Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Heathen
Sep 11, 2001

I just posted this in the May thread.

quote:

The store I go to had everything half price in addition to Free Comic Book Day. The owner asked me to hang around until it thinned out so he could show me some pricier books. In my time there I saw a lot of dads bring their kids in. I saw a little boy instantly fall in love with '90s Ghost Rider, a pre-teen and his friend pour over a longbox of Daredevils, and a high school girl buy a shitload of Deadpool comics. The only people who took the Strawberry Shortcake free comic were the ones that took one of each.

Unfortunately I also saw an older guy who clearly had a mental disability / severe paranoia make an rear end out of himself. He got one of each that was left, but that somehow wasn't enough. He got angry that we were loving with him because there was no Captain America, no Iron Man, no X-Men, no Superman, no Batman... Sorry, crazy dude, they don't make a free one of everything.

We didn't have a limit. First come, first served. I got Suicide Squad, Civil War, Lady Mechanika, One Punch Man, Rom, Valiant and Archie. I saw a few people grab one of everything.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
We did a 4 per person limit and that worked out well. Final count was 1538 people through the door and we made mad money, highest dollar amount for a FCBD yet. I sadly had a large number of guys complain about the DC Super Girls book, had to tell one dude to get lost.

Ferrule
Feb 23, 2007

Yo!
It was limit 2 at my LCS. I brought my kids, which I do on occasion anyway. Surprisingly my 5 year-old daughter passed on the Strawberry Shortcake. Both her and my son (3) grabbed the DC Super Girls book. My kids love the comic shop.

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to
Mine had 3 limit, grabbed the Cap, Civil War 2 and Bobs Burgers, normally I grab the Simpsons/Futurama comic. I went to a bigger store later in the day and all they had was Rom.

I didn't find out there was a Love and Rockets until i got home.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
Just to give a little perspective,

The Marvel, DC, IDW, DH and Image books cost retailers 25 cents each (plus shipping). The smaller press books range from 35-60 cents per book. So in cases like 200AD and Love and Rockets, the cost of those books is much higher for the shops. And let's be real, CA is going to outsell L&R at 99% of comic shops and there was a major film scheduled to drop so the choice was pretty clear on where the money was going.

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to
It was more my store had so many comics they had comics on top of each other I just missed it.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

twistedmentat posted:

It was more my store had so many comics they had comics on top of each other I just missed it.

I don't have any good pictures of our table setup but every book had at least one stack, the larger releases had multiple stacks. I spent a good ten minutes every hour straightening the stacks to avoid problems like that.

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to

Rhyno posted:

I don't have any good pictures of our table setup but every book had at least one stack, the larger releases had multiple stacks. I spent a good ten minutes every hour straightening the stacks to avoid problems like that.

My store is a hole in the wall so they had limited space.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

twistedmentat posted:

My store is a hole in the wall so they had limited space.

I get that. We're a split store, 1/3 comics, 1/3 gaming, 1/3 sports merch. We had to take over the sports section for the day to fit our free tables. Everything else was outside.

Ferrule
Feb 23, 2007

Yo!

Rhyno posted:

Just to give a little perspective,

The Marvel, DC, IDW, DH and Image books cost retailers 25 cents each (plus shipping). The smaller press books range from 35-60 cents per book. So in cases like 200AD and Love and Rockets, the cost of those books is much higher for the shops. And let's be real, CA is going to outsell L&R at 99% of comic shops and there was a major film scheduled to drop so the choice was pretty clear on where the money was going.

So this makes me wonder - since you have to pay for the "Free" comics, is the day a financial success for retailers? My shop seems to do well. Do you get a lot of new customers out of it? Or at least additional sales in other march that day? It's been going on for 15 years so something must be going right.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Ferrule posted:

So this makes me wonder - since you have to pay for the "Free" comics, is the day a financial success for retailers? My shop seems to do well. Do you get a lot of new customers out of it? Or at least additional sales in other march that day? It's been going on for 15 years so something must be going right.

Sorry, I didn't notice a new post in the thread!

Our expenses this year amounted to less than 20% of our profits, we crushed it this year. Every year since I took over the organization it's gotten bigger and more successful for us. I'd say we get quite a few new curious faces each year and many stick around and keep coming back for new comics.


On another topic, DC is on track to kicking major rear end this summer, the Rebirth launch books are all selling out left and right and going back for 2nd prints. It's a great time to be a DC fan!

KittyEmpress
Dec 30, 2012

Jam Buddies

So this is a sad little post - the comic shop I liked, not the one with alcohol and games more than comics - shut down this week. I don't have a pull list or anything so I didn't even know until I was up near it today shopping, and decided to go check out if I wanted anything, and there was a sign on the door saying it would be closed indefinitely, as of 6/2/16.

:(

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
That's unfortunate. I'm always sad to hear about shops closing.

Unless it was Dennis Barger's shop. gently caress that guy.

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to

Rhyno posted:

On another topic, DC is on track to kicking major rear end this summer, the Rebirth launch books are all selling out left and right and going back for 2nd prints. It's a great time to be a DC fan!

Yea, my Local store sold out of the regulars before i grabbed a copy, and only had variants left. I grabbed Green Lanterns and Batman, and will probably grab Wonder Woman when it comes out. It's nice to see people actually excited and enjoying DC rather than just seeing those who will buy anything Batman related.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

twistedmentat posted:

Yea, my Local store sold out of the regulars before i grabbed a copy, and only had variants left. I grabbed Green Lanterns and Batman, and will probably grab Wonder Woman when it comes out. It's nice to see people actually excited and enjoying DC rather than just seeing those who will buy anything Batman related.

Give them a call, all three #1s and the returning Action and Detective have all sold out at Diamond already. You might want to guarantee your copies!

Heathen
Sep 11, 2001

KittyEmpress posted:

So this is a sad little post - the comic shop I liked, not the one with alcohol and games more than comics - shut down this week. I don't have a pull list or anything so I didn't even know until I was up near it today shopping, and decided to go check out if I wanted anything, and there was a sign on the door saying it would be closed indefinitely, as of 6/2/16.

:(

The shop I go to is run by a really nice 72 year old. I wish it would stay open forever but I doubt it'll stay open when he calls it quits. :(

Rhyno, what helpful advice would you give to someone who wanted to start their own store?

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Heathen posted:

Rhyno, what helpful advice would you give to someone who wanted to start their own store?

Seek psychiatric help.


Seriously though, it is very hard to be a profitable business by just focusing on comics. You have to expand into toys, MTG, YGO, Pokemon, board games etc. I know for a fact that a major store in Chicago is barely clearing enough month to month and one two occasions this year employee checks have bounced. You hear all sorts of horror stories about retailers having second jobs to make ends meet. The only reason we do as well as we do is we are a 3-way split on product, Comics, Gaming and Sports merch.

We're dealing with a few different issues at the store right now. Someone has just put up signage for some sort of business on the opposite side of town. Their logo is a ripoff of the new logo we adopted 14 months ago and we're trying to figure out what the gently caress is going on. In the meantime we've had a dozen people ask us if we're opening a new store because of it.

Issue two is stolen comics. Not from us (I was missing 3 copies of Batman Rebirth at final count though) but from people in town. I caught a thief a few years ago and the owner got his books back. A former longtime customer of mine contacted us last week to ask us to keep an eye out for his collection. His storage unit was broken into and 25 long boxes and 10 short boxes were stolen. Sadly there is an incredibly shady dealer here in town who sets up at flea markets who is known to not give a poo poo about stolen books but there is no proof he has dealt with them in the past.

Related, I had a guy int he store who claimed that several books on the wall were stolen from him in the last year. I pressed him for a timeline because I know exactly when certain things were bought but he was being very vague so it seemed as if he was lying. He demanded we return "his" property so I asked him to bring me a police report detailing his stolen books and that seemed to discourage him.

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to
I hear "I wish comic shops would just sell comics" so much, but anyone who says that has no idea that selling toys and games are what keeps most stores afloat. Those also tend to be the kind of people who just browse and never buy anything. Like the people who complained that record stores sold dvds tended to be the kind of people who'd hang out all day, listen to a dozen cds and never buy anything.

Though I honestly, in over 30 years of going to comic stores across North America, I can say I never saw one that didn't also sell games and toys. So those people are clearly dreaming of something that never existed.

About stolen, one of the other stores, a kid got his entire Magic collection stolen. He had brought the whole thing in a binder, and someone had run off with it during FNM while he wasn't looking. He posted a bunch of the rare cards he had, and not a few days later, a guy comes into our local store and tries to sell this collection. When told "well, it will take a few hours to go through the binder and see what we want. Leave it here and your number and we'll call you when its done". The thief bought it, and the manager was able to find the kid who had it stolen, and gave him the number of the thief and that he could come and pick up his collection.

If you have really valuable comics, get them added to homeowners insurance. It makes it a bit easier to track them down if they get stolen.

Endless Mike
Aug 13, 2003



twistedmentat posted:

I hear "I wish comic shops would just sell comics" so much,
I've never heard this and beyond hypernerds who want them to remain the boy's club I can't imagine who-

Oh yeah, got it.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
Today a dude came in with a complete Preacher and I was pretty hyped because they are selling for great money right now. But while looking them over and checking for any damage I smelled the cigarette smoke on the bags and even after taking them out you could still smell it. That's potentially $600+ worth of comics he absolutely ruined.

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to
It's amazing how easily smoking ruins everything. Boxes should have warnings on them "warning, smoking will make all your poo poo worthless."

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

twistedmentat posted:

It's amazing how easily smoking ruins everything. Boxes should have warnings on them "warning, smoking will make all your poo poo worthless."

No joke. Paper is done for once exposed to smoke. My girlfriend had a friend over one night and they hung out on our patio which is accessed through the den and they left the door open while her friend smoked and I was like "MY BABIES!" when I saw it wafting in towards my bookshelves.

Starsnostars
Jan 17, 2009

The Master of Magnetism

Rhyno posted:

Today a dude came in with a complete Preacher and I was pretty hyped because they are selling for great money right now. But while looking them over and checking for any damage I smelled the cigarette smoke on the bags and even after taking them out you could still smell it. That's potentially $600+ worth of comics he absolutely ruined.

Are the smokey comics worth anything at all?

Squizzle
Apr 24, 2008




Rhyno posted:

Related, I had a guy int he store who claimed that several books on the wall were stolen from him in the last year. I pressed him for a timeline because I know exactly when certain things were bought but he was being very vague so it seemed as if he was lying. He demanded we return "his" property so I asked him to bring me a police report detailing his stolen books and that seemed to discourage him.

That sounds like it would be a good general policy. You might want to ask the store owner to spend the couple/few hundred bucks to pick a lawyer's brain for an hour on how to handle that sort of thing, because I wouldn't be shocked if there's some liability involved for handling it the wrong way.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Starsnostars posted:

Are the smokey comics worth anything at all?

We'll find out. I currently have #1 siting in an airtight bin with 4 dryer sheets to see f I can neutralize the smell somewhat.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS
This thread got me all excited because I remembered that I bought doubles of every issue of Preacher when it came out, one to read and one to sell later. Finally a comic that may be worth something!

...I guess I must have sold that second set sometime in the last 20 years. :(

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to
Dr Manhattan Before Watchmen shot up, and I was excited to sell it, and then it came back down to where it was again.

I'm pretty sure the only comics that I have that are worth anything are some of the New 52 #1s, the Lenticular covered Harle Quinn issue and the first appearance of Spider-Gwen, but I don't think any of those tops more than $100 at best, most even lower.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
That BW Doctor Manhattan book was 100% speculation because somebody decided that was the first appearance of the New 52. Then Rebirth dropped and it was revealed that it wasn't a new universe and everyone stopped caring about BW again. As it should be.

We had 12 of them in the $1 bins and I grabbed them, put them in fresh bags and sold two on Ebay before the plummet. Now we're engaged in a buyer dispute with one of them because of the price bottoming out again.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

Rhyno posted:

Now we're engaged in a buyer dispute with one of them because of the price bottoming out again.

How often does that happen? I imagine selling non-graded comics is a major dice roll on eBay.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Medullah posted:

How often does that happen? I imagine selling non-graded comics is a major dice roll on eBay.

Third time ever that I am aware of. I've sold hundreds of my personal collection on Ebay and have on;y ever had one issue and I'm pretty sure he was conning me. In this case we got $30 for the book. Now you can get it for $2 again so he's disputing the $30 and the shipping. He only has a feedback of 17 and we have close to 2000 so I think we'll win this one. If we don't I'll mail him a box of dog poop.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

Rhyno posted:

Third time ever that I am aware of. I've sold hundreds of my personal collection on Ebay and have on;y ever had one issue and I'm pretty sure he was conning me. In this case we got $30 for the book. Now you can get it for $2 again so he's disputing the $30 and the shipping. He only has a feedback of 17 and we have close to 2000 so I think we'll win this one. If we don't I'll mail him a box of dog poop.

Yeah, I've been real careful selling anything of value on eBay since they got rid of negative feedback for buyers. I got screwed a year ago selling an iPod dock that I said in the description "Is not an official certified iPod dock, which is why I'm selling it, because I'm sick of seeing the little message pop up on my phone. Works great as a bluetooth dock."

Buyer left negative feedback and initiated a chargeback "Thanks for the iPod dock that doesn't work with iPods, rear end in a top hat!" I ended up losing the $25 he paid for it, despite the clear description. Oh well.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
I had someone scam me on a Young Justice Superboy statue like 14 years ago. I sold them mine, they said it arrived broken and demanded a return and I finally caved in because they somehow tracked down my work phone number and started harassing me there. Got it back and they had swapped one out because it wasn't the same number as the one I'd sent.

Ebay did nothing. I was out the statue and roughly $40 in shipping. I really wish the "bag of dicks" service existed back then. I was in such a bad mental state that summer if I hadn't been so broke I'd have driven to them and burned their house down.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
This is why I haven't sold anything on eBay since 2009-ish. I've heard far too many horror stories about buyers ripping off honest sellers. who end up being out their items and their money. I've had no problems selling on Amazon Marketplace and in SA-Mart, but I don't think I'll ever sell on eBay again.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:

This is why I haven't sold anything on eBay since 2009-ish. I've heard far too many horror stories about buyers ripping off honest sellers. who end up being out their items and their money. I've had no problems selling on Amazon Marketplace and in SA-Mart, but I don't think I'll ever sell on eBay again.

Amazon Marketplace got me a little pissed when I realized there wasn't adjustable shipping rates. I sold a 6 pound PS3 fightstick for $70, got a $6 shipping credit to ship it "expedited". $25 *actual* shipping cost minus Amazon's fee and I got $32 for it. :(

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
I've had worse experiences on Amazon than I have Ebay. I had a dozen claims of never receiving the item and then negative feedback on top of that. The last item I sold was a brand new, MOC Transformer and the guy claimed it was open and I had repaired the package with scotch tape. Once someone left me negative feedback for a book but their feedback said "gum in the hair." Even after I cleared it up he wouldn't remove it because he said I harassed him about it too much.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

Rhyno posted:

I've had worse experiences on Amazon than I have Ebay. I had a dozen claims of never receiving the item and then negative feedback on top of that. The last item I sold was a brand new, MOC Transformer and the guy claimed it was open and I had repaired the package with scotch tape.

Hah, ironically I just bought a Skywarp "MOC" that came scotch taped shut. I was annoyed but I was opening it anyway so I didn't bother.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Medullah posted:

Hah, ironically I just bought a Skywarp "MOC" that came scotch taped shut. I was annoyed but I was opening it anyway so I didn't bother.

You jerk!



So let's talk about the Amazon Marketplace for a moment. My store has been using it as a way to move dormant inventory for several years. About three years ago we discovered Fulfillment By Amazon, where you prep and pack your items in bulk, ship them to an Amazon warehouse and they sell and ship it for you. There's higher fees but the man hours it has saved us are countless. I no longer have to spend multiple hours packing items a week and then making PO drops and since FBA uses UPS we don't have to do anything other than tape the boxes shut and poo poo that poo poo out. We make several thousand dollars a month on Amazon this way and it allows up to keep our shelves clear of clutter and constantly move new merchandise into the store.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS
Yeah, I get the feeling Amazon Marketplace is great for businesses, but terrible for individual selling. There was a sweet spot a few years ago where I made some great money selling old video games, DVDs and textbooks, but now it's just not cost effective to sell much of anything.

Rhyno
Mar 22, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!

Medullah posted:

Yeah, I get the feeling Amazon Marketplace is great for businesses, but terrible for individual selling. There was a sweet spot a few years ago where I made some great money selling old video games, DVDs and textbooks, but now it's just not cost effective to sell much of anything.

I had the same experience with personal selling. I made a LOT of money in 2011-12 but now there's probably 10 times as many people using it and some people are happy to make 30 cents on something.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Anil Dikshit
Apr 11, 2007
I'm doing ok on Amazon marketplace, but I used it first to move some vintage SNES games, then some high dollar promo magic cards.

  • Locked thread