Robot Man Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 17 hours ago, HouseofComics.Com said: I think those are very savvy comments. I've often wrestled with the fact that in a national mail order marketplace (plus other countries, mainly English-speaking ones, of course) prices and supply can even out but I have to pay Berkeley office rates and CA and local tax rates. It is offset in some cases by having strong local buyers and a big metro area. But imagine if I was back in small town Michigan where I could literally rent a 7500 square foot retail space with 6000 foot basement for like $1500 a month... That could be quite a catalog operation. Being here, it leads to a bit more of a boutique mindset, stocking more vintage and more hard-to-find stuff. Doing more wantlist searching for people. Having oddball specialties like war comics or Katy Keene or whatever. I had someone tell me today this past weekend was his favorite show of the eight we've put on. He said he bought from all but three vendors. So he found books he wanted at prices he could stand (and he works for a nonprofit) from at least ten vendors. I carefully select the vendors and of course we have a huge pct. that are board members, so grading is way better than ebay or even the average comic dealer. If you look at the tales of woe we sometimes get on the boards about horrible prices at shows and terrible grading, I don't think we have that. If terms of the original post, I think it sort of depends if you've already put the time in to find ebay sellers whose grading you like and who provide a lot of books. They might be operating out of their house in a cheaper part of the country and might not have other options for selling books where by definition our vendors have shows, ebay, the boards, plus a growing number using Instagram and Facebook. So it's not screaming deals all the time but I think it's fair Dale Roberts posted something on the boards a few years ago that has stuck with me--something along the lines of the dealers with good books at 50% off don't seem to last long. It's not really that sustainable. For me, i used to sell at 30% off and found that 20% is a better balance that balances customer expectations or desires with the economic reality of restocking books and the cost of carrying inventory until it finds the right person. There are cheaper and more expensive people in the room, every time. In terms of the high grade books we're discussing, the 8.0s to 9.2s, I find they disappear online pretty well because they are uncommon. Look at My Comic Shop and you'll see on most vintage books they can't keep higher grade in stock. That's always smart and we've been having a few people come up from LA lately for the show so there could even be carpool opportunities, who knows. There is one comics bonus to coming up because you can also put in a few shop or warehouse visits. Ie, you can come visit my office the day before or day after (I have boxes of high grade vintage books I don't bring to the show), we've got multiple other vendors that you could probably also visit at their shop or storage or whatever and see an even broader inventory. Not to beat a dead horse, but if it is the first Saturday of the month, the next day is a world class flea market across the bridge in Alameda. The bay area only has one major flea market in the city per month and this is a good one. There are a few antique stores on the island that I have found comics in... I really gotta talk the little woman into a road trip again. wormboy and Samoyed Sabaka 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senormac Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 thx for all the pictures and the report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormboy Posted August 11, 2018 Author Share Posted August 11, 2018 3 hours ago, Robot Man said: Not to beat a dead horse, but if it is the first Saturday of the month, the next day is a world class flea market across the bridge in Alameda. The bay area only has one major flea market in the city per month and this is a good one. There are a few antique stores on the island that I have found comics in... I really gotta talk the little woman into a road trip again. Yeah that Alameda flea market is sweet. The one guy always on a corner booth with tables of books, then thousands of random comics haphazardly piled in the center - in boxes and out of boxes - I have found some great books in there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormboy Posted August 11, 2018 Author Share Posted August 11, 2018 1 hour ago, Senormac said: thx for all the pictures and the report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HouseofComics.Com Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 For the travelers, recently featured in the NYT travel section: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/travel/berkeley-california-budget.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Man Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 12 hours ago, wormboy said: Yeah that Alameda flea market is sweet. The one guy always on a corner booth with tables of books, then thousands of random comics haphazardly piled in the center - in boxes and out of boxes - I have found some great books in there! Yeah, I know that guy. Last time I was there I got a nice WSF 29 and a bunch more ECs from him at a really great price. Takes a while to dig them out because they were all over the place. Since it takes so long, I usually cruise the isles looking for the estate sale ladies. They often pick up things like comics they know nothing about. Hit one once with a HUGE stash of UGs. She was more than happy to get rid of those "nasty books" as she called them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakman29 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 Looks like a blast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
