Trying to grasp the $1 ebay comic store business model...

[deathtohemingway]

As far as I know, English Steve is the store manager.

 

Again, this is simply how it is portrayed in their media.

If one looks at the last signing, Dolmayan definitely appears to be the

one in charge.

 

Of course, this could simply be the appearance.

 

Either way, he seems to still be more than tangentially involved.

[Logan510]

As far as I know, English Steve is the store manager.

 

Again, this is simply how it is portrayed in their media.

If one looks at the last signing, Dolmayan definitely appears to be the

one in charge.

 

Of course, this could simply be the appearance.

 

Either way, he seems to still be more than tangentially involved.

 

He was at their booth at WW Chicago.

[CBT]

I have noticed a lot of people on ebay with stores mainly selling $1 books..some of them are the 1000 item $50/mo stores, some of them are 10,000+ item anchor stores (what is that, $250?).

 

I am trying to figure out how that works after fees and everything. I assume these are guys buying random junk in bulk, $20 long boxes or whatever, and sticking everything on line, but criminey, the amount of time put into a $1 sale?? And I understand, many of the sales are people buying 20 items at a time, and a lot of these guys do have several hundred sales in any given month, but i just don't see how this works.. if you sell 500 $1 books and are paying for an anchor store and 12% to fees between ebay/paypal.. and a bunch of these guys are not even making money on shipping, not with $4 unlimited.. i understoof when neatstuff was doing this because they made $1 a book for shipping.

 

Or, are we really looking at being able to make minimum wage from the comfort of your home? I get that, it beats paying to commute, etc.

 

Anyway, I get sucked into these guys' stores because i see something that is very attractive at $1, but with shipping, less so, and i want to see if there is more to make shipping worthwhile...

 

could be buy collections, slab and sell the good stuff elsewhere, and leave he blow out garbage at a $1/book. If you are selling drek paid pennies a book for, the margins are high enough to do great, its just a question of getting the volume up to make it worth while. If you have some minimum wage employees doing all the work, it might be feasible.

[CBT]

Makes me somewhat grateful I'm in STEM although even that isn't immune due to outsourcing.

 

the tides are turning against that...

[the blob]

I just see it as a race to the bottom. People expect everything for a buck or less then. If more people valued their time you might be able to get $2 for a broader range of back issues. But it's too big, and too easy a market to enter, to stop a certain segment from racing to the bottom price-wise. For less than $1000, finding some sort of bulk blow out sale, you can pretty much stock a 5,000 item store, and not necessarily with nothing but total krapola.

Alas, if $1 items on ebay's bad, apparently some artists are even willing to work for free (and not just for charity).

 

http://www.comicsbeat.com/being-a-cartoonist-by-the-numbers-and-the-numbers-are-ugly/

 

http://www.comicsbeat.com/page-rates-whats-fair-is-fair-except-when-it-isnt/

 

Makes me somewhat grateful I'm in STEM although even that isn't immune due to outsourcing.

 

The article says proposed 1978 rates (I don't think they got that high except for the stars) would be $1,000 a page now, so $20K a book...$240K a year? Sure, for a big name. It simply cannot be done with a $3-4 comic that sells 40,000 copies, and that's only looking at the top 50 or so books in a given month. The publisher is getting what, maybe $1 of that sale? Can't pay the artist 50% of the revenue on the book.

 

The thing is, in olden times, many artists did 2 books a month, sometimes 3. If it's $200 a page, that's $4,000 a month. Get some other side gigs and you too can be a struggling middle class person! But at least you can work from the comfort of your own home! (If you can afford one)

 

There is a reason so many name artists went into advertising, book covers, movies, etc.

[the blob]

I can't see a way to make any real money selling $1 books on E-Bay even if your books are free. Lets say you make up your fees in the shipping cost then you are scanning and shipping a book for $1 (making up the fees can't be easyto do with bulk buyers in todays market). Even assuming you can scan, post up on e-Bay and ship in 10 minutes you are making $6 an hour - not even minimum wage.

What`s better though doing that or working fast-food or retail jobs for federal minimum wage for $7.25? You think about those $7.25 an hour jobs are probably less than $6 after taxes, plus usually come with minimum hour commutes back and forth so that $6 on Ebay doesn`t look as bad.

 

Problem is $1 books are not flying off the shelves (especially books you can get for free or $0.05 a book). If you post up 1,000 books a month and you sell 30 - 40 a week that's a lot of work to net maybe $30 a week.

 

The couple of sites I looked at were making hundreds of sales a month... one had more than 500 feedback in the last month...BUT, that could be a result of all the better stuff getting cherry picked into oblivion and eventually he is going to have a 10,000 item store with nothing that sells

[the blob]

I can't see a way to make any real money selling $1 books on E-Bay even if your books are free. Lets say you make up your fees in the shipping cost then you are scanning and shipping a book for $1 (making up the fees can't be easyto do with bulk buyers in todays market). Even assuming you can scan, post up on e-Bay and ship in 10 minutes you are making $6 an hour - not even minimum wage.

What`s better though doing that or working fast-food or retail jobs for federal minimum wage for $7.25? You think about those $7.25 an hour jobs are probably less than $6 after taxes, plus usually come with minimum hour commutes back and forth so that $6 on Ebay doesn`t look as bad.

Technically, you'll be subject to self-employment taxes so you would actually need to pay both employee and employer share of payroll taxes. Could still be a better gig than retail or food service when you factor in commute and dealing face to face with unreasonable bosses and irate customers.

 

Do you think the dollar book seller making $500 a month is reporting that income?

[aerischan]

Technically, you'll be subject to self-employment taxes so you would actually need to pay both employee and employer share of payroll taxes. Could still be a better gig than retail or food service when you factor in commute and dealing face to face with unreasonable bosses and irate customers.

 

Do you think the dollar book seller making $500 a month is reporting that income?

If that was my only income (God forbid), I would. Income that low would make you eligible for all sorts of govt subsidies including free health insurance.

 

Mind, the seller might not report it but I'm sure there are certain thresholds wherein PayPal would need to report income to the IRS. Probably not at $500/mo though.

 

Alas, if $1 items on ebay's bad, apparently some artists are even willing to work for free (and not just for charity).

 

http://www.comicsbeat.com/being-a-cartoonist-by-the-numbers-and-the-numbers-are-ugly/

 

http://www.comicsbeat.com/page-rates-whats-fair-is-fair-except-when-it-isnt/

 

Makes me somewhat grateful I'm in STEM although even that isn't immune due to outsourcing.

 

The article says proposed 1978 rates (I don't think they got that high except for the stars) would be $1,000 a page now, so $20K a book...$240K a year? Sure, for a big name. It simply cannot be done with a $3-4 comic that sells 40,000 copies, and that's only looking at the top 50 or so books in a given month. The publisher is getting what, maybe $1 of that sale? Can't pay the artist 50% of the revenue on the book.

 

The thing is, in olden times, many artists did 2 books a month, sometimes 3. If it's $200 a page, that's $4,000 a month. Get some other side gigs and you too can be a struggling middle class person! But at least you can work from the comfort of your own home! (If you can afford one)

 

There is a reason so many name artists went into advertising, book covers, movies, etc.

In the olden days, $200/page in those year's dollar values would probably net someone an upper middle class existence. At 2-3 comics per month (~40-60 pages or ~$8-12K), they can probably afford to save for retirement.

 

Never mind inflation, I think the sad thing is there seem to be plenty willing to accept rates even lower than those 1978 numbers or even work for free. Ouch.

[Stronguy]

Technically, you'll be subject to self-employment taxes so you would actually need to pay both employee and employer share of payroll taxes. Could still be a better gig than retail or food service when you factor in commute and dealing face to face with unreasonable bosses and irate customers.

 

Do you think the dollar book seller making $500 a month is reporting that income?

If that was my only income (God forbid), I would. Income that low would make you eligible for all sorts of govt subsidies including free health insurance.

 

Mind, the seller might not report it but I'm sure there are certain thresholds wherein PayPal would need to report income to the IRS. Probably not at $500/mo though.

 

Alas, if $1 items on ebay's bad, apparently some artists are even willing to work for free (and not just for charity).

 

http://www.comicsbeat.com/being-a-cartoonist-by-the-numbers-and-the-numbers-are-ugly/

 

http://www.comicsbeat.com/page-rates-whats-fair-is-fair-except-when-it-isnt/

 

Makes me somewhat grateful I'm in STEM although even that isn't immune due to outsourcing.

 

The article says proposed 1978 rates (I don't think they got that high except for the stars) would be $1,000 a page now, so $20K a book...$240K a year? Sure, for a big name. It simply cannot be done with a $3-4 comic that sells 40,000 copies, and that's only looking at the top 50 or so books in a given month. The publisher is getting what, maybe $1 of that sale? Can't pay the artist 50% of the revenue on the book.

 

The thing is, in olden times, many artists did 2 books a month, sometimes 3. If it's $200 a page, that's $4,000 a month. Get some other side gigs and you too can be a struggling middle class person! But at least you can work from the comfort of your own home! (If you can afford one)

 

There is a reason so many name artists went into advertising, book covers, movies, etc.

In the olden days, $200/page in those year's dollar values would probably net someone an upper middle class existence. At 2-3 comics per month (~40-60 pages or ~$8-12K), they can probably afford to save for retirement.

 

Never mind inflation, I think the sad thing is there seem to be plenty willing to accept rates even lower than those 1978 numbers or even work for free. Ouch.

 

In the mid '80s the going rate was $100-$150 plus about $500 for a cover for Marvel.

[kimik]

I have noticed a lot of people on ebay with stores mainly selling $1 books..some of them are the 1000 item $50/mo stores, some of them are 10,000+ item anchor stores (what is that, $250?).

 

I am trying to figure out how that works after fees and everything. I assume these are guys buying random junk in bulk, $20 long boxes or whatever, and sticking everything on line, but criminey, the amount of time put into a $1 sale?? And I understand, many of the sales are people buying 20 items at a time, and a lot of these guys do have several hundred sales in any given month, but i just don't see how this works.. if you sell 500 $1 books and are paying for an anchor store and 12% to fees between ebay/paypal.. and a bunch of these guys are not even making money on shipping, not with $4 unlimited.. i understoof when neatstuff was doing this because they made $1 a book for shipping.

 

Or, are we really looking at being able to make minimum wage from the comfort of your home? I get that, it beats paying to commute, etc.

 

Anyway, I get sucked into these guys' stores because i see something that is very attractive at $1, but with shipping, less so, and i want to see if there is more to make shipping worthwhile...

 

could be buy collections, slab and sell the good stuff elsewhere, and leave he blow out garbage at a $1/book. If you are selling drek paid pennies a book for, the margins are high enough to do great, its just a question of getting the volume up to make it worth while. If you have some minimum wage employees doing all the work, it might be feasible.

 

That is the number one drawback with buying collections - you pay decent rates for the key/better stuff and are stuck with the drek. The only way to move it is in $0.50 or $1.00 boxes and/or building sets for local shows, or trying to move it cheap on eBay.

[the blob]

If that was my only income (God forbid), I would. Income that low would make you eligible for all sorts of govt subsidies including free health insurance.

 

----

 

Not for long.

 

My guess is that unless it is a 19 year old living in their parent's basement doing this while they go to school or whatever, this is a side gig, so they definitely don't want to report it.

[FN-2199]

Mind, the seller might not report it but I'm sure there are certain thresholds wherein PayPal would need to report income to the IRS. Probably not at $500/mo though.

 

I believe PayPal's IRS reporting requirement is $20,000 of income and they collect your SSN at 200 transactions. I'm not sure what eBay's IRS reporting thresholds are at.

 

Avoiding taxes is most definitely a part of the $1-a-book business model.

[the blob]

"PayPal is required by the IRS to report the sales of goods and services for customers who, in a single year receive:

 

More than $20,000 USD, AND

200 or more payments."

 

I think most dollar book sellers are going to have a very tough time hitting $20K.

 

[FN-2199]

Shipping counts against the $20K reporting. Even with that, still not sure they will crack $20K.

[the blob]

Right, but many of these sellers have $5 flat shipping or something along those lines. I guess that could push you up depending on how many small sales you make.