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

[1950's war comics]

5 minutes ago, NoMan said:

 Two stores in my home city has been in biz with no back issues, one 13 years the other about 20  years

 

just think about how much more profitable those two stores would have been just carrying even just a small amount of popular back issues ,,, and  if they would have kept a few keys in the back room and even if they did not want to bring them out for sale just think of how much they have appreciated in value in just the last five years

[NoMan]

50 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

just think about how much more profitable those two stores would have been just carrying even just a small amount of popular back issues ,,, and  if they would have kept a few keys in the back room and even if they did not want to bring them out for sale just think of how much they have appreciated in value in just the last five years

I only buy back issues (except for the odd Drawn And Quarterly/Fantagraphic kinda book). Believe me, I wish they did. They don't. 

[the blob]

18 hours ago, SteppinRazor said:

There's not much incentive for creators to generate original characters for Disney/TW and get nothing off the use of the characters.  True, Marvel did put Morales in ana animated flick, but that is mostly based on the spiderverse story line, like CA2 was based on Civil War.  Moralies is a hybrid, not an entirely new hero, either.

Disney/Marvel can give creators a piece of the action for new creations although calculating that could be tricky. Let's say ebony maw... Somewhat recent creation, minor character. Throw the creator a bone. Fact is they should have a modest set aside for every movie to creators (and innovators of a character, although I doubt claremo t and Byrne need the money... Byrne can live nicely off commissions until he drops dead) as a matter of good will. Herb trimpe and Len wein should have been getting a check for every x-men and wolverine movie. (Not "should" as legally obligated, but as good p.r. and corporate citizenship for marvel... Have them "consult") ... Dave cockrum, etc too.

[Lazyboy]

3 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

don't they know they should at least have a couple CGC graded books in stock and on display at any given time ,?? 

just to let potential customers know they are legitimate ?? even if they pay full retail for those CGC books ,..

WTF?

[fastballspecial]

2 hours ago, Krydel4 said:

I think part of this is you have to be a very active participant in your business by keeping track of what issues you are missing and trying to fill those holes. One of LCS that just went out of business near me and it was a case of whatever we got we got. They were very much passengers in their business.

Really this is the problem. Most LCS owners don't want to hussle for it. They aren't out looking for advertising for buying books. Sure many will be 90s drek, but some good books will come in occasionally. Store owners now carrying back issues are failure its easy money. You pay $.05 for and charge $1 or more if you find some good stuff. They don't sell on Facebooks, Ebay or Instragram either as they are too lazy in my opinion. Not all, but many I have met over the years. 

A lot of my local shops have switched over to gaming and I can understand that. One shop is hosting Fortnight tournaments and has a room full of vintage video games you can play for $5 for a couple of hours. They sell pops, gaming cards, comics, Nintendo games, records and such. They get ALOT of cross traffic by doing this. I think the days of just a comic shop are pretty much over, but the Nostalgia stop can make a fortune.

Don't let this get anyone down thinking of owning a comic shop. It can be done, but you have to have a plan and you have to think Big picture when you are planning out your shop. Most just open the door or do it via a Flea market and don't understand why  they fail.

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by fastballspecial

[Krydel4]

15 minutes ago, fastballspecial said:

Really this is the problem. Most LCS owners don't want to hussle for it. They aren't out looking for advertising for buying books. Sure many will be 90s drek, but some good books will come in occasionally. Store owners now carrying back issues are failure its easy money. You pay $.05 for and charge $1 or more if you find some good stuff. They don't sell on Facebooks, Ebay or Instragram either as they are too lazy in my opinion. Not all, but many I have met over the years. 

This. The shops in my area know what I'm looking for ie. My Challenge and that I buy books outside of it too. I gave my list and wants to these shops and I get phone/pm's from two shops in particular when something comes in and I've spent close to $2000 in each shop in 2018 on back issues. The one that went out of business, not interested. So I spent my money and time at the other shops eventhough one of them is really out of my way.

[SteppinRazor]

6 hours ago, the blob said:

Disney/Marvel can give creators a piece of the action for new creations although calculating that could be tricky. Let's say ebony maw... Somewhat recent creation, minor character. Throw the creator a bone. Fact is they should have a modest set aside for every movie to creators (and innovators of a character, although I doubt claremo t and Byrne need the money... Byrne can live nicely off commissions until he drops dead) as a matter of good will. Herb trimpe and Len wein should have been getting a check for every x-men and wolverine movie. (Not "should" as legally obligated, but as good p.r. and corporate citizenship for marvel... Have them "consult") ... Dave cockrum, etc too.

They could.  Don't hold your breath, though

[the blob]

57 minutes ago, SteppinRazor said:

They could.  Don't hold your breath, though

At this point half these guys are dead, but I guess their widows, etc.  what happened with cockrum was terrible. I'm talking about $100-250k a movie. That's the craft table on the movie set for a few days. I guess marvel did not own x-men movies, but did they get any royalties? 

Edited January 14, 2019 by the blob

[RCheli]

22 hours ago, NoMan said:

 Two stores in my home city has been in biz with no back issues, one 13 years the other about 20  years

 

And I know of stores that sell no new books; only back issues.

Proprietors -- if they're good -- can make nearly any business model work. For many, back issues are a huge problem. They take up a ton of space and don't match a store's percentage of sales (40% of floor space.... 5% of sales). Others don't want to deal with the relatively high risk of new issues (especially when you take reboots, variants, and higher prices into consideration).

I don't think there has to be some sort of "best practice" for a comic book store. You just have to know what you want to do and do it very well.

[the blob]

22 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

just think about how much more profitable those two stores would have been just carrying even just a small amount of popular back issues ,,, and  if they would have kept a few keys in the back room and even if they did not want to bring them out for sale just think of how much they have appreciated in value in just the last five years

Maybe. Or maybe they feel the floor space can be more profitably filled with books, trades, toys, pops, shirts, etc. I do have a shop that devotes very little space to them, but does a good job of turning them over so as not to be too stale. They may only have 1000-1500 back issues, but they set it up to allocate almost no space to them.

[shadroch]

Diamond has a system in place that allows it to pass along most risks to shop owners.  Until someone offers incentives to change that, the system will remain.

Shop owners who attempt to run the traditional comic shop will slowly realize they are little more than unpaid interns pushing Diamonds products to the public.

Shop owners who create successful businesses will have transitioned into a horse of a very different color.

[Prince Namor]

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

I have stated some of this before and I know that some if this is not popular, but some of the ideas I think would help the industry. 

 

Help the industry how? Young people today just do not have the time to read comic books and SLOWLY follow the monthly stories dragged out over a year, when on Netflix an entire season of a show comes out all at once and they can watch the entire thing over a weekend.

Marvel knows... the market for print comics is getting older and getting smaller. In the near future, there won't BE a monthly printed comic business as we know it now. 'Saving' the industry isn't even on their minds. Trying to gouge it for as much as they can strange out of the last remnants of it is more their plan.

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

1. Trim the monthly floppies to just core titles.  Things need to be simplified. So there would be 1 or 2 Batman books, Superman, Avengers, X-Men, etc. Each of the majors would be down to 20 books or less that were monthly. These books would be the must have spine of the universe. But few numbers of books along with other changes would hopefully promote better sales.

2

DC just tried this with Rebirth. Strong initial sales... quickly went back to regular low print runs. It revitalized some books, but not with the kinds of numbers that are impressive. And Marvel... you're just not going to convince Marvel to print LESS comics. 

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

2. Non core titles and "mini" series should be released essentially as graphic novels and skip the floppies. The publishers and many readers keep telling us how well certain books do as graphic novels, and people like reading in runs so just give them to us in that format.  Or in the case of certain 2nd and 3rd tier books go to a 60 page quarterly release schedule.

3

This may become the future. It's how they've always done it in Europe.

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

3. Reduce prices.  The  books that stay as monthly floppies should be brought down to say $2.50 an issue. Part of what you are seeing is the classic death spiral.  Sales go down so you raise prices to keep revenues steady,  at some point this does not work.  The longer quarterly books would be priced at around $6, and the graphic novel in line with this thinking. They need to work on growing readership as a way to raise profits, not raising cost.  Also by trimming books and making adjustment to print schedules there is room to reduce their overhead.

4

DC tried this with Rebirth. Same thing... strong initial sales... quickly tailed off to regular low print runs. It didn't make a difference. It didn't change anything. I just don't think you're going to get a typical millennial to start reading print comics. Not enough of them to matter anyway. No matter how few, no matter how cheap.

ALSO: Everytime Marvel has a 'special' issue, now priced at $9.99 (!!!), guess what the highest selling book of the month is? Why in God's name would they ever STOP doing that when LCS's keep buying it?

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

4. Allow for a reduced price subscription plane.  Many places already due this and it could be very effective especially in the digital arena. For yes online subscription services build in savings if you get a yearly plan over just buying issues.  I know some digital outlets do this, but access to new books is limited or delayed. Open this up a bit.

2

They're very secretive as to what's going on in digital sales...

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

5. Stop the reboots and number 1's.  I read and interesting idea about titles going on five or ten years plans where the companies would sign creators to extended contacts and give stories room to breath. Get away from highering a team for 4 issues then immediately replacing then with c-listers, then the book failing by issue 12 then rebooting. 

1

Once again, everytime they reboot or do a #1, guess what the best selling comic is? Back in the 60's, DC realized that everytime they put a monkey or a gorilla on the cover of one of their comics it sold better. They created a Flash villain because of it! Why stop doing what sells?

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

6. Increase distribution outlets. I like my LCS, I hope they stay around a very long time, I think there is room for specialized stores.  With that said by moving much of the publishing to longer formats and longer release schedules.  This should make it simple to sell books in places that are not LCS.  They would take up less room, and make purchasing simpler for the non specialized buyer. The Walmart idea has shown some success, it needs to be built on. The simple fact is as stores become fewer visibility decreases, and that needs to be reversed.  Furthermore, parents and casual fans often do not want to got, can't get to, or may not feel comfortable in you typical LCS.  They need better options.

3

Marvel believes that if every LCS would just buy the max amount of copies of EACH of their comics and then give it maximum shelf space for 90-120 days, they'd sell enough of it to make it worth buying. As if this is all the LCS's fault. Which is complete nonsense. You can put Avengers comics on every corner drug store, Walmart, Walgreens, gas station, etc. in the country. The demand just isn't there. 

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

7. Stop the chase variants, and forced incentive covers.  DC's multi cover model for regular issue is so much better than the Marvel ratio .

3

If it sells more copies of the book... they're going to keep doing it...

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

8. Allow back issue returns, as discussed.

 

I'd agree wholeheartedly, but once again - why would they do that? They don't believe the market can grow in print - that the average reader is getting older and eventually quitting or dying... why cut into their own perfect profit business model?

On 1/13/2019 at 12:23 PM, drotto said:

I could probably keep going but this is getting long as it is.

Not to pick on this post... you've laid this all out nicely and in a world where the publishers actually gave a rap about the reader or continuity or believed that they could actually grow the market for print comics, all of this would be a great idea. 

[SteppinRazor]

On 1/13/2019 at 10:32 PM, the blob said:

At this point half these guys are dead, but I guess their widows, etc.  what happened with cockrum was terrible. I'm talking about $100-250k a movie. That's the craft table on the movie set for a few days. I guess marvel did not own x-men movies, but did they get any royalties? 

I'm sure Marvel got a piece of each movie.  Inidividual creators, I doubt it.  The truth is, people are going to go see the movies, so there is no pressure/need for Disney or Time Warner tio pay creators.  A big corporations makiing billions of dollars don't give a penny away that they don't have to.  That's not how that game is played.

[Karl Liebl]

On 1/13/2019 at 11:23 AM, NoMan said:

 Two stores in my home city has been in biz with no back issues, one 13 years the other about 20  years

 

That's called a newsstand not a comic book shop!  Not disagreeing with your observation though...

[the blob]

5 hours ago, SteppinRazor said:

I'm sure Marvel got a piece of each movie.  Inidividual creators, I doubt it.  The truth is, people are going to go see the movies, so there is no pressure/need for Disney or Time Warner tio pay creators.  A big corporations makiing billions of dollars don't give a penny away that they don't have to.  That's not how that game is played.

I was suggesting that it would have been good p.r./goodwill to throw a couple of bucks at a dying Dave cockrum, struggling herb Trimp etc. As "consultants" given they helped create half the current x-men franchise. But you're right, I doubt folks boycotted any of these movies over these issues so how does it help their bottom line?