MH Chuck's WW Dallas Report

[drice6900]

From his latest newsletter:

 

While I always regret selling great older comics at prices that I consider to be far too low, my distress can easily be mitigated if I am utilizing the working capital derived from an overly generous sale to purchase even more cool old comics. That turned out to be the exactly case this past weekend, as the Wizard World convention held in Arlington (Dallas), Texas turned out to be one of the best buying events we've experienced during all of 2006. Before the convention was over we had purchased a total of 70,000 (!!!) back issues, including approximately 10,000 Golden Age, Silver Age, and Bronze Age issues! I've done quite well with my buying program at several conventions this year, but that's a great haul of back issues by any standard. So while the GREATCOLLECTIONS sale has effectively drawn down one part of our online inventory, we've utilized the working capital that you have provided us through your generous support of our sales programs to set the stage for an entirely new set of offerings to be online for you over the next two weeks. Thanks to your help, I'm not only able to provide you with a much broader selection of comics offerings on our website, but also doing a great deal to help dealers at conventions all around the country achieve financial success.

 

All of the above having been said, I have to admit that I was a bit worried flying down to Dallas. While our buying trip there was quite successful last year, I heard afterwards that the convention was not very good for many of the dealers. Retail buyers were scarce, and the overall energy of the conventions was quite subdued. As a result, I heard from several of our usual back issue suppliers that they were not going to be setting up at this year's show. Without their presence, I worried that there might not be enough wholesale deals to justify our time and travel costs.

 

What turned everything around was the hard work of the Wizard World staff. Recognizing that the 2005 event didn't turn out as well as everyone had hoped, they made a major change in the show. They eliminated the separate hall that had contained artist's alley, and moved the artists into the same room as the back issue dealers. This had the effect of not only saving them money, but also filling most of the space in the main room that had been vacated by dealers not attending. To everyone's surprise, it also changed the entire dynamic of the convention. Instead of having two halls (separated by a large main hallway...), both with sparse attendance, there was one large room overflowing with fans. This seemed to energize everyone, and the whole place was simply rocking! The comics dealers reported excellent sales, and the artists I know as friends whom I went to see during show hours never had any time to talk to me, as they were overwhelmed with requests for sketches. It was a great show!

 

Another very positive factor for the convention this year was the elimination of the Cassandra's among the comics dealers. The absence of one dealer, in particular, was welcomed by everyone. He drove in from New Jersey last year with 100,000 back issues that he began dumping at ridiculously low prices. By the end of the convention, he was selling books at 100 for $15, just to get rid of them. Now most of this dealer's books were issues from the early 1990's "glut" that are readily available at most shows in 50-cent boxes. The fact remained, however, that someone always has to set the bottom of the market, and this guy's give away pricing forced everyone else in the room to drop their prices on bargain books to the point to where selling them was a complete exercise in futility. Even more damaging, however, was the fact that at the same time as he was dumping his inventory, this dealer would also preach loudly and stridently to anyone who would listen about how the comics world was in an imminent state of collapse, and that he was getting out just in time. Not exactly a message designed to make fans feel comfortable about spending money to build their collections. It should, thus, come as no surprise that this dealer didn't generate nearly enough total sales to justify his 1,000-mile drive. So, after completely muddying the comics market in Dallas last year, he blessedly didn't bother to come again.

 

In the absence of this particular dealer, the lower end comics market in Dallas completely rebounded. While I was purchasing at the convention this year I found myself having to frequently leave the bargain box areas (where I typically spend my time during shows...) because the crush of fans was just too great. No one that I observed was selling back issues for under fifty cents, yet the demand for even relatively common comics was extremely robust. One dealer I dealt with had to nearly completely restock his bargain boxes after Friday, and was down by half again by Saturday evening. I wasn't at the show on Sunday, as I was at a local store closing the private deal for the 40,000 comics, but I heard that fans also turned out in droves again for the last day. Isn't it wonderful how changing just a couple of key factors can completely renew a struggling convention?

 

While retail sales at the convention for the dealers in Dallas were extremely good this year, I was able to close several large wholesale deals because a group of local dealers from the Texas area have decided that they want to support our buying trips into that area. As a result, they had material set aside for us to purchase before we even arrived. Receiving such a kind welcome from other comics dealers certainly encourages us to return to an area. So you can expect that we'll be turning up in Dallas again, very soon.

 

In the meantime, I'm already packing for my buying trip to The National (Michael Carbonaro's annual 3-day version of the Big Apple Convention), in New York City. My original plan had been to have our head buyer, Will Moulton, also accompany me on this trip, but I decided after our success in Dallas to leave him behind in Denver this week to help grade the 10,000 Golden Age, Silver Age, and Bronze Age books we scored in Texas. We brought back about 1,200 of the better issues with us on the airplane last evening, so you can expect many of them to be online for you by tomorrow morning (Tuesday) at about 12 NOON Mountain Time. Keep a sharp eye on New-In-Stock and $50+ New-In-Stock as we have a particularly nice selection of high grade Marvel Silver going online, focused especially on the really popular titles such as AVENGERS, CAPTAIN AMERICA, DAREDEVIL, HULK, IRON MAN, SPIDER-MAN, THOR, and X-MEN. Many of those key runs had been greatly depleted over the past few months due to my significant lowering of prices, but after my purchases in Dallas, we're completely restocked! Don't wait too long to order these very popular titles, however, as they now tend to sell out very quickly...

[sckao]

 

Does anyone know the name of the dealer Chuck mentions? The one dumping comics...

[Foolkiller]

Chuck never ceases to amaze me. But hey, if people want to keep buying his books, so be it. What's astonishing to me is that he claims "selling at ridiculously low prices" but if you see him at a show -- he will readily admit to other dealers that he is purposely jacking his prices up so that his sale price is still above or at FMV or sometimes just below. But of course, people see 50 percent off and turn off their common sense valves.

[drice6900]

Does anyone know the name of the dealer Chuck mentions? The one dumping comics...

 

I am curious about this as well...

[Stronguy]

I saw him there scurrying thru the 50¢ boxes like a rat on crack. His boy was pulling everything out with a 60¢ or less cover price. He was about 1/3 of the way throug the baxes so I jumped in on the other end and started doing the same thing. I made a pile of about 75 books and just sat on them until Chuck left then I put them back.

[sckao]

I saw him there scurrying thru the 50¢ boxes like a rat on crack. His boy was pulling everything out with a 60¢ or less cover price. He was about 1/3 of the way throug the baxes so I jumped in on the other end and started doing the same thing. I made a pile of about 75 books and just sat on them until Chuck left then I put them back.

 

Are you saying you intentionally took away $37.50 in sales (minus volume discounts) from the seller? If you did that to me, I'd be pretty annoyed actually...

[langur88]

I saw him there scurrying thru the 50¢ boxes like a rat on crack. His boy was pulling everything out with a 60¢ or less cover price. He was about 1/3 of the way throug the baxes so I jumped in on the other end and started doing the same thing. I made a pile of about 75 books and just sat on them until Chuck left then I put them back.

 

[langur88]

 

Another very positive factor for the convention this year was the elimination of the Cassandra's among the comics dealers. The absence of one dealer, in particular, was welcomed by everyone. He drove in from New Jersey last year with 100,000 back issues that he began dumping at ridiculously low prices. By the end of the convention, he was selling books at 100 for $15, just to get rid of them. Now most of this dealer's books were issues from the early 1990's "glut" that are readily available at most shows in 50-cent boxes. The fact remained, however, that someone always has to set the bottom of the market, and this guy's give away pricing forced everyone else in the room to drop their prices on bargain books to the point to where selling them was a complete exercise in futility. Even more damaging, however, was the fact that at the same time as he was dumping his inventory, this dealer would also preach loudly and stridently to anyone who would listen about how the comics world was in an imminent state of collapse, and that he was getting out just in time. Not exactly a message designed to make fans feel comfortable about spending money to build their collections. It should, thus, come as no surprise that this dealer didn't generate nearly enough total sales to justify his 1,000-mile drive. So, after completely muddying the comics market in Dallas last year, he blessedly didn't bother to come again.

 

 

This is America where the dealer can sell his books for whatever price he wants or give them away if he pleases. Chuck does not like it because he sees potentaial customers that have no idea how common some of these comics are and will pay his price instead of "FMV". If Chuck was so upset about the dealer selling low to his potential customers why didn't he just buy the dealers inventory?

 

I would bet that the dealers name is Mike who is actually a pretty nice guy. He has a few million books that he has no money into in a warehouse and he wants to stop paying for storage. He would rather sell them to readers and small dealers. Thats his right. I will not sell to Chuck either. I will not have his "boys" slicing through my inventory like Wolverine. First crack at everything I get goes to my loyal customers. Always have and always will.

 

Chuck liked Mike a lot better when he was getting to look through his entire stock at a show before anybody else could look at a single book. He took his time right up until the show opened to the public.

[langur88]

I saw him there scurrying thru the 50¢ boxes like a rat on crack. His boy was pulling everything out with a 60¢ or less cover price. He was about 1/3 of the way throug the baxes so I jumped in on the other end and started doing the same thing. I made a pile of about 75 books and just sat on them until Chuck left then I put them back.

 

Are you saying you intentionally took away $37.50 in sales (minus volume discounts) from the seller? If you did that to me, I'd be pretty annoyed actually...

 

Actually stronguy probably made more money for the dealer.

 

Chuck was buying wholesale. If he had interest in those particular books in the first place a retail buyer probably purchased them by the end of the show or at worst they went to another wholesale buyer.

[langur88]

But of course, people see 50 percent off and turn off their common sense valves.

 

Unfortunately very true.

[Pirate]

I want a captain woodchuck comic (is there such a thing?) signature series. maybe mid-ohio

[sckao]

I saw him there scurrying thru the 50¢ boxes like a rat on crack. His boy was pulling everything out with a 60¢ or less cover price. He was about 1/3 of the way throug the baxes so I jumped in on the other end and started doing the same thing. I made a pile of about 75 books and just sat on them until Chuck left then I put them back.

 

Are you saying you intentionally took away $37.50 in sales (minus volume discounts) from the seller? If you did that to me, I'd be pretty annoyed actually...

 

Actually stronguy probably made more money for the dealer.

 

Chuck was buying wholesale. If he had interest in those particular books in the first place a retail buyer probably purchased them by the end of the show or at worst they went to another wholesale buyer.

 

I don't know... Chuck probably asked first if he could get a wholesale rate then. If the dealer said yes, I don't see how someone removing books Chuck would have purchased resulted in an action that helped the dealer. Yes, it COULD have sold later to other people. But here was a guaranteed sale from the 50 cent bin. The dealer could have said "no."

 

You could probably say that dealers shouldn't sell to NeatStuff then when he shows up with an empty booth and a ton of cash. (Which he then proceeds to fill/flip at the same show.)

 

Chuck's not the enemy. As he stated, there are people in that area who WANT him to go down there to buy.

[Sal]

i think maybe the people ostensibly being "helped" by Stronguy in this instance are the actual collectors, who would like an opportunity to look over dealer stock prior to Chuck plowing through it all first at wholesale rates.

 

 

but i could be wrong

[Pirate]

if i had a bunch of cheap modern drek, I would sell the whole thing to him on Friday, put an out to lunch sign on my booth and go have fun at the show for the weekend.

[jimm94]

I think the constant ripping into Chuck's business model/practices is pretty weak. Yes, I know it's ridiculous that people get banned from being customers for disagreeing with his grades (although there are always two sides to every story). Yes, his prices on many books are sky high and then some. However, he is 100% entitled to run his business however he sees fit. Of course, people are equally entitled to complain, but it comes off as being very unprofessional when other buyers and sellers within the hobby do it, especially in a public forum. Of course, it's equally unprofessional for him to gripe about another dealer in his newsletter...

 

[LordThanos1969]

 

This is America where the dealer can sell his books for whatever price he wants or give them away if he pleases. Chuck does not like it because he sees potentaial customers that have no idea how common some of these comics are and will pay his price instead of "FMV". If Chuck was so upset about the dealer selling low to his potential customers why didn't he just buy the dealers inventory?

 

I would bet that the dealers name is Mike who is actually a pretty nice guy. He has a few million books that he has no money into in a warehouse and he wants to stop paying for storage. He would rather sell them to readers and small dealers. Thats his right. I will not sell to Chuck either. I will not have his "boys" slicing through my inventory like Wolverine. First crack at everything I get goes to my loyal customers. Always have and always will.

 

Chuck liked Mike a lot better when he was getting to look through his entire stock at a show before anybody else could look at a single book. He took his time right up until the show opened to the public.

 

I think I met Mike at the Wizard Con in Long Beach in 2005. He is indeed a nice person, and I much rather buy comics from him than Chuck. While Chuck is complaining about another dealer having prices that are too low, the Mile High website continues to be filled with deceptive price discounts. From what I've seen, even with 50% off, most of the prices on that site are still well above FMV. If your prices are double guide and often triple guide or more, who cares if you continue to tout how generous you are toward your customers? I think someone far more profound than Chuck said it best about these kind of promotions: "It is a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing."

[FlyingDonut]

Another very positive factor for the convention this year was the elimination of the Cassandra's among the comics dealers. The absence of one dealer, in particular, was welcomed by everyone. He drove in from New Jersey last year with 100,000 back issues that he began dumping at ridiculously low prices. By the end of the convention, he was selling books at 100 for $15, just to get rid of them. Now most of this dealer's books were issues from the early 1990's "glut" that are readily available at most shows in 50-cent boxes. The fact remained, however, that someone always has to set the bottom of the market, and this guy's give away pricing forced everyone else in the room to drop their prices on bargain books to the point to where selling them was a complete exercise in futility. Even more damaging, however, was the fact that at the same time as he was dumping his inventory, this dealer would also preach loudly and stridently to anyone who would listen about how the comics world was in an imminent state of collapse, and that he was getting out just in time. Not exactly a message designed to make fans feel comfortable about spending money to build their collections. It should, thus, come as no surprise that this dealer didn't generate nearly enough total sales to justify his 1,000-mile drive. So, after completely muddying the comics market in Dallas last year, he blessedly didn't bother to come again.

 

I'm positive this is Mike DeCarl, and there are always two sides. Mike's got about 4 million books in a warehouse that he paid nothing for. He's a good guy, a little negative about the market, but so what.

[The Troll King]

I know who the local dealer is that Chuck has been friends with for a long time.

 

In fact I've been neglecting to do my WW Texas show report (I was a volunteer) but I did run into Chuck Friday night at a LCS.

 

(I ran into Strongguy Sunday in the horribly idol J. Scott Campbell line)

 

Chuck and I had an extremely nice conversation for about 20 minutes at the LCS about market trends and how eBay has hurt a lot of different collectible markets. (As many of you know I use to sell old toys)

 

I saw Chuck briefly on Saturday but I don't think he did much actual buying directly at WW because for one... I doubt that there were even 70,000 comics in the entire room total!

 

I personally don't mind Chuck he does have his place in comics history which will always be remembered and as far as grades of books that people receive from him, he can't personally grade every single book that they sell so the fault does not rest entirely on his shoulders if people are getting overgraded stuff.

 

Now... the person I do have a problem with is.... Buddy Saunders (for those who don't know he is the owner of Lone Star Comics and www.mycomicshop.com)

 

Buddy was probably doing more buying in the room than anyone that attended. He is not generally very polite to other dealers or other dealers customers and his weasel-ly side kick (the name slips me) acts just as bad, if not worse than he does.

 

I encountered Buddy and Weasel at one West Coast dealers booth going through some GA books. This dealer probably had the best prices in the room and most of his back issues were 50% off. Buddy and Weasel were pulling out stacks of GA's and asked if they spent a few $1000 could they get a better deal? The dealer explained to them that those GA's were consignment books and that the prices were already very good on them (which they were, had I have had several hundred to spend I would have bought some) and that his show season was not over (going to NY this weekend). Buddy seemed to get pretty upset about it.

 

Now, before you guys flame me about putting down Buddy I have to explain first that back when I was selling toys I use to encounter this all the time where other dealers would try and come by my stuff because my prices were usually lower than theirs yet they would still want more of a discount or rather the "dealer price".

 

No dealer is under any obligation to reduce their price for another dealer and for a dealer to get pissy about this, that's their problem.

 

When I sold toys often times dealers would buy stuff from my table before the show/con even started and then mark it up and put it on their table!

 

On top of this, Lone Star did not have a single back issue for sale at this show. Instead they set up computers so you can browse their online inventory and purchase them that way... DOESN'T THAT DEFEAT THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF GOING TO A SHOW? Don't you want to be able to see the book in hand and barter for said book?

 

By the end of the show on Sunday, Buddy and Weasel were still going around to dealers trying to buy up as much as they could. I mentioned to one guy that he had just "sold to the enemy" and he said to me, "I don't mind selling to the big guys because if they can do better with the books than I can then let them."

 

Isn't that kinda sad?

 

Oh well...

[FlyingDonut]

Chuck and I had an extremely nice conversation for about 20 minutes at the LCS about market trends and how eBay has hurt a lot of different collectible markets. (As many of you know I use to sell old toys)

 

Can you go into this more?

[DiceX]

Now... the person I do have a problem with is.... Buddy Saunders (for those who don't know he is the owner of Lone Star Comics and www.mycomicshop.com)

 

Buddy was probably doing more buying in the room than anyone that attended. He is not generally very polite to other dealers or other dealers customers and his weasel-ly side kick (the name slips me) acts just as bad, if not worse than he does.

 

You hit the nail on the head.

In a room that had no shortage of *spoon*, these two guys were the king *spoon*.

I'd rather eat a book than to sell it to these guys.

 

Chuck is tolerable. He at least has a place in the history of comics.

Hell, the entertainment value alone is worth putting up with him.

He's built a comic empire and is very enthusiastic about the hobby.

 

The mycomicshop guys are about as bad as comic dealers get, IMO.