Bird Posted August 26, 2017 Author Share Posted August 26, 2017 2 minutes ago, Shadow Images said: I wish you the best of luck Bird. Its a very hard thing to do. Yes but I hope to benefit from the insularity of the hobby and maybe some guys at the show will want to get some stock in exchange for a book that they do not have a lot of $ into but that is valued high. I hope to offer nice margins on the trade so if I can make just one or two deals that is a big success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01TheDude Posted August 26, 2017 Share Posted August 26, 2017 I thought you had taken the last of the books prior to this latest announcement of another 1500 (What Ifs etc). Is that the last of it or are there more books waiting for you to pick up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted August 26, 2017 Author Share Posted August 26, 2017 Nope, all books have been purchased and we finished last night. We had a final handshake and he said "I hope you make a lot of money with these". badback83 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted August 27, 2017 Author Share Posted August 27, 2017 (edited) Well, that was an odd but ultimately rewarding day. I set up at a local show run by boardie Pug Productions and hoped to sell some of my recently purchased collection. I think it ended up being 15 dealers in a nice Elks Club building. When I got there I decided not to put some stuff on the floor, so my lone DC box stayed put in the car. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stopped to look at the Marvel Treasuries, priced $5-$20, but not one sold. Another dealer had 4 at $20 each and they went unsold as well. Off to ebay with them I guess. So my table was the anomaly, full of runs and devoid of keys. Well fairly devoid. When others had 10-20 issues of Dr Strange I had 150. I had eight titles in five longboxes and they were not all the most popular; I had one longbox each of Uncanny, ASM, and Captain America, one long of Doctor Strange; Invaders; and Luke Cage, Power Man/Power Man & Iron Fist, one long of FF/Incredible Hulk. One long had half Avengers and then assorted stuff like Black Panther 2-15, 15 or so Captain Marvel, Submariner, Secret Wars all except 8. One short of 3 complete runs, 1-42 of Dazzler; 66 issues of GotG; 16 high grade issues of Marvel Super Heroes including 1st Squirrel Girl-none of these sold. Another short of assorted hot singles, not a single one of which sold. A short of Iron Man, issues 95-195 and some annuals. Then assorted GNs and a box of slabs. I made 4 sales. First sale was about 90 minutes in and was 6 slabs for $525 but at great gpa discounts, I mean great. But that was the first sale and things looked bleak at that point so I made the decision to accept the lowball (individually I had these priced at $695) and move some nice slabs at a good profit, foregoing a possible great profit later. Maybe 30 minutes later came 2 issues of Marvel Premiere (Liberty Legion issues) for $5. Then I stepped out for lunch and the wife watched the table. While I was away a gentleman came by and asked for a 50% discount if he spent $150; she called me and I said probably but depends on what he wants really. So he shopped the 15 minuted until I returned and then came over. I agreed to his offer as I had only sold 2 actual comics so far! He then proceeded to pull out his tiny lists and start pulling books. 170 books later he was done. 50 or so were $2 or $3 books and eventually he had 170 books that added up to about $950. He was pulling books like a madman. Annuals even! With 50% off I knocked it down to $450 and we were both happy. This guy was the bestest customer ever; when he got to the Power Man books I pointed out that some early issues had rippling from water damage at some point (it is significant but the books are not stained on the front covers and look great) but he didn't care at all he just wanted to cross off his lists. He actually put down 1 too many $100 bills when paying and I had to point out to him that he was heavy there. But then he went back for the Avengers 196 that he had initially passed due to the price and I was glad to move it even at 50% as it had a small tear on the cover, which I pointed out to him but so what he was in buying mode. Then someone bought 7 issues of ASM for $29 as I was toast by then. He asked what the best I could do on 3 books priced at $26 was and I offered him 50% so he bought more. I told him I would just mentally count him along with that earlier guy in the 50% club. I figure that I made 2 recurring customers today at least should I return again. I have to think that over. I guess it was a success despite being so close to a disaster. Four customers but they were the right ones I guess. So I now have about 10% of the books sold. Between the comic yard sale yesterday and the convention today I more than covered that last payment Friday. I still have a lot to organize and a lot to sub. I have 5 books coming from cgc this week, three of which are from this collection. So if I keep those three as planned I will already have some nice additions to the collection! I will post the slabs when they come in this week! Edited August 27, 2017 by Bird SteppinRazor and themegoguy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADAMANTIUM Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 @Bird TALLYHO!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsilverjanet Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 Sometimes all you need is one great customer greggy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan Boy Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 Great to know you did good with your booth. It is good when one customer buy a lot of your books for a good price. You will get him back as a repeat customer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revat Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 19 hours ago, Bird said: Well, that was an odd but ultimately rewarding day. I set up at a local show run by boardie Pug Productions and hoped to sell some of my recently purchased collection. I think it ended up being 15 dealers in a nice Elks Club building. When I got there I decided not to put some stuff on the floor, so my lone DC box stayed put in the car. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stopped to look at the Marvel Treasuries, priced $5-$20, but not one sold. Another dealer had 4 at $20 each and they went unsold as well. Off to ebay with them I guess. So my table was the anomaly, full of runs and devoid of keys. Well fairly devoid. When others had 10-20 issues of Dr Strange I had 150. I had eight titles in five longboxes and they were not all the most popular; I had one longbox each of Uncanny, ASM, and Captain America, one long of Doctor Strange; Invaders; and Luke Cage, Power Man/Power Man & Iron Fist, one long of FF/Incredible Hulk. One long had half Avengers and then assorted stuff like Black Panther 2-15, 15 or so Captain Marvel, Submariner, Secret Wars all except 8. One short of 3 complete runs, 1-42 of Dazzler; 66 issues of GotG; 16 high grade issues of Marvel Super Heroes including 1st Squirrel Girl-none of these sold. Another short of assorted hot singles, not a single one of which sold. A short of Iron Man, issues 95-195 and some annuals. Then assorted GNs and a box of slabs. I made 4 sales. First sale was about 90 minutes in and was 6 slabs for $525 but at great gpa discounts, I mean great. But that was the first sale and things looked bleak at that point so I made the decision to accept the lowball (individually I had these priced at $695) and move some nice slabs at a good profit, foregoing a possible great profit later. Maybe 30 minutes later came 2 issues of Marvel Premiere (Liberty Legion issues) for $5. Then I stepped out for lunch and the wife watched the table. While I was away a gentleman came by and asked for a 50% discount if he spent $150; she called me and I said probably but depends on what he wants really. So he shopped the 15 minuted until I returned and then came over. I agreed to his offer as I had only sold 2 actual comics so far! He then proceeded to pull out his tiny lists and start pulling books. 170 books later he was done. 50 or so were $2 or $3 books and eventually he had 170 books that added up to about $950. He was pulling books like a madman. Annuals even! With 50% off I knocked it down to $450 and we were both happy. This guy was the bestest customer ever; when he got to the Power Man books I pointed out that some early issues had rippling from water damage at some point (it is significant but the books are not stained on the front covers and look great) but he didn't care at all he just wanted to cross off his lists. He actually put down 1 too many $100 bills when paying and I had to point out to him that he was heavy there. But then he went back for the Avengers 196 that he had initially passed due to the price and I was glad to move it even at 50% as it had a small tear on the cover, which I pointed out to him but so what he was in buying mode. Then someone bought 7 issues of ASM for $29 as I was toast by then. He asked what the best I could do on 3 books priced at $26 was and I offered him 50% so he bought more. I told him I would just mentally count him along with that earlier guy in the 50% club. I figure that I made 2 recurring customers today at least should I return again. I have to think that over. I guess it was a success despite being so close to a disaster. Four customers but they were the right ones I guess. So I now have about 10% of the books sold. Between the comic yard sale yesterday and the convention today I more than covered that last payment Friday. I still have a lot to organize and a lot to sub. I have 5 books coming from cgc this week, three of which are from this collection. So if I keep those three as planned I will already have some nice additions to the collection! I will post the slabs when they come in this week! I have enjoyed this journal, thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slg343 Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 On 8/26/2017 at 8:56 AM, Bird said: I just packed up from a moderately successful sale in the driveway. It was a good test run for selling at Pug's show in Old Bridge tomorrow. I sold 55 comics for $326. That maintains the desired % over investment cost that I am pursuing, the exact number which I will keep to myself for now. I am thinking about how I can approach the other dealers best about trading quantity for quality. I would love to spend all day trading 100 $2 books for one slab at a time, or a whole box or two for one or two comics, or $500 in stock for 2 or 3 books...that type of thing. We'll see how the guys in the room feel about my books I guess. Some fun fun books in the last batch that I got last night. 1500 more books, What If and Longshot miniseries and stuff like that. Nothing WOW but fun groovy comics. edited to add that I have now sold 789 books, give or take a few, and appear to have used those sales to pay for 49.8% of the collection. That includes todays yard sale but hopefully tomorrow's small convention can get me closer to paying it off. But I am pleased that I was able to use the collection itself to essentially buy half of it and only pay out half myself in actual money money. I have sold some minor keys but am focusing on the runs and such for now. I have 5 groovy books coming in the mail now from cgc and my sales to date include 6 books from the collection that I slabbed and sold here. ASM 361 was 9.8 and that was a sweet sale. (Thanks again to the buyer!) I do this myself trading $1 books for higher dollar books but its closer to a long box of $1-5 books for $100-150 book. I couldn't image the glory I would have if I landed someone that would make a straight 1-1 value trade. But the time saved is worth the loss in value to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted August 29, 2017 Author Share Posted August 29, 2017 1 hour ago, slg343 said: I do this myself trading $1 books for higher dollar books but its closer to a long box of $1-5 books for $100-150 book. I couldn't image the glory I would have if I landed someone that would make a straight 1-1 value trade. But the time saved is worth the loss in value to me. Yes, I also figure in some margin of profit for the person providing the quality for my quantity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted September 2, 2017 Author Share Posted September 2, 2017 Here are some photos of some of the comics from the collection that I had slabbed. Most of these have been sold already. I could have spent a bunch more cash at CCS but just used these to generate income to buy the rest of the collection. Although the logic of that may be debatable the point is moot. And those slabs are all gone. I do have a Silver Surfer #1 4.5 that I have kept so far. ADAMANTIUM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted September 17, 2017 Author Share Posted September 17, 2017 I had a massive sale this past week in G/S/B and sold enough to be in the clear now on the collection once I collect all the cashola. My profit per book is down a little but I have some great great books and still plan on moving a bunch before really hitting the good stuff. All in all a great time so far. I sold at that convention last month and when I made a deal with a guy who wanted 50% off if he bought a bunch and then he bought 170 comics I realized I would take a lot less for each book than I initially sought. Moving a few thousand quickly is definitely advantageous. As I said in the sales thread, I am there to sell comics not offer comics for sale and sell a few of them. I wanted to sell them all! I got only one PM offer and that was from a big buyer so my prices were at a good place for others and I made enough to finish recouping my output for the collection and put me in the black with the books. Of course I will be in the red soon enough when I send in another batch for slabbing but that was always the plan anyway! ADAMANTIUM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1950's war comics Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 thank s for the interesting reads and updates Lucky Baru and FoggyNelson 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aweandlorder Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 When is the audio book version of this thread coming out? "fun read!" - aweandlorder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted September 17, 2017 Author Share Posted September 17, 2017 well, since you enjoy it so much. I had been thinking about an earlier reply to Hector about how long I hoped to take to sell these comics. My answer was 8-10 years when it was 40K book, now that it is only (just under) 1oK books I hope to do most of it by the end of next year. I have about 2000 of the books gone already and am gaining momentum as an insufficiently_thoughtful_person seller here who should be watched for stupid deals. I am a bit burned out from using the majority of my free time prepping books and shuffling through boxes or I could more likely than not do it much sooner. I am stunned at how many books these boards can absorb. I am skipping a local mega auction on Thursday mostly because I have no more time off (I can take off unpaid though) but also because I am trying to avoid buying another shelving unit! I want to get everything off the floor without buying another shelving unit as I hope to eventually not need that one. I have learned a lot about selling and am sad that I will likely not ever have another score this good as these books are a lot of fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PunisherPunisherPunisher Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 Nice read Netflix should watch closely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spidrvacc Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 Dont read as much on this board like I used too but this thread is must read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1950's war comics Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 Tales of the ASGARD Tales of the Bird !! Lucky Baru 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted September 17, 2017 Author Share Posted September 17, 2017 sooo, maybe you all can give some advice then. If you had 1-80 of X-Men and 1-80 of Avengers, what would you do with them? Low grade I would say. What do you do with them? I have little discipline to keep things when times get rough, but I might keep some. But if I was selling, what would YOU do? I could add other midgrade books as well, so what to do with 200 raw collectible books? I have consigned art to Clink without significant issue but since Vincent has been nice to me in the past I thought about offering them to him for auction. Is that too little fun or is it smart? Discuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADAMANTIUM Posted September 17, 2017 Share Posted September 17, 2017 Save Avengers 1 & 4 And Xmen 1 sell the rest 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
