Did u change from Collector to Flipper? 5 5

[valiantman]

On 11/2/2021 at 1:02 AM, Thisisrequired said:

If I see anything that I can buy and sell it for a profit I am buying it. I actually know people who don't. Some of them I consider smart. I don't get it. 

If I see something that's $5 and I know I can sell it immediately for $10, I still have to think about getting it listed somewhere, waiting for a buyer, responding to inquiries, getting paid, probably losing fees to the selling venue or PayPal, getting it packaged up (correctly, protected, boxed, not just slapping it into an envelope), getting the mailing label entered and printed.  Putting it out for pickup or taking it to a post office.

All those parts of the sale could take me 30 minutes, and I'll net $4 if I sell a book I paid $5 for $10.  I wouldn't work for someone else for less than minimum wage, so why would I pay myself less than minimum wage?

Yes, there's profit out there... but if the cost of profit is too great, it's a net loss.  A net gain is when I make closer to $40, not $4.

What's your minimum profit?

[1Cool]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:38 AM, valiantman said:

If I see something that's $5 and I know I can sell it immediately for $10, I still have to think about getting it listed somewhere, waiting for a buyer, responding to inquiries, getting paid, probably losing fees to the selling venue or PayPal, getting it packaged up (correctly, protected, boxed, not just slapping it into an envelope), getting the mailing label entered and printed.  Putting it out for pickup or taking it to a post office.

All those parts of the sale could take me 30 minutes, and I'll net $4 if I sell a book I paid $5 for $10.  I wouldn't work for someone else for less than minimum wage, so why would I pay myself less than minimum wage?

Yes, there's profit out there... but if the cost of profit is too great, it's a net loss.  A net gain is when I make closer to $40, not $4.

What's your minimum profit?

I try to net at least $6 a book in profits or else I'll pass on the book.  I'd prefer to double my price on most mid-price books (ie buy for $20 sell for $40) but at a minimum I need to buy a $1 book and sell it for $8 - $9 for me to keep going to that particular well.  I work in bulk so for me it takes me about about 2 hours to do all you listed for 12 books so I consider $6 x 12 over 2 hours or $36 an hour my minimum I shoot for.  There are a few cases where I'll only make a few dollars on a book but thankfully those are rare or I'd not be spending so much time listing and selling.  

Edited November 2, 2021 by 1Cool

[BigLeagueCHEW]

I didn't go from Collector to flipper these past 6 months, I went to non buyer. Prices are insane for anything 

[Robot Man]

I don’t get pawing through newer $1. Boxes. Sure, you might be able to get $5., $10 or even a little more. But way too much work. Not to mention storing them. And what happens to those “flash in the pan” books that quickly end up forgotten? They sit and you have to deal with box upon long box of books nobody wants anymore. As I said, a lot of time and hassle. 

At this point in my life, I prefer quality over quantity. 

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by Robot Man

[MattTheDuck]

On 11/2/2021 at 8:38 AM, valiantman said:

If I see something that's $5 and I know I can sell it immediately for $10, I still have to think about getting it listed somewhere, waiting for a buyer, responding to inquiries, getting paid, probably losing fees to the selling venue or PayPal, getting it packaged up (correctly, protected, boxed, not just slapping it into an envelope), getting the mailing label entered and printed.  Putting it out for pickup or taking it to a post office.

All those parts of the sale could take me 30 minutes, and I'll net $4 if I sell a book I paid $5 for $10.  I wouldn't work for someone else for less than minimum wage, so why would I pay myself less than minimum wage?

Yes, there's profit out there... but if the cost of profit is too great, it's a net loss.  A net gain is when I make closer to $40, not $4.

What's your minimum profit?

This is a good point.  Most people, when evaluating "things" (and I run into this mostly in discussions of mass transit vs personal auto usage) do NOT take into account that time has a value.  One is free to set that fact aside, but it's still a fact.

[universal soldier]

I've always been a collector and have only sold two books in my life. I do need to change that philosophy as someone recently told me you need to keep rotating out the bottom half of your collection. Lol, the hoarder in me won't let me though . I do plan to eventually sell off my collection and have a couple books coming back from CGC (if they ever get graded...) that I'll try and sell here.

[Poekaymon]

I have never bought anything with the intention of flipping it. However, I have, many times, bought too much and regretted it and then unloaded some of it very quickly but that’s more like buyers remorse that worked out in my favor. In a few other cases I bought something for myself and it appreciated so much so quickly I couldn’t help but flip it. (Momoko and Miles Morales, for example.)

[Robot Man]

On 11/2/2021 at 8:32 AM, valiantman said:

I always wanted 3 copies of everything.  1 to keep, 1 to sell when I feel like it, and 1 to sell in an emergency.

That way it takes two emergencies before a book is no longer in my collection. 

Only time I think I did that was 8 copies of ASM 300. Hey it was #300 and a cool book at the time. Worked out WAY beyond my expectations!

I did thumb through Walking Dead #1. Thought it suked so I put it back...

[Robot Man]

On 11/2/2021 at 9:59 AM, universal soldier said:

I've always been a collector and have only sold two books in my life. I do need to change that philosophy as someone recently told me you need to keep rotating out the bottom half of your collection. Lol, the hoarder in me won't let me though . I do plan to eventually sell off my collection and have a couple books coming back from CGC (if they ever get graded...) that I'll try and sell here.

Are these books you actually at least like? If not, why just store stuff you could care less about? 

[Vixom]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:38 AM, valiantman said:

If I see something that's $5 and I know I can sell it immediately for $10, I still have to think about getting it listed somewhere, waiting for a buyer, responding to inquiries, getting paid, probably losing fees to the selling venue or PayPal, getting it packaged up (correctly, protected, boxed, not just slapping it into an envelope), getting the mailing label entered and printed.  Putting it out for pickup or taking it to a post office.

All those parts of the sale could take me 30 minutes, and I'll net $4 if I sell a book I paid $5 for $10.  I wouldn't work for someone else for less than minimum wage, so why would I pay myself less than minimum wage?

Yes, there's profit out there... but if the cost of profit is too great, it's a net loss.  A net gain is when I make closer to $40, not $4.

What's your minimum profit?

Well I did say sell for a profit. It cost like $4 to mail a comic so there would be no profit on a $10 book. After you factor in time and fees it's a loss. Would need to have a store or booth. I would say my minimum profit is $50. If I could list it and sell it fast and no risk of it going down. I like to double my money but item needs to be at least $50. Now at a certain threshold I am just looking to make a fraction of that. Its not a common thing for me to find something for 10k and sell for 20k etc. I've bought video games for a buck that sell for $20 $30 $40 bucks but they are just take a photo and when it sells throw it in a bubble mailer. Not much work and more importantly my kids can handle it. I'd rather spend a dollar and let them turn it into $20 or $50 then just hand them a $20 or $50. I work as much as I can. When I run out of things to do then a side hustle better pay just as much. I'd rather spend time with family or work out or something else besides work. On top of that I usually cosign so not much work. If I do sell something myself I don't answer questions and no waiting. When it sells it sells. I don't care how long it takes. If the buyer has questions too bad, another buy will come along who doesn't. 

[universal soldier]

On 11/2/2021 at 3:33 PM, Robot Man said:

Are these books you actually at least like? If not, why just store stuff you could care less about? 

I love all my books  but my collection has be come massive over the past 15 years. There are a number of tittles/runs/books that I no longer care about that I really should unload. For instance I have the first 40 issues of The Boys, all around 9.6 or so with #1 being more of a 9.4. With the third season coming out (eventually), I really should try and unload them. I read and enjoyed them, no reason to hoard them any longer.  It really comes down to being organized enough sell and ship with confidence which I'm not at this point. 

[Vixom]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:59 AM, BigLeagueCHEW said:

I didn't go from Collector to flipper these past 6 months, I went to non buyer. Prices are insane for anything 

I been buying tons. Have I been buying marvel keys no. Non keys though it's business as usual. I see lots of books that used to sell over $100 cgc 9.8 for $20 $30.

[Vixom]

On 11/2/2021 at 12:06 PM, Robot Man said:

I don’t get pawing through newer $1. Boxes. Sure, you might be able to get $5., $10 or even a little more. But way too much work. Not to mention storing them. And what happens to those “flash in the pan” books that quickly end up forgotten? They sit and you have to deal with box upon long box of books nobody wants anymore. As I said, a lot of time and hassle. 

At this point in my life, I prefer quality over quantity. 

 

It's mainly younger guys digging. $10 or $20 bucks is a good find for them. I stick to the well organized $3 $4 title run boxes. Not uncommon to find a $100 plus book. Usually find mutiples each trip. I don't think they store them, pretty much instant flip. Certain shops I will go through the $1. More likely if I know the owner so I have someone to shoot the breeze with or bring a friend along who wants to dig. Odds aren't as good but you can still do well in them. Not much time. As fast as i can flip through them. I don't need to look anything up. 

[Jesse-Lee]

On 11/2/2021 at 10:38 AM, valiantman said:

If I see something that's $5 and I know I can sell it immediately for $10, I still have to think about getting it listed somewhere, waiting for a buyer, responding to inquiries, getting paid, probably losing fees to the selling venue or PayPal, getting it packaged up (correctly, protected, boxed, not just slapping it into an envelope), getting the mailing label entered and printed.  Putting it out for pickup or taking it to a post office.

All those parts of the sale could take me 30 minutes, and I'll net $4 if I sell a book I paid $5 for $10.  I wouldn't work for someone else for less than minimum wage, so why would I pay myself less than minimum wage?

Yes, there's profit out there... but if the cost of profit is too great, it's a net loss.  A net gain is when I make closer to $40, not $4.

What's your minimum profit?

I've been "flipping" in order to grow my collection, and I often do lot buys where I'm paying an average of $1-5 a book that usually includes a couple of books I want to keep and the rest I can sell off. I also look at leveraging down my costs where possible, so if I pay (just an easy math example) $50 for 25 books, but one of the 25 books cost me $20, I still consider it as a $2 per book cost.

I aim for at least 4x my money in gross sales as a goal when selling. I don't sell a ton, but for example I listed 74 books on eBay in the past 2 months (Sept./Oct.). Those 74 cost me a total of $267.20. So far, I've sold 28 of them for a gross total of $851.50; we're not talking big-money books. Almost all my books are BIN or Best Offer, and I take a lot of Best Offers. So if I sold all 74 books at what I initially listed them at, I'd be on target for $2,173 gross - about 8x money. I imagine I'd come in closer to $1,700-$1,800 - around 6x money.

I usually end up making a nominal amount on shipping and handling, like 30-50 cents an order - I usually charge $5-6 for a single book shipped first class in a Gemini. Shipping is typically $3.75-$4.50 for the label and another $1 for the mailer (plus tape, printing ink, etc. that is a few cents an order if you break it down).

[2Sunny]

So, it seems many folks here are both.  Question:  A lot of people here have money.  Why flip for a few bucks?

[MattrixAlien]

On 11/3/2021 at 5:29 AM, Robot Man said:

Only time I think I did that was 8 copies of ASM 300. Hey it was #300 and a cool book at the time. Worked out WAY beyond my expectations!

I did thumb through Walking Dead #1. Thought it suked so I put it back...

Well done. When I was a kid I only bought 1 copy of ASM 300 which is now the boss of my copper age collection. I've never liked the interior art of Walking Dead, kind of flat & amateurish, and the single issues progress the story so slowly. The first few seasons of the TV show are so much better than the comic IMO. 

Edited November 3, 2021 by MattrixAlien
Fix typo

[Jesse-Lee]

On 11/2/2021 at 5:45 PM, Joe Peck said:

So, it seems many folks here are both.  Question:  A lot of people here have money.  Why flip for a few bucks?

My collection is mostly funded through side gigs - I sold a ton of old action figures I didn't want anymore and old video games from my personal collection because I don't play them anymore, and I was lucky enough that I still had some sealed games because I would buy games on sale back in the day with the intent to play them and then never open them. I sold old toys and copies of Final Fantasy games and other games that I paid $25-30 for 20 years ago that were still sealed for $300-400 recently. Between that and my weekend freelance photography gigs, I funded my hobby without dipping into our "real money."

Plus, a big fun part of the hobby for me is the thrill of the hunt - I love going to antique fairs, conventions, small shops, etc. and finding books for cheap and then selling them for more. Even on eBay you can still find lots and deals. it takes a lot of hunting and trial/error, but that's fun for me. The rest of the family goes to bed at 9-10 pm, but I'm a night owl, so I'm up until 1 am most nights. I throw on a movie or two, have a beer or two and look for deals. You can still find a ton of books in the wild for $1-5 each that are $20-40 books (sometimes more).

I have my core collection that I won't sell for awhile, if ever, and then I have the books that I buy solely to flip for profit to fund the books I want. I try to treat those as stocks; buy low, sell high, and make a lot of small, profitable transactions as opposed to a couple of large home run swings in order to keep my risk low.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Jesse-Lee

[littledoom]

Yes I’m pretty much full time seller now. Majority of what I buy will eventually be sold. About 1-2% of the comics I buy in every haul I might keep. It has to either be something I haven’t had before or it be a really nice upgrade copy. But rarely do I find stuff to add to my longboxes collection 

[1Cool]

On 11/2/2021 at 6:45 PM, Joe Peck said:

So, it seems many folks here are both.  Question:  A lot of people here have money.  Why flip for a few bucks?

$10 in profits x 2,000 times a year = a nice addition to anyone's salary.  Last year I sold enough to basically make it a part time job but the profits last year were outstanding.  It's definitely not for everyone (looking at you Gabe).  

[ThothAmon]

Not sure anyone who isn’t Richie Rich can afford to collect without the occasional sale. That’s been the way I’ve done it since the halcyon days of the mid 70’s when I first realized that comics could be worth more than what you paid for them.  The internet turned us all into Heritage Auctions (without the buyer or seller premiums).