Recommendations for Starting a CGC Comic Book eBay only store

[Comic Rush-migration]

Hello CGC Community,

 

As you can see I'm a super newbie to the CGC forums by my post rating. I'm reaching out to all of you for recommendations on starting a CGC comic book eBay only store. I know the competition is intense and many bigwigs exist. Success and even more survival in this industry will be dependant upon having a knowledgable plan. Therefore, all of your recomendations are very much appreciated and even from so-called "haters". Here's my story and situtation...

 

LAID OFF ...

 

Last week on Friday, August 12, I was laid off due to a reorganization strategy that unfortunately did not include me. Go figure! Those biatches! I was with that company for 2 years and received a very minimal severance payout that will last me for about another month. More recently, I've been job searching and preparing for the future. I graduated with a Bachelor's Science degree in Criminal Justice hoping for a career path into law enforcement. That was five years ago and my law enforcement endeavors never panned out. Instead, my career path lead me into sales and marketing in the telecommunications industry for the last 7 years. Before getting laid off about a month ago, I decided to pursue my Master's Degree in Business Administration which I'm currently attaining now. I will hopefully graduate next year.

 

FAMILY ...

 

This is what helps me keep my sanity and of course strength to move on. I'm happily married with a 2 year old son. My wife is helping me with my job search and also supports my successful dreams of selling CGC graded comic books on eBay (part time that is). She also works full-time while my son goes to daycare. So, we have bills like mortgage, credit cards, childcare, car payments and so on. Family is awesome, but our financial future is somewhat stressful. In fact, it's scary right now.

 

COLLECTIBLES EXPERIENCE ...

 

Back in 1989 while I was in middle school, I co-owned with my father a sports card collectible store. It was a successful business with a store front operation and occassional card shows. Sports cards were hot back then until it turned into our opinion, a money-making collectibles hobby filled with foil and hologramed mass produced sports cards. Therefore, we closed shop after 5 years when the industry started focusing on this strategy. Kids could no longer afford the hobby. We sold most of our inventory, but kept our most prized and personal collection. Professional sports card and comic book grading was at it's infancy. We thought at the time getting out of the collectibles business industry was a safe bet for us. We didn't even continue to collect sports card.

 

Even though our business focused on sports cards, I still collected comic books on the side while growing up. I was never a dealer and just stuck to collecting. As you all know, the 90's was hot for the comic book industry, but simmered down once the industry focused on massed produced foil/hologrammed covers (opinion). Oh yes, I gotta get that foil cover #1!!! Yipee (Now there's variants galore from what I've seen) Talented artists ventured into different things and comic book story content became nill . (Well look at the audience some times...sorry no offense...hehehe)

 

Therefore, my current inventory consists of 10 more/less long boxes of modern back issues. I know this of course will not be enough. My bronze and silver age personal collection is at most one long box.

 

While out of the office (while I was employed), I stepped into my local comic book store which sells sports cards and comic books. I was somewhat appauled at their store setup, inventory, customer service, pricing based upon flashbacks with my store. I was even tempted to sell my left over inventory, but they said very sternly, "We don't buy comic books or cards. Check out another store". I just rolled my eyes and looked around. Why are you guys in the business then, I thought.

 

I ran into a set of comic books (2nd prints...I know...I was late) shrinked wrapped and individually bagged/boarded entitled - INFINITE CRISIS. This looks interesting I thought. I needed something to get my mind off work and the daily stresses in life. (Batman and Superman crying on the cover couldn't be so bad and made me feel that they have more stressful lives..after all it was a CRISIS!...hahaha) Little did I know what I was getting into and what it would start. OH MY FREAKIN' GOD! The story line of that mini-series was the best stuff. I know some of you are laughing and disagreeing. But it was the best stuff compared to what I've read and seen in the past. I guess because I'm married I could relate to the story line and feeling. I found out the comics I just purchased were second prints via eBay hahaha. I didn't care though. Then I ventured into Marvel's House of M. I gotta duck now from some of you because my thoughts - WHAT A FREAKIN' WASTE OF TIME. I was so disappointed. Maybe I read the wrong issues and crossovers but it wasn't my cup of tea and I feel DC rocks compared to Marvel right now. Some of you may argue with me of course, but that's just my opinion. My experience in marketing tells me Marvel's strategy is that it sells comics, but I won't fall for it. Then I went over to the Independents or parent companies of the two comic bigwigs. Topcow? Aria? What the hell? I knew I had alot of catching up to do. The rise and fall of Valiant was something I was just getting over with. I never understood the draw to Valiant, but I was caught up with everyone else and bought them as well back in the day.

 

So to cut this portion short, I've been playing catchup for the last couple of months with a handy-dandy...OVERSTREET (no not notebook, sorry I bit off Blue's Clues...son's influence). I browsed through my current inventory and their condition. I researched comic book websites, storefronts and of course CGC. While doing all this, what coulda and shoulda, ran through my mind.

 

CGC eBAY STORE ...

 

Why eBay? At one point, I was an eBay assistant seller. I was a buyer and seller of my own possessions, but started assisting my family, friends and associates with selling their items on eBay for a commission. This came to a halt once my son was born. It was too difficult to dedicate enough time to being a selling assistant. My feedback and experience on eBay dates back to 1999. I love eBay and feel this is probably the most cost effective path for a startup business. I know eBay has made both a positive and negative impact on comic sellers, buyers and collectors, but it's the nature of business itself. Why fight it? Enhancing it (joining) is the best path right now.

 

In addition, why CGC? I know many buyers, sellers, collectors are anti-CGC. I can understand their feeling of not wanting to mummify comic books and taking out the enjoyment of what comic books were really meant for. However, the profitablity and value is high. Since CGC from what I've seen so far, it has been both a positive and negative impact on the comic book collecting industry as whole. Personally, I like the fact of finding and hunting for raw comics and increasing their value based upon what collectors want to pay. Over the years I've learned, collectibles are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. When I was young I was so worried about selling cards and comics lower than what the book said. I've learned it's now about supply and demand. Just like the stock market, comic buyers, sellers, and collectors put the ownership value into that comic book. If it's sitting in box, it's not worth anything until someone buys it from you. If you're earning a profit and giving your buyer a great deal then both parties should be happy.

 

BUSINESS PLAN ...

 

Coming into the picture now is one of my good friends who has now become a verbally accepted business partner. I won't go into his history, but it's pretty much the same for him expect unemployement and owning a store. We're now merging our collections together and submitting comics that are worthy of professional grading. We meet each week to go over our business plan such as, finances, taxes, operations, sales, inventory and so on.

 

FINALLY ...

 

So with all of this in mind, what are your thoughts, recommendations, encouragement or whatever? You know somewhat of my current situation and history. You've probably seen many threads like this one, but your input is very valuable to me. I feel the comic industry has a hidden code of helping each other because we all effect each other. I'm hoping with your help I can attain the success level that some of you have reached.

 

If you wish not to share publicly please private message me as well.

 

Thank you so much in advance everyone.

[joe_collector]

 

[*paull*]

[CKB]

[Rocketeer]

[nik]

 

Remind me never to ask for advise

[heinlein99]

[mister_not_so_nice]

Are you saying "Smooth Sailing"?

 

I'm off to eBay to open a store right now!

[johny myman-migration]

You guy's give great advise to someone who is just asking for a little info.I, wish I could give you some flipanese but I just got into collecting.Don't worry you would not want advise from guy's like the ones above they could not get laid in a morgue and are a bunch of elitiest comic nerds

[nik]

I think they were being realistic, short and sweet

[johny myman-migration]

nikos61, they are being really inconsiderate to a guy who is just looking to supplement a income.Man,if this was my first post and this was the response I git I can understand why people would leave this board.You all think you are so knowlagable on the subject act mature and don't be a [embarrasing lack of self control],and get out and get some sunshine

[Sal]

if you can navigate the "Search" function - it's not the most intuitive i've ever seen - you should be able to find a couple longish threads about this very same subject.

 

and actually, there were some real interesting pieces of advice given to boot. believe it or don't

[Darthdiesel]

I think they were being realistic, short and sweet

 

I think they were all racial and showing their dislike for Filipino and Japanese folks...damn AZNs - they're all trouble!

[johny myman-migration]

I, wish you the best of luck on your ebay store

[nik]

I think they were being realistic, short and sweet

 

I think they were all racial and showing their dislike for Filipino and Japanese folks...damn AZNs - they're all trouble!

 

Yeah that too

[OldGuy]

Remind me never to ask for advise.

 

Never ask for advice.

[nik]

Remind me never to ask for advise.

 

Never ask for advice.

 

Thanks for the advice

[mister_not_so_nice]

Being aware that I DON'T know everything, I sent a PM before I posted my comment here referring him to the "open a comic shop" threads and offering some advice.

 

BTW, PM sent

 

Good Luck with the store. I would venture to bet 95% of the people here "flip" books(whether it's in a week or a few years). Some may not rely on it for extra income, but I'd like to meet any board member that has NEVER sold one of his books. Really, that's impressive.

[mister_not_so_nice]

Ugh, going by my own logic, I should have said 100% of the people here. DUH!

 

Now you see why I use PMs most of the time. Keeps my idiocy confined to a smaller audience.

 

Mike

[FlyingDonut]

So with all of this in mind, what are your thoughts, recommendations, encouragement or whatever? You know somewhat of my current situation and history. You've probably seen many threads like this one, but your input is very valuable to me. I feel the comic industry has a hidden code of helping each other because we all effect each other. I'm hoping with your help I can attain the success level that some of you have reached.

 

Well, I'll answer briefly since he asked nicely.

 

The bad

1) You're about five years too late to start a CGC only eBay store. While there was significant opportunity to make a lot of money early on, I believe this time for a new entrant has passed.

2) Starting a CGC-only store now is also a mistake because you will have a significant amount of your capital tied up for a long time without the ability to turn it. That is not to say that CGC books shouldn't be PART of your store, but should definitely NOT be your only inventory.

3) Further, if you've been out of the game for a while, your grading is going to be WAY off, and you're going to miss stuff. The money for CGC books only starts at the 9.4 level - again, if you miss on books you're going to be throwing your money in a hole.

 

The good

1) All that being said, people can (and do) make a living selling comics on eBay. It is not easy and takes a lot of work, but you can do just fine. Flipping books is quick and relatively easy, but you need to know what you're doing.

2) You say you have experience consigning stuff, so you know how to do that. Start that again. Go to your local comic shop and talk to them - they probably have long boxes of books that will not sell in a store but would sell on line (westerns, romance, things like that). See if you can work a deal with them where they give you 25% of what you sell.

3) Look in every place you can think for comics - flea markets, craigslist, the paper, everywhere. Buy wholesale - sell for retail. Everybody repeat after me: Buy for $1, sell for $5. Repeat ten thousand times.

 

PM me if you want further advice.