Unfortunately, you’re probably far more right than wrong.
I’ve been doing quite well since with the market correcting I got a lot more picky about buying. I’ll still buy a big bulk lot sight unseen if it is cheap enough where I could sell everything for a dollar each and make my money back, but I’m not going to drop $100 on just a single shortbox unless it has some heat. I buy extremely cheap and then make a profit by having big margins even if it isn’t a huge book. I think @agentpoyo discussed it is better to get 5 books for a buck each you sell for $20 each as that’s a lot more money made in terms of your ROI than if you pick up 2 books for $50 each and sell them for $100 each. Hence, I dropped $550 today on 1,500 comics as there are some good things I could spy mixed in and I am diving into the collection more shortly. I’d love to find an absolute gem that pays for it all, but I’m good with the $20-$30 titles I’ve found so far. I also have a friend who will buy the bunch of leftover dollar books from me for a decent bulk price so it should be a rewarding return overall.
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A lot of us have been talking about how nobody is buying slabs these days. Should we take advantage of this dip and buy cheap slabs or are we not anticipating a bump any time soon, which would render our purchases fruitless, at least for the next few years?
@Waymond I’m buying slabs still…
I’m fine with folks calling this foolish but I’m making it a point to buy slabs of popular books that fall in the 8.5-9.4 range for absolute rock bottom prices as they are treated like garbage just because they aren’t the sought after higher grades…I then crack them out, price them at the appropriate grade and sell them raw.
-recent example–Skottie Young Morbius Cover-CGC 9.2–nobody wants a 9.2. Paid $30 for it, cracked it, sold it raw NM- in a mylite for $50.
The Voodoo witch doctor pressers buy them for way more than I’m paying for them originally slabbed because they believe their mojo magic can presto magic them into 9.8s.
On the economy…imo…no worse time of year than right now…fall into winter…back to school expenses, lots of holidays regardless of religion and all the various expenses that go with them, Halloween if that’s your thing and/or kids costumes, increases in heating costs if your in a cold climate. August-December is buckle down time in the ole Midwest for me.
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Where I live I’m only seeing dealers / flippers unloading their drek on marketplace. No major keys, maybe some minor keys. Rarely do I see anyone selling their collection, and if I do they have no list, the price is the price, don’t waste my time I know what I got, etc…
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I pass right on by when I see this phrase; and it is being used more and more often on Marketplace.
It’s an immediate turn-off in that I know that I’m dealing with an ass; and I have no stomach for that anymore.
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I love this in FBM listings - “don’t waste my time I know what I got”. Yet 95% of the time, they have books that are worth shit. LOL! There was one guy, had his listing at $100,000 and it was these random books. I message the guy for the hell of it to see what he really wanted for it, he was like, I want $100k. I just never responded and moved on. These people are a real waste of time. It is getting harder to find reasonable priced collections as people just have books way too overpriced still in my area.
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Oh yeah, I see lots of junk on Marketplace but find good stuff too. I actually found this collection on Craigslist, believe it or not. That site sometimes works out well for me…
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I sold a random Batman slabbed book this weekend. First in a while.
I think nobody is buying slabs at events because they are always overpriced. If I can find that same slab on ebay for 60% of what that event seller has it for, why bother? I don’t want to spend 10 minute haggling with them to get it down to only 125% of the price I can get elsewhere.
Bring your prices to 85% of where they are on ebay, and people will still spend money.
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OK. Start a post and document this buy so that we can all live vicariously through your purchase. Every collection for sale that I stumble upon that isn’t all junk is sold immediately.
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This 1000%.
I found many prices last year at NYCC to be still 2021 and 2022 prices at many vendors…not even close. Didn’t even ask to look at them.
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My crystal ball tells me a Cheap Slabs post from our benevolent overlord, Anthony, is coming…
I mentioned my once a year comic con (that I set up at) is this weekend. I meticulously look up every single book relative to sold listings and price it under. I’ll always always go lower and I run a “buy any 4 books/get 1 free”.
If it’s a book I’ll get a beating on and I have fondness for it…I simply hang onto it.
Typically, even the best of books I’ve snagged over the years for a dollar, off the rack, or long ago for cheap. I have zero issues taking any profit…I don’t need max profit.
Hulk #449 comes to mind…I have a CGG 9.4 and a raw copy. Both were from $1 bins…you can bet I’ll be selling them. Same with a Venom #4 9.8.
Pocket full o’ cash feels waaay better then carting those books back home to sit in a box for the remainder of my life.
I’ll let you know what happens!!!
The one thing I will say…$#ck move or not…I do not put out my stuff or uncover my boxes till the show starts and doors open. I’m not the guy to stock other vendors shelves. I’ve had people mad at me about that but I don’t care. Sure maybe customer A sells also but I don’t have to watch him put a new price sticker on my book and resell it. Seeing a vendor do that irks me. I get it…he bought it…his book to do it…but I put a stop to that nonsense.
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Haven’t done one in a while, but totally could. It was fun to do during covid mostly because nothing new was coming out.
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You are helping make the show worth it for attendees. Thank you. It’s not fun to attend a con and tell everything is picked over/overpriced already.
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Good man!!
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The last few shows I’ve been setup at as a vendor/dealer, people were spending money. I did move some slabs at a local show a few weeks ago, but I did give the customers some good deals on them. I also did have space at FanExpo Chicago, that Friday I did move quite a good amount of slabs. Then the next day I had more wall books sell, and Sunday ended up being my slower day.
Most of the cons that I have attended this year as an attendee or as a vendor, I have noticed that there are dealers that still have prices which are absurd. I guess they want to have a museum or antiques to keep staring at.
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Really appreciate that. I almost stopped going to some local cons here about a year or 2 ago because of this. Would go to a con and it was all the same vendors. Whenever there was a new vendor, these dealers would pick their booth clean before the show and overpriced them when the show starts.
Felt it was a waste of my time going. These vendors would price their books at absurd 2021 prices and there were no deals to be had. Why would anyone go to a show just to get price gouged? So I stopped going for a year or 2 and recently came back. Noticed that it has changed a lot. The dealers with an entire booth of cgc slabs with Darth Vader 3 First Doctor Aphra cgc 9.8 (first print) for $1000 are gone. Lots of smaller vendors with dollar boxes fill the show now. I wonder if the event organizer put their foot down when they saw the attendance drop.
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glad some vendors cover their boxes before a show! it would irk me too. if i were a vendor, i would do the same. i’d want to sell to as many collectors looking for books for fair prices. a lot of high prices for books no business being so high
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That is a tough book in “true” 9.8…all black cover.
I thought about sending one of mine in with my Venom 3s, but nine of my copies are better than 9.4.
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