Seeding bins at a convention - how do you do it? 4 4

[lordisam]

On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 9:14 AM, Shrevvy said:

That's why I said selling in person mitigates most of those factors. I don't care what anyone does with a comic after I sell it - flip it for 5x or burn it. I don't care.

At a con in Atlanta several years ago, a buyer started haggling with me. He started at something like 10% of my ask. I politely declined. Over the next 10-15 minutes he kept throwing out ridiculous offer after offer. His final offers actually included a small stack of coupons for a free Chick-Fil-A sandwich. I think I had to have someone walk him away from my booth as I asked him to leave several times. If he had come back to my booth and wanted to pay full price, I would have refused to sell. Not worth the drama.

Ridiculous!

Anyway, I have a lifetime Blockbuster rental card with your name on it for Hulk 181.

[Robot Man]

11 hours ago, FineCollector said:

Well, my first convention happened last weekend, and it mostly went well.

I was at the convention hall at 7:30, and with only one van in front of me, I unloaded quickly.  I had a 4' wire shelf in between two planks for wall books that I'd painted a Captain America royal blue.  10-11 boxes fit on the table, with a handful under the table.  I figured I'd run through the bins once to make sure everything had stickers, pull out my wall books, and take a few pictures.  That didn't happen because...

By 8:30, the other dealers were getting set up, having mostly prepped the night before.  I saw a dealer from Montreal who used to set up at the Delta hotel show in the early 90s when I was a young'n, so I walked over to say hi and shake his hand.  My hand still in his, he started walking over to my booth and asked to see my old stuff.  I had a short box of DC and Atlas war and other such things, so I let him take a look.  He pulled a few things out, which drew another dealer, who figured my bins were fair game, and started lifting lids, asking, can we look?  So I said sure.  They tossed the lids aside, and as long as my bins were open, a few more guys came over, and started pulling.  I had a collection of mostly Marvel, runs of late 70's to early 90's plus whatever other stuff I already had, and I'd discounted heavily, because I wanted things to move.  I had about 8 people digging into 12 long boxes at the same time, in a frenzy to grab whatever they could.  I distinctly heard an "Oh sht" when they saw my prices, so my plans to keep my table nice and new for the opening at 11 went out the window.  I was told later that I looked completely overwhelmed, and I was.  My main concern was that the dealers were going to pick out all my keys and leave the rest, but whatever was cheap went, so at least I had that minor confort.    I cut deals on the stacks people took, so I'm hoping everyone was happy.  Whether that good will comes back to me when I'm back on the other side of the booth remains to be seen, but I doubt it.

When the dust cleared, I'd cleared at least a long box and a half by 9:30, and the show only opened at 11, so I had to condense and move things around.  When the doors finally opened, my table was dead for the first hour.  I still had plenty of keys and cheap books, but the customers were all floating around, looking at the wall books with something specific in mind.  I had one row up on my shelf, and there was good stuff, but that didn't seem to impress anyone.  Most of the other dealers have big museum-type displays (at museum-type prices), which naturally draws more attention.  When people started picking, they all found stuff, and one guy said I had the best booth at the show, which was the best compliment I could've hoped for.  I just wish he could've seen it before I turned into shark bait!

I didn't do any shopping.  I kinda wanted to see how much money I'd made, and I also didn't have the most experienced help.  I had a friend planned to help me out, but she bailed at 8:30 the night before.  I had a backup assistant ready, and she agreed to come, but cancelled at 10:30 due to a family emergency.  I ended up bringing my dad, who's handy with a screwdriver, but knows nothing about comics, except that I have too many!  I had to give him a crash course on how to handle books, and left him to manage the cash box, hand out plastic bags, and keep an eye out for theft.  He was a little shocked that the first book I sold was $100, but he warmed up to it, and had a good time.  Thankfully, the pace was steady throughout the day (after the first deluge), so I was able to manage everything mostly on my own.  Better than that, dad realizes I'm not stupid for buying all these funny books after all!

I had a few surprises... I'd brought a near complete run of Captain America 100 up, which I thought would do a lot of the heavy lifting at my booth, but no one touched it.  Avengers was equally slow... Taskmaster was one of the first books grabbed in the morning, but the rest left at a trickle.  I had what I think was the only copy in the room of Tales of Suspense 52, first Black Widow, and I didn't get one offer, despite being priced fairly.  Amazing Spidey also didn't do much, after the obvious 212 and 238 were picked.  I had sharp raw copies of Canadian variants of 239, 265, Team-Up 141, and didn't get a whiff of an offer.  A mid-grade 194 took all day to sell, and I don't think my 252 went, although I did eventually sell two Secret Wars 8s.  Cheap, low grade won the day, as the lesser copy of many things sold, and the nicer copy sat.

All told, I made a good wad of cash, cleared 4 boxes out of 12, nothing got stolen, and I had half the room rethinking their pricing structure, so win-win-win for me!

Question: all of the bigger dealers expected a 20% discount off their purchase.  Is that a thing I should've known, or were they just being dorks to the new guy?

Congrats. Sounds like you had a great show. I really never know what will actually sell at a show. The obvious is usually a no brainier but as often as not I am surprised. I don't usually let dealers pick my stuff until the doors open to the public. And depending what they buy, they get the same 10% discount that any one else does. Dealers that return the favor might be an exception but that is rare. I don't mind taking keys, classic covers or hot books home with me. 

[thehumantorch]

12 hours ago, FineCollector said:

Well, my first convention happened last weekend, and it mostly went well.

I was at the convention hall at 7:30, and with only one van in front of me, I unloaded quickly.  I had a 4' wire shelf in between two planks for wall books that I'd painted a Captain America royal blue.  10-11 boxes fit on the table, with a handful under the table.  I figured I'd run through the bins once to make sure everything had stickers, pull out my wall books, and take a few pictures.  That didn't happen because...

By 8:30, the other dealers were getting set up, having mostly prepped the night before.  I saw a dealer from Montreal who used to set up at the Delta hotel show in the early 90s when I was a young'n, so I walked over to say hi and shake his hand.  My hand still in his, he started walking over to my booth and asked to see my old stuff.  I had a short box of DC and Atlas war and other such things, so I let him take a look.  He pulled a few things out, which drew another dealer, who figured my bins were fair game, and started lifting lids, asking, can we look?  So I said sure.  They tossed the lids aside, and as long as my bins were open, a few more guys came over, and started pulling.  I had a collection of mostly Marvel, runs of late 70's to early 90's plus whatever other stuff I already had, and I'd discounted heavily, because I wanted things to move.  I had about 8 people digging into 12 long boxes at the same time, in a frenzy to grab whatever they could.  I distinctly heard an "Oh sht" when they saw my prices, so my plans to keep my table nice and new for the opening at 11 went out the window.  I was told later that I looked completely overwhelmed, and I was.  My main concern was that the dealers were going to pick out all my keys and leave the rest, but whatever was cheap went, so at least I had that minor confort.    I cut deals on the stacks people took, so I'm hoping everyone was happy.  Whether that good will comes back to me when I'm back on the other side of the booth remains to be seen, but I doubt it.

When the dust cleared, I'd cleared at least a long box and a half by 9:30, and the show only opened at 11, so I had to condense and move things around.  When the doors finally opened, my table was dead for the first hour.  I still had plenty of keys and cheap books, but the customers were all floating around, looking at the wall books with something specific in mind.  I had one row up on my shelf, and there was good stuff, but that didn't seem to impress anyone.  Most of the other dealers have big museum-type displays (at museum-type prices), which naturally draws more attention.  When people started picking, they all found stuff, and one guy said I had the best booth at the show, which was the best compliment I could've hoped for.  I just wish he could've seen it before I turned into shark bait!

I didn't do any shopping.  I kinda wanted to see how much money I'd made, and I also didn't have the most experienced help.  I had a friend planned to help me out, but she bailed at 8:30 the night before.  I had a backup assistant ready, and she agreed to come, but cancelled at 10:30 due to a family emergency.  I ended up bringing my dad, who's handy with a screwdriver, but knows nothing about comics, except that I have too many!  I had to give him a crash course on how to handle books, and left him to manage the cash box, hand out plastic bags, and keep an eye out for theft.  He was a little shocked that the first book I sold was $100, but he warmed up to it, and had a good time.  Thankfully, the pace was steady throughout the day (after the first deluge), so I was able to manage everything mostly on my own.  Better than that, dad realizes I'm not stupid for buying all these funny books after all!

I had a few surprises... I'd brought a near complete run of Captain America 100 up, which I thought would do a lot of the heavy lifting at my booth, but no one touched it.  Avengers was equally slow... Taskmaster was one of the first books grabbed in the morning, but the rest left at a trickle.  I had what I think was the only copy in the room of Tales of Suspense 52, first Black Widow, and I didn't get one offer, despite being priced fairly.  Amazing Spidey also didn't do much, after the obvious 212 and 238 were picked.  I had sharp raw copies of Canadian variants of 239, 265, Team-Up 141, and didn't get a whiff of an offer.  A mid-grade 194 took all day to sell, and I don't think my 252 went, although I did eventually sell two Secret Wars 8s.  Cheap, low grade won the day, as the lesser copy of many things sold, and the nicer copy sat.

All told, I made a good wad of cash, cleared 4 boxes out of 12, nothing got stolen, and I had half the room rethinking their pricing structure, so win-win-win for me!

Question: all of the bigger dealers expected a 20% discount off their purchase.  Is that a thing I should've known, or were they just being dorks to the new guy?

You never know what will sell.  Depends who comes through the door and what they're looking for.  Keys are great and every dealer in the room will buy them if you discount them enough but at fair prices it depends on who comes through the door and what they're looking for.  Hot minor keys may not even sell if every dealer in the room has them - at a large 4 day show during the Infinity Gauntlet hype I only sold 1 copy - every dealer had copies in plain sight.

Sure dealers expect a discount.  They're looking to buy inventory they can resell at a profit.  There's no hard and fast rule and you absolutely don't have to discount - it's your stuff- and it's quite likely they wouldn't discount their prices for you 20% after already discounting their stuff.

In the end it's about turnover.  The better your prices the quicker you'll sell.

[jsilverjanet]

51 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

In the end it's about turnover.  The better your prices the quicker you'll sell.

This. It doesn't matter who buys it (dealer/collector/flipper). You set the price, if they take it then that's all that matters.

[jsilverjanet]

On 1/10/2019 at 4:22 PM, jsilverjanet said:

I've never met a dealers money that I didn't like. They can buy all the books they want out of my booth. I'm there to sell and I don't care who buys it and what they do with them when they become theirs.

 

 

[Robot Man]

1 hour ago, jsilverjanet said:

This. It doesn't matter who buys it (dealer/collector/flipper). You set the price, if they take it then that's all that matters.

Very true. I fully agree. But I don’t give special treatment to anybody. Unless I happen to like you or you take stuff I don’t really want...

[jsilverjanet]

9 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Very true. I fully agree. But I don’t give special treatment to anybody. Unless I happen to like you or you take stuff I don’t really want...

Bingo. Or you’ve brought from me before (as in many times/spent money)

[spreads]

On ‎4‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 12:01 AM, FineCollector said:

 

Question: all of the bigger dealers expected a 20% discount off their purchase.  Is that a thing I should've known, or were they just being dorks to the new guy?

You should have punched these guys in the face, or come to me and I would have. 

FYI, FC had some amazing prices - no further discount required, it doesn't matter if you were buying a stack or not, re-selling or not.  How often do you go to a show and see a comic book with a 'free' sticker?

Edited April 8, 2019 by spreads

[the blob]

Is 20% standard? No. Certainly not for slabs or real keys. But If a dealer or anyone grabs $300-500 worth of books as marked it is no shocker that they'd try to knock another $60-100 off the total, no? For $40....not so much.

[1Cool]

I'd say a 20% "dealer" mark down is very common.  But If your books are marked fair (or low) then I don't see a problem refusing the discount or say they need to come back at the end of the show to make a bulk deal.

[FineCollector]

5 hours ago, spreads said:

How often do you go to a show and see a comic book with a 'free' sticker?

Everyone had a good laugh about that, but shrugged and admitted it was a novel idea.  I had runs of books, and one book in the run would have a popped staple, or was just plain rough.  The best book like that was a Captain America in the 120s missing a centerfold, so they weren't expensive books, most of it was late 70s or 80s material.  I didn't want to break the run, but I also didn't want to charge a dollar for it if it wasn't worth that, so I just stickered it "free".  One of the dealer's minions mopped up a bunch of them before the show started, but they were meant to go, and they did.

One failed idea was to bring along a few pieces of masonite that I got with Heritage Auction shipments.  I didn't have any free table space, so I figured people would either want something flat under their stack of books, or they might use it as a flat surface to open a bag.  People just tossed them aside.

The boxes have a little bit of life left, but I was never planning on doing a second show.  I'll keep adding to them again until they seem ready for another blowout.  A good experience all around, and happy to be back on the other side of the table.

[Robot Man]

8 hours ago, spreads said:

You should have punched these guys in the face, or come to me and I would have. 

FYI, FC had some amazing prices - no further discount required, it doesn't matter if you were buying a stack or not, re-selling or not.  How often do you go to a show and see a comic book with a 'free' sticker?

No, no, no, that is SO Cro Magnon mi amigo. Mess with their minds, so much more rewarding...

And yes, I have had free comics mixed in. One per customer with purchase. There is always some bottom feeder scrambling to find the lowest priced book in the box just to get some drek for free. Pretty amusing.