Tales from the Comic Box - Rookie Adventures in Buying/Selling/Cons 5 5

[Wall-Crawler]

2 hours ago, spreads said:

Hey at least you won't have any regrets of not having seen it?  There's only so many frogs out there before you find a toad...

Yep. It was fine. Lady was nice and understood that she didn't have anything but you always have to at least look...All it takes is one. Hopefully I get a "walk in" at the local shows in a few weeks. Dare to dream...

[thehumantorch]

7 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

The "collection" was a no go...Just a long box of flea market finds this persons father had picked up over the years with nothing of any value.

#SAD!

  Part of the process, keep looking at collections and something good will pop up, they are out there.

[Wall-Crawler]

22 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

  Part of the process, keep looking at collections and something good will pop up, they are out there.

Definitely part of the process.  

The local LCS has had THREE decent walk ins within the past month and they directed ALL of them to their former employee...Hard to compete with that...I have been a customer there for like, ever, think they would throw me a bone once in awhile. Sigh. Ah well, I get all my finds through networking and perseverance and I really can't complain but just once it would be nice to have some thing "gifted" to me 

However, I shall soldier on 

[AJD]

24 minutes ago, Wall-Crawler said:

Definitely part of the process.  

The local LCS has had THREE decent walk ins within the past month and they directed ALL of them to their former employee...Hard to compete with that...I have been a customer there for like, ever, think they would throw me a bone once in awhile. Sigh. Ah well, I get all my finds through networking and perseverance and I really can't complain but just once it would be nice to have some thing "gifted" to me 

However, I shall soldier on 

You will find it hard to compete with that. Do you happen to know if he pays a spotter's fee? If not, that could be your comparative advantage. (I've been mulling over ways to overcome a similar standing arrangement.)

[Wall-Crawler]

8 hours ago, AJD said:

You will find it hard to compete with that. Do you happen to know if he pays a spotter's fee? If not, that could be your comparative advantage. (I've been mulling over ways to overcome a similar standing arrangement.)

I have mentioned it before but the owner of the LCS doesn't "buy collections"...Still don't know why for sure...As far as I know there is no special arrangement (spotter's fee).  I would also be hesitant to inject myself like that as with the store owner and other staff and former staff person, as they are all friends...Sure, I am friends but not quite in the same way (obviously).

...They had a BA #12 walk in last Thursday afternoon. I *literally* work across the street. They know that, but called the other guy. Again, hard to "compete" with that but it is what it is.

On the flip side, they do promote that I will be set up at local shows in store.  Also recently came to an arrangement for me to take some of store product to shows (POPS, other merch).  I spend $0 on them and just give the store their cut and I keep the rest so the bonus is I get some other types of merchandise to display and make a little extra coin for zero investment. And it will help my booth display. So that is something.

Besides, if cash was an important motivator, the owner/LCS would just buy the collections and walk ins. Really, there is no way around it...I am friendly with all of them, we all talk, so I don't want to start trying to "cut in" and offer a spotters fee/cash incentives or whatever as I don't want to "sour" any relationships.

Edited April 9, 2018 by Wall-Crawler

[spreads]

It could be hard to overcome that established-relationship, similar to buyers that always flock to the same established seller.  I also have been offered books for sale; but I've been extremely picky lately and will probably be a bit more aggressive at some point in the future - maybe after I get a bit settled later in the year or next year.

Here's a story from yesterday's show...I had a discussion around the viability of setting-up with a dealer that's always besides me.  We chatted about sales and trends, and I showed him the history of my sales.  He's smaller than me (comics wise) but is more diversified because he has toys and other items.  During this time these two lads stroll by (I think they were hockey players from the tournament going on), couldn't have been more than 11, one of them blabs out: "you can get these toys at the dollar store!".  I tore into this kid.

"Not these toys.  You should buy these toys for $15 and sell them to your friends for $20.  In fact, buy one, go to the dollar store and tell them if they offered these toys for sales their sales would improve."  He was stunned, the look on his face was priceless meanwhile his buddy was smirking.  I'll give him credit for having the balls to come up and say that, but when dealing with an adult be prepared to defend your criticism - haha.

Edited April 9, 2018 by spreads

[spreads]

On another note, one of the big dealers in town had a move last weekend....a bunch of people helped, I have two sources on the number of long-boxes:  2000 and 4000.  I had a chat with one of the people that helped, you'd think this would be the epiphany to unload these books.  It's sad to say but I think he'll have the bulk of these until he dies....

Edited April 9, 2018 by spreads

[thehumantorch]

1 hour ago, spreads said:

On another note, one of the big dealers in town had a move last weekend....a bunch of people helped, I have two sources on the number of long-boxes:  2000 and 4000.  I had a chat with one of the people that helped, you'd think this would be the epiphany to unload these books.  It's sad to say but I think he'll have the bulk of these until he dies....

2000 to 4000 longs is a lot.  Not so easy to sell that much bulk.

[Bird]

5 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

2000 to 4000 longs is a lot.  Not so easy to sell that much bulk.

All large tasks are solved the same way, one small step at a time.

Ease of selling is obviously strongly related to % of fmv sought.  Were I this dealer I would take a long box, remove the best stuff and what is left goes in a short box and then sell those short boxes cheap enough to make me happy but also move them quickly (i.e. 33-50% fmv). It would be easy to trim down but you have to want to do it enough to spend a little time. Turnover turnover turnover. Unless you have 2000 boxes of strongly trending upward books you should be trying to move the bottom third or half at all times, at whatever pace you see fit. But buying comics is so much fun I have to sell low often to generate cash to buy. Given the choice we would all rather go look for comics than work to organize or sell them but I will again say turnover turnover turnover! 

[Wall-Crawler]

4 hours ago, spreads said:

I tore into this kid.

I personally would not have done this.

Even when faced with a jerky customer, I tend to take the "high road" as you never know who may be listening and you can be judged on how you deal with difficult people.  Example, I had some guy going on and on about the price of a slab. Guy knows nothing about them. I just politely tried to educate him and showed him GPA. I didn't waste a great deal of time on the guy nor did I change his mind but people around me noticed. I was able to educate a few others who actually were interested (what's GPA?) and then they found out that hey, my prices were pretty good and received some positive feedback and sales.

So yeah, I try to take the high road but I have yet to encounter the customer/person where that may not always work.

Edited April 9, 2018 by Wall-Crawler

[revat]

15 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

1 hour ago, spreads said:

On another note, one of the big dealers in town had a move last weekend....a bunch of people helped, I have two sources on the number of long-boxes:  2000 and 4000.  I had a chat with one of the people that helped, you'd think this would be the epiphany to unload these books.  It's sad to say but I think he'll have the bulk of these until he dies....

2000 to 4000 longs is a lot.  Not so easy to sell that much bulk.

So they MOVED (not as in 'sold', but MOVED) that many books in one weekend?  That can't possibly all 'good' stock right?  Did he pay to have them moved?  Whether I paid them or not, I would have gone through a few hundred and labeled at least 200 boxes of drek and let the movers take as many of those home as they could carry.  And yes I get that it takes time, but if you don't have the time to do that, you'll never have the time to sort and sell all those books anyways. 

[thehumantorch]

1 hour ago, revat said:

So they MOVED (not as in 'sold', but MOVED) that many books in one weekend?  That can't possibly all 'good' stock right?  Did he pay to have them moved?  Whether I paid them or not, I would have gone through a few hundred and labeled at least 200 boxes of drek and let the movers take as many of those home as they could carry.  And yes I get that it takes time, but if you don't have the time to do that, you'll never have the time to sort and sell all those books anyways. 

I'd imagine it's mostly drek.  Not a bad idea to gift some of those boxes to your movers.

I've got about 200 longs stacked in my basement right now.  I'm tempted to blow them out but every week or two I get an email from someone looking for something and I get another sale.  Right now it's a guy looking for transformers comics and I have 6 longs of it.

[Bird]

4 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

I'd imagine it's mostly drek.  Not a bad idea to gift some of those boxes to your movers.

I've got about 200 longs stacked in my basement right now.  I'm tempted to blow them out but every week or two I get an email from someone looking for something and I get another sale.  Right now it's a guy looking for transformers comics and I have 6 longs of it.

Hook him with 2 boxes of dupes and lesser titles!

I have about 5000 comics to sell and feel like I am running out. But more than 100 long boxes and my head would explode like in SCANNERS!

[spreads]

1 hour ago, Wall-Crawler said:

I personally would not have done this.

Even when faced with a jerky customer, I tend to take the "high road" as you never know who may be listening and you can be judged on how you deal with difficult people.  Example, I had some guy going on and on about the price of a slab. Guy knows nothing about them. I just politely tried to educate him and showed him GPA. I didn't waste a great deal of time on the guy nor did I change his mind but people around me noticed. I was able to educate a few others who actually were interested (what's GPA?) and then they found out that hey, my prices were pretty good and received some positive feedback and sales.

So yeah, I try to take the high road but I have yet to encounter the customer/person where that may not always work.

I was smiling when talking to this kid, but you have to understand he wasn't there because he wanted to go to the show, he was killing time after playing hockey.  All the people around me found it amusing, a lesson in not running-your-mouth!

[spreads]

1 hour ago, revat said:

So they MOVED (not as in 'sold', but MOVED) that many books in one weekend?  That can't possibly all 'good' stock right?  Did he pay to have them moved?  Whether I paid them or not, I would have gone through a few hundred and labeled at least 200 boxes of drek and let the movers take as many of those home as they could carry.  And yes I get that it takes time, but if you don't have the time to do that, you'll never have the time to sort and sell all those books anyways. 

Well it wasn't over a weekend, at least 8 days with comic-guys so I'm guessing they weren't paid.  I think they went through *some of the boxes, but for the most part it is all unsorted and randomized so you can't even dump a box without having to go through it first.  EG he said he has two copies of DD1 but no idea where they are.  I imagine there is a significant amount of garbage, over half for sure.  And not moving books (or refusing to blow things out) is the root cause of this mess....clearly it wouldn't be that bad had he been more structured in the beginning and put some ground rules in place.

Edited April 9, 2018 by spreads

[spreads]

25 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

I'd imagine it's mostly drek.  Not a bad idea to gift some of those boxes to your movers.

I've got about 200 longs stacked in my basement right now.  I'm tempted to blow them out but every week or two I get an email from someone looking for something and I get another sale.  Right now it's a guy looking for transformers comics and I have 6 longs of it.

I think payment they got some cherry-picked books (remember most of the movers are guys that are friends and know what keys are)....but yes, an insane amount of books. 

[revat]

2 minutes ago, spreads said:

29 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

I'd imagine it's mostly drek.  Not a bad idea to gift some of those boxes to your movers.

I've got about 200 longs stacked in my basement right now.  I'm tempted to blow them out but every week or two I get an email from someone looking for something and I get another sale.  Right now it's a guy looking for transformers comics and I have 6 longs of it.

I think payment they got some cherry-picked books (remember most of the movers are guys that are friends and know what keys are)....but yes, an insane amount of books. 

that makes sense, but I'm not letting anyone take a cherry picked book without also taking a box of drek.

[thehumantorch]

2 hours ago, spreads said:

I think payment they got some cherry-picked books (remember most of the movers are guys that are friends and know what keys are)....but yes, an insane amount of books. 

We were offered a “collection” a few years ago, 48 pallets stacked two high in a semi trailer.  1550 longs.  I’d imagine it’s all over stock from the 90s with tons of drek but there must be some hot books.  We never looked at it, too much for us to handle

[revat]

2 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

2 hours ago, spreads said:

I think payment they got some cherry-picked books (remember most of the movers are guys that are friends and know what keys are)....but yes, an insane amount of books. 

We were offered a “collection” a few years ago, 48 pallets stacked two high in a semi trailer.  1550 longs.  I’d imagine it’s all over stock from the 90s with tons of drek but there must be some hot books.  We never looked at it, too much for us to handle

I went through 7 longs last week.  I needed a big Mountain Dew and a 2 hour nap to recover.  Didn't even buy them.

[thehumantorch]

On 4/1/2018 at 8:40 AM, Wall-Crawler said:

Pics ?

 

Here’s a few from the last buy.  13 longs at $100 per long.  Pretty well all published transformers, Gi joe, evil Ernie, lady death books.