I think Comic book shows are broken 2 2

[Bookery]

On 8/26/2024 at 12:45 PM, MAY1979 said:

^ You're more likely to get an honest answer from a local politician than a Comic Book Dealer.

See above post.  

[Buzzetta]

On 9/3/2024 at 9:30 AM, Bookery said:

Not necessarily.  Most of my sales are to dealers (and I don't discount), so they are paying more than I did.  Of course -- they are picking and choosing specific issues for their customers, whereas I am usually offering to buy everything.  Bulk is bulk... the going rate for $1-fodder is 10c apiece from most dealers.  And no... that is not making 1000% profit.  It seems that even at $1 only about 1/3 of a bulk purchase will sell.  If you bag your $1 stock, that's a lot more money tied up.  If you don't bag it... you have just a few weeks window to sell it before it gets too roughed-up to sell at all.

Books retailing in the $5 - $10 range don't pay a whole lot either... $1-$2 maybe... but again only a percentage of this will sell.  People often fail to realize that there are lots of books that simply won't sell at a given time or region of the country, and this can be fickle and ever-shifting.  SA/BA that is box-stock material, say $20-$50 will pay better... usually 40%-50% of expected final retail.  I don't discount and try to price low to begin with... but a lot of the higher prices you see, especially at shows, are already figuring in that they plan to discount 20% of more at time of sale.  Decent but lesser keys (raw) will bring about 55%-60%, and significant keys will bring about 70% (or even more for slabbed books, or books with a waiting want-list).  

And the above is with the current market ( a friend just brought in his Hulk #1, not to sell, but to have me check out... in his grade the value had dropped again just in the past month... if a dealer had paid the 90% that posters here sometimes demand, he would already be in the hole).  When the Covid spike was going on, dealers did often pay 100%... because prices were rapidly trending upward, and one could simply set a book aside for a few months and make a profit.  

These are just some rough spreads.  One might pay more or less for large collections, depending upon the mix of good stuff and drek.  Yes... there are "bad" dealers out there (not because they price too high... that's their business)... but because they mislead or mis-characterize collections in order to get them cheap.  That's always true of any market.  But there are just as many "bad" sellers... collectors that are misinformed about their own material, who treat eBay "asking" prices as if the books actually sold for that, who can't grasp that the auction price they just looked up is not the actual amount the consignor received, or enter a shop with a chip on their shoulder right from the start, or who expect 90% of retail for everything they sell you and then turn around and demand 20% off retail when they buy, or who themselves will try to pass off books missing pages, that have restoration etc., and feign ignorance of the fact.

The only deals worth completing are when both parties are happy.  If you don't like the offer, move on (politely).  But also don't screw yourself out of a deal because of unrealistic expectations. 

 

Sorry, not seeing it.  All it takes is a little hustle and patience and as you said, to do the math.  I have to be honest.  I would never sell my top stuff to a dealer.  I would rather sell it using an exchange site like Comic Connect or Comiclink where I do the math and set things at a price where if they sell, I get what I want for it after the fees.   I am not going to get that 90% from a dealer. 

However, I definitely agree with you that people have unrealistic expectations for lower tier stuff.  (Not just comics I am talking about).   I have watched a guy become combative and argumentative with a dealer in this thread who had far more patience than I would be capable of exhibiting. 

But when it comes to certain material in my collection.  I will do the legwork myself.   With various collecting groups I have had dealers reach out without my invitation.  Sometimes I say, "I appreciate you reaching out but that item is not currently for sale."  Other times I will listen to what they have to say to get a gauge and it has never been at a price that made sense for me. 

I will give you a non comic example.  You may know or not know that there are actually "Lego Dealers" that are much like comic dealers, buying collections, literally sorting things out... same thing. 

I had a complete collection of every year's holiday sets but never opened them.  I had around ten years worth of sets before I realized I don't need to dedicate space for something like this and the room it takes up.  So I listed them myself on Facebook Marketplace and the dedicated Lego Collector groups.  I did the math and I wanted 10-12% less than the going rate on eBay and Bricklink's exchange.  One set I had was actually harder to find so I went over the average since it does not pop up often. 

Two dealers reached out and one offered 50% of my list.  The other mayyyyybe around 60%.  (The 50% number sticks out more than the other) and in both cases the dealers wanted shipping included in the deal since neither lived close to New York.   I declined.  One dealer was polite about it and said he understood and wished me luck.  The other had a temper tantrum and then used laughing emojis in each of my posts in the dedicated groups. 

Every Lego set sold at the price I listed them for + (buyer paid shipping) and I took home quite a bit of money.   That harder to find set sold for $400 if I remember correctly.   Paypal took their usual fee.   Same thing happened when I went to sell a $1200 set. 

I will handle it myself.  Once it was listed, they went back in the closet until they sold and the only effort on my part was boxing the item, (I keep a bay of boxes in an area of my basement storage room), printing the label, and dropping it off at the post office.  A little hustle, a little math, and a little patience. 

[kimik]

On 9/2/2024 at 5:42 PM, Kevin76 said:

I had a guy come to the table in Baltimore wanting a Batman 121 3.0, had it priced at 2300 and offered it to him for 1900, after walking around and coming back multiple times to see it, he still trying to hammer us down, he ended up leaving without it. For him, it was a complete waste of his time, and would have been better off buying what he wanted and leaving with it right then and there, but I guess taking $400 off the price wasn't good enough.   

It is funny to see people do this. I set up at shows with a couple of other boardies. A few years back at the Edmonton Expo we had 2 or 3 copies of Avengers #4 between us. A buyer kept coming around throughout all three days trying to squeeze the last penny out of us, as well as a couple of other dealers. Since it was a good show, and the buyer was annoying me, I decided to buy the other copies in the booth and pulled mine from the wall just after he came by to wheel and deal again. When he came back an hour later he asked where the books went. We told him they sold. He was pissed at us for selling them to someone else.  

A couple of months later there was a local one day show where I put all of the copies back on the wall. That same buyer came by, bought all three at the asking prices with no discount since they were fairly graded and priced to begin with, and thanked me. He is a regular customer now.