Dealers with un-priced comics

[cmixer]

My worst story of the year:

 

I was at WizardWorld Atlanta with a guy that had 50-100 longboxes of unalphabetized, unpriced, unorganized comics. His wife said he bought them just days before the con, and hasn't looked at them yet. Fine, i'll look. I picked one or two books & asked a price. The wife said only her husband can quote prices, and he's shopping the floor. She said, pick out a few more books, he'll be back & will make a super deal to move inventory. -- I took this to mean they were maybe $2 each, and found filler issues, nothing big or key. He finally came back, I handed him 20 books, expecting to pay $20-40 ... he said something like $80. I said, "Which one are you valuing high, maybe i pulled a book you considered key." He was like, nah, they're all about the same. Thanks for wasting an hour of my life! I handed him all his books back. Good thing there wasn't any order or alphabetization to his boxes. Unpriced comics are not for me.

[RockMyAmadeus]

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.

 

 

It's a complete waste of my time. What if I want to buy 500 books? Am I supposed to ask the price on each and every one? And if I do, how long before the dealer gets annoyed? And what if I forget one, and ask again?

 

This "dealer" wants the best possible price, at all times, and is unwilling to commit, lest he possibly sell something for less than what it is "worth."

 

So be it. Waste of time, and he deserves no business.

[shadroch]

Seems like there is no upside and tons of downside to doing this.

 

The upside is not spending dozens of hours repricing books every few months.

Does lost sales mean more than the lost hours? Is turnover rate more important than sales dollars. Its not as simple as you think. Remember, a dealer can't just call the comic warehouse and order a replacement of the book he just sold. Comic dealers have huge investments in time and money to get their stock. Some sellers have large overhead, Some have very little. Some do it full time, some do it to supplement their income. Some do it just to escape spending the day with the family.

 

you don't have to re-price 90% of your books every three months, non-keys don't waver much even in a 2 year time frame.

 

Except the prices you ask can vary greatly. If I have a book priced at a dollar and it doesn't sell in sixty days, its time to discount it. If I still have it in another sixty days, it might get discounted again. Having a dollar book sitting around for a year makes zero sense. Neither does having to price it three times. Stale inventory has to be repriced, or you are running a museum, not a shop.

[FineCollector]

One of the Montreal dealers used to do this when I was a teenager in the 90's. His spiel was, pick out the books you want, go shop around, and I'll have them priced out when you get back. I'd pulled an Iron Man 55 (years before Marvel movie hype), and left it with him. When I got back, he was calling it an F/VF.

 

Me: "What about the stain on the back cover? Looks kinda like blood"

Marc: "yeah, well... you can't catch all the defects every time you grade."

 

I gather it didn't work out for him, because most of his books were stickered after that. Haven't touched his bins or bought a book from him in 20 years, all he ever had was ragged leftovers that were passed around from one sketchy Montreal dealer to another. I think I might visit his store next time I'm in town, it's time for a fresh story of incompetance!

 

[Dr. Balls]

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.

 

Man, that sounds incredibly lazy. I'd never do business with someone too lazy to price their products, it's an indicator of laziness in other parts of their business.

[taro90]

I agree with almost everyone here. I avoid them at all costs. There are so many other outlets where you can get books. It's a complete waste of time and money.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I told this anecdote before, but there was a "dealer" at a local show here in LA, who had quite a bit of stuff I wanted...mostly Punisher stuff.

 

I asked about the price labels (for example...$38 for PWJ #6. )

 

He said to ignore those, those weren't the prices.

 

So, fine, I pick out a stack of maybe 60-70 books...ask him for the price...and he says "ok, I can give you half off the prices marked."

 

....meaning, he flat out contradicted his earlier statement to "ignore the labels", as they were the basis for his prices.

 

I put the stack down, without saying another word, and walked away. What can you say? Who is paying $19 for a raw PWJ #6 in 2014? Waste of my time.

 

[oakman29]

I told this anecdote before, but there was a "dealer" at a local show here in LA, who had quite a bit of stuff I wanted...mostly Punisher stuff.

 

I asked about the price labels (for example...$38 for PWJ #6. )

 

He said to ignore those, those weren't the prices.

 

So, fine, I pick out a stack of maybe 60-70 books...ask him for the price...and he says "ok, I can give you half off the prices marked."

 

....meaning, he flat out contradicted his earlier statement to "ignore the labels", as they were the basis for his prices.

 

I put the stack down, without saying another word, and walked away. Wait can you say? Who is paying $19 for a raw PWJ #6 in 2014? Waste of my time.

 

Too much.....

[CBT]

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.

 

 

d-bag move, probably wants to google it after someone expresses interest. I'd rather give my money to a good guy, then get a deal from a bad one.

[Topnotchman]

I've gotten great deals from dealers who had books with no prices, in most cases I stated my price. It was take it or leave it, they take it. Does not work every time as I have walked away without closing the deal. Also I do not expect to get first appearances and keys for a song either, everyone has to eat.

[CBT]

I never mind paying a dealer fair price for their book, but my comment goes back to other threads from earlier in Con season. A dealer who uses his customers to do his job for him, and switches his price at Point of Sale, is someone I would never deal with.

 

Same with people who have online stores and cancel/change inventory levels after Point of Sale.

 

Both these practices might seem like a good idea to the dealer/store at the time, but in the long run, its a big time losing equation to abuse your customers.

[Prince Namor]

I had forgotten that Kaballa (protector of the Kapetepek Treasure) was really just Racer X in disguise.

[ItsJustRyan]

Price wall books

Have $1, $2, $3, $5, etc boxes for other books

Pretty simple

Even if you use a small post-it note for pricing it's easy

[ItsJustRyan]

Same with people who have online stores and cancel/change inventory levels after Point of Sale.

 

We don't say their name.... ( *cough* comics america )

[manetteska]

(*cough* MH *cough*)

[gaz973]

I don't have the time or patience for dealers who are too lazy to price their stock.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I've gotten great deals from dealers who had books with no prices, in most cases I stated my price. It was take it or leave it, they take it. Does not work every time as I have walked away without closing the deal. Also I do not expect to get first appearances and keys for a song either, everyone has to eat.

 

The key to this is to being willing to walk away if the price you quote isn't acceptable to the seller. If a buyer just *has* to have it, they will not be getting any kind of "good deal."

 

That said, I've watched you deal...you've got a pretty good stone face.

[Tiger Topher]

I had the EXACT same experience as Chip at a local store. Guy finally brought out his warehouse collection of comics. Had to be at least 200 long boxes. I first asked him how he was pricing the books and he gave me the general response "the more you buy, the bigger the discount". I spent roughly 90 minutes picking out a stack of 30 or so books. I asked him how much they were and he looked every single one of them up on ebay; it took 30 minutes for him to complete the pricing. The guy probably didn't know the value of 90% of the books I chose. So I ask him how much and he charges me FULL EBAY price. No discount, no nothin'. I just walked out of his store muttering a bunch of expletives under my breath.

 

So basically, I had spent 2 hours doing homework for this guy.

 

I learned my lesson tge hard way.

 

Meck

I had a very similar experience just recently. I found a bunch of un-priced books that I wanted in a store's back room. When I brought them to the counter, the owner proceeded to use "Buy It Now" prices on eBay to determine how much he should charge me for them. Needless to say, I won't be going back to this particular store anytime soon. If I do return, though, I'm sure I'll see all the comics that I pulled out up on the store's wall.

[1950's war comics]

I have NEVER seen a coin dealer not have all his coins priced at a show except sometimes the price is covered up by the coin or holder in the showcase which is bad enough , but to have a coin or comic unpriced would be a huge deterrent.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I hate it and from my experience those who do so are usually trying to gouge people.

 

I have occasionally had unpriced books for sale back in the day, but only when I picked up new stock a day or two before a show and really wanted it on hand. And even then I would keep it behind the table and price them as the show moved along. Only those I know well ever got to see the unpriced stuff during a show.