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Dealers / Rinse and Repeat model
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283 posts in this topic

5 hours ago, blazingbob said:

What type of cuddling and other things can we do to get you to come back to a convention?

What are your expectations of what a comic book convention should be?

Factor in what that that experience would cost and what is the incentive for not just you but to those who would set up at it would be.  

How much should it cost to get in?  How many days?  What type of venue should it be in?  

Should it have guests that are comic related?  

What category of customer are you?  What exactly are you shopping for? 

Just an FYI to any Wannabe promoter out there.  I HAVE NEVER GOTTEN a email asking me any of these questions. 

I'm sure this isn't directly personally at me, But for feedback sake I will reply.

I still go to conventions here on the West Coast, But not as many as I use to. When I go to show I'm there mainly for the books. Period. Whether it is buying books or getting books signed. I started off going to Terry's back in 2013 and have gone every year. There's still great stuff to be found there especially if you're into golden age. But getting good deals is harder to come by. Which is fine as the shows attendance has really grown. What I don't like is slabbed books being higher than ebay. I don't mind so much raw books being a little higher as being able to see a book in person is worth it most of the time.

No complaints about costs going into a show whether it be a small show or larger like Wondercon. I enjoy Wondercon and Longbeach sometimes mainly because of the guests.

Category of customer, Collector. I shop mainly for high grade key books. Silver, bronze, copper, modern. I also don't mind getting fillers for runs I'm working on.

The big question do I want to keep going to shows? Absolutely as long the prices are right and the guests lists are good :foryou:

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...oh and let me share my Moon Knight experience. A couple years ago. I go to a show. Get there early with my online ticket. There's some commotion going on about a dealer getting in. I didn't know the details at first. A friend of mine had a booth there. I asked if he saw any WWBN32 there. He said he saw a bunch including one guy that had 3 copies. I go in the show. Turns out this dealer they let in the show bought a bunch of hot books before the show started and all the decent WWBN32s are gone. That dealer thought he reserved a booth but didn't. Another dealer told me how he had to show his paypal receipt to prove it was his booth. So instead the let in dealer basically ruined my chance to buy the book I was really after. He probably knew all along he didn't have booth.

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3 minutes ago, blazingbob said:

Four magazine boxes of raw romance books are being graded as I type.  Hope your want lists are up to date

 

Mine are always:takeit:

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3 hours ago, slg343 said:

I gave up on buying books at cons many years ago because of the pre show skim.  

There are ways around that.  Have you sent “want lists” to dealers prior to a big show?  Bob Storms is my favorite comic dealer.  I see him once a year in Baltimore.  A month or so before the show, I send him a list of books I’m interested in.  Some stuff is inventory on his site.  Others might not be.  

Without fail, the books are there for me to look at even though I usually come midshow on Saturday.  The good guys will take care of you.  I’m not his biggest customer by any stretch, but I’m a 15+/- year repeat.  He’s been good to me over the years.  There’s value in that.

Rick (gator), earlier in the thread, said that the good/successful guys aren’t just selling books.  They’re selling themselves too.  

I’d suggest that, before the next big show, you touch base with some dealers that will be there.  Give them a “want list”.  You’re not committed to buying everything they bring.  But they might have something they weren’t planning on bringing.  Win/Win

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, chrisco37 said:

There are ways around that.  Have you sent “want lists” to dealers prior to a big show?  Bob Storms is my favorite comic dealer.  I see him once a year in Baltimore.  A month or so before the show, I send him a list of books I’m interested in.  Some stuff is inventory on his site.  Others might not be.  

 

 

A lot of my sales to other dealers are them saying, "I have a guy who is looking for this," and he pays you $100 and sells it to his buyer for $100. If you have a long-time customer, you do well by them, and many times that dealer-to-dealer sale has no extra profit involved. 

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8 hours ago, Parabellum said:

I’m not following you.  Is there a problem with what I said?

no, not at all. Just simply chose to delete my comment as it was discussed else where at length and better than I could 

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Back to the OP comment - the internet, CGC and Cons have definitely made the squeeze a lot more viable and complex.

Life of a Hot Book Before E-Bay

Bought from a LCS.  Sold back to shop when price shoots up.  Store sells at double buy price to collector.  Book sits for 30 years and is sold to back to LCS at high price where it sits for awhile.

Life of Hot Book After E-Bay

Bought from LCS.  Flipped on E-Bay for triple price.  Sent in to be graded.  Gets CGC 9.6 and is sold on E-Bay for profit.  Book gets traded to dealer for booth credit.  Dealer sells it to flipper who cracks and subs to get CGC 9.8.  Book sells on E-Bay and then gets cracked to get SS sig.  Five sigs later the book sits in inventory of a dealer for countless years until a CGC board member buys it and dies with it.

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I go to some local one-day shows once every 2-3 months as a vendor. Mind, it is just for to keep my hobby going with finding nice books to fill in gaps in my collection. I do that for the fun of wheeling and dealing, and get in touch with other dealers/collectors in the show. 

On the topic of Rinse and Repeat ...  sure I did that sometimes, not always. I bring some cheap dollar bins, a couple of boxes full of Archie digests ( they always got sold at end of day), boxes of SA/BA/CA of the usual titles and obscene titles. Also my wall rack with higher books. I had my down and up days, like any other dealers everywhere. 

I usually bring in new books or small collections. Naturally the dealers come to my booth early before the show starts, try to do trades or wheeling for good deals. I saved some books aside for customers since they did had asked me before in what they want. I get requests few times all the times with their numbers. I let them know I have the books. Most times they come to me. 

Dealers get what they see and buy,  customers as collectors get what they find from me. I think I did alright as long I am honest with my prices and dealing. I am not out to be greedy in profits, but am in for the enjoyment of hobby. 

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