Should Con dealers beat/match online prices? 3 3

[FineCollector]

2 hours ago, 1Cool said:

The book on E-Bay could be vastly over graded for all the dealer can tell and then you have to factor in $5 shipping.  Buyers in my similar discussion thread said they paid extra to be at the Con so why would they pay extra on top of BIN prices but I think the ability to physically check out the book should have some kind of premium. 

Agree on all counts.

Shipping sucks to and from Canada.  Considering how few dealers with books I want operate in the Great White North, returns are not an easy or enviable task.

I stopped buying on eBay over 10 years ago.  Once I'd found a few dependable dealers, I didn't need it anymore.  I remember buying three seperate raw copies of Fantastic Four 54 from eBay, and the grade was way off every single time.  It's well worth seeing it in hand, and buying from someone you can converse with.

[kav]

15 minutes ago, comicquant said:

The last time I looked at their raw books they wanted $90 for an asm 61 that had been used as a coffee mug coaster since 1968.

 

This seems to be the baffling norm.  I want to say hey I'll sell you as many of your wall books as you want at 20% of what you're asking.  Then go on ebay and buy em for 10%

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amazing-Spider-Man-61-Spiderman-12-cents-/232244107270?hash=item3612d3d806%3Ag%3AsWMAAOSwdGFYp8I6&nma=true&si=7uvU14h12DOrsZpPqChClaB0KhU%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Edited February 27, 2017 by kav

[Buzzetta]

Are we talking about a raw book or are we talking about a CGC graded book?

What condition is the CGC book ? 9.8's are pretty much indiscernible from one another however the appearance of a 3.5 can range greatly.  

With comic books I will say it depends.

However, if I go to a show and see something there that is readily available elsewhere (a current Lego set), I will ask, can you match this price?  If not I have no problem ordering it and waiting the two days from Amazon and it saves me the trouble of lugging it around the con.  

 

I will tell you what IS annoying and I have mentioned it here.   I find it ridiculous that certain vendors charge a NY or Comic Con tax.  If you the vendor have the item readily available on your website or in your eBay store at say $70 shipped with free shipping, I am not paying you $85 at the con.  Don't even try to convince me that is your best price because it obviously isn't.  I will walk away and order it on my phone and you can ship that item to me when you get back. 

Edited February 27, 2017 by Buzzetta

[01TheDude]

I agree that the prices I see at any LCS seem out of touch with the market. Most of my buying has been through eBay or here on the boards (occasionally). I am more likely to buy from a seller who takes the time to take multiple pics and scans of the book. If you want to get the best money for the book on ebay-- do a great job describing flaws and providing pictures. I also will buy some books that the sellers have not given much effort but I limit what I am willing to pay-- discounting whatever grade they assign accordingly by that lack of effort. If a seller says a book is a 7.0 but the pictures look like a 4.5 - my top bid for that item is gauged accordingly.

Then you have some newbie or non comic savvy sellers who you take a chance on -- sure, a bit risky especially on the shipping side of things-- but sometimes you get a great bargain. And usually I am sniping something that is overlooked by others and at a crazy low price.

 

That might not work for those who seek ultra high grade or more modern books-- I get that. That is their burden to bear.

Edited February 27, 2017 by 01TheDude

[kav]

23 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

I agree that the prices I see at any LCS seem out of touch with the market. Most of my buying has been through eBay or here on the boards (occasionally). I am more likely to buy from a seller who takes the time to take multiple pics and scans of the book. If you want to get the best money for the book on ebay-- do a great job describing flaws and providing pictures. I also will buy some books that the sellers have not given much effort but I limit what I am willing to pay-- discounting whatever grade they assign accordingly by that lack of effort. If a seller says a book is a 7.0 but the pictures look like a 4.5 - my top bid for that item is gauged accordingly.

Then you have some newbie or non comic savvy sellers who you take a chance on -- sure, a bit risky especially on the shipping side of things-- but sometimes you get a great bargain. And usually I am sniping something that is overlooked by others and at a crazy low price.

 

That might not work for those who seek ultra high grade or more modern books-- I get that. That is their burden to bear.

Likewise.  Most of my purchases are SA in the 3.0-6.0 range.  So a tiny crease that I didn't notice in the pic is not gonna bug me.

[Doktor]

1 hour ago, Buzzetta said:

Are we talking about a raw book or are we talking about a CGC graded book?

What condition is the CGC book ? 9.8's are pretty much indiscernible from one another however the appearance of a 3.5 can range greatly.  

With comic books I will say it depends.

However, if I go to a show and see something there that is readily available elsewhere (a current Lego set), I will ask, can you match this price?  If not I have no problem ordering it and waiting the two days from Amazon and it saves me the trouble of lugging it around the con.  

 

I will tell you what IS annoying and I have mentioned it here.   I find it ridiculous that certain vendors charge a NY or Comic Con tax.  If you the vendor have the item readily available on your website or in your eBay store at say $70 shipped with free shipping, I am not paying you $85 at the con.  Don't even try to convince me that is your best price because it obviously isn't.  I will walk away and order it on my phone and you can ship that item to me when you get back. 

Honestly? With the kind of brazenness of asking me to pay some sort of "con tax", I might be a big enough richard to order it on my phone in front of their face. Especially if paying with PayPal. 

[blazingbob]

What is a NY or Comic con tax?  In all my years I've never had somebody tell me that.  

[jcjames]

3 hours ago, Red84 said:

When you buy a book in person you are paying a premium to: 1) see the actual book you are buying in person, 2) take it home immediately, and 3) not have to pay shipping with the corresponding risk of it getting damaged or lost in the mail.

^^^^ This and more.

 

With a dealer at an LCS/Con, the buyer has MUCH LESS risk to absorb than by buying on Ebay so the costs can be a little higher at the in-person LCS/Con.

The buyer can inspect each and every page - can't do that on Ebay. That's worth $omething. Then of course the fact that every interested buyer of that book can paw through it, page by page, or {cringe} thumb-flip through the book like it's a reader's digest with the seller having to absorb costs of potential damage to the book every time an interested customer wants to leaf through it. Again, that's worth $omething.

And it's also much harder for a disreputable LCS/dealer to scam someone in-person like the scammy-Ebay-seller pulling a switcheroo or selling the same Mega-Key to three different people and closing the account before the book ever ships like can happen on Ebay.  Having the exact same book that you, saw, inspected, haggled over and agreed to buy in your hands with you the whole time is also worth $omething.

AND.... the dealer at a Con is paying to ship their stock back and forth (which can also get stolen at the Con or damaged in transit). That's more cost.

Having said all that, I can understand dealers having a little bit more price on their books, but as others have pointed out some dealers/LCSs are absolutely outrageous in their wall-book prices... but again, aren't these also the same places that we go digging through their $1 boxes every time we're there hoping to find a gold-nugget book that's worth 10-20X that much or more?  

Bottomline, I can understand a dealer charging a little more, but I'll tell you what, if a dealer gives me a good deal in-person I will definitely be back.

Sell me a book that is currently valued at $100 for $80, I will definitely be coming back to buy more from you.

Try selling me a book that is currently valued at $100 for $150, I will definitely not be coming back to buy more from you.

Dealer's choice.

 

 

 

[kav]

If ebay seller scams someone and closes the account ebay buyer protection will refund the buyer.  You can get your book in hand from ebay and if you don't like it, return it.   There's nothing about buying from dealer direct at con or LCS that would make me want to pay 3 times more for a book than I can get on ebay.  Or 10 times more as in the ASM example above.

Edited February 27, 2017 by kav

[01TheDude]

Re: wall books at the LCS

I always assumed that price was placed there as a starting point because seasoned collectors would haggle them down to a reasonable price point. Also-- lets the store charge a huge markup to the unseasoned collector/novice/person buying for someone else.

Not an unreasonable way to price things-- used car dealers do it all the time. People at big comic cons too apparently. Well most dealers with boardie Gator explaining he puts the bottom line price on his books (based on what he wrote here in the last year or so).

[Broke as a Joke]

I always assumed "wall books" were priced accordingly so they would stay on the wall. 

[jcjames]

13 minutes ago, kav said:

If ebay seller scams someone and closes the account ebay buyer protection will refund the buyer.  You can get your book in hand from ebay and if you don't like it, return it.   There's nothing about buying from dealer direct at con or LCS that would make me want to pay 3 times more for a book than I can get on ebay.  Or 10 times more as in the ASM example above.

There's nothing that would make me want to pay 3x or 10x more for a book, online or in-person.

But when you pull up sales of a particular book on Ebay, they can also vary as much as 10x for what appears to be similar condition copies. Same with graded. Pulling up the GPA-high sale from six-months ago when there were a couple sales well below that price afterwards isn't going to work either.

btw, I generally don't buy wall books. It may be the LCS's "starting sticker-price" but if it's already 2-3x above what is typically found online, nope goodbye.

 

 

[Red84]

49 minutes ago, kav said:

If ebay seller scams someone and closes the account ebay buyer protection will refund the buyer.  You can get your book in hand from ebay and if you don't like it, return it.   There's nothing about buying from dealer direct at con or LCS that would make me want to pay 3 times more for a book than I can get on ebay.  Or 10 times more as in the ASM example above.

No one said anything about paying 3x except for you.  You're taking the OP's question and pushing it to the absurd.

[blazingbob]

How many different places should a seller go to figure out what to price a book?  Seriously?  Wow?  Pricing by Ebay, online sellers, OSPG,  GPA and anywhere else.  Do those lookups and I'm thinking it might take me 10-15 mins a book to price it out.   Good luck with that.  

[Readcomix]

53 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

Re: wall books at the LCS

I always assumed that price was placed there as a starting point because seasoned collectors would haggle them down to a reasonable price point. Also-- lets the store charge a huge markup to the unseasoned collector/novice/person buying for someone else.

Not an unreasonable way to price things-- used car dealers do it all the time. People at big comic cons too apparently. Well most dealers with boardie Gator explaining he puts the bottom line price on his books (based on what he wrote here in the last year or so).

This is what I figure too. I might have a price range in mind for a given grade, and the calculation most always includes eBay as a source, but I don't rattle off sources and prices. I just stick to my range and negotiate into it or walk.

why? Because I hate when dealers say to me, "I can get more on eBay!" To which I reply, "Yeah, but this is I'm standing here with cash bay!" No return because you see me walk away happy, no non-payment, cash in hand. That's worth something too. Reference eBay all you want, but I can't stand when either side uses it as an exact negotiating tool. (Exception -- if both sides take a "blended rate" on a highly liquid book such as ASM 300 where there's lots of current transactions for most any given grade. I think that's mutually fair to do together. But most gold and early silver, the N of transactions is not big enough to set a price in stone. A floor maybe, but not a final price.)

[Buzzetta]

1 hour ago, blazingbob said:

What is a NY or Comic con tax?  In all my years I've never had somebody tell me that.  

I've encountered it twice and both in 2015.

The more annoying one was from a vendor dealing in higher end toys.  The vendor raised his prices at NYCC.  I asked him if he would match his online price.  He said no and that these were the 'show prices'.  I shrugged and went home and ordered it online.  I received my item a week later and at the cheaper price.  The item I was buying was a Masterpiece Transformer.  

 

[mysterio]

13 hours ago, Red84 said:

When you buy a book in person you are paying a premium to: 1) see the actual book you are buying in person, 2) take it home immediately, and 3) not have to pay shipping with the corresponding risk of it getting damaged or lost in the mail.

4) the pleasure of attending a good con and enjoying yourself for the day/weekend. I'm happy to pay a little more not only for reducing my risk but also to support good dealers doing good shows. 

[1Cool]

Dealers now have to not only compete with every other dealer in the building but have to compete with every BIN book on E-Bay.  No thanks - at least on E-Bay you don't usually have to  compete with Con book prices and it's so much easier to sell from behind a computer.

[ComicConnoisseur]

9 hours ago, jcjames said:

^^^^ This and more.

 

With a dealer at an LCS/Con, the buyer has MUCH LESS risk to absorb than by buying on Ebay so the costs can be a little higher at the in-person LCS/Con.

The buyer can inspect each and every page - can't do that on Ebay. That's worth $omething. Then of course the fact that every interested buyer of that book can paw through it, page by page, or {cringe} thumb-flip through the book like it's a reader's digest with the seller having to absorb costs of potential damage to the book every time an interested customer wants to leaf through it. Again, that's worth $omething.

And it's also much harder for a disreputable LCS/dealer to scam someone in-person like the scammy-Ebay-seller pulling a switcheroo or selling the same Mega-Key to three different people and closing the account before the book ever ships like can happen on Ebay.  Having the exact same book that you, saw, inspected, haggled over and agreed to buy in your hands with you the whole time is also worth $omething.

AND.... the dealer at a Con is paying to ship their stock back and forth (which can also get stolen at the Con or damaged in transit). That's more cost.

Having said all that, I can understand dealers having a little bit more price on their books, but as others have pointed out some dealers/LCSs are absolutely outrageous in their wall-book prices... but again, aren't these also the same places that we go digging through their $1 boxes every time we're there hoping to find a gold-nugget book that's worth 10-20X that much or more?  

Bottomline, I can understand a dealer charging a little more, but I'll tell you what, if a dealer gives me a good deal in-person I will definitely be back.

Sell me a book that is currently valued at $100 for $80, I will definitely be coming back to buy more from you.

Try selling me a book that is currently valued at $100 for $150, I will definitely not be coming back to buy more from you.

Dealer's choice.

 

 

 

This post is the winner explaining it best. 

[ParamagicFF]

Ebay prices are certainly a factor for both parties, as are all sales venues. All of the factors discussed previously are reasons it is advantageous to both parties to try to close a deal at a con, rather than use online transactions. 

For some reason both buyers and sellers get butthurt when either side quotes "I can get a better deal on ebay". It almost instantly sours the transaction. Both sides should have a price range in mind, and when those ranges overlap, we have a deal!

I have found in the past 2 years that "hot moderns" are priced very aggressively at cons. It's almost like the dealer is more afraid of not totally maximizing profit than of not selling the books at all. These books also tend to have real condition problems.