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Which is more prefered at a dealer booth. Organization or chaos?
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38 posts in this topic

11 minutes ago, telerites said:

Yeah - organized is the way to go with title labels.  

I also hate overstuffed boxes where I cannot easily go through the contents.  

+1

Also, I get annoyed when dealers have two short boxes end to end. I can never reach to the back of the furthest one away without threatening a hernia :p

Whilst organised is my preference, I've found so many good books that were misfiled. "I haven't got any of them", they say... "Oh, yes you have!" I reply :headbang:

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Organized alphabetically for your main stock for sure, but I like "chaos" for 50 cent and dollar bins because it adds to the treasure hunt aspect, and can lead to a feeding frenzy. But for anything more than a buck, yes, organized alpha order, and I personally prefer A-Z all publishers, as opposed to breaking out Marvel/DC/Indy, etc. 

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I prefer organized both as a buyer and as a seller

To play devils advocate: sometimes when I am looking for something and I find a seller's very organized booth I only look for that specific item: find section, look, leave. Some disorganization puts the buyer in a position where they have to browse and then they may find something else.

It depends what you are selling as well. Dollar books I honestly don't think they require organization. It is to much effort to keep them organized and after even a single show you will find they are all disorganized because the browsing public that put books back put them wherever ( annoying ).

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6 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

To play devils advocate: sometimes when I am looking for something and I find a seller's very organized booth I only look for that specific item: find section, look, leave. Some disorganization puts the buyer in a position where they have to browse and then they may find something else.

Yes, I said something similar earlier - I've found some great books which were filed out of order / in the wrong section. I tend to look at everything regardless as a result. 

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I would say organized is the way to go but maybe have a chaotic dollar bin if you have books for the dollar bins. 

you can put a sign disorganized dollar bins (might get lucky) … lol if you want to seed a few higher price books might be fun or entertaining. you can even put a white board or small dollar store board and write what was found if you do seed it with a more expensive book. (I think that's fun advertising). As this is what I would do. 

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On 6/8/2019 at 10:31 PM, jsilverjanet said:

I’m known for my disorganization just ask @RCheli

it all depends on what you are selling and how you are selling 

I have books priced $1 and up separate by prices than by titles/companies etc 

im sure some people are turned off but others like to see what’s in the box for that price

im confident that people end up buying something they weren’t looking for as a result

while I may lose buyers looking for runs etc I find that’s my customer base isn’t looking to fill runs - that’s not my target group as that’s not my stock

my 50 boxes are chaos and they do great but that’s probably more due to my price point than anything else 

I've actually started doing a Hector-esque manner of selling. I have priced comics -- which are all alpha/numeric and then $5 (green sticker), $3 (yellow sticker), and 50-cent (no sticker) boxes that are not in any order whatsover. Some people don't like it, but most don't mind. They're hunting for bargains so they're okay doing box diving. 

EDIT: The $5, $3, and 50-cent books are all in different boxes -- they're not mixed. I'm not into that much chaos.

Edited by RCheli
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Organization for me, (thumbsu

I'll spend my time at booths where the books are in alphabetical and numerical order and easy for me to find.  If books aren't priced, then I'm walking away immediately -- that's a recipe for my having an unpleasant experience, and I wouldn't want to spend time looking through boxes, pulling out books, only to find a dealer wants a crazy prices for something.  No prices are my biggest peeve if I attend a show.

As a buyer, I don't mind some level of "chaos" so to speak, so long as it's somewhat contained.  A $5 box, or a handful of dollar boxes, where things are more haphazard can be fun to look through to see what hidden gems might be lurking.  I've had fun doing that before (and found some steals along the way), but if a whole booth is all over the place and disorganized with everything they have, I'm almost certainly moving on. 

As a seller, when I did shows, all of my books were organized alphabetically and numerically, no matter what the price point was.  I had boxes with books priced as marked, $5 boxes, $3 boxes, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 long boxes of dollar books at its peak, and even the dollar books I brought were completely alphabetized.  It was a lot of work to get everything organized that way (though once I did it the first time, it was far easier to maintain it for subsequent shows).  When someone would come to the booth and ask for something obscure or relatively worthless that I knew was in my dollar boxes, I didn't have to point to a huge stack and say, "It's somewhere in there" (which would have left almost anyone asking to walk away) -- I would literally walk to the boxes and be able to find what they were looking for within seconds.  I sold a whole lot of dollar books over the years I wouldn't have otherwise because they were easy to locate due to my organization. 

My 2c.  Your mileage will obviously vary.  :) 

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5 hours ago, RCheli said:

I've actually started doing a Hector-esque manner of selling. I have priced comics -- which are all alpha/numeric and then $5 (green sticker), $3 (yellow sticker), and 50-cent (no sticker) boxes that are not in any order whatsover. Some people don't like it, but most don't mind. They're hunting for bargains so they're okay doing box diving. 

EDIT: The $5, $3, and 50-cent books are all in different boxes -- they're not mixed. I'm not into that much chaos.

:acclaim:

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7 hours ago, RCheli said:

I've actually started doing a Hector-esque manner of selling. I have priced comics -- which are all alpha/numeric and then $5 (green sticker), $3 (yellow sticker), and 50-cent (no sticker) boxes that are not in any order whatsover. Some people don't like it, but most don't mind. They're hunting for bargains so they're okay doing box diving. 

EDIT: The $5, $3, and 50-cent books are all in different boxes -- they're not mixed. I'm not into that much chaos.

I do the same thing. I don’t sell a lot of books below $5. When I do, I usually have one box of each. Bagged and boarded with color coded stickers and box clearly marked. Usually pretty good deals. I am of the belief, that I don’t want to work too hard lo LOSE money...

Speaking of stickers, there always a few soup stains on the menu of life who pull off the stickers hoping I won’t remember the price. Instead of telling them I take them away, drop them on the floor behind the table and tell them they are no longer for sale. It’s fun to see the look on their face. Some have even actually said “I’ll give you $5. For that one”...:roflmao:

Edited by Robot Man
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On 6/9/2019 at 8:48 AM, jharvey said:

or if they are wet because you let them get rained on while carrying them into the show

hm When I've set up at shows, the organizers have never granted me weather-altering powers. Have I been getting screwed? (shrug)

I mean, there's only so much you can do, especially depending on the venue.

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