Dealers with un-priced comics

[Quicksilver Signs]

I was at the local con this weekend and a dealer had all his books with no prices on them. I mentioned to him, he'd sell more books with prices on them. He disagreed and said if they're interested they will ask for a price and he engages anyone who looks interested.

 

I think a lot of people won't ask and if it's a deal, how are they to know?

 

Thought on this? I think he lost money.

 

 

[Loukayza]

I think it's a sign of laziness and I agree with you.

 

I can understand if a few hot books didn't have prices on them because he was trying to gauge interest at a show, but all inventory unmarked is silly.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

hate it

[N/A]

Will usually skip those dealers.

[ImagineComics-migration]

I definitely hate it, I am unlikely to ask for a price even if I am interested. The only ones I can see if if someone has a high grade key issue on display then maybe leave that un priced.

[revat]

I was at the local con this weekend and a dealer had all his books with no prices on them. I mentioned to him, he'd sell more books with prices on them. He disagreed and said if they're interested they will ask for a price and he engages anyone who looks interested.

 

I think a lot of people won't ask and if it's a deal, how are they to know?

 

Thought on this? I think he lost money.

 

 

I think it'd be hard to get data on this. Only a dealer who has done both would know if he did better or worse with a given strategy, and even that might be dependent on the type and/or location of the show (small local show vs mega pop culture event vs something in the middle). And anyone who HAS done both would have little to no incentive to share their incites for free on these boards to potential competitors (although some are friendly and forthcoming and happy to do so).

 

Although I would say that for you to tell a dealer straight up that you think he's doing it wrong when he likely has much more experience than you, and his livelihood is on the line....well there are dealers out there who might take it the wrong way.

 

Barring that, buyers and sellers should do what they want based on the information (including selling strategies) they have at hand. If they're successful, great, if not, its on them.

[Chadwick]

I walk away if there's no prices

[Davenport]

With all the sales venues available to collectors today it's hard to imagine that tactic working at all.

 

Especially at a paid event. Who wants to spend their time they've paid for waiting for a "seller" to research and custom-price their inventory in real time?

[Wally's Comics]

I usually walk unless it's Richie Muchin from Tomorrow's Treasures.

His NYC styled heavily animated way of haggling is priceless.

 

If you have the time and want to see something unusual - get a stack form his booth

and haggle for 20–25% of what he says the books are worth.

 

I tell you, it's comedy gold!

 

 

 

 

[Tempus Fugit]

Generally when people do not post prices, it's because they know they are asking too much.

[Hschwartz]

I did this for years when I sold comics at conventions during the late 1970's. I also felt that if a person was interested he would ask and then I could strike up a conversation and have a better chance at selling it to him. Of course at that time over 90% of my comics were less than $10 dollars and condition and guides were far less important. You also need to know your stuff and not make him wait and then look it up in a guide. If you need to check a guide then your just being lazy by not pricing it. If you can give an immediate answer and the price seems reasonable he will probably buy it.

 

Having said that I much prefer people to price their comics today when I browse at shows. I very much doubt I would sell comics at a show today without pricing them because condition counts so much more and there is far more competition than there used to be. Whether it worked for me back then who can really say. Back then it was a whole lot more fun because most of the dealers were also collectors and weren't making their living from comics.

[letsgrumble]

I was at the recent Pittsburgh and Buffalo shows.

 

In Pittsburgh, a dealer had a small table with boxes of unpriced books. I went through his boxes and pulled out issues I was interested in. He painstakingly went through the Overstreet for each book. He overpriced some; he underpriced some. I just vetted out the overpriced ones and made him an offer on the ones I thought were underpriced. If you have the patience, it could work out in your favour.

 

But I couldn't do the same in Buffalo. This dude had boxes full of really nice 1950s and 1960s DCs. Nothing was priced. I looked over at him and he was sweating profusely while flipping through the Overstreet as people were waiting. I just couldn't be bothered. Don't have time for dat.

[Davenport]

Generally when people do not post prices, it's because they know they are asking too much.

But that's the thing. They're not asking anything...yet.

 

In my mind they're in the Passion-Tax business. They want to ferret out each interested party's level of eagerness, excitement and passion, individually, before assessing their passion-tax. Right down to the penny.

[blazingbob]

Frankly I'm a believer in peoples time is worth something.

 

The faster I am at providing a price or make the customer experience easier the better.

 

Not having grades/prices frankly does not contribute to that.

 

In addition I find that when a dealer doesn't have grades and prices and they know me they assume every book is high grade and price it without grading it anyway. Which is not always the case when I am buying a certain grade for a customer. Some of my worst buys are the no grade/no price deals and frankly I try to avoid them.

 

 

 

 

[Spider-Variant]

Nope, I'll keep on moving on.

 

Same with original art.

 

 

[HOTFLIPS]

Some of these dealers that do that will look at a person's appearance, like the clothes he wears, Jewelry, a breitling watch and then will jack the prices on them

 

Or they are Lazy

[oakman29]

I really don't understand why someone wouldn't price their books,just seems counter productive.

Two pet peeves of mine is not having prices,and being ignored.One time when I was in the market for a Hulk#1,there was a dealer who was talking with his buddy for at least a half hour,just BSing.I patiently waited while the conversation went nowhere,then the guy takes off telling a guy sitting down that he was going to get something to eat.Wha? I was upset and left,too bad he had a nice 5.0ish raw Hulk1,and he could have made a few thousand dollars that day had he not ignored me.

 

To all dealers here,don't assume that someone who looks unassuming and quiet doesn't have big money to buy a grail book,that's the only reason I could imagine that the dealer I faced thought.

[Hamlet]

Yeah, I ran into a guy doing this at a local convention recently. I didn't bother looking. Unless they have one-of-a-kind books, how am I going to know if I'm interested if I don't at least have a ballpark price to consider?

 

It seems like this strategy will still get the hot books sold, but who is going to bother with getting prices for the more run-of-the-mill stuff?

 

It just doesn't seem like it is worth hassling with a dealer that hasn't bothered to price their books. There are plenty of other books with prices already on them to look at.

[shadroch]

On occasion, at a small show or flea market type sale, I sell unpriced books.

However, on the back of the board is a code that tells me what I paid for the book and how long I've had it. I use those factors to give a price. I care more about profit margin than Overstreet.

It's usually for lower dollar books.

[Erndog]

I seriously hate this practice and usually skip these types of tables.

 

My wantlist is almost endless, if the price is right, I can find a ton of books I'll buy. I'm not going to sit there and ask about XX amount of books.