100,000 book haul

[FineCollector]

I'd be all about it just to play in a collection that big for a few hours/days if I lived anywhere close. If nothing else, that would be like the most interesting version of going quarter bin diving I'd had in a while.

 

(thumbs u

 

I think there are two perspectives at work, which is why we're not agreeing. One side is realistically buying this as an investment, and factoring in time, overhead, and opportunity costs. The other side is buying this from disposable income, and picturing themselves diving into the pile like Uncle Scrooge!

 

I'm not saying who's right or wrong, but I wouldn't go into a buy like this without already having the space to store it, and a fair amount of free cash to play with. Adding the burden of loan payments and monthly storage fees to an already significant payout just makes this more stressful than it should be. Money will come quick as you sell the best stuff, but as the well quickly runs dry and the bills keep coming, you're likely to clear out the rest, and not get anywhere near your expected payout.

[Columbia Comics]

He did very well if he paid the right price. He ever say how much he paid? He doesnt seem to know a lot about comics and a store owner sold it to him. Im guessing $.25-$.50 a book which would be a shame.

 

If he paid $.25 to $.50 a book, he's in trouble.

 

If he paid significantly less, then he may be ok...like most said. It's all about the buy price b/c based on what I've seen in the one video, he has good stuff.

 

 

[krighton]

I think at this point I'd rather see a video of the schlock he got.

[youmechooz]

He did very well if he paid the right price. He ever say how much he paid? He doesnt seem to know a lot about comics and a store owner sold it to him. Im guessing $.25-$.50 a book which would be a shame.

 

If he paid $.25 to $.50 a book, he's in trouble.

 

If he paid significantly less, then he may be ok...like most said. It's all about the buy price b/c based on what I've seen in the one video, he has good stuff.

 

Yup. Thats just a guess at what he paid per book. Figuring he doesnt know enough to buy a big collection like this, and it was a store owner who sold it to him, i think he might have gotten taken for a ride. He does have some nice little keys but he still has 100,000 books and none of them seem to be sorted or bagged and boarded. Figuring he doesnt know where to buy bags and boards in bulk for a nice discount, we are talking 50 cents to $1 a book for a bag and board. Not the bag and board itself, but either paying someone to bag and board all of them or doing it yourself, time = money. I really wonder what he paid.

[oakman29]

Wish I had more Caps can I look through someone's collection and have their Caps?

 

No Caps for you!

 

I just want Caps,no butthurt!

[Columbia Comics]

He did very well if he paid the right price. He ever say how much he paid? He doesnt seem to know a lot about comics and a store owner sold it to him. Im guessing $.25-$.50 a book which would be a shame.

 

If he paid $.25 to $.50 a book, he's in trouble.

 

If he paid significantly less, then he may be ok...like most said. It's all about the buy price b/c based on what I've seen in the one video, he has good stuff.

 

Yup. Thats just a guess at what he paid per book. Figuring he doesnt know enough to buy a big collection like this, and it was a store owner who sold it to him, i think he might have gotten taken for a ride. He does have some nice little keys but he still has 100,000 books and none of them seem to be sorted or bagged and boarded. Figuring he doesnt know where to buy bags and boards in bulk for a nice discount, we are talking 50 cents to $1 a book for a bag and board. Not the bag and board itself, but either paying someone to bag and board all of them or doing it yourself, time = money. I really wonder what he paid.

 

Well honestly, most of the books 90% don't need to be bagged/boarded. You sell them as is for $.50 to $1.00 a pop and hope you sell a TON.

 

It would take months and maybe $8k or so to bag/board them all, assuming you bought all the bags/boards at once at $0.08 per bag/board. And that may be low. Not sure as I think the cheapest I've bought them was $0.13.

 

It's a massive undertaking. I remember a collection we bought where I was told it was maybe 10k in books. Turns out it was closer to 15k and not a single book was bagged/boarded. Just stacked from floor to ceiling in custom made bookcases. It was just so overwhelming that I ended up flipping it 4 days later. Made a good return but I know I left $ on the table....but when you're staring at 40+ long boxes filled to the brim, it's just a TON of work for a relatively small per hour return.

 

That being said, I would have bought the 100k collection for the right price...but no where near $0.25 a book.

[krighton]

since it was a former comic store owners collection that has sat in a garage for decades, I have a feeling he bought it off the guys wife or kids after he died...if so he may have gotten a steal. I don't think he mentioned he dealt directly with the former owner.

[Davenport]

latest vid shows there were even slabbed comics in there....would like to know how much he paid.

I think at that point he says "I went shopping for myself just before..." and starts going through the slabs. One he mentions he sent it in to CGC himself.

 

And your point about 'wife or kids' is a good one. (thumbs u At any point over 'decades' outfits like Mile High or MCS would've cleared that garage, and a 'store owner' would probably have contacts to spread the word it's available. And didn't he mention a "flea market" or something?

[krighton]

ah, k...so he's had them for a bit...thought it was a more recent find.

[Davenport]

ah, k...so he's had them for a bit...thought it was a more recent find.

Yeah, look at all the vids in his channel. His biggest danger-zone is he seems more fan than flipper. Doing a 'mini-find' here and there, but actively buying for himself, mainly.

 

Question for all the pro flippers:

Is it smart to show all the multiples on YouTube? Does it come across as a "warehouse find", lowering prices? Or does it create a feeding-frenzy because so many see it, allowing him to move them quickly?

 

I can't decide if it's a really dumb move or smart as hell. Thoughts?

[the blob]

He did very well if he paid the right price. He ever say how much he paid? He doesnt seem to know a lot about comics and a store owner sold it to him. Im guessing $.25-$.50 a book which would be a shame.

 

If he paid $.25 to $.50 a book, he's in trouble.

 

If he paid significantly less, then he may be ok...like most said. It's all about the buy price b/c based on what I've seen in the one video, he has good stuff.

 

Yup. Thats just a guess at what he paid per book. Figuring he doesnt know enough to buy a big collection like this, and it was a store owner who sold it to him, i think he might have gotten taken for a ride. He does have some nice little keys but he still has 100,000 books and none of them seem to be sorted or bagged and boarded. Figuring he doesnt know where to buy bags and boards in bulk for a nice discount, we are talking 50 cents to $1 a book for a bag and board. Not the bag and board itself, but either paying someone to bag and board all of them or doing it yourself, time = money. I really wonder what he paid.

 

i cannot fathom an undertaking like this if you have a day job. 50 cents a pop means 50K in this. you need to have a lot of great stuff in there to get back 50K. star wars 1 is great and all and maybe if he actually has 200 VF or better copies he can make a lot of this back, but a lot of "good" BA and CA books are only going to work out to $10 a pop, and then you have transportation, storage...

 

it would definitely result in divorce for me unless the money was recouped and then some in a month

[dpiercy]

Question for all the pro flippers:

Is it smart to show all the multiples on YouTube? Does it come across as a "warehouse find", lowering prices? Or does it create a feeding-frenzy because so many see it, allowing him to move them quickly?

 

I can't decide if it's a really dumb move or smart as hell. Thoughts?

 

While the guy seems like a decent enough dude and a fan of the industry, displaying 50 copies of the 1st appearance of Spider-Woman comes across as a tad bit boastful. Why would I pay you near the value of the book when you have an excess of duplicate copies laying around? Not smart, in my opinion.

 

Having said that, I really enjoyed looking at his videos.

[the blob]

if you are a collector who does not know that spiderwoman 1 and star wars 1 were speculated on in quantity back in the day then you have done very little to edumacate yourself on these topics.

 

but yes, i agree, reminding everyone of this fact seems counterproductive. we'd like to think that all of those "extra 500 (or 1000) copies ordered" books have been dispersed into the collectorverse by now and, no doubt, most have.

 

 

 

 

[the blob]

heck, like 10 year ago metropolis posted a 6,000 +/- lot on these boards of early to mid-1980s books, maybe some earlier, all in nice shape, etc. at 10 cents or so a pop. i couldn't get myself to pull the trigger on that and i was local. the thought of trying to parse through 20-30 long boxes was terrfying.

[youmechooz]

since it was a former comic store owners collection that has sat in a garage for decades, I have a feeling he bought it off the guys wife or kids after he died...if so he may have gotten a steal. I don't think he mentioned he dealt directly with the former owner.

2 years or so ago a family contacted me about a collection owned by the dad. Former store owner. 80 long boxes. I went through them and pulled out a short box of keys. Best key was a midgrade tos 39 and the rest of the long boxes were copper and modern books. At the end he was selling grab bags on craigslist. I opened some of them. All bull**** They wanted $30k for it. Wouldnt budge on price. Sometimes the family thats unreasonable.

[Red84]

Question for all the pro flippers:

Is it smart to show all the multiples on YouTube? Does it come across as a "warehouse find", lowering prices? Or does it create a feeding-frenzy because so many see it, allowing him to move them quickly?

 

I can't decide if it's a really dumb move or smart as hell. Thoughts?

 

While the guy seems like a decent enough dude and a fan of the industry, displaying 50 copies of the 1st appearance of Spider-Woman comes across as a tad bit boastful. Why would I pay you near the value of the book when you have an excess of duplicate copies laying around? Not smart, in my opinion.

 

Having said that, I really enjoyed looking at his videos.

 

Those YouTube videos are done to share with the YouTube community. I'm pretty sure he's not selling through it. Just sharing what he found.

[krighton]

Armed with the latest overstreet they're all mint

[MrBedrock]

Is it smart to show all the multiples on YouTube? Does it come across as a "warehouse find", lowering prices? Or does it create a feeding-frenzy because so many see it, allowing him to move them quickly?

 

I can't decide if it's a really dumb move or smart as hell. Thoughts?

I doubt it will have much effect either way. There wasn't anything shown in multiples that would cause any sensation in the hobby as a whole. It just seemed like a video showing a bunch of comics, not really an advertisement for a sale. Where it would make a big difference is how he markets them at the point of sale. I think that putting out a huge stack of the same book is detrimental when trying to sell individual copies, unless you are pricing them at a huge discount and using the "warehouse find" as a selling angle to move bulk. Generally customers are looking for one copy at a time and buy individually so the safest route is to price and sell individually.

[kimik]

I picked up a 6500 or so book collection last summer and regretted it even though I made a decent return on it already with more to come. It was mostly BA and CA, with some low grade SA in the mix. I ended up selling a bunch of long boxes at fall/winter shows last year ($1 bins and better books) and then taking 15 long boxes into my file LCS last week (plus three boxes of mags including early Creepy and Eerie) - out of those I only graded/priced 5 long boxes to hit the dollar value I wanted on them (hopefully I pulled all of the keys ).

 

I still have 6 - 8 long boxes left from that collection, but it is better stuff that will sell well this spring (e.g. 1 long of ASM, the rest better BA and CA stuff and hotter modern titles).

 

I prefer the 2000 - 3000 book collections - they do not take up a ton of space and are less trouble to go through.

[shadroch]

Would you prefer 100,000 dimes or 5000 quarters?