dealing with shops and resellers

[MooseDog]

I might be able to share some of my experience since I have been on both sides of the counter.

Back in the 1990s it was possible to run a shop on lower margins because you had much, much higher turnover.

Because in general rents and other expenses are multiples of what they were back then, and turnover is much, much lower, shop owners are selling less stuff so they need higher margins.

Most used book sellers without B&M stores around me try to make 200-300% profit on books. There is enough supply to warrant those numbers, none of them are getting rich as they have a lot of inventory to deal with.

These days if I am able to turn 25-50% on a collectible in a short period of time, I'm happy. Really it depends on the item in question. For most items it's a buyers market so I tend to price a little high and negotiate down to what I really want.

If the shop owner's Koufax is REALLY nice it probably deserves a premium. But Koufax balls are far from rare, check around some auction results at Heritage or Memory Lane and see what the market is...

[drc]

There's no percentage rule. His expected return on the ball may be unique to him. If a dealer bought a large group lot and some items sell for profit, he might be able to sell some items at cost. A lot of dealers look at it at the strict $$ return, not percentage on an item. Some dealers may buy and sell at higher volume, so doesn't require has high a return per item.

Brick and mortar places have higher overhead than an online dealer. Used book stores are different as they don't pay $100 per book and probably a smaller percentage of their items sell. A dealer isn't getting Koufax signed balls for 50 cents.

Also, many antique stores have items on consignment, and the guy may not have as much say over the pricing.

If he expects too much for the Koufax, pass. You can find good ones online.

[thecatspajamas]

Age-old rule of thumb: You need to double whatever you paid for it.

As others have said though, that's just a starting point, and you factor in other variables from there, including how long it takes to sell, how easy it is to re-stock, repeat customer relationships, etc.

On non-unique items, usually the store owner will have some idea of the "market value" of the item and base his buying price on that. Unique items are often the other way around and may require more of a gut check: if there's only one and I have to pay $___ for it, will I be able to sell it for 2x $___ (or whatever margin you need).

If you know you're offering fair market value for the ball (I'm talking actual FMV, not what lowball price you would like to get it for), and the owner won't budge on his price, he may be upside-down in how much he paid for it, have it on consignment, have a different FMV in mind, or just be stubborn. In the end, either you can arrive at a price that is agreeable for both of you, or you can't. In my experience, trying to convince him that he only needs 75% profit on this ball instead of the 100% profit he thinks he needs is not going to get you anywhere.