No More Back Issues!

[John A III]

I would think if you want to build an "entertainment" based business you would include rather than exclude back issue comics and maybe pair it with old records and go after the adult crowd that yearns for the products of the past and have the money to buy it and not their snot nosed kids with allowances who download songs and would rather watch crappy youtube videos than read a quality comic that has stood the test of time.

 

Let those energized parents then get their kids involved in comics because after all they are probably going to inherit that collection.

 

I get where you are coming from, but from experiance I say that that kind of shop is no fun either. My LCS has comics, old records, card games, video games, movies, toys, coins, sell letterman jackets, and martial arts stuff. While I don't fault them for trying to make money and keep their shop open, I find that they cater more to the coin collectors and older customers, and prety much don't engage with the young adult crowd. I'm 26, and while I know I am in the tail end of comic collecting age, I think that they are out of touch with their customers. One reason I believe new blood in our hobby (locally espcially) is due to the fact that comic sellers tend to be of an older generation and don't always mix well or understand the younger customers.

 

Case in point, I was virtually out of buying comics a few years back. i wouuld sometimes buy lots off of ebay, or search thru the back issues every 6 months or so. Not buying anything new, just old drek from my younger days. Then I happened to go into a new comic shop one day, I was actually looking for the shop that sold the old Optimus Prime toy I'd seen earlier, well this shop was in it's place. I talked to the guy and his interest and passion for the current comic market made him a lot of money off of me. I was at one point spending 40-80 dollars a week at his shop. Even when I first cut back on buying comics I limited it to $20 dollars a week. Everyone I ever saw there prefered him to the other LCS in town because he was more personable and focused mainly on comics. Unfortunatley he hit some business problems, both caused by him and out of his control, and now I am stuck with one shop again. I stopped collecting again for a few months after he shut down due to service and enviroment at the other shop. i now only buy from them because I really want to stay reading Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, but only spend at the most $40 a month now normally. I am reminding every time I go in there why I miss my friends shop and wish I had the money to start my own.

[Subliminal]

I would think if you want to build an "entertainment" based business you would include rather than exclude back issue comics and maybe pair it with old records and go after the adult crowd that yearns for the products of the past and have the money to buy it and not their snot nosed kids with allowances who download songs and would rather watch crappy youtube videos than read a quality comic that has stood the test of time.

 

Let those energized parents then get their kids involved in comics because after all they are probably going to inherit that collection.

 

I get where you are coming from, but from experiance I say that that kind of shop is no fun either. My LCS has comics, old records, card games, video games, movies, toys, coins, sell letterman jackets, and martial arts stuff. While I don't fault them for trying to make money and keep their shop open, I find that they cater more to the coin collectors and older customers, and prety much don't engage with the young adult crowd. I'm 26, and while I know I am in the tail end of comic collecting age, I think that they are out of touch with their customers. One reason I believe new blood in our hobby (locally espcially) is due to the fact that comic sellers tend to be of an older generation and don't always mix well or understand the younger customers.

 

Case in point, I was virtually out of buying comics a few years back. i wouuld sometimes buy lots off of ebay, or search thru the back issues every 6 months or so. Not buying anything new, just old drek from my younger days. Then I happened to go into a new comic shop one day, I was actually looking for the shop that sold the old Optimus Prime toy I'd seen earlier, well this shop was in it's place. I talked to the guy and his interest and passion for the current comic market made him a lot of money off of me. I was at one point spending 40-80 dollars a week at his shop. Even when I first cut back on buying comics I limited it to $20 dollars a week. Everyone I ever saw there prefered him to the other LCS in town because he was more personable and focused mainly on comics. Unfortunatley he hit some business problems, both caused by him and out of his control, and now I am stuck with one shop again. I stopped collecting again for a few months after he shut down due to service and enviroment at the other shop. i now only buy from them because I really want to stay reading Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, but only spend at the most $40 a month now normally. I am reminding every time I go in there why I miss my friends shop and wish I had the money to start my own.

 

Sounds like there is a generation gap both on the part of the owners and their kids and the collectors and their kids.

Perhaps the old model of passing the family business on to your kid and passing the hobby on to your kids and all the synergy that creates has been lost in this generation and the comic industry is the canary in the coalmine.

 

 

[John A III]

I think so. At my LCS the owner is pretty nice, but I rarely deal with him. It's the lady there that I normally see that is the one that ticks me off. Espcially this last week as I found out she missed 4 comics on my pull list. Now I have to wait for a reorder and get the ones I can off the rack, which is annoying because they are never in good shape. I know mistakes happen, but I found 4 books missing, 2 from this week and one from last, the one from last week may be my fault, but the other 2 aren't. I just don't understand how you get 1 out of 3, one of which didn't sell out

[MR.COMICBOOK]

I find it sad my LCS has a very limited back issues sections now, they cleared out their decent size one a few months back. The disappearance of their back issues has actually effected my collecting, I stopped trying to complete some sets and decided to sell them istead. What also sucks is that they don't discount back issues. I recently looked thru and they had 6+ month old issues at cover price still.

 

I'd go to another shop, but the only other place that sells comics in town is the second shop for my LCS, so I'm fully SOL.

It happens in all the rest of the retail world, Wal-mart,Target get rid of thier old videogames,toys and cloths fast to make way for the new stuff, I am surprised it took most lcs`s this long to figure this out.Unless you a have a high grade cgc key why keep the 50 cent comics around to take up space?

[moonlite]

This has been discussed before, a pretty solid figure is that an LCS may make 5-10% of its sales on back issues. An endeavor which generallly takes up ALOT of space and is very labor intensive. Some places have just decided that its not worth it to them. I am not that shop but I understand it. Those that I know have done it either have some show dealers that come and buy their overstock or they sell/trade it to some of the bigger online dealers.

[MR.COMICBOOK]

I would think if you want to build an "entertainment" based business you would include rather than exclude back issue comics and maybe pair it with old records and go after the adult crowd that yearns for the products of the past and have the money to buy it and not their snot nosed kids with allowances who download songs and would rather watch crappy youtube videos than read a quality comic that has stood the test of time.

 

Let those energized parents then get their kids involved in comics because after all they are probably going to inherit that collection.

 

I get where you are coming from, but from experiance I say that that kind of shop is no fun either. My LCS has comics, old records, card games, video games, movies, toys, coins, sell letterman jackets, and martial arts stuff. While I don't fault them for trying to make money and keep their shop open, I find that they cater more to the coin collectors and older customers, and prety much don't engage with the young adult crowd. I'm 26, and while I know I am in the tail end of comic collecting age, I think that they are out of touch with their customers. One reason I believe new blood in our hobby (locally espcially) is due to the fact that comic sellers tend to be of an older generation and don't always mix well or understand the younger customers.

 

Case in point, I was virtually out of buying comics a few years back. i wouuld sometimes buy lots off of ebay, or search thru the back issues every 6 months or so. Not buying anything new, just old drek from my younger days. Then I happened to go into a new comic shop one day, I was actually looking for the shop that sold the old Optimus Prime toy I'd seen earlier, well this shop was in it's place. I talked to the guy and his interest and passion for the current comic market made him a lot of money off of me. I was at one point spending 40-80 dollars a week at his shop. Even when I first cut back on buying comics I limited it to $20 dollars a week. Everyone I ever saw there prefered him to the other LCS in town because he was more personable and focused mainly on comics. Unfortunatley he hit some business problems, both caused by him and out of his control, and now I am stuck with one shop again. I stopped collecting again for a few months after he shut down due to service and enviroment at the other shop. i now only buy from them because I really want to stay reading Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, but only spend at the most $40 a month now normally. I am reminding every time I go in there why I miss my friends shop and wish I had the money to start my own.

And thats why he probally went out of business as so many lcs do, he treated it like a clubhouse for people to hang around and not a business.I had a friend who started his own shop, was the nicest guy,people hung around his shop and talked comics all day with him, unfortunately the people who hung around bought none of his comics and he was out of business in 6 months.

[nocutename]

I might have missed it, but what does this guy do with his left over new issues? So if you miss last month's issue, what do you do if this guy only carries new or the most recent stuff?

 

And what does this guy do when and if someone walks in who wants to sell a real nice collection?

 

 

I wouldn't waste a minute in that shop.

 

This makes perfect sense to me as I too feel that once a storyline is collected it is very difficult to get rid of the single issues. However, this year, I am noticing a trend of people wanting the single issues over the trades but I am not purchasing too many new comics these days. I use to "double dip" and purchase the singles as they came out and the sell them and get the trade for space reasons.

 

 

We have so much more time and resources getting new people reading comics by selling them all at cover price instead of maintaining back issues; the potential back issues themselves are a resource. Here’s how, when the graphic novel collection of a title comes out we take whatever single copies we have left, put a sticker about our shop on the cover, and leave them around town. Even as a current comic reader, how many times do you go into your shop and barely have enough to buy the new books for that week, much less look for a back issue to add onto your purchase? We found most customers like the idea that their comic shop has back issues, but don’t really buy them.

 

 

Anyway, my old LCS was drowning in overstock and backissues. Then they did a free sale to customers with pull list and later a blow out 50% off sale and still had enough to restock the back issue sections. Most LCS I go to the back issue sections are filled with stock that is a few months old. If you want to see anything else you need to ask.

[Boozad]

This is what anybody in the UK who lives outside of London has to put up with. I'd say exactly 1% of my purchases come from an LCS, and that's stretched across a year, not month by month.

[DR.X]

[

And thats why he probally went out of business as so many lcs do, he treated it like a clubhouse for people to hang around and not a business.I had a friend who started his own shop, was the nicest guy,people hung around his shop and talked comics all day with him, unfortunately the people who hung around bought none of his comics and he was out of business in 6 months.

 

Alot of good points in this discussion. Some of the shops by me have become so irritating to even go in. Lots of kids hanging around playing video games. Backpacks and all over the boxes. They dont buy anything, just hang around. Another thing is service. A few shops by me have young kids working in there that have no interest in helping anyone. They're playing a computer game or watching a video, and wont get up from to help anyone. I was in a shop yesterday in Calumet City, Ill. He has alot of stuff, but useless employees. I go there every year to buy my Wizard Chicago tickets. The little punk in there said they now have to print the tickets up and get them on-line for customers. They had a sign at the counter saying you could get your tickets there. He said it " was way to annoying to sit and order them on-line", you'd be better off standing in line at the con". WTF. You lazy little jerk. The next time I see the owner in their, hes getting an azz chewing about his help.

 

DRX

[Pirate]

There was a shop like that at the Smithhaven mall on Long Island in the mid 80's. It was all entertainment and hoopla with comics. It didn't last long. Can't remember the name but think it was a chain.

[Flemmings]

Maybe it was Hastings. Thats the only place that I have seen like that.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Back in the olden days....

 

Comics were treated just like any other magazine, and unsold copies were either returned for credit or destroyed for credit. Very, very rarely would anyone "stock up" on back issues "just in case" someone were to walk in and perhaps buy one. When they DID have them, they sold them for much, much less than cover price, because...after all...it was a worthless back issue.

 

Then came the comics specialty store...and VOILA! Old copies that had previously been elusive could be found with ease...and they were relatively cheap! Oh, sure, you had to pay a modest premium to the dealer for back issues that were older and harder to find, but prices were still very fair and reasonable.

 

Then....Joe Q. Public discovered that "comics are worth MONEY!!!" This, in my opinion, was the very worst possible thing to happen to comics EVER (because, as I have discussed elsewhere, comics began to be treated as collectibles, instead of disposable entertainment. Bad idea.)

 

Collectors had no choice but to pay through the nose for ever more popular and expensive comics, because they had no other choice (except travel to expensive conventions.) Not only that, most dealers were violent overgraders, so even if you COULD buy that "mint" copy of Spidey #100 for $30, it was still only a F/VF at the end of the day....and you overpaid.

 

And for recent issues, FORGET it. If a dealer got a WHIFF that a particular issue was "hot", you couldn't buy it for cover price...even on the day it was released. And even NON-hot back issues were slapped in a bag and board and priced at 25 cents ABOVE cover. Who on EARTH would pay $1.25 for an Avengers #314 in 1990? Well, sadly...I did. I had no other choice, if I wanted it.

 

In fact...I spent several thousand dollars in 1992 when a local store, Halley's Comics, had a "half off back issue" sale...and I bought complete runs of Starman (1988 series), Power of the Atom, LEGION, New Mutants, X-Factor...all for about 60c-$1.50 each.

 

Oops.

 

And yes, this worked...for a while...because the collector had no other choice. It was the most bizarre, bass-ackwards system in retail, but it worked for a while because collectors were a captive audience.

 

(As a total aside, you can imagine my IMMENSE thrill at attending my very first comic convention in late 1990...I could buy books, and I did NOT have to pay "full Overstreet Guide" for them! UNBELIEVABLE!")

 

Then came the internet.

 

And, nearly overnight, collectors became side dealers, and could, from the luxury of their own homes, buy and sell comics...just like the big boys! No longer did they have to go through the "price jacking" middleman comic dealer. They could sell them, and didn't CARE to get "top dollar" for them. They had enjoyed them, and were now done with them. And buyers flocked.

 

The internet is ultimately what killed the comics specialty store. Why pay $30 for a Batman #608 when you can buy it for $2 on the web...after it's "cooled down", of course.

 

Now, we've come nearly full circle. Dealers realize that the value they have is as a BRAND NEW comics store, and stocking back issues, unless they're priced really aggressively to sell constantly, is not worth the time and space. There's simply far too much competition to pay "top dollar" for back issues, and recent back issues are...as they used to be in the olden days...worthless.

 

What this guy is not realizing is this: back issue comics stores CAN succeed, as Lee's and others prove...but if you're going to sell them, you must BUY them for much, much less than what you used to be able to pay for them, and then price them for less than what it would cost for the same material on the internet.

 

They must also identify people who will BUY back issues, and cater specifically to those needs in a way that convinces those people to buy.

 

It can be done....it just can't be done the way it's been done for the last 30 years.

[TupennyConan]

I appreciate his effort in trying to get people to read comics rather than hoard, collect, store, buy, sell, & trade them without ever having read them.

 

To that end, I wish him luck because I like to do all of those things + read them + throw them on my 4 yr old son's bedroom floor.

[Senormac]

To that end, I wish him luck because I like to do all of those things + read them + throw them on my 4 yr old son's bedroom floor.

 

You are a true fan Tup. I used to go to my LCS and buy old issues of Kamandi and then mail them to my son when he was around 10......one issue a month. That was in around 1994. He thought it was cool and had no idea I was sending them to him. He read em, then put em in a pile on the shelf. No plastic.....no backer boards......no monetary value......he just liked em for what they were. A good sci-fi story with cool drawings.

 

I don't get the prices paid for stuff like Hulk #181. Whats the big deal? Hulk was a less that great comic IMO in those days and issue #181 was just the one that came after #180. Same aritsts....same writer.....same colorist. Wolverine....big whoopee

[TupennyConan]

To that end, I wish him luck because I like to do all of those things + read them + throw them on my 4 yr old son's bedroom floor.

 

You are a true fan Tup. I used to go to my LCS and buy old issues of Kamandi and then mail them to my son when he was around 10......one issue a month. That was in around 1994. He thought it was cool and had no idea I was sending them to him. He read em, then put em in a pile on the shelf. No plastic.....no backer boards......no monetary value......he just liked em for what they were. A good sci-fi story with cool drawings.

 

I don't get the prices paid for stuff like Hulk #181. Whats the big deal? Hulk was a less that great comic IMO in those days and issue #181 was just the one that came after #180. Same aritsts....same writer.....same colorist. Wolverine....big whoopee

 

Dude, Wolverine is Canadian. Don't you get it??

 

[Senormac]

To that end, I wish him luck because I like to do all of those things + read them + throw them on my 4 yr old son's bedroom floor.

 

You are a true fan Tup. I used to go to my LCS and buy old issues of Kamandi and then mail them to my son when he was around 10......one issue a month. That was in around 1994. He thought it was cool and had no idea I was sending them to him. He read em, then put em in a pile on the shelf. No plastic.....no backer boards......no monetary value......he just liked em for what they were. A good sci-fi story with cool drawings.

 

I don't get the prices paid for stuff like Hulk #181. Whats the big deal? Hulk was a less that great comic IMO in those days and issue #181 was just the one that came after #180. Same aritsts....same writer.....same colorist. Wolverine....big whoopee

 

Dude, Wolverine is Canadian. Don't you get it??

 

 

ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!

[runningman]

Back in the olden days....

 

Comics were treated just like any other magazine, and unsold copies were either returned for credit or destroyed for credit. Very, very rarely would anyone "stock up" on back issues "just in case" someone were to walk in and perhaps buy one. When they DID have them, they sold them for much, much less than cover price, because...after all...it was a worthless back issue.

 

Then came the comics specialty store...and VOILA! Old copies that had previously been elusive could be found with ease...and they were relatively cheap! Oh, sure, you had to pay a modest premium to the dealer for back issues that were older and harder to find, but prices were still very fair and reasonable.

 

Then....Joe Q. Public discovered that "comics are worth MONEY!!!" This, in my opinion, was the very worst possible thing to happen to comics EVER (because, as I have discussed elsewhere, comics began to be treated as collectibles, instead of disposable entertainment. Bad idea.)

 

Collectors had no choice but to pay through the nose for ever more popular and expensive comics, because they had no other choice (except travel to expensive conventions.) Not only that, most dealers were violent overgraders, so even if you COULD buy that "mint" copy of Spidey #100 for $30, it was still only a F/VF at the end of the day....and you overpaid.

 

And for recent issues, FORGET it. If a dealer got a WHIFF that a particular issue was "hot", you couldn't buy it for cover price...even on the day it was released. And even NON-hot back issues were slapped in a bag and board and priced at 25 cents ABOVE cover. Who on EARTH would pay $1.25 for an Avengers #314 in 1990? Well, sadly...I did. I had no other choice, if I wanted it.

 

In fact...I spent several thousand dollars in 1992 when a local store, Halley's Comics, had a "half off back issue" sale...and I bought complete runs of Starman (1988 series), Power of the Atom, LEGION, New Mutants, X-Factor...all for about 60c-$1.50 each.

 

Oops.

 

And yes, this worked...for a while...because the collector had no other choice. It was the most bizarre, bass-ackwards system in retail, but it worked for a while because collectors were a captive audience.

 

(As a total aside, you can imagine my IMMENSE thrill at attending my very first comic convention in late 1990...I could buy books, and I did NOT have to pay "full Overstreet Guide" for them! UNBELIEVABLE!")

 

Then came the internet.

 

And, nearly overnight, collectors became side dealers, and could, from the luxury of their own homes, buy and sell comics...just like the big boys! No longer did they have to go through the "price jacking" middleman comic dealer. They could sell them, and didn't CARE to get "top dollar" for them. They had enjoyed them, and were now done with them. And buyers flocked.

 

The internet is ultimately what killed the comics specialty store. Why pay $30 for a Batman #608 when you can buy it for $2 on the web...after it's "cooled down", of course.

 

Now, we've come nearly full circle. Dealers realize that the value they have is as a BRAND NEW comics store, and stocking back issues, unless they're priced really aggressively to sell constantly, is not worth the time and space. There's simply far too much competition to pay "top dollar" for back issues, and recent back issues are...as they used to be in the olden days...worthless.

 

What this guy is not realizing is this: back issue comics stores CAN succeed, as Lee's and others prove...but if you're going to sell them, you must BUY them for much, much less than what you used to be able to pay for them, and then price them for less than what it would cost for the same material on the internet.

 

They must also identify people who will BUY back issues, and cater specifically to those needs in a way that convinces those people to buy.

 

It can be done....it just can't be done the way it's been done for the last 30 years.

 

Good commentary.