Collection selling question 0

[spidrvacc]

Got a selling question. A guy i used to work with my last job a few years ago ( still keep in touch)  , calls me tells me a friend of his wants to sell his comic books. Ask if he could text me to see what he might get for them. I have no clue but he knows I used to be a collector. I'm not as much anymore. Ok fine. So the guy text me. He's got about 400 books.  Says  All keys or hot books. I ask what and he runs off stuff like hulk 181, avengers 1 and 4, first app of iron man, hulk, xmen , thor Harley quinn, capt marvel, ghost rider , dardevil 1 , dead pool etc a  Says all 400 are first app or keys no drek.  But most he says low to mid grade and higher as u get current Ok great,  tells me worth around 49k. I asked how he came up with that figure. He took The eBay sells price for low grade books.  For purposes of this  question let's assume that's 100% correct. 

Ask why hes selling and he's not working , unemployed but since he's getting unemployment does not really need the money. But want to be ready when unemployment runs out, best part Unemployment is paying him more than he made at work. But that's a totally different issue. For a different forum. 

 

Tells me he wants $30-35k. He figures 65 -70% of value is good  Even though it was keys and hot books I text him  first they can make more selling individually , but he doesn't want to do that so at home that's way too much. Looking at like 45 to 50% . maybe he can get 20-22k if he sells in *all to a dealer or big time buyer with money or something like that. Never hear anything back. Did not answer me . Then last night his friend , guy i work with calls and tells me I was lowballing  on him lol. I wasn't even interested in buying. Don't have that kind of money but I think that was the whole intention. That maybe I would buy them.

 

Anyway my question is was I way off. A collection of 400 books all keys , 1st app or hot books going back to the 60s , book value 49k. ??  Curious what folks who buy or sell collections think.  Again i told him 45_50% of guide tops. But I'm not a buyer or seller what do I know. Why I'm asking here curious if I was way off.

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by spidrvacc

[William-James88]

It's really impossible to know without seeing the books. But just percentage wise, 50% value to buy in bulk is usually as high as it goes. If he wants more money, he can sell them himself.

[Mercury Man]

7 hours ago, spidrvacc said:

. Then last night his friend , guy i work with calls and tells me I was lowballing  on him lol. I wasn't even interested in buying

I would reiterate that on principal alone.  "How did I lowball you, when I am not making am offer??"

[spreads]

Sounds like your friend took this guy's side when you were offering free advice.....I can see why the owner is unemployed, the most laziest of people around - I want a high valuation, will not do the most minimum amount of work and any free advice will be replied with cynicism!  

I don't know if you're paraphrasing or not, but if the seller rams off a sentence like: "first appearance Iron Man, Hulk, X-Men" and then followed shortly after "Harley quinn" etc, I seriously doubt he actually has those first appearances.  I looked at a collection of "200 keys" that took about two years to sell locally.  In it, there were some obvious keys like 1st ghost rider, and a pile of mid to lower mid tier keys, but about a third of it were hot modern #1 books that might at best get $3-5.  I feel like this is probably what this seller has.  

Anytime someone sends me a list like this, I don't even give a value or number at all!  That way no one can come back to you, I always reply with, I have to see everything that's there.  And if the person can't be bothered to setup a time to meet or send you a full list then em! 

[spreads]

6 hours ago, William-James88 said:

It's really impossible to know without seeing the books. But just percentage wise, 50% value to buy in bulk is usually as high as it goes. If he wants more money, he can sell them himself.

He sounds like a lazy sack of !

Zero chance he takes that approach....I think this guy will be trying to cart them around for 1-3 years then finally accept a lower offer than what he received initially.  Sadly, I see this all the time.

[spidrvacc]

Yeah , dont know the dude. Deleted his number from my phone lol. Assume i may get another text. But i did ask my friend and he actually has all the books he said. Collection is 25 years old and he sold or got rid of the regular issue and kept the keys.  But whatever. But in reference to my question , lets says the info is 100% accurate. Has all the first app since 1960 mid grade , worth 50k. Am i off saying 50%. I would think thats fair given that they are easy sells. Anyway thanks everyone.

Edited May 26, 2020 by spidrvacc

[The Lions Den]

3 minutes ago, spidrvacc said:

Yeah , dont know the dude. Deleted he number from my phone lol. Assume i may get another text. But i did ask my friend and he actually has all the books he said. Collection is 25 years old and he sold or got rid of the regular issue and kept the keys.  But whatever. But in reference to my question , lets says the info is 100% accurate. Has all the first app since 1960 mid grade , worth 50k. Am i off saying 50%. I would think thats fair given that they are easy sells. Anyway thanks everyone.

"One man's gold is another man's dreck."  

[spreads]

32 minutes ago, spidrvacc said:

Yeah , dont know the dude. Deleted his number from my phone lol. Assume i may get another text. But i did ask my friend and he actually has all the books he said. Collection is 25 years old and he sold or got rid of the regular issue and kept the keys.  But whatever. But in reference to my question , lets says the info is 100% accurate. Has all the first app since 1960 mid grade , worth 50k. Am i off saying 50%. I would think thats fair given that they are easy sells. Anyway thanks everyone.

I don't think you're way off saying 50% of FMV.  The problem is if these are low grade and you're already priced-in near the top, and then a buyer sees some of the books are in the Fair/Poor range it can be a difficult discussion once the seller has a dollar price in his head.  Even if you stress from the begging someone needs to see and inspect them carefully, that might not be enough....

[spidrvacc]

Thanks did not think i was way off or hoping i wasnt , think i know something about comics. Again all based on assuming everything is legit, all keys, older stuff in the low to mid grade, newer stuff in better shape, every first app or key sonce 1960.  But again im not a buyer but i did sell 1000 books myself 8 years ago when i was unemployed. Got $700 about 30% (valued my books at 4000 )  but not many keys in it. Just was 60s and 70s so not worth less drek just not keys.

[shadroch]

A collection of 400 top grade keys would almost certainly bring well more than 50% of guide.  The key being they were in top shape, 8.5 or higher and they were key issues. 

Does anyone think a major dealer would decline a hot $100,000 book because the seller was asking $55,0000.? $60,000? 70,000?

If you are trying to sell Avengers 1-400, you'll be lucky to get 50% of the expected sale price, but sell  only #1, 4, 56, 100 and 144, and you could easily get 70% or more. 

If a book is HG and in demand, the dealer will most likely know a buyer for it as soon as he sees it. A 25% profit on a $100,000 book equal many Sundays of lugging around boxes of stuff to shows.

Edited May 26, 2020 by shadroch

[spidrvacc]

The keys from the 60's he ssaid were in vg range so i assume he meant 2.0 to 4.0 but the later keys like hulk 181,  gsxmen 1 , gl76, , asm 129, hos 92   he "said" were 8.0 or better and new stuff nm98, asm 300 , harley quinn etc all near mint.  Grades were all over the place.   Did not care enough to ask for pictures again based my 50% on what he said. 

 

Maybe he was right about 65%. Just figured there not all high grade. 

 

Again thanks.  I got out of collecting for the most part but still come here every few days to keep up. I do still have some books , like 200 left from when i sold my collection. I even just joined cgc since it was half off. Maybe get my nova 1  gradesd now.

[spreads]

4 hours ago, shadroch said:

A collection of 400 top grade keys would almost certainly bring well more than 50% of guide.  The key being they were in top shape, 8.5 or higher and they were key issues. 

Does anyone think a major dealer would decline a hot $100,000 book because the seller was asking $55,0000.? $60,000? 70,000?

If you are trying to sell Avengers 1-400, you'll be lucky to get 50% of the expected sale price, but sell  only #1, 4, 56, 100 and 144, and you could easily get 70% or more. 

If a book is HG and in demand, the dealer will most likely know a buyer for it as soon as he sees it. A 25% profit on a $100,000 book equal many Sundays of lugging around boxes of stuff to shows.

I don't think any of them were top grade, definitely not the keys.  If they were all top grade keys then the amount of 49k the seller quoted would have been way off, which would go into my theory that it was not just key books (I gave an example above).  If they were just keys and in good condition, then yes a dealer would go higher than 50%, but the problem is the seller gave limited information.

It's hard to tell how receptive one of these type of guys are with people looking to view it, but if he had pure gold then he would want as many people as possible to view it and produce a detailed list!  The fact he didn't, goes to show you he had something to conceal...

Edited May 26, 2020 by spreads