Wow - Income Tax As An Argument for Lowballing - What Next?!?!?

[the blob]

I would think most full-time dealers expect to pay between 70% and 90% for key books. Would they rather pay 50%? Sure but that is unlikely if the seller is knowledgeable.

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70-90% sounds high, other than perahps for really really liquid primo slabbed stuff, not the stuff the OP was trying to sell. Are we talking about guide or GPA (for slabs)? "The Market" swings 0-50%+ on any given transaction, so if they're paying 70%, one has to thing from their perspective it will be of the lowest recent sale, not some GPA high or even a 6 month average.

 

And it's anyone's guess for raw books.

 

My local shop gets a decent trickle of decent books. In recent memory a slabbed X-Men 1, FF 1 - 5, X-Men 94, Avengers 1, Hulk 181, etc. He tells folks straight up on the phone that for the better stuff he is going to pay 20-50% of what he plans on selling it for, and for the lesser stuff, a whole lot less, yet he gets books.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I would think most full-time dealers expect to pay between 70% and 90% for key books. Would they rather pay 50%? Sure but that is unlikely if the seller is knowledgeable.

-----------------------------------

 

70-90% sounds high, other than perahps for really really liquid primo slabbed stuff, not the stuff the OP was trying to sell. Are we talking about guide or GPA (for slabs)? "The Market" swings 0-50%+ on any given transaction, so if they're paying 70%, one has to thing from their perspective it will be of the lowest recent sale, not some GPA high or even a 6 month average.

 

And it's anyone's guess for raw books.

 

My local shop gets a decent trickle of decent books. In recent memory a slabbed X-Men 1, FF 1 - 5, X-Men 94, Avengers 1, Hulk 181, etc. He tells folks straight up on the phone that for the better stuff he is going to pay 20-50% of what he plans on selling it for, and for the lesser stuff, a whole lot less, yet he gets books.

The point is that the 'buyer' is just full of s&$t, claiming to pay top dollar and then offering an extremely lowball offer on books I had already priced at or beneath GPA average.

 

The whole income tax angle just made me laugh, and that's why I posted it here.

[shadroch]

I would think most full-time dealers expect to pay between 70% and 90% for key books. Would they rather pay 50%? Sure but that is unlikely if the seller is knowledgeable.

-----------------------------------

 

70-90% sounds high, other than perahps for really really liquid primo slabbed stuff, not the stuff the OP was trying to sell. Are we talking about guide or GPA (for slabs)? "The Market" swings 0-50%+ on any given transaction, so if they're paying 70%, one has to thing from their perspective it will be of the lowest recent sale, not some GPA high or even a 6 month average.

 

And it's anyone's guess for raw books.

 

My local shop gets a decent trickle of decent books. In recent memory a slabbed X-Men 1, FF 1 - 5, X-Men 94, Avengers 1, Hulk 181, etc. He tells folks straight up on the phone that for the better stuff he is going to pay 20-50% of what he plans on selling it for, and for the lesser stuff, a whole lot less, yet he gets books.

 

 

Was anyone on Craigs List paying more than this guy? If not, his statement has some validity. Its advertising rhetoric. I don't understand why it upset you so.

Look thru Overstreet and you'll see a dozen ads promising to pay the most. All but one of them can't be right.

The market for HG Bronze is not exactly booming right now. Books like the ones you offered are well down from their highs according to the market reports in OSPG.

 

 

[thehumantorch]

The buyer was trying to pay as little as possible?

Shame on him. Why, thats down right un-American.

People like that should be shot. then drawn and quartered, and their bodies left to rot on a pole. Imagine if his degenerate way of thinking was to become common?

 

Any buyer will want to pay as little as possible just as any buyer will want to get as much as possible. The sale will happen when the two sides find common ground.

 

And my 70%-90% comment would apply to strong keys that sell easily. Hell, Harley cherry picked me at the last show I set up at and paid 100% of market for some keys. I can only assume he'll price them well over market and find a buyer.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I would think most full-time dealers expect to pay between 70% and 90% for key books. Would they rather pay 50%? Sure but that is unlikely if the seller is knowledgeable.

-----------------------------------

 

70-90% sounds high, other than perahps for really really liquid primo slabbed stuff, not the stuff the OP was trying to sell. Are we talking about guide or GPA (for slabs)? "The Market" swings 0-50%+ on any given transaction, so if they're paying 70%, one has to thing from their perspective it will be of the lowest recent sale, not some GPA high or even a 6 month average.

 

And it's anyone's guess for raw books.

 

My local shop gets a decent trickle of decent books. In recent memory a slabbed X-Men 1, FF 1 - 5, X-Men 94, Avengers 1, Hulk 181, etc. He tells folks straight up on the phone that for the better stuff he is going to pay 20-50% of what he plans on selling it for, and for the lesser stuff, a whole lot less, yet he gets books.

 

 

Was anyone on Craigs List paying more than this guy? If not, his statement has some validity. Its advertising rhetoric. I don't understand why it upset you so.

Look thru Overstreet and you'll see a dozen ads promising to pay the most. All but one of them can't be right.

The market for HG Bronze is not exactly booming right now. Books like the ones you offered are well down from their highs according to the market reports in OSPG.

 

So what are you saying in regards to market value then? GPA average is no longer relevant? As I said they were priced at or below GPA. How much lower is one going to go? I wasn't asking anywhere near the highs. I'm well aware of the HG Bronze decline, which is why I've already sold 90% of mine. If I were to sell them to this guy I'd be getting about 30-40% of GPA average for them. No thanks. Actually, most of the books I'm offering have actually risen in value (in their respective grades) the past 12 months after a steady decline the last several years.

 

The guy is obviously a reseller and he should make that clear in his ad as opposed to making it seem like he's a collector looking to pay fair prices. I'm not going waste my time with someone like that when I can just offer them at market value at the big local con in a few weeks, and probably sell half of them to someone like HARLEY YEE, for instance, for 80-90% of my asking price. It's crazy. He often buys my keys, as well as my buddy's, for almost full asking price, so it tells me people are ready and willing to pay top dollar, just not this income tax joker.

 

I don't know what it's like elsewhere, but my local CRAIGSLIST is littered with fly-by-night dealers and folks out to make a quick buck. I have met so few actual collectors through it.

[the blob]

I would think most full-time dealers expect to pay between 70% and 90% for key books. Would they rather pay 50%? Sure but that is unlikely if the seller is knowledgeable.

-----------------------------------

 

70-90% sounds high, other than perahps for really really liquid primo slabbed stuff, not the stuff the OP was trying to sell. Are we talking about guide or GPA (for slabs)? "The Market" swings 0-50%+ on any given transaction, so if they're paying 70%, one has to thing from their perspective it will be of the lowest recent sale, not some GPA high or even a 6 month average.

 

And it's anyone's guess for raw books.

 

My local shop gets a decent trickle of decent books. In recent memory a slabbed X-Men 1, FF 1 - 5, X-Men 94, Avengers 1, Hulk 181, etc. He tells folks straight up on the phone that for the better stuff he is going to pay 20-50% of what he plans on selling it for, and for the lesser stuff, a whole lot less, yet he gets books.

The point is that the 'buyer' is just full of s&$t, claiming to pay top dollar and then offering an extremely lowball offer on books I had already priced at or beneath GPA average.

 

The whole income tax angle just made me laugh, and that's why I posted it here.

 

50% of "current value" could very well be "top dollar" for that area. Other than maybe Metropolis for very good stuff, I have my doubts there is a dealer in NYC (a pretty big market) who would pay more than that, for example. True, there are going to be exceptions when a dealer knows there's a quicky easy liquid flip (unlike on an 8,5 MS 5, dd 168, etc.)...I was once in Roger's shop and he paid $300 for a particular low grade copy of a major major key, when the guy walked out, he offered it to me for $400 and was going to put it up on his wall if I didn't want it for $500-$600, he had not decided. So I guess that's 50-60% right there. The item would have been gone in 0-4 days at that price, which is why he was willing to pay $300 given that he knew he had an instant $100 flip within 10 seconds and likely $200 in a few days. Most of us would do the same.

[the blob]

 

So what are you saying in regards to market value then? GPA average is no longer relevant? As I said they were priced at or below GPA.

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I would suspect that 80-90% of comic shop owners who sell vintage material have no idea what GPA is, 60%+ of dealers who sell at shows have likely never used it and, heck, 30-80% of folks who sell on the interweb probably don't know what the averages are for their books even if they have some dim awareness of the service. I know I have never considered a GPA figure in any pricing decision I have ever made, though I do look at past ebay sales and (depending on th book) heritage sales (as well as what metropolis might be selling it for if we're talking GA).

 

And were I buying for resale I wouldn't pay a lot of attention to those averages either, particularly if I'm selling via auction. Unless you have a lot of money and a big margin for error you'd need to take a guess at what the absolute FLOOR for the item is and then offer some % of that so that you can have a profit.

 

A collector can look at those averages and decide they're getting a good enough deal, particularly if they are going to buy and hold. A flipper cannot.

 

Harley is potentially a different story. Like Metropolis he isn't necessarily a quick flipper. He buys prime stuff and the guy is not worried about sitting on inventory given his prices. He'll sell when he sells, give his discount to a big spender when need be, etc.