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ft88's Journal

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One Man Comic Business

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ft88

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You too can start a comic business!

Basic Journal to note my experiences buying and selling comics. Your mileage may vary if you replicate or emulate any of my experiences. But the enjoyment I've gotten out of this hobby and how I've approached it is something I thought I'd share.

First, a little background. I collected back issues in the mid 1980s mostly in the Boston area spending my paper route money on 1960s Spidermans and 1970s Xmen. I won't bore you with those details but formative years are formative years. Kept my books through college and an 8 year stint in the Army and then went to grad school. I now work in finance making a comfortable living supporting a wife and 4 young girls.

While in business school I wanted to apply what I was learning to buying and selling comics. I did do this with comics and baseball cards in the 1980s by renting a flea market table and setting up my wares. Fun stuff but I remember it being more work than profit. So basically I put the word out that I was buying collections and received a couple of calls. Indeed, bought a couple of nice collections - mostly 1970s. Date was around 2001 to give you an idea of where the market was. CGC was still new but basically established. Ebay was all guns blazing and I had a year or two of ebay experience buying and selling.

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What do you pay for flats nowaday? (Which I assume is one side of a cardboard sandwhich). i cut my own as we order a lot of boxes, but I I dread doing it as I do it out on my porch and it is cold right now.

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My last order I got 100 12x9x3 boxes and 25 12x9x6 boxes as well as 200 flats for $50.  So probably 5 cents each.

Look up a local corrugated company and buy from them, so much easier - you'll never look back. 

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5 hours ago, ft88 said:

My last order I got 100 12x9x3 boxes and 25 12x9x6 boxes as well as 200 flats for $50.  So probably 5 cents each.

Look up a local corrugated company and buy from them, so much easier - you'll never look back. 

thats pretty good, gemini mailers has a package of 100 mailers + 200 divider pads for $85. I use them a lot.

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On 3/21/2020 at 6:55 PM, ft88 said:

Collection in today. Maybe not the best time to buy high end books but I don’t come across books like this too often. 
 

E3D9A4D2-DFA7-477D-A019-60EA1C3CAEBE.thumb.jpeg.fa6399eec99a0bf032c4a3a4d0ce98a8.jpeg84806BFE-391A-4882-85AF-3131B7DF85B9.thumb.jpeg.f59234bf2e058ec837fc7fd837db1b00.jpeg61CDA81F-D6ED-4450-B650-F511BF62D601.thumb.jpeg.eac164007f10a663738da7ee0ed861e1.jpegF5927D22-1C20-4C40-B64D-9F5DD4CC0B0B.thumb.jpeg.ae8249244a0cdbc55287e7d1260979dc.jpeg35BD8DBB-420E-4186-92E0-EA33A024D3DB.thumb.jpeg.015795b2b43b014d47aa78101cecd827.jpeg

It seems that if you dilly dallied in selling them you might have done really well, just not flipping them in april. 

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Is you website the xcollectibles in your profile? I don't see anything for sale, just an ad to buy comics? That seems like pretty expensive at $500/mo. How are you ever going to become blazing bob and retire from your day job if you don't list stuff there?:baiting: also, it looks like someone else got that name on facebook and other places?

 

Edited by the blob
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Back in March 2021 the world seemed to be coming to an end.  If you recall, some real high end books were sold on the boards.  A Marvel Comics coverless for $10k I remember.  Was shocked that quality books didn't even see a blip down in prices.  Some sold but others didn't so there you go.  

Hey, I have the website, they can have the Facebook.  I've tried selling there and had zero luck, but I didn't try real hard either.  

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1 hour ago, ft88 said:

Back in March 2021 the world seemed to be coming to an end.  If you recall, some real high end books were sold on the boards.  A Marvel Comics coverless for $10k I remember.  Was shocked that quality books didn't even see a blip down in prices.  Some sold but others didn't so there you go.  

Hey, I have the website, they can have the Facebook.  I've tried selling there and had zero luck, but I didn't try real hard either.  

But you're not spending a ton of money maintain a buying advertisement, i hope? I guess it is something you need to have a huge inventory and a lot of high end stuff to be effective with? 

 

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Got call for a Batman number one.
he said his grandfather gave it to him  and that he had other comics from the 40s that he gave away a long time ago  

They sent me a scan. And it’s the treasury reprint. It always is. 
55B3BC5D-AC2B-4829-AC0B-96AA0B2297F4.thumb.jpeg.ae467c1f90b0badba3db9a882454381a.jpeg

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46 minutes ago, ft88 said:

Got call for a Batman number one.
he said his grandfather gave it to him  and that he had other comics from the 40s that he gave away a long time ago  

They sent me a scan. And it’s the treasury reprint. It always is. 
55B3BC5D-AC2B-4829-AC0B-96AA0B2297F4.thumb.jpeg.ae467c1f90b0badba3db9a882454381a.jpeg

Laughing with you, not at you, Ed. "It always is" -- Truer words was never spuck! 

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