My road to success (Moving Update 2) 8 8

[uchiha101]

2 hours ago, Red84 said:

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?

No I'll be pricing it lower after talking to some boardies but that's in response to his question as to why I did it

[Red84]

Just now, uchiha101 said:

Just now, Red84 said:

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?

No I'll be pricing it lower after talking to some boardies but that's in response to his question as to why I did it

But that still doesn't answer what you were testing?

[uchiha101]

7 hours ago, revat said:

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. 

 

Thanks for your concern and maybe won't be like the big dogs at all but if I can make some nice side income I'll have no problem with it.

[uchiha101]

4 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

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. 

 

Correct 

[uchiha101]

4 hours 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.

 

Yes I told myself that as well but it's harder to let go then I thought

[uchiha101]

2 hours ago, revat said:

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.

 

Thanks for explaining that and I don't exactly understand the last part of what you said about the gpa and 19 times out of 20, do you  perhaps mean that it's not worth the time and effort just looking for big flips but instead focus on smaller comics I can flip for better profits while I'm getting myself out of the hole?

[uchiha101]

2 hours ago, Red84 said:

But that still doesn't answer what you were testing?

I did answer it many times when people asked but I'll say it again. I'm testing what people are willing to pay for this lot while it's heating up, while I'm waiting for a decent offer and finding the balance of correcting my mistake because this too was a lot  I bought without considering the eBay fees.

[Red84]

Just now, uchiha101 said:

I did answer it many times when people asked but I'll say it again. I'm testing what people are willing to pay for this lot while it's heating up, while I'm waiting for a decent offer and finding the balance of correcting my mistake because this too was a lot  I bought without considering the eBay fees.

I'm sorry, but no.  An actual test of what it's worth would be a straight auction.  All you are doing is picking a number out of thin air that you'd like to receive that is not based in reality.  Get out of dreamland, listen to common sense, and sell the books for their market value.

[Red84]

6 minutes ago, uchiha101 said:

Thanks for explaining that and I don't exactly understand the last part of what you said about the gpa and 19 times out of 20, do you  perhaps mean that it's not worth the time and effort just looking for big flips but instead focus on smaller comics I can flip for better profits while I'm getting myself out of the hole?

That's what everyone has been telling you to do for 3 years.

[Red84]

Every time you decide on a price you need to have a reason for that price.  Not a wish, not a hope, but an actual reason why the price you picked makes sense.

[revat]

5 minutes ago, uchiha101 said:

Thanks for explaining that and I don't exactly understand the last part of what you said about the gpa and 19 times out of 20, do you  perhaps mean that it's not worth the time and effort just looking for big flips but instead focus on smaller comics I can flip for better profits while I'm getting myself out of the hole?

well lets say you saw a comic with a GPA price of $1,100, but you saw it on a website for $850.  Well you might be thinking to yourself "Hmmm I'll buy that and flip it for $250 real quick"  What I'm saying is that for the purpose of resale, it might not be the best deal.  Factor in shipping, and insurance, the you might have to add $30.  If you were to sell it on ebay, that might be more than 10%, then paypal fees, and you're dealing with maybe $100 worth of profit for nearly $900 of investment, which is TERRIBLE.  That's not including the risk of fraud from the seller or your eventual buyer, damage from shipping, the time it takes to sell, the opportunity cost of having your money tied up. 

That's not an investment any rational person would make.

[thehumantorch]

42 minutes ago, uchiha101 said:

I did answer it many times when people asked but I'll say it again. I'm testing what people are willing to pay for this lot while it's heating up, while I'm waiting for a decent offer and finding the balance of correcting my mistake because this too was a lot  I bought without considering the eBay fees.

Call it a test, call it a turtle, call it a kumquat, call it whatever you want.  Doesn't matter, you're setting an absurdly high price hoping to find a buyer who will overpay.  What you call something doesn't matter, what you're actually doing does matter.  Once again, you're doing nothing illegal and we could argue about the morality of this practice all day.

[chrisco37]

I always end up getting sucked back into this thread.  

As we've said for years, you need lower cost entry books that you can flip for quick profit.  That way, if you can't flip it, you're not in too deep.

Here's an example...a few months back, I did a small, local show.  I had some decent wall books, but mostly I had boxes of $2-10 books.  I had a bunch of Jim Lee Batmans.  I had them marked at $5/book and I sold a few of them.  Near the end of the show, after the crowds were gone, I went over to another table that was filled with dollar boxes.  Guess what I pulled out of them?  Yep, Jim Lee Batmans.  For a buck each, I replaced all the books I just sold and then some.  I also pulled out quite a few AH Catwoman books.  Those are easy $5-10 books in my boxes or on IG.  

Buy for $1, sell for $5.  Yep, it's more work than one big flip.  But I'm not out of pocket at all if I sell nothing.  Do a bunch of those and learn the game.  Make a few bucks along the way.  

[thehumantorch]

37 minutes ago, revat said:

well lets say you saw a comic with a GPA price of $1,100, but you saw it on a website for $850.  Well you might be thinking to yourself "Hmmm I'll buy that and flip it for $250 real quick"  What I'm saying is that for the purpose of resale, it might not be the best deal.  Factor in shipping, and insurance, the you might have to add $30.  If you were to sell it on ebay, that might be more than 10%, then paypal fees, and you're dealing with maybe $100 worth of profit for nearly $900 of investment, which is TERRIBLE.  That's not including the risk of fraud from the seller or your eventual buyer, damage from shipping, the time it takes to sell, the opportunity cost of having your money tied up. 

That's not an investment any rational person would make.

I buy books all the time at or close to GPA.  Most of the time it's in person so I can see the book and avoid shipping and duty costs.  It's always a key book that I believe is going up over time and I'd better be right 95% of the time.  At our last show I sold a lot of $1 books, sets, mid and low value keys and bought Daredevil 1, ASM 129, Hulk 181, Avengers 57 and Batman 232.  I then sold the ASM 129 for a $100 profit and bought another.  It can work but it requires patience, laser focus on value, knowledge of the hobby and some money.

[uchiha101]

3 hours ago, Red84 said:

I'm sorry, but no.  An actual test of what it's worth would be a straight auction.  All you are doing is picking a number out of thin air that you'd like to receive that is not based in reality.  Get out of dreamland, listen to common sense, and sell the books for their market value.

 

This isn't a number based on a fantasy I already told you I know what I'm asking for it and it's FMV for the lot is as it did that before I bought the comics.

[revat]

13 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

I buy books all the time at or close to GPA.  Most of the time it's in person so I can see the book and avoid shipping and duty costs.  It's always a key book that I believe is going up over time and I'd better be right 95% of the time.  At our last show I sold a lot of $1 books, sets, mid and low value keys and bought Daredevil 1, ASM 129, Hulk 181, Avengers 57 and Batman 232.  I then sold the ASM 129 for a $100 profit and bought another.  It can work but it requires patience, laser focus on value, knowledge of the hobby and some money.

certainly it can work out, provided you have the knowledge and focus (as you said) to accomplish it, also if you have the volume and opportunity to sell at multiple venues and move things quickly, preferably without other fees.  Especially for keys, and especially as you need those keys to draw people to your booth at shows (they serve as advertising too).  But I think buying and selling in person (or having great connections) are very key to having success with these type of transactions.  Obviously patience and having cash flexibility is nice too.  Also the willingness put in the work and ability to comprehend basic business concepts helps too.

 

[Red84]

Just now, uchiha101 said:

1 hour ago, Red84 said:

I'm sorry, but no.  An actual test of what it's worth would be a straight auction.  All you are doing is picking a number out of thin air that you'd like to receive that is not based in reality.  Get out of dreamland, listen to common sense, and sell the books for their market value.

 

This isn't a number based on a fantasy I already told you I know what I'm asking for it and it's FMV for the lot is as it did that before I bought the comics.

It's not fair market value.  We showed you that already when a lot with better books than yours didn't sell for $300 less than your asking price.

You can ask whatever you want, but you're delusional if you think $800 is fair market value.

[uchiha101]

3 hours ago, Red84 said:

That's what everyone has been telling you to do for 3 years.

Yes and like I said when I got back here I've been paying attention to valuable modern comics and variants and I have about 140 comics saved in my phone's memory 

[uchiha101]

3 hours ago, Red84 said:

Every time you decide on a price you need to have a reason for that price.  Not a wish, not a hope, but an actual reason why the price you picked makes sense.

Then I'll make it clear, the price I want and have in mind is FMV or a little bit over nothing more.

[uchiha101]

3 hours ago, revat said:

well lets say you saw a comic with a GPA price of $1,100, but you saw it on a website for $850.  Well you might be thinking to yourself "Hmmm I'll buy that and flip it for $250 real quick"  What I'm saying is that for the purpose of resale, it might not be the best deal.  Factor in shipping, and insurance, the you might have to add $30.  If you were to sell it on ebay, that might be more than 10%, then paypal fees, and you're dealing with maybe $100 worth of profit for nearly $900 of investment, which is TERRIBLE.  That's not including the risk of fraud from the seller or your eventual buyer, damage from shipping, the time it takes to sell, the opportunity cost of having your money tied up. 

That's not an investment any rational person would make.

 

Thanks for explaining it.