East of West 1 1

[krighton]

I don't believe in the bubble

[mschmidt]

don't worry, I'm sure viperdays is doing his best to drive the price into the ground

 

I saw a few of his items and based on the price he made some coin on them.

 

buying 100 of every Image 1st means you get the winners, and all the losers too.

 

Very true. I think that Viperdays has probably bought some clunkers (I know that I have with Clone, Black Acre and Punk Rock Jesus - I know it was a mini, but I thought it was that good). However just one of the successes (Saga, NWM, East of West) more than covers all of the cash spent on the clunkers, especially if he is buying 50 percent off a DCB or 35 percent off at TFAW.

 

this thread has already more than enough corvettenights. I have posted plenty of his auctions to show lots of books that end up going for under cover. One would be much better off, if attempting to do what he is, to start a diamond account. He can talk all he wants about rolling in grands, he is barely making above minimum wage, and doing it on massive inventory/low margins. When the modern bubble bursts, it'll all be a net zero sum game as the huge inventory on that day, will negate any profits up until then.

 

It's much better and easier, to be well informed, buy in smaller amounts, and sell very high margin "value added" books. jjeanius/court is a quick example that comes to mind. Anyway, all these "plays" are becoming so crowded lots of people are going to end up getting burned bad when things dislocate.

 

Spot-on :thumbsup:

[Mashed Potatoes-migration]

I agree that one should be more selective in purchasing comics as investments, picking comics one by one like a sniper rather than taking a tommy gun to the new releases and spraying them all. I don't buy more than six comics a year for investments. I buy a ton for my own reading enjoyment, but only six in bulk for investment. My six for this year are/were Helheim, Sex, East of West, Lazarus, Pretty Deadly and Sex Criminals. Viperdays could better maximize profits by being more selective, but he is making coin doing what he does. The main thing with Viper is that he is not buying his preorders at cover, he is buying at 50 percent off, so he still breaks even when he sells below cover, or even makes a very thin profit margin. What makes him "grands" is when he buys a #1 for 1.50 and sells it for 10, 20, 30....80 dollars if he held inventory long enough.

 

What Viperdays has done over the last year has worked so far. The math proves it out. If he bought 5 different comic books that bombed at 250 copies each from DCB preorders at 50 percent off (1.50 each), that means that he spent 1,875 dollars. One investment at 250 copies of Saga or NWM or East of West covers this entire loss and makes him money. Dumping all copies of a good investment comic at 10 dollars gets him 2500 versus the expense of 1,875 on his 5 clunkers and 375 for buying the good investment comic. But he is not losing all of his investment on the 5 books that bombed. If he sold them for one dollar each, his loss is 875, versus the money he made on SAGA and other 1s that hit...Revival, NWM, PP, EOW. He is not making minimum wage. Based on his volume and how smart he was to not dump all the books immediately, he could have easily made more than 20k last year by just packing comic books 10 or 5 at a time. If he averaged 20 for SAga or PP, that's 5k. If he averaged 40 dollars on 250 copies, that is 10k.

 

I agree with CBT that this is a bubble that will pop. People flood in when there is easy money. I don't agree with the Diamond comment. I don't think that the savings from the Diamond discounts outweigh the additional expense. To have a Diamond account, you need to have a business license, which requires you to incorporate (s corp, sub s, LLC, LP, etc.). This subjects you to certain city, state and federal taxes on income that I doubt most comic sellers at shows, eBay, etc are reporting. In addition, states like CA have minimum franchise taxes regardless if you make a profit or not. In CA, you have to pay 800 in Q1 of every year. On top of this, reporting and filing for a corp is a pain in the . If you have to spend time doing all the proper accounting and filings for the corp, and spend time shipping books, then he will truly be making minimum wage. One last thing, I believe that Diamond requires that you have a fully functioning eCommerce web site for orders if you don't have a retail storefront, and won't allow you to buy from them if you are just an eBayer. So the cost of a eCommerce site further kills the margins.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Mashed Potatoes

[ItsJustRyan]

I don't believe in the bubble

[ItsJustRyan]

Bubble talk is futile. No one knows tomorrow. IMHO, it equates to the Mayan calendar, Nostradamus, the Loch Ness Monster, and the theory of Atlantas.

 

All (all) markets have corrections, ups, downs, side to side (Karate Kid), but like the stock market, past performance doesn't dictate future trends. Too many variables are in play to predict gloom and doom OR fields of gold (Sting).

 

Have fun. Don't go all in on any one title. Listen to CBT. I mess with him but he's really bright and shiny.

[krighton]

I only listen to the voices in my head....no room for any more than that.

[CBT]

Spot-on :thumbsup:

 

Cheers

 

 

viperdays...

 

he started with stuff like spider-man to get variants, and sold many MANY reg covers below cover as well (though possibly more than he paid, not much). His first and only hit with Image was NWM, but there's plenty of black acre, think tanks, clone, great pacific, bedlam etc etc etc in there. He was not doing it for Saga, PP, ToT, Revival, etc

 

I dont really want to center him out, and derail this thread when he finally decides to argue back. The main point I was making was that the winners are massively outnumbered by the losers, buying 100s of books a month MAKES you a comics retailer whether you are committing tax fraud or not is a side issue. There are places to pre-order at deep discounts, but no reason to pay a middle-man if you spending that much a month on inventory.

 

 

Santa Claus and other things

 

I dont come on wanting to be Cassandra, but sometimes I feel like its taboo to actually consider the downside to things too. I kind of have issues ( no doubt ) with censorship and groupthink type behaviour. I know there are more people out there thinking some of the things I say, I just am to stubborn not to speak up and say it.

 

If i didnt think there wasnt money to be made flipping comics, I wouldnt talk about it so much, nor would I buy multiple copies of modern books. The two books I have believed in so far in 2013, I started the threads for.

 

East of West

&

Star Wars

 

Both are doing great (though the latter is out from under the eye of sauron's right now for some reason, but hitting great prices), and people following my advice would be doing pretty good this year with those. Also, Chew is down $80 bucks from it's GPA since the TV failure announcement, Saga has dipped hard including the RRP, PP 8s and 9s are NOT rare in grade, NWM orange and blue pulled back hard.

 

, that's just off the top of my head things I can think of I have taken flak for commenting on. I think I am just naturally a contrarian, and when so many people are trying to do the same thing, you often want to be doing the opposite.

 

I don't like being negative on certain books, or the overall market. But, I do think when so much talk becomes "everything is going to go up", or "this time its different", its worth at the very least DISCUSSING the downside, or negative possible side of things.

 

 

 

[Jking3437]

Peter panzerfaust is going strong still , not insane prices like 2 months ago, but you can grab a 9.8 of anything over 5 for about 100

[CBT]

Peter panzerfaust is going strong still , not insane prices like 2 months ago, but you can grab a 9.8 of anything over 5 for about 100

 

it did dip/struggle for a little bit, but yes, not as long or as far as I thought. I'd still be selling all day long, any and all PP. Though if you have a full set of 9.8s, I'd consider holding it until right before the motion comic.

 

If people want to pay that kind of money for already slabbed books, do it for 6th gun.

[ItsJustRyan]

Everything you said CBT..... True.

 

One thing you haven't considered. This forum is not the center of the comic universe. For every one of us, there's a thousand people who read comics and don't know what's coming out next Wednesday. Just a thought.....

 

PS: you're still the great and powerful Oz in my book

[CBT]

Everything you said CBT..... True.

 

One thing you haven't considered. This forum is not the center of the comic universe. For every one of us, there's a thousand people who read comics and don't know what's coming out next Wednesday. Just a thought.....

 

PS: you're still the great and powerful Oz in my book

 

, if only I had more disposable income for comics, I have like 300 books I want to slab, but am trying to only pay for comics with comics

[krighton]

Every time I read someone going on about the bubble I get the image of Johnny Carson in that genies hat holding a letter to his forehead

[ThoseBackPages]

i on the bubble

[ItsJustRyan]

Every time I read someone going on about the bubble I get the image of Johnny Carson in that genies hat holding a letter to his forehead

The answer is..... Outsourcing. Outsourcing shall destroy the comic market in North America

 

Sounded good

 

 

[CBT]

Every time I read someone going on about the bubble I get the image of Johnny Carson in that genies hat holding a letter to his forehead

 

well, for future people who want to quote me, I also always say this:

 

As long as debt is so cheap, the comic bubble will never collapse. It will be the world economy (2008 = first shoe, the other shoe is still to come...) that obliterates comics and everything else.

 

But after that, hyperinflation will actually make them, and anything else physical a good investment . As long as you can still buy bread, hang on to the comics until the other side

 

i'll take 9999 over 9.8 all day

Edited April 5, 2013 by CBT

[Mashed Potatoes-migration]

CBT,

 

I am not a Viperdays historian, so if he missed out on Saga, PP, Revival and just got the clunkers, he is not doing as well as I thought. He is still making money, just smaller margins than I thought. Either way, I think we both agree that knowing your product, being more selective in comics is preferable for us and would improve margins for him.

 

I still don't think the Diamond strategy works for cost savings because having a business license subjects you to more taxes (Franchise Tax Boards/Business License Taxes/etc.) than you would pay as an unincorprated individual claiming the additional comic book income. And you still need a storefront or an ecommerce web site (they won't take an ebay storefront). The cost of the web site or renting retail space kills the whole Diamond strategy unless you become Larry or Midtown. But I think most of the people here have other day jobs that prevent this. Plus the cost of incorporating and resubmissions of annual charters, etc. You either pay an accountant for that, which kills your profit, or you spend a grip of time doing it which lowers your efficiency metrics on the return on your time.

 

Either way, we disagree on the Diamond strategy, but I agree with you on the rest of your statements.

 

On a side note, I saw that you invested in the Brian Wood Star Wars book. I am intrigued by the Anakin Starkiller book that Dark Horse just announced at Wondercon. Did you see it? It is a comic based on Lucas' first draft of Star Wars, which was vastly different than the movie.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Mashed Potatoes

[Awax]

I had to see what thread I was reading. I forgot in the middle of one of those posts.

 

I got 5 minty minty copies of this today. I will not open them.

 

Comixology here I come.

[MutantKeys]

Who's this "Viperdays" you guys speak of? :shrug:

[Dannyboy0076-migration]

CBT, i thought I was the only one who saw John Marston on the cover of this book! I too wish death was a little more gruff. Maybe dragotta is going for the sophisticated look, is that a Feragamo suit death wears?? At least he could have given him a gnarly scar on the cheek or somethin. The "high noon" showdown page is my favorite so far followed by the 2nd to last page.

 

Can't wait for issue #2!!

[vhunter]

CBT, i thought I was the only one who saw John Marston on the cover of this book! I too wish death was a little more gruff. Maybe dragotta is going for the sophisticated look, is that a Feragamo suit death wears?? At least he could have given him a gnarly scar on the cheek or somethin. The "high noon" showdown page is my favorite so far followed by the 2nd to last page.

 

Can't wait for issue #2!!

 

let's get back to the story