Help me design my dollar bins 0

[kav]

Typically dollar box drek is purchased for like 1 cents a book so if some get damages store owner doesnt care.

[Turnando]

I don't expect dollar bins to be sorted.

In my store I'd put the rejects in the dollar bin, bagged or unbagged, depending on what they were when they reached dollar bin status.

I go through the dollar bins to relax and look for a cool cover or some decent art or writing and nothing more.  That's how I'd treat them in my store: as a fun diversion that completes the store and draws in real comic lovers who will buy something besides a dollar book.

The only thing I don't like in a dollar bin is flipping through junk that has been in the same bin for 2 years. I know it because I flipped through it last year and the year before and I wondered why it was taking up space then.

An easy way to rotate the junk out would be to always stock the box on the left... and shuffle the books roughly from left to right.  Roughly... I wouldn't spend more than 2 minutes doing it.  When you add a dozen books on the left then shuffle to the right and take a dozen out of the far right box, verify they are junk, and get rid of them.

[shadroch]

I'm having a yard sale/flea market this weekend. I have seven boxes of bagged and boarded books, almost all from 1995 to present, and five boxes of mostly raw, with some bagged but not boarded. These range from BA to about the mid 90s. I know it's not a real test, but lets see what happens. It was a last minute decision to do this at all. I wouldn't have set up only someone offered to run everything  for a percentage of sales and some comics. 

Comics are only a very small part of the offerings and I'm hoping to do close to a thousand dollars overall.

[chrisco37]

Alpha-numeric is ideal. If you don’t want to do that, at minimum, I would suggest grouping by character (ie, Batman/Tec/Brave & Bold together.  ASM/Peter Parker/Web together, etc).

[THE_BEYONDER]

6 minutes ago, chrisco37 said:

Alpha-numeric is ideal. If you don’t want to do that, at minimum, I would suggest grouping by character (ie, Batman/Tec/Brave & Bold together.  ASM/Peter Parker/Web together, etc).

 

[shadroch]

1 hour ago, chrisco37 said:

Alpha-numeric is ideal. If you don’t want to do that, at minimum, I would suggest grouping by character (ie, Batman/Tec/Brave & Bold together.  ASM/Peter Parker/Web together, etc).

What shops do you frequent that have their dollar bins organized in a alpha-numeric system?

[chrisco37]

13 minutes ago, shadroch said:

What shops do you frequent that have their dollar bins organized in a alpha-numeric system?

Do what you want to do. You asked for opinions.  I gave you mine.

[tvindy]

On 9/7/2020 at 12:56 PM, Buzzetta said:

But, I don't think you are drawing in comic book collectors, so asking a board full of comic book collectors is kind of a one viewpoint perspective, if you look at it from a common man retail perspective, how many customers are actually bothering to sort through messy shelves versus how many people are willing to give something a glance if it is nice and neat and presentable?  I may very well be wrong, but I worked for Disney and a major retailer during the 90's while in college in basic retail and collectibles and animation art and stuff like that.  Both business models always stressed presentability and perception of value to the customer.  If the customer perceives it to be a value no matter the actual value, they will want to take it home. 

I pretty much agree with everything Buzzetta has said in this thread. I would also add that a comic store that takes good care of its dollar bins is conveying a positive image for the entire store. I personally, don't enjoy rifling through old boxes of unboxed completely unsorted comics that have been manhandled and damaged. It's even worse when I go back a couple months later and see all the same comics in the same order and in worse condition. Even comics that have no real monetary value can still be enjoyed. And some of them have excellent artwork and stories. It's just that so many were printed so recently that they aren't scarce. All comics deserve a certain amount of basic respect, and I find it offputting to visit a shop that treats non-high-value comics like garbage. 

(Please note that this isn't directed at shadrock specifically. It's just my general opinion on the subject from the POV of a collector.)

Edited September 19, 2020 by tvindy

[kav]

I continue to agree with Shadroch-taking the time and expense to bag and organize dollar bins is just not worth it.  If A1 comics doesnt do it that way, and they are a very large successful store, neither should Shadroch.

[tvindy]

7 minutes ago, kav said:

I continue to agree with Shadroch-taking the time and expense to bag and organize dollar bins is just not worth it.  If A1 comics doesnt do it that way, and they are a very large successful store, neither should Shadroch.

That's like saying a small family-run department store should emulate Walmart.

[kav]

11 minutes ago, tvindy said:

That's like saying a small family-run department store should emulate Walmart.

its only saying spending that extra time and money will not result in increased sales to make it worth it.  if family run store spent hours polishing their apples that would be similar analogy.

[tvindy]

3 minutes ago, kav said:

its only saying spending that extra time and money will not result in increased sales to make it worth it.  if family run store spent hours polishing their apples that would be similar analogy.

My main point is just that a smaller business can add more of a personal touch. Polishing the produce to make it present better than at Walmart could attract more customers, and it's not something that Walmart could do.

[kav]

1 minute ago, tvindy said:

My main point is just that a smaller business can add more of a personal touch. Polishing the produce to make it present better than at Walmart could attract more customers, and it's not something that Walmart could do.

I dont think someone who came to the store to buy apples would say wow these apples are really shiny I'm going to buy twice as much!  Nor would someone going thru dollar boxes go wow I dont want this book really but its in order, and bagged!  I'm buyin it!  
 

[tvindy]

2 minutes ago, kav said:

I dont think someone who came to the store to buy apples would say wow these apples are really shiny I'm going to buy twice as much!  Nor would someone going thru dollar boxes go wow I dont want this book really but its in order, and bagged!  I'm buyin it!  
 

Well, the apple example was yours. But I personally would be much more likely to pick up a comic from a dollar bin if it was bagged and boarded. And I'd tend to spend a lot more time at the bargain bins if they were kept tidy and not overstuffed and if the stock was regularly replenished. But we can agree to disagree. 

[kav]

3 minutes ago, tvindy said:

Well, the apple example was yours. But I personally would be much more likely to pick up a comic from a dollar bin if it was bagged and boarded. And I'd tend to spend a lot more time at the bargain bins if they were kept tidy and not overstuffed and if the stock was regularly replenished. But we can agree to disagree. 

I'm not agreeing to that!!!   

[shadroch]

I'm still waiting for someone to identify stores that keep their dollar bins in alpha numeric order. I've spoken to at least twenty store owners who don't, and I'd love to speak to some who do if someone would simply give me the stores names.

[gcstomp]

Your defined space, 8 long boxes, means you are devoting 1 6' table. My experience as a vendor, having moved well over 1000+ longs over 15 years of setting up at comic shows, mall shows, church sales, antique shows, would not translate well as there exist differences between having a fixed location, with a small space devoted to $1 books. 

My focus was always move the books like they are radioactive. $1 books are what is left after I buy a collection. I put them out, leave plenty of good books in them. I will have GI Joe (not 1st series), Spiderman (not 1st series ASM), Star Wars (not 1st series) etc invest zero in bags and boards. Get a reputation for having fresh stock. And put in incentives for purchase, buy 30, get 10 free. If someone buys a box+, extend an offer of .50 cents a book, said in hushed tones so they feel they have the insider track. Dump them all after a couple shows. As far as in order, sure, in down time, in my case before show opens, or when it is slow, will tidy up. 

[ttfitz]

On 9/19/2020 at 12:27 AM, shadroch said:

I'm still waiting for someone to identify stores that keep their dollar bins in alpha numeric order. I've spoken to at least twenty store owners who don't, and I'd love to speak to some who do if someone would simply give me the stores names.

Does it have to be a store, or can it be a show dealer? I've seen a couple of guys who set up at the small, local shows that sort their dollar boxes to some degree - one with a complete sort, just like regular backstock, a couple others who sort by starting letter, i.e. all the "A" title books together followed by the "B", etc with things random within that.

PM me if you are interested, and I can try to find contact info for them.

[ttfitz]

And just to throw in my opinion - I think it depends on what sort of people you are looking to sell to. For me, my dollar box list is specific - I'm not just browsing thru - and fairly short. When I've only got a couple dozen books I'm looking for, I'm not going to dig thru a tableful or more of completely random books. MAYBE if there's just a longbox I might give it a look, but it just isn't worth it to me to spend a long time where I'm searching through a few thousand books for the handful I need.

I would agree, though, if you are a store with random assortment of books thrown in there, any restock needs to be less random - if you are distributing a few hundred books anywhere in the boxes, I'm not going to dig thru all the stuff I have already spent time going thru.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Congrats on getting close to opening a store. I always figured sorting and bagging and boarding was the kind of things the help can do while they have nothing else to do. No one in the store, while they are chatting with a customer and manning the register they can bag and board books, etc. I know one store that was large enough that they felt they needed four employees at once to avoid crazy theft, etc. and the aggregate work that the four were involved with at any one time was kind of minimal.

But my general vote is if the book is nice, get it in a bag and board unless it's really a junk book. Hate to see something, especially something from what I consider the low print run, high cover price years of say 1997 on, get trashed. As for sorting, probably not, though it is really fast for experienced people to at least sort by publisher or even better the roughly A-D boxes, the E-J boxes, etc. Whatever.