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The rise of Instagram sellers
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239 posts in this topic

I like instagram for selling, although I do get some claimers who don't respond for a long time, and sometimes never. My stuff is harder to sell because most of the books aren't keys, but it's a good way to get eyes on your stuff, and the listings never expire. Sometimes someone claims a book that I posted for sale a year ago. Once in a while I'll also share pics of new items in my collection or a particular item I acquired in the past with a story attached to it. 

As for feedback, I have a link to my ebay page in my bio, where buyers can see my feedback. Also, I've had a few buyers tag me in posts when they receive their books.

Edited by spracknetch23
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3 hours ago, entalmighty1 said:
3 hours ago, Not A Clone said:

Sounds like buying a lottery ticket. How much do they charge? I guess my biggest concern with that would be how do you know it isn't fixed? Seems like that would be easy to do. 

It's essentially like buying a lottery ticket.  The posts I've seen have somebody selling a $1,000 book (for the sake of argument), and they'll advertise 20 spots at $100 each.  No idea how to rule out fixing the win.  I have no plans on joining the raffles, so it's not a particular concern of mine.

Ive seen several myself. Funny never met anyone that has won one yet. Raffles are great for the seller, but I wouldn't do one unless I personally knew the seller. 

I am all for using Instagram. I bought Facebook when it came out so I am all for increasing IG usage, but its not much different then Facebook.
Instagram in my opinion so far has been more about showing off collections. "Look what I have mentality". 


I know Boardies using Facebook and doing decently with it. Its more difficult though to capture the right audience for some books unless they are actively looking
for them. Personally I have bought several times on FB and IG with mixed results. I find grading must looser then ebay with no way to hold them accountable unless
you file thru paypal. Prices are insane with some asking 2x to 3x over current ebay prices for even common books. When you are asking $5 for a $1 book something
is wrong. What I cant figure out is are some that stupid or do they expect us to be that stupid?

I am all for any revenue stream that can compete with ebay, but currently most are in their infancy. If I had to bet on one Facebook Marketplace has the largest
numbers. Its hard to beat against over a 1 billion users. Ive had some success their buying its got a long way to go for selling, but FB has plans to monotenize the
marketplace at some point.  

 

Edited by fastballspecial
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Apps like FB and IG seem to be the best bet right now in terms of new online sales venues. Ebay cannot deliver ISO or WTB ads directly into my stream like FB. When I don’t have local shows lined up FB has been helpful for sales. FB has also been very helpful with local marketplace posts. I just joined Instagram this year because I heard good things from other dealers at shows.

Edited by AmazingComics413
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Interesting.  I started an instagram account in October or so last year.  I mainly use it for hand lettering and to participate in the daily challenges.  I never though to look for comics on it.  Anyway a quick search and there is a #comicsellers.  That hashtag leads to a ton of marvel books and very little DC.  :(   As for purchasing, I have bought comics from the most random places without my hassle.  In general, I would not be nervous about purchasing off of Instagram.  Now Facebook is another story.

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16 hours ago, Robot Man said:

I guess there is always PayPal protection. I doubt I would transact there though...

Only if you use Goods & Services.  A lot of sellers on IG say they prefer Friends & Family but if you want to pay via Goods & Services you have to add 3% to the sale price.  Which for some reason I find irritating.  Also, I can't get into the raffle or "Waffle" as it's referred to by some.  Is referring to a raffle as "Waffle" because technically it's not allowed?  I'm sure there are plenty of honest people than run raffles out there but the entire idea seems shifty to me.  Full disclosure, I finally broke down and got IG a few months ago.  

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19 minutes ago, DocHoppus182 said:

Only if you use Goods & Services.  A lot of sellers on IG say they prefer Friends & Family but if you want to pay via Goods & Services you have to add 3% to the sale price.  Which for some reason I find irritating.  Also, I can't get into the raffle or "Waffle" as it's referred to by some.  Is referring to a raffle as "Waffle" because technically it's not allowed?  I'm sure there are plenty of honest people than run raffles out there but the entire idea seems shifty to me.  Full disclosure, I finally broke down and got IG a few months ago.  

Raffles are against the rules and they do it anyhow so it is definitely shady but I do believe they are on the up and up.  i won a bunch of mid priced books ($100 - $300) and I ran more then a dozen that I know for a fact were run without interference. I never won any of the big books so I tended to avoid that RADs since I couldn't tell if I had bad luck or it was fixed.  My biggest complaint of the group (s) was the intense pressure to buy spots if you ran a raffle.  It just made more sense to just sell books elsewhere then waste my time raffling off a book to just put the profits back into the system.

I've had pretty good luck with selling on Amazon this last month.  Sets like Infinity War 1-6 have done great whereas random books have not been selling.  Amazon does take a huge (+20%) of the sale but people seem to pay more on that format so it makes up for it.

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2 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

My biggest complaint of the group (s) was the intense pressure to buy spots if you ran a raffle.

I've heard about that.  A friend of mine used to participate in raffles and he said people were always getting after someone for running a bunch of raffles and then not participating in someone else's.  Also, don't people get bent out of shape if someone say, starts a raffle with an ASM 129.  Then another person starts one pretty soon after for another ASM 129?  He said that happens too.  Like there is some stupid unwritten rule that you have to space raffles out if they're for the same book? 

I think someone brought this up before but just like a lot of social media platforms, the #IGCOMICFAMILY (I can't stand the name by the way), for some people, is all about showing how "big and swingin" you are.  Drives me crazy.  I like looking at crazy books as much as the next guy, but gee whiz, it's like some of the people on IG live to outdo each other.  

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1 minute ago, DocHoppus182 said:

I've heard about that.  A friend of mine used to participate in raffles and he said people were always getting after someone for running a bunch of raffles and then not participating in someone else's.  Also, don't people get bent out of shape if someone say, starts a raffle with an ASM 129.  Then another person starts one pretty soon after for another ASM 129?  He said that happens too.  Like there is some stupid unwritten rule that you have to space raffles out if they're for the same book? 

I think someone brought this up before but just like a lot of social media platforms, the #IGCOMICFAMILY (I can't stand the name by the way), for some people, is all about showing how "big and swingin" you are.  Drives me crazy.  I like looking at crazy books as much as the next guy, but gee whiz, it's like some of the people on IG live to outdo each other.  

May have changed since I've been out for a year but the rule was you did not post up the same book someone was already trying to fill spots.  You could start a raffle for a ASM 129 immediately (and usually did) after the last ASM 129 ended.

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4 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

May have changed since I've been out for a year but the rule was you did not post up the same book someone was already trying to fill spots.  You could start a raffle for a ASM 129 immediately (and usually did) after the last ASM 129 ended.

I see.  That makes sense.

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Ugh - now you have me remember how much work those things were.  You had to constantly be pimpiing the number of spots left - filling in the list since people always wanted their lucky numbers.  And then there was a ton of stress when running the raffle because if you messed up and didn't follow the procedure the raffle was thrown out and redone.  The winner of course was not happy since they just won a $500 book for $20 and they have a very small chance of rewinning it.  My stress levels are much lower now.

Edited by 1Cool
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3 hours ago, DocHoppus182 said:

I've heard about that.  A friend of mine used to participate in raffles and he said people were always getting after someone for running a bunch of raffles and then not participating in someone else's.  Also, don't people get bent out of shape if someone say, starts a raffle with an ASM 129.  Then another person starts one pretty soon after for another ASM 129?  He said that happens too.  Like there is some stupid unwritten rule that you have to space raffles out if they're for the same book? 

I think someone brought this up before but just like a lot of social media platforms, the #IGCOMICFAMILY (I can't stand the name by the way), for some people, is all about showing how "big and swingin" you are.  Drives me crazy.  I like looking at crazy books as much as the next guy, but gee whiz, it's like some of the people on IG live to outdo each other.  

Yes, there is that pressure (especially since seller is getting 20% bump over GPA pricing as part of the waffle). I've only dabbled a bit in these, and only for big key books, but it has gotten annoying that some sellers basically just constantly have a new waffle up as soon as the last one closes, and the books they sell are frequently drekky books that most people wouldn't care about (eg. a random copper / modern semi-key in 9.2 or 9.4). But then there's a "Thanks for the Support" subtle pressure just to help them fill it. In an ideal world, waffles would be a way for people to gamble a bit on key books they really want, but are too expensive to justify normally. Unfortunately, given the opportunity to sell at 20% above GPA (or even at GPA), a lot of sellers trying to capitalize and take advantage of selling everything they can. Eventually, I see that market correcting as buyers realize they could've just saved their 10/20 x $20 bids on stuff they don't really want, and bought a book for $400.

Re: Instagram culture about just showing off - that's definitely not unique to the "comic book" sub-culture within IG. That's pretty much what all of IG has become - it's a place to curate photos of your life that show the top 1% of your experiences. Look at this great destination I'm traveling to, look at this great restaurant I'm eating at, look at all my friends and how popular I am. Lots of humble-bragging. That's fine, it is what it is, and there's some guilty pleasure in that too, the danger is for people who aren't as into the IG-world and don't have perspective that this isn't actual reality, it can lead to a lot of depression, especially for teens / young people who aren't yet that self-aware.

 

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22 hours ago, Erndog said:

So I finally broke down and got Instagram not long ago (namely because I recently had my second child and to share pics with friends) and I noticed there is a PLETHORA of comic sellers/dealers on there.  Quite a few of them with really nice books as well.  Sharp photos, etc. 

What do people think of this?  Of course I know there are likely some bad apples and poor graders but that is no different than ebay.

What say you all?  Do you use it to buy/sell?  Would you?  Seems like Insta could be a really good platform for comic dealings (though I know there is no way to moderate it... yet).

 

Instagram has been they place to buy and sell Yeezys and Air Jordans for awhile now and not eBay, so it's good to see comic book fans finally catching up to new technology as well.

lol

Edited by ComicConnoisseur
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46 minutes ago, CKinTO said:

Instagram culture about just showing off - that's definitely not unique to the "comic book" sub-culture within IG. That's pretty much what all of IG has become - it's a place to curate photos of your life that show the top 1% of your experiences. Look at this great destination I'm traveling to, look at this great restaurant I'm eating at, look at all my friends and how popular I am. Lots of humble-bragging. That's fine, it is what it is, and there's some guilty pleasure in that too, the danger is for people who aren't as into the IG-world and don't have perspective that this isn't actual reality, it can lead to a lot of depression, especially for teens / young people who aren't yet that self-aware.

I'm friends with a young man who is in his mid teens and likes golden age.  He follows a lot of collectors on IG that have big budgets to spend on books and he is constantly trying to compete with them in trying to get books of the same caliber, but he can't.  He doesn't have the budget.  I don't want him to get discouraged and stop collecting.  Hopefully he doesn't.     

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1 minute ago, DocHoppus182 said:

Honestly, I really don't have a good reason for not liking it so I'm not really sure why I don't.  Anyhow, no hard feelings? :foryou:

No worries at all. The intent initially was good people doing good deals/trades with each other. Now everyone and their cousin uses it to sell their dollar books :sorry:

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30 minutes ago, DocHoppus182 said:

I'm friends with a young man who is in his mid teens and likes golden age.  He follows a lot of collectors on IG that have big budgets to spend on books and he is constantly trying to compete with them in trying to get books of the same caliber, but he can't.  He doesn't have the budget.  I don't want him to get discouraged and stop collecting.  Hopefully he doesn't.     

Golden age collecting is a tough one. I'm not sure if I'll get into that genre some day. Just like anything we all have our limits. I'm more patient now as far as my collecting goes. I know I've made some purchases to compete on the registry (:

Edited by STORMSHADOW_80
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