Seller Tips and Price Points of Graded Books1472
Pages:
1
 I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
|
kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I have a few questions that involve reselling graded books. This is directed at those who are considered professional resellers of comics. I'm sure a lot of you here who are just casual sellers have these questions in the back of your mind, too. SRP=Suggested Retail Price Here's my list of questions: 1. When you sell, do you include the cost of grading? 2. When you sell, do you include the cost of shipping? 3. When you sell, do you include verified signature fees? 4. If you bought a 8.0 raw book, comes back graded as 6.0 graded...do you eat the loss in your SRP? 5. Do you include raw book cost, grading fees cost, shipping cost in your SRP? 6. Do you just sell the book as a SRP market value price regardless of anything/loss/profit? 7. If cost of raw book is $5 but after signatures/grading fees the book is now worth $1000. Do you still sell the book at $1000 or just costs + a tiny profit to guarantee that sale? 8. How do you price autographed books when there is no fee for some of the creators yet you had to pay $20 for each additional signature for VSP? Stan Lee aside for a second, some of these other creators like Matt Fraction or Dodsons do not charge. 9. Do you factor the ebay fees, shipping fees, and paypal fees in your SRP? Or is it just considered an "advertising fee/cost" to help sell your book? Ebay admittedly gets better traffic than say one's own hosted domain site. 10. Do resellers have more to gain at a Fixed Price or Auction price listings? I'm not seeing the benefits to relisting the same item for 6 months when you add the listing fees and associated time/cost over ROI clickthroughs I ask these questions because I'm kinda lost. Some of my 4x and 5x signature books are costing me a fortune in verification and grading fees. I just don't see any profit to this. These questions are to the benefit of all of us on this forum. I really just wanted to sell non-turtle and non-spider-man related books to gain back some credit card payments. Not looking to start a comic book reseller business. Again, just to pay some credit card bills, not to put bread or milk on the table. Just spending money, really. Thank you |
||
| Post 1 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
DertyComix private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Great topic Kap if i was not currently at the dentist office getting my teeth cleaned i would answer some of these questions. But i know for sure when i get home ill be leaving a good message when i get home. | ||
| Post 2 • IP flag post | ||
|
I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
|
kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I am actually looking forward to some of these answers. I think we all should enjoy a good topic discussion out of this thread hopefully. I really want all of us to come together and give each other good seller tips! This benefits all of us really. Please can we be professional and polite in this thread I do not want to see this locked. Thanks |
||
| Post 3 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
QuaBrot private msg quote post Address this user | |
| The SRP is a market driven price, not a costs driven price. What I mean by that is that all the costs that go jnto a slabbed book (buying the raw comic, all transport to and from you, graders, and buyer, signatures, grading, advertising, and fees) have no effect on the final price - it all has to do with what someone else will pay for it. The ONLY fee that is customarily charged above the SRP is shipping to the buyer, but that has to reasonable or buyers will not want to buy from you. Yes, it can be frustrating to sink time and money into a book and find out its a lower grade than you thought, or that the added signature doesn't do anything for the value of the book. There are times when you have to eat the loss. Hopefully you are ahead over all, some losers, most OK and maybe a big winner or two. Think of how you view a slabbed book when you are buying it - what do you think about when you are deciding to buy or not. Good luck! |
||
| Post 4 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
AznBane private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Like QuaBrot said it's market driven. Before I even consider getting a book graded or even signed I look at what the market has decided to price the book for. A good site is GoCollect 1. When you sell, do you include the cost of grading? No 2. When you sell, do you include the cost of shipping? I'll do free shipping and lump it into what I'm asking for. To be clear this is shipping to the customer. That shipping you paid for grading, eat it up. 3. When you sell, do you include verified signature fees? No 4. If you bought a 8.0 raw book, comes back graded as 6.0 graded...do you eat the loss in your SRP? Yes, no one is going to buy a 6.0 for a 8.0 price. 5. Do you include raw book cost, grading fees cost, shipping cost in your SRP? No 6. Do you just sell the book as a SRP market value price regardless of anything/loss/profit? I speculate. So I usually throw up a book for a price I am hoping it will hit when say... a big announcement is about to drop. 7. If cost of raw book is $5 but after signatures/grading fees the book is now worth $1000. Do you still sell the book at $1000 or just costs + a tiny profit to guarantee that sale? I don't mess with signatures too often. Usually the book will sell for what ever an unsigned copy is going for + the cost of the signature itself. So one example, I don't expect the price of Stan Lee book to be much higher than $100 over what I bought the book for. This could of course change at the end of this year when he stops doing conventions. 8. How do you price autographed books when there is no fee for some of the creators yet you had to pay $20 for each additional signature for VSP? Stan Lee aside for a second, some of these other creators like Matt Fraction or Dodsons do not charge. Like I said I don't really mess with signatures but look at what similar ones have sold for. 9. Do you factor the ebay fees, shipping fees, and paypal fees in your SRP? Or is it just considered an "advertising fee/cost" to help sell your book? Ebay admittedly gets better traffic than say one's own hosted domain site. No factoring. Past sales are past sales. Price it at that. Don't play games with covering ebay fees, it will cause your item to sit because it will be more than someone else's item. 10. Do resellers have more to gain at a Fixed Price or Auction price listings? I'm not seeing the benefits to relisting the same item for 6 months when you add the listing fees and associated time/cost over ROI clickthroughs I always jack up the price a little over past sales and put in a best offer. The patient people are the ones that get the most profit imo |
||
| Post 5 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
Resurrection private msg quote post Address this user | |
| 1. When you sell, do you include the cost of grading? No, I price books at FMV. This is indicated by past sales history. If there is no information available to price off, you have to set the trend for the market by using some logic in pricing. 2. When you sell, do you include the cost of shipping? All of my Ebay listing for BIN include free shipping, this is worked into the price. 3. When you sell, do you include verified signature fees? I price all books at FMV. If I screw up and lose money, that's my fault. 4. If you bought a 8.0 raw book, comes back graded as 6.0 graded...do you eat the loss in your SRP? I lose in this case. If I can't tell the difference between a F and a VF then I should not sell books. 5. Do you include raw book cost, grading fees cost, shipping cost in your SRP? Again, books are sold at FMV. 6. Do you just sell the book as a SRP market value price regardless of anything/loss/profit? Yes. 7. If cost of raw book is $5 but after signatures/grading fees the book is now worth $1000. Do you still sell the book at $1000 or just costs + a tiny profit to guarantee that sale? I sell it for FMV, helps to wash out the books you may lose on. 8. How do you price autographed books when there is no fee for some of the creators yet you had to pay $20 for each additional signature for VSP? Stan Lee aside for a second, some of these other creators like Matt Fraction or Dodsons do not charge. I do not do this as it is not a good way to make money on a book. I get all of my signatures and then grade the book. I rarely if ever crack books out. 9. Do you factor the ebay fees, shipping fees, and paypal fees in your SRP? Or is it just considered an "advertising fee/cost" to help sell your book? Ebay admittedly gets better traffic than say one's own hosted domain site. FMV is the same for all sellers. Every auction house takes it's percentage. 10. Do resellers have more to gain at a Fixed Price or Auction price listings? I'm not seeing the benefits to relisting the same item for 6 months when you add the listing fees and associated time/cost over ROI clickthroughs I list almost exclusively fixed price, this month I will branch out into running weekly auctions. This is to help move more inventory, and remove the continuous relisting of items. |
||
| Post 6 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
OrbitCityComics private msg quote post Address this user | |
| The market drives this business, and unless you're the head of a major movie studio who decides what movies get made, you're not going to move the market. I very rarely pay market prices, I typically pay below market unless it's for my personal collection and I can't find it anywhere else. Most collectors live on a budget. I always factor that in when selling. Golden and silver age books will usually fetch top dollar. Modern and bronze can fluctuate wildly based on availability. I might only find one book going for an insane amount of money, and someone will buy it, but the next few days you will see tons of them because everyone believes they're going to get the same price. Example: I was looking for a renew your vows vol 1 wedding dress cover by Campbell. There was one listed for $250 and someone bought it. The next three days I saw an onslaught of the same book up for auction, I ended up paying $35. |
||
| Post 7 • IP flag post | ||
|
I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
|
kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I absolutely positively love the responses you guys are replying with. Variant covers and exclusive covers also seem to throw a wrench in the cog as well. | ||
| Post 8 • IP flag post | ||
|
I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
|
kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| One thing @Resurrection stated I had to comment with immediately as to what happened with me on a personal experience: Quote: Originally Posted by Resurrection The infamous "Missing page x, does not affect story" hit me which is why I asked |
||
| Post 9 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
Resurrection private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by kaptainmykeBook is incomplete, value it at .5 |
||
| Post 10 • IP flag post | ||
|
I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
|
kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I gave a bad example sorry I think too this year because it's the first time I'm using CBCS I didn't realize how strict their grading is. Several 9.0s came back to me an 8.0 or less, for example. So it's a little learning curve for me as well, frankly. |
||
| Post 11 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
Resurrection private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by kaptainmykeLook at my ebay, you can get a pretty good idea as to how pricing works. Some books are a loss, others a nice profit. Basically any variant that is not a 9.8 you have a chance at losing. So sometimes dumping them raw is the smarter move, or sit on them in hopes they gain new popularity. |
||
| Post 12 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
Resurrection private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @kaptainmyke Learning to grade is the most important aspect of this hobby and comes with repetition. Make a list before every submission, write notes and compare grades and notes when they come back to you. I have found CBCS to be very accurate, I stopped using CGC this year due to their fluctuation in grading. I have graded over 500 books at this point, when I see a change in results, I know who made a change. CBCS has been 100% for me so far this year. | ||
| Post 13 • IP flag post | ||
 COLLECTOR
|
conditionfreak private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by kaptainmyke Short answer: Yes to all. longer answer: Each individual makes a judgment call on their own personal situation. Need for quick cash. Just want to be rid of a dud purchase. Taking a loss because you spent money unwisely. Or you got what you wanted, regardless of the costs involved, and now you are no longer in love with the item. There could be thousands of reasons. And each book is different. |
||
| Post 14 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
|
Lonestar private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Interesting topic and responses. I see several posts stating that they don't include the cost of grading in the price they ares selling a comic for. Instead they use FMV. Fair enough, but what is the difference in price of a raw copy vs. a graded copy of the same comic with same grade? Isn't the graded copy typically higher price than the raw? If so, hasn't the FMV just included the grading cost? |
||
| Post 15 • IP flag post | ||
|
I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
|
kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| That was my question. Thank you @Lonestar . A $5 book should cost $30 if it's graded. Right? A $5 book signed by Stan Lee graded should cost $135. Right? BTW I just sold my New Mutants #98 CBCS graded 9.4 signed by Rob Liefeld and smudged by Stan Lee for $337. I preferred $450 but people are going to pay what they want to pay if you want to let it go. I considered it only because Stan smudged it and the buyer in Ireland was apparently fine with that. |
||
| Post 16 • IP flag post | ||
|
Collector
|
Resurrection private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @kaptainmyke I buy a Teen Titans 2 for $125.00 as a raw NM-, book grades 9.6 I sell it for $360/400. whatever FMV is. Random book is $5.00 and grades 9.8 sells for $25.00, well that is a book nobody wanted. |
||
| Post 17 • IP flag post | ||
Pages:
1This topic is archived. Start new topic?