My road to success (Moving Update 2) 8 8

[jcjames]

54 minutes ago, Red84 said:

10-15%

Pretty much.

Whatever price you envision yourself selling a book for, dock 15% right off the top that you'll never get.

 

[Iceman399]

I freaking hate dealers that price books at 2x market waiting for a sucker as a buyer. They are nothing but scum trying to screw someone out of money be it a gift for a friend, a new person entering the hobby etc. Scum scum scum

I freaking love dealers that price books at 2x market waiting for a sucker as a seller.   I get all their dissatisfied buyers after they see how much they got raked over from the scum dealer

 

Carry on Gabe carry on! Hope to see your dealer setup at nfcc in a few weeks. 

[Red84]

4 minutes ago, Iceman399 said:

 

Hope to see your dealer setup at nfcc in a few weeks. 

???? 

Edited May 9, 2017 by Red84

[Iceman399]

24 minutes ago, Red84 said:

???? 

He won't be setup... I was being facetious.

I hope he is allowed to come and check out all the deals I'll be offering though! 

[Red84]

Just now, Iceman399 said:

He won't be setup... I was being facetious.

I hope he is allowed to come and check out all the deals I'll be offering though! 

[AJD]

3 hours ago, 50AE_DE said:

If the asking price is within reason then I think it'll get some offers, but when the asking price is double the price of other lots then no.

What he says. I don't look twice at sellers with unrealistic listing prices - 'make an offer' or not.

[chrisco37]

So glad this thread came back to life after the "new boards".  

All I'm going to say is that Invincible lot is priced way too high.   And, yes, it would cause me to skip over a sellers other auctions (or a dealer's table). 

[1Cool]

1 hour ago, chrisco37 said:

So glad this thread came back to life after the "new boards".  

All I'm going to say is that Invincible lot is priced way too high.   And, yes, it would cause me to skip over a sellers other auctions (or a dealer's table). 

It happens all the time and it really does not work for most of us.  There are a few sellers (like Mile High) which can price books sky high and then offer a 60% off sale (which is still double the current market).  If I walk around a Con and see a Wolverine Limited Series 1 on a wall that is priced at $100 then I keep moving.  If I see a Preacher 1 for $400 then I keep moving to the next booth.  It is an art to price books above the market but not so high people don't want to bother making you an offer.  Your test price is way too high and will have people virtually move on rather then stop to look at the books.

[chrisco37]

12 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

It is an art to price books above the market but not so high people don't want to bother making you an offer.  Your test price is way too high and will have people virtually move on rather then stop to look at the books.

Bingo! 

[revat]

14 hours ago, jcjames said:

15 hours ago, uchiha101 said:

I never thought of it like that I was always making sure I got a good price so that  I could make a profit but I never added fees in addition to that and I appreciate the idea because I learned something new.

Wait - so for the past three years you have NOT been taking your potential selling-fees into account when deciding on your purchase price of big $ books you bought for resale!???

the importance of this cannot be understated.  When making decisions such as buying or pricing, he never factored in fees that are likely 10-15% taken off of GROSS REVENUE, when often times he was only ATTEMPTING to realize profits of 10-20%. 

While its good that he finally decided to consider this and he will likely count it as a 'victory' since he is 'improving', it SHOULD underscore (but likely won't to the OP) how ill equipped the OP is for success at any level of this type of  endeavor.  Its the equivalent of "I'm going to be a pro basketball player.  I know I have some limitations (could be anything:  too short, bad knees, bad reflexes, lack of basketball sense, started too late, not athletic enough) , but I love basketball and I've been paying for training videos and practicing on my own for three years now, and my passion will carry me forward, and I am improving, and I can make uncontested layups at 50%, which is a good shooting percentage for pro's.  Yesterday I learned that I am allowed to dribble with BOTH hands.  So .... I should definitely spend more time and money on this while I still don't have a steady job, and definitely plan to make money doing this someday.

The basketball example doesn't mean the can't be reasonably competent at some aspects of basketball at work with practice, and doesn't mean he should never play for fun, but it does mean he will never make money doing so and probably means he shouldn't keep dumping money into it expecting a financial return if and when he can't afford to. 

[W16227]

Gabe  - so many times you keep saying you have learned... but what?

Market value is a real thing. Even if you really, really,  want books to sell for higher. Even if you think someone somewhere will whisper the characters name during the 6th trailer credits in a movie- it does not matter today. Aphra - was not in any movie announcement or trailer. 

It seems like you want to market to yourself - hoping someone sees an $800 price tag and offers you $500 ( instead of the $400 you paid for them). On ebay - many have found sales that even suggest that $300 price is top dollar for the books ( that  you do not even have in hand yet to grade).

OBO - just means you are willing to listen to offers. I sell plenty of books at the listed cost. If your price is in the real FMV ballpark ( or lower) , people will buy to avoid someone else picking up  the book.  Go search out the sales threads here - many people state that they are open to offers, but you then also see the on the same thread as listed costs.

The 15% thing    

 

Does this mean all of your "sales" are off? --- even considering that not all were ebay - 5% error on over $10K in turned inventory - is $500........

You should not put any more outside money into this. Only use what you already have committed. Forget any past financials - wipe the slate clean and think of all the comics you have now as your seed money. Get the most of them - but the goal is to turn them within 2 months so you can use that freed up cash to buy more. If you keep adding to the business bankroll - you will never see if you can actually do this with any level of success. Thinking you have to sell something for X because you paid Y for it - will hurt you. Knowing how to estimate market value ahead of time - and purchasing wisely - will take care of margins much better than micromanaging your pricing strategy.  EVERYONE makes a bad buy - or has to sell specific books below what they paid. Happens in a collectors market. IF you can do this - then the seed money will grow. If you keep making bad decisions, it will dry up.

 

A quick analysis for your ebay......

__________________________________________________________

 

 FF 53 cgc 7   $222

Sales ~ $140 now. This peaked in 2015 and crashed. Change to $165 OBO.  Take 140.

FF 53 cgc 5  $109

One just sold for 110 ( white pages)  - but previous sales ~ are much lower.  Change to $85 OBO ( take $70)

ASM 7 coverless  $58

2nd appearance so non key with a big chunk out of it.  Drop to $40 OBO - take 30. Or go auction route ( auction on this might get you best $$)

Animosity rise 1 color $43

Highest sold on I can find is $25.  Make yours $25 with BIN ( take 20 )

Animosity rise color and b/w $58

Sets all over the place from 25-55. Make $40 OBO ( take 30)

Star wars Dr Aphra #1  Ashley Witter set of three $59.83

can buy now for $40. Sales between 30-40. set to $35 no BIN ( many copies at $40 - yours may move a lot quicker at $35)

Darth Vader 3: CGC 9.8  $113

averaging $80 with two available for same now at $82 or less. Change to 85BIN - take 75

Daredevil 257  CGC 9.8  $51

You reprices this recently? might be your only book near FMV. Add OBO - take 40

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Even at the low end - this is over $400 to put back into the business.  You should be doing this on your own - and WITHOUT thinking what you paid for them.

 

 

 

[Wall-Crawler]

The other wrinkle to the Invincible lot is Gabe thought the trailer was going to be out far sooner than it actually will be...I kept wondering why he brought it up...Now that he knows the trailer is not "imminent" he says he will adjust his strategy. 

[Red84]

Here's an example of a quick flip. On Sunday I bought 6 TMNT figures in varying conditions for $70. Yesterday I listed them on ebay for $225 obo + $10 shipping (understanding I will end up having to pay extra on top of that $10).  $225 was not unreasonable, but was a little high given the condition. I received an offer of $150. I countered at $180. They countered at $160 and I accepted.  $160 + $10 shipping - (fees of of about $20 + another $5 for shipping) = $145. So my profit is $75 in 3 days.  Could I have held out for $200? Yes, but I wanted to get them out of the house and get the money flowing quickly.

Quick flips should be your goal.

[revat]

1 hour ago, Red84 said:

Here's an example of a quick flip. On Sunday I bought 6 TMNT figures in varying conditions for $70. Yesterday I listed them on ebay for $225 obo + $10 shipping (understanding I will end up having to pay extra on top of that $10).  $225 was not unreasonable, but was a little high given the condition. I received an offer of $150. I countered at $180. They countered at $160 and I accepted.  $160 + $10 shipping - (fees of of about $20 + another $5 for shipping) = $145. So my profit is $75 in 3 days.  Could I have held out for $200? Yes, but I wanted to get them out of the house and get the money flowing quickly.

Quick flips should be your goal.

There's certainly room out there for those who strategize and play the long game, but I agree that if the OP doesn't quit entirely (which he definitely should), he should go for the quick flip.  Which means don't buy ANYTHING that you can't make money selling QUICKLY AT or BELOW the most recent selling price on ebay, taking into account condition, shipping back and forth, paypal fees, ebay fees, customs fees (if any).  If your strategy is to buy at prices hoping to hook a 'sucker', or an outlier, than you're the sucker.

Its much less about the keyness or fame of the comic (although that helps), and totally irrelevant what you like about the comic, but only the actual data-driven discernible value.

Which leads me to one of the ways most successful comic dealers (and part time sellers) make money with less investment.... hitting local shows, stores, and especially yard sales/garage sales/estate sales/craigslist HARD.  You buy big lots or long boxes with a few keys to cover your cost, then selling the rest of the comics is pure profit.

 

For example:

Saw a craigslist ad for a guy selling a bunch of his old comics because he wants to open a store.  I went right when it opened, he had like 20 longboxes of dollar books, and 6 longboxes of better stuff.  It was a dollar per comic or $100 for a longbox full.  So I hit the dollar boxes and loaded up.  Found probably 10-20 books worth $5-$10 each (some a few more), and the rest was stuff that would sell for $3-$5, probably, even if it took some time.  But with 220 books in a long box, each of those books was 50 cents or less.  AND then I went to the bigger books and he was more willing to deal with me since I already bought a bunch of his little books, so I got some good deals.

So I'm looking at a minimum 6:1 return on my longbox but probably more likely 7 or 8:1 where I can at minimum recoup the original hundred quickly from selling the keys, plus most likely at least 40% profit on the extra better keys I bought.  Yes it will take a long time to sell the rest, but its fun usually and I'm not burdened with having my money tied up.  Yes I could have driven out there and not bought anything, yes I probably still would have bought with smaller estimated profits (but not much smaller), but at some point you gotta put in the work.  But I needed a car, I needed access to disposable cash, I needed knowledge of the value and desirability of  books,

Of course these situations aren't reproducible at will, but they're not so uncommon where someone buys a box or multiple boxes, sells the keys quickly, and sells the rest off slowly for profit.  I don't recall the OP EVER doing this or anything similar to this, even though this many people (even those with full time jobs) are most successful selling comics.  At some point you gotta put in the work, and even then it still might not work out.  And no, searching the internet for mildly underpriced megakeys is not putting in the work.  If you buy a GPA $1100 for $850, you will not be looking at $250 worth of profit 19 out of 20 times.

[uchiha101]

20 hours ago, jcjames said:

Pretty much.

Whatever price you envision yourself selling a book for, dock 15% right off the top that you'll never get.

 

 

Fair enough

[uchiha101]

19 hours ago, Iceman399 said:

I freaking hate dealers that price books at 2x market waiting for a sucker as a buyer. They are nothing but scum trying to screw someone out of money be it a gift for a friend, a new person entering the hobby etc. Scum scum scum

I freaking love dealers that price books at 2x market waiting for a sucker as a seller.   I get all their dissatisfied buyers after they see how much they got raked over from the scum dealer

 

Carry on Gabe carry on! Hope to see your dealer setup at nfcc in a few weeks. 

 

I love how you misunderstood what I said yet carry on going about how much you hate it, I told you that what I'm doing would be a test and unless you didn't catch the many times I said it if I would get a fair offer or the prices would change it  would be reflected in my listing.....friend.

[uchiha101]

18 hours ago, Iceman399 said:

He won't be setup... I was being facetious.

I hope he is allowed to come and check out all the deals I'll be offering though! 

 

I won't have a booth myself but are you going to the NFCC?

[uchiha101]

12 hours ago, chrisco37 said:

So glad this thread came back to life after the "new boards".  

All I'm going to say is that Invincible lot is priced way too high.   And, yes, it would cause me to skip over a sellers other auctions (or a dealer's table). 

 

Yes I spoke about that with some boardies I trust but it's good to know that. That said when is the right timing to mark something up and not miss out should movie news or something happen?

[Red84]

2 minutes ago, uchiha101 said:

I love how you misunderstood what I said yet carry on going about how much you hate it, I told you that what I'm doing would be a test and unless you didn't catch the many times I said it if I would get a fair offer or the prices would change it  would be reflected in my listing.....friend.

You keep saying that pricing it at $800 is a "test."  What are you testing?  Are you looking to see if someone will accidentally hit the buy it now button?

[uchiha101]

10 hours ago, 1Cool said:

It happens all the time and it really does not work for most of us.  There are a few sellers (like Mile High) which can price books sky high and then offer a 60% off sale (which is still double the current market).  If I walk around a Con and see a Wolverine Limited Series 1 on a wall that is priced at $100 then I keep moving.  If I see a Preacher 1 for $400 then I keep moving to the next booth.  It is an art to price books above the market but not so high people don't want to bother making you an offer.  Your test price is way too high and will have people virtually move on rather then stop to look at the books.

 

I see, how do you find that happy medium?