Joe_in_MO wrote:I understand how the 'wish list' works... I enter X-Men #94, and whenever one of the dealer/stores offers it for sale, I get notified. What if a new feature was added that worked like this. I enter into a list, what I want (title, issue #, condition, AND PRICE). This list is available for everyone to see, and if someone has the book I want, in the condition I want, at the price I'm willing to pay, then we complete the transaction (with CCL taking a finders fee...). For example, if I enter X-Men #94, VF or better, $300.00 , then I have sellers competing to sell to me ! Or if I entered "PunisherMAX (2004), entire run 1-60, VF+ or better, $45.00", then I would have potential sellers competing to sell to me. It kinda flips the whole idea on its head... instead of sellers listing what they have for sale, buyers would list what specifically they want (title, issue(s), condition, price). I think it's an interesting idea ! Joe
I like this idea a lot. In fact, it fits neatly into a persistent concern of mine as a collector, which is that that the world is full of tools to help the person who owns a comic to sell it, but is sadly lacking tools to help the person who wants a scarce, infrequently listed comic to find it.
The really hard-to-find comics are hard to find because most existing copies are in collections, not in sellers' stocks. A collector trying to find a copy for sale can check listings and auction sites daily for weeks on end and never find a copy for sale. Accordingly, the revolutionary opportunity here is creation of a market in which collectors who are not routine sellers of comics become enabled to sell comics in response to "want to buy" listings, without paying any fees (in this model, the buyer would pay listing and transaction fees). Without such an
ad hoc selling capability, and a listing service to call attention to unfilled demand, some really scarce comics are likely to continue to sit in private collections, perhaps not even appreciated by their current owners, indefinitely.
Demand-initiated transactions of low-supply comics
can happen (I have been on both sides of such transactions), but there aren't a lot of tools to facilitate them, particularly now that
Comics Buyer's Guide (the facilitator of the transactions I engaged in) is gone. As a seeking buyer of certain difficult-to-find comics, I would be happy to pay for a listing that would reach a large number of collectors (who are not routine sellers), in the hope of finding a small number of collectors willing to part with comics I want. Apparently, I'm not the only one.