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Friend of CPG
 
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Back in the 90's my LCS would offer 50% of OPG for anything at all in trade for anything in his store that you were prepared to pay full OPG for. Sadly he went out of business
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Serious Collector
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thatjerk (10/14/2009)
A dealer won't be in business long if he pays market value and sells at market value. They have to make a profit to stay in business. And an entire collection will be full of books that can't be moved immediately, so there is 'cost' in having them in inventory for any extended period of time that must be taken into consideration.
If you were to sell your entire collection as one auction on eBay, you probably would not make much more than a dealer would offer you for a lot of the same reasons. Unless you're selling individual books yourself (which takes more time and work on your part) you won't get anywhere near 'market value', and then only for hot, key or popular books.
Exactly. The advantage of selling books to a dealer is to get someone to take them all. It's never a good idea to cherry pick ALL your best books and take them to a dealer either. You might be able to get more for the gems, but keeping some gems in the sale will bait them into paying more for the common dreck. Their eyes will get greedy if they see a few key buts and they'll rationalize to themselves that they can make more off the common books because the keys are harder to get cheap. Rozanski walks around and buys dealers out. His buy prices online are for the desperate guy that just wants to cash out his collection fast. Success through selling in the comics industry depends upon how cheaply you can get comics and how fast you can move it. Most comics can't be flipped very fast. So Rozanski may be offering low amounts, but he already has most of what you are selling him anyway. Why would anyone pay a lot for something they don't need?
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Serious Collector
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Silver Age Surfer (10/16/2009)
The only way to maximize the value of a transaction with your friendly neighborhood LCS dealer is to trade. Period. And even then, you lose.
You are only going to lose if it's something he doesn't need. I've done plenty of trades at full market value. If you have a modern hot comic going for $20 and he has a customer who needs it, you should be able to find any book worth $20 that's been sitting in his backstock awhile and he should be willing to trade a $20 book for a $20 book. It all depends upon how fast he can sell it. That's how I got $90 trade credits for Magnus #12 when I put it towards an Amazing Fantasy #15. Back when that book was hot, dealers had a line of customers waiting for it. I had $900 worth of modern comics that could sell instantly. He had a $900 book that I wanted and he'd paid a fraction of that that. He'd probably have had to sit on it for another 6 months or a year and walk away from the show he was at losing money. The dealer that traded me the Amazing Fantasy #15 sold $900 worth of my modern books within an hour and we both walked away from the trade very happy. It might've only been $300 profit, but he makes nothing until cash changes hands. A book sitting in backstock for a year or on a wall for 6 months is dead weight. The only books worth a dealer having are the ones which he can sell.
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Enthusiast
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Aphelion (10/16/2009)
Silver Age Surfer (10/16/2009)
The only way to maximize the value of a transaction with your friendly neighborhood LCS dealer is to trade. Period. And even then, you lose.
You are only going to lose if it's something he doesn't need. I've done plenty of trades at full market value. If you have a modern hot comic going for $20 and he has a customer who needs it, you should be able to find any book worth $20 that's been sitting in his backstock awhile and he should be willing to trade a $20 book for a $20 book. It all depends upon how fast he can sell it. That's how I got $90 trade credits for Magnus #12 when I put it towards an Amazing Fantasy #15. Back when that book was hot, dealers had a line of customers waiting for it. I had $900 worth of modern comics that could sell instantly. He had a $900 book that I wanted and he'd paid a fraction of that that. He'd probably have had to sit on it for another 6 months or a year and walk away from the show he was at losing money. The dealer that traded me the Amazing Fantasy #15 sold $900 worth of my modern books within an hour and we both walked away from the trade very happy. It might've only been $300 profit, but he makes nothing until cash changes hands. A book sitting in backstock for a year or on a wall for 6 months is dead weight. The only books worth a dealer having are the ones which he can sell.
Your comic book guy is amazing. Seriously. Full value, modern and a fast seller. Almost too good to be true. In any comic store in my entire city (and we have something like 50 of them within a 1 hour drive radius) not only would no one here ever take a hot modern book back because their customers would just buy new issues and $29 variants and keep trading it in for new ones free of charge, not one of them could move modern comics that fast even on their best day. As for the old stuff, I'd be lucky to get 70% trade-in value on most $30-$100 issues because they just simply don't move. Most comics, even the new ones, sit on shelves for months, and our guys have enough trouble selling their own stock to even consider most equal value trades.
Do you live in a small or medium size city by any chance? I find that in small towns like the one I used to live in, it's way easier to get away equal value trades with local dealers. Here the stores and in-house or independent dealers bilk us like there's no tomorrow. The store up the street has resorted to selling a rather high quality hash to stay in business. Their grass is sub-par.
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Serious Collector
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I'm saying that if you have a fast selling modern book that his customers want... and he can't get it due to demand.... you should be able to do a full trade for any older book that has been sitting in his store for a year or more. In some cases a retailer may not have even raised the prices on his older stock anyway.
I live in Atlanta and there aren't many stores left. Regardless, it is to his advantage to give a full value swap if he's got a book that's not selling and he can get one that'll sell tomorrow. There are some dealers that are jerks and stick by the percentages you mention above out of principle. I laugh in their face and walk away. I also won't buy books from them anyway.
Let's say you bought a Chew #1 and he can't get it replaced. He's annoying his customers every minute he can't fill their want list. If you had one and were willing to trade it, he should be willing to give you full market value in trade on some back issue at a comparable price that nobody ever asks about. If he's not willing to do that, you should laugh at him because that customer he's got that want to buy the Chew #1 can shift his business online or to a mail order company. If he's sitting back on everything going "Nope, have to get my percentages" you just remind him that he's getting his percentage out of the dead stock he's got in the store. Dead inventory and poor back issues sales are the biggest problem he has.
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| A few years ago at a convention (it was either WonderCon or a small show held at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland) I witnessed a well known national dealer picking through another dealer's box. He pulled out what looked like 40-50 early Kaluta Shadow comics. There were quite a handful of #1s (at least 10) in the pile. The seller was all smiles until the buyer walked the pile over to the seller and told him "I'll give you 20 bucks." The seller responded "For each one?" to which the buyer said "No. For all." When the seller told him no the buyer gave a little bit of attitude to the seller and left the pile there. Even though I wasn't part of the transaction, I felt insulted by the buyer for such a low-ball offer. Using this example to answer your question, apparently not much. It wasn't until I walked by the buyer's booth did I discover who he was (an Overstreet Advisor). I never have nor will I ever buy anything from this dealer.
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Serious Collector
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50AE DE (10/17/2009)
A few years ago at a convention (it was either WonderCon or a small show held at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland)I witnessed a well known nationaldealer picking through another dealer's box. He pulledout what looked like 40-50 early Kaluta Shadow comics. There were quite a handful of #1s (at least 10) in thepile. The seller was all smiles until the buyer walked the pile over to the seller and told him "I'll give you 20 bucks." The seller responded "For each one?" to which the buyer said "No. For all." When the seller told him no the buyer gave a little bit of attitude to the seller and left the pile there. Even though I wasn't part of the transaction, I felt insulted by the buyer for such a low-ball offer.
Using this example to answer your question, apparently not much. It wasn't until I walked by the buyer's booth did I discover who he was (an Overstreet Advisor). I never have nor will I ever buy anything from this dealer.
If they didn't know each other, that would be an insult. If they barter regularly, it might have been just exchanging favors or a failed attempt. I haven't sold comics at a show in years, but people will still give me deep discounts because I have so many connections.
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| I've had bad experiences at several of my LCS. I once took in about 200 books when I was strapped for cash and the owner offered me 10 cents each. The sign said, "Free appraisals" on the front. It was just a pile of X-Men, X-Factor, Wolverine, but really, he did not even look at them, just made a blanket offer. I walked away. Now I would probably print out a inventory list and current prices and bargin with them, but I still feel like they are trying to rip you off. 10 cents each is just like saying "I don't care, take it or leave it".
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Serious Collector
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10 cents is the going wholesale rate on most moderns. There are enough dealers stuck on them that they can buy them in bulk from other retailers at that price. Plus modern back issues for the most part are not real fast sellers. Peoiple bought them new and there aren't a lot of new customers walking in the door looking for modern back issues. It's easier to buy a TPB if you want the story.
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I can understand the 10 cents thing financially, but it is still insulting when the Comic Book Guy does not even leaf through what you brought in. He is just assuming it is crap, or worse, hopes you are assuming it is crap, and then later he will look to see if there any some diamonds in there that he got for next to free. 
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