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Comic Convention Sales - How well do people do? my sample result 900

Started by MichaelB1973,

36 posts in this topic

MichaelB1973

MichaelB1973

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I am curious about setting up a booth at a mid sized comic convention (Not NY or SD, but Cincinnati or Indianapolis). I just don't know how well comics sell...and I would love some input.

 

1. Graded higher end material? How well do $500 - $5000 graded gold/silver/bronze comics sell? I realize that some items will sell better than others, but how well on average? I don't have a ton of high end material, maybe $25k worth. Is that enough to grab people's attention or would my booth be boring and get skipped over? What about pricing? Do I price at GPA? Higher? Lower?

 

 

2. Low end gold/silver commons. I have another couple of thousand gold/silver commons (from Justice League to Dells to Captain America). I don't want to price them individually. I just want to have about 10 long boxes of stuff all priced the same. Maybe price the Dells one price and the Marvel/DC another? What should I price them at to ensure I can get rid of a large percentage of them? $2, $3, $5, $7, $10? None of them are worth a whole lot, but are nice Good to Fine mid 60s to early 70s Marvel/DC and 50s/60s Dell.

 

I don't want to waste a weekend and shell out a few hundred for a booth and sell little or nothing; but if there is a good chance of selling multiple thousands worth of stuff, it would be worth it.

 

Concrete example #1:

 

If I posted a CGC 4.0 X-Men #1 for GPA (about 2300-2400), what are the odds I would sell it at a mid size city comic convention? What If I marked it up $300? What if I marked it down $300

 

Concrete example #1:

 

Same for TMNT #1 CGC 7.0 for GPA, a little above, and a little below???

 

 

All opinions are welcome!!!

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MichaelB1973

MichaelB1973

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Price keys at full or a bit above market value, blow out the common GA/SA/BA at 50% of guide. Modern commons = $1 boxes that pay for the cost of the booth.

 

no modern commons. Just looking for flat rate on silver commons in vgish shape and 50/60s dells (woody woodpecker to lone ranger)

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FineCollector

FineCollector

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$3 is a good price for impulse buying, and will lead to grabbage. More than that, and people will pick and choose.

 

No matter what price you put on the books, my advice is to make them presentable. If you treat it well, $3 will seem cheap. If you don't know or care what's in there, people will know $3 is too much.

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jimjum12

jimjum12

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It will depend on your inventory....this question is difficult to answer without details. Just remember.... if local shows were THAT lucrative, many of us would quit our day jobs and set up throughout our regions. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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kimik

kimik

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Price keys at full or a bit above market value, blow out the common GA/SA/BA at 50% of guide. Modern commons = $1 boxes that pay for the cost of the booth.

 

no modern commons. Just looking for flat rate on silver commons in vgish shape and 50/60s dells (woody woodpecker to lone ranger)

 

Too bad. The modern $1 boxes usually pay for the cost of doing a small show. You can put GD and lower grade GA/SA/BA books at $1 apiece as well to blow them out.

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Hamlet

Hamlet

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It sounds like he may not want to make this an ongoing thing. Getting $2/book at the end of the show might sound better than dragging them all home.

 

As a seller, the $5 price point has been good to me. You can always reward bulk buying with 6/$25 or something like that.

 

Don't let a dealer buy'em up at the end for $2 each though, they will try. You need stock for the next show.

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kimik

kimik

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It sounds like he may not want to make this an ongoing thing. Getting $2/book at the end of the show might sound better than dragging them all home.

 

It is. I will price low grade (FR to GD) SA books at $1 apiece just to move them, even though some are worth up to $10 in GD in the guide. Slow titles just waste space.

 

The end of show dumping of modern books is the only consistent way to get rid of the modern drek you have to take with collections. Sure, you may be selling just at break even on them, but just getting rid of them is worth it........

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sonicyouth

sonicyouth

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The end of show dumping of modern books is the only consistent way to get rid of the modern drek you have to take with collections. Sure, you may be selling just at break even on them, but just getting rid of them is worth it........

 

Drek is always a pain. what help is knowing what drek folks want and briging a longbox or 2 to go with the useless drek. for every 5 harley deadpool books you sell, you will also sell a couple of undesired moderns.

 

N52 Batman/JL

 

Harley

 

Deadpool

 

Civil war, Fear itself, and AvX crossovers is picking up momentum with civil war rumors. kids like to buy them buy the bulk to resell on ebay in lots at a quarter to 50 cents each

 

any #400+ ASM (the beaters, etc.. will all be sold by lunch time at a buck or more each)

modern X-titles (especially the good ones, uncanny x-force, all new x-men)

 

Brubaker Captain america series

 

if you dont have any of the above, Id almost venture to say modern drek boxes are not worth the time invested.

 

otherwise you can make bank selling spiderman,x-men, and captain america all day. captain america being the big seller of the avenger/disney fan base these days.

 

 

 

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Tony S

Tony S

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You mention a medium size show in Indy. Dealers that brought high end material were generally unhappy with the Indy shows. Dealers that brought inexpensive stuff like you have spoken of were much happier. The shows at Indy have also been quite variable in attendance. That first one in April was packed and the turned people away. The second (PopCon I think) doubled the floor space because of that and had far fewer people attending.

 

I'm from Indiana. Bring lots of $1/$3/$5 books. Nice (pricey) stuff will get people to walk by and look but most likely your only sales of books over $100 will be to other dealers.

 

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