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

[MichaelB1973]

An FYI...for a small show in dayton, OH

 

I brought

 

5 long boxes of 50s/60s dell type

3 long boxes of 12 and 15 cent DC

1.5 long boxes of 12 and 15 cent marvel

3.5 long boxes of asm - mostly 1980 and up

 

7 cgc issues ranging from 700 to 3000

 

Prices.

All marvel 12/15 center - $5

everything else - $3

 

$900 in sales. No cgc issues sold. About 30 to 40 dells. Maybe 75 marvels and 115 DC issues and 25 asm

 

I wonder if i made dcs at 5 how many sales i would have lost. I also wonder how much more i woulve have sold in bigger show in mid size city. Do major mid aized city shows sell 2k cgc items?

 

[InvstmntComcSuply]

Thanks for following up!

1 day show?

alphabetized stock or random?

How much of sales was to other dealers?

Do you think a box, or a wall, of $20-$100 higher end material would have moved?

[MichaelB1973]

Thanks for following up!

1 day show?

alphabetized stock or random?

How much of sales was to other dealers?

Do you think a box, or a wall, of $20-$100 higher end material would have moved?

 

One day show - Saturday. Supposedly same show had 50 dealers and 300 customers last year, so...

 

Marvel/DC not alphabetized but issues organized by title and grouped by major character or theme.

 

Dells were organized by title at one time but new material was added so lost a lot of its order.

 

Lots of dealers had wall priced material from 5 to a few hundred. Didn't see many sales, but they may have occurred. I could on;y see the people next to me.

 

Probably half of sales were to other dealers. I knew a lot of it was better than $3-$5 commons, but I didn't want to spend the time individually selling $10 or $20 items on EBay.

[MichaelB1973]

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.

 

Which shows will people buy $500 to $5000 items? Do you need to go to NY for such sales, or will the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Saint Louis type cities of the world also support these sales???

[Lazyboy]

Which shows will people buy $500 to $5000 items? Do you need to go to NY for such sales, or will the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Saint Louis type cities of the world also support these sales???

Any show where patrons want the items available and can afford them. But the odds of such sales occurring probably increase as the size of the show increases.

[Hamlet]

It's always interesting to hear details like this. Did you bring those proportions because that is what you had available, or did you leave some of the better selling DC's and Marvels behind?

 

An FYI...for a small show in dayton, OH

 

I brought

 

5 long boxes of 50s/60s dell type

3 long boxes of 12 and 15 cent DC

1.5 long boxes of 12 and 15 cent marvel

3.5 long boxes of asm - mostly 1980 and up

 

7 cgc issues ranging from 700 to 3000

 

Prices.

All marvel 12/15 center - $5

everything else - $3

 

$900 in sales. No cgc issues sold. About 30 to 40 dells. Maybe 75 marvels and 115 DC issues and 25 asm

 

I wonder if i made dcs at 5 how many sales i would have lost. I also wonder how much more i woulve have sold in bigger show in mid size city. Do major mid aized city shows sell 2k cgc items?

[MichaelB1973]

Just as an added note. There was one person at the show interested in 2 of my cgc books. They contacted me the next day and we agreed on two of the issues I had. I won't specify which ones, but they were graded and we agreed on $2400 each. Thus it looks like somewhat higher priced books do sometimes (small sample) sell at smaller shows. I ended up selling them for gpa average, cash deal. So yaaaa, no ebay/paypal fees.

[RCheli]

I can't believe you sold any of the Dells, actually. Those never, ever, ever sell for me.

 

And for bigger ticket items, it's all about that one person in the room willing to spend the money. It doesn't matter if there is 50 or 500 people walking through the door. You just need that one.

 

Now for the other more common books, you just want people.

 

And $900 seems like pretty good. You may have been cherry picked -- and all the good stuff is gone now. Your next show may be disappointing in comparison if all the more desirable books are already gone.

[Jaylam]

I frequent the small Indianapolis show, and it looks like $1, $5, $10 and $20 books sell really well as I see patrons walking around having bought stacks of them. Higher end stuff not so much unless it's a hot book. A lot of times I see the same dealers with the same $200-$1000 books at every show, so I believe I can assume they just aren't moving those or are unwilling to deal for them.

When they had the Indy Con and Pop Con earlier in the year, some higher end dealers were there, but I was turned off by the waaaaaay over GPA asking prices and the seeming unwillingness to deal, (not counting the hot books of course). I bought very little, but did find a few dealers willing to deal for what I wanted and they got my business.

[EvenInHisYouth]

Did you end up getting a bulk offer on the remaining books?

 

That 9.8 1st Starlord was a SWEET looking book.

[MichaelB1973]

Did you end up getting a bulk offer on the remaining books?

 

That 9.8 1st Starlord was a SWEET looking book.

 

It is a nice looking StarLord. No bulk sale.

[MichaelB1973]

I can't believe you sold any of the Dells, actually. Those never, ever, ever sell for me.

 

And for bigger ticket items, it's all about that one person in the room willing to spend the money. It doesn't matter if there is 50 or 500 people walking through the door. You just need that one.

 

Now for the other more common books, you just want people.

 

And $900 seems like pretty good. You may have been cherry picked -- and all the good stuff is gone now. Your next show may be disappointing in comparison if all the more desirable books are already gone.

 

 

Cherry picking is always a concern. I am sure the remaining issues get less desirable each time people can pick items out of it. That said, have had these issues available to other buyers for a while, so there are minimal amounts to cherry pick.

 

I do notice, however, that no one is buying my Jimmy Olson or Lois Lane issues. Green Lantern, JLA, and most Marvels get snapped up quickly.

 

I often times see these same issues that sold by me for $3 to $5 each get sold in bulk lots on EBay for $1 to $2 each. I wonder, hypothetically, how well a person could do buying lots on ebay for $1 to $2 each and selling them at shows for flat $5 each.

[MichaelB1973]

I can't believe you sold any of the Dells, actually. Those never, ever, ever sell for me.

 

And for bigger ticket items, it's all about that one person in the room willing to spend the money. It doesn't matter if there is 50 or 500 people walking through the door. You just need that one.

 

Now for the other more common books, you just want people.

 

And $900 seems like pretty good. You may have been cherry picked -- and all the good stuff is gone now. Your next show may be disappointing in comparison if all the more desirable books are already gone.

 

I noticed the westerns sell much better than the funnnies. I see lots of the Westerns often sell for $5-$8 (in bulk lots) each on ebay. Sometimes lower. The funnies never sell well though.

 

Overall, I agree though. The marvel/dc commons sold pretty well and the Dells didn't do that great. But it might not hurt to keep them there. Maybe 5 boxes sells $100 at a small show, so maybe 200-300 at a much bigger show??? Maybe not.

[youmechooz]

I can't believe you sold any of the Dells, actually. Those never, ever, ever sell for me.

 

And for bigger ticket items, it's all about that one person in the room willing to spend the money. It doesn't matter if there is 50 or 500 people walking through the door. You just need that one.

 

Now for the other more common books, you just want people.

 

And $900 seems like pretty good. You may have been cherry picked -- and all the good stuff is gone now. Your next show may be disappointing in comparison if all the more desirable books are already gone.

 

 

Cherry picking is always a concern. I am sure the remaining issues get less desirable each time people can pick items out of it. That said, have had these issues available to other buyers for a while, so there are minimal amounts to cherry pick.

 

I do notice, however, that no one is buying my Jimmy Olson or Lois Lane issues. Green Lantern, JLA, and most Marvels get snapped up quickly.

 

I often times see these same issues that sold by me for $3 to $5 each get sold in bulk lots on EBay for $1 to $2 each. I wonder, hypothetically, how well a person could do buying lots on ebay for $1 to $2 each and selling them at shows for flat $5 each.

Minus key issues, most of my jimmy olsens and lois lanes are in my dollar boxes at shows, any grade. From the shows i did this year, i sold more bronze horror and green lanterns than anything else form the $1 boxes. Will be in ohio in feb, so instead of buying them online for $2 a piece, just buy them from me for $1 a piece

[MichaelB1973]

I can't believe you sold any of the Dells, actually. Those never, ever, ever sell for me.

 

And for bigger ticket items, it's all about that one person in the room willing to spend the money. It doesn't matter if there is 50 or 500 people walking through the door. You just need that one.

 

Now for the other more common books, you just want people.

 

And $900 seems like pretty good. You may have been cherry picked -- and all the good stuff is gone now. Your next show may be disappointing in comparison if all the more desirable books are already gone.

 

 

Cherry picking is always a concern. I am sure the remaining issues get less desirable each time people can pick items out of it. That said, have had these issues available to other buyers for a while, so there are minimal amounts to cherry pick.

 

I do notice, however, that no one is buying my Jimmy Olson or Lois Lane issues. Green Lantern, JLA, and most Marvels get snapped up quickly.

 

I often times see these same issues that sold by me for $3 to $5 each get sold in bulk lots on EBay for $1 to $2 each. I wonder, hypothetically, how well a person could do buying lots on ebay for $1 to $2 each and selling them at shows for flat $5 each.

Minus key issues, most of my jimmy olsens and lois lanes are in my dollar boxes at shows, any grade. From the shows i did this year, i sold more bronze horror and green lanterns than anything else form the $1 boxes. Will be in ohio in feb, so instead of buying them online for $2 a piece, just buy them from me for $1 a piece

 

 

ugghh...I just don't want to deal with $1 issues. I once got the bright idea of buying 100,000 issues (for about 7 cents each) and splitting them up into sets and selling them. I wanted to pull out all of my hair after that experiment though. I ended up selling them for about 13 cents each and am glad to be done with them. Boy I put a lot of work into it though. No more $1 issues for me unless I am willing to go all in and hire a team of people to organize, list, and ship them.

 

Really not even $3 issues. $5 common gold/silvers are ok if I can blow out 100 plus at a time. Even then though it isn't worth it unless I can gross $1000+ per show and net $500 + per show. Bare minimum. I tried this first show as a test. I have these thirteen boxes that are worth some money but take too much time to sell individually. I may try another show or two just to get rid of them and make a few thousand along the way. But maybe I will find that I can sell enough that it might be worth it to buy the bulk ebay silver/gold lots I see and do more shows. Probably not. Although, I must say, if I can go to a show and sell a couple of graded issues for a few thousand (and make $400-$500 per issue mainly because I am not getting shanked for $300-$400 in ebay/paypal fees), it may be a nice combo...selling a couple hundred silver/early bronze commons and a key cgc issue or two.

 

Things are always much easier said than done, however.

[Jaylam]

Yes, dealing with $1 books or for that matter less than $5 books is quite cumbersome, but that is where the action is at some of these shows.