Best current venue for selling books? 1 1

[SuperBird]

fwiw I already have seller's regret.

Life moves on. 

[Aman619]

On 1/20/2022 at 1:38 PM, SuperBird said:

fwiw I already have seller's regret.

Life moves on. 

I hear that!   And bottom line you’ll reap much more than your cost. So if it’s time to let them go, that’s not a bad outcome. 

[thedude]

On 1/20/2022 at 1:37 PM, SuperBird said:

The grades top out at 6.5. There are a few in there that I expect might surprise to the upside, as some haven't been available publicly for a while. I also have no clue how to put a value on a restored AC23 8.5.

I'm prepared for whatever, though. 

don't you have a few GA Supermans as well? #23 etc.? are you just selling the Actions?

[SuperBird]

On 1/20/2022 at 8:14 PM, thedude said:

don't you have a few GA Supermans as well? #23 etc.? are you just selling the Actions?

Just selling the Actions. I doubt I'd ever sell my Supermans. I have a dozen or so between 12-53. Also a smattering of Batmans. Maybe I'll get a few more.

[thedude]

On 1/20/2022 at 9:03 PM, SuperBird said:

Just selling the Actions. I doubt I'd ever sell my Supermans. I have a dozen or so between 12-53. Also a smattering of Batmans. Maybe I'll get a few more.

cool man, I'll be watching the Actions. 

[lou_fine]

On 1/20/2022 at 6:42 PM, thedude said:

cool man, I'll be watching the Actions. 

 

On 1/20/2022 at 10:37 AM, SuperBird said:

I'm prepared for whatever, though. 

Same here..........................did Heritage let you know when the books would be scheduled for auction?  

Edited January 21, 2022 by lou_fine

[lou_fine]

On 1/20/2022 at 7:12 AM, Aman619 said:

And even with the Venom artwork, if it sold privately for 250K there’s no way we’d ever know it’s value for a decade, having already set a stupid record sale of 250K. so the seller would have a long happy time being the guy who cashed in big time and sleep,well at night for years, before concluding that time had made it worth millions since he sold it in 2022.

 

On 1/20/2022 at 7:36 AM, sfcityduck said:

As Keller’s Flash run auction bloodbath illustrated, what may seem like a “stupid money” record may turn out with time to indeed be a “stupid money” purchase which does not hold up the next time it is auctioned.  I would bet that way on the interior page of the seven months or so after it’s debut black costume/Venom.

I would tend to agree with you on this point here as the results of an auction, especially for something like this which really has no prior history, often depends on luck and timing in terms of getting the right set of eyeballs on the lot when it comes to auction.    

Not sure who the bidder(s) were in the end, but who's to say that it's not possible that if this piece of OA did not come to market in this particular auction here, the same bidder(s) might not be participating and it just might have sold for only around the $270K private offer.  Especially in this case here where there is really nothing particularly outstanding about the rather pedistrian artwork or any real significance to the page since it's nowhere close to being the first appearance of Spidey's black costume.    

[SuperBird]

On 1/20/2022 at 11:27 PM, lou_fine said:

 

Same here..........................did Heritage let you know when the books would be scheduled for auction?  

Nope. The contract said April 7-9 Signature, but they indicated to me it was better to split up the books across a few auctions, which I realize is contrary to what others have thought would be best (as well as what I intended). 

[SuperBird]

On 1/16/2022 at 12:51 PM, MrBedrock said:

I would like to make this a very public experiment to illustrate one of the struggles that vintage dealers have in acquiring inventory these days. I offered Matt $70,000 for his Action 15-63 run. All paid up front. I came up with a current average GPA value of $75,000, so I figure my offer is over 90% of current FMV.

But I have to compete with the illusion that all comics are bringing record prices at auction. The big houses will give an advance, in this case I imagine $30-$35K, with hope that by the time the books come up for sale, are paid for, and the the consignor receives the final payment (6 to 12 months from now) the balance will be significantly more than my offer. In this market that is an alluring offer. And the auction house has no downside. There are no promises. There is only the gamble on the potential. If the books do great the auction takes the credit. If the books don't perform it is the current market's fault.

I hope it works out for Matt, and as I told him I really appreciate the opportunity to make an offer on his books. I hope we all will be watching and taking notes.

Since this ended up being a public experiment, the results are now essentially in. All but 1 book now is now auctioned (Action Comics 28 is going up by itself this Sunday). 

My GPA-based estimate for the collection was initially $90,000, with the caveat that a lot of these books don't come for sale that often, and many prices had to be inferred from copies that had sold either a while back, or with significantly different grades (e.g. 3.0 vs 6.0). It was also tough to know what the extensively restored Action 23 8.5 would sell for (which ended up being $13,200 or something like that). 

In total they auctioned for something very close to $100,000, which, after Heritage seller fees, ends up with a net of about $83,000. Overall they did about what I thought they would, with no real surprises. Lots of new GPA highs, but nothing that would make your eye pop out of your head.

Overall I am satisfied, though in hindsight I do wish I had kept a couple of my favorites. All the proceeds are going to my daughter's college fund, not back into my collection, though I did pick up a copy of Bone 1, which I'd wanted for a while. 

[tth2]

On 5/16/2022 at 3:08 PM, SuperBird said:

Since this ended up being a public experiment, the results are now essentially in. All but 1 book now is now auctioned (Action Comics 28 is going up by itself this Sunday). 

My GPA-based estimate for the collection was initially $90,000, with the caveat that a lot of these books don't come for sale that often, and many prices had to be inferred from copies that had sold either a while back, or with significantly different grades (e.g. 3.0 vs 6.0). It was also tough to know what the extensively restored Action 23 8.5 would sell for (which ended up being $13,200 or something like that). 

In total they auctioned for something very close to $100,000, which, after Heritage seller fees, ends up with a net of about $83,000. Overall they did about what I thought they would, with no real surprises. Lots of new GPA highs, but nothing that would make your eye pop out of your head.

Overall I am satisfied, though in hindsight I do wish I had kept a couple of my favorites. All the proceeds are going to my daughter's college fund, not back into my collection, though I did pick up a copy of Bone 1, which I'd wanted for a while. 

Well done!

I feel bad for dealers (well, not really), but I honestly can’t see selling any book that is even semi-desirable any way other than auction. Yes, the book could disappoint at auction, but I think it’s a good calculated risk to take.

And if it’s a book that’s not very desirable, then dealers won’t want to buy it. I can’t count the number of times I discussed books with dealers back in the old days and all they wanted to do was cherrypick the best books.  Thanks for nothing.

[SuperBird]

On 5/16/2022 at 3:59 PM, tth2 said:

Well done!

I feel bad for dealers (well, not really), but I honestly can’t see selling any book that is even semi-desirable any way other than auction. Yes, the book could disappoint at auction, but I think it’s a good calculated risk to take.

And if it’s a book that’s not very desirable, then dealers won’t want to buy it. I can’t count the number of times I discussed books with dealers back in the old days and all they wanted to do was cherrypick the best books.  Thanks for nothing.

The other way I would do it is just set a BIN on eBay and wait for the buyer or market to come to you. I had great success selling my Master of Kung Fu CGC collection that way last year, sometimes for outrageous prices. I can see certain instances you'd want to sell to a dealer: it's just easy, especially if you dont really know what the books are worth, they'd be difficult to auction, don't want to get them slabbed, etc.. 

Edited May 16, 2022 by SuperBird

[tth2]

On 5/17/2022 at 4:03 AM, SuperBird said:

The other way I would do it is just set a BIN on eBay and wait for the buyer or market to come to you.

I don't really consider that selling, particularly if you're really trying to move the books, unless you're setting the BIN at pretty close to FMV.  Otherwise, it's basically just putting them for display in a window and waiting to see if anyone bites.

[tth2]

On 5/17/2022 at 4:03 AM, SuperBird said:

I can see certain instances you'd want to sell to a dealer: it's just easy, especially if you dont really know what the books are worth

That would be the absolute worst situation to sell to a dealer.  You are begging to be bent over.  

On 5/17/2022 at 4:03 AM, SuperBird said:

they'd be difficult to auction

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my experience is that dealers have no more interest in hard-to-move books than anyone else (in fact, less).  They only want the books that are in high demand that they can quickly flip.  Or they will demand a big discount to take them.

I think we're extremely lucky to be in a C2C environment where we can sell to buyers/collectors who don't need to build in a healthy profit margin into their buying price. 

[Professor K]

On 1/20/2022 at 9:03 PM, SuperBird said:

Just selling the Actions. I doubt I'd ever sell my Supermans. I have a dozen or so between 12-53. Also a smattering of Batmans. Maybe I'll get a few more.

Now that's the spirit!