LCS Using eBay as a Price Guide

[Kevin76]

So I walk into a comic store about 20 miles away from me, never been there before so I wanted to check it out. I start digging through some boxes and come across like 6 copies of Alias 1 and a handful of copies of some back issues of New-Xmen and grab like 3 copies of each and bring them to the counter.

 

He looks at both issues and says...

 

"I can only let you buy 1 of these (Alias) and 2 of these to save some for other people (New X-Men)"

 

"Fine" I said

 

Store employee grabs the Alias 1 and picks up the Overstreet then immeditally puts it down and goes on the computer.

 

Gets back up, holds up the Alias 1 and says

 

"Um, this is like a $20 book, Do you still want it?"

 

"What's that an ebay price"? I said

 

"Yea" He said.

 

"I'm not payin ebay prices for it and he said "ok. these are $4 each (New X-Men")

 

I said , No I don't want those either and left.

 

That was the first and last time I'll ever walk in that store again.

 

If your LCS wants eBay prices, then list it on eBay!!!

 

Anyone else running into this problem?? eBay is the new price guide so it seems!

 

This is also from what I've read online reviews about were selling the new DC 3-D covers for $7 each on the same day they shipped.

[ParamagicFF]

Is the problem that you aren't going to be able to flip books from them? I dont see how coming up with a FMV for backstock is a problem. Its incredibly impractical to expect them to update their prices daily. But the practice of finding the highest price on eBay will hurt them in the long run.

 

As far as jacking up the price on new books, I have more of a problem with that.

[the blob]

yeah, but on the other hand, everyone complains that shops put some VG SA book up on the wall for $20 because OPG says it's $20 when it's worth about $6 on ebay....you wouldn't mind so much if they priced stuff like that at ebay prices and save you the hassle of shipping and ebay overgrading, right?

 

(of course, i suspect this sort of place defers to OPG when it is higher than the going ebay rate)

[Kevin76]

Backstock has been sitting in their store for years and years and then someone comes up to the counter with it and now they want some insane eBay price for it? Wasn't selling for cover price in the box for the past 3 years now they want stupid money for it? If I wanted to pay that, I'd go on ebay myself!

[ParamagicFF]

How do you know it wasn't selling for cover price before if you had never been in there?

 

I understand, I don't like to over pay for stuff either. But clearly you weren't a customer coming in to buy something to read.

[Jeffro.]

Backstock has been sitting in their store for years and years and then someone comes up to the counter with it and now they want some insane eBay price for it? Wasn't selling for cover price in the box for the past 3 years now they want stupid money for it? If I wanted to pay that, I'd go on ebay myself!

 

? Didn't you say you've never been there before?

 

Is this store in Rocky Hill?

[the blob]

my LCS could put Alias 1 up on the wall for $10 and it would never sell. to the extent they have some collectors who shop there, it's all about Marvel/DC superheroes, more recently Walking Dead and MAYBE some Spawn variant cover. Sure, the "hot" indies sell off the rack (to speculators), but nobody seems to go into that store willing to pay "hot" prices for anything other than the more mainstream stuff. So he doesn't even bother checking to see if this stuff is worth anything because he'd have to go to ebay to make the money.

[Doc McCoy]

I wouldn't worry about going back to that store, they won't be in business long. Not necessarily because of the eBay price check, which is ridiculous, but I've never understood the limiting a purchase on back issues. A hot, new book, maybe, but you're there to sell comic books, why do you care how many back issues someone purchases? As long as you're selling the books, there's no reason to deny a paying customer.

[ItsJustRyan]

This has happened to me...

 

I wonder how that comic shop is doing these days?

 

The REAL (made me crazy insane angry) debacle was when I placed an order with Comics America online (others will chime in).

 

(1) I bought some books (Saga 2-8) and sent payment

(2) the next day I get an email saying (paraphrasing) that the computer made a mistake on updating the prices and these books had gone up (like $5-$20 per issue).

(3) I paid roughly cover and expected to get the books

(4) He (Joe from Comics America) kept black balling me and I eventually threw my hands up, got my money back and exposed his scheme here.

(5) turns out, he's done this for decades to others (shocker)

 

Sorry this happened to you bud.

 

QUESTION to the FORUM: How can LCS's avoid this problem and still be able to make price adjustments for overnight hot books? I guess don't price anything and look it up on a book by book basis in the back before quoting prices.

[joecgcmaniac]

So I walk into a comic store about 20 miles away from me, never been there before so I wanted to check it out. I start digging through some boxes and come across like 6 copies of Alias 1 and a handful of copies of some back issues of New-Xmen and grab like 3 copies of each and bring them to the counter.

 

He looks at both issues and says...

 

"I can only let you buy 1 of these (Alias) and 2 of these to save some for other people (New X-Men)"

 

"Fine" I said

 

Store employee grabs the Alias 1 and picks up the Overstreet then immeditally puts it down and goes on the computer.

 

Gets back up, holds up the Alias 1 and says

 

"Um, this is like a $20 book, Do you still want it?"

 

"What's that an ebay price"? I said

 

"Yea" He said.

 

"I'm not payin ebay prices for it and he said "ok. these are $4 each (New X-Men")

 

I said , No I don't want those either and left.

 

That was the first and last time I'll ever walk in that store again.

 

If your LCS wants eBay prices, then list it on eBay!!!

 

Anyone else running into this problem?? eBay is the new price guide so it seems!

 

This is also from what I've read online reviews about were selling the new DC 3-D covers for $7 each on the same day they shipped.

 

Sounds like this shop has figured out how to be "flipper-proof".

 

 

[ThoseBackPages]

that place!

[the blob]

there are shops that don't price anything and look it up in OPG or online.

 

is believe that this is how cosmic comics (manhattan comics later) was doing it in NYC. (they have closed due to a falling out between business partners (I've been told), not due to bad sales).

 

other than his $1 books, Roger (of roger's Time Machine in NYC) looks everything up in OPG and gives you a price -- generally well below OPG (no ebay looking up...so if he happened to have some modern that got hot, you may be able to snag it)

 

 

i

[bronze_rules]

Irony that you bring a low internet price to a brick and mortar retailer, and the response (with disdain and a scowl) is invariably "we don't match internet prices." Yet, when the prices are MUCH higher than retail, I guess the new reply is, "well, that's what they are selling for on the internet."

 

In order for these retailers to not be hypocrites, they should accept us buyers finding a rock bottom lowball ebay/internet price on a comic and accept it as well. Doubt that will happen though.

 

May I have your cake and eat it too?

 

*On the other hand I get irked by the notion of flippers too and can understand retailers honestly trying to limit quantities in order to give a fair chance to other buyers. Leaves a bad taste.

[the blob]

QUESTION to the FORUM: How can LCS's avoid this problem and still be able to make price adjustments for overnight hot books? I guess don't price anything and look it up on a book by book basis in the back before quoting prices.

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

 

Spend 15 minutes a day doing online research into your BUSINESS. If twe can keep track of these things, why wouldn't they? They're sitting on their butts hoping someone comes in and buys some junk, most of us have non-comic related jobs. They can research things just like we do and then look through their boxes and pull the hot stuff.

 

What I find OBNOXIOUS is that the shop is basically having their customers do their work for the. The OP should be most pizzed off because he sweated going through boxes, dug these up and the comic shop is basically like "gee, thanks for the free labor, it turns out those are worth something, thanks for bringing it to our attention!"

 

kind of like my irritation when I fished a NM 98 out of the 5 for $1 box at some shop and the owner pulls it saying it's a $50 book (it was then)...had the book been pulled when his clerk was there it would sell for 20 cents

[sakaridis]

I think the main problem here (and I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned it already) is that there were no prices marked on the back issues.

 

Is a collector/reader/customer supposed to search through boxes of back issues and pick out the ones he's interested in (for X number of minutes or, possibly, hours), all the time hoping that when they take them to the counter the prices will be close to what they're willing to pay?

 

What if someone picks out 50-60 issues of (in theory) cheap books (let's say, early 90s Marvel or Image), trying to fill some holes in their collection, and then finds out that the guy managing the store wants to charge 3-4 dollars for each one? Isn't this a huge waste of time for both the (potential) buyer and the store clerk who will have to put the books back in the boxes?

 

Store owners, don't waste my time, and I won't waste yours. (thumbs u

 

As for this:

Its incredibly impractical to expect them to update their prices daily.

Isn't it, like, their job to do that?

[Pike's Comics]

I myself am perfectly fine with the opening statement though. I shop should be allowed to use Ebay or whatever tool they choose to price their books.

 

If they try to use Overstreet they usually are a year behind on the actual price for books the majority of people are interested in or way overpriced on books no one really wants.

 

From the story the original poster told he states he brought up MULTIPLES of an unpriced book to the counter. From this we know you were upset that the store owner set his prices at a price point you couldnt flip them to make money yourself. However, if this was for someone who wanted to read this. They would realize that is the fair market value and be okay with this as they were still saving on shipping.

 

So if you can tell me how he is supposed to price his books fairly so he gets the full value out of his books I definitely would be interested in hearing this. He is a business owner and deserves this.

 

Note: the first person story is completely different than ItsJustRyan and the blob's story. I totally agree with both of you. They priced those comics. They should honor their offer and your acceptance (ie contract.)

 

The first person took unpriced books and asked for a price and is upset the owner used the best tool possible to him to figure out a price. I also would have turned him down over his price but I wouldnt have had a fit about it.

 

Also the idea of repricing 30-50k comics daily is ridiculous especially for most smaller comic book shops.

[miraclemet]

...

Store employee grabs the Alias 1 and picks up the Overstreet then immeditally puts it down and goes on the computer.

 

Gets back up, holds up the Alias 1 and says

 

"Um, this is like a $20 book, Do you still want it?"

 

"What's that an ebay price"? I said

 

"Yea" He said.

 

"I'm not payin ebay prices for it and he said "ok. these are $4 each (New X-Men")

 

I said , No I don't want those either and left.

 

That was the first and last time I'll ever walk in that store again.

 

If your LCS wants eBay prices, then list it on eBay!!!

 

Anyone else running into this problem?? eBay is the new price guide so it seems!

 

This is also from what I've read online reviews about were selling the new DC 3-D covers for $7 each on the same day they shipped.

 

were they citing a price based on completed sales or on offered prices on ebay?

 

I think ebay (completed sales) is a better priceguide than most other sources for more commonly bought and sold books if you are attentive to the data.

 

When I walk into a store I ask how pricing is done as I walk in. If it sounds sketchy, I walk back out. My shop has prices on everything. When something gets heated, they go pull the book and put a new price based on what they think the market will pay. And often that price is informed by ebay. I don't have a problem with that.

 

when you say you dont want to pay "ebay prices" you mean you dont want to pay current market prices. If gold goes up, you pay the new price, you dont get to tell your broker "I want it for yesterdays lower price!"

 

Comic shops arent there for ME to make money, they are there so THEY can make money.

[NinjaSealed]

I myself am perfectly fine with the opening statement though. I shop should be allowed to use Ebay or whatever tool they choose to price their books.

 

If they try to use Overstreet they usually are a year behind on the actual price for books the majority of people are interested in or way overpriced on books no one really wants.

 

From the story the original poster told he states he brought up MULTIPLES of an unpriced book to the counter. From this we know you were upset that the store owner set his prices at a price point you couldnt flip them to make money yourself. However, if this was for someone who wanted to read this. They would realize that is the fair market value and be okay with this as they were still saving on shipping.

 

So if you can tell me how he is supposed to price his books fairly so he gets the full value out of his books I definitely would be interested in hearing this. He is a business owner and deserves this.

 

Note: the first person story is completely different than ItsJustRyan and the blob's story. I totally agree with both of you. They priced those comics. They should honor their offer and your acceptance (ie contract.)

 

The first person took unpriced books and asked for a price and is upset the owner used the best tool possible to him to figure out a price. I also would have turned him down over his price but I wouldnt have had a fit about it.

 

Also the idea of repricing 30-50k comics daily is ridiculous especially for most smaller comic book shops.

 

(thumbs u

[sakaridis]

I myself am perfectly fine with the opening statement though. I shop should be allowed to use Ebay or whatever tool they choose to price their books.

Oh, absolutely. I'm definitely not arguing with that. Every dealer has a right to use any tool they think appropriate to price their books. Actually, they should!

 

Also the idea of repricing 30-50k comics daily is ridiculous especially for most smaller comic book shops.

Whether you find it ridiculous or not, it doesn't really matter. It's their job and they should do it. They can choose not to, of course, and risk selling something for less than FMV, or they can do their homework and change prices accordingly.

 

And let's face it, we're not talking about a dealer repricing their whole stock every day. Just (relatively) keeping up with market trends and taking note of hot books.

 

For example, the fact that Rocket Raccoon is (for some reason or other) a hot commodity right now should be something that a dealer knows about. They should change their price on Incredible Hulk #271 and probably should check the book's sales data every couple of days, to price accordingly. That doesn't mean they have to bother changing anything for the rest of the Hulks between #183 and #474.

 

The hot books are only a handful at any given time and they're not exactly close guarded secrets. Some minor research is all it takes. The dealers should simply do their homework just like the rest of us common folk. I believe the best ones out there, do.

 

And I'm pretty sure that a comic shop that has 30-50k books is not a "smaller" one.

[Artboy99]

What the store did doesn't bother me. The book didn't have a price on it when you took it up to the counter and asked. He figured out the price.

You don't have to buy it.

Did you make a counter offer? Because they said "this is 20 bucks" you could reply "I will give you 5"...or 10, or whatever you were willing to buy it for.