 100 Batman #13's for $5 ea & 100 Batgirls for $15 ea BY noontime Saturday."

 

 

I guess these customers were just ripe for picking then (shrug)

 

Nice selective post.

Lets call it a lie of omission, shall we?

 

You may not agree with my logic, BUT You missed this:

 

I figure online & conventions are fair game to charge whatever the market will bear & I order for all classes of my business.

 

No, you miss my point.

Are they not customers?

 

Why don't you ease your Larry hardon into some other space? (thumbs u

+1

 

The guy is already going over and above selling at cover in his store, probably to arbs like us who are flipping on eBay.

 

He doesn't need to play Santa Claus at a major convention.

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the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted (edited)
At NYCC, I sold 100 Batman #13's for $5 ea & 100 Batgirls for $15 ea BY noontime Saturday.

 

Batman was priced to $10, & Batgirl $20 on other tables.

 

It will be pretty funny in a few weeks when the same ole board members remind me what a terrible speculation play the Bat 13's were.

 

 

I think the Batman sales/prices are more of a captive audience at nycc than anything else. all four comic shops I went to on friday (2) and sunday (2) had plenty of copies of batman 13.

 

the batgirls were sold out.

 

i'm really ticked off that i passed on the cool joker variant cover at a shop i was at on wed (that had tons of both batman anf batgirld) at $4.99 a pop.

Edited by the blob
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the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted
At NYCC, I sold 100 Batman #13's for $5 ea & 100 Batgirls for $15 ea BY noontime Saturday.

 

Batman was priced to $10, & Batgirl $20 on other tables.

 

It will be pretty funny in a few weeks when the same ole board members remind me what a terrible speculation play the Bat 13's were.

 

You do realize the title of the thread implies sales on Ebay, right? No one has ever faulted you for being able to make sales in person, at your store or a con. But that's not really helping folks here. Plus, selling books for $1 above cover also doesn't really help people here. 1) Most folks here don't have your sales avenue: B&M and cons; and 2) Most don't have your discount off cover, likely 50% or so.

 

I, for one, don't mind you posting your picks here. It's the crowing of "wins", like your post above, that are grating. Especially, when they aren't really wins which are replicable.

 

the batgirl 13 sales are somewhat replicable. actually, i think someone here sold copies for more than $15/each.

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Boozad

Boozad

Posted
Posted
I have some sympathy for smaller retailers with small customer bases. Being able to arbitrage a book like Batgirl 13 can really make a difference to a struggling business if they can do it often enough.

 

If you can do big volume on regular books, plus make the most of variant sales it's actually an exciting time to be selling new comics. Despite a lot of the naysaying on here I'm seeing unprecedented enthusiasm from customers new and old at the moment.

 

It's a great time for comics, it's a tough time for comics.

Lots of new customers and some great new stories but

those new people paying £9.95 on Ebay for a 6 day old comic

won't stick around when the stories over and the price goes down.

They'll be off like they were in the 90s.

I'm looking after the people who'll appreciate loyalty and good gestures

speculators can fend for themselves

 

Absolutely right, there is no better way to build a strong, loyal and growing customer base than by giving great service at a fair price. The occasional giveaway and loyalty reward doesn't hurt either. Squeezing every last penny out of a sale is the ultimate in short termism and the reason why bad businesses fail.

 

songsaboutclouds certainly does look after his customers, I'll vouch for that straight off.

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the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted
Larry, the sad part is that what you do for your customers is becoming the exception, not the rule. I think it is a result of more and more speculation, more and more people who got out of comics in the 90's returning to the industry and a product of the poor economy (some stores need to do that to keep there lights on). In reality, I probably shouldn't be upset about it either. I don't know how comic shops compete with DCBS for subscribers. My LCS gives its subscribers no discount and charges them for their copy of Previews magazine. lol This is off topic, but it didn't make sense to start a new thread since its not about the Walking Dead.

 

"Originally Posted By: LarrysComics

At NYCC, I sold 100 Batman #13's for $5 ea & 100 Batgirls for $15 ea BY noontime Saturday."

 

 

I guess these customers were just ripe for picking then (shrug)

 

In Larry's defense...

 

1) NYCC customers are, by and large, not his store's walk in/file customers (some might be, eventually)

 

2) He needs to make an extra profit to cover the ginormous cost of NYCC tables

 

3) While I don't think anyone in their right mind was paying $10 a pop for Batman 13 given that every shop in NYC seemingly has a ton of them, so I dunno if what others were trying to charge on that was so relevant, he was basically charging ebay prices for them and people may have had an incentive to get them then and there (i assume some of the talent was around for signing?)

 

And man oh man am I pissed off that I didn't buy a stack of Batgirl 13s on friday when i had the chance! I could really use it now, just got money set aside for roof repair and then my car starts having electrical problems and you know that's going to cost an arm and a leg to fix.

 

 

Personally, I don't really understand the speculating on moderns, but at least some of the moderns over the last 6-12 months have had some staying power as back isues.

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LarrysComics

LarrysComics

Posted
Posted (edited)

Phone rang ALL day for the Bat-13's

 

Just got word that there will be No overcovers on the second prints of Batman, Batgirl & Catwoman #13.

 

Expect a nice price spike in first printings this week. The original overcover is a superb graphic, that will be dropping jaws for decades. It's a classic

NEVER underestimate what a Joker fan is willing to pay.

 

tnoZu.jpg

 

 

Edited by LarrysComics
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