So why out of print profits?
The short answer to that question is that I was trying to be catchy when I came up with a name for this new column on my website, but I am still a bit undecided about whether or not out-of-print-profits rolls off the tongue.
The longer answer is that I have learned a thing or two about the market for buying and selling out of print graphic novels over the last few years and it is my intention to use this column to share what I have learned with whoever would like to know.
Rumor has it comic nerds can make money off of their hobby/obsession/addiction…
So there are a couple of obvious ways that comic collectors can make some money off of their hobby by using their love and knowledge of comic books to their advantage.
One thing a comic collector can do to make money is sell off comics from their collection. (ouch!) It’s not every hobby that gives you the ability to cash out in part or in whole whenever the need arises but comic collecting is indeed one of those hobbies. Today there are more ways than ever to sell off any or all of your comic books if you should decide to do so. Whether it is selling your books on consignment through a store, selling your collection through an auction house, getting a table and selling your comics yourself at a local show or even selling online though an auction site like eBay, you have options.
Another way many comic fans try to cash in on their hobby is through comic book speculation. This of course is the practice of buying various new comics as they are released due to the first appearance of a new character or the involvement of specific creators in a new comic with the belief that these comics could later see a spike in collector demand and consequently their monetary value.
However, there is another way…
Yes, there is another way that comic collectors can make money off of their hobby and the best part is that it does not involve selling off any part of your prized collection! What I am talking about in a roundabout kind of way is the practice of buying and selling out of print (or oop) graphic novels to make money.(sometimes a lot of money) The idea here is that you look for graphic novels that are selling for multiples above cover price on online marketplaces, such as Amazon or eBay, find them for cover price or less at your local retailers and then list them for sale on the aforementioned sites. This is a good example of a rinse and repeat process, it just requires that you do some digging to find out what oop books are going for some decent coin online. For many people that would likely be the biggest stumbling block because there isn’t already a whole host of websites and YouTube channels telling potential oop trade-flippers what books they should be on the lookout for. I’m kind of hoping to help people with that.
I would like to be able to say that this idea of trade flipping is all my idea but alas I cannot. I became aware of this practice almost ten years ago now while searching online.(if I recall, I believe I was searching for information on what were the hot comics at the time) So while browsing a comic-related news site, I stumbled across an interview with a gentleman by the name of Ryan Lee. At the time Ryan was a co host of (and arguably the driving force behind) a rather sardonic podcast called Chronic Insomnia, a comic-centric show that included such things as discussion of comic books, current comics news and other things going on in the comics community. The interview touched on the show but was mostly focused on one of Ryan’s other pastimes, namely selling out of print hardcover and paperback graphic novels on the secondary market for a profit. I have to admit that I was amazed when I read that there was a strong market for many out of print graphic novels. I was also surprised to learn how easy it could be to tap into this market on somewhere like Amazon by sifting through the listings to find out of print books selling for well above cover. In many cases these books could be sitting on the shelf of a comic shop near you. This interview lured me over to the Chronic podcast – initially to listen to one of Ryan’s segments on the show called market spotlight where he would highlight a couple of out of print (oop) books that were already selling for well above cover, however after a while I became a regular listener of the show. Chronic Insomnia is long gone now, but Ryan is still going at it with a new podcast called The Ugly American Report in which he offers up his own often brutally honest opinions on things going on in the world around us. If you haven’t yet listened to his show I would suggest you give it a try – just remember that I did say he can be …brutally honest.
Anyhoo, by following Ryan’s lead it didn’t take me long to start finding oop graphic novels that were selling on the Amazon marketplace for prices well above cover – and more importantly – that were still on the shelves of a comic shop near me! I made some ‘test purchases’ of books at my local comic shop that looked to be selling on Amazon for a lot more than I had paid, I created a free seller account on amazon and listed them at what I considered to be competitive prices. Soon enough my books started to move. I found more books to list and had more success. Again, I was amazed at how easy all of this was. Soon after my initial success I got in touch with Ryan via the podcast just to let him know that at least one person was making use of the information that he was putting out there and also to thank him for sharing his knowledge on the subject of oop books. Ryan actually replied and offered me some advice on how to search out even more book selling opportunities. We have even stayed in touch over the last few years and ‘compared notes’ so to speak, sharing information on what we have each found while hunting for more resale opportunities. One thing about the oop marketplace that I have particularly appreciated since the start is that the concept is arguably the polar opposite of comic book speculation: instead of trying to divine what will be the next hot books and then run around competing with the masses to snag a copy on new comic book day, I was simply digging to find what was already potentially worth reselling on Amazon and then heading over to the local comic shops (at a leisurely pace no less!) to see if they had any of those books at cover or in their clearance section for even less than cover.
Now to be honest, there have been some missteps along the way, books that I bought and listed after doing my due diligence but that just sat there with no takers until the price was dropped and dropped and then dropped some more. The caveat here is that impressively high prices on the amazon marketplace do not guarantee that all of your books will sell at equally impressive prices. However in the end, I have had many, many more hits than misses over the years from a sideline that I also consider to be something of an enjoyable hobby because of the thrill of the hunt that it offers me.
Okay that’s the story of how I got into the oop hunt. Moving forward I plan to share some of what I have learned over time. Not only stuff like how to sniff out those profitable opportunities but also some things to keep in mind when listing your books. I also hope to share some tips on what I have found works well when packing and shipping my books after having made a sale. Along the way, to make things a lot easier I will be sharing information on here about some books that you should be keeping an eye out for the next time you stop by your local comic shop or go hunting through the boxes at a local comic book show.
To learn more, continue on to Out Of Print Profits Part Two: Ready to Hunt for that Out Of Print Gold? Great! Now What?