OrangeCrush

21 hours ago, Jimbo749 said:

Nice pick-ups!! I fell you on the big markdown sales though, sometimes you get that feeling like you just want to keep adding stuff to the cart just because it's on sale. Thanks for the heads up on ComicsMarketStreet, will check them out.  

Thanks! And yeah, I always wind up buying a bunch of comics just because thy were 60-75% off, comics I never would have purchased at full price. And given how many comics are being produced on a regular basis and how many characters I like...well, even with 60-75% off sales I can very quickly get up into the 150-$250 range for orders. And you should definitely check out ComicMarketStreet. They have some decent pricing on many of their comics and they do still have some of the Frison Wonder Woman covers( post issue roughly #24) available for $2.49.

9 hours ago, thirdgreenham said:

I liked the effort put into your post, but I hate prints. 

 

 

Much appreciated and I respect your opinion as I understand that not every comic collector has an interest in prints. The artwork itself has always been one of the main aspects to why I love comics as much as I do. I enjoy the stories as well, but its really the artwork more than anything that has kept me interested in comics for all these years. I just absolutely love comic related artwork and at least for me, comics just can't compete with a nice quality art print when it comes to really enjoying various comic related artwork as their just vasty larger in size, which allows me to enjoy the artwork to a much greater extent. I love comic related art books and sketch books as well, but even those just can't compare to a really nice 13x19 or 18x24 print, especially if you get artwork matted & framed and display it on a wall.

I do all of my own matting and framing and one of the best aspects of that, beyond saving a crapload of money and ensuring that a particular print is archivally matted/framed, is it allows to me easily switch out the matted prints that are being displayed in the various frames that I own. I currently have 4 print boxes full of matted comic artwork (both original artwork and prints), over 10 boxes of matted photography prints (mostly my own photography work), and 3 boxes of misc matted prints (mostly wildlife lithographs by artists like Robert Bateman). I can switch out a matted print in one of my frames in just a couple of minutes and like 2-3 times a year I wind up switching out roughly 95% of all the framed artwork being displayed in my home. Its great as it keeps the artwork that is displayed on my walls fresh and exciting and it really changes the overall look of the rooms. Basically, it just keeps your home fresh and exciting in regards to the various artwork being displayed on the walls. Of course, archivally matting prints in high quality matte board gets expensive so I only matte my absolute favorite pieces of artwork. The vast majority of the prints and original artwork I collect wind up in portfolio's or print file cabinets, but that ok as I really love just kicking back on my couch and browsing through many of my portfolio's. Its just like enjoying an art book, just with much larger pictures.

Here are a couple pictures of one of my 18x24 Prat Start 4 portfolio's. Their great portfolio's as their real leather and their padded, which makes them really comfortable to browse through. As much as I love comics or art books, they just can't compare to kicking back and browsing through one of these that is full of artwork you really enjoy. As I alway say, to each their own. If we all had the same opinions, the world would definitely be a very boring place. 

By the way, in regards to the yearly Zazzle sale I mentioned, they also offer an oversized 8.5x11 greeting card that only winds up being around $2.00 apiece during the sale. The quality is top notch and they are on a nice thick card stock. Their great for displaying smaller pieces of artwork in various places. Since their cards they can stand on their own or you can display them on something metal with some quality magnets. I even display some of the horizontal cards on some of my book shelves as I just slide the back of the card under the books so the books wind up keeping them in place. You could even get small 8.5x11 frames and just frame them like they were prints. Here are a couple of examples including one of my cats, a couple Gotham City Sirens covers and Artgerm's Oz cover. 

9 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

You need to do the math and see what your selling point is for the 1:25/1:30/1:50 variants are - you may be able to essentially get extra books that you can give away for nothing.

My old comic store owner did this and made total bank - at a certain point, ordering a thousand copies of something to get the 1:1000 variant is bottom line cheaper for you than ordering 250 of them because you can sell all the incremental variants all the way up. Plug the math in and see where you are before you discount that option. I know a couple of store owners who ordered enough of the Batman books to get the Jim Lee sketch variant that way - it was pure money. Of course they have 4,000 copies of an unsellable book in their warehouse, but what can you do.

I was actually going to mention the same thing. I know there are a couple of sellers on eBay that basically sell a LOT of newer comics for just $1.00 each and that has to be so they can get some of the rarer variants. They are basically just breaking even on many of the regular issues so they can get many of the rarer variants and given the prices that many of the rarer variants can have, it seems like a solid business plan. 

11 hours ago, Genesis Comics said:

I'm not going to "quote" any of the threads relating to "prints" as there were a lot with good information.  I do actually sell prints.  I purchase prints from artist JaCo Tartaruga  http://jacotartaruga.storenvy.com/as well as a local artist from the neighborhood, Laura Sweeney https://laurasweeneyart.com/

I sell the unframed prints at $20 each and framed prints (they are all 11x17) for $29.95.  I have 4 prints from Laura Sweeney and over 30 different prints from JaCo.  I display them above the back issue comics, with 2 full rows dedicated to the prints (about 15-20).  I started off with 8-10 different prints from JaCo and they sold very well,  some sold out in fact, I re-ordered, and the same thing.  Last order I placed was for 100 prints (I also have 100 frames as I was able to get them at Michael's during one of their 50% off frames sales.  People like the fact that they were original and when the Holiday season came around I had a bunch of people come in and say "My husband, brother, son, wife, girlfriend likes "x character" but I don't know what to get them??  The prints were a great sell...not too expensive and 99.99% chance they don't have them.  Some weeks 1 sell 0/1 and some weeks I sell 10+...just over 50% profit margin so not too bad AND I get to support local up and coming artists!

Well, its nice to see your selling some prints and original art. Not many comic stores do and that's a shame as it really can be a great source of additional revenue, especially given how popular prints have become the last few years and they really shouldn't take up a lot of storage space. For the artists and various companies making and selling prints...well, in regards to return on investment they are easily one of the biggest money makers out there right now. Sideshow is likely only making around a 20-25% profit at best on their statues, but with their Premium Art Prints they are likely making around 85-90% profit. Thier charging $90 for most prints and those prints only cost around $5 a pop to make. And thier making a killing on framed prints as well as the polystyrene frames Sideshow is using are super cheap especially when bought in bulk and they are charging $250 for most framed pieces. And they have an automated matte cutter so the amount of time being spent on framing the print is really negligible. 

Being that your not an artist or company making the prints, they are going to be more expensive thus you won't see as big of a return, but you can still make decent money on prints. Thats why I mentioned that Zazzle sale as that is a rare opportunity to buy a lot of quality Marvel and DC prints for an amount that should give you decent profits if your able to sell them. 

12 hours ago, Jimbo749 said:

Sometimes you just get lucky. My wife has been looking for a copy of Stabbity Bunny #1, we couldn't find one locally, Midtown (online) was out stock, ended up getting a copy for cover price from MyComicShop. I sign up for any mailing lists I find and wait for sales. Just last week Midtown had a 40% off sale on back issues online only.

I now realize I didn't even post the comic shop that I purchased them at. The name of the online shop is ComicMarketStreet. Not sure if that is a popular site or not with some of the members in here, but that was the first time I had ever checked them out before. I was just working on my comic bookmarks and googled online comic shops and stumbled across a few sites I wasn't familiar with. One of my biggest weaknesses as a comic collector is that I will just continue to buy copies of comics I already own if I really love a particular comic/cover and find a good deal on them. And I absolutely LOVE Frison's Wonder Woman cover run so they were just a no brainer purchase for me, especially at just $2.49 an issue. 

I have gotten a few comics from MyComicShop over the years, but I usually run into really high pricing there with issues I am looking for. Much of that is due to many of their listing being consignments so their not the one's setting the price. Midtown is definitely my main comic shop for modern comics as they have a great selection, their shipping method is top notch, and they really do have some great sales from time to time. They had a 60% off sale back at the end of January that I placed a really large order with. I have been cutting back on my modern comic purchases but with sales like 60-75% off, I always wind up making large purchases. Seems like more and more online comic shops are having exclusive variants produced. Even ComicMarketStreet is getting in on that action as they have a new GI Joe #249 exclusive variant by Natali Sanders. Here is a pic of the cover. I am not familiar with Natali Sanders. Kind of reminds of Greg Horn's style a bit. 

Also received a few shipments on Saturday. Basically just some more modern stuff including some signed Stanley Lau & J. Scott Campbell comics and a few Oum & Parrillo variants. 

On 11/28/2017 at 9:26 AM, rsouxlja7 said:

This one made me cringe

That is absolutely mind blowing, lol. Forget about all that free space between Spider-Man and the buildings, I'll just sign right across Spider-Man's head. 

On 2/21/2018 at 8:56 AM, Montezuma said:

Spare bedroom where I live, and a large comic book room at another location where most of the reading material is kept. There's a lot of good reading in the drek.

Yes there is. 

I figured I would post this up in here as I think its a pretty neat idea. BCW is now making themed comic boxes. If I wasn't already hooked on Drawer Boxes, I would have definitely considered some of these. Would definitely help spice up how your comic storage room looks. A few examples:

2 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

I keep all the packaging for all the statues I purchase. In case I ever move in the future I have the perfect package to put the delicate statues in.

I will say that due to the space the packages do take up I severely limit the quantity of statues I purchase.

Yeah, its much easier to keep your packaging if you really limit the number of statues you purchase. Unfortunately, I went a bit crazy the last 3-4 years and am now past the 40 statue mark if you include Sideshow, Gaming Heads, Prime 1 and XM. And I am also a big collector of science fiction replica weapons. Between companies like WETA, Triforce, & Hollywood Collectibles Group I am quickly approaching the 20 pieces mark and some of those have bigger boxes than some of the statues I own. Mass Effect's M-8 Assault Rifle has a huge box. Same for WETA's 3 District 9 replica weapons.

Honestly, looking back I should have taken a picture of my basement when I still had all of my boxes and I should have taken more pictures at the recycling place I dropped them all off at when I was finally done tossing all of the boxes. I was so distressed over the idea of tossing them or not that taking pictures just never entered my mind. People would understand why I decided to throw them away to a much greater degree if I had taken pictures. 

I know I'm a bit late to this thread, but I just have to say that the pure enjoyment of digging through boxes and boxes of comics, not knowing what your going to find...well, there is just nothing else like it. I have never purchased a comic collection anywhere close to this size, but I have purchased many smaller collections through the years. I also purchased a massive baseball card collection in the early 80's that was roughly 750,000 cards. Thankfully, I got out of the sports card market before it collapsed in the 90's. I can't even imagine what I would have done with a lot of those cards if I had held on to them. Probably would have used them as kindling for our fireplace. My wife and I go to a lot of storage bin auctions and its that same excitement of not knowing what you will get that makes them so much fun. After reading some of this thread, I am definitely going to start checking sites like craigslist again. Its been awhile since I have even considered buying another collection, but this thread reminded me of just how much fun it can be. Glad to hear the purchase worked out for you in the end. 

4 hours ago, g-man said:

I like the HQ piece but I agree...something with the pose prevents me from pullin the trigger...same with the new Captain America...just looks off with the way he is standing. Price point is getting up there too. 

Yeah, I am really hoping Sideshow's prices level out from here as if they continue to rise, it will definitely have a serious impact on my Sideshow purchases. Personally, I don't think Sideshow has any intention of competing with companies like XM directly in regards to pricing so I think pricing will level out from here on out. I understand they needed to raise prices to bring the quality of their statues up and I think they have achieved that goal with their current pricing level. I expect most Premium Format statues will stay in the $550-$599 range with the exceptions being really large pieces like Bane or really crazy detailed statues like Deadpool. 

On 2/21/2018 at 11:13 PM, nearmint said:

Sideshow released pics of their new Harley Quinn PF today.  I threw together a Secret Sanctuary slideshow...

 

 

I think the detail and quality of both Harley and Joker are pretty amazing. Harley is just another amazing portrait by Sideshow. Unfortunately, I am just not a big fan of the action poses for either of them. Just not my cup of tea so both are easy passes for me, which is ultimately a good thing given how many pre-orders I currently have. I already have the first Harley PF so i'm good on the Harley front. And its just absolutely mind blowing how many Harley collectibles have been released these last couple of years. I never knew Harley was that popular of a character. 

Wow, just wanted to give a tip of the hat to such a great thread and the sheer amount of time and research that was put into this topic by Marwood & I. Great work!

11 minutes ago, chevalmeow said:

Very cool! Have never seen these before and didn't even know they existed. Great cover art!

I guess it pays off to check all of the various online comic shops. Yesterday I wound up buying 2-3 copies of all of Jenny Frison's Variants for Wonder Woman (#7 - #25) for just $2.49 a copy. They only allowed me one copy per order so I just placed 3 separate orders and threw in a bunch of other great deals on other comics with each order. The shipping was only around $7 per order so it was more than worth it. I wasn't sure if they would honor all 3 orders, but all 3 wound up shipping out today. I really need to start checking various online shops more often.

If were talking about real flesh and blood women than its Adriana Lima for me, without question. She's never posed as a comic character before, but she has dressed up as an angel, which is good enough for me.

On 2/12/2018 at 6:55 PM, kdoginohio said:

Okay, probably the last person to get their Thanos on Throne on Earth. But, I got it. Beautiful piece. Only problem is the resin smell. Does it go away? Don't remember it with other statues.

Just noticed this post. Mine had that same smell and its the only statue I have ever received from Sideshow that had that smell. The good news is that within about 2 weeks, the smell was pretty much gone. Just needed to air out a bit.

4 hours ago, the blob said:

I wonder if this is more of an on line thing than brick and mortar thing? like i said, i don't see them selling at my shops, although they certainly sell statues. mid-town comics has big space and while i am sure they sell prints, i just don't feel like they have much on display or are pushing them. And certainly, $70 prints? Are those going to sell in a shop in the middle of Long Island suburbia where he's already having trouble making it even a 50% comic shop? (not that there isn't lots of money in long island, although after folks get done paying local property and income taxes...)

Sorry for hijacking the thread, although whether to carry this stuff (and invest in it) is a legit topic for discussion. Wow, those sideshow prints go for a lot of money!  And that Stanley whatever guy, they are lovely (and come framed, which is nice), but are limited and signed for those big bucks. Personally, at that $500-$800 range there is still some nice OA out there. I know, it's usually not in color, but then there's stuff like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Joseph-Linsner-DAWN-ORIGINAL-ART-Mixed-Media-Masterpiece-Published-JML-w-Dragon-/122740855483?hash=item1c93ecd2bb%3Ag%3AWLIAAOSwzx9Z1rgz&nma=true&si=MWCRhdvf4M7KTm6zum%2BQIQzvOBc%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I think this largely has to due with the fact that most comic shops just haven't carried quality prints up to this point. I don't think many people associate quality comic prints with comic stores. I know the comic shops by me, and the comic shops I visited over the last 30+ years, only sold cheap rolled up posters from Marvel & DC if they carried any type of artwork at all and many didn't even carry those. And I think that largely has to do with the fact that up until the last 5-6 or so years, comic prints were really MUCH more of a niche market. Aspen was really the first comic company to seriously start producing comic prints on a regular basis and even tho they have been doing it for well over 10+ years now, most of their prints were limited to 50-100. So even tho they were producing a significant number of prints on a regular basis, they were still really just aimed at a VERY small segment of the comic collecting population. Top Cow produced a few prints here and there, as did some of the other companies and artists, but overall it amounted to a very small amount of prints overall on a regular basis. Again, it really wasn't until the last 5-6 years that comic prints really started to grow into a significant industry of their own.

So your absolutely right, it really has been much more of an online thing up to this point, but that doesnt mean it has to stay an online thing. There are a LOT more comic print collectors out there than ever before and as someone else already brought up, one of the best aspects to art prints is that they take up very little space overall. In a single art print box that you can buy from companies like Light Impressions, you could easily store 75-100 raw prints, depending on the thickness of the paper. And all one would really have to do in order sell prints is do exactly what Aspen has done all these years at comic con's. You just put a couple of portfolio's out on the sales floor that people can freely look through and if they decide they want to buy a print, you simply pull that print out of the print boxes you have them stored in. The prints in the portfolio stay where they are. Their basically just floor copies until your down to the last print. And the amount of space those portfolio's would take up, especially if stored vertically, would be so negligible that it would literally be completely inconsequential. And you could go a step further and get some framed using inexpensive frames and hang them on the walls. Even if the framed prints don't sell right away, they would wind up making the store look VASTLY superior so its a win win either way. I know I would certainly enjoy looking at quality framed comic prints over blank walls or walls that just have cheap promotional material posted on them that is sent to them by various comic companies, which is usually what I see posted on the walls in most of the comic shops I have visited over the years.

And its important to note that its not just the popularity of comic prints that has increased markedly. You also have the overall quality of the prints themselves that have improved. In order to get a print of the quality of Sideshow's Premium Art prints 10 years ago, you would have had to pay at least $300-$400 for an 18x24 print, likely more. And the prints one is able to buy at Zazzle during their big Black Friday sale would have easily cost at least $50-$60 each. Its really that increase in quality, along with the significant drop in price of digital giclee printers that really set in motion this massive increase in popularity we have seen with the comic print market. Basically things have been changing for some time now in the comic print world and at least IMO, the next logical step is comic shops trying to get a piece of that pie as that pie has now grown into a significant amount of money each year. If any of the comic shops by me started to carry various art prints, I would absolutely make it a point to stop in from time to time to see what they had. Most major Comic Con's now bring at least 50+ new prints to market. I know if I owned a comic shop, I would without question be going after a piece of that comic print pie.

And yeah, Sideshow's prints can go for a lot of money. The Aspen Market used to be the same way. Such a shame Aspen got greedy and destroyed their entire print business. And yeah, many of the prints are limited editions, but there are plenty of open edition prints being made as well. I would estimate that roughly 20% of the comic prints being made today are open edition prints. Jamie Tyndall, Stanley Lau, J. Scott Campbell, and the list goes on and on. IMO, most of the people who buy comic prints are most interested in the artwork itself. Sure, its great if you can get it signed or its already signed, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for most if it wasn't. IMO, if someone really loves a piece of comic art, they will buy the print wether its limited edition, open edition, or signed or unsigned. Just how much they will spend, now that does depend on wether its limited and signed, but wether or not people will actually buy it, not IMO. Thats how Aspen was able to continue on with thier Michael Turner prints for many years after Michael Turner's death. They were still signed by Peter Steigerwald, but nobody really cared if he signed it or not. I hate to say that, but its 100% true. People kept buying those prints even without Turner's signature because they loved his artwork, not because they were still being signed by Peter Steigerwald. And that's why MANY people continued to buy Sideshow's prints even even after learning the signatures were fake.

8 hours ago, Stoy77 said:

Awesome news me & a buddy ordered these too can't wait to hear if they came too!

Right there with ya. My copies should be here by Monday at the latest. Definitely one of the best covers of the year IMO. 

16 hours ago, the blob said:

Ok, if you're flipping them for $70 then so be it. I guess its a market i don't understand.

Again, just look at the completed auctions on eBay for comic prints. I have been collecting comic prints for over 15 years and just 4-5 years back if you were to do a completed auction search on eBay, you would have gotten 1/10th the number of completed print auctions compared to what your seeing today. The comic print market has absolutely exploded in popularity as the price of high quality digital printers has come down in price. 

7 hours ago, spreads said:

Prints can be profitable if you can get them for nothing and they take up very little space.  Just might have to sit on them for while....I had a few on ebay that I never thought would never sell but eventually did (Michael Turner prints); I was about to just toss 'em. 

I think they would probably do well at a local store, get a bunch of them framed and put them on the wall.  They won't even take space away from your buckling shelving units, haha.

Unfortuately, the Aspen print market (including Michael Turner prints) has absolutely imploded due to the sheer level of greed that Aspen displayed. They released a MASSIVE amount of reprints when they ran out of new Turner prints to produce and people found out the DC/Marvel prints that were being sold as limited editions for over 10 years were in fact open editions. In roughly 1 year the entire market lost 60-70% of its value. Before Aspen pulled that cr*p, most signed Turner prints would EASILY sell for $200-$300 and most would sell within just a few days of being listed. Today, its hard to give them away. The Aspen print market is really an exception at this point and should not be viewed as an example of the kind of sales and price levels you see with the rest of the comic print market. 

41 minutes ago, the blob said:

I was more questioning open editions really doing well in a comic venue. Limited with a real sig is different.buying at a show from the signing artist seems different.  Just wondering how many people are plopping down $20 for these unlimited print run prints. I can do a lot with $20. Offering hundreds doesn't necessarily mean they sell more than a few a year of each on line, to the world. For a shop owner to buy a stack at $6-7 each, they need to know they have a market at their shop. The gullacy one i got for $1 is signed and retails for $40 on line. Anecdotal, i know. I Wonder what shop owners think?

There are lots of open edition prints on the market. Again, all of Artgerms prints are open edition. And you can take unsigned prints and get them signed if a signature is so vital to a particular buyer. I have done it with many of the open edition prints I have purchased over the years. IMO, people will buy a print if they truly love the artwork, regardless if its limited edition or an open edition and especially if it has a great price. Ebas actually has a DeviantArt account and he actually started selling prints on there for a short period of time. He wound up selling higher priced prints on other sites so he ceased selling on DeviantArt, but before he did I purchased 30 copies of a Wonder Woman print he put up for sale. Here is the print:

It wasn't a limited edition, it didn't come signed, and I still sold 29 of those prints in a single week for $70 a pop. I kept one copy for myself. So again, I believe people will buy a print if they really love the artwork and I believe this is especially true if they are getting it at a great price. With J Scott Campbell's store, you now have the option to buy his prints signed or unsigned (extra $10 for signed) and he has quite a few open edition prints. 

In regards to the EBAS print, I didn't buy all 30 prints at one time. That Wonder Woman image was a brand new image from EBAS and people were just super excited about it and it seemed like I was the only one that knew it was up for sale on DeviantArt. So I purchased 5 copies and listed them on eBay. They sold out in like the first 5 hours that I listed them. So I went back and purchased 10 more. Those sold out in like 2-3 days time and when I saw that they were still selling incredibly well, I went back yet again and ordered more. Eventually I wound up ordering 30 in total before Ebas stopped selling prints and pulled it from DeviantArt. 

30 minutes ago, the blob said:

Do people really buy these prints? My shop has them, i have never seen one bought. I might have been the last one, buying a gullacy print that had been marked $25, then $15, then $5, and then $1.

Given the massive growth that has been seen with the comic print market the last 5+ years, I would say a very resounding YES. I don't know what prints the store your referring to is trying to sell so it's kind a hard to guage it given that fact. And again, its not just prints. He could make notebooks, binders, bumper sticker, regular stickers, postcards, T-shirts, keychains, zippo lighters, playing cards, wall decals, and the list goes on and on and on. Just look at the success Sideshow has had with their Premium Print line. They have to be up to at least 100 prints released thus far and they ALL wind up selling out in a timely manner and they are priced at $90-$135 a pop. And the edition sizes range from 200-300. Sideshow actually screwed the pooch with those prints too as they were using automated machine signatures instead of real signatures and were deceptive about it. People thought they were real signatures and they weren't. They lost a significant number of buyers, including myself, due to that mishap. Before the whole signature gate went down, Sideshow was up to edition sizes as high as 750 and they were still selling out in a very timely manner. After Signature gate they had to drop their edition sizes down by 50-60%, but they are still selling 200-300 prints for each release and they are starting to use real signatures on many of their prints, likely due to so many people wanting real signatures, so I expect their edition sizes will start increasing again. 

3-4 years ago, sellers like SunnysComics on eBay (one of the biggest comic print sellers on eBay) had roughly 200 different prints that one could buy at any given time. That number is now well over 1000. Pretty much all of the big name comic artists are now selling prints at various comic con and many have thier own web stores where they sell prints. And these artists are doing very well with prints. Stanley Lau (Artgerm) has been hugely successful with his print line and his prints are all open edition prints and sell for $60-$90+ a pop. So again, I would say a very resounding yes. Prints have only gotten more and more popular with each passing year and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. And with prices as low as $15 for a quality archival 13x19 print, I absolutely believe he could sell quite a few prints, if not in his store then definitely online.

Just look at the completed eBay auctions in regards to comic prints:

Comic Prints

8 minutes ago, Mapleleafvann said:

I am not going to quote your response given the sheer size of it, but it is certainly a very thoughtful gesture and effort for you to help a fellow Boardie like this.  This is one of the reasons this community needs to be supported and developed further.  Great post!

Much appreciated!

4 hours ago, awe4one said:

My opinion?  Don't open one.  Comics are losing their audience and frankly have out priced their customers.  The only reason comics shops stay open in my area of the woods (North Florida Panhandle) is for card games and D&D type activities.  They make the majority of their money there.  Comics have become an after thought and their inventory has shrunk according.

Jim

The problem with this mind set is your assuming the only thing comic shops sell is comics and that just isn't the case with smart comic shops. I know one of the comic shops by me makes a significant amount of money from selling the cards for card games like Magic the Gathering. And there is PLENTY of other stuff comic shops can stock and sell. You have the smaller statues like Batman Black & White, POP statues, comic supplies (which many times I am willing to pay more for at comic shops as I am in desperate need of them and don't feel like waiting 2 days for an Amazon shipment), action figures, other types of cards like Wacky Packages and maybe even some sports cards depending on your customers. Again, there are PLENTY of other things that one can sell in a comic shop besides comics. And here is an article you should read:

Comic Books are selling better than they have in 20 years — here's why they're so popular

http://www.thisisinsider.com/comic-books-are-popular-again-heres-why-2016-7

Domestic sales of comics and graphic novels were at $265 million in 2000 and had reached $715 million in total sales by 2011, $805 million in 2012, $870 million by 2013, $935 million by 2014, 1.03 billion by 2015, and 1.085 billion by 2016.  Those growth rates are WELL above the rate of inflation. And of that 1.085 billion in 2016, $570 million of it came from comic stores. And this is just comic & graphic novel sales. It doesn't include all of those other things that one can sell in a comic shops like Magic the Gathering cards, statues, posters, art prints, etc.

Complete 2017 figures have yet to be released, but based on what we have seen the last 5-6 years, I don't know how anyone can say that the comic market is in trouble. Sales for comics may go up and down, but sales for graphic novels have been steadily increasing for some time now and I don't see that changing anytime soon. 

Bottom line - It is still very possible to have a successful comic store. If you take advantage of both online and offline sales, stock the right books, sell other things like card games, statues, action figures, art books, posters, prints etc., there is really no reason why one can't have a very successful comic business. I'm not saying its easy, but as I have stated before, I think if people are passionate enough about something and work hard enough, anything is possible and that certainly includes running a successful comic store. Again, the best advice that I can give, which I gave in my first post in this thread, was not to listen to the naysayers. Had I listened to the naysayers, I would not be a photographer today. 

By the way, just as a tip in case your interested in stocking various DC, Marvel, or Zenescope art prints in your store, every year Zazzle has a big black friday sale where you can buy prints for 65-75% off. Depending on the paper you use, you can buy 13x19 prints for as little as $4-$7 apiece and they have a pretty big selection of DC, Marvel, and Zenescope comic prints available. I have taken advantage of that sale for at least 6 years in a row now. I have purchased many comic prints during that sale, but my favorite thing is having NASA/Hubble space prints made using NASA's highest quality digital files, which are readily avilable on NASA's website and are open domain thus your 100% allowed to make prints from them. I usually buy at least 20-30 NASA prints a year. Here is my favorite print that I received this last Black Friday.

https://www.zazzle.com/earth_moonscape_poster-228586693351184907

I always use their premium canvas paper for my NASA/Hubble prints, which is the most expensive kind of paper Zazzle stocks. The prints wind up being around $6-$7 each with the 65-75% discount. They also have 3 other kinds of paper. They have value poster paper, poster paper & archival heavyweight matte paper. If you use the archival heavyweight matt paper, which is what I would recommend as IMO comic art looks VASTLY superior on matte paper, your talking around $5 per 13x19 print during the sale. If you go 11x17, it would be even cheaper, likely around $4 per print. You could easily sell much of the comic artwork available for $15 a print and basically triple your money.

My advice, save up some money and make a MASSIVE purchase during that sale and then sell off the merchandise as the year goes by. Rinse and repeat each year depending on how good your sales are. They have great DC, Marvel & Zenescope artwork to choose from. And they have a LOT of other stuff that you could buy during that 65-75% off sale and sell. Things like stickers, postcards, notebooks, binders, etc. If you go into the customize section and shrink the image size down once, it gives you a nice roughly 1" white border on most of their products. Thats how I get the white border on the NASA and comic prints that I order, like the example I posted up above and the comic prints down below. You just go into the customize option and press the minus button once. It shrinks the image size down once and gives you a nice white border, which IMO is an absolute must on art prints. I absolutely hate full bleed prints. You should  start a Zazzle account, look over all of the various comic merchandise you can buy and then really learn how to use all of Zazzle's customizing options so your good and ready to go once that sale starts. Zazzle has like 300 different products to choose form now. Here are a few of the comic prints I purchased this year. 

And here is the receipt from this order so you can see the pricing for yourself. I purchased 11 - 13x19 prints on Zazzle's archival heavyweight matte paper and the order was just $60.93 and Zazzle has something called Zazzle Black where you get free shipping for a small fee each year so I got free shipping on the roughly 20 orders I placed during the sale including this one. I wind up buying a lot of X-mas presents during that sale as well. So basically I got those prints for $5.53 apiece. And they really are very nice prints. 

I didn't get 2 of the Guardians of the Galaxy Prints. The receipt was too big to take a single screen shot so I used that print as the border between the top and bottom of the receipt.  Anyways, sorry for the CRAZY long post. I just truly believe that there could be some money to be made here for you if you really take advantage of that Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale Zazzle has each year. Honestly, given how many quality pieces of art they have from DC, Marvel, and Zenescope and the sheer number of products you can buy...well, again I would at least go over and give all of thier various products a look and then browse their selection of artwork from DC, Marvel and Zenescope. Worse comes to worst you can always sell them on eBay and I guarantee you can EASILY sell prints of this quality on eBay for FAR more than just $5.50 per print. Most 13x19 prints, even open edition prints, sell for at least $25-$30+ on eBay. 

59 minutes ago, the blob said:

And are these boxes not something that can be broken down an folded up, or is the issue the styrophome packing on the inside that fits the statute?

Yeah, its the styrofoam that is the issue. Its just one big a*s block of styrofoam and you can't break down styrofoam. And if your going to throw away the styrofoam, there is really no point in keeping the brown shipping box. The art boxes are worth keeping IMO and I definitely kept all of mine. Not sure what I will ever do with them, but since they look nice and they can be broken down flat, I decided to keep them. Here is what the styrofoam usually looks like with a Sideshow statue and remember your talking about boxes that are like 2 1/2 feet tall x 2 feet wide x 12-16" deep. So empty Sideshow boxes eat up space like Pac-man eats dots. Its starts adding up to significant amounts of space if you buy a lot of statues and I have purchased a LOT of statues the last 3-4 years. 

Actually, I found a better example of exactly what you get with most Sideshow Premium Format statues. The only thing not shown is the brown shipping box that the art box fits into.

So basically, your left with that big block of styrofoam, the art box and brown shipping box once your done putting your statue together. And Supergirl is actually one of the smaller Sideshow pieces in recent years, box wise. The recent Thanos Maquette had a box size of 25.00" H x 26.00" W x 28.00" L. So basically just over 2 feet x 2 feet x  2 feet. 

19 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

The box of a limited and numbered statue will help with a sale.... as any original packaging would, I guess it saves face for opening it period that the numbering is on the package   as compared to an action figure that you'd never be able to get back in the packaging....

Most high end statues have the number on the bottom of the statue, so you still know what number it is even without the packaging, but your absolutely right. Having the original packaging makes it easier to sell and you will get more money for it. Here are a couple of examples of the bottoms of Sideshow's statues:

Again, the statue being in mint condition is the most important thing and you will still be able to sell high end statues even without the box. Your just going to take a hit on the overall value and it will likely take longer to sell. You might wind up having to re-list it a couple of times. 

6 hours ago, shadroch said:

I had five nice, premium statues when I moved. Three were bought with boxes, two I bought loose.  Small sample, to be sure but the statues I shipped in original boxes got here fine. Half of the others did not.

They are tremendous space wasters, but I wouldn't chuck them so quickly.

I moved 4 times in a 6 year period when I was in art school and 2 of those times I actually moved my statues without the original boxes as I had the boxes stored in my parents basement back then and it was a hour drive one way to my parents house and I just didn't feel like driving and picking them up. All you do is wrap the statues in a bunch of soft t-shirts and put them in boxes with plenty of shipping peanuts. As long as you do that and handle them carefully, you won't have any problem moving your statues without the original boxes. That being said, I would never ship them in the mail without the original boxes. I would wind up driving them in a U-haul if I ever had to move again. 

Not to mention, the chances of us moving at this point in the game is like a million to one. Both of our houses are paid off and there is literally no reason for us to move. My mother and father have both passed away, but my wife's family lives only around 45 minutes away. Plus I have my business, which would take a HUGE hit if I were to move and my wife has a great job that she has been at for over 10 years and its just a 25 minute drive for her. And Oakland County MI is one of the safest places to live in the entire US. Farmington Hills currently ranks 44th in the country, but were also right on the border of West Bloomfield, which is ranked 9th in the entire US. Plus I put a ton of effort into building my darkroom and the art studio room that we both share. Moving at this point would honestly be one of the dumbest moves we could make. So moving my statues is just not something I have to worry about anymore, which is ultimately just another thing that factored into my decision to throw my boxes & styrofoam away. 

50 minutes ago, the blob said:

I have never been bit by the statute bug. I agree they look cool, and I wouldn't turn a cool one down, but that is money I don't have! (and frankly, my set-up just wouldn't work for them) With that said, IF you ever did need to sell one of these, is not having the box going to be a problem? I was looking at a Hulk one on the forum here and it looked like the info (240 of 2500) was on the box or something.

 

Not a huge problem as long as the statue is in mint condition. You would just likely lose $100-$150 in value. There are PLENTY of statue collectors out there looking for a killer deal and that is one of the ways you can get one. I have seen plenty of statues sell over the years without the original box. Again, you just wind up taking a hit on the overall value. And yeah, the statue market has definitely gotten a lot more expensive in recent years as the quality of the statues has increased. Even Sideshow's statues, which are at the lower end of the price scale on the high end market, have risen in price significantly. 1:4 Sideshow statues used to be $300-$350 and now thier at $500-$550+, with some going as high as $699 now. Deadpool & Bane are the most expensive 1:4 Premium Format Statue's Sideshow has released to date and they were both $699. So its definitely a hobby you wind up dumping some serious cash into, especially if you buy a lot of statues. Sideshow has just been killing me the last 2 years. Its just been one piece after another that I couldn't say no too.