Originally Posted by
wizardsrainbow
Well, food for thought with all these posts....first off, I will correct listing to day Carrie Artist Edition (not Gift edition). It's hard to keep straight what is Gift, Artist, Deluxe etc.
As to Gaiman listing....as it is NOT King, I felt I should offer to my friends here first....I tried to put what I thought were realistic prices but given response has been pitiful, I can only surmise my prices are too high. I will adjust soon.
I am only going from quick memory here as lots of thoughts were put forth above but:
I'd say 50% of my Betts sales come from members here, maybe even less than that. I'd say 70% of my 10 biggest customers are NOT members here.
I have one very significant customer who is also in the book reselling business but he sells LOTS of authors and specializes in rare, signed editions. He CLEARLY has a very different customer base/income demographic that does Betts. He buys almost $30,000 in stuff from me a year and relists it on his site at sometimes DOUBLE the price....some things remain unsold, but MANY TIMES he finds a customer at his prices. Here is one example....more than a year ago, I put up a complete Dark Tower S/L set (not same numbers) and I had zero interest at $9500. This reseller offered to list this set on consignment (he charges 30% to my 15%) for $14,500 and he sold it within 3 months and I netted about $10,000! If he wants to buy from me and find someone else to buy at his prices, more power to him.
I cannot control what people buy from me only to resell at higher prices, though I did recently retract items on consignment that a person bought from me at discounted prices and then try to flip through me right away at higher prices.
Here is another thing....sometimes I find items at REALLY good prices...while I DO TRY to make money on a resale, I will NOT mark an item up 300% to make a maximum profit...I will pass my good fortune in finding that item at lower prices on to my customers at below what i think the market rate is. This does not happen often, but for instance, if I buy what I think is a $2000 value item for $1000, I'll offer it for $1500, not $2000....I try to share my good fortune WITH my customers while also makimg money for myself.
Never will I please 100% of my customers....that is hard for me to admit cause I'm a "pleaser" kind of a person, it's just how I was built...it is always my goal, but not one I can always achieve. Sometimes I please at my own personal expense....a short story involving 2 high ernd customers (one a well-known member here, the other not)....I had a personal high-end item I was considering selling to raise $$ to buy something else. My non-customer expressed interest in said item (privately, it came up in private telephone discussion) but I am 100% certain he asked me to sell the item to him at my cost, which I said I was not willing to do...short time later, a member here learned of this item I had and negotiated a price I thought was fair (said item now worth DOUBLE what he paid!). I sold him the item.....months later Non-member asked about the item and I told him I sold it...he got really upset with me and said I promised him I'd sell at my cost to him...I told him that was not the case and was sure of my position...however, to appease my Non-member, I sold him a S/L Nebel from my collection (which he had wanted) for my cost, even though Nebel was worth more than $1000 higher. So I "lost" a book I REALLY liked AND I sold it for a nonsense price...just to appease a customer who was pissed off. I won't do that every time, but doing that for the Non-member was worth it to me.
Am sure I did not address all concerns, but I strive to be as fair as I can in dealing with people....there are customers who refresh their Betts page multiple times a day...it is why I know I've sold 4 Lettered Regulators all at $4000+ in less than 2 minutes each time. Some people are incredible quick at snatching up stuff if it is priced well. Other rare stuff has sold almost immediately as well for the same reason. I can't control that.
Still at other job, better go do that work!
Betts Books (Temporary) Alternative
