hypothetical question on buying.....

[g-man]

OK here we go....

 

Say I buy a book X for $200 on ebay or privately but people still know about the sale. Book X usually goes in the $350-400 range but I luck out and get a good price.

 

Now, say I offer the book to "you" for $300 and you know I only paid $200 for it but it is a book that you are looking for and the price is fair (below ebay, market or the ever popular GP analysis). Would u care how much I paid for it or ask me ot sell it to you for $201?

 

The way I see it, people are sending in books all the time that they may have paid $50 or even $5 for if they bought a collection, the book grades out a 9.6 and they sell it for $500. Just because you don't know the price they paid for it does not deter you from paying the $500 if the price is fair. I don't care how the book was obtained as long as I can purchase it for a decent price.

 

If I decide to sell my Captain Marvel #33 cgc 9.8 one day...it is a book I have had for more than 10 years and bought it for maybe $5, does that matter? Of course not. But you would be suprised.

 

 

[dam60]

For one transaction cost basis is sadly irrelevant in determining accurate prices (taken in the aggregate you would have the market for a said book). Fair market price is the way to go! I had a bunch of Worldcom that I bought for $40 a share that I sold for a lot less. Did it matter that I paid $40?

 

To answer your question - if you bought book x which goes for $300-$400 on ebay routinely and paid $200 for the book through some stroke of good fortune, I would pay you what the book would be worth to me, which may or may not be market value. If it is a book that I did want, I would be willing to play ball at a slight discount to market (ie $280) if I knew that you got it for $200 as $20 would be roughly my estimate of the time and cost involved in selling it on ebay.

 

DAM

[sfilosa]

I have said this many times,

 

I DON"T CARE WHAT A SELLERS INVESTMENT IS IN A BOOK. (not yelling at you gman.)

 

It bother me when sellers say, "I have to protect my investment". I don't give a rat's arse if you bought the book off the newstand for 12 cents, or yesterday for $500. I'm going to pay what I want to pay for a book. If I believe there are lots of other buyers, I might pay more, but it has nothing to do with what the seller paid for it.

 

Just the way I feel.

 

 

[clobberintime]

I guess if they are communist it might matter! Sounds like the American way of doing biz to me. Some people do seem to have something against making money though.I would say that someone that is complaining about a price on a book like that because you only paid x$$ for it needs to get over it - as long as the final price paid is fair in the current market I see no problem. Thinking of selling a house you might own for 20 years and it appreciates.

[Foolkiller]

gman:

 

No matter what you paid for the book, it's irrelevant on resale to me. If I expect you to resell the book to me for $1 or minimal profit margin, then I must be living in fantasyland. If you find a bargain, bully for you. The market is going to determine the fair price (on average, not one time weird people bid the hell out of it sales) and if I determine that a fair price is one that I can afford and is one that we would say that I would say is normal, then I'll buy the book.

 

And isn't that part of business? Hoping that we'll find a book at a real bargain and then knowing we can resell for more. To me, all you described was a bargain (nobody's getting seriously fleeced through dishonesty or misrepresentation) and nobody would complain about a car, a piece of property at a "bargain" price.

 

I'm in complete agreement with you.

[greggy]

I guess if they are communist it might matter! Sounds like the American way of doing biz to me. Some people do seem to have something against making money though.I would say that someone that is complaining about a price on a book like that because you only paid x$$ for it needs to get over it - as long as the final price paid is fair in the current market I see no problem. Thinking of selling a house you might own for 20 years and it appreciates.

 

Yeah...I would still be in debt if I sold my books based on my cost! But...maybe the real issue is the perceived FMV of the book!

[g-man]

I have said this many times,

 

I DON"T CARE WHAT A SELLERS INVESTMENT IS IN A BOOK. (not yelling at you gman.)

 

It bother me when sellers say, "I have to protect my investment". I don't give a rat's arse if you bought the book off the newstand for 12 cents, or yesterday for $500. I'm going to pay what I want to pay for a book. If I believe there are lots of other buyers, I might pay more, but it has nothing to do with what the seller paid for it.

 

Just the way I feel.

 

 

exactly. i am all for getting or giving the best deal possible but the seller's initial cost should not play into it. And it does not matter to me who is selling or who is buyin as long as the book or the cash comes in.

[joe_collector]

I know for a fact that some people do care. Let's say you hypothetically agree to trade X GCG book for Y CGC book, and then you find your side of the deal for an insane BIN on EBay.

 

I know for a fact that if you spent $100 and the other guy spent $1K, (and this knowledge is known between parties) that reservations are raised, and the deal could be potentially sunk.

 

I'm not agreeing with it, but them's the facts.

[thecomicsheet]

What someone paid for something makes no difference to me. If I want it and I'm willing to pay the price then I'm happy. Something is only worth as much as someone is willing to give for it.

[CosmicBob]

Well, check these out:

 

Initial - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2174590124&category=35752 - $263.00

 

Flipped - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2177374837&category=35752 - BIN = $399.00

 

I saw this when it initially came by and passed because even with the tiny scan I could see the big honking mark on the cover AND the date stamp.

 

There are a limited number of people who follow the Superboy listings and I wouldn't be suprised if we all recognized this flipped book. The new listing is a lot better, but I don't think he will get what he's asking for. Plus, he only waited about ten days after the other auction ended to flip it! He must have though he got quite the bargain at $263!

[Elvis]

Just ask the folks who bought the Mile High's from Chuck Rosanski how they feel about cost basis. He proportedly paid $.10 per book for the Edgar Church collection. Look at them now. To the buyer, a sellers cost basis should not matter.

 

[COI]

Gman, just tell someone in that case that it's called business. Dealers obviously don't operate on cost, so why should casual sellers? If the price is fair market, then there's nothing wrong. And even if you charged way above market, that's your perogative and the person dosen't have to buy. It may be a little frustrating for the buyer, but it's your book, and you're the one who moved on the opportunity to get it cheap.

[valiantman]

I don't understand why people could be "upset" that someone only paid $200

and they now want $300 for a $350 book...

 

Why isn't anybody kicking and screaming when the "original owner"

wants $X,000 for their $0.12 "investment" in Amazing Fantasy #15?

(Need I mention the "cost basis" of $0.10 for Action #1?)

 

How can a seller making "some profit" be worse than one making "all profit"?

[musicmeta]

Who cares how much you paid for a book be it a nickel or $200.00 or even if you took a dive and paid $1,000. It's what I'm willing to pay for it that counts based on current market conditons. If the book is selling routinely for $300-350 then I can expect to pay around $300-$350 for the book. Case closed.

[PovertyRow]

Would u care how much I paid for it or ask me ot sell it to you for $201?

 

No to both halves of that question. I would see it as getting a book cheaper than current market so you could have paid a buck for it for all I care.

[Smokinghawk]

No, it doesn't matter what YOU paid for the book as a determinant to what you sell the book for.

 

If it did matter, Batman 608 RRP or USM #1 White would not be selling for the current costs from dealers wgho got them free or less than cover. But I recently bought a USM White for less than the Ebay cost, yet FAR more than it likely cost the individual who sold it to me (and got it new), and we were BOTH happy. It necver would have occurred to me to say, "But you got it when the cover price was $2.25! I'll only pay $5!"

 

 

[Mushroom]

To be honest Gman I wouldn't even want to know what you got the book for and if it was me I wouldn't be telling anybody what I got a book for. Demand drives price and if somebody got all bent out of shape because you got it at a substantial discount to the market then assuming the market is hot for it then I would sell it to somebody else.

[Bonds25]

I know there are a lot of Gman haters out there, but I could care less how much you paid. However, some have an issue if they knew you paid $200 for the book, it's worth $400, and you ask $500 for the book.

[g-man]

To be honest Gman I wouldn't even want to know what you got the book for and if it was me I wouldn't be telling anybody what I got a book for. Demand drives price and if somebody got all bent out of shape because you got it at a substantial discount to the market then assuming the market is hot for it then I would sell it to somebody else.

that's just it, i don't reveal my buy prices but if i get it on ebay, not much i can do.

[g-man]

I know there are a lot of Gman haters out there, but I could care less how much you paid. However, some have an issue if they knew you paid $200 for the book, it's worth $400, and you ask $500 for the book.

 

Gman haters? really?!?!?!?!??! I never knew that!