Q for dealers/flippers

[1Cool]

no I'm not from the IRS -

 

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

 

Be aggressive - be be aggressive

[the blob]

yeah, making 50% margins equaling $50-$100 profits on a single book is easier said than done.

 

you might be able to do that as an expert presser.

 

getting it right on some books that get slabbed.

 

unless you have a huge cash reserve and can go out and buy serious collections, it's just hard to find those expensive books out there that are not priced to match.

 

once in a while you can snag something on the way up or where OPG is way low vs. ebay prices, but it ain't easy. when Iron Man 55 was on the way up i happily snagged a copy for full guide at my local shop and flipped it immediately for more than double. ditto on a 5.0 type ASM 129, which i got a little less than guide, but which was selling for 2X guide at the time. it ain't like even in a big city there are 20 shops with good back issues i can hit up to snag this stuff...even in NYC there were probably only 2-4 shops that had an Iron Man 55 sitting around and half of them probably knew the ebay price.

 

hitting shows...dealers have a pretty good idea of what the $50+++++ books are ebay or otherwise. they screw up plenty on the $10-$20 books though.

[shadroch]

Last month I bought two books from an auction for $1300, consigned them on another site before I had them in hand and sold them for a total of $827 profit. Deals are out there, but they don't sit there shining a spotlight on themselves.

Somebody this week offered me $250 over what i paid for the Cap book I posted, but I'm in no rush to sell it. That would be about 15% profit for a book I owned less than a week.

Wouldn't mind two or three of those a month while I sit around playing poolside blackjack during my retirement.

[Michelangelo]

yeah, making 50% margins equaling $50-$100 profits on a single book is easier said than done.

 

you might be able to do that as an expert presser.

 

getting it right on some books that get slabbed.

 

unless you have a huge cash reserve and can go out and buy serious collections, it's just hard to find those expensive books out there that are not priced to match.

 

once in a while you can snag something on the way up or where OPG is way low vs. ebay prices, but it ain't easy. when Iron Man 55 was on the way up i happily snagged a copy for full guide at my local shop and flipped it immediately for more than double. ditto on a 5.0 type ASM 129, which i got a little less than guide, but which was selling for 2X guide at the time. it ain't like even in a big city there are 20 shops with good back issues i can hit up to snag this stuff...even in NYC there were probably only 2-4 shops that had an Iron Man 55 sitting around and half of them probably knew the ebay price.

 

hitting shows...dealers have a pretty good idea of what the $50+++++ books are ebay or otherwise. they screw up plenty on the $10-$20 books though.

 

you guys are absolutely right - banking on 50% return is hard on higher dollar books.

I've made a few very profitable transactions but I'm over ambitious that it happens regularly

[Michelangelo]

Last month I bought two books from an auction for $1300, consigned them on another site before I had them in hand and sold them for a total of $827 profit. Deals are out there, but they don't sit there shining a spotlight on themselves.

Somebody this week offered me $250 over what i paid for the Cap book I posted, but I'm in no rush to sell it. That would be about 15% profit for a book I owned less than a week.

Wouldn't mind two or three of those a month while I sit around playing poolside blackjack during my retirement.

 

that would be living the dream.

 

imagine if you could do that every week!

[Cruzin' Thru Comics]

To original poster- lots of variables. Almost too many. Are you selling at a show? Online? A store? In bulk, one book at a time? I sell at all three and sell at different prices at all three. Luckily, for me, it's a hobby/side biz. I can make good profits or none at all. Obviously different as a full time gig.

[youmechooz]

Reporting cash made to the irs

[october]

Last month I bought two books from an auction for $1300, consigned them on another site before I had them in hand and sold them for a total of $827 profit. Deals are out there, but they don't sit there shining a spotlight on themselves.

Somebody this week offered me $250 over what i paid for the Cap book I posted, but I'm in no rush to sell it. That would be about 15% profit for a book I owned less than a week.

Wouldn't mind two or three of those a month while I sit around playing poolside blackjack during my retirement.

 

that would be living the dream.

 

imagine if you could do that every week!

 

You can. It's what dealers do.

[FlyingDonut]

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.

 

So so so so so true.

[Myparentsbasement]

I don't have a yearly $$ amount i am for; I shoot to make back twice what I paid for the comic or toy.

Some days that does not happen; the market cooled, I over priced, etc.

 

 

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.

 

Totally agree with this.

 

[towards2112]

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/070914/how-do-i-calculate-inventory-turnover-ratio.asp

 

Basic learning curve will tell you how much time and money you are wasting

buying stock, books, or inventory that is not producing a ROI. If you are buying

and selling for money, take time to learn some basics of business. Ending up

with an extra $ 50 at the end of the day can be misleading.

[revat]

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/070914/how-do-i-calculate-inventory-turnover-ratio.asp

 

Basic learning curve will tell you how much time and money you are wasting

buying stock, books, or inventory that is not producing a ROI. If you are buying

and selling for money, take time to learn some basics of business. Ending up

with an extra $ 50 at the end of the day can be misleading.

 

Agree. For the most part, its only 'worth' it if you're having fun while doing (barring the occasional rare huge score).

 

If you're going to your LCS anyways, and you take an extra 15-20 min to flip quickly through the back issue bins for gems, not too bad. Or if you occasionally hit craigslist or yard sales and enjoy the hunt, and you get stuff you like and some stuff you can sell, then great! But if you're looking for sheer ROI, your time has value too...allegedly.

 

So then you have to factor in everything: Time, money spent on comics, other expenses (gas, show fees, tolls, gas, parking, shipping, possible tarriffs, exchange rates), time loading comics into your car. And that's just the acquisition costs.

 

Then there's moving the comics to your location, time unloading, bagging and boarding, sorting, grading, pressing, not to mention the space it takes up in your house (or paid storage), which may be an issue to your wife, kids, pets, parents.

 

Then for the actual selling, there's pricing, pictures, descriptions, various venues and fees, possible costs for going to shows (dealer fee, gas, staff, food, hotel, parking, time, insurance), taxes, credit card/paypal fees, then possible shipping, which ain't easy and returns, and what if it doesn't sell right away and i have to drag it home after a show and/or repost it for sale later?

 

And what about the opportunity cost of doing all of this, financially and in terms of time I could have spent doing something else.

 

 

Of course there's other benefits, the thrill of the hunt, the joy of the big score, the actual money made, getting meet new people and make connections, filling holes in your collections while (hopefully) making money, actually reading some comics, having cool stuff to display, even if its temporary.

 

 

[AKA Rick]

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/070914/how-do-i-calculate-inventory-turnover-ratio.asp

 

Basic learning curve will tell you how much time and money you are wasting

buying stock, books, or inventory that is not producing a ROI. If you are buying

and selling for money, take time to learn some basics of business. Ending up

with an extra $ 50 at the end of the day can be misleading.

 

Nice information!

 

I think the key in selling is not only managing selling your "Hot" books, the "Winners" in the lot, which is easy, but it's how to properly liquidate the "Losers" so your financial resources aren't tied up and money isn't working for you. It's the balancing of patience and strategy of knowing how to take a loss, and turning those pennies on a dollar into new fresh inventory than can potentially reap greater rewards.

 

Otherwise, what happens most often is people buy 100 items, sell 20, can't sell 80, and retain those 80, cycle, repeat 'til a backlog of "dollar bin" unsalable builds up, and sure, there's always those diamonds in the rough which emerge as those "trash to treasure" books you're blessed for keeping and digging out, but those are far and few between, so in the long run, being at peace with not being stuck with dead inventory and tying up your resources (space and money).

 

That's always a struggle.

[1Cool]

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/070914/how-do-i-calculate-inventory-turnover-ratio.asp

 

Basic learning curve will tell you how much time and money you are wasting

buying stock, books, or inventory that is not producing a ROI. If you are buying

and selling for money, take time to learn some basics of business. Ending up

with an extra $ 50 at the end of the day can be misleading.

 

Nice information!

 

I think the key in selling is not only managing selling your "Hot" books, the "Winners" in the lot, which is easy, but it's how to properly liquidate the "Losers" so your financial resources aren't tied up and money isn't working for you. It's the balancing of patience and strategy of knowing how to take a loss, and turning those pennies on a dollar into new fresh inventory than can potentially reap greater rewards.

 

Otherwise, what happens most often is people buy 100 items, sell 20, can't sell 80, and retain those 80, cycle, repeat 'til a backlog of "dollar bin" unsalable builds up, and sure, there's always those diamonds in the rough which emerge as those "trash to treasure" books you're blessed for keeping and digging out, but those are far and few between, so in the long run, being at peace with not being stuck with dead inventory and tying up your resources (space and money).

 

That's always a struggle.

 

But what is the extra inventory really costing you if there are no new books to buy? I get the principal of not wanting your cash locked up in case a big collection comes around and you may need to pass on it but I've not run into the situation yet. Lets say you sell all your "duds" at blow out prices then you have a stack of money but very little profit to show for those blow out books. I'm not talking about having a book up on E-Bay for 3 years but I think blowing out books after a couple months can be a bit premature in most cases. Why not hold on to the book thru the summer and hopefully it will sell either on E-Bay or at a Con you set up at?

 

Maybe I just don't have a large quantity of books fall into my lap but I've never been hard up for cash that I wished I had more money at that time. I guess the liquid cash could be put in the bank but what does that yield - 2%?

[revat]

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/070914/how-do-i-calculate-inventory-turnover-ratio.asp

 

Basic learning curve will tell you how much time and money you are wasting

buying stock, books, or inventory that is not producing a ROI. If you are buying

and selling for money, take time to learn some basics of business. Ending up

with an extra $ 50 at the end of the day can be misleading.

 

Nice information!

 

I think the key in selling is not only managing selling your "Hot" books, the "Winners" in the lot, which is easy, but it's how to properly liquidate the "Losers" so your financial resources aren't tied up and money isn't working for you. It's the balancing of patience and strategy of knowing how to take a loss, and turning those pennies on a dollar into new fresh inventory than can potentially reap greater rewards.

 

Otherwise, what happens most often is people buy 100 items, sell 20, can't sell 80, and retain those 80, cycle, repeat 'til a backlog of "dollar bin" unsalable builds up, and sure, there's always those diamonds in the rough which emerge as those "trash to treasure" books you're blessed for keeping and digging out, but those are far and few between, so in the long run, being at peace with not being stuck with dead inventory and tying up your resources (space and money).

 

That's always a struggle.

 

But what is the extra inventory really costing you if there are no new books to buy? I get the principal of not wanting your cash locked up in case a big collection comes around and you may need to pass on it but I've not run into the citation yet. Lets say you sell all your "duds" at blow out prices then you have a stack of money but very little profit to show for those blow out books. I'm not talking about having a book up on E-Bay for 3 years but I think blowing out books after a couple months can be a bit premature in most cases. Why not hold on to the book thru the summer and hopefully it will sell either on E-Bay or at a Con you set up at?

 

Maybe I just don't have a large quantity of books fall into my lap but I've never been hard up for cash that I wished I had more money at that time. I guess the liquid cash could be put in the bank but what does that yield - 2%?

 

I agree, i think most non-dealers do it for fun, using disposable income to generate a bit more disposable income and to help pay for more comics. In which case ANY return (even break even) on most books isn't too bad. If its a hobby you want to spend 100 hours per year on, you could have a house full of model planes and be out $1,000 for the year, or a house full of comics and be plus $1000 for the year. Sometimes it can be a daunting hassle (for the reasons in the link and my previous post), but if you're actually feeling legitimate 'financial pressure' because of your comic 'investments', then you should probably get either way more serious or way less serious about it.

[Dale Roberts]

What is an acceptable margin for you to make back on a book?

 

You can't answer this question without more info. Where are you? What are your costs? Are you doing shows? Do you have a store? How long will it take you to sell the product? How much risk is involved in the product you are buying.

 

You can't sustain a business working on 10% margin unless you have an unlimited bank roll.

[towards2112]

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/070914/how-do-i-calculate-inventory-turnover-ratio.asp

 

Basic learning curve will tell you how much time and money you are wasting

buying stock, books, or inventory that is not producing a ROI. If you are buying

and selling for money, take time to learn some basics of business. Ending up

with an extra $ 50 at the end of the day can be misleading.

 

Nice information!

 

I think the key in selling is not only managing selling your "Hot" books, the "Winners" in the lot, which is easy, but it's how to properly liquidate the "Losers" so your financial resources aren't tied up and money isn't working for you. It's the balancing of patience and strategy of knowing how to take a loss, and turning those pennies on a dollar into new fresh inventory than can potentially reap greater rewards.

 

Otherwise, what happens most often is people buy 100 items, sell 20, can't sell 80, and retain those 80, cycle, repeat 'til a backlog of "dollar bin" unsalable builds up, and sure, there's always those diamonds in the rough which emerge as those "trash to treasure" books you're blessed for keeping and digging out, but those are far and few between, so in the long run, being at peace with not being stuck with dead inventory and tying up your resources (space and money).

 

That's always a struggle.

 

But what is the extra inventory really costing you if there are no new books to buy? I get the principal of not wanting your cash locked up in case a big collection comes around and you may need to pass on it but I've not run into the citation yet. Lets say you sell all your "duds" at blow out prices then you have a stack of money but very little profit to show for those blow out books. I'm not talking about having a book up on E-Bay for 3 years but I think blowing out books after a couple months can be a bit premature in most cases. Why not hold on to the book thru the summer and hopefully it will sell either on E-Bay or at a Con you set up at?

 

Maybe I just don't have a large quantity of books fall into my lap but I've never been hard up for cash that I wished I had more money at that time. I guess the liquid cash could be put in the bank but what does that yield - 2%?

 

If this is a fictional "real business" then tying up money in inventory will cost you

if you actually intend to conduct proper business and pay taxes on it. Most comic

book shops have very fuzzy ledgers. AND there is always a paper trail on every

item in a shop, or should be, even if you pay cash. I've always viewed not telling the

whole truth to the tax people as a shakey business practice, but I never lied to

myself on the "real" ledger. Modern business calls it a P&L statement, and there

are legal reasons why you must have and should have one. The ledger is where I

always kept what was truly happening. The idea behind all this is to actually pay

attention to your real expenditures, how much you spent to buy this inventory,

EVERYTHING, how much you sold, and the NET, how much is left after all the

bills are paid. THIS is what you are working for as a business.

 

NOW, chasing funny books for fun and profit is entirely a different story.

[towards2112]

What is an acceptable margin for you to make back on a book?

 

You can't answer this question without more info. Where are you? What are your costs? Are you doing shows? Do you have a store? How long will it take you to sell the product? How much risk is involved in the product you are buying.

 

You can't sustain a business working on 10% margin unless you have an unlimited bank roll.

 

IE : Evans ?

[1Cool]

What is an acceptable margin for you to make back on a book?

 

You can't answer this question without more info. Where are you? What are your costs? Are you doing shows? Do you have a store? How long will it take you to sell the product? How much risk is involved in the product you are buying.

 

You can't sustain a business working on 10% margin unless you have an unlimited bank roll.

 

I'm only a part time seller so the big time dealers probably look at it differently than I do but it comes down to what is my time worth? I tend to shoot for $15 an hour since the comic business is fun to me. If it takes me on average 20 minutes to buy/scan/sell/ship a single book then I need to make $5 a book to have it be worthwhile. The only way I can do this is hit up comic shops on my lunch hour when I'm already out of town on business (like yesterday in Toledo)or buy in bulk when I travel out of town to buy books (Cons).

[1Cool]

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/070914/how-do-i-calculate-inventory-turnover-ratio.asp

 

Basic learning curve will tell you how much time and money you are wasting

buying stock, books, or inventory that is not producing a ROI. If you are buying

and selling for money, take time to learn some basics of business. Ending up

with an extra $ 50 at the end of the day can be misleading.

 

Nice information!

 

I think the key in selling is not only managing selling your "Hot" books, the "Winners" in the lot, which is easy, but it's how to properly liquidate the "Losers" so your financial resources aren't tied up and money isn't working for you. It's the balancing of patience and strategy of knowing how to take a loss, and turning those pennies on a dollar into new fresh inventory than can potentially reap greater rewards.

 

Otherwise, what happens most often is people buy 100 items, sell 20, can't sell 80, and retain those 80, cycle, repeat 'til a backlog of "dollar bin" unsalable builds up, and sure, there's always those diamonds in the rough which emerge as those "trash to treasure" books you're blessed for keeping and digging out, but those are far and few between, so in the long run, being at peace with not being stuck with dead inventory and tying up your resources (space and money).

 

That's always a struggle.

 

But what is the extra inventory really costing you if there are no new books to buy? I get the principal of not wanting your cash locked up in case a big collection comes around and you may need to pass on it but I've not run into the citation yet. Lets say you sell all your "duds" at blow out prices then you have a stack of money but very little profit to show for those blow out books. I'm not talking about having a book up on E-Bay for 3 years but I think blowing out books after a couple months can be a bit premature in most cases. Why not hold on to the book thru the summer and hopefully it will sell either on E-Bay or at a Con you set up at?

 

Maybe I just don't have a large quantity of books fall into my lap but I've never been hard up for cash that I wished I had more money at that time. I guess the liquid cash could be put in the bank but what does that yield - 2%?

 

If this is a fictional "real business" then tying up money in inventory will cost you

if you actually intend to conduct proper business and pay taxes on it. Most comic

book shops have very fuzzy ledgers. AND there is always a paper trail on every

item in a shop, or should be, even if you pay cash. I've always viewed not telling the

whole truth to the tax people as a shakey business practice, but I never lied to

myself on the "real" ledger. Modern business calls it a P&L statement, and there

are legal reasons why you must have and should have one. The ledger is where I

always kept what was truly happening. The idea behind all this is to actually pay

attention to your real expenditures, how much you spent to buy this inventory,

EVERYTHING, how much you sold, and the NET, how much is left after all the

bills are paid. THIS is what you are working for as a business.

 

NOW, chasing funny books for fun and profit is entirely a different story.

 

I see what you are saying but doesn't unsold books fall into inventory at the end of the year so there is no real tax "problem" if they do not sell right away. Storage and the possible need for a large sum of cash (liquid) seems to be the only reason to blow out books in bulk.