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Re:Trying again............................

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I don't know what your exact financial situation is but I'd think you'd get more enjoyment out of keeping the books and just adding $1000 onto your student loans. The interest is paid until you graduate so it's really not that onerous.

 

Marc

 

 

While I agree after the disapointment he has had with these books (as an investment) might be better to dump them. 20 years of collecting , waiting for the day to sell only to be disapointed. Gotta hurt.

 

As a golfer , If I buy a club and have a few bad rounds with said club and it "Disapoints me" I dotn want to see that club again. Reminds me of how I was disapointed by it. Either I Smash it on the floor. lol Wrap it around a tree. or give it away. Gave my nieghbor a $175 King Cobra Driver 2 years ago because it was unhittable. It wasnt me had to be the club 27_laughing.gif

 

 

 

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I do respect powerman for coming back for more, after we have dished out so much his way. I don't think the $1000 reserve will be met. My advice is one of 3 things:

 

1) Do as HOC says, and keep the comics. It only adds $1000 to your student loans. Big whoop. When you graduate and get a lucrative job, pay off that $1000 in 5 months, just $200/mo extra.

 

2) Do as spidrvacc advised, and take the reserve off, and let it go for what it's worth. You won't get ripped off. No one's going to let someone else win it for less than it's worth.

 

3) Take it down, and list it in several auctions. Group them by title. You'll get alot more for them.

 

I would do one of the three, if I were you.

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"Just don't make me the villian here-I dare any of you to tell me with a straight face if you don't have a vested interest in picking up a ton of comics cheap so you could slab the jewels-which most of us average collectors can't afford to do-and TRIPLE your profit.Me-I was just looking to break even.I'm not even gonna do THAT.So forgive me for being a little pissed."

 

I honestly have doubts that there's anything in your 12 boxes worth slabbing. The TTA 59 is a nice book for a joker like me, but not THAT nice, and probably not worth the $30 or whatever CGC charges to slab that book and call it a 7.0.

 

This isn't 3-4 years ago. There just isn't money in slabbing most of the marginal stuff. It doesn't add value, and could possibly detract. Doesn't make sense, I know.

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Thanks for your candor, Spider.And YES,sadly I am telling the truth about my situation.But I wasn't talking specifically about you guys-you seem to be honest buisnessmen.It's simply being coldly realistic.Someone one said the only thing worse then war is BUISNESS.In my experience-this is coldly true.It's why people like me get shafted at every turn by those who beleive "street smart is being able to take something from someone without them realizing it."

I still hope for the best-and I hope those pictures were sufficiently detailed that people know what they're buying,condition accuracy or not.

Andrew L.

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Good Luck Andrew. I hope for the best. I am getting laid off from work soon and one of the reasons I sold my Spidermans recently. As I said i spent alot of cash on thoses spidermans value was over $1,500 and I got $250 but i knew that so I made my reserve $200. But with no money in the bank you have to start to sell things to stay afloat.

 

Again in your defense you came here, listened to everyone and made changes to your auction (Lower price, Get rid of bad pics, Adding text etc.) atleast you made the effort . most of these sellers on Ebay would have told most of us to shut the fcuuk up a long time ago. I dont believe in comics as investments except the top keys from the GA., SA & BA and in VF or better. otherwise invest in stocks.

Good example is I owned couple of hundred shares of marvel stock years ago . Back when it was $1 a share. Had about 500 shares. I sod it when it was like $3 a share and did puirchase a few comics . That 500 shares would be over $15,000 now with the stock being worth $30 including splits. Now that is an investment.

 

Most of the time when you go to sell something you get a wake up call. I went to Gamestop to sell my Playstation 2 games and the most they would give me was $3 a game . I had Madden 2006 in the box with instructions and perfect condition and they offered me $3 .Not that I expected much more but was shocked when I went to there used shelf and they were selling it for $25 . this was 3 months ago . Now they are selling them for $15 used.

Now that is a markup ehh.

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Hey Andrew...don't worry, on this board you're a buffoon who is in the extreme minority...BUT...on eBay...you'll fit RIGHT IN! Here's an example...I just saw these auctions and the seller reminds me of you!

 

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZwatcher7532QQhtZ-1

 

 

And by the way this guy here is just NUTS. $1,000 for $1 books. My goodness.

If only.

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This one takes top honors. It is so funny and ridiculous I will post this in the general area. I am still laughing at this.Because te top says it could be worth $2,500 to you they are asking $2,500 for a 50 cent book. they call it Silver Age and cant even get it right . they say comic says $25,000. it says $2,500 AND look at it its VG at best . HA HA HA HA

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Marvel-Comic-Books_W...1QQcmdZViewItem

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I don't know what your exact financial situation is but I'd think you'd get more enjoyment out of keeping the books and just adding $1000 onto your student loans. The interest is paid until you graduate so it's really not that onerous.

 

Marc

 

Powerman- As a math major, I'm surprised you haven't considered the following: the time and money this attempt to sell your collection has cost you. Between scanning and posting all of those books, and posting on this forum, even if your time is worth little, my guess is you could have worked the same number of hours at Burger King and made more than whatver you'd net (or even gross) on this auction.

That's one major reason I rarely get motivated to sell any of my books. For >75% of what I own, it's not worth the time and effort to sell it.

 

Now add in the lack of sleep you've gotten from being pissed off about all of this, and the other negative consequences of this anger.

 

All things considered, selling generally sucks unless it's your business, you get stuff cheap and can sell it cheap, and you are not emotionally attached to your items for sale.

 

Keep your books and look to make money elsewhere.

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Powerman,

 

why don't you sell individual comics? Thats the only way to make money on this. The only people looking to buy a lot are sellers who will turn around and sell individually.

 

I would guess that you could make your $1000 easy.

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Powerman,

 

why don't you sell individual comics? Thats the only way to make money on this. The only people looking to buy a lot are sellers who will turn around and sell individually.

 

I would guess that you could make your $1000 easy. [/quo

 

 

$500 in one shot or $1,000 in 100 shots,with multiple trips to the Post Office and rounding up shipping materials. I'd rather deliver pizzas,if those were my only choices.

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I agree either way ot may not be worth it to well other than as I said a quick $600 and to get them out of your face. Hey $600 is nothing to sneeze at but I cant imagine you making much of a profit. I mean the fees, shipping supllies ,peanuts , bubble wrap & boxes. I spent $50 on shipping boxes , peanuts and tape for my $250 auction and them another $60 to ship. I charged $50 for shipping so I lost I lost $60 alone on that. so I made $200 profit .

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$500 in one shot or $1,000 in 100 shots,with multiple trips to the Post Office and rounding up shipping materials. I'd rather deliver pizzas,if those were my only choices.

 

You're too rich to appreciate 100 different $10 sales? I'd love to have the inventory to sell $10 comics all day long. Some people like eBaying, and others don't, I guess.

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$500 in one shot or $1,000 in 100 shots,with multiple trips to the Post Office and rounding up shipping materials. I'd rather deliver pizzas,if those were my only choices.

 

You're too rich to appreciate 100 different $10 sales? I'd love to have the inventory to sell $10 comics all day long. Some people like eBaying, and others don't, I guess.

 

I don't like "Ebaying", particularly under that kind of scenario. For each $10 sale:

 

1. time to grade, scan, post, and manage (reply to questions, etc.) each $10 sale (can be multiple books);

2. If sold, time to contact seller, process payment, ship books;

3. exchange pleasantries/FB with successful sale;

4. With unsuccessful sale, time to relist and manage sale again;

5. With unsuccessful transaction, time to deal with all the BS;

6. subtract ebay cost of listing and any consumables used to generate listing;

7. Subtract ebay Final value fee;

8. substract cost of paypal or payment processing (be sure to include cost of bad cks etc.);

9. substract extra costs you typically absorb in shipping, which come from several angles (undercharged, gas to PO, etc.);

10. Subtract what you have in the item listed;

11. Substract cost of being ripped off occasionally by buyer including charge backs.

12. Subtract the cost of depreciation of your inventory that occurs from it being handled so much by your attempts to sell it.

 

There are a few more drains on your time and money that I've forgotten (I imagine a few others will chime in), but you REALLY need to like "ebaying" to list 100 $10 auctions, and really really need to have your system operating at optimal efficiency IMO.

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I totally agree with Whomerjay to a point-EBAYing can be extremely frustrating,particularly when the usual EBAY BS applies to comics.You end up usually at best breaking even and most of time,not even that.Then there are the insufficiently_thoughtful_person buyers who get thier stuff from you for next to nothing and turn around and screw you on feedback and chargebacks-it wasn't enough they got it cheap,they want it for NOTHING if they can get away with it.But if you know what you're doing and understand that most objects for sale on EBAY-like textbooks-have a "selling season" and/or target audience,you can make a decent profit if they stock can be obtained cheap.For example,I've cleaned out my college's book sale for a number of years at a buck a piece or less and turned around to make 10-20 bucks profit off them here.Sadly,the book sale people have become wise to this and there's so much under-the-table dealings by booksellers there now in the days before the offical sales,that when the actual sale begins,it's been cherry picked and all that's left is the dregs.

It's quite sad-that was a great source of income for me before that,not to mention my primary method of building my own library.But as I said-buisness sucks.

Andrew L.

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Well, anything sounds bad if you list every single action that goes along with it. I don't like to make dinner because I have to:

 

1. Decide what to eat

2. Walk to the kitchen

3. Open the fridge

4. Grab the first item

5. Put it on the counter

6. Go back to the fridge

7. Pick up the 2nd item

 

Get my point? I know of many Power Sellers who make a living by selling $10 items on eBay, so it can work. I agree somewhat, I like to keep my ASPs as high as possible. I won't sell anything for less than $5, because after fees and the cost of the item, you're not making money. But with every $10 sale, you keep $8 after eBay and PayPal fees. So assuming you paid less than $8 per item, you're making a profit.

 

I would like to buy powerseller's lot for about $500, and sell it in $10 lots. But he's not selling it for $500.

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Here is a college book story.

 

This is going to sound awful but back in college I suported my self (well Beer money) by over charging my dad for books. (I told him about it years later and he just laughed)

 

After the first time buying books I would save the price stickers. Paid cash and the college of SI never gave a receipt. SO I would save the $100 stickers and stuff and the next semester I would buy books and say a book was $35 . I would change the sticker to $100. SO if the books cost me $200 . I would tell my dad they were $400 . He would add up the stickers and i would give him the change (he would give me $500 cash) I then has beer money for a month or two. I also worked in the summer at Kmart (Etc) and saved a few hundred but this was supplemental income. Hey he thought it was funny when I told him years later.Once I got a job and was making money I offered to pay him back but he said no way and then nicely paid off my $6,000 credit card bill I had run up ( Yes some of that was comcis).

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