A Dealer is a flipper 3 3

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 3/18/2023 at 12:23 PM, ThothAmon said:

Those were the days my friend.  I’d hoped they’d never end. I described it as throwing a sponge into the ocean. I bought plenty myself during this period that I’m sure are currently upside down but in the scheme of things cest la vie. It’s called dollar cost averaging. 

It was wild.  $1 books turning into $100 books overnight.  Exponential increases in sales prices ( Anybody watched ASM 300 in 9.8 during this time?)

After all that free money, don’t start complaining about not getting top dollar for the goods you didn’t sell when you should have.  If you’ve still got She-hulk & Eternals 1s in your inventory....you failed.

[N e r V]

I kind of ignore somewhat the pandemic years of 2020, 2021 in comics. You can’t just observe the comics market itself because those economic, political and health safety choices, etc. all together created what happened then and still are  shaping the current direction to a degree. Look at what happened to the stock market, real estate, gas and food prices, travel industry before and after and oh yeah all the other collectibles markets besides comics.

If anyone during thought that the events of the pandemic weren’t the reason the comics market was blowing up with prices and ignored everything else around them as a cause well please stay away from my investment money…

amateurs..,.

[serling1978]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:59 AM, Stefan_W said:

The really funny flip side to this coin is some of the people who were overpricing their books kept raising the prices above FMV as the market went up, and then when it crashed out they missed their golden window and were stuck with the same books they had before. Their tears of anguish give me sustenance. 

Amen.  The funny thing about flipping for me personally is I'm a recovering flipper myself lol. When I got back into collecting about 12 years ago after a 15 year hiatus I build most or my collection through flipping.  I have a huge collection today of many silver/Bronze runs and grails to boot, so I should love flipping I guess,  but it seems like even in the last 10 short years it's gone to a new level where the market is more flippers than non flippers.  I stopped flipping about 4 years ago once it got to the point where finding deals that left room for profit to make the effort worth it had really started to vanish. So I guess in other words I got too lazy to put in the newly required effort to be an effective flipper.

[Stefan_W]

On 3/18/2023 at 1:09 PM, serling1978 said:

Amen.  The funny thing about flipping for me personally is I'm a recovering flipper myself lol. When I got back into collecting about 12 years ago after a 15 year hiatus I build most or my collection through flipping.  I have a huge collection today of many silver/Bronze runs and grails to boot, so I should love flipping I guess,  but it seems like even in the last 10 short years it's gone to a new level where the market is more flippers than non flippers.  I stopped flipping about 4 years ago once it got to the point where finding deals that left room for profit to make the effort worth it had really started to vanish. So I guess in other words I got too lazy to put in the newly required effort to be an effective flipper.

I think it is common for people to sell off some stuff to be able to buy things they want more. My own story is a few years ago I got back into the hobby after a couple of decades off, and I wanted to fill out my Fantastic Four run. I quickly realized that I did not want to pull hundreds out of the household each month for my hobby so things started to fizzle. A guy contacted me asking if I was interested in his ASM 2 (I had an ad looking for FF comics). It was super low grade but I bought it for $200 and sold it for almost 600. I took the proceeds and bought raw ASM 40-49 at a Comic Link auction and turned that $350 into about $700. I kept doing stuff like that and built up a stock of books. Every book I now own in my PC or otherwise came from that initially $200 investment, and I have not pulled cash out of the household funds for comics since then. In fact, I actually paid down some household debt when prices started climbing and everyone wanted my Silvers. 

Flipping is not inherently a bad thing. Some people are kind of sleazy about it, but that is more who they are then the actual buying and re-selling process. 

[serling1978]

On 3/18/2023 at 3:20 PM, Stefan_W said:

I think it is common for people to sell off some stuff to be able to buy things they want more. My own story is a few years ago I got back into the hobby after a couple of decades off, and I wanted to fill out my Fantastic Four run. I quickly realized that I did not want to pull hundreds out of the household each month for my hobby so things started to fizzle. A guy contacted me asking if I was interested in his ASM 2 (I had an ad looking for FF comics). It was super low grade but I bought it for $200 and sold it for almost 600. I took the proceeds and bought raw ASM 40-49 at a Comic Link auction and turned that $350 into about $700. I kept doing stuff like that and built up a stock of books. Every book I now own in my PC or otherwise came from that initially $200 investment, and I have not pulled cash out of the household funds for comics since then. In fact, I actually paid down some household debt when prices started climbing and everyone wanted my Silvers. 

Flipping is not inherently a bad thing. Some people are kind of sleazy about it, but that is more who they are then the actual buying and re-selling process. 

Same here when it comes to not using personal money to build my collection.  I specifically made it a point to only buy comics using money from flips. And it wasn't even only comic flips. I flipped everything from RV toilets to handicap shower chairs lol.

[Dick Pontoon]

On 3/18/2023 at 12:28 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

 If you’ve still got She-hulk & Eternals 1s in your inventory....you failed.

I do, though not because I was looking for the highest top dollar but rather due to of my habitual inability to list hot books in a timely manner.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Dick Pontoon

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 3/15/2023 at 4:26 PM, shadroch said:

There is a huge difference between operating for a profit and operating out of greed.  Good dealers are selling both their products and their services. Both are valuable. 

This is something to contemplate. I debate with myself whether I trust sellers or buyers more?  Since both I and dealers are both, it's a sticky wicket to decide. It's not all about me when that transaction happens, but the benefit of any agreement relies on the final decision in the transaction. Hindsight is 20 20 I guess.

[N e r V]

On 3/16/2023 at 9:05 PM, jimjum12 said:

... almost everyone starts as a flipper, I personally don't waste my time or emotion trying to assign a difference between "flippers" and "real" dealers. . I've also seen many a book sold on the boards, eBay, auction, etc, that I would be thrilled to have the chance to buy for twice what they paid. There's always going to be those folks who feel that "true" collectors deserve all the bargains and actually get angry when they don't. You may actually be better off NOT having that collector as your customer. Do your thing, Westy Steve ... life is short and happiness fleeting. Don't let "Karen" rob you of your dreams. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

Yeah but no one else can flip like you do Jimjum…

 

[THE_BEYONDER]

My flips look more like this...

[southern cross]

And to all that flipped their 9.8 drek Eternals 1 for over 3k

Seriously people!

My little description between dealers flippers and scalpers was meant as a joke!

No one is forcing people to buy books at certain prices and no one is being forced to sell at a certain price.

A lot of long term collectors know not to engage in fomo. They are costly lessons.

Unfortunately anyone who didn't know and bought heavily in Marvel the last two years may have gotten a way more expensive lesson. That is unfortunate and I truly hope if they love the medium they stay with it.

Myself I bought ridiculously cheap DCs and stayed away from Marvel. Maybe a new direction for DC will mean I move away from DC and move to plummeting priced Marvels. Who can say.

The original idea of the thread was is a dealer a flipper?

Mostly I'm going to say no.

I've regular lcs I buy off regularly and get good deals and they know I'm a buyer of romance books so whenever they get them in collections they put them aside for me.

Would a ebay seller do that for a customer? Do they build that kind of relationship with a customer? Or do they just list what they get in and look for a quick buyer. Nothing wrong with that. 

Each seller and or selling model has their strengths and weaknesses.