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Tales from the Comic Box - Rookie Adventures in Buying/Selling/Cons
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809 posts in this topic

28 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

I would have bought all of those books as well.

The great thing about setting up at shows is that you do get people asking if you buy. You never know what this opportunity can lead to. As an example, check this thread out which is about the latest collection we have bought:

 

It was a nice little buy and hey, first appearance of Iron Fist and Boba Fett , so can't complain.

As @thehumantorch said, little collections can add up and this was just another bonus from setting up at the local show two weekends ago.

Also, I have been following the New Collection thread...Awesome stuff...I hope, one day, I can find something like that!  Any cool or different Spidey stuff you come across in it, please let me know ;)

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16 minutes ago, spreads said:

These labels and those bagged sets are both awesome.  What type of bags are used for the sets? 

Whatever bags the set fits in: silver size, golden age, magazine bags we use all of them to make sets. For really large sets I use magazine bags ( can get 20-25 books in one ) and tape filled bags together to make one giant set.

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12 minutes ago, Wall-Crawler said:

It was a nice little buy and hey, first appearance of Iron Fist and Boba Fett , so can't complain.

As @thehumantorch said, little collections can add up and this was just another bonus from setting up at the local show two weekends ago.

Also, I have been following the New Collection thread...Awesome stuff...I hope, one day, I can find something like that!  Any cool or different Spidey stuff you come across in it, please let me know ;)

Calendars, we have a cool set of 1966 posters that has a Spider-man in it. 

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On 5/1/2018 at 12:24 AM, thehumantorch said:

Square works for credit cards and not for debit cards.

You can get a Square point of sale system that will do debit cards as well it just costs more.

https://squareup.com/ca/pos?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyOGm7s3p2gIVGLbACh2dBAgtEAAYAyAAEgLh_PD_BwE&pcrid=225962051663&pdv=c&pkw=point+of+sale+terminal&pmt=b

We had a number of people that wanted to pay by debit over the Calgary Expo show but not enough of them to warrant getting the POS

 

Edited by Artboy99
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This week started on re-jigging my set up.

I have purchased several new long boxes (15), just a few more to get.  As stated earlier, several of mine after many shows and withstanding brief increments of poor weather were starting to show a little too much wear for my tastes. I have also printed up new front labels and I have used white duct tape at the bottom to see if that helps the front of the boxes longevity. It was the front bottom that seemed to have the most damage, so we shall see of that helps.

My old show long boxes will be "retired" to local storage so they can still be put to good use.

Instead of making my own dividers, I opted to purchase some.  I bought the Max Pro (blue and red) Plastic Dividers with folding write on tabs (got a good deal on eBay for them). They seem pretty decent.  I have also printed off labels for easy reading instead of writing on them and that way, I can just peel the label off if it needs to change. I will also be making clearly visible what boxes contain what, alphabetically (once I have them sorted into the boxes of course).

I'm off this Friday, so I will begin the task of moving my show stock from individual title/mixed boxes to the new alphabetical ones. I am also using this opportunity to do some more pricing to include new stock/titles.

This is a fair bit of work and yes, some expense but I think this will lay the groundwork for many, many shows to come. I doubt I will have to buy any more dividers and I can just replace boxes as I need to now. Also, once they are sorted, it will be easier to swap titles in and out. Eventually, I would like for all of my stock to be sorted and priced and ready to go, that is the goal and I am getting there...

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3 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

This week started on re-jigging my set up.

I have purchased several new long boxes (15), just a few more to get.  As stated earlier, several of mine after many shows and withstanding brief increments of poor weather were starting to show a little too much wear for my tastes. I have also printed up new front labels and I have used white duct tape at the bottom to see if that helps the front of the boxes longevity. It was the front bottom that seemed to have the most damage, so we shall see of that helps.

My old show long boxes will be "retired" to local storage so they can still be put to good use.

Instead of making my own dividers, I opted to purchase some.  I bought the Max Pro (blue and red) Plastic Dividers with folding write on tabs (got a good deal on eBay for them). They seem pretty decent.  I have also printed off labels for easy reading instead of writing on them and that way, I can just peel the label off if it needs to change. I will also be making clearly visible what boxes contain what, alphabetically (once I have them sorted into the boxes of course).

I'm off this Friday, so I will begin the task of moving my show stock from individual title/mixed boxes to the new alphabetical ones. I am also using this opportunity to do some more pricing to include new stock/titles.

This is a fair bit of work and yes, some expense but I think this will lay the groundwork for many, many shows to come. I doubt I will have to buy any more dividers and I can just replace boxes as I need to now. Also, once they are sorted, it will be easier to swap titles in and out. Eventually, I would like for all of my stock to be sorted and priced and ready to go, that is the goal and I am getting there...

Yah dividers cost money, but if you amortize the costs over shows or years, the cost is negligible, and you can write off the expense against your profits.  Worth it for the cleaner presentation and the ease it adds to your own organizational activities.  Same with the work, you just gotta picture how much work it will save in the future, and how helpful it will be for customers.

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2 minutes ago, revat said:

Yah dividers cost money, but if you amortize the costs over shows or years, the cost is negligible, and you can write off the expense against your profits.  Worth it for the cleaner presentation and the ease it adds to your own organizational activities.  Same with the work, you just gotta picture how much work it will save in the future, and how helpful it will be for customers.

Exactly.

Really, the dividers (and even the boxes), spread out over a few shows are a pittance. I would say my booth looked decent before but now customers (and myself) will have a much easier time finding what is where as opposed to specific character boxes or several titles in one box...Just didn't flow the best and was more of a function of necessity when I was just getting started.

I have been looking forward to getting this more straightened out for awhile now so excited to see how it all looks and customer feedback. 

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5 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

This week started on re-jigging my set up.

I have purchased several new long boxes (15), just a few more to get.  As stated earlier, several of mine after many shows and withstanding brief increments of poor weather were starting to show a little too much wear for my tastes. I have also printed up new front labels and I have used white duct tape at the bottom to see if that helps the front of the boxes longevity. It was the front bottom that seemed to have the most damage, so we shall see of that helps.

My old show long boxes will be "retired" to local storage so they can still be put to good use.

Instead of making my own dividers, I opted to purchase some.  I bought the Max Pro (blue and red) Plastic Dividers with folding write on tabs (got a good deal on eBay for them). They seem pretty decent.  I have also printed off labels for easy reading instead of writing on them and that way, I can just peel the label off if it needs to change. I will also be making clearly visible what boxes contain what, alphabetically (once I have them sorted into the boxes of course).

I'm off this Friday, so I will begin the task of moving my show stock from individual title/mixed boxes to the new alphabetical ones. I am also using this opportunity to do some more pricing to include new stock/titles.

This is a fair bit of work and yes, some expense but I think this will lay the groundwork for many, many shows to come. I doubt I will have to buy any more dividers and I can just replace boxes as I need to now. Also, once they are sorted, it will be easier to swap titles in and out. Eventually, I would like for all of my stock to be sorted and priced and ready to go, that is the goal and I am getting there...

great job! An organized collection is easier to browse and find books in. Your customers will be happy.

The biggest issue we have is: How do you organize what you have for sale? We do quite a few different shows, and for some shows we have 1 table, another 2 tables, other shows we have 3 or even as many as 4-6 tables.

How do you organize your boxes to also fluctuate with the number of boxes you can display?

We have dealt with that issue for over a decade now...

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17 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

great job! An organized collection is easier to browse and find books in. Your customers will be happy.

The biggest issue we have is: How do you organize what you have for sale? We do quite a few different shows, and for some shows we have 1 table, another 2 tables, other shows we have 3 or even as many as 4-6 tables.

How do you organize your boxes to also fluctuate with the number of boxes you can display?

We have dealt with that issue for over a decade now...

Thanks! I am sure it will make things easier for them and for me.

Most shows I do I normally have at least two 8 foot tables (with exception of last one where I had to spread a lot out) but yes, I can see how with fluctuation it can be a challenge as to what to bring and how to organize the boxes.

Right now, for Graphic Con, likely my last show until the fall, I have two eight foot tables to work with, which works out to about 24 longs...As space is limited not sure if I will do a centre table display (put books out) and might just fill it with longs.  I am thinking 16 boxes of "run" books, one box of "higher end" books (organized alphabetically), one box of assorted variants (organized alphabetically) and six boxes of sets (organized alphabetically). Of course, will have CGC and other stuff displayed and available behind me.

The only variable is if I get a "end row" I will be able to add another six foot table...If that happens I might just use bring my existing $2/cheap boxes.

...I still do the basic "trade show" set up...I haven't experimented with a "walk in" yet and not sure if I will...

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Great stuff, can you show some pics of these dividers you're using/purchased?  Do you guys have any type of buffer in either shorts or longs to protect the end books in a box?  I don't like having a more valuable book at the end of these boxes, but I've also added thick cardboard within my short boxes on both ends just to provide additional cushion.

Edited by spreads
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21 hours ago, spreads said:

Great stuff, can you show some pics of these dividers you're using/purchased?  Do you guys have any type of buffer in either shorts or longs to protect the end books in a box?  I don't like having a more valuable book at the end of these boxes, but I've also added thick cardboard within my short boxes on both ends just to provide additional cushion.

Sure, I'll send a pic of set up but these are the dividers I picked up...

https://www.amazon.com/25ct-Max-Comic-Book-Dividers/dp/B01N42IDQA/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1525882735&sr=1-1&keywords=Max+Pro+dividers

https://www.amazon.com/25ct-Max-Comic-Book-Dividers/dp/B01N2IF9S0/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1525882755&sr=1-1&keywords=Max+Pro+dividers+red

Using blue ones for run books and red ones for premium, sets and variant boxes.

In terms of "buffer" protection, I use some thicker cardboard and some bubble wrap made into a "rectangle" shape to help fill a void if box is not full or gets less full during a show...Not sure if describing it right...

 

UPDATE:  I also decided to pick up the Square Reader for contactless and chip to start accepting INTERAC Flash, contactless credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and chip credit cards.  Given how many sales I had last show with the basic magstripe reader and that the debit machines were emptied, more ways to pay, the better I figured.

Edited by Wall-Crawler
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Graphic Con is rapidly approaching and thankfully the last of the long boxes I ordered are in, so I will now have all new "show" long boxes.

New dividers are all labelled.

I also started to include information at the top of my sets thanks to great suggestion from @Artboy99 and @thehumantorch for that. Great idea.

I just have to transfer books into the new boxes and I also need to price up some new titles to add. Also some new bagging and boarding but I have those supplies.

As it stands,  I will have two 8 foot tables and about 8 feet behind me to work with, so room for about 24 long boxes. I am going with basic "convention style" and I am not sure if I should do a "center display" or not at this point or just load it up with boxes.

I am thinking of doing 15 long boxes of titles (A - Z), 6 long boxes of sets, one (or two) box(es) of "premium" books (keys and semi keys, first appearances, etc) and maybe one box of assorted variant covers.

Behind me will be my "wall" with higher end keys and CGC books.  On the shelves I will have an assortment of the few toys I have left, comic magazines and hardcovers and what I call "other stuff".

I have requested an "end row" booth...If I get that, I will be able to include another 4 foot table.  If I get an end row, I will likely just bring 4-5 longs of $2 books (or 3 for $5) to use there and possibly bring my spinner rack.  I should find out this week or the next where I will be located.

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Just under one week before my biggest show of the year and last one until late summer/early fall.

I have got a lot done so it won't be a mad scramble. I am pleased with how things are organized and I have more product priced. I have also been hitting social media more than usual so we will see if that bears any fruit.

I also found out that my "premium" space is confirmed (16 × 10) and I did get an end row. I will be close to the stage though so I could be in for a loud day but maybe a good thing if it attracts more people to wander over? 

 

MFC Con Floor.jpg

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Sudbury Graphic Con just wrapped up. I had a very good show (by my standards).  I have to prepare to leave for Toronto for work so will be posting a summary later; but in the meantime, here is the local news coverage...My booth and I am on there at the 42 second mark for like a second LOL

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1414340

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On 5/16/2018 at 7:59 AM, Wall-Crawler said:

Graphic Con is rapidly approaching and thankfully the last of the long boxes I ordered are in, so I will now have all new "show" long boxes.

New dividers are all labelled.

I also started to include information at the top of my sets thanks to great suggestion from @Artboy99 and @thehumantorch for that. Great idea.

I just have to transfer books into the new boxes and I also need to price up some new titles to add. Also some new bagging and boarding but I have those supplies.

As it stands,  I will have two 8 foot tables and about 8 feet behind me to work with, so room for about 24 long boxes. I am going with basic "convention style" and I am not sure if I should do a "center display" or not at this point or just load it up with boxes.

I am thinking of doing 15 long boxes of titles (A - Z), 6 long boxes of sets, one (or two) box(es) of "premium" books (keys and semi keys, first appearances, etc) and maybe one box of assorted variant covers.

Behind me will be my "wall" with higher end keys and CGC books.  On the shelves I will have an assortment of the few toys I have left, comic magazines and hardcovers and what I call "other stuff".

I have requested an "end row" booth...If I get that, I will be able to include another 4 foot table.  If I get an end row, I will likely just bring 4-5 longs of $2 books (or 3 for $5) to use there and possibly bring my spinner rack.  I should find out this week or the next where I will be located.

Can I ask what type of information you are putting at the top of your sets?  I'd like to start putting together sets for the shows I set up at, i'm just curious.  Great journal by the way, really great information!

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On ‎6‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 8:50 PM, Wall-Crawler said:

Sudbury Graphic Con just wrapped up. I had a very good show (by my standards).  I have to prepare to leave for Toronto for work so will be posting a summary later; but in the meantime, here is the local news coverage...My booth and I am on there at the 42 second mark for like a second LOL

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1414340

That's pretty amazing.  I just had our monthly show on Sunday and a few of us were chatting about the poor advertising; It's disappointing how much the interest is driven through word-of-mouth by us (the dealers) telling people about the show (a lot of people have never heard of it). 

Edited by spreads
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On 6/11/2018 at 9:26 PM, Leonidas88x said:

Can I ask what type of information you are putting at the top of your sets?  I'd like to start putting together sets for the shows I set up at, i'm just curious.  Great journal by the way, really great information!

Pretty basic...I did not have time to put set info on top of all of them, just did the larger ones but I want to have that info on the top of ALL sets going forward...Basically, I put the Title, Issue #'s or Series and Price.  All of this info was also on front of set. Totally stole this idea from @Artboy99 and @thehumantorch

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