General discussion thread - keep the other threads clean 29 29

[crassus]

The "General Discussion" thread is conventionally where you talk about anything to do with sales or what is happening in the sales forum, good or bad, you can just jump in, whether you will get a response, or how long it will take, is anybody's guess. Since the Board's change over its been a bit of a Twilight Zone around here....

..cue eerie soundtrack...

....intro Rod Serling...

..."Imagine if you will....portrait of a message board..." etc... so just run with it.

[Shepherdboy]

Greetings All,

I'm a new member and have a few questions regarding selling in the forums. If I've posted this to the wrong forum, I apologize.

I have a comic book collection that I assembled during the 80s and have decided that I want to sell my books. I came across this website and forums as a possible place to sell. I have some questions I though that the experienced users could help with.  I'm not a dealer, but an individual seller. I'm not interested in selling my books one at a time, but would like to sell in groups or titles.

1. Are the forums here a good place to sell? Or should I sell on eBay instead? More qualified eyes here? Is there a benefit to selling in one place or the other?
2. Is it recommended to make a single post per group or items for sale? Or is it recommended to list several groups or items for sale in the same post?
3. Seeing the posts and forums of users with strikes and who are on "bad user" lists, I'm wondering how risky it is to sell in the forums.  Is it a hassle? Do individual sellers often have problems with buyers either failing to come through or falsely reporting problems with shipment?
4. Are communications between buyer and seller handled exclusively through private messages?
5. What is the recommended way to ship comic books so that they aren't bent or damaged in shipping?

Sorry for the list of somewhat ignorant questions, but any assistance would be appreciated.

Shepherdboy

[adampasz]

My 2 cents:

1. Benefit of eBay is a (much) larger audience. Benefit of here is an audience of experts. Plus no eBay fees.
2. Usually people list more than one item. Also, usually people don't mingle Moderns with GA/SA/BAs.
3. Probably not too risky if you are not a bad user.  
4. Yes, usually PMs.
5. There are lots of techniques, but the most common is to protect the books between 2 larger pieces of cardboard. I used this article as my starting point, but I've evolved my packing technique since then to include bubble wrap...
http://comicbookinvest.com/2016/09/12/how-to-properly-pack-a-comic-for-shipping/
 

[EC ed]

9 hours ago, Shepherdboy said:

1. Are the forums here a good place to sell? Or should I sell on eBay instead? More qualified eyes here? Is there a benefit to selling in one place or the other? You'll have more "eyes" looking at your books on eBay, so that's one eBay advantage. For non-key books in lots, you'll have to have a bit of patience to move them here. However, you have a bit more liberty to dictate the terms of your sale, and there are no fees for selling here (other than the normal payment fee that PayPal extracts). Also, (related to #3 below), you'll run into far, far fewer deadbeat buyers here. So, there's more of a chance that you'll have to deal with buyer shenanigans on eBay. Having said that, boardies in general hold most things to a higher standard...grading, packaging, etc...because the average boardie is indeed more knowledgeable than the average eBayer.
2. Is it recommended to make a single post per group or items for sale? Or is it recommended to list several groups or items for sale in the same post? Put all your items in one thread, but use a single post within that thread for each item that you are selling (whether it's an individual comic or a group lot).
3. Seeing the posts and forums of users with strikes and who are on "bad user" lists, I'm wondering how risky it is to sell in the forums.  Is it a hassle? Do individual sellers often have problems with buyers either failing to come through or falsely reporting problems with shipment? Not very risky. As mentioned above, eBay is much, much riskier on these dimensions. Also, you can indicate in your selling rules here that you will not sell to people on the "bad user" lists...most (if not all) sellers here impose that restriction in their sales threads.
4. Are communications between buyer and seller handled exclusively through private messages? Usually, although not necessarily. I have communicated with boardies via eMail and telephone...but usually I prefer private messages just because they're easy and convenient.
5. What is the recommended way to ship comic books so that they aren't bent or damaged in shipping? Depends on the type of book. Raw? Graded? How many? Generally speaking, for multiple raws you want to bunch them together in blocks, immobilize the blocks inside a heavy cardboard sandwich where the cardboard is larger than the books so that the books cannot possibly be bent or corner dinged, and put that sandwich into a box, perhaps with bubble wrap and/or packing peanuts for good measure.

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by edowens71

[awakeintheashes]

I've been on a bit of a break since the new forum look was introduced. Has there been a slow down in buying/selling activity, or is it about the same as before?

[HarveySwick]

 

[Pitboss]

It's been hit or miss since before the board switch.

[crassus]

My impression has been that if its GA or especially any GGA its still pretty much full steam ahead, but that had been the trend before the switch over, and the market here always has its cyclical highs and lows. I think when sellers realize that selling no longer involves dependence on failing image hosting sites action will pick up considerably.

[Ricksneatstuff]

14 minutes ago, crassus said:

My impression has been that if its GA or especially any GGA its still pretty much full steam ahead, but that had been the trend before the switch over, and the market here always has its cyclical highs and lows. I think when sellers realize that selling no longer involves dependence on failing image hosting sites action will pick up considerably.

+1!!

People should be buying and selling here. Why keep giving that 10-20% away? If more people sold books here the buyers would come. 

[NP_Gresham]

17 hours ago, awakeintheashes said:

I've been on a bit of a break since the new forum look was introduced. Has there been a slow down in buying/selling activity, or is it about the same as before?

I can't speak about selling since I rarely ever do that.

But my buying has all but stopped, I have bought a single book since the switch. Not that my activity ever meant a thing, so I guess things are the same less a couple of buyers.

[NP_Gresham]

14 hours ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

+1!!

People should be buying and selling here. Why keep giving that 10-20% away? If more people sold books here the buyers would come. 

Why would there be any incentive to buy here? When scanning the GA/SA/Bronze area I often see prices here as over-GPA on raw books. 

Sellers can certainly ask what they want, but the books I look for are cheaper on eBay. After a while it seems like my time would be better spent on other venues.

Certainly see it as a great place to sell. More profit to be sure. But if I can buy on eBay at 10% off and eBay bucks plus with the ability to return things without any problems, then there is no incentive to buy here.

I am just one buyer, but when things close here and open on eBay at lower prices, it seems like a waste of time to me.

[crassus]

10 minutes ago, NP_Gresham said:

Why would there be any incentive to buy here? When scanning the GA/SA/Bronze area I often see prices here as over-GPA on raw books. 

Sellers can certainly ask what they want, but the books I look for are cheaper on eBay. After a while it seems like my time would be better spent on other venues.

Certainly see it as a great place to sell. More profit to be sure. But if I can buy on eBay at 10% off and eBay bucks plus with the ability to return things without any problems, then there is no incentive to buy here.

I am just one buyer, but when things close here and open on eBay at lower prices, it seems like a waste of time to me.

(my bold above) My buying is down but in my case for purely personal reasons, the switch over has not really impacted me in that respect. I highlighted above your part about seeing raw prices over GPA, and insofar as this happens sometimes its true that would be a deal breaker. How often that is the case we would all have to compare notes I guess. For me raw books at even ballpark GPA is more than I will pay, raw books for me have always been worth fractions of their slabbed equivalents. But your comments about Ebay (and I have no reason to doubt you) certainly represent change from when I started here (2012). When I first started buying here it was routine for better quality better graded books to be 25-50% less expensive than Ebay, and easily 50% less expensive than Con prices.

[Ricksneatstuff]

I have found buying gold and silver slabs here to be 10-20% under eBay BIN prices. Sometimes less. Somebody has to pay those fees after all.  

As far as great deals on raw silver and gold books- they are here a LOT. A case in point just happened this afternoon with this almost instant sell out thread from someone.  Probably offered at discounts from eBay prices.

 

In this collecting community where one book can change hands 2-3 times in a year sometimes the big winners in this hobby are the third parties. Not the dealers or collectors.  It is amazing to me we let all that money go when it could be used to buy more comics.  

Edited March 8, 2017 by Ricksneatstuff

[Pitboss]

Why in the H E Double hockeysticks did the General Discussion thread get mixed into the Noob Questions thread?  @Architecht

Edited March 9, 2017 by Pitboss

[jsilverjanet]

2 hours ago, Pitboss said:

Why in the H E Double hockeysticks did the General Discussion thread get mixed into the Noob Questions thread?

Yes this seems like a stupid idea but when in Rome

[crassus]

11 minutes ago, jsilverjanet said:

Yes this seems like a stupid idea but when in Rome

I have a feeling the smaller thread was supposed to be integrated into the General Discussion thread, and some wires got crossed...and if only it was Friday, I could call it "Freaky Friday"!

[the blob]

On 2/16/2017 at 4:52 PM, revat said:

this was not successful.  lesson learned.  Apparently y'all had some valentines day plans.  unexpected, but I'm happy for everyone.

Most of the guys here are married as far as I can tell, or practically married.  I would think most people had plans...even if it was to stay in, order some thai food, crack open a bottle of wine and relax...and not mess around with interweb related electronic devises.

[Pitboss]

Just noticed this thread is not even stickied   @Architecht

Edit: Arch,these are two very separate threads that stand alone on their own.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Pitboss

[Architecht]

1 hour ago, Pitboss said:

Just noticed this thread is not even stickied   @Architecht

Edit: Arch,these are two very separate threads that stand alone on their own.

Uh... wait, what? I'm not sure what you guys are talking about or what happened here?

[Architecht]

Hm... (looking through logs)