cheers, alan

You have just received this email because I felt your use of
rec.arts.comics.marketplace was incorrect.  This is not a
personal attack.  Think of this as a way to improve your marketing
skills in order to better sell your comics.

Your current method of posting at the moment will only serve to annoy
many people here, and you could lose potential business because of it,
as people may put your address in their kill files, and refuse to even
download your posts.

Again, this is nothing personal, just a friendly piece of advice.

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Credit for this list goes to Chris Tumber.  

Many of these are covered by the FAQ, but some people just don't get
it! Further, this newsgroup seems to be getting more annoying by the
day. So, call it a rant, or call it good advice. I you want to do
business on rac.marketplace and not piss people off, you should
probably heed this list. Guidelines to follow if you want to succeed
in rec.arts.comics.marketplace:

1 Learn to alphabetize. There's nothing worse than having to
pick through a long, disorganized list looking for any Spudman comics
when you could have just paged down to the 'S'es if the seller knew
what he was doing.

2 Include prices, the buyer shouldn't have to appraise your
comics for you. If you want to hold an auction, that's cool. Do it.

3 Post the list! If you don't have a list, go away and come
back when you do. Why should people be willing to send you money for
your comics when you can't even be bothered to compile a list of them?

3-A Do not post telling people to email you for a list. You
obviously have a list prepared, why not post it? Why force people to
go to the trouble of emailing you _and_ waiting for you to get back to
them when they could have just glanced through your list and seen what
you have? Why make more work for yourself? Post it once so hundreds of
people can see it instead of having to mail it to each of the twenty
people who actually email you for a copy.

3-B Do not post telling people to check a www page for the
list. The Web is more overhyped than the Superbowl. The main buy/sell
space on the net is right here in this newsgroup. You will reach _far_
more people here than you will on the Web. By posting a message simply
saying "Check my WWW page for my comic list" you've effectively run a
two-minute television add during extra innings of the 7th game of the
World Series to say "Please tune into radio station WZZZ to hear our
add." That's simply nuts! You already _have_ people's attention when
they read your post. USE IT! Why depend upon them A) Exiting their
newsreader B) Firing up their browser and C) Finding your WWW page? A
WWW page is great for establishing a permanent headquarters, or
proving scans, or maintaining large inventory lists you don't want to
be posting constantly. However, your primary marketting thrust should
be the newsgroup. Period.

4 The price is _always_ US dollars. Yes, that includes all you
silly Canadians! 95% of the people reading this newsgroup are
Americans.  American dollars are the most convenient method of
exchange available to everyone. They can be bought and sold in any
"1st world" country with no problem whatsover. No, I'm not taking
Canadian money at par and you're not getting a 40% discount just
because you happen to be a fellow countryman. Sorry, I'll sell to my
American friends instead, thank you very much!

5 Do not follow-up your original post in order to repost your
list unless you know how to turn off > indenting for
quoting. Otherwise it just looks like hell and makes you look lazy.

6 Set your line width, screen width, window width or whatever
your software calls it to 70-75 characters and turn word-wrap
off. Failure to do so pretty much ensures your post is unreadable,
particularly if you're relying on columns. You may be working in SVGA
mode with 160 columns but many of us aren't and your posts look like
junk.

7 Do not list the NM guide value when posting non-NM books,
list the value _in grade_. And particularly, don't state your price as
being a percentage off guide based on the NM value. It makes you look
as crooked as a sports autograph dealer.

8 Don't spam the newsgroup! Dividing up your posts, or
highlighting key books and sets with individual posts is fine and in
fact necessary with our short attention spans. However, use some
common sense. If you're sending a seperate post for each letter of the
alphabet you're doing it wrong. Also, never post the same books more
than once a day, even if you change the subject header.

9 Use descriptive subject headers. "Comics for Sale!" will get
you ignored. _Everybody_ has comics for sale! Be as descriptive as
possible in your subject. Keywords like [Silver], [Gold], [Auction],
[Bad Girl] are also a good idea.

10 Don't bother complaining about undercuts. Some of us don't
like them much, but, the _overwhelming_ majority of people here do.
Complaining about them will do you _zero_ good, except maybe get you
flamed and dredge up a very old argument for the umpteenth time. It
also stamps "TOURIST" smack in the middle of your forehead. This is
not a comic shop, nor is it a comic show. Both those entities are
_seller's markets, operated chiefly for and by the sellers.
Rac.marketplace is a _buyer's market. The buyers set the rules here.
There _is_ no proprietor.

11 Keep a lid on the hype. This isn't Wizard. I know that's a
book I'll never see again in my life, you don't have to take three
paragraphs of exclamation points to tell me. Conversely, I know that
"Hot" book is common as dirt and your saying otherwise just makes you
look like an ignorant opportunist.

12 Post your shipping charges. I know full well what it'll cost
you to send me the comics. If you'd mentioned in your add you were
going to charge me $10 to ship a single comic I never would have
responded and I wouldn't be backing out of the deal now.

13 100 comics is _not_ a HUGE COLLECTION!!!!! nor is 1,000. At
10,000 comics you've got something to talk about but hardly bragging
rights.


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Alan's Postscripts


PS 1 Consolidate when possible.  Think about who might buy
these comics or comic-related merchandise.  If you have 20 Superman
comics and 20 Spiderman comics, then two posts would be appropriate.
If you have 20 Thors and 20 Iron Mans, then they should be combined.
If you have Magic cards, then you are in the wrong place.

PS 2 Subjects should begin with FS, WTB or
WTT, which means For Sale, Wanted to Buy, and Wanted to Trade
respectively.  Subjects should not begin with a dozen exclamation
marks.  This is just obnoxious, and tends to get ignored.


PS 3 Don't ask for want lists.  If I want something, I'll ask
for it by posting WTB: your comics.

PS 4 Just because no one responded to your post within 2 hours
or even 24 hours, doesn't mean it was not correctly posted.  More than
likely it means you have not followed the above _suggestions_ or you
are trying to sell CRAP that no one wants or your prices are too high.


PS 5 Most posts do not expire in 48 hours.  They are usually
available for 5-7 days, even longer.  If I see a post with the same
subject from the same person more than twice a week, I'll ignore it.
If I didn't want Tales of Crap #1 for $2 yesterday, why will I
want it tommorrow?  Most people that read this newsgroup are regulars.
If you are hoping instead to catch the transients or irregulars, then
consider they will be downloading a full week's worth of posts or
more, depending on the last time they logged in, so they will see it
anyway.

PS 6 If you don't know how to fix your newsreader so it only
submits one copy of your post, instead of sending duplicates or
triplicates, then leave and come back when you do.

Last modified: Tue Oct 26 13:37:21 CDT 2004 Web page by Alan L. Stone: alstone@fnal.gov