(This post is a follow up to my previous post, Out of Print Profits Part One: An Introduction To Selling Out Of Print Graphic Novels For Fun and Profit, so check it out to get a better idea of what this is all about!)
If you are reading this I can assume that you are at least a little bit curious about the idea of buying and selling oop graphic novels or ‘trade flipping’. Well I have some good news and some bad news.
First the bad news.
When hunting for out of print graphic novels worth flipping you are going to have to do a lot of the digging or research yourself. It should really come as no surprise to hear this since less members of the comic community are aware of the practise of buying and selling out of print graphic novels there are less resources available to help you along with the process. There are many, many websites and YouTube channels out there offering advice to comic nerds on which comics you should speculate on. There are also many resources available for anyone who wants to get a general idea of what their comic collection might be worth. What you won’t see out there are many resources available telling you which profitable oop graphic novels you should be searching for at your local comic shop. Sure you might find the occasional blog post or YouTube video out there offering a few suggestions on books to keep an eye out for but there is just not a lot out there, and that is something I am hoping to addresss with this here little blog.
Okay now for the good news!
Hunting for profitable trades is a lot easier to do now than even a few years ago thanks to the rise in popularity of smartphones and – more importantly – smartphone apps. When I started doing this, I was relying on a paper list full of titles that i had found by browsing through Amazon listings. As you can imagine that method was a kind of hit and miss process since sometimes your list can become a bit outdated. Also when I came across a book not on my list I would have to make ajudgement call on whether or not abook was worth picking up since I didn’t have that information at my fingertips unless I was willing to start browsing Amazon on my old school cellphone. Ah how I loved browsing any website on my old flip phone.(yes, that is most definitely sarcasm) More than once I left behind a book and regretted it once I got home and looked it up on Amazon. (ouch!)
Now with pretty much every major marketplace offering their own app, like Amazon or Ebay, I can easily find out the secondary market value of any oop book that I stumble upon whether it’s at a local comic shop, at a table at a busy comic convention or anywhere inbetween. I don’t bother with pen and paper lists anymore either. When it comes to hunting for books, possibly the biggest change in my own search process would be that now – instead of feeling that I need to keep up on so many books before I hit the shelves, I can instead just do a quick barcode scan with my smartphone of anything I come across if it picques my curiosity. To be clear, over the years I have developed a kind of mental rolodex or list of books I will always keep an eye out for when I am out and about but – and this is a big but – I don’t really have to rely on it like I use to.
So there you have it: trade flipping does require you to do some work but (lucky for you) nowhere near the amount of work that it use to.
Another benefit of flipping oop graphic novels is that over time you will develop a better idea of what is worth flipping and will probably get to the point where you are ignoring most of what you see on the shelves or in the boxes and just target any books you spot that you think might be profitable. In other words, the more you do this the better you will get at it and – more importantly -the less outside help or advice you will need. This is maybe a subtle yet important difference between trade flipping and comic speculation: with trade flipping, over time you can get to the point where you don’t really need much more info than what is already available to you by browsing Amazon’s listings, while with comic spec no matter how experienced you become, you will likely always feel the need to regularly search out other speculators opinions on comic spec sites to keep yourself aquainted with the latest comic book spec news and rumors.
So how should you do your research?
I would pretty much recommend a combination off browsing Amazon’s graphic novel listings and using the Amazon app on your smartphone to scan any interesting books you find to see their current prices on Amazon. You could also try substituting Ebay for Amazon here if that is your preference however I can only recommend the marketplace that I use so i recommend Amazon.
*PRO TIP: WATCH OUT FOR THE EVIL TWIN!
When you are browsing Amazon’s book listings for graphic novels, always be aware of possible ‘duplicate listings’. Sellers will regularly create their own listing for a book instead of just including it in the existing primary listing because they believe that doing this will help their copy stand out. This results in some books having duplicate listings, with one being the main listing with multiple copies listed for sale and the seconary listing with maybe one or two much higher priced copies listed for sale. Make sure that you are not basing an oop graphic novel’s value on an overinflated duplicate listing price. The last thing you want to do is buy a book to resell thinking that the cheapest listed NEW copy is going for $250 only to later realize that it is selling for only $25 in the regular listing!
So where to search?
So now that you have armed yourself with a list of potential out of print earners you need to decide where you are actually going to try searching for these gems. There are many potential sources out there for you to start acquiring an inventory when you are starting out. I will touch on some of them below.
The local comic shop
This is probably one of the most obvious starting points in any search for out of print graphic novels. Walk into any comic shop and you are bound to find a section dedicated to collecteed editions. If you are lucky your local comic shops will have a decent selection of graphic novels from a variety of publishers. If you are really lucky they might even have a half decent clearance section with some out of print graphic novels sitting there at prices below cover. Keep in mind, if you find enough books to buy at any one store you might want to consider asking if they would be willing to give a small discount on the price of your purchase (say 10%). Most won’t think to ask but really what have you got to lose? Asking for a small discount on a purchase of a few hundred bucks shouldn’t offend anyone (if they say ‘no’ you will still be walking out of there with some profitable books) and who knows? You might end up getting an even better deal on your books than you expected!
Local comic shows
I would hazard a guess that almost every big town or small city has at least one regularly occuring comic and collectibles show. These gatherings can be a great source of inventory for trade flippers. Not only are you getting a gathering of sellers with inventory that you might not have access to on a regular basis but whatever books you do see at a show are probably being offered up at prices below regular retail. I will say that asking for any further discount on a sellers asking price at a show is your own judgement call: if I am already getting a steal on some books from a vendor I’m probably not thinking about trying to squeeze more discounts out of him or her. Unless I was considering dropping a few hundred bucks at their table.
Chain Bookstores
I don’t put much stiock in the larger chain bookstores (pun intended) just because they tend to cycle through inventory regularly enough that they won’t usually have much out of print inventory available when it comes to graphic novels, however that being said, there are times when a retailer has some copies of an out of print book available through their website just because there are a few copies still sitting in their warehouse. This doesn’t happen very often for me but once in a while i will find something on a retailers online storefront.
Clearance Outlets
I don’t have any of these kinds of retailers near me that actually sell comic book graphic novels at clearance prices but I know they exist from watching Youtube videos of all things. I believe that there is a chain of liquidators throughout the South West called Ollies that regularly has piles and piles of graphic novels for sale at clearance prices so if you live near a retailer with something like that available then lucky you!
Collectibles Auctions
I became aware of the potential of local collectibles auctions a few years ago. I started attending one of the local auctions that would frequently have auctions that included a variety of collectable comic books and occasionally also offer boxes of random used and new graphic novels. At one auction, I was the winning bidder for a couple of comic boxes full of Batman comic books and graphic novels. The two boxes cost me around $200 combined but at the time many of the trades in the boxes were going for between $20 to $40 on Amazon so as you can imagine I was pretty happy with that haul! In addition, I was able to bundle all of the unwanted books and comics and put them up as a couple of auction lots at the next collectibles auction. (If I recall correctly, the lots I put up even made back most of the money I originally spent for the boxes full of books, making the original purchase even more of a steal for me!) The point here is if you know of any local collectibles auctions – check them out! You might find a few gems to be had on the cheap, and even if you don’t you will likely find some other interesting stuff while browsing the auction lots.
Craigslist
I started browsing Craigslist regularly a few years ago for people offering both used and new graphioc novels for sale at discount prices. I have found some good deals on there over the years but recently I have to admit I have kind of slacked off in checking Craigslist regularly for potential inventory.
Some Final Thoughts
There really are a lot of places out there to search for oop graphic novels other than just the your local brick and mortar comic shop. (I have even stumbled across graphic novels at the local dollar store – I kid you not!) You are only limited by your imagination and hopefully the above list has given you some ideas of places to start your own search. All you really need is a Google search and your trusty smartphone and you’re set!
Oh, and also make sure that you don’t leave home without a positive attitude because I really think that a positive mindset is a must whenever you are on the hunt for oop gold. Good luck!
Want to find out more? Check out the next part of this series, Out Of Print Profits Part Three: So You Found Some OOP Gems to Sell, Now What?