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One Man Comic Business
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279 posts in this topic

So they aren't all winners.

 

Had a guy call and had Ironman 1-10 and Hawkman 1-8 and a few others. He "just wanted to get rid of them" and I said I could give him at least $100 hopefully more condition dependent. He said that would be great.

 

He lived over 3 hours away so this was going to be a tough one. And while trying to coordinate a date and time to meet he sold them to someone else (who bought other stuff I think as the guy was moving).

 

Maybe a boardie got them?

 

Anyway, the fish that got away.

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Anyone in Long Island, NY near Floral Park want to share in a collection? Guy has about 1000 books from 1950s to late 1970s. He wants $1000 or $1 a book.

 

Now don't get too excited, the 1950s are Dells. The 12 centers are mostly Archie. Superhero are late 1960s to 1970s - 15 centers on up.

 

He specifically said there were no Spiderman or Xmen but did say there were some Batman. Never very specific either. All this is from a person who clearly doesn't know how to evaluate comics, has looked up some prices and wants to sell all.

 

He is not a collector, said they were his brothers who passed them on to him. Said there's no real expensive books but lots of ones with $5 and $10 stickers on the bags. I'd guess these are reasonably nice condition as they seem to be bought second hand from stores in the past decade or two.

 

Do I believe what he says, for the most part I do.

 

I figure if all this checks out, its worth $2-$4000 with a sizable possibility they aren't worth even the $1000 he wants.

 

I'm looking for a long term boardie whom I trust from at least doing business or general reputation. Looking to basically split the books 50/50 and put up the same to purchase. He would like to make a deal within the week too.

 

Why am I doing this? Because the drive is about 10 hours round trip and margins/quality of books (while unknown) may not be there. Also looking for comic "expert" to help with future deals in the NYC up to Boston area where I'm unable or unwilling to travel quickly.

 

Details to be worked out via PM but I'm pretty easy about this stuff.

 

 

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A few more business practices I've learned even since starting this journal.

 

I updated my HP scanner and got off XP. Its an Epson and works great. One thing it does better is the scan immediately shows up in the computer folder so I can see it and see if I'm cropping wrong or something like that. Its a bit faster too. The frustrating part is that you can't test scanners until you own it and/or spent an hour setting it up. Best thing to do is test somebody elses or at work if you have the opportunity.

 

Packing tape: Tape went way up in price at staples so I bought a box online. 36 rolls of the cheap stuff. And..... it was way too think. Everytime I went to use it, all I could think was that I was going to spend the next 6 month person_without_enough_empathying about the tape. It is 1.7 mm - don't use it.

 

So like anything, I resold it on ebay and plan to go back to 2.0 or thicker.

 

I stopped using the manila folder envelopes and started using the baggie envelopes. They are cheaper and can be ordered off ebay.

 

I've started throwing out old bags and boards. Its simply easier and more professional to use new ones and they are pretty cheap when ordered in bulk 500 or 1000 at a time.

 

 

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I started leaning more and more towards insisting on getting sellers of collections to pull books and describe them to me. As I've expanded my willingness to drive further, I've tightened up what I'm willing to drive for.

 

If its a box of loose 1970s-80s and he's unwilling to go through a couple to describe, I'll pass. Or worse - he doesn't have them on hand but can get to them. Forget it. Even if it were 1940s (supposedly) if they aren't in hand it's likely not worth it.

 

That said, I've missed lately on a couple of collections due to not being able to move on them immediately. Tough to take, to be perfectly honest, but a week or two goes by and it's not a big deal.

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More story time on three recent calls.

 

1st: Gentleman has 2 comics Batman 91 and Superman 97. He called it 92 but he was old and mis read it. Actually I had to look 3 times to discern it as a 7 and not a 2 its a tiny number on those 50s DC's. Over the phone he called them in great shape and of course didn't mention a selling price. I said I could pay a minimum of $100. He lived about 40 minutes away and I could run errands to combine a trip. So I went. Both had small water damage front and back but OK books, about Good. I still offered $100 and offered some more for about 40 1950s Saturday Evening Posts he had. He declined and had to go

 

2nd: Call from a lady who has books from the 1930s and 1940s. My phone read No Caller ID. She mentions Captain Marvel Superman Batman etc. I ask what are the cover prices. She says 10 cents, I ask if there's Spiderman "Oh yeah." Well OK but that means 1960s or 70s. Oh. Do you have the books with you. Yes. Great can you just tell me about the first one on the pile. Oh, no, not right now, but she'll call me back.

 

3rd: Guy calls with 5 comics - Congo Bill 6, Detective 201 and 3 others from the 50s not worth much. How much, I ask? I don't know what will you pay? I hmm and hawww but say I can pay around $100 unless condition is really nice. Oh No the Congo Bill is worth at least a few hundred dollars. More discussion but time to go.

 

1 and 3 reiterate the lesson that the fewer books they have the more difficult it is to land a deal. Either deal has 100 comics and it becomes easier to buy for $1000 or $2000 and also more probably there's a key book and you can offer more if needed.

 

2 is simply trying. It feeds the imagination when in reality it is 99.9% probably a crank or not the real deal. But there are some red flags here.

 

One: The era of comics is too perfect and truly are rare at this point. A better scam would to simply say a full run of Spiderman, I can believe that over a lot of 1930s books.

Two: No caller ID and when I asked about it she said she gets marketing calls she doesn't like. OK but you can't give me your number? Maybe I'm being paranoid but why call.

Three: Agrees with what I say but says things that don't add up. Won't tell me where the books came from.

Four: Says will call back but why not try and coordinate a time to see the books

Five: Says she has the books but doesn't have the books.

 

Either this is a legit call from a lady with divorce winnings or something Or I can expect the scam that I need to bring cash and she needs to give the money to her friend who is holding the books - I'll be right back.

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1 and 3 reiterate the lesson that the fewer books they have the more difficult it is to land a deal. Either deal has 100 comics and it becomes easier to buy for $1000 or $2000 and also more probably there's a key book and you can offer more if needed.

 

 

yeah, there's nothing I hate more than walk ups at shows with random books looking to sell or trade - it's generally a pain in the . The person typically is either clueless on value- or has done the opposite of cherry picking what they can afford to part with in hopes of getting 1-2 much nicer books of equal value. I only buy comics by the box.

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This brought up an interesting real life situation. You come to a collection with no background on it or the sellers at all. It is the stereotypical 1980s collection of store and convention bought GA and SA books. Mostly low grade a few keys but nothing special except for his pride and joy book XXX. Lets say its a VG Amazing Fantasy 15. It is of course raw. It has a store stick on it for say $700 and is labeled VG+ or something like that, you get the idea.

 

If unrestored its worth $20,000 and if restored maybe $6000. How do you go about making the purchase?

 

Assume this is a one time sale and if you don't buy it on the spot you will likely lose out to another person/dealer.

 

You look at it close and feel that it isn't restored but how can you be 100% or even 99% that it hasn't been trimmed, staples replaced, cleaned or any number of things that are hard to determine definitively.

 

What do you offer and what do you tell the seller. Lets add this likelihood to the mix. He's looked on ebay and sees that they are worth a lot of money. He's a gruff cynical guy but wants to sell it and wants $12,000. What do you do?

 

Even after explaining everything he doesn't want to send it in to CGC first. And if he did, he may just sell it on ebay. Now what, do you buy it for $12k? Less?

 

 

So - a pride and joy book is (lol especially AF 15) - is one of those hard to measure buys - as you have to overcome that emotional attachment with $$$ - along with the fact that the seller knows it is worth a lot.

 

My first inclination would be to only make an offer for all of the other books and deal with the AF15 separately. When you have a collection so skewed in value (and I am assuming that the AF15 is much higher value than the others), the best case IMO - for both buyer and seller is to make it 2 transactions.

 

After closing the bulk of the collection as I know you would be able to do with your mad negotiation skills, you then have to look at several things with respect to a persons own experience and confidence.

 

Me - I would most like offer the "restored" rate - maybe 1K more. The rationale being that I am taking the risk so I cannot offer more and eat a big loss. If there is no deal to be made ( and assuming I already closed on the other books) - I would alternately offer advice to them on how to get the book to auction themselves so that they can get the maximum. for the book on their own.

 

 

 

I know that I would jump at a 12K for at least 20K return investment - BUT not one with a single comic. Why? - cash! If you have a lot of reserves then it is not a huge hit to the bankroll if it comes back restored. Me? - the 12K represents a big % of available buying reserves. If I tank on this one - lots of work would have been wasted.

 

Also - experience! - for a non slabbed book with possible resto - I am not one of those that can wave my hand over the book and spot trimming.

 

If the money is not critical to the decision ( lets say that a 6K hit is 10% or less of your reserves) - then you can look at it as more of a math/game theory problem. Treat it as an event that happens many times over an over again - and just look at the long term expected return on investment.

 

 

Note - you have to figure your % here for the different outcomes. A really good grader/resto expert - would easily be able to minimize resto risk.

 

 

 

so - investment is ~ 13K ( book plus press and slab)

 

 

50% of the time - payout is 7K (grade as expected)

23% of the time - payout is 3K ( oops - you over graded)

25% of the time - loss is 7K ( !@#$@#$# resto)

2% of the time - payout is 15K (joeypost has mad skills)

 

so - over a long term - this kind of purchase ( with the assumed % outcomes) makes you ~ $2700 for the initial 13K investment. This is ~ a 20% return on your money. Not bad.

 

 

Note that EVERY number up there - is really an estimate except for that initial investment one ( you will obviously know the $$$$ needed for that book). Individuals would need to adjust to what they feel is a fair estimates for the outcomes - and some might add in more categories as well. The basic idea is to look at the potential outcomes and how often they happen.

 

For any dealer- the % numbers can be shifted - it all depends on your experience and expertise. The overage on a book that you KNOW can improve with a press - can pop that last % and maybe even that last row payout. Better graders? - then the undergrade number may drop low.

 

 

For people who have to think too much about the price and risking that resto loss - then you are probably not tall enough to ride that ride yet. That's ok - just work on smaller books/collections and build that bankroll. For big $$$ transactions like this - you need to be able to afford the loss - or maybe a better way to think of it - you need to be able to make this same purchase many times over so the long term results can offset short term risks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sold a nice Rawhide Kid 1 for a lower price because I was worried about trimming. The book just looked thin to me, especially for golden/silver age. Apparently I offered up a very good deal. Oops. Honestly, I wanted to keep the book and thought I threw it up for a lot more than anyone would pay...mistake. Thanks ft88, this thread has been awesome.

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Scanning and Photobucket

 

I really like photobucket, in the past 10 years I can remember two time periods where it just didn't work right or they forced me to drastically change my habits. Not too bad all said.

 

Regarding scanners. I use an old HP that I really like to use. So much so that I can't give up my desktop that uses Windows XP. The driver with any newer Windows won't let me scan properly. I set up with a pile of comics I want to scan and unbag everyone of them. I also get rid of any tape on the bags. I take the lid off the scanner and throw it away. Set dpi to 100, format scanning LxW so all corners show. Scan, put in new pile, scan, put in new pile repeat x48. No more scans and they download to a folder on my harddrive automatically. Grade comics as you rebag them. I do this while watching TV unless its a big book.

 

Don't make the mistake or cutting down the scan box to a modern comic and then the next 49 books are early bronze and you've just cropped the spine on each one. Done that a couple dozen times.

 

I don't rename the picture files. But I do open a dozen or so folders in Photobucket. MarvelBronze, MarvelSilver Batman Spiderman etc and then drop 100-200 pics per folder. Uploading to photobucket is pretty straight forward.

 

Summary: Goal is to scan books as fast and efficiently as possible. Start to finish, try to knock out a long box - scan, grade, bagged in about 4 hours.

 

I just starting following this thread. Great advice. I need to clean up and organize my own Photobucket...

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Updates:

 

Deal with the lady w No Caller ID never happened. Surprise surprise

 

Went to see a toy collection which I normally don't do but it was comic related so why not. I'll get into that as another topic. Over the phone the guy said he had toys from the 1970s Batman Robin Starsky and Hutch Flash Gordon and Micronauts. Sounds good, maybe a couple hundred worth all in. Then when I asked him how much he wanted he said the magical words "whatever you think they are worth". Now, I partly get that guilty feeling when folks say that. It's typical. The smart mean seller tries to squeeze every last penny (as he should) whereas the nice guy is willing to practically give away gold. I've chatted about this at various times in this thread and it continues to come up.

Anyway, he then tells me they are in the original packaging. Yeppers, I'll be right there. So he has about 20 carded Micronauts + 10 loose, 10 carded Megos, 2 sets of Flash Gorden cars etc. and some other odds and ends he let me just kind of grab.

The interesting part of this story is when I go to see him, he is at his door of the single wide trailer. About 60 years old No shirt on, and pasty white flabby skin. Inside the trailer it's about 90 degrees on a hot hot day, kind of hard to breath too it was so hot.

 

 

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Was travelling and went to see three collections:

 

First was another guy in a trailer home but this time a double wide. He had about 800 TPB and hardcovers which he let me buy half. That makes about 7 long boxes worth and heavy. BTW shameless plug, I'm selling those know for reasonable to pretty cheap. I'll talk price here since this guy knew his comics and basically was getting nagged by his wife for space. He still has 400 more he wouldn't sell as he wanted to read or re-read those. He wanted $2 a piece which I thought was fine. I'm not a big fan of modern comics but trades are pretty easy sellers especially if you don't mind sitting on them for a year or two. Nice guy and simply wanted to clear them out. He had toys too but all late 1990s to 2000s and not well organized and all without packaging.

With the trades I can sell here, then sell on half.com (without scanning), then Craigslist, then finally ebay or even local book stores on consignment. And at $2 a pop the margins are there. The shocks on my car may never be the same though.

 

Second was an old couple, and they lived about half a mile from where I was staying. Their son had comics from 50 years ago. Great, but it really wasn't 50 years ago, the son is 50 years old so the comics were from 1975 more or less. All lower grade superhero and not a key in sight. Best was Xmen Giant 2 and Avengers 144. Price was right and he added two toys.

 

Third was funny. Drove two hours out of my way. No biggie as he had 14 comics from the 1950s. Mostly cartoon but Donald Duck and then 2 other horror books. Again all lowish grade VG or so. Donald was FC 108 actually pretty nice. The funny part was he was about 60 years old, nice house but a definite smell of M.J and he was high as a kite. OK so how much for the books. "Well, you tell me what you'll offer". Hmmm as we banter back and forth on value worth I'm getting the idea he's fishing for info and not looking to sell. I'm getting kind of miffed at this point and lowball him offering less than $100 for all of them. Aaap, thank you for coming have a nice day.

OK, but what would you sell them at? Grumble mmble, not that low. OK but what is your price or do you have one? Are they even for sale? After more of this he says $600. Wish I had know that from the start. I always find it hard to leave decent GA books on the table but this one was not going to happen.

 

 

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Update on m-bag or surface or shipping international as cheap as you can.

 

Remember it is ISAL m-bag

 

Here's the link for the USPS regs.

 

http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc2_039.htm

 

Pricing - main countries within Europe and Japan/Hong Kong are category 3

 

http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#_c407

 

At 11 lbs it is $22 and $2 per pound after that. I'm shipping a short box that weighs 18 lbs so that will cost me $36 to Great Britain, not bad.

 

There is no more surface so my understanding is it goes airmail until the UK and then it goes ground. I've heard up to 30 days is normal but can take longer.

 

And I'd be careful and spell out I-S-A-L and not ISIL.

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