One Man Comic Business 9 9

[Vikingreed]

"or tries to rob or murder you"

 

Yikes!

Pretty sure I'd find a different job, haha.

[ft88]

Honestly, I think the drive is more dangerous than the visit.

[revat]

Honestly, I think the drive is more dangerous than the visit.

 

I watched the Wire, and my cousin just moved out of B'more.

 

Obviously the odds of something happening is pretty low if you take precautions, BUT the more strangers you meet on craigslist (or other public ads) to buy or sell, the higher the odds get. When you're dealing with high value tangible goods and cash, high value means high value target.

Not something to lose sleep over, but certainly one of many considerations, especially if you have family to take care of and/or protect.

 

On a related note, how in the world are both McNulty AND Stringer Bell BOTH British?!!!!

 

 

[MediumLover]

Honestly, I think the drive is more dangerous than the visit.

 

I watched the Wire, and my cousin just moved out of B'more.

 

Obviously the odds of something happening is pretty low if you take precautions, BUT the more strangers you meet on craigslist (or other public ads) to buy or sell, the higher the odds get. When you're dealing with high value tangible goods and cash, high value means high value target.

Not something to lose sleep over, but certainly one of many considerations, especially if you have family to take care of and/or protect.

 

On a related note, how in the world are both McNulty AND Stringer Bell BOTH British?!!!!

 

 

Great acting.

[ft88]

Pricing:

 

This is a little tedious but really pretty simple. For low dollar books $1-$20 it's basically an ebay check. I tend to go to Completed items so I get a feel for asking as well as Sold items. If I just go to Sold Items the prices tend to be low. Ebay is an open free marketplace but there is serious discounting for overgrading and other shenanigan risk. For CGC books or higher dollar books I check out GPA, ebay and Comiclink. Pretty simple. I tend to give the fees I save selling here to the buyer, but not always.

 

I try to price them to sell, yet still maximize price. Here's a lesson I've learned that is valid on ebay but more so here on the boards. One of the reasons prices for comics, or any other collectibles, are high and go higher is the idea that we can resell the book for the same or similar amount. 10 years ago an Amazing Fantasy 15 CGC 2.0 was a $2000 book. Demand increases have driven the price upwards of $5000, giving the comforting idea that we can resell the book if we needed to. This allows even tight budgets to buy books like this.

 

Yeah, yeah, I'll never sell. I'll take it to my grave. OK, and that does restrict supply but for any new buyer, or for any dealer, the going rate is important. This is why downward moves in collectibles markets are so damaging. Once it starts the image of resale value gets popped and all of a sudden your grail starts to look like a stone.

 

This aspect has to do with successful and not so successful sales threads. If you price in demand books at 25% going rate you'll basically sell out. No matter what, to sell books, the books have to be in demand. I key point is that once buyers hop onto a sales thread, others on the fence see that the market and pricing is legit and hop on board too. Sort of "hey, if others are buying and I sort of want/need it I'll pick it, and others up as well." When its crickets, the fence sitters stay away.

 

I know when I look at an ebayers active inventory and he doesn't have a single bid, I immediately think his prices are too high or some other flag I'm missing. If 9 out of 10 items has 3 or more bids, I think I better get in on the action. And its not just auction fever, it's that I know there's demand for the book.

 

I also agree that listing multiple books (unless its a true key) is important to drive that activity. One technique I do use is to price a semi key where I know it will get snapped up immediately. Call it an ice breaker.

 

Unsuccessfull sales thread where prices were inline with ebay.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=370503&Number=8401167#Post8401167

 

Pretty successful thread, same deal on pricing

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=371030&Number=8413066#Post8413066

 

Bottom line, with comics I have no interest in keeping, I look to price to sell. Rarely do I regret selling a comic even at a discount. Even with the AF 15's or Hulk 1 I sold 10 years ago, no big deal - prices go up. I was investing in the stock market from 1998-2001 and beyond, markets move, you buy and sell at going rate and leave emotion at the door. The ones that stick with me are when I got lazy or didn't do my research. Sold an Avengers Perez Splash page and I simply didn't realize that even 6 month old prices were really stale. Sold a run of BA Green Lantern and Flash for maybe $2 each that I should have broken out and sold individually for twice that or more. I didn't realize there was a market for those books at the time.

 

Again though, we all have our missed boggey's and that's what gives us valuable experience.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2015 by ft88

[HouseofComics.Com]

Good post. I saw this recently on the boards where someone listed a Marvel Premiere 15 for way too cheap and it clearly flipped the switch on for people who then were hanging on his every post. None of the books that followed were deals like that one, but he had nice stuff and I ended up joining in and buying some and paying attention to his small but multiday thread.

[ft88]

Here is my sales challenge.

 

[Vikingreed]

Wow.

 

Has to be a ton of fun going through them.

I know it is a burden as well, but comics, man. COMICS!!

[HouseofComics.Com]

I sometimes go four high with something smaller and lighter on top of that like we see here. But I prefer three high for some reason.

 

Shin has this great system where he does these blocks four side by side one way, then four on top of those going the other way and so on, which is a lot more stable and load-bearing. He goes five high and it's pretty efficient. Harder to get at a specific box that way than the way pictured though.

[ft88]

So far 13 boxes claimed/sold. There are about 90 in all.

[ft88]

Sold another 5. I started working on sorting these out and while it isn't total randomness there are a lot of boxes that only have one or two books to a title. I started taking out the FF, Caps, any Superman title etc thinking it would be an easier sale and of more interest to someone who only wanted one character. That really strated to become cumbersome as I don't have a warehouse or full basement to work in.

 

Posted here to sell them for various prices from $80 to $120 depending on the quality of the titles. Even as that worked a bit, Media mail on a long box at 45 lbs is $23.50. That's a lot. Posted them on Craigslist and I have had excellent response. Quite a number of local dealers who need cheap stock. Most of them have very general wants. Discounts for sure but so far its been to make sure I have Marvel and DC not interested in i dependents. Makes sense, although there are plenty of indy books that are good. I've made it pretty clear that the good comes with the bad and discounts only happen with 5 or more boxes bought.

 

So I've stopped sorting. Simply too much work and not the kind I enjoy. I'll pull Amazing Spiderman, or Uncanny Xmen and I'll make a Batman or Superman box with some of the runs; which I plan to sell later and for a bit more than $100. I'm sure there are plenty of runs or semi keys I'm letting go but this is the way I'm working it. Then I can focus on the bronze and silver, though even there I plan on lotting those out.

[MyNameIsLegion]

It's s fun problem to have, but it does borderline on work! I give all 50 cent books to my brother so he can schlep them around at local shows. Now I just need to convince Weird Paper to ditch the dollar books too and free up more space. I'd take that sweet stack of TOS you have and set fire to the rest!

 

If the Indy boxes had more Eclipse and Pacific, and not Image and Valiant. I might have been tempted though.....

[Chip Cataldo]

I hadn't checked in here in a while. Great great stuff, Ed. Congrats on that monster purchase! I would have crapped myself, for sure. Let me know if you want to dump a couple of long boxes my way. I can always use comics.

[ft88]

Haven't updated this in a while.

 

So it's been sales mode and I've learned quite a bit about selling in bulk and modern books.

 

A related story though. I have learned to stick to my knitting and only buy what I know. I still violate that and buy stuff in addition to comics but its usually taking a chance at low dollar amounts. I've bought lead soldiers and a 1930s monopoly game for $100 and sold them for $60. I've bought wrestling cards for $30 them for $300. Hot Wheels and Fisher Price items that were more work then it was worth. Batman statues for $600 that sold for $1000 which seems great but again a lot of work.

 

So back to bulk moderns (by moderns I mean late 1980s to late 1990s) I really don't know them very well other than the very high dollar and obvious books. Or books that I had sold in the last year or so. Venom Protector 1 is a $5 book. Suicide Squad is about to be a movie, who know DC's Legends would ever be worth a damn?

 

With storage is a continuous cost that I simply can't abide. Even dealing with the comics they take over space. Not to mention time. So the first lesson is to be patient. Going through 90 long boxes that are only in marginal order and some not at all takes 20 hours of continuous work. I couldn't help but sell books while going through them. Which is not smart. Guy buys 5 long boxes that I had gone through but not looked up, who knows what was in there? That said, I'm not sure I'd buy them back if you get where I'm coming from.

 

Other responses to Craigslist ad brings out many folks only looking for keys when I am selling bulk. I don't want to be rude and I like dealing in comics so I allow them to come by and browse. Sold a decent ASM 238 that way, and so it goes.

 

Big mistake was meeting a person at the storage unit. Sure he bought some items but again he was looking to flip some easy key books and not buy the bulk. I have no problem with that, but the problem was he know knows the storage unit and basically what's in it. Certainly I don't have the higher dollar items there but it isn't much to have stuff stolen out of a storage unit and that would not make me happy. So to relieve my worry I took about 10 of the more valuable longs out of the storage unit.

 

And thus it is taking up other space at home. So be it though, it's also easier to organize those and eventually list them for sale. Eventually.

 

Other thing I've done is basic organizing without total organizing. For me the time vs maximizing sales is to organize by character and sell them that way. Also by title but only the better titles or completed runs. I've done OK selling lots of 25 or 60 for $15 or $30 on ebay. Which is better than selling a long box of 250 for $80. And I need to go through them anyway so I can check for keys or egregious duplication.

 

Learned about copper and modern keys. Miracleman by Moore I can't wait to read. V for Vendetta I plan to read again. I didn't know about Thor 411 412 or Xmen 4 and 5. Xfactor 15 24. XForce 19. Spiderman in the late 400's are good. Found out about Sleepwalker 1 and Darkhawk 1. So good stuff all around.

 

My incorrect first impression was that I'd have to practically give these books away. Since they hadn't been picked there were some nice keys and nice runs. Even bulk common books can sell. $20 for 25 Flash or Superman, $30 for 60 random Spiderman or Xmen. In the end I will have to "give" away some books. I think the storage unit I can lose in 6 months so that's not too too bad. And then focus on the BA and SA books which I enjoy dealing in more. Funny though a VG TTA might get $3 while a NM Avengers from the 1980s can get the same. The trick is the $3 to $10 books. They really require attention to detail with scans and grading. I've mentioned that before but its really staring me in the face. 100 books can take hours to post properly. But bulk selling those might get $1 a book.

[mplanger]

When I bought a similar collection I learned a lot about copper and modern keys as well. You can make a good dollar picking these up cheap when you know what to look for.

 

But I have no idea on X-Force 19. Educate?

[ft88]

1st Copycat? Who knows, some movie or something, but $5 to $10 each.

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Modern-Age-1992Now-/900/i.html?_from=R40|R40|R40|R40&_nkw=1st+copy+cat&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=900&LH_Sold=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=1&_sop=1&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&LH_Complete=1

[manetteska]

A few other random copper books to pull while rifling through longboxes:

 

X-Factor 19, 23

X-Force 2, 11

Silver Surfer 34, 35, 44

VALIANTs

[ft88]

Thank you, the X-Force 2 and 11 I knew about, I pulled all the Surfers, not just the keys but I figured those Thanos books were good. Issue 50 sells pretty well on its own too. There was also a really nice near complete run of Surfers as well as dups. I just started pulling the X-Factor 23's, forgot about the cameo.

 

Arguably I could have should have organized first then started to sell. It would have been much more efficient but my impatience gets the best of me. Should I take a full month to organize (by publisher, by character, by bulk, then by good titles and on and on) or simply offer up stuff for sale and see what hits. I chose the later as I simply wasn't educated enough on moderns to know what would sell and what wouldn't. There was probably a long box of Ghost Riders that I thought were bulk blowout books but I have had multiple sales of 25 Ghost Rider books for $12-$15. But I was glad to sell 5 long boxes or random Marvels for $450 locally. No muss no fuss. Same with the Fantastic Fours. Simply thought demand was dead but a box of 25 will sell for $15 it seems.

 

Its nice over the past few weeks a dozen or two boxes of 25 comics and 9 or 10 boxes or 60 comics have put a dent in the bulk comics.

 

It is funny no matter what I do though, there's a feeling of sellers remorse. Oh, what key did I miss that went into that box? But I will be glad to have them "gone". In the end my business model is to throughput the inventory as quickly as reasonably possible, especially the items I get no joy from as a collector. And by throughput I mean volume, not cash flow. I can imagine this being a different operation if I had borrowed money to make this purchase, or if it was bigger. I think it did help that I sold an AF 15 right near the time of the purchase so that arguably was a huge comic cash flow in and could justify selling bulk even for low dollar amounts.

 

Just listed the Valiants as a bulk lot sale here on the boards, we'll see how it goes.

[ft88]

A further update on this latest collection. Still have about 55 long boxes, so just over half. Good part is, there's only 15 long of schwag, the rest are pretty good runs of things like Wolverine, Mew Mutants, GI Joe, Superman Xmen Batman etc.

 

A couple methods I've used to sell bulk and I rate them on a scale of 1-10.

 

Craigslist 7/10: It's going to be hit or miss but to sell in bulk this worked pretty well. Sold a dozen better long boxes for $90 each. Sold another 10 below average long boxes for $60 each. I only had to field a few no shows or emails chains that led to nothing. I was close to a guy who wanted to buy the remaining 30 long boxes of common stuff for $50 each. He simply wanted them for $40 each and I stayed the course. The ease of that would have been nice but this was before I started moving them on ebay.

 

Ebay 8/10: Simply put, ebay just has so many eyeballs. My method here was to sell them in lots of 25 or 60 by character. It was and still is very effective. 25 were priced at $15 to $24 and lots of 60 were $30-$40 w free postage. I was shocked at the variety of selling. It wasn't just Spiderman or Batman that sold. New Warriors sold, Sleepwalker sold, FF, a few lots of Daredevil, Firestorm etc etc. A 25 lot of TMNT sold for $50. This is all without scans or pictures, just the one generic pic shown in this thread. Sure these are netting me 35-40 cents each after fees and postage but I've seen similar long boxes at shows selling 3 for $1. A number of times, one buyer would pick up 4 or 5 lots which pushed the net to 50 cents a book. The downside is that it is slow going and the hit rate is maybe 3/20 per week on ebay listings. That can eat up the free listings but if I had a monthly subscription it wouldn't be a big deal. And it takes 10 buys to sell a long box, that takes a while.

 

CGC boards 6/10: Generic stuff is slow going. Board members want a good deal just like any of the methods. But because communication is so easy buyers send tons of PM which have to be answered and answered well. A few long boxes sold here but higher end. Uncanny Xmen, Amazing Spiderman. 3 long boxes of specific runs of DC, Some runs of Silver Surfer, etc. Basically folks here on the boards will pay for good stuff but want to know what's in it. I think I sold only 2 long boxes for generics for $80 each shipped.

 

 

[ft88]

That's really it so far. The overwhelming-ness has gone away a bit. The trick is to spend the time organizing the books. As these were mixed to a large degree the easiest thing to do was make categories and start putting them in long boxes. All Spiderman and related. All Xmen and related. All Batman and related and on and on. As I went through I could pull the keys. And if I missed a key I could find it later. If I missed a key and shipped it in a lot, no big deal either. Then break out the Spidermans. All the Venoms, Web of, PPSS, Amazing, extras etc. At that point when I sell a 25 box of random Spidermans I can select the issues where there are 9 copies.

 

Again its a little bit of work and I'm not done yet but so far so good.

 

Try to wind down the experiences on this one deal. But I do thing there are a number of folks who have just a ton of comics and don't know how to sell them. Basically give up or wait until they have to sell all. Then get pennies on the dollar. I know when I come across a 20+ box of 1980s on up, my first thought is simply, no.