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One Man Comic Business
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279 posts in this topic

Update. Collection bought. No big book tho. 11 long boxes of pretty decent stuff. Mostly marvel Sa/BA with some keys. Biggest we're iron man 1 55. Avengers 2 6 57. Xmen 7 14 spider man 31. But missing 129 hulk 181 and no xmen 94-159.

 

Unfortunately I had to fly to acquire so they are with family for now.

 

It was a flight to Texas then 4 hour drive pretty much on speculation and no price agreed. Worst case would have been a family visit.

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As I start going through the books I ask how much he is looking for. Maybe bad technique in terms of anchoring price. He says. "I dunno I had a guy look at them and he said 15 to 20".

 

Ummmmm. I ignored that. So went thru books and basically offered 2000. He was shocked. Thought at least 8-9. I asked him if the guy found the 5000 book. He said no but he knew the original collector had bought one for that.

 

Uh huh. So that's some story time bull spit. I talk him down to 3800 in classic haggle negotiation - back and forth.

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My weakness in terms of the negotiation was I didn't want to walk on the deal. His was that they were moving. And wanted to clear it out. I'm certain I could have paid much less but still a fair deal.

 

Real nice avengers 57-100 run. 2 longs of tos and iron man. Asm 155-200 nice Thor 131-150.

Even copper. Secret wars 1-12 infinity war 1-6. Some #1s like 2 copies deadpool. Then the usual bronze. Nova warlock ms marvel dr strange defenders etc. Some high grade some not.

 

Funny to fly off immediately after the deal. I don't even get to rummage through them all night. Missing all the fun.

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As I start going through the books I ask how much he is looking for. Maybe bad technique in terms of anchoring price. He says. "I dunno I had a guy look at them and he said 15 to 20".

 

Ummmmm. I ignored that. So went thru books and basically offered 2000. He was shocked. Thought at least 8-9. I asked him if the guy found the 5000 book. He said no but he knew the original collector had bought one for that.

 

Uh huh. So that's some story time bull spit. I talk him down to 3800 in classic haggle negotiation - back and forth.

 

It's so funny because you hear this from every single person. "Yeah one of them I looked up and it's worth $1000 but I can't remember which one it is." Oh really, you didn't think to put that one to the side?

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Only one fairly soft opportunity and as time goes by with no further contact, it seems to be getting softer.  Guy has 15 long boxes of 1970s to 1990s which could be rock solid if it's high grade and hasn't been picked through.  Could also be true clearance if it has. 

But then he says that he's waiting for books to get back from grading.   ????? 

I go back to an earlier entry where I describe the (classic business consultant) four square box where I'd rather have a knowledgeable seller with quality and quantity than anything else. 

Anyway, he describes some ultra high grade TMNT and Cerebus as well as Wolverine and a few others.  Plus lots of runs etc etc.  So this seems like the real deal and a multi thousand dollar collection even though its later period. 

So we'll see where it goes, I may be 1 of 5 that's he's calling on to get different offers.  He seems to know what he's doing without being a jerk about it.  And good on him.  Not sure if I'll even get to the point of viewing the collection, let alone making an offer. 

Assume I get there, this one is hard to determine who should offer first.  Again, classic negotiations says I should, but if he's done his homework, it may be better to get a number from him first.  Things to consider.

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Follow up on the TMNT Cerebus collection.  Gentleman did get an offer from someone else first which was declined. So looks like I'll be second guy in with an offer.  Maybe I won't be able to even match the rejected offer and will walk.  Or may buy everything. 

Another collection, guy has great books - Avengers 1 4, Brave Bold 28-35, Showcase 22-30, GL 1,  TOS 39, DD 1, ASM 3 4 more, and even some Golden age Actions and Supermans.  But nearly all are Fair to Good with only a few better.  Nice collection of a 1000+ original owner books,  mostly 1960-1965 with some serious keys and good non keys as well, just all low grade.  He wants $80,000 which I'm not even close to.  So I gave him a reasonable offer and had to talk him down from his estimate.  I could tell he was disappointed and I really worried that he thought I was lowballing.    He now has 2 or 3 other folks coming to look at the books. I'm actually fine with my offer too, it is easy to actually lowball in order to protect from interior and grading issues that are missed when reviewing a 1000+ books.

No matter the situation, it is always tough when multiple parties are making offers but, hey, good on the buyer as I've mentioned.  But in these situations I'd almost always rather be second man in.  Even if all you do is match the offer (which you don't know is legit or not).  There you are with the cash in hand and between the two of you buyers, you'll nearly always be selected.

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Yeah, its a cool way for me to get into comics I wouldn't otherwise buy.  Then I learn about what makes them valuable or whatever.  Plus random stuff shows up like convention paraphernalia or underground comics etc.  Really neat to learn about and hopefully profit too. 

 

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Promo warning:  I am getting bogged down in nice Copper and early 1990s stuff that doesn't seem to sell here or online.  The drek I've sold off or "given" away but the decent stuff I can't seem to do that.  That said, If anyone is interested in picking 4 or 5 long boxes of pretty decent books, feel free to reach out. 

Batman and Detective, Spiderman, Venom, Hobgoblin, Death of Superman related, plus late 1970s mid grades - Peter Parker, Captain America, Avengers etc.  Good 1980s books of Avengers, DD, Iron Man. 

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Local used book store had 10 small boxes of unsearched books. Had been there about a day. Owner said wife brought them in and simply dropped them off for free. As they didn't want to move them. Basically paid 50 a box for them. Here's the better 3 boxes. Lots of xmen and all related titles good and bad. 

No Batman or Spider-Man  even tho there was some D.C.  

complete

new mutants 1-100

xmen 250-350

elfquest

warlocks thanos titles

xforce cable xmen 1-80s

wolverine 30-130

various limited series

then the more drekky alpha flight xman Mcp Xfactor Excalibur etc  

IMG_5055.thumb.JPG.b49e42e07ef7ccb253c8b59e08d73fc3.JPGIMG_5056.thumb.JPG.a7e785d64921d589013b9f4139bba128.JPGIMG_5058.thumb.JPG.53e478de9b31d812c18f0cf12997c7b7.JPG

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$50 a short box, not much of a steal. Oh wait, NM87 AND NM98? SCORE! Oh wait, X-Factor 5, 6, X-Men Annual 14...ding ding ding.

good buy. One like this would keep me busy for a while, all the time happily plugging away.

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13 hours ago, ft88 said:

Local used book store had 10 small boxes of unsearched books. Had been there about a day. Owner said wife brought them in and simply dropped them off for free. As they didn't want to move them. Basically paid 50 a box for them. Here's the better 3 boxes. Lots of xmen and all related titles good and bad. 

No Batman or Spider-Man  even tho there was some D.C.  

complete

new mutants 1-100

xmen 250-350

elfquest

warlocks thanos titles

xforce cable xmen 1-80s

wolverine 30-130

various limited series

then the more drekky alpha flight xman Mcp Xfactor Excalibur etc  

IMG_5055.thumb.JPG.b49e42e07ef7ccb253c8b59e08d73fc3.JPGIMG_5056.thumb.JPG.a7e785d64921d589013b9f4139bba128.JPGIMG_5058.thumb.JPG.53e478de9b31d812c18f0cf12997c7b7.JPG

^^

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On March 1, 2017 at 10:03 AM, ft88 said:

Follow up on the TMNT Cerebus collection.  Gentleman did get an offer from someone else first which was declined. So looks like I'll be second guy in with an offer.  Maybe I won't be able to even match the rejected offer and will walk.  Or may buy everything. 

Another collection, guy has great books - Avengers 1 4, Brave Bold 28-35, Showcase 22-30, GL 1,  TOS 39, DD 1, ASM 3 4 more, and even some Golden age Actions and Supermans.  But nearly all are Fair to Good with only a few better.  Nice collection of a 1000+ original owner books,  mostly 1960-1965 with some serious keys and good non keys as well, just all low grade.  He wants $80,000 which I'm not even close to.  So I gave him a reasonable offer and had to talk him down from his estimate.  I could tell he was disappointed and I really worried that he thought I was lowballing.    He now has 2 or 3 other folks coming to look at the books. I'm actually fine with my offer too, it is easy to actually lowball in order to protect from interior and grading issues that are missed when reviewing a 1000+ books.

No matter the situation, it is always tough when multiple parties are making offers but, hey, good on the buyer as I've mentioned.  But in these situations I'd almost always rather be second man in.  Even if all you do is match the offer (which you don't know is legit or not).  There you are with the cash in hand and between the two of you buyers, you'll nearly always be selected.

What happened w/ the SA collection?

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In light of the changes to Photobucket and my grudging use of them over the past decade I'm giving Postimage a try.

So far it is a clear winner but have yet to run into bugs or usage issues.  I'm skeptical given how easy it is to use.  But so far it's a great changeover. 

The usual pain of organizing and uploading 2000+ mages but if it works I'll be glad to kiss off Pbucket.

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15 hours ago, ft88 said:

In light of the changes to Photobucket and my grudging use of them over the past decade I'm giving Postimage a try.

So far it is a clear winner but have yet to run into bugs or usage issues.  I'm skeptical given how easy it is to use.  But so far it's a great changeover. 

The usual pain of organizing and uploading 2000+ mages but if it works I'll be glad to kiss off Pbucket.

Been using postimg for a year. Easy and up all the time so far. 

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Update: 

SA books were sold to another buyer.  Seller didn't ask me for a counter offer, never understand when that happens.

Other collection of Turtles and Cerebus collection we just aren't close on price.  He says he's working with Heritage.  Uh, yeah right.  He will only sell the entire collection as a whole, but he wants ebay type prices - maybe 20% less.  Not unreasonable to be honest but I wish him well.  I don't think Heritage is going to want to deal with 10 long boxes half of which is drek. 

OK - new collection just bought.  1000 late 70s DC Marvel Charlton Horror and some Western.  Plus weirdly a Conan 1 and a 50s horror book which is cool. 

This is going to be a flip and turn hopefully within a month.  About 800 I'll sell in lots which always makes me think about the selling process.  I'm betting a store, cons, or time spent selling individually a la mycomicshop.com might double the price.  Back of the napkin I'd venture that the profit margin is likely the same given all the costs associated with getting a higher dollar per book.  I'm intrigued by the mycomicshop model though.  They seem to get pretty good $$ per book even for common midgrade stuff.  I imagine they can become the goto spot on ebay or direct if you need a bunch of holes filled.  And why not just spend the $3 per book when its' convenient rather than the $1 per book for 8 different folks. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the sales thread which I should get up shortly.  I'll look to blow out the bulk and then price to market the higher dollar high grade issues.

It was a really nice grading lot considering it was OO.  Probably worth about $2000, and I can only imagine what it could have been if strong titles of DC or Marvel. 

Best book is All Star Western 11, HOM 265, a few Wrightson issues.  Mostly its simply seeing a bunch of the 25 to 30 centers in NM- to NM with great cover art. 

 

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