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Dealer changing the price

Started by Venom,

671 posts in this topic

kav

kav

Posted
Posted

At a con that's a $300 book. On ebay 6.5 sells for $300-$400. It's not an $800 book anywhere. Possibly the 'helper' looked on ebay, saw the 7.0 for $829 asking and figgered 'golly 6.5 must be worth like $800'

Didn't check actual sold auctions.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted
Certainly the business practice is cheeky but

playing devil's advocate here.

 

It's acceptable to scoop the book from under the dealer when it was priced well below

fair market value?

 

Yes. It is not the buyer's responsibility to teach the seller what the market is.

 

If you were happy to sell the book for $300 two weeks ago, why not be happy to sell it for that today?

 

...and a related side note...why is it that prices never come DOWN as quickly as they go UP?

 

:ohnoez:

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CBT

CBT

Posted
Posted

I would think pricing sensitive inventory wouldn't be left up to the lowest-paid member of the team.

 

If all they are doing is looking at GPA values and ebay completed sales, that's basically just data entry.

 

OK, point taken there. But for a lot of inventory, I wouldn't know if I would be entrusted to price it up, if I hadn't been the buyer, didn't know what $ there was into X box of books, etc.

 

If given a box to price by the owner, "use GPA and go to it on these" then that makes sense. I've done similar, long in the past now, when I used to work for a coin dealer in high school.

 

yah, and i know what you mean. A lot of the personal owner stores will have "their guy" who does all the pricing, is the comics guru etc. But, the internet and the success of Marvel, Walking Dead, etc, has massively accelerated the velocity of market forces. OSPG, and con reports, not going to cut it on hot keys any more.

 

The guys obviously know, since from the description they are hoping on the internet and checking whenever someone tries to buy something. I have no problem with the guy pricing the book at $800, I always expect dealers to price things over market and leave margin for haggling.

 

It's changing the listed price on the con floor when a customer is trying to pay your asking price, that I just really dont think anyone can justify.

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dscythe

dscythe

Posted
Posted
No matter what, if he does such a thing for me he’s pretty much out of business! (thumbs u

 

:sick:

You have that kind of influence, Claudio? :D

 

He's Italian...they uh....well let's just say they get things done. ;)

 

Also regardless of the circumstances that's shoddy business. Even if the book had been worth $800 they should have eaten the cost after a deal was made.

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originalisbest

originalisbest

Posted
Posted

I would think pricing sensitive inventory wouldn't be left up to the lowest-paid member of the team.

 

If all they are doing is looking at GPA values and ebay completed sales, that's basically just data entry.

 

OK, point taken there. But for a lot of inventory, I wouldn't know if I would be entrusted to price it up, if I hadn't been the buyer, didn't know what $ there was into X box of books, etc.

 

If given a box to price by the owner, "use GPA and go to it on these" then that makes sense. I've done similar, long in the past now, when I used to work for a coin dealer in high school.

 

yah, and i know what you mean. A lot of the personal owner stores will have "their guy" who does all the pricing, is the comics guru etc. But, the internet and the success of Marvel, Walking Dead, etc, has massively accelerated the velocity of market forces. OSPG, and con reports, not going to cut it on hot keys any more.

 

The guys obviously know, since from the description they are hoping on the internet and checking whenever someone tries to buy something. I have no problem with the guy pricing the book at $800, I always expect dealers to price things over market and leave margin for haggling.

 

It's changing the listed price on the con floor when a customer is trying to pay your asking price, that I just really dont think anyone can justify.

 

Agreed 100%. No problem if they'd tried a $2000, a $3000 price. Whatever they want to try and get. But changing the terms of the deal when someone's about to hand over the agreed-upon price is NEVER kosher. :)

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Quicksilver Signs

Quicksilver Signs

Posted
Posted

Looking at Major Comics' bio they're pretty much a modern comic seller, so it's possible they got burnt on selling a couple hot books early on. Usually you clue in after being asked for a particular book repeatedly after you sold it already. Regardless, not the best decision to make, upping the price on a done deal.

 

I've read a lot of threads on here how it's uncool to buy comics for dirt cheap from an "old lady" or similar. But there are so many flippers and dealers running around early on trying to scoop hot books at a con.

 

Is it ethical to buy a book from a dealer's dollar bin knowing you can get big bucks for it. There's the "dealer should know better" argument but what's the difference between the dealer and old lady? It hurts the dealer more because the bruises he gets from kicking himself.

 

 

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Erndog

Erndog

Posted
Posted
At a con that's a $300 book. On ebay 6.5 sells for $300-$400. It's not an $800 book anywhere. Possibly the 'helper' looked on ebay, saw the 7.0 for $829 asking and figgered 'golly 6.5 must be worth like $800'

Didn't check actual sold auctions.

 

 

While that's probably true, does any of that matter though?

 

Forget the numbers, it's the principal.

 

Deal struck. About to pay. Last second audible.

 

I don't care if it's really a $1 or $1,000 book, it's the idea of re-negging on a deal AFTER being agreed upon.

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KPR Comics

KPR Comics

Posted
Posted
Certainly the business practice is cheeky but

playing devil's advocate here.

 

It's acceptable to scoop the book from under the dealer when it was priced well below

fair market value?

 

Yes. It is not the buyer's responsibility to teach the seller what the market is.

 

If you were happy to sell the book for $300 two weeks ago, why not be happy to sell it for that today?

 

...and a related side note...why is it that prices never come DOWN as quickly as they go UP?

 

:ohnoez:

Ah, but see: Amazing Spider-Man 1 Gamestop Variant
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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

 

Is it ethical to buy a book from a dealer's dollar bin knowing you can get big bucks for it. .

 

 

Yes.

 

Unequivocally.

 

What are you supposed to do, tell the dealer "um, hey....this NTT #44 is worth a lot more than a dollar"....?

 

Not the buyer's responsibility.

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Artboy99

Artboy99

Posted
Posted

I have frequent dealings with Major Comics at local conventions. They do the Calgary Expo and the Edmonton Expo which I attend every year and they buy my inventory and then re-price it and sell it at the show.

 

They are ok guys as Roy mentioned earlier if you are just talking to them, that said here is some observations from personal experience:

 

1. They are terrible graders. They bought a collection in Calgary last year that included a nice eye appeal Xmen 4. At first glance it looks like a 7.0 copy but it had a subscription crease and a very large at least 2 inches long corner crease at the bottom right that went through the entire book. The buyer came to my booth after making the purchase and I noticed it in his pile, and I asked to see it. The price he paid was nearly $2000.00 and the book is at best a VG and should have been $500.00 max ( not price guide but Ebay market at the time ). This leads me to my next point...

 

2. They are known to ripoff their convention buyers. So, I am not surprised in the least they attempted to charge 500.00 more for the book the Op discussed. My guess is the 300 original price was to high as well.

 

 

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Speedy-D

Speedy-D

Posted
Posted
Looking at Major Comics' bio they're pretty much a modern comic seller, so it's possible they got burnt on selling a couple hot books early on. Usually you clue in after being asked for a particular book repeatedly after you sold it already. Regardless, not the best decision to make, upping the price on a done deal.

 

I've read a lot of threads on here how it's uncool to buy comics for dirt cheap from an "old lady" or similar. But there are so many flippers and dealers running around early on trying to scoop hot books at a con.

 

Is it ethical to buy a book from a dealer's dollar bin knowing you can get big bucks for it. There's the "dealer should know better" argument but what's the difference between the dealer and old lady? It hurts the dealer more because the bruises he gets from kicking himself.

 

"A little old lady" is always used in the example because she is not a dealer. The difference is that a dealer needs to know his business, and it's not his customers' responsibility to teach him.

 

If they "got burnt" earlier on by selling too low, first of all they're already not doing a good job, and second, if they decide as a result that they need to reassess prices, they need to do that before agreeing to a deal.

 

There really isn't another side to this type of situation, and as we can see, rather than losing some money (it sounds like $800 was unreasonable so not sure how much money we're actually talking about), they're now still "getting burnt" with a 10+ page thread being read by a lot of comics fans with money to spend.

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Artboy99

Artboy99

Posted
Posted
Looking at Major Comics' bio they're pretty much a modern comic seller, so it's possible they got burnt on selling a couple hot books early on. Usually you clue in after being asked for a particular book repeatedly after you sold it already. Regardless, not the best decision to make, upping the price on a done deal.

 

I've read a lot of threads on here how it's uncool to buy comics for dirt cheap from an "old lady" or similar. But there are so many flippers and dealers running around early on trying to scoop hot books at a con.

 

Is it ethical to buy a book from a dealer's dollar bin knowing you can get big bucks for it. There's the "dealer should know better" argument but what's the difference between the dealer and old lady? It hurts the dealer more because the bruises he gets from kicking himself.

 

"A little old lady" is always used in the example because she is not a dealer. The difference is that a dealer needs to know his business, and it's not his customers' responsibility to teach him.

 

If they "got burnt" earlier on by selling too low, first of all they're already not doing a good job, and second, if they decide as a result that they need to reassess prices, they need to do that before agreeing to a deal.

 

There really isn't another side to this type of situation, and as we can see, rather than losing some money (it sounds like $800 was unreasonable so not sure how much money we're actually talking about), they're now still "getting burnt" with a 10+ page thread being read by a lot of comics fans with money to spend.

 

It isn't the practice of Major Comics to sell anything "to low". It is always over graded and high priced. Trust me.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

I know dealers who "got burnt" by selling books "too low"...

 

They did this for a couple of years.

 

But guess what happened?

 

Everyone talked about the great deals, and as a result, people see these dealers FIRST.

 

And they have reaped a great harvest of sales...even if their prices aren't anywhere near as "giveaway" as they used to be.

 

However, they now have an established reputation for being "the best deal in the room", and have done extremely well.

 

What would you rather have....? That? Or the "this dealer's a who raises prices after the deal's been struck"...?

 

So many millions...literally millions...of dollars not going to these people because of things like this.

 

Capitalistic Darwinism. It's a beauty.

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