Ever Been In A LCS and Then....

[Shaven Kev-migration]

unless you were buying them to flip at a huge profit or something I'd tell him to shove the lot up his azz and walk out...

[violentluke]

At least it is not a store that has no prices & cracks open the guide every time you want to buy back issues

 

But yes that is a low thing to do if prices are already on the book

 

There's a shop here like that too. Shop owner actually quoted me a price of minus paypal fees/minus ebay fees/minus his time to go to the post office on some books once. I guess I get it if you're not a customer with a pull list then why should they let you flip and make the online buck. But it's still like "But I'm standing INSIDE your store", which means I A. took my time to drive over here and B. I'm here willing to spend money now. If you want an online business, close your doors yeah?

 

 

I know which store your talking about, its annoying

 

Which ones?

I believe hes talking about Mammoth comics

[BlowUpTheMoon]

unless you were buying them to flip at a huge profit or something I'd tell him to shove the lot up his azz and walk out...

 

Really?

[Comicdey]

I pulled a copy of a book I'd been looking to find for years from a store's bins. Brought it to the front to pay and was told the book was rare and it wasn't for sale. I now have three copies...thank you Internet.

[Ken Aldred]

This has happened to me in the past. Several times.

 

If I've spent a lot of money with the retailer, then the experience would be deeply disappointing, and would start killing my interest, my motivation in going to the effort and expense of loyally visiting their store every week. When I get completely bored with their antics, the hole they've dug is so deep that I never go back. 52 or so potentially lucrative visits a year, down to zero.

[comicstock]

There's a shop in the northeast that would advertise a big half-off sale a couple tiimes a year, then actually take the time to DOUBLE sticker prices on the wall books and anything else that they didn't want to move at half the 'regular' price. This included doubling prices on supplies. No kidding! This happened throughout the 90s and they're still in business.

[Gatsby77]

I've had the "look up in Overstreet" move work in my favor, too.

 

About 7 years ago I was at Capital City Comics in Madison, Wisconsin. They had most of their back issues stored separately in a back room or basement.

 

I gave them a want list of some Valiant gold/variant books and they came back with a small stack. The guy then looked them up in Overstreets.

 

For less than $25 total I thus picked up Harbinger 0 pink, Armorines 0 standalone, Unity 0 red, and Hard Corps 1 gold.

[Trev]

I've been going back and forth on this. My first instinct was that they should honor the price on the book and if they didn't take the time to mark it up, that's their loss.

 

But then I started to think about how often we ask a dealer to lower a marked price when we buy from them. Especially for back issues.

 

If a dealer routinely marks down items for you when you are buying random issues, then I think it within their right if you bring them a hot issue that they missed, for them to say that they missed it and to mark it up.

 

Now, if it's just a random issue you picked up and they raise the price at the register bec. they know they've now got a buyer, then I would walk. And most likely never come back. And share my experience with others.

 

There's a difference between lazy inventory mgmt and missing something that suddenly got hot. If I have a good relationship with my lcs and they routinely deal with me fairly, I would expect it to be a two way street.

 

Now, my lcs has firmly established that they don't negotiate prices and the only way to get a better price is to wait for a sale. In that case, if they tried to raise the price at the register, I would probably be pretty upset. Because they established the ground rules that the price on the book is the price.

[ComicConnoisseur]

The price goes up on some books you took up to the front counter?

 

This has happened to me twice at two different shops in the last month. I'll just give you today's example:

 

I went long box diving and pulled some Thanos related books that were kind of cooled off prior to the Avengers movie, but now are getting hot online, so anyway earlier today I pulled some books and then took them to the register and the price went up by a dollar per book. Shop owner said he had forgotten they were in the boxes, which a dollar per was okay and still in line with what I wanted to pay, but it seemed almost like a bad business move considering I also had a stack of about $50 worth of new titles I had just pulled off the racks.

 

I still took them but it seemed a little bit....hmm...off?

 

In the real world of business what he did was called Bait-and-switch,which is considered fraud.

Yes it was a long-term bad business move on his part,as word will spread now of his ethics. Did he really need to make an extra few bucks on these? Sounds like he was a little p-o'd that he didn`t take them out of his long boxes in time to raise the prices. Kudos to you comicalgems,as you did your homework,unfortunately the lcs wasn`t too happy about it.

[G.A.tor]

While not the same as this example I have had folks bring up back issues to me that they found in my $1 or 2/$1 bins that were actually $2-10 books from other boxes. Sometimes this is intentional and sometimes higher priced books do actually accidentally end up, over time, in the wrong boxes. That is the only time I have ever corrected a price at the register (of course our higher priced books are all marked as such but sometimes folks don't see)

[ComicConnoisseur]

I've been going back and forth on this. My first instinct was that they should honor the price on the book and if they didn't take the time to mark it up, that's their loss.

 

But then I started to think about how often we ask a dealer to lower a marked price when we buy from them. Especially for back issues.

 

If a dealer routinely marks down items for you when you are buying random issues, then I think it within their right if you bring them a hot issue that they missed, for them to say that they missed it and to mark it up.

 

Now, if it's just a random issue you picked up and they raise the price at the register bec. they know they've now got a buyer, then I would walk. And most likely never come back. And share my experience with others.

 

There's a difference between lazy inventory mgmt and missing something that suddenly got hot. If I have a good relationship with my lcs and they routinely deal with me fairly, I would expect it to be a two way street.

 

Now, my lcs has firmly established that they don't negotiate prices and the only way to get a better price is to wait for a sale. In that case, if they tried to raise the price at the register, I would probably be pretty upset. Because they established the ground rules that the price on the book is the price.

I bet if you brought in $500 to $1000, and said I will spend that amount as long as you give me 30 to 40 percent off of what you have at cover that they will negotiate right then and there and do a deal!

The established price rules that they put on their comic books will be thrown out the window! I have yet to meet a comic book dealer who didn`t want to negotiate,as you got think most of their comic books have just been sitting there for years. Try this method and I bet your results will vastly improve.

[Ken Aldred]

The most pitiful example of this, in my experience, back in the mid 90s.

 

A stall selling comics opened in an indoor market, downtown.  I'm told by the guy that because it's the first day there can be some bargains, so all the unbagged comics are 25p, about 40c.  I find a copy of Power Man and Iron Fist 78, with the third appearance of Sabretooth, very nice condition. I think to myself, yes, that's worth about 25p.  (Not actually hard to find over here). I hand the book over, and immediately a copy of Overstreet gets whipped out, and he starts greedily flicking through it.  

'Right, let's have a look at that one!'.

 

I don't recall what the book would've been valued at in the guide back then, but you just felt you were going to be gouged for NM, so $10, $15 plus?

 

I remember saying, "Well, you lasted a long time, didn't you?", then turning my back and getting as far away as possible. 

[Speedy-D]

unless you were buying them to flip at a huge profit or something I'd tell him to shove the lot up his azz and walk out...

What, no pistol whipping? Your sociopathy is slipping.

[Detroit MIke]

I accidentally had a first appearance of Hellboy in my quarter box, so I sold it for a quarter. I don't think it's smart to do otherwise. It's not going to break me.

 

I had one LCS quote me prices from one guide, then pull out the new guide when I got to the register. They weren't hot books, just average stuff. I quit buying my new books there. I hope the extra $5 was worth it for them? Thank you CC in Roseville.

[epowe10097]

If the business owner wants more for the books then he should be pulling the books and changing the prices *before* someone tries to buy them. If he forgets then tough mess.

 

There is a certain shop in the Atlanta area that is (was?) notorious for this. I haven't been back to that store in years, but this was their exact M.O. Not just that but they went from "guide" to "guide", OS for older books, Wizard for newer books. So with no price on the bag, it was a shoot until you got to the register.

[comicalgems]

I actually feel lIke pizza hut pulled a bait and switch on me two days ago their special is "two large pizzas any way you want them" and so I ordered two pepperoni with stuffed crust and then was told after I ordered that stuffed crust is $2 extra per pizza.

 

I'm fine with price guide method but checking eBay seems a bit self defeating. One thing I've noticed on price guide method is that you can usually still get a discount when you ask. Mentioning you have your pull list elsewhere helps sometimes and paying full price helps on future deals. Lets the owner know you're not going to haggle every time....or buying multiple items at full price and asking for a discount on one also seems to help.

[bug33fouf]

I would have left all books on counter and walked out the door.

and told all my friends about the visit.

[Ryan.]

Man, I thought this behavior was totally normal. It's not uncommon at all to have fluid prices on books once they are brought to the register. Whenever I find some random hot book in the bins with an obviously too-low price tag I automatically assume that the price will be "corrected" once the shop owner gets a gander at it.

 

The most egregious examples of this usually occur during shop sales. "Everything in the shop half off" generally means "everything except for A, B, C, D..." I remember back around 1999 or so there was a half-off sale at a local store and they had a Dark Knight Returns HC on a shelf with no sticker on it. I naturally assumed it was half off the cover price (which is, what, $24.95 or something?) but when I brought it to the counter expecting to pay about $12 the owner became agitated and said, "Woah, woah now, this isn't eligible for half off! This is $50." Of course I still bought it because I was a wee lad who didn't know any better. This happened well over a decade ago and I still remember that every time I look at the DKR HC on my bookshelf.

 

On the flip side, some of these same shops automatically discount books when I bring them up to the register because I've been going there for so long, so there's that too.

[Trev]

The price goes up on some books you took up to the front counter?

 

This has happened to me twice at two different shops in the last month. I'll just give you today's example:

 

I went long box diving and pulled some Thanos related books that were kind of cooled off prior to the Avengers movie, but now are getting hot online, so anyway earlier today I pulled some books and then took them to the register and the price went up by a dollar per book. Shop owner said he had forgotten they were in the boxes, which a dollar per was okay and still in line with what I wanted to pay, but it seemed almost like a bad business move considering I also had a stack of about $50 worth of new titles I had just pulled off the racks.

 

I still took them but it seemed a little bit....hmm...off?

 

In the real world of business what he did was called Bait-and-switch,which is considered fraud.

Yes it was a long-term bad business move on his part,as word will spread now of his ethics. Did he really need to make an extra few bucks on these? Sounds like he was a little p-o'd that he didn`t take them out of his long boxes in time to raise the prices. Kudos to you comicalgems,as you did your homework,unfortunately the lcs wasn`t too happy about it.

 

Actually it wasn't. Bait and switch involves advertising. If he advertised a book at a low price but never had any at that price and would only sell it or similar at higher price, that's bait and switch.

 

It's why you always see ads at Xmas that say 'quantities limited' or 'at least x per store'

[rtecbot]

You can steal my new move - I created it at a show earlier this year where books had no prices and a guy quoted me "eBay prices".

 

What I do is drop the book like a hot potato and allow it to hit the floor then step over said book and walk away, thus causing the dealer to have to come from behind his table and pick up the possibly damaged book.

Then you have to deal with the saying "You broke it you bought it" if it is damaged. I would put the book back in the boxes in the wrong places. If the store does not have the time to price their books they probably don't organize them either.