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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 15, 2024 7:36:31 GMT -5
That said, I think the biggest reason large lots are no longer offered on ebay as often as they used to be has more to do with the USPS than ebay or anything else. Postal rates for large boxes, even for flat rate boxes, increased exponentially in the past decade and a half. Shipping for such lots now runs anywhere from $20-40 depending on size, if it fits in a flat rate box or not, and where its being shipped. No one wants to buy a cheap lot of 10-20 books for $5 and have it end up costing them $25-$40 once shipping is calculated. Also in the last 20 years, US tax regulations have been altered and ebay sellers now have to charge and pay sales tax on what they sell, so the total cost for the buyer on those lots (and single books) are going to be higher. Add tax and shipping to the cheap lots, and they became unattractive to both buyers and sellers.
Some sellers still get around this by using Media Mail, esp if the books are older, although the PO can beeyotch about this if they get nosey.
In all my years of mailing that has never happened to me. Of course, I work there and the clerks are my co workers.  |
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Post by Ozymandias on Oct 15, 2024 8:01:09 GMT -5
Do you guys and gals still use eBay as much as you did in the past? The landscape has utterly changed in the last few years, from what I can see. Where once almost all auctions started at 99p/99c now most have a starting price almost as high as the buy it now prices. This seems to be a change in the last few years, and is a massive change from the first 20 years or so of eBay. A similar thread covering the same topic. Essentially it means very few bargains. I looked at one seller's pages, and across 6 pages of auctions he has 0 bids, and this now seems normal. No one is taking any risks because eBay just relists the same crap week after week after week for free, with everyone expecting to receive the same prices as MyComicShop! (whose prices have gone up a LOT in recent years too)
I use it less and less. There are several problems:
- Auctions represent maybe 10% of listings, and those you find, start at high prices anyway.
- "Buy it now" items usually ask for prices close to those at Mile High (once discounted) or Lone Star.
- Runs are more often than not hatched to pieces, with sellers preferring to atomize them so long as the work won't dissuade them.
- Additional costs keep rising at a steady pace. Postage is easily twice what it was a few years ago. Taxes didn't apply to comics, then only did to high price purchases, then to all, then increased in percentage. Now you also have to ad "duties" whatever that is, which is starting to appear in many listings and will soon no doubt be applied to all. It's a never ending escalation.
With all those conditionals, patience is the only available route, unless you're lucky, which will cut down significantly the waiting time. |
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Post by Ozymandias on Oct 15, 2024 8:08:39 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2024 17:02:27 GMT -5
- Auctions represent maybe 10% of listings, and those you find, start at high prices anyway.
I guess it depends on the listing. The majority of the Archies, and other humour mags I've bought were originally listed as auctions with low start off prices.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2024 19:13:48 GMT -5
Has anyone ever tried Excalibur Auctions for comic lots? When googling certain books, I sometimes see some good items that were sold there...
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 15, 2024 20:53:01 GMT -5
Has anyone ever tried Excalibur Auctions for comic lots? When googling certain books, I sometimes see some good items that were sold there... Kind of hard to extract the comics from them, unless you have the right touch. |
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Post by Ozymandias on Oct 16, 2024 4:36:33 GMT -5
- Auctions represent maybe 10% of listings, and those you find, start at high prices anyway.
I guess it depends on the listing. The majority of the Archies, and other humour mags I've bought were originally listed as auctions with low start off prices.
I mean where the heat is at. |
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Post by Calidore on Oct 16, 2024 8:42:36 GMT -5
Has anyone ever tried Excalibur Auctions for comic lots? When googling certain books, I sometimes see some good items that were sold there... Kind of hard to extract the comics from them, unless you have the right touch. *rimshot* |
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Post by commond on Oct 16, 2024 9:25:59 GMT -5
Has anyone read Richard Corben's Luke Cage miniseries?
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 16, 2024 9:56:20 GMT -5
Has anyone read Richard Corben's Luke Cage miniseries? Yes. But I don't remember it at all. So that's clearly no help. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2024 18:43:17 GMT -5
What other 'bootleg' collected editions are there?
I know one of my favourite series hasn't officially been collected, but it seems someone is running them off....things that make you go hmmmm.....
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 18, 2024 19:04:28 GMT -5
What other 'bootleg' collected editions are there?
I know one of my favourite series hasn't officially been collected, but it seems someone is running them off....things that make you go hmmmm.....
About two years ago, someone on Facebook was selling a volume of the Super Powers toyline mini-comics. He had packaged it nicely. I’m pretty sure that if DC did an official collection, there’d be quite a few people who would buy it. |
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Post by jtrw2024 on Oct 18, 2024 19:18:25 GMT -5
What other 'bootleg' collected editions are there?
I know one of my favourite series hasn't officially been collected, but it seems someone is running them off....things that make you go hmmmm.....
About two years ago, someone on Facebook was selling a volume of the Super Powers toyline mini-comics. He had packaged it nicely. I’m pretty sure that if DC did an official collection, there’d be quite a few people who would buy it. I'd definitely buy official collections of either of these! |
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Post by rich on Oct 19, 2024 4:58:08 GMT -5
In a few days I'll test that theory in a comic shop that sells a lot of back issues in London. In the past, UK comic shop back issues were worse than ordering online from America, inc postage...
Some of them definitely are.
I went in a couple of comic book stores yesterday, and back issues are quite pricey. Basically 95% of everything starts at £6 ($8) whether it'll ever shift at that price or not. A few Bronze Age comics are decent value at £6/8 but pretty much all the comics people listed in the ' Greatest single issue' thread go for over double the buy it now prices on eBay, even including postage. |
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Post by rich on Oct 19, 2024 5:03:21 GMT -5
If you definite 'a lot' as "a teeny weeny minuscule fraction, in proportion to what there previously was" then sure. Well when I looked the other night there were over 400 comic lots starting under $3. Less sure, but not an insignificant amount either. There wee even several score of "penny starts" last time I looked as well. So sure, there are less, but there are less places selling penny candy now too. Time has passed, prices have gone up. The world and the market isn't static and isn't frozen in amber when we were young so it's the same now that we are old. The only constant is change, and prices rarely rarely go done. I'm not sure I can name one market, let alone a collectibles market, where prices are the same as it was 20 years ago. Why would you expect someone to be selling things as if it were 2004 in 2024 in any market? That seems to be a problem with expectations, not the current state or reality. -M Things have changed massively since four/five years ago. You seem determined to tell everyone they haven't, in various posts, arguing the price increases are in line with historical trends, which they aren't. Just because prices always go up eventually doesn't mean this unprecedented spike is normal. eBay changing their business model obviously also hasn't helped- remind me, were you the one that denied that had happened too? Someone did a couple of weeks ago. For what it's worth, if you're telling us only 400 comic lots on all of eBay starting at under $3, that absolutely is a MINUSCULE amount compared to only a few years ago. |
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