How Do I Trade Comics at NYCC with Vendors? 3 3

[yoda12288]

Hey all,

This may be self-explanatory, but I was wondering if any of you can give me any info about the best way to go about trading comics at NYCC, preferably with vendors. I've never brought books to the con with intention of trading them. I have some keys that I'd like to trade for some EC Comics, preferably raw. I've got a Silver Surfer 1 VG, Werewolf by Night 32 CGC 4.5, Green Lantern 9 VG, FF 52 CBCS 3.0, Jungle Action 6 CGC 8.5, Hulk 181 CBCS 9.0, and a few others. It seems better to try and just trade with people rather than sell online, pay fees and shipping, etc.

If any of you know a good starting place or any good vendors of EC (Tales From the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror) please let me know! Otherwise I'll just show up and try to make some deals  

Thanks in advance!

 

[AJD]

If you are going to try to trade with dealers/vendors, be prepared to get less value from your books than you would if you sold them. My advice would be to sell them here on the boards for FMV or a little less, where the pain and fees are minimised. A dealer might go as low as 50% value.

[yoda12288]

On 8/23/2022 at 9:45 AM, AJD said:

If you are going to try to trade with dealers/vendors, be prepared to get less value from your books than you would if you sold them. My advice would be to sell them here on the boards for FMV or a little less, where the pain and fees are minimised. A dealer might go as low as 50% value.

Oh, wow, I didn't know a dealer might go as low as 50% value. I've never sold on here on the boards. How does it work? 

[Aman619]

On 8/22/2022 at 9:40 PM, yoda12288 said:

Hey all,

This may be self-explanatory, but I was wondering if any of you can give me any info about the best way to go about trading comics at NYCC, preferably with vendors. I've never brought books to the con with intention of trading them. I have some keys that I'd like to trade for some EC Comics, preferably raw. I've got a Silver Surfer 1 VG, Werewolf by Night 32 CGC 4.5, Green Lantern 9 VG, FF 52 CBCS 3.0, Jungle Action 6 CGC 8.5, Hulk 181 CBCS 9.0, and a few others. It seems better to try and just trade with people rather than sell online, pay fees and shipping, etc.

If any of you know a good starting place or any good vendors of EC (Tales From the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror) please let me know! Otherwise I'll just show up and try to make some deals  

Thanks in advance!

 

walk up to any booth selling similar vintage comics.  Politely say you want to trade your comics.  and bend over.  

[revat]

On 8/23/2022 at 9:07 AM, yoda12288 said:

Oh, wow, I didn't know a dealer might go as low as 50% value. I've never sold on here on the boards. How does it work? 

there's a forum sales area, an entire subforum.  If you dig around a bit, you will find it very easily.  THere are rules to follow, they are clearly posted.  PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY FIRST before you create a sales thread.

Sounds like you would be most interested in the Gold/Silver/Bronze specific sales subforum.  Take a look at a few threads, see how they go, maybe consider which format (there's a bit of freedom) you want to emulate.

 

Very generally, the simplest way would be to sell one book (or set of books) per post.  Try to sell all your books in the same thread/topic.

 

In each post, state the following:

1.  State the title and issue of the book(s). 

2.  Then state the grade of the book (not required if you have good pictures, but recommended either way).

3. THen post the price of the book.

4. Then post one or more pictures of the book, for older books probably at least front and back cover.

5.  ANother user will come along and (Hopefully) claim a book they want to purchase.

6.  At the end of your sale, you settle up with each buyer individually via pm, and work out payment and shipping details.

 

Again, read all the rules first.  If you break the rules there's a chance you do a ton of work and even make some deals then the Moderator deletes your entire thread creating confusion and frustration because you chose not to read or follow the rules.

Edited August 23, 2022 by revat

[Robot Man]

You might want to participate a bit here first. Nice to know who you are dealing with. A lot of folks only use this forum to sell stuff. It is a “community”. People want to buy from people they know and trust.

Welcome to the boards. Stick around and have some fun here as well.

 

 

[yoda12288]

Wow, thanks so much, guys!

I will definitely spend some time familiarizing myself with how it all works before posting anything. 

My first question was going to be how do I know the buyer is trustworthy. Seems kind of crazy buying and selling on here when you are essentially just sending / receiving money and comics with someone you don't know via DMs. Do you wait to receive payment before sending books or vice versa? It makes sense to deal with people on the forums that have a reputation for being trustworthy and are "known".

It's great though because everyone is super helpful on here! 

 

 

 

[thehumantorch]

On 8/22/2022 at 7:40 PM, yoda12288 said:

Hey all,

This may be self-explanatory, but I was wondering if any of you can give me any info about the best way to go about trading comics at NYCC, preferably with vendors. I've never brought books to the con with intention of trading them. I have some keys that I'd like to trade for some EC Comics, preferably raw. I've got a Silver Surfer 1 VG, Werewolf by Night 32 CGC 4.5, Green Lantern 9 VG, FF 52 CBCS 3.0, Jungle Action 6 CGC 8.5, Hulk 181 CBCS 9.0, and a few others. It seems better to try and just trade with people rather than sell online, pay fees and shipping, etc.

If any of you know a good starting place or any good vendors of EC (Tales From the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror) please let me know! Otherwise I'll just show up and try to make some deals  

Thanks in advance!

 

Approach dealers who carry the books you're interested in and offer a trade.  Dealers get trade offers fairly often, it's not unusual.  Expect that dealers won't offer you 100% in trade, they're there to make money, but also expect that given the quality of your books you should get offers of 80% or better in trade.  If the dealer prefers SA/BA keys over EC Comics he may come very close to 100% trade value.  Make sure you know what your books have recently sold for and walk away if a dealer lowballs you.

[Ryan.]

You will likely get closer to FMV if you are trading up for a book with a combination of book(s) + cash. So if you want $300 for your books, for example, and a dealer has a $1000 book you like, offering your books plus $700 in cash will likely get you the $1000 book. Whereas, if you want $300 for your books in trade straight up for the dealer's $300 in inventory, that probably won't happen.

[adamstrange]

On 8/23/2022 at 12:07 PM, yoda12288 said:

Oh, wow, I didn't know a dealer might go as low as 50% value.

They are willing to go lower...

[revat]

On 8/23/2022 at 12:29 PM, adamstrange said:

On 8/23/2022 at 9:07 AM, yoda12288 said:

Oh, wow, I didn't know a dealer might go as low as 50% value.

They are willing to go lower...

Absolutely.  The pure 'book' (or recent history) value of a book isn't the only consideration.  If you've got a GA classic that averages 1 sale per year on GPA at a consistent price, that's very different to a dealer than a SA key that draws attention on the wall and can be a quick cash/inventory turnaround, even if the values are technically the same.  And physically to keep lugging the (potentially stale inventory) books around back and forth to shows has a cost too.  They ideally want to make profit on EACH transaction, including trades.  So they're not trading generally just for the sake of trading, there has to be an incentive.  And that incentive is extremely subjective from dealer to dealer.

 

If you wanted to trade me 20 9.4 modern junk slabs that I could sell for $10 each in exchange for a hot $100 raw comic in the last hour of a comic show, I'd rather keep my raw and not carry the 20 slabs back to my truck.  Other's might feel differently. There's just a lot of 'it depends'.

Similarly they might give you better value if you want to trade FOR some 'staler' inventory.

Edited August 23, 2022 by revat

[Point Five]

I would just sell your books and use the proceeds for ECs… it seems much simpler to me. Honestly, I don’t remember a wealth of ECs on display at NYCC, just possibly the odd one here and there. I think 90%ish of mine came from ebay.

[MattTheDuck]

On 8/23/2022 at 11:13 AM, yoda12288 said:

Wow, thanks so much, guys!

I will definitely spend some time familiarizing myself with how it all works before posting anything. 

My first question was going to be how do I know the buyer is trustworthy. Seems kind of crazy buying and selling on here when you are essentially just sending / receiving money and comics with someone you don't know via DMs. Do you wait to receive payment before sending books or vice versa? It makes sense to deal with people on the forums that have a reputation for being trustworthy and are "known".

It's great though because everyone is super helpful on here! 

 

 

 

Generally speaking, the buyers and sellers here are trustworthy.  Almost all of them have "Kudos" threads where you can read about their transactions, happy customers, etc.  I've had dozens of transactions (mostly buying) and had only one problem where a book arrived with some undisclosed damage.  As a seller, you set the terms of payment - i.e. Paypal G&S or check or whatever so you're in control there.  I'm not familiar with how PayPal works, but it seems to me there are some protections that make it harder to get ripped off if you're using it.  I am a personal check payer, so sellers just hold my books until my check clears their bank.  I have no problem waiting for this to happen.

All the best.  I think you'd find selling here rewarding and better financially than trying to trade or sell books at a Show.

[batman_fan]

On 8/23/2022 at 11:11 AM, Aman619 said:

walk up to any booth selling similar vintage comics.  Politely say you want to trade your comics.  and bend over.  

you left off the lube step.  Folks, don't forget the lube step

[tth2]

On 8/24/2022 at 2:13 AM, yoda12288 said:

Do you wait to receive payment before sending books or vice versa?

ALWAYS wait to receive payment before sending books.  

If a buyer tries to pressure you into sending the books first, that's a major red flag.

Edited August 24, 2022 by tth2

[tth2]

On 8/24/2022 at 3:29 AM, adamstrange said:

On 8/24/2022 at 12:07 AM, yoda12288 said:

Oh, wow, I didn't know a dealer might go as low as 50% value.

They are willing to go lower...

Things to Keep in Mind When Dealing with Dealers:

1.  How can you tell if they're lying?  Their lips are moving or fingers are typing.

2.  Imagine the scummiest thing that you can think of a person doing to you, and then double it.

Now you're ready!

[tth2]

On 8/24/2022 at 8:55 AM, batman_fan said:

On 8/24/2022 at 1:11 AM, Aman619 said:

walk up to any booth selling similar vintage comics.  Politely say you want to trade your comics.  and bend over.  

you left off the lube step.  Folks, don't forget the lube step

Some dealers will try to convince you that you don't need lube.

[thehumantorch]

On 8/23/2022 at 7:44 PM, tth2 said:

Things to Keep in Mind When Dealing with Dealers:

1.  How can you tell if they're lying?  Their lips are moving or fingers are typing.

2.  Imagine the scummiest thing that you can think of a person doing to you, and then double it.

Now you're ready!

There are good dealers.  Not all lie and not all will make rip-off offers.

[tth2]

On 8/24/2022 at 9:47 AM, thehumantorch said:

There are good dealers.  Not all lie and not all will make rip-off offers.

I would characterize it more as some are less bad than others, and some lie less and try to rip you off less than others.

[adamstrange]

On 8/23/2022 at 9:44 PM, tth2 said:

Things to Keep in Mind When Dealing with Dealers:

1.  How can you tell if they're lying?  Their lips are moving or fingers are typing.

2.  Imagine the scummiest thing that you can think of a person doing to you, and then double it.

Now you're ready!