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

[Hepcat]

They somehow think they're doing you a favour by "allowing" you to sell their comics for them while walking away with the cash up front.

Back in 2000 I had an older fellow visit me at my office to show me the fifty or so 1956 Shredded Wheat CFL cards that he wanted to sell. He said that he'd just put them away in a drawer after getting them in Shredded Wheat boxes as a kid. He wanted full NM guide. But while almost all were quite nice, a few had corner dings and they were all toned to various degrees, some a lot more than offers which left me rather puzzled. He wasn't willing to just sell me the few I might want for my own collection. He called that "cherry picking". He wanted me to buy them all, at full guide! I asked him what I was supposed to do with the ones I didn't want/need for my collection. His reply "Well you can sell them to your collecting buddies/contacts". But meanwhile I was to pay full guide.... So basically do all the work selling them and hope to break even. Ridiculous! No deal of course.

[spreads]

3 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

Definitely frustrating but just simply does not understand or "get it".  Or really wants to sell. Bah.  As I am sure you are aware, there are a lot of these folks out there. They see a price in OSPG and think that is gospel.

...While they say their books are "NM" I swear they almost all skip over the grading part in OSPG...

How many books advertised are not 'mint'.  You'd think the pages were stuck with old lady candy, you know those red/white mints you'd see in candy jars back in the day. 

[Hepcat]

I once had a spoon selling Golden Book encyclopedias on Ebay tell me that they were "mint" because there were no missing pages. He must have been a used car salesman from way back. Sellers like that deserve a sound beating in a back alleyway.

[thehumantorch]

4 hours ago, Hepcat said:

They somehow think they're doing you a favour by "allowing" you to sell their comics for them while walking away with the cash up front.

Back in 2000 I had an older fellow visit me at my office to show me the fifty or so 1956 Shredded Wheat CFL cards that he wanted to sell. He said that he'd just put them away in a drawer after getting them in Shredded Wheat boxes as a kid. He wanted full NM guide. But while almost all were quite nice, a few had corner dings and they were all toned to various degrees, some a lot more than offers which left me rather puzzled. He wasn't willing to just sell me the few I might want for my own collection. He called that "cherry picking". He wanted me to buy them all, at full guide! I asked him what I was supposed to do with the ones I didn't want/need for my collection. His reply "Well you can sell them to your collecting buddies/contacts". But meanwhile I was to pay full guide.... So basically do all the work selling them and hope to break even. Ridiculous! No deal of course.

There's tons of guys who don't want to leave a  dime on the table.  If I'm gonna do the work I want to get paid and if they don't want to pay someone to sell their collection they're gonna have to do the work.  I just walk away, there's always another collection around the corner.

I get an email from a guy in Calgary every year for the last 3 years.  A list of some pretty nice books but he wants almost double what I can sell them for.  The first time I got his email I replied with a long, logical email.  Took the first 4 books on his list, the last 4 books and 4 books from the middle.  Showed him links to recent relevant sales and gave him GPA data and clearly showed that his prices were well above market.  I made it clear that I couldn't pay full value let alone 2 times value.  He replied that he appreciated all the information but his books were worth more than market and would go up next year.  Now I just delete his emails without reading them.

Edited March 23, 2018 by thehumantorch

[Wall-Crawler]

4 hours ago, Hepcat said:

They somehow think they're doing you a favour by "allowing" you to sell their comics for them while walking away with the cash up front.

Back in 2000 I had an older fellow visit me at my office to show me the fifty or so 1956 Shredded Wheat CFL cards that he wanted to sell. He said that he'd just put them away in a drawer after getting them in Shredded Wheat boxes as a kid. He wanted full NM guide. But while almost all were quite nice, a few had corner dings and they were all toned to various degrees, some a lot more than offers which left me rather puzzled. He wasn't willing to just sell me the few I might want for my own collection. He called that "cherry picking". He wanted me to buy them all, at full guide! I asked him what I was supposed to do with the ones I didn't want/need for my collection. His reply "Well you can sell them to your collecting buddies/contacts". But meanwhile I was to pay full guide.... So basically do all the work selling them and hope to break even. Ridiculous! No deal of course.

This gentleman just doesn't have the knowledge. I don't think it is anything malicious, just a lack of knowledge and "but the guide says".  I remained polite as maybe he may come around. I never even got to look at the books as before I wasted a day driving there and back, I wanted to gauge where we were at first. Who knows. Maybe he will come around.

[FlyingDonut]

10 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

So after setting up at  several shows since this thread started, it is now time to replace several long boxes. I don't mind that, just the cost of doing business.

What I was wondering about, what I would like thoughts on, is I use to organize boxes by title and company. For example, one box would be all ASM, another all Batman, etc.  However, after doing several shows, I no longer have say a longbox full of Daredevil and other titles and putting in a spacer to keep them upright is not going to work for several titles now.

Now, I am simply thinking of doing them all mixed, alphabetically, from A to Z.  What I liked about the old way is that I could print up a nice graphic of the character to 'spice up' the plain old white box look.  I know I saw some funky title dividers earlier, but can't remember who showed me those and I am too lazy to look back...

How do you guys organize your stock at shows? Do you do anything to 'spice up' the front of the box? I think the 'change' might help keep my stock seeming 'fresh' too.

Thanks in advance!

May be late to this, but there's nothing that annoys me more than people who separate their books by any other way than the alphabet.

[Wall-Crawler]

7 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:

May be late to this, but there's nothing that annoys me more than people who separate their books by any other way than the alphabet.

Nope, not too late, which is why I was asking!

Before, I had them organized by title, in numerical order of course but now a lot of those longboxes are not filled with a single title...I was leaning towards now going completely alphabetical...

 

[FlyingDonut]

2 minutes ago, Wall-Crawler said:

Nope, not too late, which is why I was asking!

Before, I had them organized by title, in numerical order of course but now a lot of those longboxes are not filled with a single title...I was leaning towards now going completely alphabetical...

 

Maybe by character - all the Batman titles together - but besides that, no. Straight alphabetical.

[Wall-Crawler]

3 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:

Maybe by character - all the Batman titles together - but besides that, no. Straight alphabetical.

Yeah, that is what I did, for example Batman goes like this...Batman, Brave and the Bold, Detective and then Misc. Batman is kind of how I had them to give you an idea.  Spider-Man would be Amazing, Spectacular, Web and then Misc. Spidey

[FlyingDonut]

Just now, Wall-Crawler said:

Yeah, that is what I did, for example Batman goes like this...Batman, Brave and the Bold, Detective and then Misc. Batman is kind of how I had them to give you an idea.  Spider-Man would be Amazing, Spectacular, Web and then Misc. Spidey

eesh. I wouldn't have Brave and the Bold there. How many books are you talking about?

[Wall-Crawler]

26 minutes ago, FlyingDonut said:

eesh. I wouldn't have Brave and the Bold there. How many books are you talking about?

All of my Batman stock fit into three longs initially, I could remove the Brave and the Bold pretty easily...

[spreads]

19 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

When I could have a long box (or more) of a single character, I could easily spice it up with a graphic, like say Spidey or Bats as per my photos. With $2 books, just a big $2 graphic. Sets I had a group shot of a bunch of heroes but it is too busy so going to just make a "Sets and Trade Paperbacks" graphic.

Now, if I go purely alphabetical across all titles and companies, what to put on as a front graphic as I don't want it to be 'plain'. Key books or books over $20 get pulled and go into a "premium" box...Yes, $20 and up for a single issue in my area is frequently seen as a "pricey" book.

But the thing is, if you have longs sorted by one character, then the rest sorted alphabetically, your system overall will be inconsistent (and maybe confusing).  I like donut's idea - straight alphabetical.

[spreads]

12 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

There's tons of guys who don't want to leave a  dime on the table.  If I'm gonna do the work I want to get paid and if they don't want to pay someone to sell their collection they're gonna have to do the work.  I just walk away, there's always another collection around the corner.

I get an email from a guy in Calgary every year for the last 3 years.  A list of some pretty nice books but he wants almost double what I can sell them for.  The first time I got his email I replied with a long, logical email.  Took the first 4 books on his list, the last 4 books and 4 books from the middle.  Showed him links to recent relevant sales and gave him GPA data and clearly showed that his prices were well above market.  I made it clear that I couldn't pay full value let alone 2 times value.  He replied that he appreciated all the information but his books were worth more than market and would go up next year.  Now I just delete his emails without reading them.

Great story.

I think this is particularly common with the older 'stubborn' generation.  I wrote somewhere of an old collector that had 'guide' value in his mind 30 years ago for books, and now they had to be worth more!  And when he told me no book would cost more than $10/each, he didn't have an answer when he totaled the lot value for me with a price greater than that!  I think they just get confused.....

[Wall-Crawler]

2 hours ago, spreads said:

But the thing is, if you have longs sorted by one character, then the rest sorted alphabetically, your system overall will be inconsistent (and maybe confusing).  I like donut's idea - straight alphabetical.

When I first got started, I didn't have all my stock sorted (still don't  ) so I just went by major characters first. Now that I am where I am and some of those no longer fill a long box or two, yep, I have to go straight alphabetical as I now have more titles to include that don't necessarily fill the box on their own. Plus, getting them in the mix will help get them sold, so this is what I am thinking...

Run books - Organized alphabetically, but use cool/funky title dividers. Who showed those funky dividers they made up earlier?

$2 or 3 for $5 books - Organized alphabetically (always were), but just A to Z.  These boxes were always and specifically marked as cheapies.

Completed Sets and Trades - Organized alphabetically (always were), but just A to Z. These boxes were always and specifically marked as sets and trades.

Of course, I have a few "Wall Books" and also a "Premium" box, This box is organized A - Z and consists of books in mylars that are at least $20 and up.

[thehumantorch]

3 hours ago, spreads said:

Great story.

I think this is particularly common with the older 'stubborn' generation.  I wrote somewhere of an old collector that had 'guide' value in his mind 30 years ago for books, and now they had to be worth more!  And when he told me no book would cost more than $10/each, he didn't have an answer when he totaled the lot value for me with a price greater than that!  I think they just get confused.....

This is a fairly young guy, in his 30s.  He just wants a good score and doesn't care if the guy doing the work needs a profit.  And each year he waits his books have generally gone up in value so he's getting value to wait.  And he can value his books any way he wants, if we can't agree on a price I won't buy them but I don't even look at his emails anymore, not worth the time.

[spreads]

18 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

This is a fairly young guy, in his 30s.  He just wants a good score and doesn't care if the guy doing the work needs a profit.  And each year he waits his books have generally gone up in value so he's getting value to wait.  And he can value his books any way he wants, if we can't agree on a price I won't buy them but I don't even look at his emails anymore, not worth the time.

They go up until they don't!  Then he might change his tune...but like you said at that point it will be liking to the wall if you've ignored his emails. 

[Wall-Crawler]

So within ten minutes of re-posting my Kijiji ad, I bought my first "collection" of 2018. I can't retire yet but hey, its a start! The hardcovers are nice, I dig the Batman role playing game and the little stack is a mix of Death in the Family and Harley Quinn books and a couple older Bat books. Decent show stuff. Guy got into New 52 and Joker stuff and promptly lost interest. Again, nothing to brag about  at all but the price was very good and at least I broke the ice for 2018 when it comes to buying something. 

[spreads]

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 2:49 PM, Wall-Crawler said:

So within ten minutes of re-posting my Kijiji ad, I bought my first "collection" of 2018. I can't retire yet but hey, its a start! The hardcovers are nice, I dig the Batman role playing game and the little stack is a mix of Death in the Family and Harley Quinn books and a couple older Bat books. Decent show stuff. Guy got into New 52 and Joker stuff and promptly lost interest. Again, nothing to brag about  at all but the price was very good and at least I broke the ice for 2018 when it comes to buying something. 

Way to wet your whistle!

So I know I said I wasn't actively buying (I'm being extra picky) but I picked up a lot of about 600 comics real cheap.  It had big runs of Wolverine, Punisher, PWJ, as well as a spattering of ASM, WEB, SSM, etc.  So I'm happy I'll be using it to fill holes....there were other good stuff of value in there, some old Atlas books, full runs of titles.  I'll use this weekend to quickly go through what I want and dump the rest real cheap.  The kicker is he had a ton of keys, including some real big books but they were stickered with some crazy prices - however knowing what he has gives me an in on the competition if I can make a play at his stuff some time down the road.

Edit: in case anyone cares, certain parts of Ottawa's real-estate is white-hot.  We missed out on a property last week by going in at 107% of ask and lost it by 5k   

Sometimes you need to buy comics to make you feel better...

Edited March 29, 2018 by spreads

[Wall-Crawler]

I just received confirmation yesterday that for Sudbury Graphic Con: 

ACCEPTANCE:  VENDOR PREMIUM

Sudbury Graphic Con is the largest local con that I do and will be my second year doing so.  I applied in my first year for a premium booth but was "only" granted a regular booth.  Premium spots are very limited so I again decided to apply for premium booth and was stoked to get that email yesterday.  This basically means I have double the room to work with than I did last year for not a lot of extra money. 

Date:  Saturday, June 9th, 2018.

Based on some earlier suggestions, I will be "revamping" my boxes and hope to bring some new product and make a very good "splash". My involvement with 'big shows' is still pretty limited, but I was very impressed last year with how well this show is organized and how friendly they are.  Attendance was very good as well.  If you care to read about this show, here is the link: http://graphiccon.com/

 

[thehumantorch]

15 hours ago, spreads said:

Way to wet your whistle!

So I know I said I wasn't actively buying (I'm being extra picky) but I picked up a lot of about 600 comics real cheap.  It had big runs of Wolverine, Punisher, PWJ, as well as a spattering of ASM, WEB, SSM, etc.  So I'm happy I'll be using it to fill holes....there were other good stuff of value in there, some old Atlas books, full runs of titles.  I'll use this weekend to quickly go through what I want and dump the rest real cheap.  The kicker is he had a ton of keys, including some real big books but they were stickered with some crazy prices - however knowing what he has gives me an in on the competition if I can make a play at his stuff some time down the road.

Edit: in case anyone cares, certain parts of Ottawa's real-estate is white-hot.  We missed out on a property last week by going in at 107% of ask and lost it by 5k   

Sometimes you need to buy comics to make you feel better...

Nice.  Sometimes these smaller deals are real winners.  Guy want them gone and he isn't sitting on a valuable collection and doesn't want the moon.  

We've had a good buying month, too good.  In addition to the 20 short collection we also picked up

-35 slabbed keys and minor keys - includes Walking Dead 1 in 9.8, ASM 129 6.5, WWBN 32 6.5
-cherry picked 7 books from a small collection, best books NM98
-was at a LCS that's going out of business and the owner said she'd sell all the newer books for 10 Cents each.  Worked out to 11 longs and most of it is bagged and boarded and it's about 85% quality superhero books including lots of TMNT, Venom, Spider-man, etc

Edited March 30, 2018 by thehumantorch