Bubbles Bursting 8 8

[Robot Man]

On 2/12/2022 at 11:58 AM, thehumantorch said:

When you’re set up at a show you’re selling and buyers don’t care if your a dealer or collector passing on books.  Old books priced fairly sell.  We have a large section of 25% off section filled with all kinds of stuff.  Moderns, variants, BA, SA, odd ball GA, westerns, dells, anything with some value that isn’t hot, and it sells.  Those paper list collectors love these types of books and they’re an important part of the hobby

I have some boxes of SA and BA stuff priced at half price. Not keys or super popular titles but lower grade run books. Not junk but just lower demand or condition. The kind of stuff I’ve picked up very cheap at flea markets, garage sales or collections. When I bought them, I graded them and priced them at guide. Put them in half off boxes. I periodically go through them to make sure there are no hot “movie” books or sleepers. I brought 5 long boxes and went home with 3.

I also have a box of $5 GA and SA. Purpously, all mixed up. The low end guys love them. Sold almost half a box last week. Time to refill by going into the remainders of the 1/2 off boxes.

My goal is to get rid off all this stuff and not buy any more. I will end up consigning raw to a local auction or blowing them out to a flipper or some greedy non collector cheap. The funny thing is I might actually make a small profit when I do…

[kimik]

On 2/12/2022 at 12:11 PM, Robot Man said:

 

Being a collector, I also have a tactic. I wheel in the boxes, set up my booth but don’t open them or fill the rack for a while. I walk around, check out the competition and hopefully score a few books for myself.

I usually pull the lids off when the show opens to the public. People know that I haven’t been picked clean yet. I’m sure it pizzes off some of the dealers who feel they have the right to pick me clean first. But when they see the feeding frenzy I cause, they come running over just like everybody else and grab what they can. It becomes a situation where if you want it, you’d better buy it fast or someone else will. I don’t have to “negotiate” much.

As I said, I’m not a dealer so I don’t have to sell stuff I like. It just gives me a little spending money to pay up a bit for something I like more.

Been doing this a long time and have learned a lot about the collector mentality.

And still have fun doing it! 

 

 

That is nice of them to wait for you to pull the lids off. I have dealers taking lids off of stuff as I wheel boxes in at the bigger shows.......

Edited February 12, 2022 by kimik

[fifties]

On 2/12/2022 at 11:11 AM, Robot Man said:

True but I don’t consider myself a “dealer”. I’m a collector

As I said, I’m not a dealer

 

 

OH please Bob; I saw your setup in Valencia, and for all appearances (if it looks like a Duck, walks like a Duck, and quacks like a Duck, it must be a Duck), you be a dealer, as well as a passionate collector.  Ain't nothin' wrong with that, of course, but don't kid yourself.

[Cobbledclam]

On 2/12/2022 at 2:09 PM, fifties said:

OH please Bob; I saw your setup in Valencia, and for all appearances (if it looks like a Duck, walks like a Duck, and quacks like a Duck, it must be a Duck), you be a dealer, as well as a passionate collector.  Ain't nothin' wrong with that, of course, but don't kid yourself.

🤔🥸🤭🙈🙉🤪

[thehumantorch]

On 2/12/2022 at 1:32 PM, Robot Man said:

I have some boxes of SA and BA stuff priced at half price. Not keys or super popular titles but lower grade run books. Not junk but just lower demand or condition. The kind of stuff I’ve picked up very cheap at flea markets, garage sales or collections. When I bought them, I graded them and priced them at guide. Put them in half off boxes. I periodically go through them to make sure there are no hot “movie” books or sleepers. I brought 5 long boxes and went home with 3.

I also have a box of $5 GA and SA. Purpously, all mixed up. The low end guys love them. Sold almost half a box last week. Time to refill by going into the remainders of the 1/2 off boxes.

My goal is to get rid off all this stuff and not buy any more. I will end up consigning raw to a local auction or blowing them out to a flipper or some greedy non collector cheap. The funny thing is I might actually make a small profit when I do…

We went to look at a massive collection.  At least 200 longs of GA to CA.  Probably 10 dealers had already gone through it and bought everything good/ easy to sell.  The owner priced anything nice shape at 60% of Overstreet VG - sigh gave away books like Iron Man #55 that were hot and underpriced in guide and worth a lot more in nice shape - and anything low grade at 60% of G Overstreet. He still had lots of low grade Atlas Westerns, romance, dells, Sci Fi titles, and odd ball stuff and a bunch of basically $1 books.  The question was what do we buy and how do we buy it.  I asked if we picked out at least 8 longs of books would he take $3 a book.  He thought about it for 10 minutes, did the math - 250 books X 8 X $3 = $6k, and said yes.  We pulled 8 boxes.  There was chunks of Westerns where the books had been undisturbed so long the bags had partially decomposed and the books were stuck together.  None of the dealers before us had even looked at them.  Western eh, move on to what's hot.  We took them to shows in a 50% off section and of course they flew out.  Within a few shows they were pretty well all gone - 2 longs to another dealer who priced them up - and we doubled our money but now I realize they are hard to replace and 25% off would have been smarter.

From that buy I did keep Kid Colt #11 and #12 Cnd edition in lovely shape and Wild West #3 cnd and that's why I love looking at collections.