dealing with shops and resellers

[packs]

I hate this response from dealers. I always tell them I'm not interested in what they paid for an item.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by packs

I hate this response from dealers. I always tell them I'm not interested in what they paid for an item.

Exactly. And why should the dealer care what he paid for it? He should know the market for the stuff he's dealing in, so what difference does it make what he paid? I never factor that in to my pricing. If I guess retail to be $100 for this item, why do I care if I paid $10 or $50?--I'm asking $100. As a collector, when the dealer says, "Let me see what I have into it," what I hear is, "Give me a second to look you over and see how badly you want this thing and how much you might be willing to pay for it."

[drc]

You have to sell the item. A good seller knows you don't just put on any price and wait for it to sell-- you have to know the market etc. A good seller knows if he paid too much, the buyer doesn't care.

The double the buy price is also be related to what the seller would pay for an item knowing the market price, not just how much he automatically jack up the price no matter what he pays.

The double the buy price would be a general rule, not an absolute one.

when I used to sell baseball cards way back when, I liked a twenty to thirty percent return, but I had no overhead. A brick and mortar story can be a different situation. But also, as I often auctioned them, I didn't always have the final say in the percentage.

I think the market was more less efficient, and you could more easily buy something low here and sell it higher there. If you applied yourself.

Lastly, and I may have already said it, there's a big difference between buying Sandy Koufax UDA baseballs and used books. A price formula for one doesn't apply to the other. You might be able to X15 the price of a musty old paperback, while you might not be able to double the price of the Koufax.

There are two used book stores near me that have been in business since I've lived here. I've always been curious about the logistics, where they get them, pricing, etc. As they've been in business so long, they must know their stuff. One in particular is filled with the musty old pulp paperbacks-- no expensive fancy signed first edition types . . . One thing I always wonder about is I live in urban Seattle and the storefront rent for both places has to be expensive.

[drc]

One last note (I promise. No really), as a seller I would never tell anyone what I paid for something, even when asked. That was private information. All that mattered was whether or not the potential buyer liked the sell price.

[isaac2004]

Originally Posted by drc

You have to sell the item. A good seller knows you don't just put on any price and wait for it to sell-- you have to know the market etc. A good seller knows if he paid too much, the buyer doesn't care.

The double the buy price is also be related to what the seller would pay for an item knowing the market price, not just how much he automatically jack up the price no matter what he pays.

The double the buy price would be a general rule, not an absolute one.

when I used to sell baseball cards way back when, I liked a twenty to thirty percent return, but I had no overhead. A brick and mortar story can be a different situation. But also, as I often auctioned them, I didn't always have the final say in the percentage.

I think the market was more less efficient, and you could more easily buy something low here and sell it higher there. If you applied yourself.

Lastly, and I may have already said it, there's a big difference between buying Sandy Koufax UDA baseballs and used books. A price formula for one doesn't apply to the other. You might be able to X15 the price of a musty old paperback, while you might not be able to double the price of the Koufax.

There are two used book stores near me that have been in business since I've lived here. I've always been curious about the logistics, where they get them, pricing, etc. As they've been in business so long, they must know their stuff. One in particular is filled with the musty old pulp paperbacks-- no expensive fancy signed first edition types . . . One thing I always wonder about is I live in urban Seattle and the storefront rent for both places has to be expensive.

Where do you live in Seattle? I lived there all my life before recently moving to Milwaukee.