Something has to change: Views on Comic stores viability. 0

[Krydel4]

Interesting article. Lots of good points.

https://icv2.com/articles/columns/view/42172/something-has-change

[kav]

My buddy runs a successful shop-its a pleasure to watch him work.  Greets every customer that comes in.  Vast knowledge on all items.  Someone was asking about a board game and he knew it in detail and explained the pros and cons.  He actively plays all the games he sells.  If someone asks about a book he looks it up on his computer to see if it is in stock, if he carries it or can order it.  He took the time to explain expansion packs for some game and how they had different vendor locations in the US and which ones carried what, as well as commiserated with guy about why cant they all carry the same items.  I stayed for about an hour and it was like watching a fine tuned stage act or military operation.  Every customer felt valued.

[Mercury Man]

Good read, but none of what he says will probably ever happen.  The old days were magic.  1 Spiderman title, 1 X-Men title etc.  As far as new #1's etc, Marvel bastardized this after Heroe's Reborn/Heroes Return.   DC seems to be following suit since the New 52.   Variants are a joke, and he hit the nail on the head.   My LCS has short boxes full of variants.  He is asking 1/2 price, and will soon be moving them to the $1 bins. 

Edited January 5, 2019 by Mercury Man

[mattn792]

The overall solution is clear - all books from hereon will be #1 foil variant one-shot reboot store exclusive 1:1000 5000:1 J Scott Campbell lenticular covers.

Gimmicks for all!  

The industry survived the 1990s, and hopefully it will persevere through this current absurdity.

[aardvark88]

2 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

 Variants are a joke, and he hit the nail on the head.   My LCS has short boxes full of variants.  He is asking 1/2 price, and will soon be moving them to the $1 bins. 

My LCS has short boxes of variants also asking 1/2 price. He does not want to blow them out in $1 bin, as they used to be 'hot' 2 years ago. Sorry, if it is a non-key and has not sold in 3 years, put it in the 50c bin until the semi-annual sale. Then blow them out at 10c each to create storage space for the newer weekly variants, as retail space, staff labor and downtown property tax is $$  costly.

[followtheleader]

Honestly, a lot of the better shops have started a similar philosophy. 

Fairly simple concepts, zero point in having back issues past a couple weeks.  Even worse when it hits a long box.  

Does it occasionally suck because a book is sold out? Yep. Does it hurt a good title later because people can't get the early issues?  Sure.  But the percentages are pretty low for these "later successes". 

He definitely was more focused toward the negative of Marvel.  I often wonder if the wide-breath of Indy comics has been as much a killer.  Two million books on a stand for lesser known/small print titles no longer seems to be the positive it was a couple years ago when Image went crazy.  

Patrick

 

[fastballspecial]

Ive been to COC in Florida in several stores. I understand all the points he talks about.
Its up to Diamond to try to dictate something to publishers. I think he paints a pretty
good picture of whats happening to the industry. Variants have eaten shops alive
and its just now starting to show up.

That being said if you have ever been in a COC shop their are very proud of their back issues
pricewise. If they marked down their prices a little bit they would sell more as well.

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by fastballspecial

[Mercury Man]

12 hours ago, mattn792 said:

The industry survived the 1990s, and hopefully it will persevere through this current absurdity.

I think Modern (print) comics are a lot like Major League Baseball. 

Major League Baseball’s television audience is among the oldest in professional sports, according to data recently released by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal and Magna Global. The average age of a baseball viewer is 57, up from 52 in 2006. There won’t be a youth movement, either, as just 7% of baseball’s audience is below age 18.

This age increase applies to all sports really, but Baseball, once America's most beloved sport, is seeing one of the largest downward trends.

It seems the consumer continues to age, with no downward trend or level off on the horizon for (print) comics as well.  I can't speak for digital comics, because that is not my niche. 

[1950's war comics]

9 minutes ago, Mercury Man said:

Major League Baseball’s television audience is among the oldest in professional sports, according to data recently released by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal and Magna Global. The average age of a baseball viewer is 57, up from 52 in 2006. There won’t be a youth movement, either, as just 7% of baseball’s audience is below age 18.

Yeah things are changing .. not for the better either IMO ...  i am actually stunned more and more these days when i click on the ESPN web page and the leading story is European league soccer  this is even if there was a non NFL major US sporting event the night before

[1950's war comics]

13 minutes ago, Mercury Man said:

There won’t be a youth movement, either, as just 7% of baseball’s audience is below age 18.

 

i still get pushback from the younger crowd at work when i talk about golf ,... they say how boring it is and wonder how anyone can waste five hours playing or watching the game ... i try to tell them that if they are athletically inclined and wish to continue playing sports into their senior years what sport do they think they are going to play

golf is one of the few sports that is active and physical that you can actually play and play competitively for your WHOLE LIFE  !!

even when riding in a cart the average golfer playing 18 holes will still walk two miles !!!! VERY ACTIVE SPORT !!

[Artboy99]

I read the article yesterday while I ate my dinner.

I think he is spot on, and under current business model comic stores really should only purchase for their file orders. No need to chase anything as a retailer incentive.

Trying to guess what customers will buy and then order those books is a retail gamble. Even buying just 1 extra copy of books published and distributed each month can kill a retail store.

You end up with a hundred long boxes full of comics that you will spend decades trying to sell at a discount and discover you can't sell them and all the while you are faced with the cost of storing them.

[1Cool]

Why don’t distributors allow books to be returned?  Let’s say a book is $4 and they get $2 if the book sells.  What does a new comic cost to produce? $1 a piece in bulk?  So as long as stores sold as much as they returned then you are still being profitable (especially if you can sell them in bulk to Walmart or Costco’s for $0.50 a piece.  The tighter stores are are order the less likely the general public will ever see it especially when you are talking about new books.  Give books away in movies, give old issues to convenience stores a month or two after they come out.  Get books into people’s hands is the only prayer books have to survive.

[aardvark88]

57 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

 a retail gamble. Even buying just 1 extra copy of books published and distributed each month can kill a retail store.

You end up with a hundred long boxes full of comics that you will spend decades trying to sell at a discount and discover you can't sell them and all the while you are faced with the cost of storing them.

+1. The other problem this creates is cashflow to buy incoming SA, BA, CA back issue collection(s) that you may be offered each month. Could be high profit margin if vendor is able to buy a nice collection of say 2k to 4k comics each month for a reasonable price. Some LCS have stopped  buying collections altogether for the last 4 years but will take the better back issues on consignment to spruce up their wall display.

[the blob]

14 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

Good read, but none of what he says will probably ever happen.  The old days were magic.  1 Spiderman title, 1 X-Men title etc.  As far as new #1's etc, Marvel bastardized this after Heroe's Reborn/Heroes Return.   DC seems to be following suit since the New 52.   Variants are a joke, and he hit the nail on the head.   My LCS has short boxes full of variants.  He is asking 1/2 price, and will soon be moving them to the $1 bins. 

Old days? In 1978 there were 5 spiderman titles (1 reprint), 3 hulk titles (1 mag and 1 reprint), 2 Conan titles (at some point a little later 4)... But yes, overall it was much less and no minis. But yes, I hate the reboots. Even as a dollar box scrounger I am at the point of dropping buying many reboots. I actually do like to get runs. And it is too many variants. They aren't special. If there are only 3 or 4 a week for marvel then maybe people will care? With that said, my main shop seems to sell them. I have not been offered a stack of former $7-15 variants for $1 in years and I don't see him discounting them. Maybe he cuts deals or gives them to good file customers. As for everything being "worthless" 2 months later, that's an overstatement. $1-2 as back issues. Money losers for sure, but not worthless. One shop of mine has 3 or 4 longs of dollar books shoved in a corner and he generates $100-200 a week out of it (gross, not net). Half overstock half stuff he paid 5 cents for. He is a shop that buys whatever walks in. He is honest with people though, pays ok for good stuff and ok stuff, very little for junk, obviously. It seems dumb for shops to not try and buy collections. Why say no rather than just lowball? Yesterday I watched my guy pay $200 for some slabs he put up on the wall for about $1000. One of them was a $500 book he could sell for the $200 outlay in 2 minutes on eBay, get $400-500 if he has patience. It's "free" money?

Edited January 5, 2019 by the blob

[Artboy99]

8 minutes ago, aardvark88 said:

 Some LCS have stopped  buying collections altogether for the last 4 years but will take the better back issues on consignment to spruce up their wall display.

is the case around these parts. Comics stores are struggling, some have closed .

If a collection comes in they will buy only the books they want rather than the entire thing. They are also doing consignment in place of buying the collections. I know of 4 local comic selling shops doing consignments instead of collection buying.

[the blob]

34 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

Why don’t distributors allow books to be returned?  Let’s say a book is $4 and they get $2 if the book sells.  What does a new comic cost to produce? $1 a piece in bulk?  So as long as stores sold as much as they returned then you are still being profitable (especially if you can sell them in bulk to Walmart or Costco’s for $0.50 a piece.  The tighter stores are are order the less likely the general public will ever see it especially when you are talking about new books.  Give books away in movies, give old issues to convenience stores a month or two after they come out.  Get books into people’s hands is the only prayer books have to survive.

Why would a business want to keep $2 rather than giving it back??? Anyway, I agree there should be some returnability, but complete returnability can result in over ordering. Also, a full refund can mean a store buys back books from customers for $1 after they read them and then returns them. But I see a 50% refund maybe making sense and splits the costs. A $1 risk will still create a dicencentive to over order. What publishers don't seem to understand is that too much overstock created disincentives for retail price purchases. As for what diamond can do with returns.. Many of these books are trashed, Wal-Mart can't sell them. 2/3 of the books that go into my shops' dollar boxes are fine or less after rack abuse. I actually buy most mainstream books I see in there that are nm or better (though I have cut back on that). Many of the better copies are file customer's who defaulted.

[the blob]

One of my shops does a brisk business selling 10 for $4 grab bags. Usually a book I would like out of tbe dollar box on top you can see, but the rest less desireable. But it is NYC so there are lots of tourists wandering around and this sort of disposable cheap stuff excites the heck out of Europeans apparently. That's what you get for $8000 a month rent on a 300 square foot shop.

[the blob]

12 hours ago, aardvark88 said:

My LCS has short boxes of variants also asking 1/2 price. He does not want to blow them out in $1 bin, as they used to be 'hot' 2 years ago. Sorry, if it is a non-key and has not sold in 3 years, put it in the 50c bin until the semi-annual sale. Then blow them out at 10c each to create storage space for the newer weekly variants, as retail space, staff labor and downtown property tax is $$  costly.

Where do you live that a shop can't sell these for $1?

[the blob]

Of course, a lot of comments here from a guy who buys 7-10 new comics a year off the rack, 3/4 of them because one of my kids guilted me. Fact is, I will probably never regularly buy new comics until they are $2 each and 64 pages and I can get the ones limited to 300 copies.

Edited January 5, 2019 by the blob

[justafan]

I agree with the article. as a customer I've cut back. trimmed my file copies down to a single title. stoped buying new variants.  saw that most of the titles I was paying $4.99 for were available in high grade for $1-3 3-6 months later. picking up common variants after 3-6 months. ignoring the flood of 1:X variants as most aren't worth the money spent.

I'm saving about $50/month on regular issues and over $500/month on variants.  

I know this will put a minor dent in my LCS profit but i hope they and other comic shops follow suit and trim their orders to force publishers into doing away with the reboots and gimmicks and putting out just fewer titles with better quality.