Need advice on purchasing vast GA/SA collection

[eccomic]

Hello Fellow Forumites:

 

I am going to be going to put an offer on a collection I will be viewing this weekend.

 

The seller advises that there are over 800 HIGH GRADE SA DC/MARVELS and over 1500 Lower Grade SA Mostly DC books and over 100 GA books of which there are 35-40 DC Superhero books in Mid to High Grade.

 

I have advised the Seller that he will realize 35-40 of Overstreet at best if he puts the comics in his Ebay Store and he agreed and is willing to sell me everything outright.

 

The question is: How much should I offer without insulting him: 20% of Overstreet?

 

I look forward to any feedback

[Aman619]

youre a pirate!!! if the 800 HG books really exist, most dealers are forced to pay around top of guide nowadays to knowledgeable sellers. Which, if they really ARE HG 9.2 and up will still be mighty profitable when slabbed and sold at multiples. So your offer boils down to just how high grade they actually are. If they are F with a few VF+s thrown in, pay as little as you can cause they will be a much tougher sell for you, or if you are a collector, then you wont be overpaying.

 

and of course, it really matters just which comics these are! Early DCs in 8.5 are HG. good luck!

[themegoguy]

You'd also have to consider the time it would take to go through the books, the time selling them, eBay fees and the cost of slabbing the books.

[blazingbob]

What's their name? Can I call them?

[eccomic]

Exactly!!

 

I advised the Seller that he would need to list the books on Ebay and pay the fees and declare Capital Gains and all of the other hassles including CGC Fees, time invested, etc.

 

Whereas I can pay CASH and he could just divest himself of the holdings and not declare Capital Gains either.

 

A hassle-free transaction for him and he is inclined to agree thus far.

 

It should prove interesting to see if the Seller will be greedy with his asking price for everything. If this is the case, I will simply Cherry Pick his books.

[eccomic]

Sorry Bob!

 

This is my baby.

[Silver Surfer]

20% of guide seems insulting enough but if you can pull it off.

[eccomic]

Maybe I will go 25% of Overstreet and give a blanket offer on the works (good with the bad) and based on this, I feel fairly confident I can get everything or most of the collection in any event.

 

I will keep you all posted

[jimm94]

In making an offer on this collection, keep in mind that low grade (and even up to Fine in some cases for non-key issues) silver is routinely sold at retail for 50% off guide. Don't pay too much for the low grade books - you shouldn't have to.

 

Good Luck!

[eccomic]

Thank you and I will certainly keep that in mind with respect to my offer on the lower grade books as a separate entity from the HG lot.

[the blob]

if he wants to go through the high grade stuff with you I'm sure you can explain to him why his NMs are Fines and thus you pay 20-25% of the Fine price.

 

And all the VG to Fine stuff becomes "Good"s when you come up with a price.

 

With that formula you can pay 26% of guide.

 

also tell he'll need a sales tax ID number and if he sells to anyone in tennessee, he'll be prosecuted for selling without an auctioneers license.

[eccomic]

Thanks....I will be bringing my Overstreet GRADING GUIDE along on the trip to demonstrate how he conceivably could be overgrading, if in fact he is overgrading!

[Aman619]

boy this is fun! It reminds em of how cool it would have been if the internet were around in the 70s and Chuck posted this same question and followup discussion on how to best screw the owners of that other big collection he was driving out to see.... I love reading the ins and outs of de-grading the seller's NMs into VG/Fs and stuff! lovin it!

[mrwoogieman]

boy this is fun! It reminds em of how cool it would have been if the internet were around in the 70s and Chuck posted this same question and followup discussion on how to best screw the owners of that other big collection he was driving out to see.... I love reading the ins and outs of de-grading the seller's NMs into VG/Fs and stuff! lovin it!

 

"You do realize that large piles of old comics attract insects and vermin."

 

"Well, you may be saving them for your grandkids, but wouldn't it make more sense to have an actual savings account for them instead of something that could be destroyed by the next burst water pipe?"

 

"The way you're storing your comics means you're going to have a pile of confetti in about 10 years instead of nice comics."

 

"They built the pyramids faster than it'll take you to list/sell/ship your comics on ebay." (use this one no matter how many they have, especially if they don't use ebay at all)

 

"You could just go to a local comic shop and sell them to him....but don't forget that he's going to use your books to pay his rent, electricity, employees AND feed his family. You think he's going to give you a 'fair' percentage of their value?"

 

[drbanner]

boy this is fun! It reminds em of how cool it would have been if the internet were around in the 70s and Chuck posted this same question and followup discussion on how to best screw the owners of that other big collection he was driving out to see.... I love reading the ins and outs of de-grading the seller's NMs into VG/Fs and stuff! lovin it!

 

"You do realize that large piles of old comics attract insects and vermin."

 

"Well, you may be saving them for your grandkids, but wouldn't it make more sense to have an actual savings account for them instead of something that could be destroyed by the next burst water pipe?"

 

"The way you're storing your comics means you're going to have a pile of confetti in about 10 years instead of nice comics."

 

"They built the pyramids faster than it'll take you to list/sell/ship your comics on ebay." (use this one no matter how many they have, especially if they don't use ebay at all)

 

"You could just go to a local comic shop and sell them to him....but don't forget that he's going to use your books to pay his rent, electricity, employees AND feed his family. You think he's going to give you a 'fair' percentage of their value?"

 

 

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull(sheet)." - WC Fields

[ericc123]

Obviously I don't know the situation in which you met this seller but my guess would be either A) his books are not nearly as nice as you think or B) because he has an Ebay store and knows value of books, grading ect. ect. your low ball offer will offend him and you won't have a chance to buy the books. My big question is however if you both agree that he will get around 45% of Overstreet on Ebay why is he going to sell to you at 20% again? I mean lets face it some of his book if high grade enough will sell for a premium on Ebay. Oh well I guess there is a sucker born every minute.

[Sharkey]

Obviously I don't know the situation in which you met this seller but my guess would be either A) his books are not nearly as nice as you think or B) because he has an Ebay store and knows value of books, grading ect. ect. your low ball offer will offend him and you won't have a chance to buy the books. My big question is however if you both agree that he will get around 45% of Overstreet on Ebay why is he going to sell to you at 20% again? I mean lets face it some of his book if high grade enough will sell for a premium on Ebay. Oh well I guess there is a sucker born every minute.

 

I don't think the guy is a sucker nor do I think that ec is "low-balling" him.

 

The reason most people don't want to sell thousands of comics on ebay and will sell them for less than what they might get on ebay is because they will save a boatload of time and effort and frustration by selling the lot to one person and save many potential headaches. And maybe they're just lazy and don't want to deal with it.

 

Let's face it, selling on ebay is time-consuming. It requires a lot of work (scans, descriptions, listings, correspondence, packing, shipping, trips to the post office, etc) , and they will definitely realize an average of 40% of guide selling raw books (the higher grade stuff will be balanced by the low grade stuff), and remember most people will not pay full guide for even super nice high grade raw books, especially from a seller they don't know, if the scans are not super large, or if the seller is outside the US (including our neighbors in Canada). in addition, shipping that many individual books is a pain. Then add a few non-selling auctions or some deadbeat bidders or unhappy bidders who want returns. Suddenly selling the bunch lock, stock, and barrel doesn't seem like such a bad deal, even at half of what they might get if they took the time and effort to sell them all individually on Ebay.

 

When you sell someone a collection of mixed high and low grade, you're going to have to expect to take a hit on the prices. The buyer is saving you a ton of work. If you don't mind doiing all the legwork, then keep the books and sell them yourself. Once you value out your time spent though, unless you just happen to enjoy sitting around scanning 1200 books and posting them on ebay, it's worth it to discount them to sell a huge collection at once. Especially if a few hundred of them are low grade readers that might bring $5 a pop.

 

I'm not dissing Ebay. I use it often, but I also know what my time is worth to me. Maybe this seller just wants to get out from under the comics.

[the blob]

"....I will be bringing my Overstreet GRADING GUIDE along on the trip to demonstrate how he conceivably could be overgrading, if in fact he is overgrading!"

 

 

YIKES! Don't do that. At least my copy of that guide seemed to make almost everything allowable in VF/NM.

 

No, no, bring a couple of CGC slabs from the early years, preferably late silver or bronze, where they were pretty harsh, before they got lax. You ought to be able to find some stuff given a 4.0 that would be an 8.0 nowadays.

 

Anyway, selling on ebay is a lot of work. Granted, I'm particularly inept, but examining books, grading them, describing defects, scanning, etc.... it is about 2 hours of work for 15-20 books, particularly when they're oldies and you need to take them out of the bag and flip through every page. Sure, it's easier if you have a stack of Jimmy Olsens in the same condition or whatever..

 

And then there's properly packing them -- probably takes more time.

 

And while he MAY get 45% of guide, he may also get a lot less.

 

Personally, I would put in the time on ebay, but this guy is unloading what, 1,000 low grade books too? 20-25% or guide on those is more than fair given the amount of work you need to put into them to make a profit of a couple of bucks a book. makes it a wash with the better stuff. unless there are low grade Green Lantern 2s in there, I don't see a comic shop paying more than a buck a book for stuff like this in bulk, probably a lot less.

[eccomic]

What about if offer him a lump sum like 10K-13K, vs a % of Overstreet??

 

I think a large sum of money may be more enticing than spending hour figuring out % of Overstreet. Am I making sense??

[FFB]

What about if offer him a lump sum like 10K-13K, vs a % of Overstreet??

 

I think a large sum of money may be more enticing than spending hour figuring out % of Overstreet. Am I making sense??

 

I think this is your best bet. It's what I'd do.

 

And from the sounds of things, unless he has some seriously high grade keys in there, you are way overpaying if you're talking 10-13K.