Hey everyone, I decided to create this post in order to share my journey with selling comic books - yes those colorful little books you used to read as a kid...
First a little background on myself and why I chose to go into it...
I have been selling collectibles for about 8 years now - I sell items such as vintage hot wheels, action figures, video games, and comics made in the 60's. One of my best ebay sales so far is selling a complete set of Django Unchained Action figures for $5.1K (It was on a few different websites/blogs) and a vintage hot wheel that I sold for $650 that I paid $60 for - Yes I knew exactly what I was buying.
On average, i found that I was making a few hundred bucks by selling 1-2 higher end comics from the 60's.
I decided to see if I can make more money by buying modern age comics (those made today) wholesale and increasing the amount of comics I bought...
Now before I get into this - here is a disclaimer. I do not suggest going to a comic shop and buying a shitload of comics thinking you can make X amount of money - There is a lot of time and research that went into figuring out which comics would provide the best profit - as well as reading a few different comic related forums to see which comics were hyped.
I found a decent distributor that sold comics anywhere from 40-60% off retail (which is typically $2.99)
Here is my progress thus far:
To date I have purchased 998 comics within the last 3 months - of that total, I have sold 659 - with 339 sitting in my room awaiting a new home. Of those comics that I sold, I am currently at a profit of $800+ after ebay/paypal/amazon fees. I charge about $3.50 to ship each comic first class which covers the cost of materials as well.
It takes about 2 minutes to ship each comic - package it and print out a label. I also take the packages with me before work, so there is no gas cost to add. This comes out to 21.97 hours of work meaning I'm making about $36.4 an hour and to me that is not enough - nowhere near what I want to make.
I'm not sure what the future holds for my comic money making strategy since there are numerous things that can change my outcome - A comic selling for $20 may be worth $5 next month - My biggest motivator was to buy and unload as fast I could and it has worked out. Now I have 300+ comics sitting in my room that are 100% profit.
What did this teach me? That there is money to be made everywhere - all you need to do is get off your a$$ and put some work in. Some projects will succeed and most will fail - but you will never know what you are capable of until you actually do something.
If there is something interesting that you want to learn, start small. Ask questions. Join a forum. In the end your little side project might net you a few extra bucks to put into your pocket!
First a little background on myself and why I chose to go into it...
I have been selling collectibles for about 8 years now - I sell items such as vintage hot wheels, action figures, video games, and comics made in the 60's. One of my best ebay sales so far is selling a complete set of Django Unchained Action figures for $5.1K (It was on a few different websites/blogs) and a vintage hot wheel that I sold for $650 that I paid $60 for - Yes I knew exactly what I was buying.
On average, i found that I was making a few hundred bucks by selling 1-2 higher end comics from the 60's.
I decided to see if I can make more money by buying modern age comics (those made today) wholesale and increasing the amount of comics I bought...
Now before I get into this - here is a disclaimer. I do not suggest going to a comic shop and buying a shitload of comics thinking you can make X amount of money - There is a lot of time and research that went into figuring out which comics would provide the best profit - as well as reading a few different comic related forums to see which comics were hyped.
I found a decent distributor that sold comics anywhere from 40-60% off retail (which is typically $2.99)
Here is my progress thus far:
To date I have purchased 998 comics within the last 3 months - of that total, I have sold 659 - with 339 sitting in my room awaiting a new home. Of those comics that I sold, I am currently at a profit of $800+ after ebay/paypal/amazon fees. I charge about $3.50 to ship each comic first class which covers the cost of materials as well.
It takes about 2 minutes to ship each comic - package it and print out a label. I also take the packages with me before work, so there is no gas cost to add. This comes out to 21.97 hours of work meaning I'm making about $36.4 an hour and to me that is not enough - nowhere near what I want to make.
I'm not sure what the future holds for my comic money making strategy since there are numerous things that can change my outcome - A comic selling for $20 may be worth $5 next month - My biggest motivator was to buy and unload as fast I could and it has worked out. Now I have 300+ comics sitting in my room that are 100% profit.
What did this teach me? That there is money to be made everywhere - all you need to do is get off your a$$ and put some work in. Some projects will succeed and most will fail - but you will never know what you are capable of until you actually do something.
If there is something interesting that you want to learn, start small. Ask questions. Join a forum. In the end your little side project might net you a few extra bucks to put into your pocket!
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