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Weird/Unpleasant Comic Shop Experience

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This is fun. Im the owner of the shop in question. Its AngryComics in Faeyetteville, NC

 

Before i begin my responses......did anyone look up an ASM 121 marvel legends variant on ebay before they blasted my ?

 

:)

 

I've blasted no asses here, :blush: but is this the comic in question:

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=spiderman+121+legends&_sop=16&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=1&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xspiderman+121+marvel+legends.TRS0&_nkw=spiderman+121+marvel+legends&_sacat=1

 

So, is about $20 the correct answer?

 

(shrug)

When im selling comics, i focus more on available copies for sale more than completed sales. Completed sales are a good resource that i do use, but im not selling books in the past.

 

:facepalm: So? The listing comics at vastly over-inflated prices on eBay aren't selling books ever!

 

although admittedly there are some people for whom their comic enthusiasm is not matched by their social and business acumen, or so I've heard.

Really? hm

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Is the moral of the story, then, to only deal with one customer at a time?

 

If I come up to the counter with three books, I want three books. I would've been equally baffled that a discount only applies if I take a book out. On the other hand, if I know I'm already getting a deal on a book, I'm buying it and getting the heck out of Dodge, instead of muddying the waters by asking for a further discount.

 

(shrug)

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This is fun. Im the owner of the shop in question. Its AngryComics in Faeyetteville, NC

 

Before i begin my responses......did anyone look up an ASM 121 marvel legends variant on ebay before they blasted my ?

 

:)

 

I've blasted no asses here, :blush: but is this the comic in question:

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=spiderman+121+legends&_sop=16&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=1&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xspiderman+121+marvel+legends.TRS0&_nkw=spiderman+121+marvel+legends&_sacat=1

 

So, is about $20 the correct answer?

 

(shrug)

When im selling comics, i focus more on available copies for sale more than completed sales. Completed sales are a good resource that i do use, but im not selling books in the past.

 

Please tell me this is not an excuse for disregarding actual sales data just because the outcome was too low.

Absolutely not. Sales data is important but certainly not the end of the story. Books fluctuate quickly. I try to be competitive to what others are selling books for currently.

 

 

Fair enough.

The only problem with "what others are selling books for currently" is that it only captures asking price. Are the books actually selling at those prices? That's the proof in the pudding. Let's face it, we've all seen wildly over priced stuff on ebay that just sits, and sits, and sits.

O, absolutely. Heres the thing tho. At our last inventory we had over 375,000 comics. Some of them are going to sit for long periods of time and i have to be ok with that.

 

Ideally what i want is if someone is actively looking for a book they can look at ebay and various other dealers for books in similar shape that are currently for sale and my price is competitive with those numbers.

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Is the moral of the story, then, to only deal with one customer at a time?

 

If I come up to the counter with three books, I want three books. I would've been equally baffled that a discount only applies if I take a book out. On the other hand, if I know I'm already getting a deal on a book, I'm buying it and getting the heck out of Dodge, instead of muddying the waters by asking for a further discount.

 

(shrug)

Exactly. I had someone else running the register. If Chaseman had just walked up and paid i would have never even been involved. Even if the books had been out of normal inventory, Amanda could have handled a small discount on those. But these were out of our show stock which is the only reason i was called over.
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Today I went to some comic shops about an hour from where I live in NC. At one (I won't name the shop unless you want to know via PM), they didn't really have any current issues. There were only boxes full of older comics (SA, etc.) in Mylite2s. I thought it was pretty cool. Even some semi-key issues were still in the boxes to look through. They were all priced a little above eBay prices with some cool wall books as well (ASM #5, #41, #129, X-Men #1 just to name a few).

 

So after looking around the shop, I picked out a poor copy of ASM #29 they had priced at $20. The cover was loose, there was a stain on the front cover. On top of that, I picked out an ASM #72, which was around the 4-5.0 range, priced at $22. Lastly, I found a copy of the Alex Ross ASM #121 Not For Resale cover, which was priced at $12.

 

I walked to the woman at the counter and asked if there was any room to work on the three. She said she could probably do $50 but needed to talk to the owner. He was a younger looking guy (35 or so), who then proceeded to look up prices on his phone in front of me. I stood there and waited for about five minutes. He said he would sell me the #29 and #72 for $35 and the Alex Ross for full price. I had in mind to pay $45 based on the condition of the older books so we were only off $2. He walked away and I looked the books over one more time. I asked the woman if that would be $47 total (the $35 plus the $12). Then the guy looks over from about ten feet away and tells me no. His offer was $35 for the older books or FULL PRICE FOR ALL THREE if I bought the Alex Ross cover! I literally said that made no sense to me. I was staying calm, but getting pretty mad inside. He didn't respond, so I put the two older books back and just bought the Ross for $12. What in the world was he doing? Has anybody ever experienced something like that or know his reasoning?

 

The two older books were REALLY beat up, so I don't know why he would choose to let two more sales go. I'll never go back to that store.

 

rantrant

 

In any event, i would like to apologize to you chaseman. I am sorry that you had an unpleasant experience at my store. I felt i was being lowballed on key/underpriced books and made a decision that you didnt like. I hope you make your way back to my store but if you do not, good luck in your comic hunting.

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if the buyer told you he was a CGC forum member, would you have been more likely to throw a discount his way?

 

Do you have any signage inside your store that mentions this forum? I'm sure it wouldn't have hurt business to let that be known.

 

hm it probably wouldnt have affected the pricing, but i would most likely had a longer dialog and conveyed my thought process to him.

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On a related note, do LCS owners get upset when customers look up the price of books they're selling on Ebay and use that to help them decide if they want to buy it or not?

 

hm

 

 

Not a bit.
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hah, i've never gotten a discount from any of the dealers here when mentioning the boards, not a penny!

 

(of course, i never asked for one, but that's beside the point...)

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I don't see any completed auctions on eBay. But essentially, he lost a $50 sale for $12.

 

He postponed a $50 sale, he'll sell the books eventually.

(thumbs u
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you could have gotten the deal for 47 still-- pay for the older ones first at $35. Sale done - receipt in hand.

 

Then go -- hmm-- think I'll take this book after all (Ross for $12). Pay for it without making a big fuss.

 

The guy was a dork about it but he did leave you with a way to work around his illogical BS.

 

If he had passed on the 121 it would have went back to an in-processing box, not inventory.

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On a related note, do LCS owners get upset when customers look up the price of books they're selling on Ebay and use that to help them decide if they want to buy it or not?

 

hm

I would certainly hope not. And I'm sure they expect it.

Yeah, and I've seen LCS owners look up unmarked books when I bring them to the counter and so I expect it too.

 

 

 

 

....She said she could probably do $50 but needed to talk to the owner. He was a younger looking guy (35 or so), who then proceeded to look up prices on his phone in front of me. I stood there and waited for about five minutes. He said he would sell me the #29 and #72 for $35 and the Alex Ross for full price. I had in mind to pay $45 based on the condition of the older books so we were only off $2. He walked away and I looked the books over one more time. I asked the woman if that would be $47 total (the $35 plus the $12). Then the guy looks over from about ten feet away and tells me no. His offer was $35 for the older books or FULL PRICE FOR ALL THREE if I bought the Alex Ross cover! I literally said that made no sense to me. I was staying calm, but getting pretty mad inside. He didn't respond, so I put the two older books back and just bought the Ross for $12. What in the world was he doing? Has anybody ever experienced something like that or know his reasoning?....

 

Maybe he had just taken a marijuana. hm

 

 

I understand looking up prices (although I didn't), but he already had a set price on the book. I could see if it was unmarked, but it seemed weird to me.

I only look stuff up if the sticker price isnt being paid.
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I have to say that Greens logic seems spot on. If you pay asking, the price is what it is but if you want a group rate, im looking it up. If the 3rd comic was that underpriced, It was pretty brazen asking for an additional discount.

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I don't see any completed auctions on eBay. But essentially, he lost a $50 sale for $12.

 

He postponed a $50 sale, he'll sell the books eventually.

(thumbs u

 

 

I am a fat guy. I am not fat because of hormonal issues, I am fat because I love to eat. There is a bakery near me I had been buying stuff at on occasion when I walked by because that's what fat guys do. Not a great bakery, but it was there.

 

My wife wanted me to pick up a pound of cookies from the bakery as we were having people over or something.

 

The cookies are $6.99 a pound (let's say, I forget exactly). So I go in figuring I'd get 3 or 4 different kinds to make up the pound.

 

I am told that if I mix them it will be $7.99 a pound (despite there not being a pound minimum or anything like that).

 

I tell them that makes no sense blah blah, but they won't budge.

 

I walk out and have not been back in about 8 years.

 

I am sure they sold those cookies to someone. But they lost 8 years (and perhaps many more depending on how long I live/live around there) of a fat guy's impulse buys walking to and from work.

 

Not saying Green was a bad guy or that, once explained, he was even being irrational, but you just can't look at it from a single transaction perspective.

 

I have more stories, mostly restaurants. If I get irritated I never go back to a place. Refuse to let the table have split checks? (Maybe I need a receipt for reimbursement, but can't have three other meals on there?). Never coming back. Tell me and my wife we have to sit at a small table for two even though the place is empty, there are plenty of tables for four, and we have a bunch of shopping bags? I walk out of there never to return. End of story.

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Today I went to some comic shops about an hour from where I live in NC. At one (I won't name the shop unless you want to know via PM), they didn't really have any current issues. There were only boxes full of older comics (SA, etc.) in Mylite2s. I thought it was pretty cool. Even some semi-key issues were still in the boxes to look through. They were all priced a little above eBay prices with some cool wall books as well (ASM #5, #41, #129, X-Men #1 just to name a few).

 

So after looking around the shop, I picked out a poor copy of ASM #29 they had priced at $20. The cover was loose, there was a stain on the front cover. On top of that, I picked out an ASM #72, which was around the 4-5.0 range, priced at $22. Lastly, I found a copy of the Alex Ross ASM #121 Not For Resale cover, which was priced at $12.

 

I walked to the woman at the counter and asked if there was any room to work on the three. She said she could probably do $50 but needed to talk to the owner. He was a younger looking guy (35 or so), who then proceeded to look up prices on his phone in front of me. I stood there and waited for about five minutes. He said he would sell me the #29 and #72 for $35 and the Alex Ross for full price. I had in mind to pay $45 based on the condition of the older books so we were only off $2. He walked away and I looked the books over one more time. I asked the woman if that would be $47 total (the $35 plus the $12). Then the guy looks over from about ten feet away and tells me no. His offer was $35 for the older books or FULL PRICE FOR ALL THREE if I bought the Alex Ross cover! I literally said that made no sense to me. I was staying calm, but getting pretty mad inside. He didn't respond, so I put the two older books back and just bought the Ross for $12. What in the world was he doing? Has anybody ever experienced something like that or know his reasoning?

 

The two older books were REALLY beat up, so I don't know why he would choose to let two more sales go. I'll never go back to that store.

 

rantrant

 

In any event, i would like to apologize to you chaseman. I am sorry that you had an unpleasant experience at my store. I felt i was being lowballed on key/underpriced books and made a decision that you didnt like. I hope you make your way back to my store but if you do not, good luck in your comic hunting.

 

Hey, everyone,

 

I've been away at work all day and just got a chance to get back on.

 

Green, I honestly didn't know what the ASM #121 sells/sold for in the past. I just knew the Alex Ross cover from memory. That was actually the first book I found and knew I wanted when I was going through the boxes. If I knew it was under priced, I wouldn't have said anything. It means a lot that you followed through on a sale.

 

I saw you had two copies of #72, so I picked the cheaper copy and then found the #29 before going to pay. If I would've known the pricing on the #121, I wouldn't have asked if there was room on the books.

 

Thank you for coming on here and explaining your line of thinking with the sale. If I knew that in the store, I would have definitely understood where you were coming from. Also, I know not everybody can offer discounts on books, but it just threw me off when there was a discount on two but then full price with three lol .But I understand if you were busy.

 

It means a lot that you came on here and told your side and apologized. When I posted this, I wasn't trying to bash anybody or any store - I was trying to figure out if anybody knew the reason it would be discounted/full. That's why I didn't list the name of the store or anything like that. I also apologize as well, and I'll definitely stop back by when I'm in town if I'm still welcome :hi:

 

 

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The cookies are $6.99 a pound (let's say, I forget exactly). So I go in figuring I'd get 3 or 4 different kinds to make up the pound.

 

I am told that if I mix them it will be $7.99 a pound (despite there not being a pound minimum or anything like that).

 

I tell them that makes no sense blah blah, but they won't budge.

 

I walk out and have not been back in about 8 years.

Are you sure they didn't have a Pokemon game going on at the time?

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