A little corner of the UK 2 2

[Maccai3]

Rich has a background in design and publishing, so he works with a hosting and web design company on the content and layout. We will eventually be using a form of channelgrabber, so that our inventory will be barcoded and scanned and simultaneously entered onto our own web store, eBay, amazon etc. This will also track inventory and manage stock levels.

 

It's a long and costly process, but vital if we want to be competitive.

 

definitely, i've been ordering the Avengers vs X-Men for a guy at work off a shop on eBay, they sold 175 copies of issue 9 with free delivery, eBay is a must nowadays

Edited August 2, 2012 by Maccai3

[gaz973]

Congrats Phil, best of luck to you with the store. Rich is the friendliest and most enthusiastic person that anyone could hope to work with.

 

Any plans for the store that you can share with us?

 

 

 

Hiya Garry

 

The main thrust is going to be building up the website, both for new standing orders and back issues. As you know, and I'm sure Nick would confirm, the back issue side of things is the killer. Processing a large number of back issues to the point of being able to get them where they are actually all on the site with a pretty scan is very time consuming.

 

We are negotiating on the purchase of a large collection of silver and bronze Marvels from the states, which will include an FF 1 and a barn load of other key books. It will exclude ASM and Xmen as Rich bought this portion a few months ago, nearly all those books are gone, including the ASM 1 and Xmen 1.

 

Also, we are very pro comic shows, and intend to be at as many as possible, big and small all over the UK.

 

Finally, looking after our loyal pull list customers and adding to their numbers. This will be done by staff member Wes, who knows just about all there is to know about the modern comics world.

 

This will leave myself and Rich to concentrate on building up one of the best silver through copper inventories available in a retail location in the UK. There really seems to be an appetite for cool old comics amongst our customers which is encouraging.

 

Drop in for a coffee Garry, Rich is always going on about what a great guy you are, which i've been trying to put him right about obviously

 

Anyway, as I said earlier, we've got a way to go before we are knocking on the esteemed F_T's door, but maybe one day we can reach his high benchmark.

 

That sounds like a great plan with a final result of a truly impressive operation.

 

I definitely plan to drop into the shop sometime when I get a chance if only to remind Rich what a great guy I am. Are there any particular days of the week when you're likely to be there as well?

[Arsenalherd]

Rich has a background in design and publishing, so he works with a hosting and web design company on the content and layout. We will eventually be using a form of channelgrabber, so that our inventory will be barcoded and scanned and simultaneously entered onto our own web store, eBay, amazon etc. This will also track inventory and manage stock levels.

 

It's a long and costly process, but vital if we want to be competitive.

 

definitely, i've been ordering the Avengers vs X-Men for a guy at work off a shop on eBay, they sold 175 copies of issue 9 with free delivery, eBay is a must nowadays

 

sounds like A Place In Space, they do very well through eBay

 

Phil, if any work is going then let me know, need to get out of Thanet hell hole

[Whizzer]

I'll definitely be in the shop at least one full day a week and probably more, depending on how my other commitments pan out. (I'm only a minority shareholder and at the end of the day Rich is the captain of the ship).

 

Just drop me a pm when you are coming down and I'll make sure I'm there. (thumbs u

[Deanokeeno]

Well done and wish you and Rich every success.

 

(thumbs u

[Whizzer]

Rich has a background in design and publishing, so he works with a hosting and web design company on the content and layout. We will eventually be using a form of channelgrabber, so that our inventory will be barcoded and scanned and simultaneously entered onto our own web store, eBay, amazon etc. This will also track inventory and manage stock levels.

 

It's a long and costly process, but vital if we want to be competitive.

 

definitely, i've been ordering the Avengers vs X-Men for a guy at work off a shop on eBay, they sold 175 copies of issue 9 with free delivery, eBay is a must nowadays

 

sounds like A Place In Space, they do very well through eBay

 

Phil, if any work is going then let me know, need to get out of Thanet hell hole

 

You've probably got more stock than us

[Whizzer]

Thanks Deano.

[Maccai3]

Rich has a background in design and publishing, so he works with a hosting and web design company on the content and layout. We will eventually be using a form of channelgrabber, so that our inventory will be barcoded and scanned and simultaneously entered onto our own web store, eBay, amazon etc. This will also track inventory and manage stock levels.

 

It's a long and costly process, but vital if we want to be competitive.

 

definitely, i've been ordering the Avengers vs X-Men for a guy at work off a shop on eBay, they sold 175 copies of issue 9 with free delivery, eBay is a must nowadays

 

sounds like A Place In Space, they do very well through eBay

 

Phil, if any work is going then let me know, need to get out of Thanet hell hole

 

yep, £2.85 with Free Delivery, can't fault that

 

works out cheaper than going to my not so local comic book shop

[Arsenalherd]

used to pull about 10 comics a week from them, never a problem, but i gave up moderns altogether

[Anfield Fox]

Everytime i've bought from A Place in Space the books were VF/NM at best. Not really good for an anal collector like me.

 

I had a great guy who sold me my moderns. He was a big eBay player up until late 2007. Amazing to deal with, great prices, customer service. All books were bagged and boarded and NM+ and packaged great.

 

Seems like the modern business was/is? a tough market. He sent me the following when he dropped out of the business despite selling thousands of books a month. Was a sad day

 

Hi Matt

 

I’m really sorry about this but I have decided to close my account with Diamond and am not going to be able to supply you with new comics any more. I have not been making any money doing this for quite some time now and have been getting more and more worried that I would end up getting myself badly into debt if I continued. The last six months or so, I have had this horrible feeling that I was doing the wrong thing every time I posted my Previews order and this month I just couldn't bring myself to send it. I wrote to Diamond a few days ago to say that I wanted to close my account, thinking that they would at least make me buy all the comics I still had on order with them, but they have closed my account with immediate effect. Unfortunately, this means that the comics I received this week were the last that I will get from them and I will not be able to supply you with anything you still have on order with me. Sorry to let you down.

 

I’m afraid the items I sell are just too cheap and the profit margin is too low. I have to sell three comics just to pay for every one that doesn’t sell and, because I have to order so far in advance and the stuff I order is non-returnable, I end up with quite a lot of comics that don’t sell. Although I had one good year, last year was a bit of a disaster. I sold a huge amount of comics, double the amount I sold the previous year, but ended up making no money. This was partly due to the amount of unsold stock I was getting stuck with, partly due to having to employ my sister part-time because I couldn’t cope with sending out 4,000 comics a month on my own any more (as well as answering hundreds of emails and listing and re-listing hundreds of items on eBay), and partly because my costs were going up all the time. Increasing competition on eBay meant that I was unable to increase my prices to cope with these expenses and overall I ended up making a small loss, despite working every minute of the day and having a huge turnover. I was gutted when I realised I had worked a whole year for nothing but thought I could still turn things around. Unfortunately, a large increase in eBay fees put my expenses up even more and the number of other sellers selling new imports on eBay, many of whom are undercutting my prices, started to really hit my sales.

 

I was going to carry on without eBay, just selling to private customers, but even that has turned into a lot of hard work. Last month, one of my regular customers decided he was going to stop collecting comics and left me with over £400 worth of comics he hadn’t paid for (not including all the stuff I still had on order with me), most of which I will struggle to sell now. Last week, another once-reliable customer cancelled a PayPal payment for £40 after he had received his comics and isn’t answering any of my emails. I could go on. Most people do pay in the end but I have so many slow payers, and the profit I made from them is so small, that it just isn’t worth the effort of chasing them all for payment anymore. I did think about making people pay in advance but am sure most people wouldn’t want to and even that would be too much work to manage on my own, what with so many comics being cancelled and re-solicited. I decided in the end the best thing to do would be to get out now before I end up getting myself in debt.

 

I will probably still carry on selling comics - at the very least, I have a room full of unsold stock to try and sell – and I may even start buying up collections of old comics to sell again at some point, but that’s it for me and new comics, I’m afraid. If you don’t mind, I would like to keep you on my mailing list, in case I do start selling old comics again, but let me know if you want me to remove you from my list and I will.

 

Once again, I’m sorry if I’ve let you down. I know this is short notice but I really didn’t expect Diamond to close my account so quickly. There are plenty of other people selling new imports right now but I’m not sure who to recommend. On eBay, A Place In Space seem popular. Before I started selling new imports, I used to get my comics from a company called Ace Comics, who had an excellent advance order service, and I will probably go back to them if they will have me.

 

Anyway, I’m off now. Thanks for all your custom. It was much appreciated. I still have some comics put by for you and I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know if you still want them..

[Whizzer]

Yeah that is a bummer, especially as the guy seemed to give great service and was very ethical in his dealings with people.

 

I would say that to successfully sell new comics, the more ways of getting to potential customers the better. A retail outlet, eBay store, website, attending shows etc rather than just relying on eBay. Also, like most other retail businesses the bigger your customer base, the more you order from your distributor and the better your discount.

 

Hopefully he will be able to sell off the books he's been stuck with and move on.

 

[gaz973]

I'll definitely be in the shop at least one full day a week and probably more, depending on how my other commitments pan out. (I'm only a minority shareholder and at the end of the day Rich is the captain of the ship).

 

Just drop me a pm when you are coming down and I'll make sure I'm there. (thumbs u

 

(thumbs u

[gaz973]

I don't envy the job of selling current releases.

[Comicopolis]

I don't envy the job of selling current releases.

 

Reading them is bad enough.

[Kevin.J]

I don't envy the job of selling current releases.

 

Reading them is bad enough.

 

[EwanUK]

I don't envy the job of selling current releases.

 

Reading them is bad enough.

 

Indeed the last modern I bought with any regularity is now a Copper Age title

 

Anyway, how does the business model work for new comics? what's the margin?

is it like WHS retail of magazines?

[EwanUK]

Yeah that is a bummer, especially as the guy seemed to give great service and was very ethical in his dealings with people.

 

I would say that to successfully sell new comics, the more ways of getting to potential customers the better. A retail outlet, eBay store, website, attending shows etc rather than just relying on eBay. Also, like most other retail businesses the bigger your customer base, the more you order from your distributor and the better your discount.

 

Hopefully he will be able to sell off the books he's been stuck with and move on.

 

Surely ebay has 100s of times more reach than the other outlets? Is an ebay store much more profitable? Do you cross-promote on ebay?

 

At marts, do you actually make a profit? Aren't most buyers wanting 10p comics? Do people ever buy big ticket items?

[Anfield Fox]

I don't envy the job of selling current releases.

 

Reading them is bad enough.

 

Indeed the last modern I bought with any regularity is now a Copper Age title

 

Anyway, how does the business model work for new comics? what's the margin?

is it like WHS retail of magazines?

 

Books are ordered 3 months in advance from Diamond. Retailers pay less (not sure the exact price somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 cover price i think? Maybe Nick can answer that) but books are non returnable. So if you order too many then you'll need to sell 3 comics for everyone that doesn't sell.

 

The old model before the direct market was that retailers could order as many as they wanted and were returnable but the price they paid per comic was much higher.

 

With eBay and Paypal fees, rising postage costs and competition from others i don't see it as a viable business unless you have a strong subscriber base and supplement your income through other things including back issues.

[gaz973]

Yeah that is a bummer, especially as the guy seemed to give great service and was very ethical in his dealings with people.

 

I would say that to successfully sell new comics, the more ways of getting to potential customers the better. A retail outlet, eBay store, website, attending shows etc rather than just relying on eBay. Also, like most other retail businesses the bigger your customer base, the more you order from your distributor and the better your discount.

 

Hopefully he will be able to sell off the books he's been stuck with and move on.

 

Surely ebay has 100s of times more reach than the other outlets? Is an ebay store much more profitable? Do you cross-promote on ebay?

 

At marts, do you actually make a profit? Aren't most buyers wanting 10p comics? Do people ever buy big ticket items?

 

There are plenty of buyers for big ticket items at marts and they're pretty much the only way to shift the very cheap books. I figure that attending shows is going to be pretty much essential to me after I've launched my website.

[Whizzer]

I think Nick summed it up best after LSCC when he said, (and I may be paraphrasing him slightly) "any UK dealer that didn't do this show is a because you just missed the biggest payday this industry has had in the last 20 years"

 

We did fantastically well at LSCC, Kapow! And always do well at the monthly London Mart, dealers wouldn't put all that work in if it wasn't worth it.

 

Also, selling moderns is profitable if done right, however I would agree that it would be hard to make big money just doing that on it's own.

 

Also, I've come to realize recently that there is a whole world of collectors out there who have no interest in cgc and uber high grade collecting, they just love reading and building runs and will pay reasonable money to pursue that area of the hobby. In fact I would go as far as to say that these customers are the lifeblood of the hobby.