My Comic Shop: Consignement or Auction?

[jmh722]

Happy New Year, gang.

I'm about to get back my first batch of slabbed books ever, and I think that I'd like to try selling them on My Comic Shop.com.

So I have a couple of questions, and any responses or links to previous threads would be appreciated...

 

1) Is it better to do consignement or fixed price sales on MCS?

 

2) What recommendations do you have in terms of the best time to put comics on MCS?

 

Also, overall how fair are they?

 

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.

[jaybuck43]

As to your first question, depends on what you are selling. As to the second, in depends on what you're selling. As to the third, they are very fair and treat their consignors well.

[Junkdrawer]

Also it depends on what you are selling

[jaybuck43]

Also it depends on what you are selling

 

[inapicklecomics]

I've always used the auction feature. Mine have always finished with strong prices, and they are more fun to watch. If you are not in any big hurry to sell, you could do a set price. You can always lower the price if it does not sell.

[mycomicshop]

When consignors ask me this, my usual advice is:

 

If you're not in a hurry to get the money as quickly as possible, you have more control over the outcome if you do a fixed price listing. It doesn't hurt to shoot a little higher than the GPA average. Worst case it doesn't move and you can knock the price down some more after a month or two. We reach a big audience, and if you have a book people want and there aren't comparable copies readily available on ebay at less than your asking price, there's a good chance you'll get a buyer. If you've listed fixed price for a while, knocked the price down some, and it still hasn't sold, you can put it in the next auction.

 

We get good results in our auctions, but auctions are variable. Some will do better than you expect, and some will do worse. If you enjoy the auction format and don't mind that variability, by all means give it a try. But if you have a definite number in mind you want for your book and don't need it to sell immediately, fixed price gives you that control.

 

The bigger the audience for the kind of book you're selling, the safer the auction format is. If you've got a bunch of high grade westerns, that's the kind of niche where I'd recommend fixed price listing over auction.

 

Regarding best time--the post-Christmas period when people are spending money they got at Christmas, on into the spring is usually a strong sales period. Sales can slow a bit in the fall when students are going back to school, but those are trends we see in terms of overall comic sales, not something that I think that would have much of an impact on the success of individual consignors. I wouldn't worry too much about trying to predict one auction as being better or worse than a later one.

[jmh722]

Great advice. I appreciate that you are accessible to a potential customer like myself.

 

Regarding what I plan on putting up: Mostly high-grade slabbed Marvel keys from the 60's and 70's and some slabbed rare modern variant covers.

 

Sounds like they should be fairly popular all-in-all, and I don't need to make money off of them right away, so I can wait for something to sell.

 

After dealing with selling some of my stuff at auction on eBay, I'm just tired of getting killed on fees, so I'm excited to use MCS.

 

So are all sales a month long?

 

Cheers.

[Junkdrawer]

Great advice. I appreciate that you are accessible to a potential customer like myself.

 

Regarding what I plan on putting up: Mostly high-grade slabbed Marvel keys from the 60's and 70's and some slabbed rare modern variant covers.

 

Sounds like they should be fairly popular all-in-all, and I don't need to make money off of them right away, so I can wait for something to sell.

 

After dealing with selling some of my stuff at auction on eBay, I'm just tired of getting killed on fees, so I'm excited to use MCS.

 

So are all sales a month long?

 

Cheers.

Sales are run each month. Each auction runs for a few weeks

[shadroch]

Great advice. I appreciate that you are accessible to a potential customer like myself.

 

Regarding what I plan on putting up: Mostly high-grade slabbed Marvel keys from the 60's and 70's and some slabbed rare modern variant covers.

 

Sounds like they should be fairly popular all-in-all, and I don't need to make money off of them right away, so I can wait for something to sell.

 

After dealing with selling some of my stuff at auction on eBay, I'm just tired of getting killed on fees, so I'm excited to use MCS.

 

So are all sales a month long?

 

Cheers.

 

 

Sales go on until you sell a book. Auctions run two weeks or less.

Whats nice about MCS is if you list a book at $300 and it doesn't sell, if it you lower it the proper amount, it gets relisted as a new book and gets all the publicity new listings get all over again. Someone might have been watching your book at $300, and now sees a new listing for the book at $285. The $300 book no longer shows up so it might be assumed it sold at $300 and here is a similar book at a lesser price.

[jmh722]

Good point. Thanks.