$1 boxes for a show

[miraclemet]

Much depends on your plans. Is this a one time show that you hope to move most of your stuff in or is it an ongoing effort?

 

Rather than discount down so that 10 books cost $8, give two free books with a $10 purchase. People like FREE and you'll get more money.

 

He's giving two free with an $8 purchase. It's not much of a psychological difference. Asking for $10 can shy people if you are really offering comics only worth a dollar.

 

DG

 

Whoa. You're asking the seller to pony up $2 in change for every 10 book purchase? Crazy.

 

$10 bills or $20 bills are what people carry...

 

 

Pricing:

$1/book

12 for $10

25 for $20

 

If someone finds 8 books, they keep looking for 12 so they can get the $10 price.

If someone find 18 books they keep looking for 25 so they can get the $20 price.

 

Sure you have to keep some singles on hand for people who dont push their order up to the next tier, but most will, and that means mostly $5s and $10s in change.

 

People walk into cons with $20s, help them spend them, not break them.

[shadroch]

Means mo' money taken in, and mo' books disposed of. Most importantly- less books to take home. Not sure why, but a long box seems to weigh twice as much at the end of a show than at the beginning.

[sckao]

 

Right. One of the worst things is to have to give change back for every purchase.

 

 

[the blob]

The hope is always that you start out with, say, two eight foot tables or so of fresh stock at the start of the show, call it 24 longboxes. You sell for a couple hours, and hopefully you've moved mebbe 300 comics or so, and the boxes are looking a little empty. You can:

 

1. Refill from a spare box or two you had the forethought to drag along to to the show, or

 

2. Consolidate the boxes from left to right, pull out empty box 24 and offer a longbox of customer's choice for $150 or so

 

If folks are pulling nice long runs and plenty of hole fillers you can also offer it gratis to the next person with a big honkin' stack.

 

Repeat every hour or two and hopefully go home with about 18 of your 24 boxes and $1200 or so (A longbox holds more or less 200 bagged and boarded comics, or 250+ bagged and about 300 unbagged, if you're leaving sufficient room to thumb through easily)

 

Now. Some realistic math.

 

Two eight foot tables at the Detroit shows are $120 for the day, gas from outstate and back is $50 or so, you either pack your lunch or buy junkfood, add $10, boxes bags and boards for 5000 comics or so (depends on how you prep your stuff) no less than $75 or so even for bare books, plus lost time with friends and family: One Entire Sunday.

 

Figure on getting up at 5 or 6 AM, driving, setting up your tables, selling from 10 until 4, then breaking down, loading back up, and driving home, where you have to unload everything and put it back where it came from .....call it 12 to 14 hours depending on your drive time .

 

This does NOT include what you paid for the actual comics, the assumption is you either bought them for a nickel or less, or they're truly just "I don't give a carp, I need my garage back!" leftovers that you're trying to turn back into a bit of cash.

 

Figure in the many many hours you'll spend doing the prep for a show and you're working cheap! CHEAP, I tells ya!

 

Good thing that you Really Love Comic Books, isn't it?

 

You have to figure that a realistic nut for a one day show is about $350 plus or minus, so you don't put dollar one into your pocket until you sell your 351'st funnybook

 

Heh heh, and this is just the hobbyist, many brick and mortar dealers show up even at the one day shows with a hundred boxes or better

 

 

you are bumming me out!

 

this is why so many dealers are now doing mainly $2 boxes with maybe $1 boxes disorganized on the floor under the table.

[catrick339]

Not trying to bum anyone out, just trying to inject a bit of reality. If our buddy Paradigm heads out to his first show with dreams of a 60 percent sellthrough on dollar boxes he's likely to come home a bit disappointed.

 

There's fun to be had and even a little money to be made, but it's not guaranteed, and it is a lot of work.

 

Most of the enjoyment comes from hanging out with likeminded lunatics, plus the fact that if you're behind the table occasionally someone ambles up with something to sell....and there are still great funny books out there that show up at these sorts of affairs.

[shadroch]

That all depends what he has and, more importantly , what the other people at the show have.

If he brings 2,000 books and sells 25% of them, thats a nice days work.

[n2wdw]

I have 50 cent, $1 and $3 boxes when I do shows. I don't ever sort my stuff alphanumeric, and I don't see anyone bothered by it.

 

Then again, I only bring 2 short boxes and 1 long box to the shows I do, so people probably don't mind sorting through that many books.

 

I personally love sorting through unsorted boxes. Those are where the treasures usually are.

 

at the last local con I went to, there were a few dealers with 50 cent and dollar boxes, and they were all alphanumeric sorted. If you don't sort, then you're not going to get much traffic. The only time that I'd go through unsorted boxes is when I've already gone through all the other sorted boxes, but usually I don't have the time to do that.

[n2wdw]

The hope is always that you start out with, say, two eight foot tables or so of fresh stock at the start of the show, call it 24 longboxes. You sell for a couple hours, and hopefully you've moved mebbe 300 comics or so, and the boxes are looking a little empty. You can:

 

1. Refill from a spare box or two you had the forethought to drag along to to the show, or

 

2. Consolidate the boxes from left to right, pull out empty box 24 and offer a longbox of customer's choice for $150 or so

 

If folks are pulling nice long runs and plenty of hole fillers you can also offer it gratis to the next person with a big honkin' stack.

 

Repeat every hour or two and hopefully go home with about 18 of your 24 boxes and $1200 or so (A longbox holds more or less 200 bagged and boarded comics, or 250+ bagged and about 300 unbagged, if you're leaving sufficient room to thumb through easily)

 

Now. Some realistic math.

 

Two eight foot tables at the Detroit shows are $120 for the day, gas from outstate and back is $50 or so, you either pack your lunch or buy junkfood, add $10, boxes bags and boards for 5000 comics or so (depends on how you prep your stuff) no less than $75 or so even for bare books, plus lost time with friends and family: One Entire Sunday.

 

Figure on getting up at 5 or 6 AM, driving, setting up your tables, selling from 10 until 4, then breaking down, loading back up, and driving home, where you have to unload everything and put it back where it came from .....call it 12 to 14 hours depending on your drive time .

 

This does NOT include what you paid for the actual comics, the assumption is you either bought them for a nickel or less, or they're truly just "I don't give a carp, I need my garage back!" leftovers that you're trying to turn back into a bit of cash.

 

Figure in the many many hours you'll spend doing the prep for a show and you're working cheap! CHEAP, I tells ya!

 

Good thing that you Really Love Comic Books, isn't it?

 

You have to figure that a realistic nut for a one day show is about $350 plus or minus, so you don't put dollar one into your pocket until you sell your 351'st funnybook

 

Heh heh, and this is just the hobbyist, many brick and mortar dealers show up even at the one day shows with a hundred boxes or better

 

 

This is a great analysis. I love buying from 50 cent and dollar boxes (if they're sorted), but I've never understood how people make money from them.

[philippinescomics]

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where it is the only way to get rid of $1 comics as I have. Its a LOT of work with little pay. The only benefit is that the books are gone afterwards.

[G.A.tor]

I do both kinds of shows...the $1 on table shows, and the NYCC/SDCC type shows...

 

at my first $1 bin show, I brought 30 long boxes of "fresh" 1980-2007 inv, but had not alpha numerical sorted...I sold about 15%

 

I decided that for second show of this nature, I would ...

I sold 35% of same stock...

 

I put $1 books on top of table, and 2/$1 books on floor under table... and all my books (even 2/$1) are now alpha numerical...

 

fresh stock is key...don't carry same old tired stock...if you have $1 stock after a year, make it 2/$1...if you still have, go 4/$1...at some point, folks will realize the "value"

[aggr1103]

I also like the dealer who specializes in "complete" sets. Used to have a dealer in Michigan who would complete sets (usually between 6 and 50 issues of a mini, arc, or run) and bag them as one brick and put a price on them. Usually around $1 a book, sometimes lower). He always seemed to do well and have a busy table. Doesn't work if everyone does this, but if no one in your area does this you can be the sole provider to the market.

 

Could just be me, but every dealer that I see doing complete sets usually prices them higher than if you were to buy the books individually. I'd rather search out the books myself than buy them in sets for more than I know I could get elsewhere. That's just me though. I don't mind digging.

 

I know this doesn't work for one day shows until the last hour or so of the show, but I love watching $1 boxes turn into quarter boxes or 5/$1 boxes. That is the best time to dig through unorganized boxes imo.

[aggr1103]

People walk into cons with $20s, help them spend them, not break them.

 

A guy at Heroes last year had 75 cent boxes of unorganized stuff. Oddest thing I'd seen. If you had an odd number total, he lowered his price to an even number. Said he didn't want to deal in quarters. I was wondering why he priced at 75 cents if he didn't want to deal with quarters haha.

[catrick339]

I do both kinds of shows...the $1 on table shows, and the NYCC/SDCC type shows...

 

at my first $1 bin show, I brought 30 long boxes of "fresh" 1980-2007 inv, but had not alpha numerical sorted...I sold about 15%

 

I decided that for second show of this nature, I would ...

I sold 35% of same stock...

 

I put $1 books on top of table, and 2/$1 books on floor under table... and all my books (even 2/$1) are now alpha numerical...

 

fresh stock is key...don't carry same old tired stock...if you have $1 stock after a year, make it 2/$1...if you still have, go 4/$1...at some point, folks will realize the "value"

 

Yeah, what he said.

 

The next step down is to bulk out by the box. Your tired, shopworn stock in Tampa is spankin' new if it gets bought, consolidated with two or three other batches and set up in Charlotte.

[Artboy99]

People walk into cons with $20s, help them spend them, not break them.

 

A guy at Heroes last year had 75 cent boxes of unorganized stuff. Oddest thing I'd seen. If you had an odd number total, he lowered his price to an even number. Said he didn't want to deal in quarters. I was wondering why he priced at 75 cents if he didn't want to deal with quarters haha.

 

answer: everyone else has boxes at $1.00 per book

[aggr1103]

People walk into cons with $20s, help them spend them, not break them.

 

A guy at Heroes last year had 75 cent boxes of unorganized stuff. Oddest thing I'd seen. If you had an odd number total, he lowered his price to an even number. Said he didn't want to deal in quarters. I was wondering why he priced at 75 cents if he didn't want to deal with quarters haha.

 

answer: everyone else has boxes at $1.00 per book

 

I realized this, but why not price them at 50 cents?

[shadroch]

Because he'd make $25 more per hundred books sold.

[paradigmcomics]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. Some follow ups based on the previous comments:

 

I have noticed that about 8 of the boxes so far have a lot of full, or almost full runs, already in order. These runs consists primarily of all $1 books with the exception of a few they you might get a bit more for. Should I keep the runs together and sell them on eBay, realistically taking maybe .60 to .80 cents a book, but selling them all in one shot, or just put them out at the show for a $1, regardless if someone buys them all or just picks some.

 

I could also sell them as a run at the show itself, but I'm not sure how realistic it is for someone to buy an entire run of let's say X-Force Volume 1, 1-117 (I think that's the full run) at a show, at least I don't really ever see people selling in this format. On eBay is fairly common and seems to do alright.

 

Any thoughts here?

 

Also, I sell regularly on eBay so it's not really "a lot" of work for me to do this. It's probably easier for me to sell on eBay than at the show itself to be frank.

[miraclemet]

unless you are a dealer doing shows every week I think taking them to ebay for 60 cents on the dollar is the way to go. They get sold faster, and are gone at once.

 

as soon as you sell one comic out of the full run, the full run is worth far less on ebay, and it takes a year (or more) to sell those comics...

[bb8]

unless you are a dealer doing shows every week I think taking them to ebay for 60 cents on the dollar is the way to go. They get sold faster, and are gone at once.

 

as soon as you sell one comic out of the full run, the full run is worth far less on ebay, and it takes a year (or more) to sell those comics...

 

60 cents on the dollar seems kinda high for the ebay route (for what I get anywasy). It is a good way to offload a buncha books, though. Buyer can't pick and choose.

 

I'm thinking it might not be TOO unrealistic to offer big runs like that at shows as long as you give the buyer the option of picking it up just before they want to leave so as not to lug a longbox around the show.

[the blob]

Not trying to bum anyone out, just trying to inject a bit of reality. If our buddy Paradigm heads out to his first show with dreams of a 60 percent sellthrough on dollar boxes he's likely to come home a bit disappointed.

 

There's fun to be had and even a little money to be made, but it's not guaranteed, and it is a lot of work.

 

Most of the enjoyment comes from hanging out with likeminded lunatics, plus the fact that if you're behind the table occasionally someone ambles up with something to sell....and there are still great funny books out there that show up at these sorts of affairs.

 

i know, 1st show i did the sell-through was pretty bad, but my prices might have been a touch high. it was a learning experience. plus, it was 10 blocks from my house (one of the old carbonaro church basement shows), so at least i didn't have to lay out that much time and money for transport, though the table was expensive because it was right at the door.