Tales from the Comic Box - Rookie Adventures in Buying/Selling/Cons 5 5

[thehumantorch]

3 hours ago, HouseofComics.Com said:

With the major shows, I like that they are 2-3 days because it's been so much work to get the stuff there and set up, etc. Happy to be "installed" for the weekend. it's just the regional ones that see $$ by expanding to two days that are disappointing.

Agreed, it's a lot of work to set up the booth for one day of selling

For a local 3 day show plus a setup day we use those days to our advantage.  Bring in a load each on Thursday.  Bring another load on Friday.  Bring any individual books that we've been asked for Saturday and Sunday morning.  Take home a load of what's selling slowest on Saturday night so that load out Sunday night will fit in our vehicles.

 

[Artboy99]

25 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Agreed, it's a lot of work to set up the booth for one day of selling

For a local 3 day show plus a setup day we use those days to our advantage.  Bring in a load each on Thursday.  Bring another load on Friday.  Bring any individual books that we've been asked for Saturday and Sunday morning.  Take home a load of what's selling slowest on Saturday night so that load out Sunday night will fit in our vehicles.

 

also consider if you buy anything at the show that it needs to fit in the vehicles.

[thehumantorch]

6 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

also consider if you buy anything at the show that it needs to fit in the vehicles.

I only bought  1 1/2 longs  

Edited October 4, 2017 by thehumantorch

[Artboy99]

2 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

I only box 1 1/2 longs  

It fit.

Edited October 4, 2017 by Artboy99

[Wall-Crawler]

24 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

I only bought  1 1/2 longs  

I have only bought a handful of books at shows so far...Those Golden Age Canadian Editions and some Creepy/Eerie Mags.  Everything else that was brought to me was stuff that had been stored in people's garage or basement and essentially trash.

...However, I have had people call me AFTER a show so getting "out there" is definitely a bonus

[thehumantorch]

2 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

I have only bought a handful of books at shows so far...Those Golden Age Canadian Editions and some Creepy/Eerie Mags.  Everything else that was brought to me was stuff that had been stored in people's garage or basement and essentially trash.

...However, I have had people call me AFTER a show so getting "out there" is definitely a bonus

I'm always buying, ask Artboy  

[Wall-Crawler]

13 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

I'm always buying, ask Artboy  

@Artboy99 is this true?

I would buy more at shows, if the opportunity presented itself (when it has been decent, I have)

[Artboy99]

32 minutes ago, Wall-Crawler said:

@Artboy99 is this true?

I would buy more at shows, if the opportunity presented itself (when it has been decent, I have)

Yes he is always buying.

We did a show several years ago where a fellow vendor wanted OUT at the end of the show and we went over and bought him out for relatively cheap. If I recall it was $20 a longbox. It wasn't great stuff but for dollar book stock it was good.

Then there was the guy at a Calgary Expo who was selling books from the estate of his friend. Tons of good stuff for relatively cheap. Of course by the time we hear about it all the great stuff is gone but we still bought quite a few books from that guy. Got this gem for $100 Canadian:

At our last show at the end of September, the last hour he was gone from the booth off buying.

The show is over and I have some person I have never met come to our booth:

"Hi, are you Karl?"

Yes

"I need to borrow your cart."

Ummm.... I am going to be using it right away.

"No, you don't understand. Your partner Dave is over at our booth and he bought a whole bunch of comics. Several longs so we need your cart."

Friend vendor right beside me at hearing this:

We are already going to be over packed in our cars trying to get home what we already have at the show and now we have several longs to contend with????

My car usually looks like this when we pack up at the end of a show:

 

In the end, you have to support your partner, and Dave has a good eye for sellable books. I trust his decisions.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Artboy99

[spreads]

23 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

Yes he is always buying.

We did a show several years ago where a fellow vendor wanted OUT at the end of the show and we went over and bought him out for relatively cheap. If I recall it was $20 a longbox. It wasn't great stuff but for dollar book stock it was good.

Then there was the guy at a Calgary Expo who was selling books from the estate of his friend. Tons of good stuff for relatively cheap. Of course by the time we hear about it all the great stuff is gone but we still bought quite a few books from that guy. Got this gem for $100 Canadian:

At our last show at the end of September, the last hour he was gone from the booth off buying.

The show is over and I have some person I have never met come to our booth:

"Hi, are you Karl?"

Yes

"I need to borrow your cart."

Ummm.... I am going to be using it right away.

"No, you don't understand. Your partner Dave is over at our booth and he bought a whole bunch of comics. Several longs so we need your cart."

Friend vendor right beside me at hearing this:

We are already going to be over packed in our cars trying to get home what we already have at the show and now we have several longs to contend with????

My car usually looks like this when we pack up at the end of a show:

 

In the end, you have to support your partner, and Dave has a good eye for sellable books. I trust his decisions.

Great stories!  I'm surprised you guys are lugging all that stuff in a sedan?  Everyone I know in ALTA has a truck! 

Edited October 5, 2017 by spreads

[Artboy99]

Just now, spreads said:

Great stories!  I'm surprised you guys are lugging all that stuff in a sedan?  Everyone in know in ALTA has a truck! 

I have a sedan Dave owns a Honda SUV.

After many years and many shows I have become rather good at packing my car. I can get 18 longs into it and the 2 bags of tools and supplies.

In the future I plan to buy an SUV.

[spreads]

13 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

I have a sedan Dave owns a Honda SUV.

After many years and many shows I have become rather good at packing my car. I can get 18 longs into it and the 2 bags of tools and supplies.

In the future I plan to buy an SUV.

You guys have an interesting dynamic, how did this relationship start?  I can see some obvious benefits to operating a joint business versus one person, but have you guys ever considered operating alone?

[Artboy99]

Just now, spreads said:

You guys have an interesting dynamic, how did this relationship start?  I can see some obvious benefits to operating a joint business versus one person, but have you guys ever considered operating alone?

we did operate alone previously.

We became a joint venture when I found a "large" collection through my full time day job. He was a client of mine and was selling mostly because his wife was sick of the comics in the basement. It was 37 longs. No, not really that large but I live in a small one bedroom condo and really have no place to put 37 longs.

I approached Dave asking if he was interested in the collection.

The partnership was born after that and has developed ever since. We have learned a lot over the years and we are always evolving. One of the best decisions we made was to make the collection mostly jointly owned.

[revat]

1 hour ago, Artboy99 said:

we did operate alone previously.

We became a joint venture when I found a "large" collection through my full time day job. He was a client of mine and was selling mostly because his wife was sick of the comics in the basement. It was 37 longs. No, not really that large but I live in a small one bedroom condo and really have no place to put 37 longs.

I approached Dave asking if he was interested in the collection.

The partnership was born after that and has developed ever since. We have learned a lot over the years and we are always evolving. One of the best decisions we made was to make the collection mostly jointly owned.

that's pretty cool, I like origin stories. 

[spreads]

Sorry, not to derail the OP's thread, but on the topic of having an SUV (I got this Tiguan a year ago, an upgrade from my corolla and absolutely love it).

I picked-up this box at lunch (estate auction from Eastern Ontario), it was so heavy they aren't allowed to lift it at CP (nor would I expect someone else to lift it). 

 

[Artboy99]

29 minutes ago, spreads said:

Sorry, not to derail the OP's thread, but on the topic of having an SUV (I got this Tiguan a year ago, an upgrade from my corolla and absolutely love it).

I picked-up this box at lunch (estate auction from Eastern Ontario), it was so heavy they aren't allowed to lift it at CP (nor would I expect someone else to lift it). 

 

looking forward to hearing the details of the contents.

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

At our last Berkeley con I had a smaller vehicle taking the books back so I ended up putting boxes in the front seat and rolling the empty handtruck back to my warehouse space on foot to meet the driver of the full car! Never had that happen before. Luckily it was only about ten blocks.

[Artboy99]

37 minutes ago, HouseofComics.Com said:

At our last Berkeley con I had a smaller vehicle taking the books back so I ended up putting boxes in the front seat and rolling the empty handtruck back to my warehouse space on foot to meet the driver of the full car! Never had that happen before. Luckily it was only about ten blocks.

Have not got to that point yet. I did have to take the wheels off my cart though.

Also have had to leave empty boxes behind.

[spreads]

1 hour ago, Artboy99 said:

looking forward to hearing the details of the contents.

 

I'll post them in the auction/garage find thread since this is actually my first legitimate estate auction score.  I'm extremely happy with the result (haven't even gone through the big box yet), but from what I know it's a great score.

[thehumantorch]

5 hours ago, revat said:

that's pretty cool, I like origin stories. 

 

Working together has it's advantages.  Not as risky to go look at collections.  Help to buy and haul and prepare collections for shows.  Someone to watch the booth when you're hungry or gotta take a break.  And I think Karl and I think pretty similar and work well together and we understand we're not gonna agree on everything.

[spreads]

2 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

 

Working together has it's advantages.  Not as risky to go look at collections.  Help to buy and haul and prepare collections for shows.  Someone to watch the booth when you're hungry or gotta take a break.  And I think Karl and I think pretty similar and work well together and we understand we're not gonna agree on everything.

I would think buy and haul collections would be the biggest advantage, two buyers that can be at two places at once or conflicting schedules that provide better flexibility.