What would you do with 12,000 comics? 2 2

[Buzzetta]

3 minutes ago, JollyComics said:

Let you know Areala or Warrior Nun will be on Netflix soon - https://www.netflix.com/title/80242724

 I still wouldn't give it to kids. 

[lighthouse]

1 hour ago, comicstock said:

Don't forget Hallowe'en....not too far away.

We participate in Halloween ComicFest and give away around 5,000 comics for that event. We routinely give away some leftover FCBD books as part of the event but the HCF books are usually Halloweed-themed (even if they are almost all reprints) and there's some fun in that.

[snitzer]

Went to our LCS today...owner said they received zero comics for FCBD this year 

[lighthouse]

37 minutes ago, snitzer said:

Went to our LCS today...owner said they received zero comics for FCBD this year 

They haven't been shipped yet. Diamond has them in hand but the first wave was intended to be in the April 1st shipments and those never went out.

[Myowncollector]

2 hours ago, lighthouse said:

They haven't been shipped yet. Diamond has them in hand but the first wave was intended to be in the April 1st shipments and those never went out.

I am late to the party but as someone who buys collections I will share with you what I do with the non moldy junk books.

If you give me 20,000 random junk comics valiant defiant Malibu whatever I am turning it into a couple grand at least. Here are some ideas. Clear out a spot in the store have a dollar or 50 cent section. Few weeks later it becomes a 25 cent box. If you have 67 or 83 or 150 of a certain character or team list it on ebay shipping enough to cover cost of shipping and 99 cent starting bid ex lot if 136 x-men related comics. Can be vg to vf spell out if bagged or not and just for readers only etc. If it sells for 13 bucks it's better than throwing them away. A lot of softcore porn will actually sell pretty decent. Craigslist works. I will take them to flea market, next trip they become cheaper. Sometimes another vendor will buy them all. Better yet I have given them to a vendor I know and he sold them and gave me half. I dont care if he shorted me or not because next step would be to the dump. I would make sure that nobody on craigslist wouldn't give me at least a penny a comic if not 3 or 5 cents.

FCBD I would just hold the books until you are able to have one or even until next years say 2021 day I would only order 2021 fcbd books for my regular customers and the people coming in just for the free stuff would get the 2020 books. 2022 regulars get fcbd 2022 books, free loafer kids get some 2022 books and 90s pg13 drek. Adult men just there for free stuff every year get 90s bad girls haha. 

[spreads]

9 minutes ago, Myowncollector said:

I am late to the party but as someone who buys collections I will share with you what I do with the non moldy junk books.

If you give me 20,000 random junk comics valiant defiant Malibu whatever I am turning it into a couple grand at least. Here are some ideas. Clear out a spot in the store have a dollar or 50 cent section. Few weeks later it becomes a 25 cent box. If you have 67 or 83 or 150 of a certain character or team list it on ebay shipping enough to cover cost of shipping and 99 cent starting bid ex lot if 136 x-men related comics. Can be vg to vf spell out if bagged or not and just for readers only etc. If it sells for 13 bucks it's better than throwing them away. A lot of softcore porn will actually sell pretty decent. Craigslist works. I will take them to flea market, next trip they become cheaper. Sometimes another vendor will buy them all. Better yet I have given them to a vendor I know and he sold them and gave me half. I dont care if he shorted me or not because next step would be to the dump. I would make sure that nobody on craigslist wouldn't give me at least a penny a comic if not 3 or 5 cents.

FCBD I would just hold the books until you are able to have one or even until next years say 2021 day I would only order 2021 fcbd books for my regular customers and the people coming in just for the free stuff would get the 2020 books. 2022 regulars get fcbd 2022 books, free loafer kids get some 2022 books and 90s pg13 drek. Adult men just there for free stuff every year get 90s bad girls haha. 

I think all of that is not what the OP wants to do: use resources time, employee/labor hours, dollars, take up real estate), etc. and he can't have people into his store!

I'm surprised you can't bulk out some of these comics by the longbox?  Everything sells, even if you have moldy or very poor quality over-printed Marvel/DC comics they will sell, even if it's $10 a box.  Maybe this isn't feasible now, but I cannot see why in the past you'd be trashing comics.  I bought a collection of 10k comics last summer, I bulked out about 10 of the 50 longs and I maybe recycled/tossed less than 15 comics.  There was some real crud in there, graphic stuff from obscure no name publishers.....but everything does sell - at a price. 

[Myowncollector]

9 minutes ago, spreads said:

I think all of that is not what the OP wants to do: use resources time, employee/labor hours, dollars, take up real estate), etc. and he can't have people into his store!

I'm surprised you can't bulk out some of these comics by the longbox?  Everything sells, even if you have moldy or very poor quality over-printed Marvel/DC comics they will sell, even if it's $10 a box.  Maybe this isn't feasible now, but I cannot see why in the past you'd be trashing comics.  I bought a collection of 10k comics last summer, I bulked out about 10 of the 50 longs and I maybe recycled/tossed less than 15 comics.  There was some real crud in there, graphic stuff from obscure no name publishers.....but everything does sell - at a price. 

It was just some ideas. I dont know how ambitious the OP is. Who knows how long it will take until cleared to have people in store. Then how long it will take for people to want to take the chance. It's really not much work to throw 100 comics on floor take some pics. I put in listing, not bagged and will just be put into a box and shipped so dont purchase with any grade expectations and people buy them and are happy. Craigslist I put right in the ad I am knowledgeable about comics, this is all 90s . No harbinger bat 12 nm omega red etc. Dont want people wasting any time or wanting to dig in boxes. Put them for free, someone will come haul off 20,000 comics better than dump. It amazes me but somebody always wants them. 

FCBD is harder. I know space is a premium but  I couldn't throw away 4 grand in inventory. And it might be months or years until you could safely have a gathering to give them out. They would go under beds, I would organize garage and buy some shelves to maximize space, something. 

New idea, are shops allowed to sell fcbd books? If not ring some of those up when allowed to open and sell under not shop name copy of each one in a bundle. How many people want to get the books but can't? A lot of people will do this but at least break even on some of the inventory. Sellers 1st to market will make profit.

[lighthouse]

The only cost that ever matters is opportunity cost. 

We track essentially every box on every table for how many inventory turns they generate and what the profit margins are. Our average long box did $64 a month in revenue last year. There are a few sections where we tolerate sales in the $30 range to maintain a product mix. But a typical 8’ “table” with 11 long boxes (plus the aisle to stand in front of it) is 30sf of dedicated space, generating $700 a month in back issue sales. If I replace three of those slots with “$10 garbage long boxes” I have to be moving 20 of them a month from that three-box bay to justify putting them there. Anything slower than that and I’m reducing my sales by putting them out.

We hold warehouse sales a couple times a year and I move all the normal inventory out for a weekend and put collection leftovers on the tables at around 50c a book. We typically move around 9,000 of them in a weekend which justifies the labor of the double move. But after selling 50,000+ books like that I have a pretty good idea of what will move at 50c and what won’t. 

If I was never gonna buy another collection would I glean more revenue from the worst stock? Probably. But I’ve got a store worth of inventory walking in the doors every 3-4 months. We haven’t had a month with less than 20 long boxes walking in the door in over a year. It’s either good enough to sell for $3+ in which case I’m willing to handle it five times (triage, bag and board, sort, box, ring up), it’s good enough to sell for 50c in which case I’m willing to handle it three times (triage, box, ring up), or it’s not and I handle it twice... triage and trash.

It’s like gardening. I can waste a bunch of time trying to get every plant to survive. Or I can rip out the worst of them to let the best ones thrive.

[Myowncollector]

16 minutes ago, lighthouse said:

The only cost that ever matters is opportunity cost. 

We track essentially every box on every table for how many inventory turns they generate and what the profit margins are. Our average long box did $64 a month in revenue last year. There are a few sections where we tolerate sales in the $30 range to maintain a product mix. But a typical 8’ “table” with 11 long boxes (plus the aisle to stand in front of it) is 30sf of dedicated space, generating $700 a month in back issue sales. If I replace three of those slots with “$10 garbage long boxes” I have to be moving 20 of them a month from that three-box bay to justify putting them there. Anything slower than that and I’m reducing my sales by putting them out.

We hold warehouse sales a couple times a year and I move all the normal inventory out for a weekend and put collection leftovers on the tables at around 50c a book. We typically move around 9,000 of them in a weekend which justifies the labor of the double move. But after selling 50,000+ books like that I have a pretty good idea of what will move at 50c and what won’t. 

If I was never gonna buy another collection would I glean more revenue from the worst stock? Probably. But I’ve got a store worth of inventory walking in the doors every 3-4 months. We haven’t had a month with less than 20 long boxes walking in the door in over a year. It’s either good enough to sell for $3+ in which case I’m willing to handle it five times (triage, bag and board, sort, box, ring up), it’s good enough to sell for 50c in which case I’m willing to handle it three times (triage, box, ring up), or it’s not and I handle it twice... triage and trash.

It’s like gardening. I can waste a bunch of time trying to get every plant to survive. Or I can rip out the worst of them to let the best ones thrive.

I would do a CL ad next time. Might find a guy who will give you a few bucks per longbox and tell him to swing by every couple months. Just me personally but I would give them away for free if I had to rather than throw them away. If someone else gets enjoyment out of them then good. I don't care if you throw them away either. Had some free time so thrown some ideas out. Good you give some to charity though. Was just trying to find a way for you to make few more bucks and find homes for the rest.

[lighthouse]

7 minutes ago, Myowncollector said:

I would do a CL ad next time. Might find a guy who will give you a few bucks per longbox and tell him to swing by every couple months. Just me personally but I would give them away for free if I had to rather than throw them away. If someone else gets enjoyment out of them then good. I don't care if you throw them away either. Had some free time so thrown some ideas out. Good you give some to charity though. Was just trying to find a way for you to make few more bucks and find homes for the rest.

Oh I appreciate the ideas. Even if I don’t use one directly it may spur a new unrelated plan.

About 8 months ago we started a new policy. Whenever a customer comes in with books to sell and has crazy unrealistic demands (“how bout you give me $5 a piece for these 1989 Superman comics?”), we do our best to educate them as we’ve always done. But then we hand them a free pile of books that might have gone in the warehouse sale. Encourage them “hey, we can’t pay what you’re hoping for but list your books on Facebook Marketplace or Let It Go and maybe you’ll have better luck... go ahead and take these for free and you can add them to the pile you’re selling and maybe you’ll get a better offer.”

Do you know how impossible it is for someone to leave you a terrible review for being a “con artist trying to rip us off” when you give them completely free comics as part of not buying their collection? In many cases I’m able to hand them the same characters from the same time period they just tried to sell to me, for free. The number of “angrily storming out the door after I didn’t buy their junk” customers has dropped to almost zero.*

*Method doesn’t work on knuckleheads that want $900 for their Stan Lee SS 9.0 New Mutants 87

[spreads]

15 hours ago, lighthouse said:

The only cost that ever matters is opportunity cost. 

We track essentially every box on every table for how many inventory turns they generate and what the profit margins are. Our average long box did $64 a month in revenue last year. There are a few sections where we tolerate sales in the $30 range to maintain a product mix. But a typical 8’ “table” with 11 long boxes (plus the aisle to stand in front of it) is 30sf of dedicated space, generating $700 a month in back issue sales. If I replace three of those slots with “$10 garbage long boxes” I have to be moving 20 of them a month from that three-box bay to justify putting them there. Anything slower than that and I’m reducing my sales by putting them out.

We hold warehouse sales a couple times a year and I move all the normal inventory out for a weekend and put collection leftovers on the tables at around 50c a book. We typically move around 9,000 of them in a weekend which justifies the labor of the double move. But after selling 50,000+ books like that I have a pretty good idea of what will move at 50c and what won’t. 

If I was never gonna buy another collection would I glean more revenue from the worst stock? Probably. But I’ve got a store worth of inventory walking in the doors every 3-4 months. We haven’t had a month with less than 20 long boxes walking in the door in over a year. It’s either good enough to sell for $3+ in which case I’m willing to handle it five times (triage, bag and board, sort, box, ring up), it’s good enough to sell for 50c in which case I’m willing to handle it three times (triage, box, ring up), or it’s not and I handle it twice... triage and trash.

It’s like gardening. I can waste a bunch of time trying to get every plant to survive. Or I can rip out the worst of them to let the best ones thrive.

Thanks for the insight, this in interesting and I appreciate your candor.  Maybe I wasn't clear, when I said bulking out boxes, I didn't mean advertising or putting them out on display.  Once you've determined it's a 'trash box', it goes in a closet, or in the cellar (or whatever space is not usable retail space) and then you sell it to a contact that can make it work.  There must be dealers in your area if you have so many collections being presented to you.  Make an arrangement with a few of them, and once a week you can have 3-5 guys taking 10-25 long boxes of bulk?  

[spreads]

14 hours ago, lighthouse said:

Oh I appreciate the ideas. Even if I don’t use one directly it may spur a new unrelated plan.

About 8 months ago we started a new policy. Whenever a customer comes in with books to sell and has crazy unrealistic demands (“how bout you give me $5 a piece for these 1989 Superman comics?”), we do our best to educate them as we’ve always done. But then we hand them a free pile of books that might have gone in the warehouse sale. Encourage them “hey, we can’t pay what you’re hoping for but list your books on Facebook Marketplace or Let It Go and maybe you’ll have better luck... go ahead and take these for free and you can add them to the pile you’re selling and maybe you’ll get a better offer.”

Do you know how impossible it is for someone to leave you a terrible review for being a “con artist trying to rip us off” when you give them completely free comics as part of not buying their collection? In many cases I’m able to hand them the same characters from the same time period they just tried to sell to me, for free. The number of “angrily storming out the door after I didn’t buy their junk” customers has dropped to almost zero.*

*Method doesn’t work on knuckleheads that want $900 for their Stan Lee SS 9.0 New Mutants 87

That's amazing.  

I can't imagine people would storm out the doors if you take the time to at least look at their books and politely decline.  I can't tell you how many collections I bought where the owner did bring them to a LCS and the owner wouldn't even look at them, let alone make/decline an offer!!

[Yorick]

This is crazy.  The last Free Comic Day I attended we were all limited to only taking three free books.  There were more than three I wanted.  I wonder what the line-up of material was for this year?  Maybe you can offer a full "set" here on the Boards with the interested parties paying for shipping and a small "handling" fee?  But ship it at the lowest cost possible (I mean, just put 'em in an envelope and stick a stamp on it).

[lighthouse]

16 minutes ago, spreads said:

That's amazing.  

I can't imagine people would storm out the doors if you take the time to at least look at their books and politely decline.  I can't tell you how many collections I bought where the owner did bring them to a LCS and the owner wouldn't even look at them, let alone make/decline an offer!!

Unfortunately the process for many sellers goes something like this:

1) Find forgotten comics

2) Pick out a couple that look interesting and google them

3) Find eBay listing for comic in 9.8 at $1200

4) Become overjoyed that this box must be worth at least $10,000

5) Spend next several days mentally spending the money

6) Arrive at shop with box to sell

7) Get told “Your comic isn’t the same as what you found online. This isn’t worth $1200. Here’s a NM copy I have in my boxes for $8.”

8) Decide if they’re selling for $8 that $5 per issue must be fair as the shop will still profit $3. Ask for $1,000 for the box.

9) Get offered 50 cents a book.

10) Decide shop owner is a liar and a thief and maybe these really were worth $1200 each after all.

11) Storm out and leave horrible review.

[spreads]

3 minutes ago, lighthouse said:

Unfortunately the process for many sellers goes something like this:

1) Find forgotten comics

2) Pick out a couple that look interesting and google them

3) Find eBay listing for comic in 9.8 at $1200

4) Become overjoyed that this box must be worth at least $10,000

5) Spend next several days mentally spending the money

6) Arrive at shop with box to sell

7) Get told “Your comic isn’t the same as what you found online. This isn’t worth $1200. Here’s a NM copy I have in my boxes for $8.”

8) Decide if they’re selling for $8 that $5 per issue must be fair as the shop will still profit $3. Ask for $1,000 for the box.

9) Get offered 50 cents a book.

10) Decide shop owner is a liar and a thief and maybe these really were worth $1200 each after all.

11) Storm out and leave horrible review.

This is the best comment in the history of these boards!

Usually when someone mentions to me about selling to a LCS or not having a store showing any interest I'm pretty upfront about it.  They have an effective business model that doesn't include buying bulk comic collections, and that they are probably offered so many collections it's not worth their time or resources to takeaway from resources of a different line of business unless it's something unique that adds value to their shop.

Edited May 3, 2020 by spreads
edit

[lighthouse]

1 minute ago, Yorick said:

This is crazy.  The last Free Comic Day I attended we were all limited to only taking three free books.  There were more than three I wanted.  I wonder what the line-up of material was for this year?  Maybe you can offer a full "set" here on the Boards with the interested parties paying for shipping and a small "handling" fee?  But ship it at the lowest cost possible (I mean, just put 'em in an envelope and stick a stamp on it).

A full set is around 55 comics and would weigh 8lb even before you put it in a box. 

It’s probably $3 labor to pack each set, $13 to ship them. Hard to see a scenario where charging less than $50 a set would work.

Anyone looking for a set would be better off asking their LCS if they can buy a set for say $40. 

FWIW, our limit was 5 per adult and 7 per child the last couple years. We always eliminate the limit around 3pm but keep the limit the first several hours to give folks a fair shot. Hopefully in 2021 we will be back to that but I expect it will be 2022.

[oakman29]

On 5/2/2020 at 10:13 AM, Buzzetta said:

I was once the facilitator of both giving and receiving a donation of comics.

Many of them are unsuitable and many were passed along to Staten Island and New Jersey.  (NY'rs will get that.)

There was no way anyone was handing out Areala, Warrior Nun to kids in a hospital.  But hey, that's what was donated...  The libraries do not want it.  The YMCA does not want it, Youth Groups do not want it.  In fact I can tell you that due to the suggestive content in many books that many of these organizations do not want to deal with potential liability or social repercussions or any bad press.   

 

Blasphemy! 😂

[NoMan]

On 5/2/2020 at 7:17 AM, lighthouse said:

Looks like we (like every other shop) are going to get stuck with the FCBD books we ordered this year and no event to give them away. Until sporting events are hosting crowds of 25,000 people again, I’m not hosting a party the equivalent of putting 1500 folks through your house’s front door in a day. (It’s actually worse than that since our attendance was higher than our square footage last year). 

I’m not about to risk being on the news in a story about 3 people who died after they attended an ill-advised FCBD. 

But the books are still coming. I’m still gonna be on the hook for the $4,000 cost associated with them. And they’re not going to bring the $5/sf in sales they normally bring on event day. So what to do with them?

We already give away comics year round. Several times a week we hand out dollar reprints to youngsters who are being more rambunctious than their parents feel like monitoring. Never fault the kids. Comics are exciting. But rather than tear up that Immortal Hulk that your parents wont be buying anyway (because they only care about the Funko Pops), here’s a free Spider-Man comic that’s all yours. No charge... And we already donate to local doctor and dentist waiting rooms. 

So we will bag sampler packs for subs. We will make up donation packs of the all-ages titles for waiting rooms. We will make up donation packs of middle graders that will go to local teachers we work with. We will keep a few back to give away to the occasional family.

But there’s still gonna be at least 6,000 after all that. 

We already dumpster around 20,000 comics a year. Last year was close to 30,000. But most of those are comics that have been owned by half a dozen different people in their lives and it’s just their time. If 6,000 of these are headed to the landfill, so be it. But it’s a little sad.

you'd think the comic companies themselves would help you out a bit. You'd think.

[lighthouse]

12 minutes ago, NoMan said:

you'd think the comic companies themselves would help you out a bit. You'd think.

Most of the small press folks are. Making books returnable transfers all the risk back to the publisher.

Marvel was a little slow to respond, but is the steady girlfriend anyone would ask for. Their road map is pretty much exactly what I would have asked from them.

DC on the other hand, is the psycho girlfriend your friends warn you about who drinks too much tequila, throws shoes, and is liable to key your car when she misremembers something you said 3 years ago.

DC has been an engine of chaos throughout this process, and I can tell you that I will be reducing my shelf copy counts for DC products by at least 2/3 for the next several months and outright ceasing to carry the mediocre miniseries that I have always carried (at a loss) in the past. I'll continue filling every order my customers make, but when it comes to putting my own money on the line supporting a publisher, DC will be 6th in line behind Marvel, Boom, IDW, Image, and Dark Horse... they'll be roughly in line with AWA, Valiant, and Titan when I'm deciding where to throw capital in a given month. (And I have nothing against AWA, Valiant, or Titan, they're just not my first choices when allocating shelf space).

[DavidTheDavid]

Fascinating to read this. Thanks for sharing.