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Q for dealers/flippers

Started by romanheart,

92 posts in this topic

Aweandlorder

Aweandlorder

Posted
Posted
This is such a complex topic. First, even when you have 1000 x $20 books, and even when theyre all listed, and even if theyre 25 or 30 dollar books and your price is waaaaay below the market's average - youd still not flip these all at the 20 min rate as mentioned. Also, if you have a high end golden age book sitting there for an average going rate, it still wont flip right away. Youre at the mercy of the market, economy, and other on going trends.

I do not factor in time, I buy and sell comics for fun, I have plenty and I keep on buying, just because I would hate to lose out on a deal, and the next sweet deal is right there around the corner, on eBay, craigslist, or the weekend's yard sale/flee market.

I just do it for fun, I have no wife/kids, no stressful job, I have my own office during the day and theres absolutely NOTHING going on during the day here lol

So its usually these here boards, craigslist, eBay and the beetchez..

Please dont ask me to expand on the latter

 

And to answer the question, my rate is 3x my investment 90% of the time

 

I love that answer. I had a guy pass up on a small set of Silver-Age Spiderman books a year or so ago. He didn't think he could flip it for 3x the cost (we talked after I bought them) and I was more then happy to resell them for double the cost ($375 set of books). If I can sell 12 fairly hot books and make a $325 profit you can sign me up for that all year long.

 

Knowledge is power. If you KNOW the market enough to differentiate a highly sought after key that will flip within days than a moderate key who will sit in your store for weeks/months than you got the better end of the deal, and I would've done the same based on the odds you presented on a normal week.

But bear in mind that (3x) deals come around often, for me at least, once or twice a week, depending how much free time I have to search. So although I may have acted like you on a normal/dry week, if I had purchased one or two SWEETHEARTS of deals that week prior to approaching said deal, I wouldve probably backed out unless I got my price.

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revat

revat

Posted
Posted
This is such a complex topic. First, even when you have 1000 x $20 books, and even when theyre all listed, and even if theyre 25 or 30 dollar books and your price is waaaaay below the market's average - youd still not flip these all at the 20 min rate as mentioned. Also, if you have a high end golden age book sitting there for an average going rate, it still wont flip right away. Youre at the mercy of the market, economy, and other on going trends.

I do not factor in time, I buy and sell comics for fun, I have plenty and I keep on buying, just because I would hate to lose out on a deal, and the next sweet deal is right there around the corner, on eBay, craigslist, or the weekend's yard sale/flee market.

I just do it for fun, I have no wife/kids, no stressful job, I have my own office during the day and theres absolutely NOTHING going on during the day here lol

So its usually these here boards, craigslist, eBay and the beetchez..

Please dont ask me to expand on the latter

 

And to answer the question, my rate is 3x my investment 90% of the time

 

I love that answer. I had a guy pass up on a small set of Silver-Age Spiderman books a year or so ago. He didn't think he could flip it for 3x the cost (we talked after I bought them) and I was more then happy to resell them for double the cost ($375 set of books). If I can sell 12 fairly hot books and make a $325 profit you can sign me up for that all year long.

 

right. if you're not doing it to support yourself, just for some fun and to support your other hobby needs, you can be pretty liberal with your required ROI.

 

For example, I'm having a HUGE sale (shameless plug, please see my sig line) right now. Its my second one this year, and it was planned out, as in I knew the sale was coming. So if I'm a month out from the sale, and I'm at my LCS and see a HOT book at $30, I might still buy it even if I think I can only sell for $30-$35 BECAUSE I think this book might bring buyers to my thread and/OR whoever purchases it will be more likely to buy other books. OR depending on the grade, I might read it first then sell it. Actual ROI on this book might not be high, but I got to read it (yes I actually like to read most of my comics even though I try to sell a lot of them eventually), and there may be some advertisement/marketing value. So there are OTHER VALUE considerations sometimes other than the strict $$$, at least there is for me.

 

Additionally, as others have said, even if the VALUE is there, you may not get the sale right when you hope or think you will. There's plenty of books left that I'm pretty sure will end up selling for more on the 'bay that are still left in my thread, but sometimes timing (didn't realize there were FOUR cons this weekend) or luck or price or all of those things don't allow for the sale when you hope for it.

 

Additionally, there's plenty of stuff in my thread that I'm selling at break even or at a loss, because sometimes you cut your losses hopefully move forward as a smarter person having learned from your mistakes. But maybe I've already extracted some value from reading them, or having the satisfaction of ownership, etc. Ideally, your profits will outweigh your losses, but if they don't maybe flipping comics is not for you.

 

So if you're desperate for the money, and/or can't be patient, flipping may not be your thing. Don't do it unless you're having fun too. No one is forcing you to pre-order 50 copies of the next Image #1 at 40% off.

 

One more thing: There's always something to be learned, so try to get as much LEARNING value as possible

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Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Posted
Posted

In digging this thread back up....

 

my question is mainly for flippers (as I expect dealers to sell way more)

 

As a casual flipper (someone flipping books to support the hobby or make some extra spending cash), how much $$ do you make flipping each year?

 

do you have a target?

 

 

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faster friends

faster friends

Posted
Posted
In digging this thread back up....

 

my question is mainly for flippers (as I expect dealers to sell way more)

 

As a casual flipper (someone flipping books to support the hobby or make some extra spending cash), how much $$ do you make flipping each year?

 

do you have a target?

 

My goal is not to lose any money.

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Junkdrawer

Junkdrawer

Posted
Posted
In digging this thread back up....

 

my question is mainly for flippers (as I expect dealers to sell way more)

 

As a casual flipper (someone flipping books to support the hobby or make some extra spending cash), how much $$ do you make flipping each year?

 

do you have a target?

 

My goal is not to lose any money.

I want to be a fighter and never get hit.
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the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted
In digging this thread back up....

 

my question is mainly for flippers (as I expect dealers to sell way more)

 

As a casual flipper (someone flipping books to support the hobby or make some extra spending cash), how much $$ do you make flipping each year?

 

do you have a target?

 

 

Are you from the IRS?

 

I have a target, but I don't get close because I go on a hiatus for 3 months when my real job gets busy, list 15% of the books I intended to, etc.

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darkstar

darkstar

Posted
Posted

Depends on the situation. I might sell a few copies of Batman 635 right now because its hot at a price significantly lower than market value so that I can movie them quickly and buy a rarely listed Adams Batman that just came up for sale. I'm much more inclined to sell things quickly and roll that money over than I am to wait for top dollar. Again depends on the book.

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chrisco37

chrisco37

Posted
Posted
no I'm not from the IRS - lol

 

I'm only asking, because I have a target, but don't know if it's a bit too aggressive.

 

How much spare time to you intend to put aside? I think that would dictate your target.

 

How much is your time worth?

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Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Posted
Posted

i have a moderate amount of time I can put toward flipping - I've been a collector for a few years now after getting back into the hobby. Only in the past year have I actually looked for books with the intention to flip.

 

I guess my concern is finding books that I can flip.. I can always find the time to list/package/ship, etc.

 

My margin is 50% - I'd like to make 50% on all sales.

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miraclemet

miraclemet

Posted
Posted

are you always online? that helps cause you can be ready to snag a deal when it shows up.

I dont think theres a point in setting a goal (once you hit it will you stop buying books that look like you can make some money off them?).

 

The better question is not what's your ceiling, it's What's Your Floor for flipping.

 

If you see a $5 book you can flip for $8 do you bother buying it?

A $1 book you can flip for $5 if it's the only one worth buying?

 

Also a better question, whats your willing investment for a flip.

 

Would you sink $200 into a book you can flip for $250?

 

Would you spend $500 if you could flip it for $550?

 

Whats the lowest %ROI you're willing to put the work in for?

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W16227

W16227

Posted
Posted
but I should also note that I'd like to be selling books where 50% makes me a profit of at least $75-100. Hopefully more.

 

so I'm not planning on selling books worth $20

 

well - this might be the flaw for 50% ---

 

Much harder to find a book out there for $100 that you will sell for $200 - than it is to snag a bunch of books for $5 that you can flip for $20 each.

 

Once you get to those high dollar books - much more likely to find items like Miraclemet said - finding a book priced at $200-$500 that you can make $50 on. Also - those bigger value books will tend to sit more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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shadroch

shadroch

Posted
Posted
i have a moderate amount of time I can put toward flipping - I've been a collector for a few years now after getting back into the hobby. Only in the past year have I actually looked for books with the intention to flip.

 

I guess my concern is finding books that I can flip.. I can always find the time to list/package/ship, etc.

 

My margin is 50% - I'd like to make 50% on all sales.

 

Why 50%?

Flipping a $100 book a week at a 20% profit gives you $1040 in a year.

Flipping the same book at 50% but once a month gives you $600 a year.

 

Best formula might be to price it at 50% for a week or so, then 20% for a month and then liquidate it after that.

Your profit will be from churning books.Stagnant inventory does nothing but eat up space and cash flow.

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miraclemet

miraclemet

Posted
Posted

I'll say this, in very active internet monitoring a few years about I was only able to score 3 comic book purchases over the couse of a full year that I flipped for more than 50% And they were of the $100-200 variety purchases. All of the other value in flipping came in buying low dollar book lots and parsing them out individually for 2x-3x the purchase price/unit.

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