Weird/Unpleasant Comic Shop Experience

[revat]

I think in general, when retail stores buy their goods 'new' from distributors, they aren't really willing to 'haggle', as there is their 'needed' profit margins have already been established. But I think its fair to say that when you're selling obviously 'used' goods, whether its comics or antiques, or older comics (even if they were bought new a while ago) and second hand stuff, customers assume that the profits margins are less consistent, and there might be more room to ask for something off.

 

Most educated customers, with any amount of experience, probably feel like LCS only buy 'used' comics and heavy heavy discounts, and rightfully so. And often times they buy them for the few keys involved (which recovers most of if not all of the cost), so most of the rest is just gravy that is taking up space, which they want to move.

 

 

So its worth a question. No harm, no need to be rude about it.

[Meeklo]

Haggling is part of the dealing with many places. You almost have to assume that certain items are priced with the thought that here is some wiggle room on the item. Not everything obviously-- but many.

 

Would you just take whatever price a car dealer had listed without trying to get a better deal? Probably not.

 

Ignore the amount involved and try to get your best price. If they aren't having it-- it is still your choice to buy it or move on.

 

The car dealer on brings up an interesting point. Lately more and more dealerships are taking a "no haggle" stance on their pricing. I know Carmax is extremely famous for this model. They say "no haggle" as in "our prices are already so low, we do not have to haggle" while what they mean is "we will completely ignore you if you try to start haggling". The prices are usually still higher than KBB (the GPA of the used auto world! ) but they will not budge on that pricing.

 

I think that choice to move on is on both sides. Some retailers may be more willing to have you go away than to try to sell you a discounted product. The idea that the consumer holds all the power in negotiations is just not true...and that comes from an economics professor, not from my POV.

[StuporMan]

I might be in the minority here, but I never understood the need to haggle at a retail store. All this drama over $4?

It's a byproduct of the information age. Everyone has a prodigious amount of data at their fingertips. Unfortunately, common sense and etiquette do not always govern its use...

 

 

 

Exactly. Whenever I go to buy comics and I see the seller open his phone and start scrolling through his phone, I walk away. Especially since it's just a snapshot of what the market is like (for stuff that isn't selling) for a particular book...

 

Besides, if I'm going to pay eBay prices, might as well buy from eBay. I don't think dealers realize the irony here.

[sckao]

 

Big Box stores CAN haggle... but it's not called haggling. (Price matching is a way to get lower prices... Free delivery, an additional accessory, etc.) It could also be a promotion/coupon you didn't know existed which could save you some money, etc.

 

All depends on the Salesperson or their manager....

 

(Never really been impressed with Best Buy personally and have had some terrible experiences there...)

 

 

 

 

[Green]

 

Thanks Chase. Youre always welcome to come back.

 

Where the hell have you been??

 

Busy. Like,busy busy.

[Green]

Well, shops getting busy, so i cant really say everything i want.

 

The short version: I was super busy. I was running a pokemon tournament while buying a magic collection while a customer with another collection was waiting patiently. I was called over for a customer whom ive never seen asking for a discount on books in mylar.

 

An aside:

Heres a policy i have : If i have a price on a book, you can buy the book at that price. If an employee or i misprice a book thats on us. If a book jumps and i dont catch it.... well i just didnt catch that one. I will never, ever change a marked price at the register.

 

In the case of these 3 books, i looked them up to see if i had them overpriced or if i could accommodate the discount that was being asked for. The 2 SA spideys were on point. With the discount they would have been the cheapest available copies i could find. However the 121 variant (that i had $12 on) only had 3 listings i could find. $60(VG) $99 and $125.

 

So after doing a little ebay research himself, the OP quickly bought the book. The fact the OP would start a thread in attempt to vilify me is funny since he still got an insane deal. Cant please everyone!

 

SO, i was fine discounting the two SA books but i wasn't willing to throw in the waaaay underpriced book and give a discount.

 

This is better than what many shops seem to do: yank the book when they realize they have underpriced it. Explaining where you were coming from probably would have alleviated the whole thing, but I understand if you're distracted and what not.

 

Weren't/aren't you a contractor? Wasn't I trying to get you to renovate my basement when the economy went into the krapper? :-) Are you doing that and the comic shop? Have you always done the comic shop?

I had been dealing comics on a very small scale since i sold my first business in 2001. Thats when i became a contractor and went into business with my father. I started the shop on the side 4 years ago and it became full time in November 2014.

 

I'm coming into your shop and haggling you over the price of comics.

 

Can't wait.

Bring it on. Double Dare ya.

[Green]

PS. I <3 Green.

 

[seanfingh]

 

Get a room.

[Green]

Hater.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Well, shops getting busy, so i cant really say everything i want.

 

The short version: I was super busy. I was running a pokemon tournament while buying a magic collection while a customer with another collection was waiting patiently. I was called over for a customer whom ive never seen asking for a discount on books in mylar.

 

An aside:

Heres a policy i have : If i have a price on a book, you can buy the book at that price. If an employee or i misprice a book thats on us. If a book jumps and i dont catch it.... well i just didnt catch that one. I will never, ever change a marked price at the register.

 

In the case of these 3 books, i looked them up to see if i had them overpriced or if i could accommodate the discount that was being asked for. The 2 SA spideys were on point. With the discount they would have been the cheapest available copies i could find. However the 121 variant (that i had $12 on) only had 3 listings i could find. $60(VG) $99 and $125.

 

So after doing a little ebay research himself, the OP quickly bought the book. The fact the OP would start a thread in attempt to vilify me is funny since he still got an insane deal. Cant please everyone!

 

SO, i was fine discounting the two SA books but i wasn't willing to throw in the waaaay underpriced book and give a discount.

 

This is better than what many shops seem to do: yank the book when they realize they have underpriced it. Explaining where you were coming from probably would have alleviated the whole thing, but I understand if you're distracted and what not.

 

Weren't/aren't you a contractor? Wasn't I trying to get you to renovate my basement when the economy went into the krapper? :-) Are you doing that and the comic shop? Have you always done the comic shop?

I had been dealing comics on a very small scale since i sold my first business in 2001. Thats when i became a contractor and went into business with my father. I started the shop on the side 4 years ago and it became full time in November 2014.

 

I'm coming into your shop and haggling you over the price of comics.

 

Can't wait.

Bring it on. Double Dare ya.

 

Hulk #377 3rd for $5, here I come!

[the blob]

I might be in the minority here, but I never understood the need to haggle at a retail store. All this drama over $4?

It's a byproduct of the information age. Everyone has a prodigious amount of data at their fingertips. Unfortunately, common sense and etiquette do not always govern its use...

 

 

 

Exactly. Whenever I go to buy comics and I see the seller open his phone and start scrolling through his phone, I walk away. Especially since it's just a snapshot of what the market is like (for stuff that isn't selling) for a particular book...

 

Besides, if I'm going to pay eBay prices, might as well buy from eBay. I don't think dealers realize the irony here.

 

why would you pay the same price for something on ebay and pay shipping and not have the item in hand, in advance, to examine? indeed, if he looks at "ebay prices" (and he should be looking at actual sales prices and factoring in some current "for sale" prices, particularly on a low volume item) and follows them, you will be paying, overall, $4-$7 less, most of the time due to no shipping and get to examine the book in hand.

[kav]

I bought my new car Dec 31. They are super willing to haggle-even to take a loss on this magical day.

[wombat]

I don't understand the thought of haggling for comics at a con, but not in a store. Same books. Same people. Why is one OK and one isn't?

 

And buying used goods is not the same as walking into a retail store. Now I would never try and haggle over a new issue, but I see no reason not to over something older if the price seems high.

[slym2none]

I don't understand the thought of haggling for comics at a con, but not in a store. Same books. Same people. Why is one OK and one isn't?

 

And buying used goods is not the same as walking into a retail store. Now I would never try and haggle over a new issue, but I see no reason not to over something older if the price seems high.

 

When I worked at my LCS, we often had people buying a good number of back issues that would ask "What's the best you can do on these?" and we'd take into consideration many things, like how many books is this customer buying, how much money are they spending, etc. I was authorized to offer up to a 10% discount on back issues, anything more, and I'd have to call/talk to the manager - although when one guy had over $1000 in a good-sized stack of books, I offered 15% without permission and the guy was happy. He might had gotten a bigger discount if he hadn't jumped so fast.

 

IOW, haggling does happen in B&M stores, or at least it used to.

 

 

 

-slym

[TheShadowKnows]

Forget comic shops. Wait for a convention if you just love buying books in person. Comic shops are so 20th century and best left there.

 

Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. There are plenty of fine shops out there whose owners actually know what they're doing

 

Name 512

 

This is a joke by the way. You know, for people with no sense of humor

 

Am I on trial here?

Feeling guilty?

 

 

[TheShadowKnows]

 

For the record, I've heard nothing but good things about Green.

 

maybe Green was feeling a little Blue that day

[cloud cloddie]

I would have given the shop owner the benefit of the doubt. I mean, he has to live in Fayetteville. That's enough all by itself; adding additional stress is just cruel

 

 

I woulda just stayed out of Fayettenam altogether.

[dupont2005]

I might be in the minority here, but I never understood the need to haggle at a retail store. All this drama over $4?

It's a byproduct of the information age. Everyone has a prodigious amount of data at their fingertips. Unfortunately, common sense and etiquette do not always govern its use...

 

 

 

Exactly. Whenever I go to buy comics and I see the seller open his phone and start scrolling through his phone, I walk away. Especially since it's just a snapshot of what the market is like (for stuff that isn't selling) for a particular book...

 

Besides, if I'm going to pay eBay prices, might as well buy from eBay. I don't think dealers realize the irony here.

 

why would you pay the same price for something on ebay and pay shipping and not have the item in hand, in advance, to examine? indeed, if he looks at "ebay prices" (and he should be looking at actual sales prices and factoring in some current "for sale" prices, particularly on a low volume item) and follows them, you will be paying, overall, $4-$7 less, most of the time due to no shipping and get to examine the book in hand.

That would be the fair way to do it. But as I've seen plenty of online (not here, but everywhere else) they tend to just look up the highest priced unsold copy on eBay, or worse, Amazon, and base their price on that. I haven't seen it in a shop lately because it's been nearly a decade since I've purchased a back issue in a shop, but what I used to see at the shops is every single comic in the store priced at NM regardless of actual grade, and nothing ever dipping below cover price no matter how worthless it was. On the occasion I walk into an LCS and I see pricetags on the wall books, I know enough to not even waste my time with their bins.

[thecopperagekids]

Just looked up the ASM 121 variant in GPA, it is not a cheap book in grade.

 

The 3 sales in GPA are as follows:

 

9.8 sold for $199 in 3/2014.

9.6 sold at $100 in 1/2016.

9.4 sold for $61 in 5/2012.

 

Seeing as it was originally packaged in a box, with a toy, I'd wager most copies of this book, would have spine tics galore.I am also assuming, based on Green and Chaserman's post that the ASM 121, priced at all of $12....was a high grade copy.

 

I think Green was 100% in the right with his feeling of being lowballed on keys/underpriced books.

 

Even moreso than Green realized, as he didn't check GPA, to see the potential value of the modern book, he only checked eBay.

 

From the sound of it, both of the SA ASM's were actually priced fairly to begin with, if not a bit below Overstreet.

 

Sounds like the buyer wanted Green to bend over and take a good beating on all 3 books and when Green wasn't having that....Green still honored the $12 sticker price on what seems to be the most valuable book of all 3, by FAR....and to boot, which was also priced well below the other 2 books.

[Awax]

Way to get in there