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#1
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Profit margins
Posted By: Max Weder
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#2
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
That's the world of rare books. They don't like to work with normal profit margins. 500-1000% is standard. |
#3
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Profit margins
Posted By: Max Weder
Barry |
#4
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
For 250K you need to hire a Brink's truck with two armed guards! |
#5
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Profit margins
Posted By: Joseph
AbeBooks giveth, AbeBooks taketh away... |
#6
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Profit margins
Posted By: Corey R. Shanus
Some people seem to operate under a selling philosophy akin to throwing as much mud as possible at someone in the hope that some of it will stick. As applied to selling rare items where it takes a fair degree of knowledge and expertise to know a reasonable price, the strategy is to pick some stupid number in the hope someone will counter at a much much lower price (perhaps even offered as a polite way of rejecting the initial offer). Then lo and behold the seller will accept the "counteroffer". I actually did this one time many years ago when I offered to sell something to a dealer. The dealer, it seems, had recently rigged an auction which resulted in a card selling for literally 10-15 times (it sold for $33k) what people thought it was reasonably worth. About a month after that rigged auction I had a rare card I wanted to sell. I thought it had a retail value of $4k. I offered it to the same dealer for $25k, arguing that it had to be worth around that given his $33k sale of a month ago. He of course knew the auction was a sham and therefore could not pay me anything close to my asking price. However, not wanting to lose face and therefore giving some BS reason how my card differed from the one he auctioned, he said the best he could do was offer me $7k-$8K. He obviously felt there was no way I would go down from $25k to $7k-$8k. So you can guess what I did. Without hesitating I told him I would take the $8k and I would ship the card to him that day. I then quickly got off the phone, not wanting to give him a chance to rescind his offer. |
#7
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Profit margins
Posted By: Joseph
Corey, |
#8
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
Corey- the book trade can be particularly galling. |
#9
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Profit margins
Posted By: leon
I usually go by fair market value in pricing stuff. If someone asks me what I paid for something I generally will tell them $1, now do they want it or not? Not being mean on that but fair market value, maybe a little more, is the way things should be priced, imho. If things are priced way too high they won't sell. Way too low and you will lose money overall as some things you buy you will lose on... I do think a seller has the right to ask what they want to..and I have right to say "no". I know we may differ a little on this but that's (note apostrophe and "apostrophe" spelled correctly) how I feel..I have always said if everything on my website were priced too low there would be nothing there. Since I do sell cards every week I must be close. The things that don't move are either museum pieces (not intentionally) or I lower them........you asked....best regards |
#10
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
Hi Leon- here's where we do disagree. |
#11
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Profit margins
Posted By: Corey R. Shanus
I agree that the ethics exhibited by the book dealer in the example you describe are putrid. However, throughout the collectibles universe the adage has to be don't do something unless you either have the expertise to know a fair price or have consulted someone who does and who has no economic interest in what you do. Collectibles is a microcosm of the business world in general, where there will always be no shortage of unscrupulous people and where the only real protection is knowledge. A collector looking to put together a collection of anything will in the end pay too much for many items as well as buy a few fakes if he/she relies exclusively on what the sellers are saying. So if a well-heeled individual ends up paying multiples more for a Spalding book than it is reasonably worth, I would say the lack of ethics exhibited by the seller is matched by the abundance of stupidity shown by the buyer. |
#12
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
We are in 100% agreement (except for the spelling of microcosm). But here's a question I have. Suppose I am interested in the book, and I call the seller and ask the following: I would like to purchase the book, but I have never seen it before and just want to know if $2800 is a reasonable price for it? How does the book dealer respond? |
#13
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Profit margins
Posted By: Max Weder
Barry |
#14
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
Max- I truly believe that the rare book business is among the most disreputable I have ever seen. It's all about the fact that most buyers have no idea what a book's true market value is, and that very busy and very wealthy people buy the most expensive books. |
#15
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Profit margins
Posted By: Jason Mishelow
I think that one of the book trades major advantages is really what I will call geographic supply problems. I live in Milwaukee WI a mid major city. I have pretty much exhausted all of the bookseller within a 100 mile radius- and didn;t find much there in the 1st place. None of the sports seller in my area carry and books and no shows have a signifiacant selection. Therefore my only option is a bookselling site like ABE. I am really at the point that if I would want to buy I either find an undiscovered gem, I overpay or I just hope that something shows up on EBAY. I think that is how ABE gets away with it- for many people if they want the book its the only option |
#16
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
Jason- regardless where you live or how much time you have to shop, in the end you want to be treated fairly. We are all willing to pay a little more for something special but nobody wants to get hosed. That just leaves bad feelings all the way around. |
#17
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Profit margins
Posted By: Max Weder
Jason |
#18
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
Max- you remember what happened to the baseball book market when Steve Cummings dropped out. Many book dealers took a direct hit when he left. It is sad how few people collect baseball books, and it is no coincidence that my current auction has 96 lots and all of them are slabbed cards. I used to always have a book section but I gave that up a while ago. |
#19
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Profit margins
Posted By: Jason Mishelow
Now Max- I doubt that this is going to happen often but I have to correct you on one point- The Bobbin Boy is acutal 1860 not 1863. I picked up a copy a number of months ago on ebay for 7 dollars. The baseball content is intersting but I am not sure it is really baseball. It sounds like an early rounder's form. When reading the books baseball chapter you have to remember that the events in the book are recalling the childhood of the character and therefore would have been occuring in the 1820's or 30's. But your right, at 10 dollars it is well worth the pickup if for no other reason it may contain the first example of showboating as the character runs out a "home run" backwards with flips |
#20
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Profit margins
Posted By: Max Weder
Jason |
#21
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Profit margins
Posted By: Corey R. Shanus
Barry, |
#22
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Profit margins
Posted By: barrysloate
There is this whole theory that very wealthy people are too busy to shop around, so they don't mind overpaying for something they want. But I don't entirely buy that. Nobody likes to be taken advantage of, especially when they put their trust in someone to do them right. |
#23
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Profit margins
Posted By: davidcycleback
There was a Japanese billionaire who duct taped his shoes instead of buying new ones. |
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