Just want to say that I’ve tried this method and…ITS WORKING. Went to a small convention last month, spent $175 in dollar bin books, with many of them being less than a $1. So far, I’ve sold maybe 1/4 of them and have already made my money back. It’s not easy, it’s a lot of work bagging/boarding, pricing, photographing and listing the books but it’s definitely helping to fund the hobby. Thanks for the tips!
James - I wanna thank you! I'm pretty new to comics and after watching this video I went down to Chicago Comics and just flipped through their 50 cent bins for an hour or so, just picking out anything that had art or concepts that looked interesting to me. I ended up with 30 books and when I went to the counter, the person running the shop was super nice and said that dollar bin diving was how she found all her favorite series. She ended up giving me a big discount and gave me all 30 books for $10. Now I really feel like I'm in the hobby! I dont plan on selling anything, just reading and hoping to find some great series
One thing I would add to this: when you’re $1 bin diving, know how and where to quickly look for the possible defects that are most likely to appear on these books. You can’t spend a minute or two looking over each book, but you shouldn’t just grab books without giving them a quick once-over.
I think this a great twist on the way a lot of people are going about trying to make money in comics while collecting. For me, the biggest challenge has been to figure out how to sell comics at what they're worth. For you, $3-5 comics are your sweet spot because you've built up a following on RUclips that show up to your claim sales and you also have a brick and mortar location. It would be super helpful if you made a video around how and where to actually sell these $3-5 comics and make money
Before my YT channel it was all about setting up at FLEA MARKETS! or have a yard sale and advertise on garagesalefinder that you're selling comics! people will come out!
Im going by every thing u say u genuinly know what ur talking about and i have slowly started doing it takes time but ur doing what u love. I alao do pre code horror EC tribute art that sells. And have or almoat finished making golden age replica factsimilies turned out amazing
Amazing video!👍👏 I just began my comic book collection and found Toon Haven. They have an incredible range of digital comics for every genre, including the hard to find ones. Lifetime updates too!😁
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Found my first collection at a yard sale over the weekend. 6 long boxes and 2 shorts. He wanted $1/book or $150 each long. Managed to take them all $600 CAD. All were packed. Full runs of Marvel, DC and Image from the last 10 years. I'm going to pull the keys sell the rest for $1-5 to unload as quickly as I can.
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This is such a good video, James. I'm in the early stages of creating a video on making money on comics, and I'll definitely cite this one for the dollar-bin strategy. You make this work because of your vast knowledge of minor keys from the 80s til today, your perseverance, presence in the community, and integrity. It's a solid model.
Bro thanks for this video. I'm a long time collector with over 15 thousand comics and I don't even have to start with the dollar bins. I can start with my own collection and move from there. This video was very helpful in helping me transistion from being strictly a reader/collector to a dealer. Thanks again!
Congratulations on your marriage! Great content, as usual James. I love hearing that. Nothing better than the grind of $1 boxes. Now if I could just figure out the selling part!
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Dude thank you, your videos are entertaining amd educational and you have helped gete back into comics after my collections were lost several years ago , seriously thank you
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As someone about to start selling comics, this is great advice. I just bought a stack of mostly bronze age flash and green green lantern from the dollar bin to flip help beef out my stand and hope to triple my money. I think comic shop owners know this too. I traded a short box and $20 for an action comics #26 (facsimile front cover) at my favorite shop once, it had been sitting there for a while and think he was happy for get some merchandise that would move quicker and I got to get the favorite piece of my collection so far.
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Just had a garage sale this weekend. Got rid of over three long boxes of stuff-no keys and made over $900. Advertised in Craig's list/nextdoor/facebook marketplace. I do this about once a year and it gets rid of lots bulk from bought collections. Also made a buy of a Underground comics for $100, looks to be worth around 1500-2k. So opportunities abound! Not, gonna make a living, but it's fun and I give away comics to any kids that stop by as well. Pricing was 3/$1(lots of .50c-3$ books in this box)...8/$5(lots of 2-7$ books in this box)and 3/$10(lots of 5-10$ books in this box)
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Absolutely right on the money, James. Another thing I think about when I’m browsing through the bins is what would sell well as a run or lot. Maybe you come across a 3 issue Elseworlds miniseries or a complete story arc. There are certain runs I’ve bought and sold over and over again if it’s cheap enough because I know I’ll always find a buyer for it.
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I kind of wish I had continued chasing like I did in 20s...used to advertise locally and hit every bulk I could find...even drove several hundred miles to buy and bring back 38,000 comics from a Tennesee store that closed in 1982....8 cents each for store stock of multiples of most Marvels and DCs from 1966 to 1982.... Helped me build great collection at time.. But I got busy with real job life and married :-)...
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This is something I'm trying to get into now actually, I just bought a collection of 1,300 comics for $300. No major keys or anything but there's quite a few books ranging even up to the $50 range. I know it's gonna take a long time to turn it into a full profit, but it's fun and that's an important part too.
awesome information, James!! I'm also a dollar bin diver myself. been watching you since 2022. It's so awesome to find potential grail books for $1 or less. I have never sold any of my finds but I know my worth and value. Recently i've encountered a store who was talking mad crap about dollar bin divers so i've decided to never go to his store anymore. i mean, why have dollar bins if they're just gonna discriminate? i love the hunt and exploration of finding beautiful books. key or not, i love the artwork. most people don't have the effort and time to put in the work to digging through those boxes. I've found books worth over $100 for less than $5. i could spend all day looking through boxes lol.
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I have just started collecting. That is exactly what I have been doing. I found a couple of antique shops that have booths where the sell comics. I bought 35 today with some of them that have a value of $10 or better. There is gold in there! I enjoy the videos. Thanks!
I love diving the dollar bins. Sometimes i find a diamond. Sometimes i find those $5. Sometimes i find a book i just want for me. Also i use dollar bins to pick out kid friendly books to give out at Halloween.
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I own a kinda mobile comic shop, and I always laugh when the local comic shop, who has a reputation of trying to rip off people and can't stand "competing stores", will pass on a collection but try to buy keys, and not just regular keys but the big name keys that even people's grandma know are keys, my prime example is a customer tried to sell them the entire run of suicide squad and suiciders, the only book they bought was suicide squad 1, the customer then called me up, I bought everything they had roughly for $0.50 a book, and I promise you I'll make more $ off that entire then they'll make off that one book And another thing on the dollar bins, some of us shop owners are known for slipping in $5 to $10 books, customers get extremely happy when they find it, plus it causes people to dig in em more frequently and they might come across a title that peeks their interest and gran it too
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You are so correct regarding dollar bins. I want to take it a little further and tell you about my LCS who has a 50 Cent bin. I have had the luck of finding newer or variant covers and have stocked up on them. I am contemplating taking a table at a local show and will flip the 50 Cent books for 3 to 5 dollars apiece. That will recoup my profit much faster. Then selling one hot ASM book. The profit margin is so much greater.
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My LCS seems to be selling everything for very low prices like they know there's about to be a massive drop in the industry. Not just dollar Ben's I'm talking about slab's and everything.
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This is amazing advice. I’ve been casually collecting and selling for 15 years. Dollar bins have been my go to…absolute low risk high reward. I casually made $6000+ net from dollar bins. Keep hustling folks. No need to spend big time money. Just need tenacity and patience. And every once in a while a dollar bin can also give you a diamond. You don’t get that from wall books.
Hi , love the video and I totally agree. I would like to add that in the UK (like me) we dont have LCS's from village to village or town to town . Maybe in the big cities (London,Manchester,Birmingham) nor do we have "thrift shops" "junk shops" etc. Maybe the occasional charity shop and occasional car boot sales with stuff thats been thrown away. Web sites are the only real place to get "American comics" and as uk comics have the price printed on the cover most places I have found have a price sticker stuck on the cover and are never bagged or boarded. The small town cons are getting a little better but its still very very small . So we are left with ebay or trader websites. I would love to know if anyone from the UK disagrees with me . Keep up the great work
This is great advice, but the hardest part about this is not losing money because of shipping. I would love to get your take on how to charge for shipping and how to pack for shipping.
See this is real shit. I just raided my local for $500 in 50 cent books, with no plans to sell them for decades... Some will be practice for cleaning and pressing. Some will go into lots, if I have doubles. I actually cringe at the thought of selling them, but I won't have infinite space for years to come...
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My very favorite thing is to find low grade filler in the 25 cent bins. So long as they have a cover, I'll take any copper or bronze major title I can find. I'll even take a coverless issue from there, if it's from the 1960s, like I found a Joker #1 for 25 cents... I've found hundreds of cool comics this way...
I look through dollar bins all the time. Got alot of my key books from dollar bins. Of course they were not Big keys at the time but when the movies started coming out alot of my dollar comics shot up to be keys
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He dropped so much wisdom. Patience is so key with book arbitrage at first as you must build your inventory to begin snowballing your daily sales rate. I’d recommend 90 days of effort before giving up as depending on the quality/volume of your inventory you should now have daily sales supplementing your new inventory cost (you’re now in a scaling phase)
Always love watching your vids, short and simple very detailed in easy to learn info…I picked up a small haul (10 shorts and 5longs) recently and inside was BMA 12 with SWCW 1 and some hefty Deadpool mercs
It's the same thing in most collectible categories Your lower price bread & butter items are going to be the majority of sales and really the lifeblood of the business It's a lot easier to sell multiple 10 20 $30 books than it is to sell a $500 book most of the time
I've said many times low grade key books. And in this case lower price books are better to collect because one day either us or whoever inherits our collection will have to sell it and there are a lot more people who can afford 5, 50 or even 500 dollar books out there then there are that can afford $2500 books. And the $50 dollar books are easier to sell.😊😊😊
And to this I will say more power to you and people who can do this. I would go freaking bananas trying to routinely sell hundreds or thousands of books. The time that takes alone in packaging them up to ship is mind boggling, but if you enjoy that then hell yeah to you brotha! If my options were sell a $800 book for $1K or sell 100 books for $3 each, I’m easily picking the bigger book to make the same amount of money. The percentage difference means nothing to me, as long as the end result is the same. Don’t get me wrong though, I think what you’re saying makes a lot of sense and if someone is willing to put the work in then that’s very advantageous!
@@MintHunterComics Yeah I think location has a lot to do with it. I live in Cali, and you’d be surprised how often local stores get in big collections or just people selling stuff in general for solid prices.
i see your point but i think its also more risky to speculate on bigger books gaining the money. if you getting them below current fmv for a quick resale then definitely. but i think more people are buying on speculation that book will go up 6 months from now to sell then which is bigger risk than buying a book you know is worth 5 right now for 1.
@@tomdemay6147 No that makes complete sense. Low dollar books stay pretty consistent, and I agree tons of downward, stagnant or upward growth on bigger keys. But yeah I just meant on finite purchases. As in I definitively knew that a book I’d buy for $800, I could flip shortly after for $1000. But yeah, spec buying is a whole different risky game!
I agree with you. I am a bottom feeder. I go to local comic shows and buy up tons of $1- $5 comics and turn then around for $5- $20 sales regularly on Ebay. I've learned what will sell well. These cheap comic sales have paid for three trips to the latest San Diego Comic Cons.
THIS IS EASILY ONE OF YOUR BEST VIDEOS TO DATE. I do this on the regular 🔥. •PSA FOR ANYBODY WHO TRYNA GRAB DOLLAR BOOKS, IF YOU SEE A DECENT CONDITION DOLLAR BOOK GRAB IT “IMMEDIATELY” BECAUSE OTHER COLLECTORS RUSH THROUGH THE BINS RUINING THOSE BOOKS. I deal with this CONSTANTLY 😭
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I can attest to this process. Here's some things I learned not mentioned in the video. 1. Follow the publisher. I don't like these modern issues but I find shops will try new publications and dump the ones that don't sell to free up space. I have picked up pure NM $1 first issues from Image like Sabretooth 1 and Pitt 1 that are now being slabbed and sold at auction for $70, but I also made mistakes buying remaindered stuff like Speakeasy or Shatter. So put some in storage, you never know. 2. Buy Cheap. Even the stuff that no one wants I won't lose much as I can usually sell it for what I paid at some local flea market. 3. Learn to grade. A lot of my deals are accurate "grade buys", paying for one grade and selling a grade higher. Any grading knowledge no matter how little puts you ahead so that unwanted $1 torn/coverless Spiderman could still be worth something with Gr0.5.
My comments usually get lost in the crowd cuz I’m late to the comment wingding, but maybe you’ll catch this one. Just want to wish you the patented Prof Echo CONGRATULATIONS and GIANT SIZE 80 PAGE Best Wishes for your married life,James. What is so different about my specific congrats? Well…nothing, but I patented it anyway. James, you’re a great guy and I’ve hung out with you pretty much near the start of your channel. Your inherent positivity has inspired me to knock off my cynicism and I’ll always appreciate that. Again, congrats man and all good things for you and your wife and marriage. Welcome to the club. --Glen
James, congrats on the wedding. After watching u for a long time finally signed on. love your common approach to running this business..totally clear and informative. Nobody gives this advice that makes sense..unless u have unlimited funds..try getting 50 points return at your local bank lol.
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Be aware: The Dollar bin method is very powerful however it takes a bit of learning the ropes and a lot of hard work. To maximize profits you will have to be aware of ballpark grading to start with. Knowing the rough grade of the books is really important. You will also have to invest in shipping supplies like Gemini mailers. DO NOT sell books poorly packaged or you will suffer from terrible feedback when your books arrive damaged. You wont be able to use a lot of the known selling platforms because they will not only take a cut of your money the real power of dollar bin hunting and flipping is combined shipping. To get the MOST out of it you will want to do claim sales. This encourages people to buy multiple books in one sitting and therefore softens the blow of shipping costs for your buyers. HOWEVER to do claim sales it will require YOU to do all the backend work of invoicing and payment retrieval etc. Don't take this as me discouraging anyone from doing exactly what James says here just realize that if your plan is to find a $1 and offer it for a buy it now price of $5 on eBay the $9+ in costs and shipping is going to turn ALOT of your buyers away. You CAN do combined shipping through eBay however a lot of buyers don't know how to request an invoice etc. Great video James! Perhaps when you get back you can do a "what it takes to do a claim sale" video to show some of the back end of your methods.
@@vynilrob9719 really depends on the books. If you have runs collectors like bundles but if they are separate titles and characters you will make less by bundling.
Thanks for the great video brother. It's funny I have made a few great finds in the dollar bins at my local flea markets and was able to flip them for more. Though like you said it is a bit more of a grind as opposed to buying to higher priced books from the. One example is that I purchased a copy of Spawn / Batman way back in 1994 the day it released and I sold it last year for $15 on ebay since it it had one spine tic. Right before I sold it however, I had found a NM copy as far as I could see in the dollar bin at my local flea market so this past November I submitted that book to the Todd MacFarlane signature event and it came back 9.8. Now that book in a CGC 9.8 yellow label with the Todd father signature has gone between $300 and $400 this year. Like you said there is definitely some good stuff to be found in the flea market dollar bins.
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This is great advice for business people and ppl who want a "side hustle," but i really wish the youtube comic community would stop with the "let the hobby fund the hobby" sentiment. I got into comic books to collect and read comics, not for a part time job. No hate to those with the time and inclination, but if you are a hobbyist who is buying books you're not interested in just to make money, i feel like you're doing it wrong...
I hear you, I just like to stand by it because so many people LOST money in droves in 2021. Frankly a part of my channel is how to bargain hunt and with that comes the “art” of trading up to reach your top shelf goals! I don’t see anything wrong with climbing the collecting ladder. Thanks for sharing Brian!
My sentiments exactly. I have no problem with those who resell as one objective or their only objective. But I honestly resent the h**l out of the implication that if you don’t resell, then “you’re doing it wrong.” Reading and enjoying comics has, frankly, helped keep me out of trouble and given me inspiration to make good choices in life. Those benefits are worth a great deal to me.
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I love this idea. people often talk about passive income streams, but invariably these turn out to either be scams, not really that passive after all, or just don't return as much as they promise. what most people are really looking for is independence: not having to go into an office or warehouse every day, not having a boss, and not having the drudgery of a mindless job. I wouldn't mind working really hard if I had that independence and the work was interesting, and I was able to make a decent living
I go to a couple of conventions a year as a vendor. I bring my own collection of $1 and $2 variants along with priced stuff and usually walk out of there making $200-$1000.
Awesome advice! I buy most stuff at 50 cents and $1 so I'm doing the right thing. I found a Thanos 13 and 14 the other day for $1.29 each at a thrift store. Haven't been that lucky in a while.
Thank you for this video James, it's really motivational! I'm a new comic seller, and i've only had one sale of 4 books. I have hope though! Question for you: How do you personally go about shipping? What is your go-to way and average price for a book(s shipping)?
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Unfortunately in my country Poland, there is no such thing as dollar bins. Only internet. The best I found was the scarce second printing of Ultimates #2 homage cover for 5 bucks which key collector app has for 115$. Better than nothing :)
I've found a lot of good thing in $1 bins. Tons of first appearances like onslaught and Memphesto's daughter. Though my brother found a used book store that just sells comic for like $4. Got 2 wolverine 8 and Vader 1, 3 for pocket change. Gotta shop around to find deals.
Interesting. I'm not (anymore) a collector or a reseller -- I'm a reader -- but I found this to be good advice. Wish I had more time to check out yard sales or dollar bins. Maybe once I retire. BTW, I like your shirt. When I was drinking, Jameson was my drink of choice.
I agree with you, because one time I was at my local comic shop, going through their $1 binds and I came across a 35¢ variant Godzilla King of the Monsters (Vol.1) #3
Went antiquing with my sister last weekend and would up finding the first appearance of talos for 1.25 in a dollar bin. This the rick jones marriage issue
I’ve been dollar bin diving for a while but I’m not really sure where to sell 5 dollar books. Can you still make a profit on eBay with such small numbers or will shipping and packaging cost to much to ever sell anything on ebay? If not eBay, where?
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What about the cost of bagging and boarding these dollar books? If you are selling on eBay then you need to take the time to take pictures and list your books. It can be time consuming when thinking of the small amount of money. I agree that you potentially can make the most money from them, just that I think dollar books work better with the claim sales than anything else.
Of course eBay takes time. That’s not a secret. The secret is creating a system to list as quickly as possible. Listing a $5 book should never take more than 90 seconds. 4 pictures and use a listing template. Keep it as simple as possible. It’s a $5 book.
For bags and boards, the most cost effective to keep these in supply is to buy them in bulk directly from the manufacturer. Buying them in units of 1000 will save you at least one-third of what it would cost to buy them in units of 100. Or, if you're a friend with a comic shop owner, talk to them submitting a bulk order for supplies through their distributer. Stores likewise get a discount when they buy in bulk, so combining your order with theirs gets them a better deal than they'd be eligible for otherwise. So if you don't have the cash to drop on a 1000 unit bulk order, offer a store you're friendly with to add an additional 500 unit order for yourself the next time they have to stock up on bags and boards and work out a deal where some of that savings can be passed onto you for bringing their order up to the next discount level. This is especially good if you do this with multiple friends in the hobby, as three or four people each pooling their own 500 unit order into a single request will carry more weight than your own single order, and it'll get you a better discount. Considering that James does most of his selling on RUclips claim sales, individual sales on Instagram, and his own brick and mortar store, pictures and listings aren't really a part of his business model. If you don't want to go the claim sale route (and I don't blame you for that), there are other ways to sell your books that don't involve internet auction sites. Personally, I gotten into the habit of bringing a box of books with me to local comic club meetings that I regularly attend. Since I'd be going anyway and everyone in the club already knows me, I'll just plop a box on the table I'm sitting at and let people flip through it before and after the meeting, and I drive home with cash in hand without any wasted time. It's officially Summertime, so you can likewise open a garage sale that's just your comics, or talk to a friend/family member that's already having a garage sale and see if they'll let you set up one or even half a table at theirs in exchange for a few bucks of your profit or a favor in return.
@@jimbomba4365 hey thanks for taking the time to relay all those different ways to make selling a lot easier and cheaper. It never occurred too me to go in on with my LCS on an order of bags and boards. Good stuff, appreciate it!
Hey, good stuff. I will definitely look at dollar bins differently now. But you didn't talk about listing? Or how you sell them? Shipping costs? Obviously, you can't really send out all comics in a Gemini mailer...I would think that would eat away at your profits? Would you mind doing a part 2 to this? I am curious of how this all works? Thanks in advance!
I bought an entire clear toat from a flea market for $20 because I saw a wolverine #1 on top. It ended up containing over 40 major and minor keys for Uncanny X-Men,Alpha Flight, X-Factor and New Mutants.
@MintHunterComics do you think this would work as well using eBay for selling or should you just hold and stack these dollar books for a local con or something to sell?
I have a booth in a antique store but have to price my comics there for $2 and up. Rent to pay for the spot and I like to bag and board all the comics I sell also. So sometimes I have to run sales on comics there to, buy x get 1 free or something like that. I live on a island and only one comic book store and they are 60miles one way away, so only places to buy them are online or there unless you stumble into my booth.
This is what I'm doing right now on my ebay store, it's slow listing comics, and I've only sold one key issue comic so far. It's sad cause it's my personal collection but they're comics from 2015 ish. I have about 450 or so of them. I'm hoping I can get at least 3$ profit per book
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Claim sale tonight! (not on my channel - I'm guest appearing on this channel below) tonight at 8pm eastern time! ruclips.net/video/RVokKEHU8QQ/видео.html&ab_channel=The_EXPTheExperience
Claim sale tonight! (not on my channel - I'm guest appearing on this channel below) tonight at 8pm eastern time! ruclips.net/video/RVokKEHU8QQ/видео.html&ab_channel=The_EXPTheExperience
Hi. I just discovered your channel and I’m learning a lot. I’m wondering however how do you sell 5$ books? I assume you are relegated to selling them through Facebook marketplace locally. Or are people willing to pay shipping? Thanks.
Just want to say that I’ve tried this method and…ITS WORKING.
Went to a small convention last month, spent $175 in dollar bin books, with many of them being less than a $1.
So far, I’ve sold maybe 1/4 of them and have already made my money back.
It’s not easy, it’s a lot of work bagging/boarding, pricing, photographing and listing the books but it’s definitely helping to fund the hobby.
Thanks for the tips!
How do you sell them?
James - I wanna thank you! I'm pretty new to comics and after watching this video I went down to Chicago Comics and just flipped through their 50 cent bins for an hour or so, just picking out anything that had art or concepts that looked interesting to me. I ended up with 30 books and when I went to the counter, the person running the shop was super nice and said that dollar bin diving was how she found all her favorite series. She ended up giving me a big discount and gave me all 30 books for $10. Now I really feel like I'm in the hobby! I dont plan on selling anything, just reading and hoping to find some great series
One thing I would add to this: when you’re $1 bin diving, know how and where to quickly look for the possible defects that are most likely to appear on these books. You can’t spend a minute or two looking over each book, but you shouldn’t just grab books without giving them a quick once-over.
Wise words my friend!
I think this a great twist on the way a lot of people are going about trying to make money in comics while collecting. For me, the biggest challenge has been to figure out how to sell comics at what they're worth. For you, $3-5 comics are your sweet spot because you've built up a following on RUclips that show up to your claim sales and you also have a brick and mortar location. It would be super helpful if you made a video around how and where to actually sell these $3-5 comics and make money
Before my YT channel it was all about setting up at FLEA MARKETS! or have a yard sale and advertise on garagesalefinder that you're selling comics! people will come out!
Im going by every thing u say u genuinly know what ur talking about and i have slowly started doing it takes time but ur doing what u love. I alao do pre code horror EC tribute art that sells. And have or almoat finished making golden age replica factsimilies turned out amazing
So far i have been going on a sale 5$ after the 10th there a buck so automatic 50$ sale
Amazing video!👍👏 I just began my comic book collection and found Toon Haven. They have an incredible range of digital comics for every genre, including the hard to find ones. Lifetime updates too!😁
You're absolutely right I constantly find 5 to 10$ books in the dollar bin
I got a run of old Machine Man vol 1 from a dollar bin that go for $10-$15 each
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Found my first collection at a yard sale over the weekend. 6 long boxes and 2 shorts. He wanted $1/book or $150 each long. Managed to take them all $600 CAD. All were packed. Full runs of Marvel, DC and Image from the last 10 years. I'm going to pull the keys sell the rest for $1-5 to unload as quickly as I can.
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THANK YOU ITS ABOUT TIME MOST FANS START WITH A 5.00 BOOK. AND LEARN HOW TO BUILD THERE SETS. AND BUY WHAT THEY LIKE NOT WHAT IS HOT. THEN HAVE FUN.
Loud noises!!
@@StarsetCards ?????
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This is such a good video, James. I'm in the early stages of creating a video on making money on comics, and I'll definitely cite this one for the dollar-bin strategy. You make this work because of your vast knowledge of minor keys from the 80s til today, your perseverance, presence in the community, and integrity. It's a solid model.
Bro thanks for this video. I'm a long time collector with over 15 thousand comics and I don't even have to start with the dollar bins. I can start with my own collection and move from there. This video was very helpful in helping me transistion from being strictly a reader/collector to a dealer. Thanks again!
Congratulations on your marriage! Great content, as usual James. I love hearing that. Nothing better than the grind of $1 boxes. Now if I could just figure out the selling part!
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Good to see videos like this. Helping the community find additional ways that they can have the hobby help fund itself is priceless information. 👍👍👍
Thanks my man!
Dude thank you, your videos are entertaining amd educational and you have helped gete back into comics after my collections were lost several years ago , seriously thank you
You have reinvigorated my grind!!!!! Thank you!
Glad to hear it!
I find dollar bin diving an almost zen-like experience. I love it. Sometimes after a hard day’s work I go to my LCS and just go $1 bin diving.
It is the perfect way to escape the troubles in our lives lol
When selling, you have to bag and board them to get the most bang for your buck
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Definitely some great advice. Been collecting since the early 80's, had to sell the collection a few times but made some money from the keys.
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As someone about to start selling comics, this is great advice. I just bought a stack of mostly bronze age flash and green green lantern from the dollar bin to flip help beef out my stand and hope to triple my money.
I think comic shop owners know this too. I traded a short box and $20 for an action comics #26 (facsimile front cover) at my favorite shop once, it had been sitting there for a while and think he was happy for get some merchandise that would move quicker and I got to get the favorite piece of my collection so far.
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Just had a garage sale this weekend. Got rid of over three long boxes of stuff-no keys and made over $900. Advertised in Craig's list/nextdoor/facebook marketplace. I do this about once a year and it gets rid of lots bulk from bought collections. Also made a buy of a Underground comics for $100, looks to be worth around 1500-2k. So opportunities abound! Not, gonna make a living, but it's fun and I give away comics to any kids that stop by as well. Pricing was 3/$1(lots of .50c-3$ books in this box)...8/$5(lots of 2-7$ books in this box)and 3/$10(lots of 5-10$ books in this box)
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Absolutely right on the money, James. Another thing I think about when I’m browsing through the bins is what would sell well as a run or lot. Maybe you come across a 3 issue Elseworlds miniseries or a complete story arc. There are certain runs I’ve bought and sold over and over again if it’s cheap enough because I know I’ll always find a buyer for it.
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This has been my bread and butter since the comic bust. And most shops will offer a deal if you buy a short box worth of comics.
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I kind of wish I had continued chasing like I did in 20s...used to advertise locally and hit every bulk I could find...even drove several hundred miles to buy and bring back 38,000 comics from a Tennesee store that closed in 1982....8 cents each for store stock of multiples of most Marvels and DCs from 1966 to 1982.... Helped me build great collection at time.. But I got busy with real job life and married :-)...
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I got Strange Adventures #205 (1st appearance of deadman) for $1 at a garage sale!!!!!
SICKKKK
This is something I'm trying to get into now actually, I just bought a collection of 1,300 comics for $300. No major keys or anything but there's quite a few books ranging even up to the $50 range. I know it's gonna take a long time to turn it into a full profit, but it's fun and that's an important part too.
awesome information, James!! I'm also a dollar bin diver myself. been watching you since 2022. It's so awesome to find potential grail books for $1 or less. I have never sold any of my finds but I know my worth and value. Recently i've encountered a store who was talking mad crap about dollar bin divers so i've decided to never go to his store anymore. i mean, why have dollar bins if they're just gonna discriminate? i love the hunt and exploration of finding beautiful books. key or not, i love the artwork. most people don't have the effort and time to put in the work to digging through those boxes. I've found books worth over $100 for less than $5. i could spend all day looking through boxes lol.
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Way back when I worked in a LCS in Sydney, I asked my boss how to make money in the comic business. He said "get a hulk mask and rob a bank".
Hahaha I love that
How do you make a million dollars in the comic business? Start with three million.
I have just started collecting. That is exactly what I have been doing. I found a couple of antique shops that have booths where the sell comics. I bought 35 today with some of them that have a value of $10 or better. There is gold in there! I enjoy the videos. Thanks!
I love diving the dollar bins. Sometimes i find a diamond. Sometimes i find those $5.
Sometimes i find a book i just want for me.
Also i use dollar bins to pick out kid friendly books to give out at Halloween.
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I own a kinda mobile comic shop, and I always laugh when the local comic shop, who has a reputation of trying to rip off people and can't stand "competing stores", will pass on a collection but try to buy keys, and not just regular keys but the big name keys that even people's grandma know are keys,
my prime example is a customer tried to sell them the entire run of suicide squad and suiciders, the only book they bought was suicide squad 1, the customer then called me up, I bought everything they had roughly for $0.50 a book, and I promise you I'll make more $ off that entire then they'll make off that one book
And another thing on the dollar bins, some of us shop owners are known for slipping in $5 to $10 books, customers get extremely happy when they find it, plus it causes people to dig in em more frequently and they might come across a title that peeks their interest and gran it too
This video really helps :) I’ve only sold one comic since I started collecting again and I hope to improve so thank you for the info! 👍🏼👍🏼
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FINALLY! Always wanted to hear your take on this!!
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I agree 100% on the dollar bins!!!
I agree, James. And you have a much larger buyer base when selling less expensive items.
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You are so correct regarding dollar bins. I want to take it a little further and tell you about my LCS who has a 50 Cent bin. I have had the luck of finding newer or variant covers and have stocked up on them. I am contemplating taking a table at a local show and will flip the 50 Cent books for 3 to 5 dollars apiece. That will recoup my profit much faster. Then selling one hot ASM book. The profit margin is so much greater.
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My LCS seems to be selling everything for very low prices like they know there's about to be a massive drop in the industry. Not just dollar Ben's I'm talking about slab's and everything.
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This is amazing advice. I’ve been casually collecting and selling for 15 years. Dollar bins have been my go to…absolute low risk high reward. I casually made $6000+ net from dollar bins. Keep hustling folks. No need to spend big time money. Just need tenacity and patience. And every once in a while a dollar bin can also give you a diamond. You don’t get that from wall books.
Hi , love the video and I totally agree. I would like to add that in the UK (like me) we dont have LCS's from village to village or town to town . Maybe in the big cities (London,Manchester,Birmingham) nor do we have "thrift shops" "junk shops" etc. Maybe the occasional charity shop and occasional car boot sales with stuff thats been thrown away. Web sites are the only real place to get "American comics" and as uk comics have the price printed on the cover most places I have found have a price sticker stuck on the cover and are never bagged or boarded. The small town cons are getting a little better but its still very very small . So we are left with ebay or trader websites.
I would love to know if anyone from the UK disagrees with me .
Keep up the great work
This is great advice, but the hardest part about this is not losing money because of shipping. I would love to get your take on how to charge for shipping and how to pack for shipping.
Will do!
See this is real shit. I just raided my local for $500 in 50 cent books, with no plans to sell them for decades... Some will be practice for cleaning and pressing. Some will go into lots, if I have doubles. I actually cringe at the thought of selling them, but I won't have infinite space for years to come...
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My very favorite thing is to find low grade filler in the 25 cent bins. So long as they have a cover, I'll take any copper or bronze major title I can find. I'll even take a coverless issue from there, if it's from the 1960s, like I found a Joker #1 for 25 cents... I've found hundreds of cool comics this way...
Very true! Lots of fun to do that
Such great stuff. Needed this. Congrats on this new chapter in your life as well!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
I look through dollar bins all the time. Got alot of my key books from dollar bins. Of course they were not Big keys at the time but when the movies started coming out alot of my dollar comics shot up to be keys
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He dropped so much wisdom.
Patience is so key with book arbitrage at first as you must build your inventory to begin snowballing your daily sales rate. I’d recommend 90 days of effort before giving up as depending on the quality/volume of your inventory you should now have daily sales supplementing your new inventory cost (you’re now in a scaling phase)
Absolutely!
Always love watching your vids, short and simple very detailed in easy to learn info…I picked up a small haul (10 shorts and 5longs) recently and inside was BMA 12 with SWCW 1 and some hefty Deadpool mercs
It's the same thing in most collectible categories Your lower price bread & butter items are going to be the majority of sales and really the lifeblood of the business It's a lot easier to sell multiple 10 20 $30 books than it is to sell a $500 book most of the time
Exactly!
I've said many times low grade key books. And in this case lower price books are better to collect because one day either us or whoever inherits our collection will have to sell it and there are a lot more people who can afford 5, 50 or even 500 dollar books out there then there are that can afford $2500 books. And the $50 dollar books are easier to sell.😊😊😊
And to this I will say more power to you and people who can do this. I would go freaking bananas trying to routinely sell hundreds or thousands of books. The time that takes alone in packaging them up to ship is mind boggling, but if you enjoy that then hell yeah to you brotha! If my options were sell a $800 book for $1K or sell 100 books for $3 each, I’m easily picking the bigger book to make the same amount of money. The percentage difference means nothing to me, as long as the end result is the same. Don’t get me wrong though, I think what you’re saying makes a lot of sense and if someone is willing to put the work in then that’s very advantageous!
I'm glad to hear the big books make more sense for you! It's not always that easy I find
@@MintHunterComics Yeah I think location has a lot to do with it. I live in Cali, and you’d be surprised how often local stores get in big collections or just people selling stuff in general for solid prices.
i see your point but i think its also more risky to speculate on bigger books gaining the money. if you getting them below current fmv for a quick resale then definitely. but i think more people are buying on speculation that book will go up 6 months from now to sell then which is bigger risk than buying a book you know is worth 5 right now for 1.
@@tomdemay6147 No that makes complete sense. Low dollar books stay pretty consistent, and I agree tons of downward, stagnant or upward growth on bigger keys. But yeah I just meant on finite purchases. As in I definitively knew that a book I’d buy for $800, I could flip shortly after for $1000. But yeah, spec buying is a whole different risky game!
I agree with you. I am a bottom feeder. I go to local comic shows and buy up tons of $1- $5 comics and turn then around for $5- $20 sales regularly on Ebay. I've learned what will sell well. These cheap comic sales have paid for three trips to the latest San Diego Comic Cons.
THIS IS EASILY ONE OF YOUR BEST VIDEOS TO DATE. I do this on the regular 🔥.
•PSA FOR ANYBODY WHO TRYNA GRAB DOLLAR BOOKS, IF YOU SEE A DECENT CONDITION DOLLAR BOOK GRAB IT “IMMEDIATELY” BECAUSE OTHER COLLECTORS RUSH THROUGH THE BINS RUINING THOSE BOOKS. I deal with this CONSTANTLY 😭
Wow thanks so much! I'm really letting me secrets fly on this one hahaha
I have to admit. This is advice that I need to be reminded about from time to time.
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I can attest to this process. Here's some things I learned not mentioned in the video. 1. Follow the publisher. I don't like these modern issues but I find shops will try new publications and dump the ones that don't sell to free up space. I have picked up pure NM $1 first issues from Image like Sabretooth 1 and Pitt 1 that are now being slabbed and sold at auction for $70, but I also made mistakes buying remaindered stuff like Speakeasy or Shatter. So put some in storage, you never know. 2. Buy Cheap. Even the stuff that no one wants I won't lose much as I can usually sell it for what I paid at some local flea market. 3. Learn to grade. A lot of my deals are accurate "grade buys", paying for one grade and selling a grade higher. Any grading knowledge no matter how little puts you ahead so that unwanted $1 torn/coverless Spiderman could still be worth something with Gr0.5.
Curious what the app/site was in the video?
Great video. Now make one on how to sell those dollar books in an easy way. Ebay fees are the worst and im not into live claim sales.
My comments usually get lost in the crowd cuz I’m late to the comment wingding, but maybe you’ll catch this one. Just want to wish you the patented Prof Echo CONGRATULATIONS and GIANT SIZE 80 PAGE Best Wishes for your married life,James. What is so different about my specific congrats? Well…nothing, but I patented it anyway. James, you’re a great guy and I’ve hung out with you pretty much near the start of your channel. Your inherent positivity has inspired me to knock off my cynicism and I’ll always appreciate that. Again, congrats man and all good things for you and your wife and marriage. Welcome to the club. --Glen
Thanks Prof Echo! you've been an OG supporter since practically the start!
James, congrats on the wedding. After watching u for a long time finally signed on. love your common approach to running this business..totally clear and informative. Nobody gives this advice that makes sense..unless u have unlimited funds..try getting 50 points return at your local bank lol.
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found a wonder twins first appearance for a $1 at heroes con last summer
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Be aware: The Dollar bin method is very powerful however it takes a bit of learning the ropes and a lot of hard work. To maximize profits you will have to be aware of ballpark grading to start with. Knowing the rough grade of the books is really important. You will also have to invest in shipping supplies like Gemini mailers. DO NOT sell books poorly packaged or you will suffer from terrible feedback when your books arrive damaged. You wont be able to use a lot of the known selling platforms because they will not only take a cut of your money the real power of dollar bin hunting and flipping is combined shipping. To get the MOST out of it you will want to do claim sales. This encourages people to buy multiple books in one sitting and therefore softens the blow of shipping costs for your buyers. HOWEVER to do claim sales it will require YOU to do all the backend work of invoicing and payment retrieval etc. Don't take this as me discouraging anyone from doing exactly what James says here just realize that if your plan is to find a $1 and offer it for a buy it now price of $5 on eBay the $9+ in costs and shipping is going to turn ALOT of your buyers away. You CAN do combined shipping through eBay however a lot of buyers don't know how to request an invoice etc. Great video James! Perhaps when you get back you can do a "what it takes to do a claim sale" video to show some of the back end of your methods.
Should I list them one apiece or bundle a few of them?
good advice
@@vynilrob9719 really depends on the books. If you have runs collectors like bundles but if they are separate titles and characters you will make less by bundling.
@@horvathsogranfume658 thanks just trying to keep it real. Like I said James isn't wrong it just requires a whole plan.
Correct - you def have to build up the knowledge or else it might all seem like "fluff"
Thanks for the great video brother. It's funny I have made a few great finds in the dollar bins at my local flea markets and was able to flip them for more. Though like you said it is a bit more of a grind as opposed to buying to higher priced books from the. One example is that I purchased a copy of Spawn / Batman way back in 1994 the day it released and I sold it last year for $15 on ebay since it it had one spine tic. Right before I sold it however, I had found a NM copy as far as I could see in the dollar bin at my local flea market so this past November I submitted that book to the Todd MacFarlane signature event and it came back 9.8. Now that book in a CGC 9.8 yellow label with the Todd father signature has gone between $300 and $400 this year. Like you said there is definitely some good stuff to be found in the flea market dollar bins.
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This is great advice for business people and ppl who want a "side hustle," but i really wish the youtube comic community would stop with the "let the hobby fund the hobby" sentiment. I got into comic books to collect and read comics, not for a part time job. No hate to those with the time and inclination, but if you are a hobbyist who is buying books you're not interested in just to make money, i feel like you're doing it wrong...
I hear you, I just like to stand by it because so many people LOST money in droves in 2021. Frankly a part of my channel is how to bargain hunt and with that comes the “art” of trading up to reach your top shelf goals! I don’t see anything wrong with climbing the collecting ladder. Thanks for sharing Brian!
My sentiments exactly. I have no problem with those who resell as one objective or their only objective. But I honestly resent the h**l out of the implication that if you don’t resell, then “you’re doing it wrong.”
Reading and enjoying comics has, frankly, helped keep me out of trouble and given me inspiration to make good choices in life. Those benefits are worth a great deal to me.
I found a Superboy #9 NM. In the $1 bin last week😂 and the whole first run of X23 and X23 Target X.
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It's also lots of fun to play in a long box
It really is
It's easier to sell cheaper comics than more expensive ones
Quite true!
I love this idea. people often talk about passive income streams, but invariably these turn out to either be scams, not really that passive after all, or just don't return as much as they promise. what most people are really looking for is independence: not having to go into an office or warehouse every day, not having a boss, and not having the drudgery of a mindless job. I wouldn't mind working really hard if I had that independence and the work was interesting, and I was able to make a decent living
Thanks for sharing!
I go to a couple of conventions a year as a vendor. I bring my own collection of $1 and $2 variants along with priced stuff and usually walk out of there making $200-$1000.
Dollar bins are a godsend when I'm able to find a ln issue for my personal collection. One man's trash is another man's treasure lol
I like searching the dollar bins at my LCS. I need to figure out how to sell the books I pick up.
Good luck to you!
Awesome advice! I buy most stuff at 50 cents and $1 so I'm doing the right thing. I found a Thanos 13 and 14 the other day for $1.29 each at a thrift store. Haven't been that lucky in a while.
Thank you! I appreciate your candid information
Great video as always, keep up the great work
Thank you for this video James, it's really motivational! I'm a new comic seller, and i've only had one sale of 4 books. I have hope though!
Question for you: How do you personally go about shipping? What is your go-to way and average price for a book(s shipping)?
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Thank you for sharing, keep doing what you do!!!
Unfortunately in my country Poland, there is no such thing as dollar bins. Only internet. The best I found was the scarce second printing of Ultimates #2 homage cover for 5 bucks which key collector app has for 115$. Better than nothing :)
Better than nothing, yes, but that is a shame
I've found a lot of good thing in $1 bins. Tons of first appearances like onslaught and Memphesto's daughter. Though my brother found a used book store that just sells comic for like $4. Got 2 wolverine 8 and Vader 1, 3 for pocket change. Gotta shop around to find deals.
Interesting. I'm not (anymore) a collector or a reseller -- I'm a reader -- but I found this to be good advice. Wish I had more time to check out yard sales or dollar bins. Maybe once I retire. BTW, I like your shirt. When I was drinking, Jameson was my drink of choice.
I agree with you, because one time I was at my local comic shop, going through their $1 binds and I came across a 35¢ variant Godzilla King of the Monsters (Vol.1) #3
Went antiquing with my sister last weekend and would up finding the first appearance of talos for 1.25 in a dollar bin. This the rick jones marriage issue
This is the way
Unfortunately where I live in Hawaii the one flea market we got only sells fruits, vegetables, arts & crafts and alot of tourists shit...
How about your LCS?
I’ve been dollar bin diving for a while but I’m not really sure where to sell 5 dollar books. Can you still make a profit on eBay with such small numbers or will shipping and packaging cost to much to ever sell anything on ebay? If not eBay, where?
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tonight at 8pm eastern time!
ruclips.net/video/RVokKEHU8QQ/видео.html&ab_channel=The_EXPTheExperience
What about the cost of bagging and boarding these dollar books? If you are selling on eBay then you need to take the time to take pictures and list your books. It can be time consuming when thinking of the small amount of money. I agree that you potentially can make the most money from them, just that I think dollar books work better with the claim sales than anything else.
Of course eBay takes time. That’s not a secret. The secret is creating a system to list as quickly as possible. Listing a $5 book should never take more than 90 seconds. 4 pictures and use a listing template. Keep it as simple as possible. It’s a $5 book.
For bags and boards, the most cost effective to keep these in supply is to buy them in bulk directly from the manufacturer. Buying them in units of 1000 will save you at least one-third of what it would cost to buy them in units of 100. Or, if you're a friend with a comic shop owner, talk to them submitting a bulk order for supplies through their distributer. Stores likewise get a discount when they buy in bulk, so combining your order with theirs gets them a better deal than they'd be eligible for otherwise. So if you don't have the cash to drop on a 1000 unit bulk order, offer a store you're friendly with to add an additional 500 unit order for yourself the next time they have to stock up on bags and boards and work out a deal where some of that savings can be passed onto you for bringing their order up to the next discount level. This is especially good if you do this with multiple friends in the hobby, as three or four people each pooling their own 500 unit order into a single request will carry more weight than your own single order, and it'll get you a better discount.
Considering that James does most of his selling on RUclips claim sales, individual sales on Instagram, and his own brick and mortar store, pictures and listings aren't really a part of his business model. If you don't want to go the claim sale route (and I don't blame you for that), there are other ways to sell your books that don't involve internet auction sites. Personally, I gotten into the habit of bringing a box of books with me to local comic club meetings that I regularly attend. Since I'd be going anyway and everyone in the club already knows me, I'll just plop a box on the table I'm sitting at and let people flip through it before and after the meeting, and I drive home with cash in hand without any wasted time. It's officially Summertime, so you can likewise open a garage sale that's just your comics, or talk to a friend/family member that's already having a garage sale and see if they'll let you set up one or even half a table at theirs in exchange for a few bucks of your profit or a favor in return.
@@jimbomba4365 hey thanks for taking the time to relay all those different ways to make selling a lot easier and cheaper. It never occurred too me to go in on with my LCS on an order of bags and boards. Good stuff, appreciate it!
CORRECT - and you know what? it isn't cheap. I use exclusivly silver age bags and boards and it DOES rack up
Hey, good stuff. I will definitely look at dollar bins differently now. But you didn't talk about listing? Or how you sell them? Shipping costs? Obviously, you can't really send out all comics in a Gemini mailer...I would think that would eat away at your profits? Would you mind doing a part 2 to this? I am curious of how this all works? Thanks in advance!
That's the part I would like to hear more about.
Everything on your eBay store is slabbed. So where and how do you sell your dollar bin comics? Do you send them all in to get slabbed and graded?
I bought an entire clear toat from a flea market for $20 because I saw a wolverine #1 on top. It ended up containing over 40 major and minor keys for Uncanny X-Men,Alpha Flight, X-Factor and New Mutants.
Super helpful, totally worth watching
@MintHunterComics do you think this would work as well using eBay for selling or should you just hold and stack these dollar books for a local con or something to sell?
Dude I didn’t know you were in NJ! Are you going to Garden State Comic Fest in 2 weeks? I’ll have a seller booth there.
What what app are you using with the key facts on the right I see you scrolling through it in the video
Key Collector!
I have a booth in a antique store but have to price my comics there for $2 and up. Rent to pay for the spot and I like to bag and board all the comics I sell also. So sometimes I have to run sales on comics there to, buy x get 1 free or something like that. I live on a island and only one comic book store and they are 60miles one way away, so only places to buy them are online or there unless you stumble into my booth.
I do the same thing - I have lots of deals to basically make em back down to $1
Dude that Kyle Rayner Statue is 🔥 where did you get that? Were you able to make a review vid on that one before you stopped?
This is what I'm doing right now on my ebay store, it's slow listing comics, and I've only sold one key issue comic so far. It's sad cause it's my personal collection but they're comics from 2015 ish. I have about 450 or so of them. I'm hoping I can get at least 3$ profit per book
Claim sale tonight! (not on my channel - I'm guest appearing on this channel below)
tonight at 8pm eastern time!
ruclips.net/video/RVokKEHU8QQ/видео.html&ab_channel=The_EXPTheExperience
Thank you sir. Once you have them. How do you sell them?
Claim sale tonight! (not on my channel - I'm guest appearing on this channel below)
tonight at 8pm eastern time!
ruclips.net/video/RVokKEHU8QQ/видео.html&ab_channel=The_EXPTheExperience
This is such great video, nice work, good lookn out!
Cool series! Keep them coming
Hi, what was the app your were using in the video that was giving descriptions of West Coast Avengers? Thanks.
Claim sale tonight! (not on my channel - I'm guest appearing on this channel below)
tonight at 8pm eastern time!
ruclips.net/video/RVokKEHU8QQ/видео.html&ab_channel=The_EXPTheExperience
James- do you find being the DC expert you are lead you to have an advantage in bin digging for books folks miss?
Yes. hahahaha
Excellent strategy and food for thought.
That’s my problem, I look through $1 bins but I’m not totally sure of what book is what.
I just found your RUclips channel. Interesting video-where do you sell your dollar bin books?
The real value we need
What apps do you use? Sir where do you do most of your selling? I have a lot of these type of books.
Where are you selling the books to start
Hi. I just discovered your channel and I’m learning a lot. I’m wondering however how do you sell 5$ books? I assume you are relegated to selling them through Facebook marketplace locally. Or are people willing to pay shipping? Thanks.