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Approaches for dealing with overly-high prices set by consignors

Started by mycomicshop,

113 posts in this topic

comixcroz

comixcroz

Posted
Posted

Taking on consignments at unrealistic prices seems like a poor business decision. Personally, I would refuse to take those consignments. The chance of making a sale is probably very low.

 

One of the books (I've been interested in purchasing) has been sitting on ebay and your website for over a year, if not years. It just keeps getting re-listed over and over again. I emailed you once about the book at least 6 months ago and your response was very short, simply that you do not accept offers on consignment books. I'm probably willing to pay double what I think it would sell for in a no reserve auction, just because I need it for my collection and its a tough book to find. But it's currently priced around 4 times what I've paid for surrounding issues in grade recently.

 

Storing the book and paying for someone to list the item with virtually no chance of sale isn't a huge deal once or twice, but if its a significant amount of these books it could be severely hurting efficiency in your staff and eating up storage space unnecessarily.

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thunsicker

thunsicker

Posted
Posted
A point raised in another thread got me thinking on this, and I wanted to solicit any ideas you guys might have. The topic is consignors who set overly high prices.

 

What I'd like to find out is:

1) What do you consider an excessively high price? Feel free to point to specific examples.

Personally I'm not a fan of fixed prices anyway, but I guess I'd consider anything over 25% over 90 day GPA (or 12 month GPA if that's higher) to be excessively high price. That said there are instances where a specific sale will be much lower or higher than those around it and where 25% over 90 day GPA might actually be cheap.

 

2) What ideas do you have to help nudge consignors away from unrealistically high prices and towards something more palatable? Feel free to be creative, brainstorm. If answering this, please try to think not just as a buyer, but what would feel helpful and fair to you as a seller.

This is very tough. Especially if you get to thinly traded comics. But depending on what guidance you give them I think 25% over that guidance would be acceptable.

 

Background:

- Everything consigned with us has already been shipped to us by the consignor and is physically in our possession, so theoretically the consignor has already displayed some degree of motivation to sell. These aren't items where the seller still has them in their possession and is happy to leave the book unsold unless somebody happens to meet their sky high asking price.

- We provide guidance on prices (previous sales of the same issue on MCS, limited subset of GPA sales data for the issue), but consignors can set whatever prices they want.

When you provide guidance how do you account for thinly traded comics and/or hot comics? e.g. Someone wants to consign a Black Terror #1 in 8.5 or a Batman #59 in 6.0.

 

- Currently our web site doesn't have a make an offer feature, though that's coming in our next update, and I can relay offers to consignors myself. Though I've heard lots of interest in adding the make an offer feature, I've also had some consignors recommend against adding it, because they think it exacerbates consignor tendencies to set unrealistically high asking prices.

 

What do you think? I'd like to strike a balance between consignor freedom, while also finding a way to police the most excessive overpricing.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

Absolutely. You lose credibility with the collecting community when you allow consignors to set absurdly high prices. Even if someone buys one overpriced item out of ignorance, chances are that buyer will eventually realize he got ripped off, and then all of your other consignors will have lost a customer because the buyer will blame the website.

 

This is a potent statement. There is a subconscious...and sometimes conscious...reflex response when overpriced consignments are seen repeatedly, across broad sections of the market.

 

It's like Mile High, which everyone simply expects to have crazy prices, so they don't bother even looking.

 

The converse is also true.

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BarryAllen

BarryAllen

Posted
Posted

Institute a markdown policy for all comics that do not sell within a given time (not just consignments, but all comics on site). Schedule can be flexible over a period of months with a service charge at the end to either return the book or restart the process at a lower price if it doesn't sell.

 

Maybe 2.5% per month for 3 months before the fee and option to return or repost at a price lower than 7.5% off original listing.

 

Or the consignor can choose a different markdown schedule with a higher or lower fee depending on aggressiveness. It could be flexible to give options.

 

:shrug:

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THB

THB

Posted
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Having a best offer option would probably help. MCS's conservative grading on raw books skews the price points as well. Some consigners are reluctant to believe that their NM/NM+ book was graded a VF by MCS and price accordingly. On the other side of the fence I know that I can buy a book graded VF by MCS submit it to be graded and get a 9.4 or higher. I have no problem selling through on my consignments. If something languishes I send it to auction or lower the price. Perhaps items that remain for a 6 month or certain time period either get returned at consigners cost or sent to auction?

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Gatsby77

Gatsby77

Posted
Posted

Example:

 

Gold Key Magnus # 1.

 

I love that you have 4 copies for sale. I hate that they're *optimistically* priced.

 

But they are listed at:

 

CGC 7.5: $495 (+3%)

CGC 7.5: $525 (+3%)

CGC 4.5: $275 (+3%)

CGC 4.0: $225 (+3%)

 

The first 7.5 might not be _too_ out of bounds, given that there's a GPA-recorded sale of $460, but realistic pricing for this book is $400, not $509.85 plus shipping.

 

The others are just ridiculous. The 4.0 and 4.5 copies would struggle to reach $75 at open auction, and that's being generous, as the highest recorded GPA high is $50 for 4.0 and $68 for 5.0.

 

And, for reference, I set the listed GPA highs for Magnus 1 in 4.0, 4.5, and 9.4.

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Gatsby77

Gatsby77

Posted
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I don't think Make-an-Offer would help unless it was accompanied by storage fees.

 

Delusional sellers would be far more motivated to consider reasonable offers if they knew Lonestar's percentage cut would increase after 3 months, 6 months, etc.

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thunsicker

thunsicker

Posted
Posted
Could you state something that any consigned price greater than 20% of 90-day GPA would be up for review? And you have the right to refuse those pieces.

 

That might work for some comics, but there are tons that are so thinly traded that there is no 90-day GPA. He said earlier that they try to give guidance on current values by past sales and GPA. Maybe 20% over their guidance?

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Davenport

Davenport

Posted
Posted

- We provide guidance on prices (previous sales of the same issue on MCS, limited subset of GPA sales data for the issue), but consignors can set whatever prices they want.

 

What do you think? I'd like to strike a balance between consignor freedom, while also finding a way to police the most excessive overpricing.

Since you offer expert price-guidance and GPA data, maybe a follow-up caveate would suffice. Something along the lines of:

 

"Please be aware we believe your price to be overly aggressive and potentially unrealistic. After 30 days, if your item remains unsold, we will contact you with options to re-price your item closer to market realities or retrieve it at your expense."

 

Seems fair. And it's just an extension of expert info already given.

 

Basically, provide a heads-up they "drop trou or get off our pot."

 

 

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FormerReader

FormerReader

Posted
Posted
Example:

 

Gold Key Magnus # 1.

 

I love that you have 4 copies for sale. I hate that they're *optimistically* priced.

 

But they are listed at:

 

CGC 7.5: $495 (+3%)

CGC 7.5: $525 (+3%)

CGC 4.5: $275 (+3%)

CGC 4.0: $225 (+3%)

 

The first 7.5 might not be _too_ out of bounds, given that there's a GPA-recorded sale of $460, but realistic pricing for this book is $400, not $509.85 plus shipping.

 

The others are just ridiculous. The 4.0 and 4.5 copies would struggle to reach $75 at open auction, and that's being generous, as the highest recorded GPA high is $50 for 4.0 and $68 for 5.0.

 

And, for reference, I set the listed GPA highs for Magnus 1 in 4.0, 4.5, and 9.4.

 

 

This.

 

I was looking to purchase one of the CGC 7.5, but at one point it was listed on ebay for I believe it was $620. It has sat there for well over a year now. I don't even look at MCS listings anymore because of it.

 

Let the consignor know a fee will be applied if it hasn't sold after a certain amount of time.

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Loukayza

Loukayza

Posted
Posted
Set a rule that the consignor can't set the value of the book at more than 125% MCS catalogue price.

 

This wouldn't work all the time. Just check new in stock and you'll see an item almost every day that their algorithm or past data does the math wrong on. I've seen $300.00 books go for less than $30 bucks, a number of times over the past year....

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mycomicshop

mycomicshop

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Ours are cheaper:

 

VF MCS: $24 (last in stock copy at this price sold January 7th)

VF MHC: $32.50 after 50% off of $65

 

FN MCS: $18 (one copy still in stock at this price)

FN MHC: $20.25 after 50% off of $40.50

 

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=83101

 

http://milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=list&title=38487674096&snumber=1

 

 

Problem is our copies tend to get snapped up by consignors, who then turn around and price the books higher. Supply and demand at work.

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