Having it Both Ways (Dealer Gripe)

[polakoff]

Originally Posted by Buckswin07

Here is where I think the dealer and most dealers are coming from;

And please note, I'm not siding with the dealer on this one. I'm siding with just about anyone who sells a card.

We all want to make a buck or two selling right? No one buys a house and hopes to sell it 5, 10, 20 years later for less than they paid for it. When the dealer is willing to talk book value on some cards and strays away from the book on others, I think he is simply basing his price on what he paid for the said card(s). Dealers are there to make money. Remember, most dealers do not acquire their inventory out of a shoe box in a closet. Like you, they buy, perhaps in larger quantities. In tern, a dealer wants to sell you a card for more than he paid for it. Simple as that. When negotiating, if you refer to book price, a dealer may not care about that simply because he knows what he has invested into the card and knows what he must get out of it to turn a profit, pay for his booth space that weekend etc etc.

When negotiating with a dealer, I found that showing empathy can soften them up. Stating things like, "hey I know you need to make a buck on this card, but comparable sales show blah blah" Or "I know your not set up at this show as a volunteer so how close to book price can we get so that you can keep the electricity on at home" By showing empathy but then negotiating, If found my experiences with 95% of dealers to be very reasonable. There are always a few bad apples that have zero people skills, but those are pretty easy to pick up on early in the conversation....That's when I pretend my phone is ringing and need to step away to take a call.

As both a collector and a dealer I'd like to quote this for importance. I too walk away from tables without some kind of pricing on there (or with stickers where the dealer says "that's the book price, I'll work with you"), so I price my stuff. Every item on my table has a price and in general that's the price I'm looking for. Do I have wiggle room? A little, but not much. But I am much more likely to have wiggle room with these people:
A) the people who buy in somewhat larger quantities and politely ask "what can you do for me?" (rather than "hey I'll give you $X for this")
B) the people who spend a really long time at my table and are polite to other customers (getting out of their way, sharing a box, etc)
C) the people who talk to/are friendly with me

Since I appreciate those tactics I try to be the same way with other dealers when I go to a show as a buyer. But, every now and then (actually...relatively frequently of late) you meet the guys who aren't personable. I don't care to dignify them with my money.

In general though (back to OP's point) I actually just avoid any table where I see a dealer with a price guide or who has signs that say things like "50% of book", etc. The only times I'll go through those boxes is if they aren't in a meticulous order and something like an error/variation might have slipped through. Book is bad at shows. The second a dealer says the word book, I walk.