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What would you offer on this collection?
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60 posts in this topic

Hey friendo's

Someone responded to an ad I have saying I will buy old collections. The person selling the comics lives in a different city then I do, but I will be travelling there in 2 weeks anyway. I haven't seen any photos of the collection, but here's what I know based on our conversation:

• 2000ish comics + 1-23 of the Walking Dead graphic novels
• 1980's to present
• 60% Marvel/DC and 40% indie
• "random mix of Batman superman some deadpool. Wolverine ect. Nothing has been pulled out as far as key books go. The majority of the books are back issue stuff. But the modern stuff is rebirth and new 52 stuff from dc."
• Only roughly 20% are in bags and boards, though the rest are said to be in good shape.

Obviously there's not a lot to go on here, but he wanted me to make an offer based on what I know. I gave him a bit of a lowball offer, which he rejected. I'll post my offer in a bit but I don't want to influence what you guys would say. I'm wondering if I am way off base here on the offer as I'm fairly new to buying collections like this.

P.S. my intentions for the collection would be to pick out what I am interested in and sell the rest at local comic conventions. I already have a decent sized inventory of comics to sell at a convention I'm just looking to add to it.

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Separate into groups then add up the totals.

Group 1:  What you want to keep.  Estimate the value of stuff you want to keep, and offer 50% on those items.

Group 2:  What you think will sell well.  Estimate the value of stuff that will sell pretty well, and offer 20%-30% of estimated selling value on those items.

Group 3:  Estimate how many of the remaining books you won't even try to sell, that you will automatically donate because they're trash and everyone knows they're trash.

Group 4:  Offer 5 cents a book for the remaining books. Or a per box price, like $20 for a long box.

 

OR just offer 50% of what you think the 'good' books will sell for.  That way after you've sold most of them, the rest is just profit anyways.

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Sight unseen, with literally no visual indication of the average condition ("good shape" doesn't mean much) or what the makeup really is, I'd start at $20 a longbox, with an offer to pay more if the books are decent.

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So hard to say without looking at condition and knowing what's there.  If only 20% are bagged and boarded there's likely storage issues and you'll have to spend time and money bagging.

If there's no keys but it's decent I'd start around $30 to $50 per long.  If there's lots of runs I usually pay a little more as I sell a lot of sets.  Offer goes up with keys and minor keys.

New 52 has become a lot harder to sell since Rebirth so I wouldn't offer too much for those.  

Seller has rejected your blind offer and you can't really offer more without seeing the collection so you'll have to tell him that and go see it.

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Thanks guys. My offer was that I would pay in the ballpark of $350 CAD ($280 USD) depending on condition of comic books and whatnot. So it sounds like I offered about what you guys are suggesting or maybe even a little more. He rejected the offer saying it was far too low and less then what he paid for the lot.

I'll probably take a look at them in person still, for all I know there's a copy of New Mutants 98 and some other near mint keys in there. But it's good to know I wasn't totally off the mark in what I was offering this guy. I've had quite a few people message me wanting me to make offers on comics with blurry photos and poor descriptions. It's challenging. 

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the seller will never get what he paid for it. Not even close, sorry but that set of Deathmate is worthless!

Your offer is about right and it assumes there are no key books. If he has key books then adjust.

I am not even sure I would want to bother dealing with it. Sounds similar to a local seller here that was abrupt, tired of buyers wasting his time and demanding $3.50 per book for a collection that didn't have the value to justify it.

 

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I'm always scared when a seller says all the keys are still there.  A bulk seller who knows about the keys and still keeps them in the collection usually want top dollar for their stuff.  I like people who have no clue what a "key" book means.

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44 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

I'm always scared when a seller says all the keys are still there.  A bulk seller who knows about the keys and still keeps them in the collection usually want top dollar for their stuff.  I like people who have no clue what a "key" book means.

Yeah that's a good point. The fact that he knows that there are keys in the collection makes me think he bought it on the cheap, with the intention of selling the keys, but saw my ad and figured he would see if I would buy the whole lot from him for a quick turn-around profit. (Which is totally fine, I could see myself doing the same, but it just means I'm not going to find any stand out comics in there that he wasn't aware of).

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3 hours ago, Shawnismaximus said:

• "random mix of Batman superman some deadpool. Wolverine ect. Nothing has been pulled out as far as key books go.

If someone is selling a random collection of books and they use the line "nothing has been pulled out as far as key books go" or something similar, more than likely the key books have in fact been removed.

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Books from the 80s that sat around unbagged are a dime a dozen and pretty much worth that.

Factor in the expense of transporting them back with you, and the bags and boards, add in the time required and it sounds like something you should pass on.

If you are going to be nearby, check it out but I would not up my offer much.

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Bulk rates seem fine to me, but I wouldn't bother two hours away.  If He knows no books were pulled out, I picture this collector as the guy who missed all the keys, and started buying titles after they were hot.  Is there a word for that?

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Sellers who push for offers on collections sight unseen and little information provided often are tire kickers trying to get an idea what the collection is worth in my opinion.   There expectations are usually way out of line as well.   There might be the occasional gem filled collection that is worth chasing, but most times it is better to move along to more motivated sellers.

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1 hour ago, jhutton2 said:

Sellers who push for offers on collections sight unseen and little information provided often are tire kickers trying to get an idea what the collection is worth in my opinion.   There expectations are usually way out of line as well.   There might be the occasional gem filled collection that is worth chasing, but most times it is better to move along to more motivated sellers.

Well stated.

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22 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

To be honest, this collection sounds like a bunch of common drek.

 

22 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

the seller will never get what he paid for it. Not even close, sorry but that set of Deathmate is worthless!

Sounds as though the seller has been reading too many stories from Mile High Chuck's Tales From the Database.  Somebody should tell him not to expect $2,000 for his drek collection just because Chuck was willing to offer $2K for all of Edgar's 20,000 comic book collection. 

From what it sounds like he has, is the seller even aware that most people would charge him money to haul away "trash" like what he is talking about.  The one good thing he has here is that if he accepts whatever anybody is willing to pay for the books, he can at least use the difference from what he initially paid for them and use it as a tax write-off to hopefully lower his taxes payable.  hm

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10 hours ago, jhutton2 said:

Sellers who push for offers on collections sight unseen and little information provided often are tire kickers trying to get an idea what the collection is worth in my opinion.   There expectations are usually way out of line as well.   There might be the occasional gem filled collection that is worth chasing, but most times it is better to move along to more motivated sellers.

True but you never know what you're gonna find until you get there.  I try to look at every collection I can despite knowing some will be a waste of time.  And even if you can't buy it all sometimes you can pry out a couple books or take some on consignment or the seller will get more reasonable down the road and call you back.

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13 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

True but you never know what you're gonna find until you get there.  I try to look at every collection I can despite knowing some will be a waste of time.  And even if you can't buy it all sometimes you can pry out a couple books or take some on consignment or the seller will get more reasonable down the road and call you back.

This is true, the thing that gets under my skin is sellers pushing and sometimes demanding what will you give me before you have even seen anything in person.   Even if you have specific info such as it is a Hulk #181, condition plays a huge factor in what one will pay for said book.

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