Thoughts on Stocks and Coronavirus and Comics 4 4

[Prince Namor]

On 3/27/2020 at 11:25 AM, Buzzetta said:

And there are admittedly MANY of you in that camp.  But all it takes are a few that are willing to try it to get their 'fix'.  Then the question is, how many stay with digital? 

That's why I believe that this event is going to lose more ground for not only printed comic books but for brick and mortar to begin with.

My Amazon Fresh order came to my doorstep at 6am btw.  I could see myself occasionally placing more orders in the future even after all this passes.   That's a loss for the local supermarkets. 

Yeah, I love grocery ordering through Amazon now, it's actually really convenient. 

You know why I think a lot of people really hate digital? Because deep inside their subconscious they still have this idea that the comic they hold in their hands may someday be 'worth' something. And digital strips that whole concept away.

Strips it right down to just: you like the story and art?

And when it comes right down to it - when we have to judge today's Marvel and DC on just their stories and art... the verdict isn't kind.

[Buzzetta]

5 hours ago, Chuck Gower said:

Yeah, I love grocery ordering through Amazon now, it's actually really convenient. 

You know why I think a lot of people really hate digital? Because deep inside their subconscious they still have this idea that the comic they hold in their hands may someday be 'worth' something. And digital strips that whole concept away.

Strips it right down to just: you like the story and art?

And when it comes right down to it - when we have to judge today's Marvel and DC on just their stories and art... the verdict isn't kind.

There is a definite element of truth there.   

When it comes to music, when music started going digital, I did not immediately embrace it because I did not like the aspect of buying something that I could not resell later if I wanted to.  So, I stole as much music as possible thanks to Napster, Limewire, and other filesharing services if I wanted digital music.  For the most part I still bought CDs until I bought my first iPhone in 2008.  Now I buy a few things on iTunes (Just bought the surprise Phish album and the Weekend - Blinding Lights single) and I will rip certain stuff from YouTube but, it is VERY rare for me to buy a CD.

With comic books, that mentality is amplified.  Let's take my Spider-man collection.  Not counting variants, I have a copy of every single issue.  Once they go digital, do I actually have a 'copy' of every single issue?   Some may say I do, and most will say I don't.  If that is the case why not sell my all of my physical copies and just go to TPB?  Why not sell all of them and go digital?

A lot of people fear digital because it no longer fosters the notion of having to own a physical copy for newer generations coming to comics.  For both comic book retailers AND those holding back issues (myself included) that is a scary dilemma.  If you thought this month's books were $1 bin fodder now, wait until more people stream them for free with Marvel Unlimited. 

 

 

[theCapraAegagrus]

I don't care about "value". There is comfort in knowing that I can read my comics regardless of internet connection or electricity.

[1Cool]

My sales have picked up a bit this weekend so my totals have been in line with my usual (run books are still a bit slow but slabs are doing great).  I ran a little contest to see which comic category was hotter a few months ago.  There was a total of 854,888 sales between the 5 categories (modern - golden) and I just checked and there has now been 925,280 sales over the last 3 months.  There is some overlap since the contest was not 3 months ago but based on this limited data we have seen a 8% increase in sales from the end of January.  The lock down really only started a month ago so I'm curious what kind of sales numbers we will see in a couple months.

[Prince Namor]

12 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

My sales have picked up a bit this weekend so my totals have been in line with my usual (run books are still a bit slow but slabs are doing great).  I ran a little contest to see which comic category was hotter a few months ago.  There was a total of 854,888 sales between the 5 categories (modern - golden) and I just checked and there has now been 925,280 sales over the last 3 months.  There is some overlap since the contest was not 3 months ago but based on this limited data we have seen a 8% increase in sales from the end of January.  The lock down really only started a month ago so I'm curious what kind of sales numbers we will see in a couple months.

But how does that compare to other years? 

It's been a few years since I sold on eBay, but I did for many years and every Spring, usually a few weeks after the SuperBowl, sales would pick up. I have no idea how much, it just seemed to get busier as the weather warmed up.

So in the past, using the same situation, if sales every year were up 10% during that time frame of those three months, then THIS year, it'd actually be DOWN 2%, OR if in that time frame sales were up 5% during that time frame, then they'd be UP now, but only 3% over where they'd normally be up.

[1Cool]

15 minutes ago, Chuck Gower said:

But how does that compare to other years? 

It's been a few years since I sold on eBay, but I did for many years and every Spring, usually a few weeks after the SuperBowl, sales would pick up. I have no idea how much, it just seemed to get busier as the weather warmed up.

So in the past, using the same situation, if sales every year were up 10% during that time frame of those three months, then THIS year, it'd actually be DOWN 2%, OR if in that time frame sales were up 5% during that time frame, then they'd be UP now, but only 3% over where they'd normally be up.

That would be great data for sure and I'd love to see how it compares.  In terms of last years sales I do know my sales are down quite a bit but that could be more dependent on books I've got in stock this year and not the industry as a whole.

[1Cool]

21 minutes ago, Chuck Gower said:

But how does that compare to other years? 

It's been a few years since I sold on eBay, but I did for many years and every Spring, usually a few weeks after the SuperBowl, sales would pick up. I have no idea how much, it just seemed to get busier as the weather warmed up.

So in the past, using the same situation, if sales every year were up 10% during that time frame of those three months, then THIS year, it'd actually be DOWN 2%, OR if in that time frame sales were up 5% during that time frame, then they'd be UP now, but only 3% over where they'd normally be up.

My e-bay store shows a comparison from last year and it shows I'm down 42.6% compared to last year and it shows the market is down greater then 10% (but based on the graph it looks to be down over 20% compared to the same time last year).  I believe this is in a limited category but it's the only comparison data I've got.

Edited April 6, 2020 by 1Cool

[1Cool]

You would think E-Bay is doing quite well over the last 3 months and yet we still have no coupons.  Cheap, rat bastards.

[paperheart]

2 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

You would think E-Bay is doing quite well over the last 3 months and yet we still have no coupons.  Cheap, rat bastards.

did get 250 more free listings

[1Cool]

23 minutes ago, paperheart said:

did get 250 more free listings

I think i got 10,000 free BIN listings so I've got that going for me.  But since I can't get motivated to use the 1,000 listing I get with my store it's about as useful as the cheap gas I put in my car to only be able to drive 100 miles in a week.

[oldmilwaukee6er]

On 4/6/2020 at 12:20 AM, Chuck Gower said:

 

You know why I think a lot of people really hate digital? Because deep inside their subconscious they still have this idea that the comic they hold in their hands may someday be 'worth' something. And digital strips that whole concept away.

Strips it right down to just: you like the story and art?

That and the fact that with digital you don't really own anything. One is just renting the digital rights... The concept of digital rights management.