Buying raw is a real minefield.

[jbud73]

On the other side of the fence - and I think this was alluded to in another thread last week, EBAY is a double edged sword for sellers too. All the bad, or should I say naive sellers who can't or do not have enough experience to grade accurately create a stigma that hurts the accurate comic book sellers.

 

Over the past month I have begun an active selling campaign on EBAY and its tough. You take the time to accurately grade the book, you list at a fraction of OSG and still nothing. Its like was just previously posted, you can have a great comic, spot on grade it and people on EBAY still want to pay pennies. so it does work both ways. In fact an the Oakland con Scott (FFB) mentioned that he had some books up on EBAY - so when we got back from the Con I had a look. Now I had the advantage of being able to see the books in hand raw - however Scott had huge scans, detailed descriptions, a general great write up on the book and grading, CGC even a link to this message board. He has superb feedback - and was listing raw ASMs under 150 in VF or better and some nice BA Horror (supposed to be hot right now) in HG. So pretty popular books - they were all at vastly under guide when I saw them, so I put watch bids on them. I ended up winning (It almost felt like stealing cause of how little I paid) 3 books and had I not had to fly to Vancouver for the weekend and been without Computer access I would have won 5-6 more.

 

So while it can be discouraging for buyers, I think it can be equally discouraging for sellers and the sad thing is the good graders and people I like to buy from (IE Dr. Banner, greggy, Tkg, nochips) it seems are listing less and less on EBAY. Now I may have the advantage of being able to buy off-EBAY from them if I want, but it just illustrates that better sellers I think are steering away from EBAY for Raw books.

[uclapeterg]

Please let me know if there are any avenues (besides here) where I can sell books. I have found Ebay to be a hit or miss. Some books I get more than I expected and some I get less.

[The Less Blob]

"Its like was just previously posted, you can have a great comic, spot on grade it and people on EBAY still want to pay pennies. so it does work both ways."

 

Because most of the buyers are junior wannabee dealers like most of us who are only buying something if they think they can somehow repackage it and sell it for a profit later. Maybe 1 in 10 purchases is intended to go into a personal collection.

 

Collectors (excluding high grade only collectors) looking to fill a run are often, but not always, a little less thrifty, but they may not be willing to pay what OPG says a VF - VF/NM costs, but may be willing to pay for a VG.

[jbud73]

"Its like was just previously posted, you can have a great comic, spot on grade it and people on EBAY still want to pay pennies. so it does work both ways."

 

Because most of the buyers are junior wannabee dealers like most of us who are only buying something if they think they can somehow repackage it and sell it for a profit later. Maybe 1 in 10 purchases is intended to go into a personal collection.

 

Collectors (excluding high grade only collectors) looking to fill a run are often, but not always, a little less thrifty, but they may not be willing to pay what OPG says a VF - VF/NM costs, but may be willing to pay for a VG.

 

Not to take this arguement back to the economics of comics - but I think you have a valid point there. The pool of collectors, that is people who buy way more than they sell is ever shrinking. Which is why I think there are a lot of false indicators in the comic book market. High Grade aside as that has a more steady pace to it (I know it sounds wacky) but to some extent multiples of guide for HG has always been the norm, the only new thing is the degree of multiple.

 

I see it so much more with my comics buddies ( guys) like 75% of their buying is really just holding for short periods of time. Interesting times in the comic book world to be sure. It might be that instead of huge speculation, a lot of little niche speculation is going on, that, when totalled is still a very large segment of overall transactions. Something to ponder.

[BassGMan]

Because most of the buyers are junior wannabee dealers like most of us who are only buying something if they think they can somehow repackage it and sell it for a profit later.

 

Collectors (excluding high grade only collectors) looking to fill a run are often, but not always, a little less thrifty, but they may not be willing to pay what OPG says a VF - VF/NM costs, but may be willing to pay for a VG.

 

Well you got that right for me. I buy the comics I want to keep at conventions. I buy the comics I want to sell on Ebay. There are certainly crossovers there, but this is generally true for me. Occasionally I buy a book here or there on Ebay that I want to keep, and I'll pay more than flipping rates for it, although I still want at least a little bit of a bargain, or I won't buy. But as a general rule, I don't like to pay more than 1/3 guide value for any comics I buy on Ebay, usually this means I buy lots.

 

Ebay is certainly hit or miss on grading and I've been burned many more than a few times. But overall I'd say there were many more hits than misses or I wouldn't be doing this so much. One thing for sure, for me to do really well on Ebay I have to be smart with my CGC submissions. By far my greatest income on Ebay has been from selling CGC slabs, however I've slacked on some of my pre-grading or sent in low demand comics on occasion for slabbing, so not every CGCed book turns out to be profitable.

 

And although dealers in general have had to endure a bad rap on Ebay for overgrading, I've found that if you read into the ads, feedback, questions, and descriptions of items, etc., you can usually pick out who the good sellers are and the bad. And still, you can be wrong, but after doing this for years, my hit and miss ratio on the positive side has gone way up from what it used to be. I don't fear Ebay anymore, I'm thrilled by it, and the opportunities are vast.

[shadroch]

Dealing in raw books can be a tremendous buying opportunity,if one does his homework.Many legitamate sellers will provide you better scans,or answer questions so you are bidding with an edge over the majority of buyers who do little work and just bid low.

I can often get the feel of a seller after 2 or 3 emails.There are plenty of bad sellers out there,but, everyday hundreds of very nice books fall thru the cracks on e-bay.Its quite frustrating when you put a lot of time into researching an auction or seller and you wind up with nothing to show for it,but thats why they call it work,not fun.

[BassGMan]

Very good points Shad.