question about bulk buys...

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question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

Hey guys I have a question geared toward the sellers (guys that setup at cons), or anyone that's been involved in large bulk buys and sells. There's an estate auction coming up that's advertised as having between 9-10k comics from late nineties to present. It looks like they're going to be auctioned off in boxes of 200, and the majority are labelled as Marvel and DC. This is a consignment sale out of town, so I'm hoping there isn't too many dealers, and it also has a number of very high-end items so the comics would be one of the cheapest lots there.

What would you guys bid on a box if you didn't know the contents, but knew they were probably Marvel/DC. I would be looking to flip some of them, but also keep a bunch for my personal collection. What do you think, $1/book (is that too high, too low)? And who knows, there could be some big books in the lot (non Marvel DC, like Image and other independents).

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by mkb28 »

The LCS that bought my two long boxes and two short boxes of Batman books from the 90's, said that he usually only pays a quarter a book. I even thought that was a little high. It will be interesting to see what the more experienced sellers say.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by nycjadie »

$1 a book is way too high unless its bronze age, in my opinion. I pay $.50 if there's stuff I want and it's truly NM. Other than that, I think $.10 is probably high.

That being said, I'm super happy to offload about 30 short boxes at my house for a very good rate!

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

mkb28 wrote:The LCS that bought my two long boxes and two short boxes of Batman books from the 90's, said that he usually only pays a quarter a book. I even thought that was a little high. It will be interesting to see what the more experienced sellers say.

Mkb28
Were these books from the early 90s? I know dealers won't offer much for those books, but books that start in the late 90s and the 2000s have print runs that are pretty low. I'm just getting up to speed on the chromium books, so I don't know which books are pretty solid to grab for a buck a piece aside from a few obvious titles like ASM. They wildcard factor though is whether or not the boxes are available for viewing, if they don't, and it's a total gamble (buying the box unseen, then I can see them going a lot lower).

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

nycjadie wrote:$1 a book is way too high unless its bronze age, in my opinion. I pay $.50 if there's stuff I want and it's truly NM. Other than that, I think $.10 is probably high.

That being said, I'm super happy to offload about 30 short boxes at my house for a very good rate!
Do you think some of these boxes will go that low? $20 box for a box. :?

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by nycjadie »

GGSAE wrote:
nycjadie wrote:$1 a book is way too high unless its bronze age, in my opinion. I pay $.50 if there's stuff I want and it's truly NM. Other than that, I think $.10 is probably high.

That being said, I'm super happy to offload about 30 short boxes at my house for a very good rate!
Do you think some of these boxes will go that low? $20 box for a box. :?
Possibly. At auction, there might be more inexperienced buyers, so they will probably sell for more than what they're worth. Then again, they might be less picked over than Craigslist finds. I've seen short boxes of 90's-00's material go for $10 a short box at conventions, and even then, they weren't selling fast. I mean, if there's stuff you want in there, you can probably justify it.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by mkb28 »

GGSAE wrote:
mkb28 wrote:The LCS that bought my two long boxes and two short boxes of Batman books from the 90's, said that he usually only pays a quarter a book. I even thought that was a little high. It will be interesting to see what the more experienced sellers say.

Mkb28
Were these books from the early 90s? I know dealers won't offer much for those books, but books that start in the late 90s and the 2000s have print runs that are pretty low. I'm just getting up to speed on the chromium books, so I don't know which books are pretty solid to grab for a buck a piece aside from a few obvious titles like ASM. They wildcard factor though is whether or not the boxes are available for viewing, if they don't, and it's a total gamble (buying the box unseen, then I can see them going a lot lower).
Mostly early to mid-90's. I would agree that a dollar a book is probably too high. Aim for a nickel or dime a book and go up from there. :thumb:

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

nycjadie wrote:
GGSAE wrote:
nycjadie wrote:$1 a book is way too high unless its bronze age, in my opinion. I pay $.50 if there's stuff I want and it's truly NM. Other than that, I think $.10 is probably high.

That being said, I'm super happy to offload about 30 short boxes at my house for a very good rate!
Do you think some of these boxes will go that low? $20 box for a box. :?
Possibly. At auction, there might be more inexperienced buyers, so they will probably sell for more than what they're worth. Then again, they might be less picked over than Craigslist finds. I've seen short boxes of 90's-00's material go for $10 a short box at conventions, and even then, they weren't selling fast. I mean, if there's stuff you want in there, you can probably justify it.
I don't know the origin of the buyer, it's an auction house (one of what seems to be a dozen in my area!) on consignment, so I would say probably not cherry-picked but who knows. Again, the majority of buyers there will not be for the comics, this auction is filled with really high-end collectibles (coins, antique, jewellery, etc., etc.). I'm hoping the comics would be auctions off early, the last time I went to one of these that was selling comics they waited until the end because the majority of stuff at this auction was junk. Auction houses can be random in selling lots, but they usually keep the high-ticket items at the end.

I will take your advice and go around 10 cents a book if it's stuff I don't really want...is there anything from the 2000s I should keep an eye on? I short-box of ASM, Batman, Deadpool a buck a book would probably be a great buy.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by paradise »

mkb28 wrote:The LCS that bought my two long boxes and two short boxes of Batman books from the 90's, said that he usually only pays a quarter a book. I even thought that was a little high. It will be interesting to see what the more experienced sellers say.

Mkb28

That is TOO high on bulk purchases (i.e. you don't get to pick out good books, but blind buy instead). We buy boxes for about $10-15 per box, and re-sell them to others who buy from us for about $30-40 per box. Just got rid of 55 boxes in one swoop.
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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by Elveen »

Ihave yet to buy collections (it's my next step in my business) but from talking to my homies tht are dealers, it's a price per box. Like $10 per short and $20 per long. Sight unseen.

I do know a shop owner who to went to a big warehouse auction and they were auctioning pallets at a time unseen.

But a $1 per book unseen. Too much of a risk.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by jmatt »

GGSAE wrote:I don't know the origin of the buyer, it's an auction house (one of what seems to be a dozen in my area!) on consignment, so I would say probably not cherry-picked but who knows.
I would be shocked if this hasn't been cherry picked.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

jmatt wrote:
GGSAE wrote:I don't know the origin of the buyer, it's an auction house (one of what seems to be a dozen in my area!) on consignment, so I would say probably not cherry-picked but who knows.
I would be shocked if this hasn't been cherry picked.
Cherry-picked in the sense that it was a left-over dealer stock, and not a kijiji ad that was gang-probed. There still could be decent stuff in their, and even modern dealers have left a lot of $10,20,50 books in their back issue bins. There could be a ton of junk also....

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by Elveen »

GGSAE wrote:
jmatt wrote:
GGSAE wrote:I don't know the origin of the buyer, it's an auction house (one of what seems to be a dozen in my area!) on consignment, so I would say probably not cherry-picked but who knows.
I would be shocked if this hasn't been cherry picked.
Cherry-picked in the sense that it was a left-over dealer stock, and not a kijiji ad that was gang-probed. There still could be decent stuff in their, and even modern dealers have left a lot of $10,20,50 books in their back issue bins. There could be a ton of junk also....

Also, there are tons of books that were not worth much that are now worth some..... so there is that.

Last year at SDCC, I found a Comic Primer #2 in a long box full of random stuff. The boxes were from a comic store in So Cal that has been in business for a while. I paid .50 for the book. So for sure you can find gems......... but prob. a bunch of el garbargo.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

*Update

So I went to the auction today, the comics were in the back of a room in 20 boxes, each containing about 400-500/box. They were in long-boxes, but didn't have any boards, and many boxes were jammed-full. I did manage to spend some time looking through each box (the comics were auctioned about an hour after the start of the auction), and saw what I suspected heading in: a ton of Marvel DC: lots of Batman, Spiderman, JLA, Avengers, Thor, Superman, etc.

These are the books that stood out to me: Birds of Prey 8, Amazing Spiderman Campbell variants (black window, MJ, etc.), I saw two really beat-up X-Men Silver age #35, 43 (I think). I also saw a bunch of decent $5-10 books, like Hulk/Superman. I really don't know this era that well, but I don't think there were any gems in the lot. I set buys according to box (70 was my cap for the box with all the ASM comics, as well as a bunch of Batman comics); with other buys around $20-60/box. Keep in mind there were 400-500 per box, but not having boards I wonder if any of these were really NM.

The auction went very fast (and I try not to get into bidding wars), doesn't give you much time to think, but I realized that I would rather risk not getting anything than over-paying. I don't know how long it would take to sell some of these books individually, even at 50 cents-$1.00. I also have to price my time in any potential profit in lieu of other ways I can make money (aside from a well-paying salary), and the effort of hauling all those damn boxes...

The auctioneer gave buyer's choice, so when you win you can take as many boxes as you can. I was surprised I didn't recognize any dealers/store owners here, and the people involved in the bidding I'm almost certain ARE NOT that involved in comics (there were a couple of middle-aged women, and some fat oaf that looked like a card-dealer). The auctioneer started at $100 went down quickly to $50 where that fat guy opened up the bidding, I bid it up to $70, and he bid it up to $85 and won. I was hoping he would take a box or 2, and then I could get one or 2 for around $50. "Let me check and see how many I ahhh want.....(spends 5 seconds looking through 20 comics), I'll take 17". I was stunned! With buyers premium and tax he spent $100/box, for comics he may not even have looked at.

Part of me is happy I stuck to my guns, the other part of me was disappointed I walked away with nothing (the two middle-aged woman bulk the remaining bulks that I had the least interest in). At 25 cents a book, I feel that was a great buy for a store, or dealer, but for me I don't think it was worth the hassle. The other intangible is I had no idea how high this guy would have went, he might have paid $150-200 and up/box.

What do you guys think....?

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by nycjadie »

I would have passed.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

nycjadie wrote:I would have passed.
Ya, that's what I figured. I mean there were some decent stuff in there, e.g. batman 612 sketch cover, but the total cost of close to 2k (or more than 2k depending on how high that guy would have went) would have taken awhile to recoup. It would have been different if there were fewer comics, but more $5-10 comics which would have been easier to move. I have no idea how long it will take to sell these damn things. And it's not like there were any big books in there, I would have splurged on a box had I seen some valuable Vertigo or Image titles from that period.

I will keep my eyes peeled on kijiji and at the next show (we have them monthly here), and if that guy is there I'll head straight to his books and see what he's selling them for (I might be able to grab some cheap).

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by 400yrs »

I think you should've asked for that guy's number so I could dump some crap on him.
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Re: question about bulk buys...

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400yrs wrote:I think you should've asked for that guy's number so I could dump some crap on him.
He had bunch of Invincible books on him, so I thought he was your distant relative. :?

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by jmatt »

GGSAE wrote: 20 boxes, each containing about 400-500/box. They were in long-boxes, but didn't have any boards, and many boxes were jammed-full. ...Part of me is happy I stuck to my guns...
I'm happy you stuck to your guns as well. It's not easy to walk away when you're all amped up and ready to buy.

But when I see boxes jammed like that, where you can't even pull a book from the box, and I keep walking. Pulp.

You can go on Ebay under the Lots section and find the same stuff; guys with a warehouse of books selling them for $50 a box or whatever.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

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jmatt wrote:
GGSAE wrote: 20 boxes, each containing about 400-500/box. They were in long-boxes, but didn't have any boards, and many boxes were jammed-full. ...Part of me is happy I stuck to my guns...
I'm happy you stuck to your guns as well. It's not easy to walk away when you're all amped up and ready to buy.

But when I see boxes jammed like that, where you can't even pull a book from the box, and I keep walking. Pulp.

You can go on Ebay under the Lots section and find the same stuff; guys with a warehouse of books selling them for $50 a box or whatever.
Well I have a background in the investment domain, so I can be disciplined sometimes. :P I've made some stupid comic buys like everyone....remember how I said that guy bought all but two boxes? Well I saw an ad on kijiji for the other two asking $400 a box. :lol:

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by jmatt »

GGSAE wrote: Well I saw an ad on kijiji for the other two asking $400 a box. :lol:
I see this on CL all the time. Some guy with a longbox of 90s comics that thinks they're worth $600. "Even includes a copy of The Death of Superman!!!"

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Re: question about bulk buys...

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Hey I forgot about this thread...so update a few months later I saw an ad of a guy listing a bunch of comics for sale. It was about 35 minutes from where I am, so I arrived a bit late and to my dismay it was that same guy that bought all those comics. I don't know if this guy is a card dealer or what, but I don't think he knows much about comics because there were a couple of dealers I recognized that managed to grab all the stuff I wanted (of whatever wasn't a key issue from the lot), e.g. the ASM vol 2s, deadpools, etc. So he did manage to sell a bunch of books at a buck a piece, but unless he was able to unload the leftover (I recalled him having 6 or 8 boxes left), I don't know how much he came ahead (if at all) on this purchase. It turns out I've found two great finds since then, so the moral of the story is they'll be lots of opportunities, especially as a buyer you hold all the cards of being able to be picky.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

Second post, and this is completely separate. I've made a deal to buy a bunch of books today, to complete a transaction tomorrow. I checked them out tonight, and had my reservations about it because I had almost no details of the listing, just the asking price was $1000. I met the guy, and his house was a disaster, he's moving back to Ireland (where he works) and is taking his family with him, so it was basically 'I have to get rid of these'. I had only looked through a few of the boxes, and unfortunately very few of them were bagged/boarded, so some issues were pretty beat-up while others were in decent mid/upper grade range. I'll have to go over the details after I've gone through everything, but it's a shame these weren't cared for better because he had a lot of key books. Basically think of the best titles from that era (late 70s, 80s), and they were there.

He had big runs of ASM, X-Men, some of each from the 100s; Watchmen (I think full series); V for Vendetta, Teen Titans (I saw #2 in there), a bunch of Batmans; Moore Swamp Things; X-Factor (saw issue 6), Avengers; Thor; a bunch of Misc stuff like Rocket Raccoon, Wolverine Mini 1-4, Wolverine second series, etc. etc....anyways 3000 books in total, only about a third that I actually saw. So even though some of these are in poor condition, I figured a solid bronze age collection at 30 cents a pop wasn't bad and there's a lot that I want for my personal collection.

I'll post updates to this as I get the books (will run by this guy's place on my lunch hour tomorrow); I just have to escape my volunteer duties at the company BBQ...

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by nycjadie »

GGSAE wrote:It turns out I've found two great finds since then, so the moral of the story is they'll be lots of opportunities, especially as a buyer you hold all the cards of being able to be picky.
So true! Glad you found the better deals and avoided the stinker. I've had a few myself. I think they're necessary in business and investments. Otherwise, you are not likely taking enough risk.

Funny thing, I've picked up 3 big collections in the 4 years, and I've finally managed to cull them. At one point, before our move to SF, I was going to blow them out. I received lots of tire kickers. People telling me they're worthless. One guy worked really hard talking me down on price over 3 days only to find he wouldn't have the money until weeks after I actually moved. Anyway, fast forward and I have some really great high grade keys - Batman Adventures 12 (9.8 candidate), ASM 300, New Mutants 87, key bronze Uncanny in both newsstand and direct, etc. I just needed a bit more time which I now have. I now have about $800 invested in and the BA 12 graded and ASM 300 would probably cover that. Meanwhile, I have a massive run of bronze Uncanny (near full run from 87 to 250ish) and Daredevil. I also have some great Batman keys. All told, I have 17-18 short boxes to go. After I sell off the commons, I think I'll be close to even, if not a little ahead.

My learning lessons on these purchases were (a) I don't have the time to do them justice, (b) I don't know enough about the modern hot books, and (c) I think I broke even on one collection, so it wasn't worth the time. I also learned I'm really a bronze/modern guy. I keep the silver stuff, but it doesn't bring the nostalgia of the 70's and 80's. Plus, the good 80's and 90's books are much more readable than the best silver age. I also learned that golden age stuff seems to be a bargain now compared to the 80's and 90's. Lots of good deals to be had.

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Re: question about bulk buys...

Post by GGSAE »

nycjadie wrote:
GGSAE wrote:It turns out I've found two great finds since then, so the moral of the story is they'll be lots of opportunities, especially as a buyer you hold all the cards of being able to be picky.
So true! Glad you found the better deals and avoided the stinker. I've had a few myself. I think they're necessary in business and investments. Otherwise, you are not likely taking enough risk.

Funny thing, I've picked up 3 big collections in the 4 years, and I've finally managed to cull them. At one point, before our move to SF, I was going to blow them out. I received lots of tire kickers. People telling me they're worthless. One guy worked really hard talking me down on price over 3 days only to find he wouldn't have the money until weeks after I actually moved. Anyway, fast forward and I have some really great high grade keys - Batman Adventures 12 (9.8 candidate), ASM 300, New Mutants 87, key bronze Uncanny in both newsstand and direct, etc. I just needed a bit more time which I now have. I now have about $800 invested in and the BA 12 graded and ASM 300 would probably cover that. Meanwhile, I have a massive run of bronze Uncanny (near full run from 87 to 250ish) and Daredevil. I also have some great Batman keys. All told, I have 17-18 short boxes to go. After I sell off the commons, I think I'll be close to even, if not a little ahead.

My learning lessons on these purchases were (a) I don't have the time to do them justice, (b) I don't know enough about the modern hot books, and (c) I think I broke even on one collection, so it wasn't worth the time. I also learned I'm really a bronze/modern guy. I keep the silver stuff, but it doesn't bring the nostalgia of the 70's and 80's. Plus, the good 80's and 90's books are much more readable than the best silver age. I also learned that golden age stuff seems to be a bargain now compared to the 80's and 90's. Lots of good deals to be had.
I really appreciate your insight, I like the approach of buying good collections bulk and trying to sell-off a chunk to get your money back and keep the rest. I'm working on doing that now...here's a run-down of the issues of note:
Full run of Uncanny from 165-280 (missing a few random unimportant issues), with some doubles in there. There was also some lower numbers, including 107, 141 and a few in between.
Amazing Spiderman: about 30-40 issues starting from the 280s to about 365, also a few lower numbered issues in low grade (66, 127,222).
Daredevil: 131 (didn't even realize what this was until I looked up the DD books), 181,196.
Detective Comics: 439, a bunch of books in the 560s and 570s (reaper books, Batman: 393,399,400, Year 1 books, death of Robin books.
Teen Titans:2, Tales of Teen titans: 44 (every teen titan book was there, I just plucked these two out).
Watchmen and V for Vendetta: both full sets
Saga of Swamp Thing: 20
Rocket Raccoon: 1-4, Wolverine Mini Series 1-4 (really low grade for this book's age).
Secret Wars 8, X-Factor 6 (really low grade, like the wolvies)
There were a ton of issues in this lot, lots of semi keys (Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, FF, etc. etc.), so I'm hoping to sell those off along with some older stuff I have no interest in...one thing's for sure, it takes a lot more time sifting through this. I really underestimated that!


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