Comic Shop Trends

[comicm]

I will be posting things in this thread that I find interesting at my local comic shop. I buy 80% of my books from DCBS but I will support my local shop and I am curious about the sales figures and the business in general. I spend any where from 1/2 to 1hour in the shop every Friday so I thought I would post some of my observations from week to week. My shop cators to the monthly comic book fan. The have almost zero interest in selling trades and have a big card and toy inventory. There are at least 5 customers that are really into the variant covers. This drives up false sales because he will order 100 copies to get that one variant and sell it. This leaves 65 or so copies of the book gathering dust. I wish he would just stick these in a $1 bin but he doesn't have one. Here are some bullet points I noticed this week.

1) customers coming in and asking for collected editions. He does not have these in stalk but I have seen a lot of requests for The Boys, Blackest Night, and Walking Dead. He has had to refer these customers else where because they don't want to wait for him to back-order these books. Lost sales.

2) Walking Dead Weekly - Maybe he orders 10 copies all but 1 copy of issue 1 and 2 are left on shelves.

3) Stan Lee books from Boom. He ordered a lot of copies of these and they are sitting on the shelves. I think he may have over ordered on most of these issues either for variants or because he thought they would sell better.

4) Penny for Your Soul - He never carried these before I brought some copies of issue 1 and 2 that Tom gave me. Since then he has 3 box customers that are picking up the book but he has 2 or 3 copies on the shelf that are not moving.

5) Marvel books and variants. There are so many of these he ordered to get the variants and they don't sell. For some reason he thinks they are better off sitting there than discounting the books. For example 100 Copies of Wolverine the Best there is and he probably sold the variants along with 25 copies.

6) DC - I think he orders these pretty good because after a week the majority of the books sell out. Except when he over orders to get a variant.

7) Green Hornet and IDW books - He orders way too many of these to get his customers the variants. They remain on shelves.

8 Image - I believe he under orders these. They usually are gone the day of sale. It is interesting to me that he only buys 7 copies of Artifacts for box customers and does not order any for the shelves.

I will report more as I see it..

He ordered 300 copies of Fantastic Four Polybagged issue. I wonder how many of these he will sell. I am guessing 100 at best but we will see.

I will hope others will post any other interesting trends they notice at their comic book shops.

[BobBretall]

Good thread idea, MIke.

I'll add some of my thoughts based on my own LCS, since I go in almost every Wednesday. I spend maybe 30-40 min in the shop & chat with various people (including the owner) while there.

Variants: He tends to put a lot of the DC and Dynamite 1:10 variants out on the rack for normal cover price. A few that seem particularly "hot" he may mark up $1 over cover. He does not seem to order extra copies to get the variants, he just sells those that he gets along with his normal order (he'll tell me sometimes "I didn't order enough to get that variant" sometimes even on a 1:25). He'll almost always have at least 1 of a 1:10, even for Indie books.
- He saves ASM variants for me (I collect these) and does not price gouge on them, a 1:25 may be $6 or $8

$3.99 comics: Customers don't seem to notice/be bothered by them. Many of the people in line on Wednesday getting their "fix" are buying only 2-5 comics, these are almost always the same books in the top 10-20 on the Mayo Report. When I have asked them what they think of $3.99 the general feeling is it's not going to stop them buying Avengers.

Penny for Your Soul + GG Studios: He carries these and has sold out and reordered a number of times. In general, I'd say Indies with really slick art sell, but while this sees true for Penny & GG titles, Radical books seem to not blow off the shelves.

Image/Indies: He tends to order a decent # for the racks. Hot books will sell out and he'll do re-orders or get 2nd prints where he can. He does support these books by putting them on the rack (at least 5-10 copies) and they do sell. He'll get 20+ copies of Morning Glories and will sell them off the rack.

In general, I'd say the customers lean a bit more toward DC than Marvel (judging by the # of books of each I see people carrying up to the counter) HOWEVER, most of these folks will buy the "top tier" Marvel books. Indies do pretty well in his shop, but I think it's because they are available to browse on the racks.

He has a LOT of customers that come in and buy stuff off the racks as opposed to getting from a pull box. He does offer a pull service, but I don't think the pull customers bother to come in tight when the books come out on Wed (figuring they can get the books any time). There will be 20-30 customers in the shop that 1st hour on Wednesday, I see maybe 1 or 2 of them getting pull box comics.

MOST customers (and most employees there) are relatively oblivious to a lot of detail on the upcoming solicits on things that are not "top news items" like the death in the FF. They know about things when they see them on the rack. This lack of premeditation, esp. for the customers makes it really important for people to be able to see a title on the rack in order to make a sale.

[comicm]

There are a lot of books that are 3.99 that sell well at the shop. After shopping there over 10 years I would say that the trend is that people are just getting less books when they come to the register.


The other thing I have noticed lately is that customers don't bother to notify him to close their pull boxes. This drives me crazy. He had 3 full long boxes of slot customers that closed their boxes. If I were him I would at least put them at some discount but as of today they still remain at cover price.

[Cromics]

I will chime in as I might be one of the few people here that keep a box/ pull list at my LCS. I have a great shop that is well stocked with comics, trades, toys, statues, t-shirts and back issues. I get a discount for being a box customer. I subscribe to about 30 titles a month and purchase about 5-10 trades a month. I went today, and had a conversation with an employee about how comic fans follow writers and artists now, as opposed to sticking with a character/series. So they get alot of turnover on titles that change creative teams often, Detective Comics was the example he brought up. When Rucka and Williams moved on, so did many fans. In the past fans would continue with a title regardless of the creative team.

Also, I notice customers at this LCS buy Indy titles more than anywhere else I have shopped. Of course I think Indy books generally do very well in my area anyway, but this shop seems to have a dedicated indy following.

[torchsong]

I'm in my LCS once, maybe twice a month.

They seem to order one of everything. It was cool to see some gg Studio books on the shelf, but at the same time it looks like they got burned by the Green Hornet overselling promotion as well. Like a vulture, I'm waiting for the next big back issue sale so's I can swoop in and fill in the blanks.

They sell everything from statues to cards to clothing to these crazy things called comics.

One thing I have noticed, at least in the store I go to, is that all the "kid" oriented merchandise is up in the front of the store - Johnny DC books, etc.

Also it would seem they're letting their manga selection dwindle. I wonder if they just feel it's not worth competing with the bookstores on that one.

They send a weekly email letter, and often that email contains a coupon. I've let them know that it's those coupons that tend to get me to come in more often than I would anyway. So hopefully they'll keep them coming.

[comicm]

Well 3 days in and of the 300 copies of the polybagged Fantastic Four there are about 125 left. Each box customer seems to be buying 2 copies. If you are not a boxed customer you are really getting screwed. 100 copies of the issue were put in Mylar (Thickest kind) and were marked up to 6.99 a copy with a limit 2. Box customers can request at regular cost but walk-ins will have to pay the $6.99.

I think this is all sorts of wrong. How can you get more people to try the book if you are screwing them over?

[comicm]

Another thing I wanted to point out is that I have noticed a lot of people trying more DC Comics because of there "No Word" Covers.

Also Walking Dead Weekly sold all ten copies of everything that has come out to date.

[BobBretall]

Well 3 days in and of the 300 copies of the polybagged Fantastic Four there are about 125 left. Each box customer seems to be buying 2 copies. If you are not a boxed customer you are really getting screwed. 100 copies of the issue were put in Mylar (Thickest kind) and were marked up to 6.99 a copy with a limit 2. Box customers can request at regular cost but walk-ins will have to pay the $6.99.

I think this is all sorts of wrong. How can you get more people to try the book if you are screwing them over?

Wow! Personally, that would be cause for me to be looking for a new shop to give my business to. Seems really counterproductive!

If I was a walk-in who got told by a comic shop owner that a book that came out this week was marked up to $6.99, I'd turn around, walk out, and probably never enter a comic shop again. This is the kind of greed that drives NEGATIVE publicity for comics, because THAT'S a water-cooler story for a person to tell people about why they should NOT got to a comic shop.

There will be boatloads of the comic sold, no need to be price-gouging your customers the week it comes out.

[Webhead]

Well 3 days in and of the 300 copies of the polybagged Fantastic Four there are about 125 left. Each box customer seems to be buying 2 copies. If you are not a boxed customer you are really getting screwed. 100 copies of the issue were put in Mylar (Thickest kind) and were marked up to 6.99 a copy with a limit 2. Box customers can request at regular cost but walk-ins will have to pay the $6.99.

I think this is all sorts of wrong. How can you get more people to try the book if you are screwing them over?

Wow! Personally, that would be cause for me to be looking for a new shop to give my business to. Seems really counterproductive!

If I was a walk-in who got told by a comic shop owner that a book that came out this week was marked up to $6.99, I'd turn around, walk out, and probably never enter a comic shop again. This is the kind of greed that drives NEGATIVE publicity for comics, because THAT'S a water-cooler story for a person to tell people about why they should NOT got to a comic shop.

There will be boatloads of the comic sold, no need to be price-gouging your customers the week it comes out.

This is the exact opposite of what happened at my LCS. Another LCS in the area marked up FF and people were coming into the shop to get FF at cover price. I got into the store about 5pm and FF was sold out.

[comicm]

Another thing I noticed is that the new waves of Blackest Night figures are not selling. The first few waves sold immediately and the last two waves are sitting on shelves. Could this be that the figures are coming out so late and the event is over?

Also noticed there was a customer who came in and asked what was going on with the new Kick (bleep) and why is it so late. Also he was really disappointed there were no Last Days of American Crime on the shelve. At my comic shop there never were never any issues that made the shelve and they went only to pull box customers. I told him that all of the issues were out and he was very disappointed.

Trend: Customers coming in every Friday and asking for something that is not in stock.

[JohnMayo]

Well 3 days in and of the 300 copies of the polybagged Fantastic Four there are about 125 left. Each box customer seems to be buying 2 copies. If you are not a boxed customer you are really getting screwed. 100 copies of the issue were put in Mylar (Thickest kind) and were marked up to 6.99 a copy with a limit 2. Box customers can request at regular cost but walk-ins will have to pay the $6.99.

I think this is all sorts of wrong. How can you get more people to try the book if you are screwing them over?

That kind of instant markup on a new comic would really sour me on that retailer. Much more so than the local retailer near where I work that replied that they were sold out of Fantastic Four #587 when I asked and then quietly moved the copy that had been sitting on one of the display cases and hiding it away. Now, it may well be that copy was spoken for, but it was still kind of annoying.

And, yes, I was at a local store trying to gt a copy of Fantastic Four #587 which is going to be in my next DCBS shipment that arrives Monday. I figured that I wouldn't be able to avoid spoilers on the story for until Monday evening. Turns out I was right.

[JohnMayo]

Another thing I noticed is that the new waves of Blackest Night figures are not selling. The first few waves sold immediately and the last two waves are sitting on shelves. Could this be that the figures are coming out so late and the event is over?

Also noticed there was a customer who came in and asked what was going on with the new Kick (bleep) and why is it so late. Also he was really disappointed there were no Last Days of American Crime on the shelve. At my comic shop there never were never any issues that made the shelve and they went only to pull box customers. I told him that all of the issues were out and he was very disappointed.

Trend: Customers coming in every Friday and asking for something that is not in stock.

This is a tough one for the retailer. Ideally, for stores with no back issue business to speak of, the last copy of an issue should get purchased immediately before the store would take it off the shelf and consider it essentially "dead inventory".

For most issues, that should be when the next issue comes out. That implies a Tuesday evening time frame for that last purchase. But if the sales patterns at the store indicate that no more copies of a given title are going to sell after the mass influx of customers on Wednesday, then I can see trying to see out at that point.

That having been said, it is kind of annoying to go to a store and see new comics having sold out by then.

[comicm]

Another thing I noticed is that the new waves of Blackest Night figures are not selling. The first few waves sold immediately and the last two waves are sitting on shelves. Could this be that the figures are coming out so late and the event is over?

Also noticed there was a customer who came in and asked what was going on with the new Kick (bleep) and why is it so late. Also he was really disappointed there were no Last Days of American Crime on the shelve. At my comic shop there never were never any issues that made the shelve and they went only to pull box customers. I told him that all of the issues were out and he was very disappointed.

Trend: Customers coming in every Friday and asking for something that is not in stock.

This is a tough one for the retailer. Ideally, for stores with no back issue business to speak of, the last copy of an issue should get purchased immediately before the store would take it off the shelf and consider it essentially "dead inventory".

For most issues, that should be when the next issue comes out. That implies a Tuesday evening time frame for that last purchase. But if the sales patterns at the store indicate that no more copies of a given title are going to sell after the mass influx of customers on Wednesday, then I can see trying to see out at that point.

That having been said, it is kind of annoying to go to a store and see new comics having sold out by then.

Well there were never any of these radical books on the day new books are received. He does not order Radical for the shelves so those that don't pre-order or don't know about it can't try these books from this shop.

[comicm]

Well 3 days in and of the 300 copies of the polybagged Fantastic Four there are about 125 left. Each box customer seems to be buying 2 copies. If you are not a boxed customer you are really getting screwed. 100 copies of the issue were put in Mylar (Thickest kind) and were marked up to 6.99 a copy with a limit 2. Box customers can request at regular cost but walk-ins will have to pay the $6.99.

I think this is all sorts of wrong. How can you get more people to try the book if you are screwing them over?

That kind of instant markup on a new comic would really sour me on that retailer. Much more so than the local retailer near where I work that replied that they were sold out of Fantastic Four #587 when I asked and then quietly moved the copy that had been sitting on one of the display cases and hiding it away. Now, it may well be that copy was spoken for, but it was still kind of annoying.

And, yes, I was at a local store trying to gt a copy of Fantastic Four #587 which is going to be in my next DCBS shipment that arrives Monday. I figured that I wouldn't be able to avoid spoilers on the story for until Monday evening. Turns out I was right.

I went yesterday to get my copy but on Wednesday at 8:30 am a co-worker who does not read comics spoiled it for me. I was not surprised by who it was but I wanted to read the book before someone told me who died.

[BobBretall]

I was not surprised by who it was but I wanted to read the book before someone told me who died.

Well, who Brevoort's marketing machine would have you believe died, anyway. I still maintain that there was no death.