(attempted) Flip of the Day! 12 12

[Shemp]

This thread is about flips. Dealer or collector it doesn't matter.

[artdealer]

Hey Kids!

Look, another flipperoo!

I sold this last week for $650.

Now on CAF for $1200!

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1568025&GSub=199601

MI

[acharasmaticeagle]

On 8/5/2019 at 1:24 AM, artdealer said:

Purchased from me early last week for $1400.

Now for sale at double my price....

https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryPiece.asp?Piece=1567855&GSub=13897&GCat=236&UCat=236&Status=Complete

 

I'd call it a fail-flip personally. Dell Otto Batman pieces are a dime a dozen. But then again there could be a small few who cannot be bothered doing any research or are unknowledgeable so will just grab it. 

[MagnusX]

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 8:24 PM, artdealer said:

Purchased from me early last week for $1400.

Now for sale at double my price....

https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryPiece.asp?Piece=1567855&GSub=13897&GCat=236&UCat=236&Status=Complete

 

 

On ‎8‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 11:49 AM, artdealer said:

Hey Kids!

Look, another flipperoo!

I sold this last week for $650.

Now on CAF for $1200!

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1568025&GSub=199601

MI

 

You are calling out your own customers.
People who buy from you.

You set a price where you feel comfortable to sell,
and they buy.

But now you are sending a clear message
to anyone who wants to buy from you
and then move the piece for a profit
that they will be ashamed in public.

Edited August 7, 2019 by MagnusX

[vodou]

26 minutes ago, MagnusX said:

that they will be ashamed in public.

That's never stopped Mitch and I'm good with it

[AnkurJ]

2 hours ago, MagnusX said:

 

 

You are calling out your own customers.
People who buy from you.

You set a price where you feel comfortable to sell,
and they buy.

But now you are sending a clear message
to anyone who wants to buy from you
and then move the piece for a profit
that they will be ashamed in public.

Also a bit of sellers remorse I’m guessing. The consignors are likely unhappy that the pieces are being “flipped”

[grapeape]

7 hours ago, AnkurJ said:

Also a bit of sellers remorse I’m guessing. The consignors are likely unhappy that the pieces are being “flipped”

if you can get it more power to you. I used to let this bother me, when I was a rookie. Once you sell it.....move on. Now dealers calling out buyers for flipping.... ha ha ha ha....please.

[zhamlau]

This entire topic seems off to me. The amount of money we are spending on funny book pages guarantees everyone buying is eventually gonna be “a flipper”. 

[Michael Browning]

Around 2003-2006, I used to buy around $150 a week in new comics from a single shop that I was very loyal to and from which I had been buying for more than a decade. At the same time, I had been selling comics on eBay to fund additional purchases of comics. My local comic shop owner got in a comic that was immediately valuable because it had an error in it and was recalled. I had asked her to put that one on hold for me and she explained the recall and that she would have to charge me more than cover because copies were already selling for higher prices online, the day of its release. I told her that was fine and that I was going to drive over and pick up my comics that day. It was more than an hour drive to her shop, so I’d call to make sure the new comics had arrived on time before I left. It was also the week that the new Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide was released, so I was excited to get the guide and the error comic. On the way, she called me back and said she had thought about it and wasn’t going to sell me the comic because all I was going to do was resell it on eBay for more money and that she figured “why shouldn’t she make all that money, instead.” I told her I was already on my way and she said I could pick up the rest of my new comics, but not the issue I had called and requested. She then proceeded to tell me how offended she was that I’d buy comics from her and then was reselling them online. “Why should I sell to you so you can make all that money when I can just keep them and sell them, myself,” she asked me. I told her that I hated she felt that way and that she could keep all the comics I had in my pull file. I didn’t go back in her shop for 10 years and bought my comics from the other shop down the street from her. When I went back into the shop a decade later, she still had that error copy which was now basically worth about cover price. All that fuss - and the loss of a nearly 10-year-regular customer - because she hated the fact that I was buying and reselling comics and making a little cash for myself. It never made sense to me, because 85%-90% of the money I was making off of reselling comics online went straight back into HER shop the very next week when I’d buy extra new comics and back issues - and she knew that.

Edited August 8, 2019 by Michael Browning

[Matches_Malone]

I personally love this thread. If a collector finds a bargain, and flips it for profit... I call that a happy ending.  And it reminds me that I need to sharper and smarter with my purchases. 

[vodou]

10 hours ago, zhamlau said:

The amount of money we are spending on funny book pages guarantees everyone buying is eventually gonna be “a flipper”. 

Not really. Flipper is: buy today list FS tomorrow. Not five or ten years later. Heck, most probably wouldn't call out somebody that 'flipped' after six months of ownership. It's the one day, one week, 1-3 month guys (basically those trying to dodge the flipper label, stealth flipper but same mentality!) that annoy some folks. I don't care as a buyer or a seller (re: flippers), but I do care about the stigma as I deal other forms of art where the same stigma attaches. I don't sell anything after less than a full year of ownership, the stigma is too costly and nobody cares after a year anyway. Of course I'm also liquid to the extent that I don't have to move things out fast to cover next month's credit card bill! LOL...that's where the underfinanced chumps get burned...and I do like watching that happen...failip followed by desperation made obvious by reducing the flip 'spread' and more active FS posts...L O L.

If you're buying for five or ten years of ownership, you're either a collector or a long-term investor. Six months or less: speculator, flipper, whatever label you want to apply.

[vodou]

2 hours ago, Michael Browning said:

 I didn’t go back in her shop for 10 years and bought my comics from the other shop down the street from her.

100% the correct response. As long as you made her very full and aware of the true cost of her decision. That's the follow-through. If it had been me, I would have bought my comics across the street and walked in her shop with them every single time until she told me I wasn't welcome any more. Each and every time I purchased from 'the other shop'. Then again maybe not the right approach for everyone...I seem to be losing friends faster than I'm making new ones, that might matter to some...the popularity contest

[Matches_Malone]

1 minute ago, vodou said:

 I would have bought my comics across the street and walked in her shop with them every single time until she told me I wasn't welcome any more. 

Why? Buy your comics and move on. Life is short to be concerned with such petty things. Hopefully you have better things to do. 

And also, It seems most OA collectors are "underfinanced chumps" in this current Market. 

[vodou]

36 minutes ago, Matches_Malone said:

Why?

Why not? To quote the previous Supreme God of Everything, it's a "teachable moment" and I do care (about people and the betterment of society). I only quit on people when they intentionally don't learn from their mistakes, while I actively work to make them aware of those mistakes That's just one of the many free gifts I offer the world.

Speaking of free gifts...

40 minutes ago, Matches_Malone said:

Hopefully you have better things to do.

I do not. Having fortuitously arrived at a place of intentional giving over taking for the remainder of my life, there's nothing better for me to do than work for the betterment of myself and those I interact with.

But then...

42 minutes ago, Matches_Malone said:

It seems most OA collectors are "underfinanced chumps" in this current Market.

Sturgeon's Law likely applies. Again. Not worried about them, Life takes care of that, I'm hoping my nuggets of truth here and there help the 10% stay out of the 90% column

There are no regular and consistent flips remaining in comic art. Not when you net the losses out from the gains over time. I saw that over ten years ago (and switched to more fertile markets), but unfortunately this is still a revelation to most, say...90%?

[Will_K]

It's rare to flip $10,000+ art (there are certainly exceptions).  But for lower priced art (e.g. not Watchmen, KJ, Byrne X-men territory), one could also observe flipping as market research. 

For some people that consider early bidding to be "price discovery", flipping could be late bidding as price discovery. 

[zhamlau]

3 hours ago, vodou said:

Not really. Flipper is: buy today list FS tomorrow. Not five or ten years later. Heck, most probably wouldn't call out somebody that 'flipped' after six months of ownership. It's the one day, one week, 1-3 month guys (basically those trying to dodge the flipper label, stealth flipper but same mentality!) that annoy some folks. I don't care as a buyer or a seller (re: flippers), but I do care about the stigma as I deal other forms of art where the same stigma attaches. I don't sell anything after less than a full year of ownership, the stigma is too costly and nobody cares after a year anyway. Of course I'm also liquid to the extent that I don't have to move things out fast to cover next month's credit card bill! LOL...that's where the underfinanced chumps get burned...and I do like watching that happen...failip followed by desperation made obvious by reducing the flip 'spread' and more active FS posts...L O L.

If you're buying for five or ten years of ownership, you're either a collector or a long-term investor. Six months or less: speculator, flipper, whatever label you want to apply.

I find that so subjective, based on certain folks worrying about what other people do with their possessions. As long as you aren’t damaging folks directly, I’m a fan of live/let live. 

Remember: what two consenting adults do in private (in this case one buying one selling) is really not anyone else’s concern. If you feel so moved to attack them for their consensual act that doesn’t harm you, it might be revaluation time.

[vodou]

1 hour ago, zhamlau said:

I find that so subjective, based on certain folks worrying about what other people do with their possessions. As long as you aren’t damaging folks directly, I’m a fan of live/let live. 

Remember: what two consenting adults do in private (in this case one buying one selling) is really not anyone else’s concern. If you feel so moved to attack them for their consensual act that doesn’t harm you, it might be revaluation time.

I agree to all of the above. Who cares? Not me. But others do and fwiw when folks get called out there is some evidence of their feathers being ruffled by it. So somebody cares, no? That's where I came from re: stigma; my personal preference is to not alienate any of my potential customers by having the term applied to me (elsewhere).

[AnkurJ]

On a positive note, my Dellotto had a lot of views and for the first time in a while I have a top piece viewed for the week  

Maybe not the best reason for it but it’s ok with me.

[DarthRawn]

On 8/6/2019 at 8:10 AM, jimmy020889 said:

I'd call it a fail-flip personally. Dell Otto Batman pieces are a dime a dozen. But then again there could be a small few who cannot be bothered doing any research or are unknowledgeable so will just grab it. 

Hey not being sarcastic here, could you point me towards one if they are that common because I would love to pick one up someday. Particularly a Spidey piece if you know of any. Thanks.

[Rick2you2]

3 hours ago, vodou said:

I agree to all of the above. Who cares? Not me. But others do and fwiw when folks get called out there is some evidence of their feathers being ruffled by it. So somebody cares, no? That's where I came from re: stigma; my personal preference is to not alienate any of my potential customers by having the term applied to me (elsewhere).

I don't mind actual flips, unless the seller thought he was selling to a collector who he thought had planned to keep it but then sold it, which I believe happened on one occasion here. I would also feel annoyed if I were an artist who did a commission for a collector--who then flipped it. To me, a commission is personal and should be kept, at least for a long time. 

What I do enjoy is reading about the nerve of some buyers who think they can buy a $50 piece of art and turn around to sell it for $500. I like it even better if they fail, and it keeps reappearing for months on end on eBay, for example. Ah, schadenfreude.