GA Bid Club Thoughts
Okay, we scored our first big comic in WDC&S #1. I suggested in the chat today that we have two main objectives when getting comics for the bid club:
1. Get low grade. Cheaper, and less likely to be damaged by the scanning effort.
2. Get a bargain. We have a lesser chance of losing money on a transaction if we buy cheap in the first place. Not that there's anything wrong with losing a little in return for filling a hole, but the less we lose, the more we can buy.
Anybody got any other suggestions? Several people indicated that prices are cheap after the holiday as everybody blew their money on Christmas presents, so we should buy now, sell later.
posted by Pat @ 8:16 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Just my 2cents.
I'd suggest you buy a solid VG copy when available. If you scan a VG you normally still have a VG after you're done. Cover is less likely to fall off etc.
When it comes to really scarce books VG appeals to more collectors when you resell than a coverless to Fair copy. Even high grade collectors bend the rules when they've found a book tough to locate, but lots of folks insist on cover and/or cover attached.
I've bought a lot of scarce books over the years, but I never considered investing in a coverless copy of any of them.
Also spend adequate time creating the ad when you sell it. Describe the book in great detail. Good scans, all the reasons it's key etc.
I've bought lots of books from poorly done ads and resold them for a profit. If you're flexible about what you buy and and bid often enough you should be able to make a modest profit.
But most important..
Really nice book to kick off the club!!!!!
Impressive first endeavor!
PR, your points on VG comics are valid but right now it looks like coverless is going for about 1/5th of the Overstreet Good price. That's a big difference in what can be afforded up front. However, I do think it's something we should consider if we decide to go for fill issues on non-key lower-value books; I suspect it will be hard to get rid of an Animal Antics issue that is in coverless, even if we do get it for 20% of good.
Tom, regarding your points:
1. I can carry the group on that issue for now. I'd rather see other books brought into the group, plus I don't want transaction fees on Paypal to eat us up, or to have to send checks flying around.
2. Yep. There's even a possibility that we might be able to scrounge up a missing page or two and offer that as value-added.
3. High dollar comics make the most sense probably just because some of the selling costs on ebay are fixed, and anyway we don't need to combine our resources to buy cheap comics for the most part (although we may decide to do so for fills).
4. Agree for the most part, although I'd like to think we can keep it to transaction/shipping costs. The purpose of getting a bargain is to at least feel that we're going to be able to sell it for what we paid.
5. The only real burden of buying and selling that I can see is the actual effort involved in shipping the comic back out once it's sold. Best way to share that is to rotate who buys.
6. I see no chance of this happening. Maybe years from now these scans will be famed, but I doubt it. :)
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