So You Want To Sell Your Comic Collection - Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Marketplace Demand
Or "Hey These Books Are In Great Shape But Nobody Wants Them"

We gave the examples of the Action Comics #1 and the Detective Comics #27 that sold for BIG dollars. There were two reasons given earlier that sort of infers a third and that is a Key book in high grade = HIGH MARKET DEMAND!

Now before we give an example of where there is NO market demand, first a little background. Back in the mid 1980's, baseball cards got very, very hot. People that knew absolutely NOTHING about baseball cards starting buying wax boxes and complete sets by the thousands. The idea was that these cards would be a huge hedge against inflation and parents would be able to put their kids through college with the "sure thing" appreciation that these cards would bring. Well......it didn't work out that way. The baseball cards in the late 1980's were vastly overprinted - WAY more than what the normal market demand would allow. As a result - with very, very few exceptions - sports cards printed in the late 1980's to today have very little value.

So, the baseball card speculators saw that older comics were going up in value and so they started buying the new comics coming out thinking the same thing - the values would go up and NOW the kid's college education would be paid for - YAY! Well, again - not so fast. This was the era of "HOT" books - hot artists, hot writers and everything was just hot, hot, hot! But it wasn't. Marvel produced a brand new X-Men series in 1991 and the first issue had five different cover variations. There were over 8 million copies of this new X-Men #1 printed - one of which is shown here. Trouble is, there are not 8 million X-Men comic book fans - at least not that many modern X-Men fans. Almost ALL books between 1990 and 1995 were vastly overprinted to account for all the speculators.

The speculators saw the bottom drop out due to no demand and moved on and the result was that the comic book industry imploded and almost died. It used to be that 300,000 copies was a nice healthy print run for a book - now it is more around 40,000 today FOR A VERY POPULAR BOOK. Books that were mega-hot back then such as Gen 13 #1 from the mini-series used to go for $30 to $40 each - now you are lucky if you can get $3.00 for one. Another example was the "Death Of Robin" story arc in Batman where fans could call DC on a 900 number and vote on whether The Joker would kill Robin (not Dick Grayson but the second one - named Jason Todd who was a bit of a smart alek) or let him live. Well, the "Death" voters won out and lo and behold, The Joker did poor Robin in.....and the value for those four books that made up that story arc went through the roof. Mothers were gladly shelling out $200 for a complete set for Junior when those books printed. Now? A dealer would be lucky to get $40.00 for a complete set.

I would estimate that easily 95% of the collections that I am offered come from books published between 1990 and 1995 - yes that is right: 95%!!!!!. I am not saying that books from that period are low quality (although a WHOLE bunch of them are), all I am saying is that there is ZERO demand for those books. I have been offered collections in which the comics were very neatly bagged and boarded and I politely told the owner that I would not take them even if he gave them to me because there just is no demand for the books.

Comic Book retailers got a little smarter after 1995 and only ordered enough books for their subscribers plus a few to put on the rack. Therefore, collections that consist of books printed from 1996 to present CAN have some value because of their lower print runs.

However, here is a rule of thumb that has next to NO exceptions: Any book printed in 1990 to present with a grade less than Very Fine (8.0) is ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS and that is about as pure and simple as I can get it.

Here is another rule of thumb that has a few exceptions: Any book printed prior to 1975 and is complete with no pages missing and cover intact has SOME value - might not be much but it WILL have some value.

We are getting close to finishing your "prerequisites" - only one more to go....

Um...How Many Comic Books Are We Talking About?
Or Size Matters But Not Always In A Good Way.

Here is another one of the those rules of thumb that have exceptions. Generally speaking, the larger the collection, the lower the price per book that a comic book dealer will be willing to pay. Now, if it is a collection of 1000 mid to high grade books from the 1960's or earlier, comic book dealers will probably pay anywhere from 20% to 40% of graded guide price depending on whether or not there are any key books and what the condition of those key books are. If it is a collection of 200,000 modern books (usually, these big collections are comic book store closeouts/liquidations), then you the owner of this massive collection can expect around 5 cents to 10 cents per book if that much. Large collections mean that the comic book dealer is going to have to spend a LOT of time and sweat equity processing these books, storing them and yes, selling them. They will not want their money tied up for a long period of time. PS - the photo at the above right is a collection of around 2900 to 3000 comics.

Usually, a comic book dealer will offer a price where he or she can get their money back within a one to three month period - that is their thinking and most likely that will come up in the negotiations. Don't worry, that's the dealer's pain, not yours. Whatever you do, DO NOT let a comic book dealer offer to buy just a small part of your collection. The dealer will pick all of the "good stuff" that has value and leave you with a bunch of worthless paper that no dealer would want. If you are going to sell to the dealer, sell the WHOLE collection, not just little bits and pieces. However, I remember one dealer when offered a 500 book collection of which they only wanted 10 books tell the owner that if you let me buy these 10 books, I'll give you $200 but if you make me take the whole thing, I'll give you $150 - kind of funny but generally speaking, sell the WHOLE collection especially if you are not a comic collector - be done with it! We will talk more about selling to comic book dealers in Part 4 of this series.

Again, size matters but not always. Whew, this exhausting - but necessary - education is just about over.

Wrapping Up The Due Diligence
Or You Have Gained Awareness, Grasshopper!

The first three parts of this six part series was intended for those who have a comic book collection but don't know anything about comics. What it did not do - or even come close to - was provide a complete education on comic book collection valuation. That would take a 50 part series and still might come up short.

What this series hopefully did thus far was give you some awareness of how the worth of a comic book collection is determined and like my dear friend and business/life coach, Harvey Smith always says, "Once you become aware, you cannot become unaware". Sounds trite but think about it for a long, long time - I swear you will feel like something crawled up your back when you really, really get it. Hmmm...sounds like another blog article...

Part 4 of "So You Want To Sell Your Comic Collection" will start covering your options on selling your comic collection and what the strategies are to maximize your selling price. But PLEASE remember, your time has value and it amazes me how many people forget that very important part of the whole equation. Let's put it this way, I would rather spend two hours roughly figuring out the value of my collection and make $300 dollars than spend two weeks time carefully cataloging my collection and making $600 dollars. Parts 4 through 6 will go over that time spent versus return gained in detail.

So You Want To Sell Your Comic Collection - Part 2

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Are There Any "Key" Books In The Collection?
Or "When The Older Is Better" Rule Just Doesn't Work!

Key comic books are milestones in a comic book title or milestones in the whole culture of comics. Usually, a key comic book contains the first appearance of a character, the death of a character, the first comic book work of a particular artist, the first comic book written by a particular writer or a just a major event in the comic book world. You may have read about the Action Comics #1 that sold for a record $2,161,000.00 (that's right - OVER $2 Million) or the Detective Comics #27 that sold for $1,075,000.00. The reasons is that a) they were the very first appearances of Superman and Batman respectively and b) they were is high grade - or very fine condition (there's that "condition" thing again - be patient, we will explain everything).

Key books toss the "the older is better" rule of thumb out the window. Here's an example: Action Comics #69 is a nice old book from 1944 and in Near Mint minus condition, the value of that book is $2200.00 - Not bad at all. But Amazing Fantasy #15 (at right) published in 1961 has a value of $175,000 in Near Mint minus condition!

But the Action Comics #67 is 17 years OLDER than the Amazing Fantasy #15 so why the huge price discrepancy? Because Amazing Fantasy #15 is the very first appearance of The Amazing Spider-Man. It is one of the most "key" books in all of comic lore and is intensely sought out by collectors. If you have one of these babies in your collection, you need to really take your time in selling the collection. Again, Action Comics #67 is a nice old book but there is nothing "key" about it.

I know, I know - you want to get to the part where you get all the info about how to sell your comic book collection - well, you ARE starting to get that information now as it is SO important to know what you have - and knowing what you have means knowing how to value a comic book collection. If you don't have a clue as to what you have, then you are starting out behind when it comes to negotiating a price for your collection. So if you want top dollar for your collection, you need to keep trudging on and "delve into the weeds" - i.e. the details.

Condition Is King!
Or My Kingdom For A Comic Book With No Flaws!

If you have two identical books - say you have TWO Amazing Fantasy #15 copies (lucky stiff!). Well, they should both be worth the same, right? Not necessarily. The condition of the book(s) is critical to determining the value. Assessing the condition of a comic book is called grading a comic book. You can go purchase a copy of The Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide and get a thorough education on grading comic books or you can Google and come up with a ton of links about grading comic books - here's one at Nostalgia Zone that is brief and gets to the point.

Basically, here is the 10 point scale for grading comics:

10.0 -- GEM MINT
9.9 -- Mint
9.8 -- Near Mint / Mint
9.6 -- Near Mint +
9.4 -- Near Mint
9.2 -- Near Mint -
9.0 -- Very Fine / Near Mint
8.5 -- Very Fine +
8.0 -- Very Fine
7.5 -- Very Fine -
7.0 -- Fine / Very Fine
6.5 -- Fine +
6.0 -- Fine
5.5 -- Fine -
5.0 -- Very Good / Fine
4.5 -- Very Good +
4.0 -- Very Good
3.5 -- Very Good -
3.0 -- Good / Very Good
2.5 -- Good +
2.0 -- Good
1.8 -- Good Minus
1.5 -- Fair / Good
1.0 -- Fair
0.5 -- Poor

Obviously, the higher the grade, the higher the condition of the book. So let's say that one of our Amazing Fantasy #15's is Very Fine (8.0) and one of them is Very Good (4.0). If we go to our trusty Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and look up the values of the books, the Very Fine (8.0) copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 goes for $56,000.00 and the Very Good (4.0) copy of the book goes for $7400.00 - that is a huge price difference and the ONLY reason for that difference is the relative condition of the two books.

A Very Fine (8.0) book might have a few very small stress lines on the spine and maybe a micro-tiny crease at the corner of the book while a Very Good (4.0) book might have numerous spine stress lines and large diagonal creases at the corners - might have some ink wear at the edges of the cover and the staples might show some discoloration.

You do not have to be a grading expert but you do have to have some awareness. If you choose to sell your collection to a comic book dealer, please understand that they will want to buy the collection for the lowest possible price - as well they should. This is their business and there are a lot of hidden costs for dealers - mainly in the time it takes to process a collection so it is ready for sale. They might have to bag and board the whole collection, price it and if they are online dealers, they will have to scan the image and put it up on their website or eBay with a description, etc. It IS a lot of work but that is not your pain - it is the dealer's pain BUT they are taking all of that into consideration when they are trying to come up with an offer for your collection. I am digressing here somewhat but the point to these first three articles is to help you, the person that wants to sell your collection gain some awareness of how comic collections are valued - especially those of you who are NOT comic book collectors.

Now as an aside (and more digressing), I have edited this blog article because I previously said that ALL comic book dealers will try to downgrade your collection - that is simply not true and to all the honest dealers out there I do apologize. But comic dealers are human beings and some of them will sense either consciously or subconsciously how much awareness you have and deal with you accordingly. I will discuss negotiating with comic book dealers in more depth in Part 4 of this series.

Oh by the way - the image of the X-Men #95 that is encapsulated in a plastic holder to the right? Well that is a book that is 3rd party graded much like coins, stamps and baseball cards are third party graded. The absolute #1 3rd party grader is CGC - i.e. Certified Guaranty Company, LLC. Dealers and collectors send their books to CGC and they are evaluated and - for a fee of course - graded, encapsulated and shipped back to the owner. We won't get into that at all but if you do have CGC comic books in your collection, there is a site where you can see the value of CGC graded comics and that is GPAnalysis.com - they have a history of every CGC book that has been sold from a variety of venues such as eBay, Heritage Auctions, etc. and you can get a very good idea of what some of your CGC books are worth. Usually - but not always - CGC books in high grade - 8.0 and above - will sell for more than a book in the same grade that is NOT CGC graded. Let that sink in for a little while....

So now you know that condition is king - two of the same books but in different grades (i.e. condition) will sell for different prices - it is that simple.

We have one more part to go until we start talking about HOW to sell those doggone comic books and that part will cover marketplace demand and how the sheer number of books in the collection can affect the value of your collection - that is Part 3 of "So You Want To Sell Your Comic Collection"...

So You Want To Sell Your Comic Collection - Part 1

Turning stale old colored paper into bucks!

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Do you own a comic book collection that you want to sell? Want to get the most money you possibly can for it? Well, whether you have painstakingly put together a comic book collection for the ages or you just lucked into one and know next to nothing about comic books, this six part series of articles will give you the lowdown on not only how to SELL your comic book collection but how to get the MOST MONEY for your collection. Each article will be posted daily so the whole thing will be wrapped up within a week.

If you are a grizzled veteran of the comic collecting wars, the first three articles dealing with assessing your collection might be of little use - but a dime against a dollar you will find at least one thing you can use in the last three parts.

The main thing to remember is that not all comic book collections are created equally - i.e. the value of the comic book collection can vary wildly according to several factors. Factors affecting the value of comic books are a) how old they are, b) whether there are any "key" books in the collection (more on that later), c) the physical condition of the books, d) the marketplace demand and e) the sheer number of the books in the collection.

So before we get into "how" to sell your collections, we need to delve into the five factors above a little - here is the due diligence you need before selling your collection.

Old Counts But It's Not Everything...
Or Nostalgia Will Never Die!

Like antiques, stamps, coins, etc., the older the better. That isn't always true - nothing really is - but the older the comic books are, the more likely they will have more value than recent, modern comic books - i.e. ones published in the last 20 to 30 years. If you are trying to sell your comic book collection, one of the people you most likely will try to sell it to are comic book dealers. Some comic book dealers deal in old books, some in modern comics and some in both. The majority of comic book dealers that sell old books deal in comic books published from 1935 to 1979. Most comic books printed in that age range vary in original price from 10 cents to 60 cents.

10 cent books were published from 1935 to 1962. 12 cent books were published from 1962 to 1969, 15 cent books from 1969 to 1970 (that didn't last long), etc. - you get the picture. From 1970 to 1979, comic books off the rack rose in price steadily from 15 cents to 60 cents. Note the Detective Comics #49 from 1941 at right - only a 10 cent price tag but in Near Mint Minus condition, this book is now worth $4200 according to the latest Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide! We'll talk more about condition and the Overstreet guide a little later. By the way, if you don't want to purchase a copy of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide you can also get a free account at ComicPriceGuide.com or ComicBookRealm.com and look up the values of books online for free! The values at ComicPriceGuide.com and ComicBookRealm.com are fairly close to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.

In each of these "price" eras, there were comic books called "Giants" or "Annuals" that cost more than the common comic book of that era. For example Giants and Annuals cost 25 cents in the 1960's when regular single issue comic books were going for 12 cents. Giants and Annuals were mostly collected reprints of earlier single issues and it allowed comic book publishers to get out more product without having to come up with new material. It worked because comics that were first published in the mid-50's could be reprinted in the mid-60's and you would have a new audience of adolescents and teens that had most likely never read the originals - and the Giants and Annuals had a LOT more pages. But we digress....

Modern comic books cost anywhere from $1.00 (1990) to $2.99 to $3.99 for comics printed in the last decade or so. So a rule of thumb - a rule with significant exceptions, examples of which will be provided later - is that the older a book, the more valuable the book.

Next up in "So You Want To Sell Your Comic Book Collection - Part 2" we will cover when the "Older is Better" rule just doesn't work and delve into the physical condition of comic books as well. As usual, comments and questions are welcome and solicited

The Bloodbath That Has Become Trade Paperbacks!

Kind of teaser/trailer title for a blog entry but it is true in the figurative sense. What has essentially happened in the comic book trade paperback business is that the customer can pretty much find any trade in print online for drastically reduced prices - that's the good news.

The bad news is that comic book retailers are having a tough time making any money off of trade paperbacks. Why in the world would anyone pay $14.99 list price at a brick-and-mortar comic book store for the extremely popular Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye when you can get it for $8.78 directly from Amazon OR starting at $3.78 for NEW copies or $4.00 for USED copies from Amazon sellers? Yep, that's right - the USED copies start at a higher price than the NEW copies...weird. Comic book retailers order their merchandise from Diamond Comics Distributors and unless they are the highest volume sellers in the world, the best discount the normal comic retailer can get is 50% off the retail price as their wholesale price - that doesn't include freight so add another 2% or so on top of that. Well at 48% off of $14.99 for the Walking Dead TPB, that comes to around $7.79 just for the COST of the book so retailers are already several bucks behind the going online price right out of the gate - can't make any money that way.

Anyway, you have heard me talk about the state of the comic book industry as it applies to me and my business at comic book conventions here and here. When I saw a LOT of dealers at conventions blowing out BRAND NEW Marvel trades at $5.00 a pop (i.e. the "The Bloodbath" that I alluded to in the post title), I knew I had to get out of this part of the business and get out in a hurry! The other "epiphany" was when customers would come to my booth with an Amazon printout of prices for the books they were wanting to buy and asking if I could match Amazon's prices...obviously I couldn't without taking a substantial loss.

Now you might be thinking that the Walking Dead deal above was a "one-off" - i.e. the exception that proves the rule. However, if you are a long time comic collector, YOU KNOW that IS the rule. Just for kicks and giggles, listed below are the Top Ten July 2013 Trade Paperbacks and Graphic Novels in Quantity Sold as reported by Diamond Comics Distributors. The prices from Amazon are as of 9/9/2013 and most likely will change over time. These are BRAND NEW BOOKS for goodness sakes!

Quantity Rank	Dollar Rank	Publisher	Description	Retail Price	Amazon Price	Amazon Sellers New Price	Amazon Sellers Used Price
1	2	Marvel	Hawkeye: Little Hits, Vol. 2	$16.99	$12.68	$8.93	$9.53
2	10	Dark Horse	Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, Part 2	$10.99	$9.08	$6.29	$6.29
3	7	Image	Saga Vol. 2	$14.99	$11.70	$8.43	$5.99
4	22	Image	Saga Vol. 1	$9.99	$8.48	$5.70	$5.00
5	47	Marvel	Black Bolt: Something Inhuman This Way Comes - One Shot	$7.99	$7.75	$7.75	None
6	8	Marvel	Kick-Ass 2 Prelude: Hit-Girl Hardcover	$19.99	$17.48	$13.40	$14.48
7	20	DC Comics	Fairest Vol. 2: Hidden Kingdom	$14.99	$11.48	$7.24	$8.09
8	3	DC Comics	Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach - Deluxe Hardcover	$29.99	$22.11	$16.48	$14.52
9	17	Image	Invincible Volume 18: Death of Everyone TP	$16.99	$10.59	$6.99	$8.09
10	4	DC Comics	Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan - Deluxe Hardcover	$29.99	$22.11	$13.40	$13.40

OK, enough of this exercise - be on the lookout for a six-part series coming up that might help some of you make a nice little chunk of change! First part will be out later this week and all parts will be published within a week!

As usual, comments/questions are welcome and solicited.

eBay Marketing App - MyStoreRewards

I know it has been a LOOOOOOOOONG time since I posted anything. I would tell you that it will change but.... I can't really say that for sure. I do like to write and have a few things to get off my chest so I will try VERY hard to put out one article a week.

This one concerns eBay Marketing and in particular the app called MyStoreRewards.com -- What this app basically does is reward your customers with a percentage rebate off of the total price - including shipping and handling - and in turn, MyStoreRewards sends out an e-mail containing links & images of your current auctions to those who opt-in to get the rebate.

I set it up so that customers will get a 2% rebate of their first purchase using the MyStoreRewards app and 3% rebate for all subsequent purchases as long as they remain opt-in and therefore receive the e-mails. Now...ahem...YOU the seller are providing the rebate so you are looking at a risk and reward type of scenario. No rebates are sent to customers until AFTER they have paid for their eBay purchases.

First, how does a potential customer opt-in? Well scroll past whatever graphic I might have in one of my auctions and you will see a graphic like this:

Now you really don't have to do a thing but wait until MyStoreRewards sends you, the customer, an e-mail with links on how to join. Clicking on the graphic just provides a short informational page about MyStoreRewards.

Now some info for sellers: Are there any fees other than the rebates you provide through PayPal? Well, that part is confusing as I don't pay any fees - other than the rebates - and I believe it is totally free if you use it ONLY on eBay AND sign up through "My eBay" --> "Applications". Now if you want to expand the use of this app to your own e-commerce websites, then I believe there are monthly fees and per transaction fees. But lets just stick to eBay for now.

You as a seller have a few settings like what percentage you will be providing on the first sale and on subsequent sales. You also select how frequently you want your e-mails sent out (choices are every 15, 30 or 45 days) and what your maximum reward will be - I set mine at $100 which at 2% is a $5000 dollar eBay item purchased and at 3% is a $3333 item - haven't ever sold one for either amount so I feel pretty safe and if I did, I would be MORE than happy to provide a $100 rebate.

Now for some stats - we left brainers love those. Not too many but interesting as all get out. I haven't been doing this long so the numbers aren't big.....yet. Here are my results as of 8/1/2013 (might update this blog entry at the end of the year to see where I am at that time).

Total opted-in buyers	30
Revenue from Opted-in buyers	$1,733.52
Reward amount	$37.80
Your repeat purchase count	9
Average Purchase of NON-opted-in buyers	$41.47
Average Purchase from OPTED-in buyers	$57.58

Now here are some stats from the e-mail side of things:

	Industry Average	My Stats
Opt-in Percent	0.5%	9.0%
Opt-out Percent	1 - 4%	1%
Total Marketing Emails sent	N/A	516
Open Rate	14.3%	65.89%
Email Click-Thru Rate	3.3%	14%

In a word....THIS IS INCREDIBLE! A 9% opt-in percentage is unreal followed by a 65.89 percent opening rate with a 14% click through rate? Those are OVER the top stats internet marketing-wise - the only real problem is that I have only 30 people opted in but that is changing fairly quickly for one reason: I am listing a WHOLE lot more items than I used to on a weekly basis.

This is a win-win for both eBay sellers and customers and THAT'S the way internet marketing should work.

As usual, comments and questions are solicited

My Experience With PSLSource.com...and What I Think Should Happen

As anyone who has engaged in internet transactions knows, customer service is all over the board. When we get sensational customer service like the type I regularly experience with ULine.com - a shipping/warehouse supplies company and yes, believe it or not with PayPal, it makes you feel good and more importantly, valued as a customer. When customer service is not so hot, it leaves one a little frustrated and well, devalued as a customer.

So I'm going to tell the tale of my experience with PSLSource.com and no, it was not a positive one but I'm not going to just complain and not offer a solution. Anyone that has been a manager or supervisor detests when an employee points out something deficient but doesn't offer a suggestion or solution. People like that kind of "Yeah, there's a problem there but we can fix it" type of attitude. So I'm going to try to go that route.

PSLSource.com is a company that brokers Permanent Seat Licenses (PSLs) for a number of NFL teams. PSLs are something that entitles a football fan to buy season tickets for their team. NFL teams use them to raise revenue to mostly pay for stadium construction. PSLs are a one time fee per seat. Well, I've moved away from the Charlotte, NC area so I figured it was time to unload my three Club III PSLs. But forget about all that mumbo jumbo, think of PSLs as any other commodity with some intrinsic value like...comic books for instance. PSLSource.com is sort of like an eBay of PSLs.

At PSLSource.com, you sign up for an account and create a listing to sell your PSLs. The listing will contain such information as the Section, Row and seat numbers, whether a parking pass is included, close to concessions, sunny or shady side, whether or not the season tickets are included and of course a price per PSL.

I did the usual Googling for a site to sell PSLs and figured PSLSource.com would be a good place to start. Knowing nothing about the market, I wanted some guidance as to what I should expect price-wise for my PSLs so I sent them an e-mail on March 9th and didn't get a reply. So on March 12th, I decided to give them a call on their toll free number. Well, they never called back.

I decided "What the heck", it costs nothing to list so why not just sign up, create a listing and see what happens - so on March 13th I did exactly just that. Well, I didn't get much response - in fact I got zero. Well, after a week I decided to lower the price which means you have to edit your listing and the edits have to be approved - as does a new listing by the way. I edited it in the morning and come that afternoon, the edit was not approved. I sent an e-mail to Support via the website and the edit was approved shortly - no biggie.

Well, another week passed with minimal response and it was obvious that I really didn't know how to price PSLs. So two days ago (March 27th), I decided to lower the price again. I edited it at 8:35 a.m. and when I checked at 3:25 the edits where still not approved.

I sent the following e-mail via their website to "Support":

"Edited my listing - #20355 - at 8:35 a.m. EDT today and it is now 3:25 p.m. EDT and the changes have not been approved.

C'mon - you guys can do better than this."

At 3:31 p.m. the following e-mail was sent to me although I didn't read it until I got off of work:

"Your changes were approved around 2:00pm. We have been busy processing sales today. Approving new listings and edits is of secondary importance on our list of priorities. For what its worth, we are making changes in the near future that will eliminate the need for edits to be approved by admin and will go into effect instantly.

Thanks,

XXXXXXXXX"

I put "XXXXXXXXX" because I don't want to release "names". What disturbed me was that my request for support was considered "of secondary importance on our list of priorities"

Sooooo..... at 8:27 p.m., I replied with the following:

"Ok - let me inform you of a couple of things:

I e-mailed you on March 9th to inquire about your services - no e-mail back.

I called and left a message on March 12th - no call back.

Now I'm being told that supporting your customers is of secondary importance.

But your website touts your expert sales staff - do you see the disconnect that I'm seeing and experiencing?

The first two items you might not of known about but the third one you own.

Sincerely,

William Anfin"

At 9:41 I received a reply to my e-mail:

"I have only ever received 2 emails asking us to hurry up and approve edits. Both have come from you. Supporting potential customers at times does take secondary importance to supporting actual customers. I dont think we'll be a fit to work together. I have removed your listing from the site.

XXXXXXXXX"

OK...... I really didn't get all that angry - went through the self analysis to figure out if I was the one at fault here....and you know, I don't think so. So for all the hundreds if not thousands of listings, I am the only one to complain about the speed of their edit approval process? Possible but not probable. My sister told me something about disagreements that I have seen occur over and over and over... Basically, when someone gets angry or does some sort of kneejerk reaction, they probably realize that they have the weaker position and they are mad about it.

Now for the solution that I think will work:

PSLSource.com has a pretty slick site - maybe the best one out there for what they do. However, if they keep treating..um.."potential customers" as if they don't matter, someone else will treat "potential customers" as what they are: Actual Customers. It doesn't matter if you have the slickest site, good old capitalism says that if someone can build the better mousetrap OR treat their customers like the gold they are, they will take over the market share. Look, building one of these sites is not all that complicated at all for any competent database web programmer. If I didn't have about ten thousand irons in the fire, I would think about doing it myself.

I later found out that the person who figuratively kicked my tuckas off of PSLSource.com is actually the owner of the site. So it appears he is running a one-man show - i.e. he is Sales, Marketing, Order Processing, Clerical....etc. What this fellow needs in the worst way is a Business Coach - he just doesn't need it, he is screaming for it.

A business coach is someone who mentors entrepreneurs, managers...well just about anybody in the world of business - but the market for business coaches was made out of mentoring the Mom & Pop businesses of the world. A great business coach will assess your qualities to determine your strengths, your weaknesses, what people you deal with effectively and obviously which ones you struggle with as well. They will listen to you, help you lay out a plan for your business, set goals - i.e. "coach" you to success.

I have been fortunate to know one of the best business coaches in the world - Harvey Smith of Carolina Business Coach. Harvey is a major reason why Walkin' Willie's Comix is cash flow positive and on course to have the best year ever in the 21+ years of our existence. That ain't bad...

So continuing my unasked for advice to the owner of PSLSource.com, don't walk but RUN to Carolina Business Coach - things might be great now but if you continue to treat customers the way you do, it won't be long until someone steals your customers. Remember, PSL selling sites are not hard at all to make so customer service - or the lack thereof - is how you will differentiate yourself. If you go through the program at Carolina Business Coach, you will thank me....I guarantee it.

Now that ended positively - just the way we like it....

UPDATE 4/5/2012: Just sold my three PSLs to a very nice family today and without a broker to boot so things are lookin' great! Baby's gonna get a new pair of shoes!