An Idea for a New Kind of Comic Store

[RCheli]

Frankly, I don't think I'd want -- nor would I suggest -- someone putting 20 boxes of $1 books into the store. They likely wouldn't sell and those would be the types of books that I would have in abundance. Everyone -- from small-time dealer up -- has too many $1 comics. And, as shadroch said, you wouldn't really make any money.

 

This type of situation would only work if everyone makes money.

[the blob]

Hypothetical situation.

 

I have three hundred books I'd like to move.

I can pay you monthly rent, plus a percentage of the sales price and gain the ability to sell them to anyone who walks thru your door.

Or,

I can pay a one time shipping cost, send them to mycomicshop, sell them to anyone who either searches their website or looks for the item on ebay, and pay them 10% of the sales price.

Your idea may have worked twenty years ago, but I don't see it working today.

 

 

MYCS wants $50 or better books. With that said, they do seem to have a bunch of sub-$50 books on consignment.

 

Just curious, who picks the prices on their consignment items?...

 

Update: Looking at the prices, it must be the sellers. MYCS consignment kind of looks a bit like ebay stores with a gaggle of wacky prices.

[the blob]

I had around 5+ long boxes in there of 50 cent comics and was bringing home an average of $500 a month after fees and that was without even trying.

---------

 

5 long boxes of 50 cent books is about $750-$800 in merchandise. So you're saying you're moving 60-90% of your dreck stock every month? was this in 1992? or are these "primo" 50 cent books? (I agree if you toss out 20 cent - 50 cent cover price mainstream super hero books out there at 50 cents each you can do tremendous turnover)

[Moondog]

 

You'd have to have exclusives in order to cut down on the "in-store" competition. One GA guy One SA guy. One BA guy. One copper/modern. One statue. One GN/TPB, etc. Now the same guy can have more than one category, but this solves your competition problem. And you can charge more this way. "You'll have the only GA stock in the store!"

 

 

Why do you have to cut down on in-store competition? People will see what is selling and at what prices they're selling for, and they will stock those things accordingly. I'm not sure, with tens of thousands of different comic titles, I would want to limit one specific age to only one co-op member.

 

Because no one wants to compete on price in the same store. Shows are like that. You have an abundance of dealers all selling the same stuff and then the discounting starts. Good for collectors - bad for dealers.

 

[shadroch]

You set the prices yourself. They list all the books they accept for consignment. While the page says books should be worth $50, they take many that sell for far less. Its important to realize you will pay a minimum of $5 per book, or $10 per group, so don't send them books that will sell for $6.

[the blob]

You set the prices yourself. They list all the books they accept for consignment. While the page says books should be worth $50, they take many that sell for far less. Its important to realize you will pay a minimum of $5 per book, or $10 per group, so don't send them books that will sell for $6.

 

Something to ponder. Does seem like a pretty crowded market over there though. I am really bad about scanning and am not a fast shipper, so eliminating that stress would be cool.

[shadroch]

 

You'd have to have exclusives in order to cut down on the "in-store" competition. One GA guy One SA guy. One BA guy. One copper/modern. One statue. One GN/TPB, etc. Now the same guy can have more than one category, but this solves your competition problem. And you can charge more this way. "You'll have the only GA stock in the store!"

 

 

Why do you have to cut down on in-store competition? People will see what is selling and at what prices they're selling for, and they will stock those things accordingly. I'm not sure, with tens of thousands of different comic titles, I would want to limit one specific age to only one co-op member.

 

Because no one wants to compete on price in the same store. Shows are like that. You have an abundance of dealers all selling the same stuff and then the discounting starts. Good for collectors - bad for dealers.

 

Lets say me, Gary and Sam are consigning books to you in your system.

I bring in a VF Daredevil 168 and price it at $90. Gary comes in with one that he wanted $100 for, but sees mine is priced at $90 so he offers his for $80.

Now Sam comes along and needs cash in a hurry, sees our books and puts his up for $50. How long do you think Gary and I will continue paying your rent if you allow someone to undercut our prices?

[mycomicshop]

Hypothetical situation.

 

I have three hundred books I'd like to move.

I can pay you monthly rent, plus a percentage of the sales price and gain the ability to sell them to anyone who walks thru your door.

Or,

I can pay a one time shipping cost, send them to mycomicshop, sell them to anyone who either searches their website or looks for the item on ebay, and pay them 10% of the sales price.

Your idea may have worked twenty years ago, but I don't see it working today.

 

 

MYCS wants $50 or better books. With that said, they do seem to have a bunch of sub-$50 books on consignment.

 

Just curious, who picks the prices on their consignment items?...

 

Update: Looking at the prices, it must be the sellers. MYCS consignment kind of looks a bit like ebay stores with a gaggle of wacky prices.

 

FYI, posted a reply to this, but in the "Consigning at Mycomicshop" thread. Didn't want to hijack this one. Here's my reply.

[Gatchaman]

This doesn't take away from doing shows. There aren't local shows every month. There are antique shows, yet look how many antique stores there are. A toy dealer friend of mine, who sold at some shows, also had a large space in an antique mall and was bringing home over $3,000 a month. I had around 5+ long boxes in there of 50 cent comics and was bringing home an average of $500 a month after fees and that was without even trying.

 

I have read numerous people on here claiming that they have boxes of drek that they don't know what to do with. Imagine taking 10-20+ boxes to a place that is open 6-7 days a week that will charge you around $200 a month plus percentage to sell your books for you. One rule in the mall was that we come around 2 or 3 months and upkeep your space. I loved going there every month and picking up a check.

 

Don't imagine it. Do the actual math. Twenty boxes of drek that might sell for a dollar each. Lets say that in four months, you sell 25%- which is a very high turnover for back issues. So you sold 500 books for a dollar each, paid $800 dollars in rent and $50 in commissions. Great for the store owner, not so great for you.

 

Rent is a mall is not $800. For a 10 x 10 space it was around $150 a month. And, as I said, after space and commission I was clearing and average of $500 a month.

 

You say you had Five long boxes of books you were selling for 50 cents each and pulling in $500 a month doing so? Thats about an 80% turnover each month. I've never seen a shop do anywhere near that. In the 80s, when B.I.were a major part of a shops revenue, I managed about 10%.

 

To many shops base most of their sales off of new items or weekly books where is isn't a whole lot of profit. I was traveling to shows, flea markets, yard sales, etc. and buying up a lot of drek. There were items that I made 500% profit on. Not all the time do you have to spend $50-$100 on a book to sell it for $150-$200. What's good is when you spend $20-30 for a long box and sell the books individually for $250.

 

Here, in Tacoma, there is a street downtown that is called "Antique Row". A buddy of mine owns a collectible toy store and carries around 5 long boxes and around 8 short boxes. Now, this place of town is not heavily trafficked and stores close early, but man, does he sell a lot of comic books.

 

Not everybody likes spending money on the new things. Some people like get 4 comics for their $4.00 rather than one. I've learned that once people find out where you are and that you can have a steady inflow of comics you will gain a customer base. $200 plus 10-15% isn't that much to pay for this.

 

 

 

 

[RCheli]

 

Lets say me, Gary and Sam are consigning books to you in your system.

I bring in a VF Daredevil 168 and price it at $90. Gary comes in with one that he wanted $100 for, but sees mine is priced at $90 so he offers his for $80.

Now Sam comes along and needs cash in a hurry, sees our books and puts his up for $50. How long do you think Gary and I will continue paying your rent if you allow someone to undercut our prices?

 

I would say that if Sam needs cash in a hurry, he's not going to be a co-op member at my store. You get paid only at the end of the month and there is absolutely no guarantee that anything would sell. For him, a sale here or eBay or somewhere else would probably be better. (Or just sell the comic to me at $50.) This co-op idea is for people to put hundreds (or likely thousands) of issues in stock and see how they sell over time. It's the long-game -- not the short-game.

 

This goes for your DD #168 (which you're dating yourself a little bit). One book shouldn't make or break how well you do in any given month. I suspect that there are many situations where one comic will be priced lower than another. In those, you just wait for the more expensive one to sell.

 

Again, this is not just about one item in the store.

 

Think of it how you would the stock market. You have 500 shares of XXX which you bought for $4. It's gone up to $6. Somebody, who needs the money, sells their shares for $5. That doesn't mean you also automatically have to sell it at that low amount. You can wait and watch that person not make that much money and you can wait and reap greater rewards later on.

[GACollectibles]

You set the prices yourself. They list all the books they accept for consignment. While the page says books should be worth $50, they take many that sell for far less. Its important to realize you will pay a minimum of $5 per book, or $10 per group, so don't send them books that will sell for $6.

 

Something to ponder. Does seem like a pretty crowded market over there though. I am really bad about scanning and am not a fast shipper, so eliminating that stress would be cool.

 

The most amazing thing about this post is that I believe, for the first time ever, I am witnessing you using the quote function properly.

[dupont2005]

Sounds like several existing flea market and junk shop setups, but comic book exclusive. Not sure how well it would work for reasons already stated, but also because of the wildly varying pricing and grading methods of dealers, especially the type of amateur dealers that rent space at an indoor swapmeet and such. One section of the store, nothing but $1 SA books, the other section, nothing but $30 90's drek.

[Moondog]

 

You'd have to have exclusives in order to cut down on the "in-store" competition. One GA guy One SA guy. One BA guy. One copper/modern. One statue. One GN/TPB, etc. Now the same guy can have more than one category, but this solves your competition problem. And you can charge more this way. "You'll have the only GA stock in the store!"

 

 

Why do you have to cut down on in-store competition? People will see what is selling and at what prices they're selling for, and they will stock those things accordingly. I'm not sure, with tens of thousands of different comic titles, I would want to limit one specific age to only one co-op member.

 

Because no one wants to compete on price in the same store. Shows are like that. You have an abundance of dealers all selling the same stuff and then the discounting starts. Good for collectors - bad for dealers.

 

Lets say me, Gary and Sam are consigning books to you in your system.

I bring in a VF Daredevil 168 and price it at $90. Gary comes in with one that he wanted $100 for, but sees mine is priced at $90 so he offers his for $80.

Now Sam comes along and needs cash in a hurry, sees our books and puts his up for $50. How long do you think Gary and I will continue paying your rent if you allow someone to undercut our prices?

 

Perfect description, Bill.

 

[shadroch]

Nah, we are just a bunch of dinosaurs with no real experience.

[Moondog]

Nah, we are just a bunch of dinosaurs with no real experience.

 

Moondogosaurus...

[the blob]

You set the prices yourself. They list all the books they accept for consignment. While the page says books should be worth $50, they take many that sell for far less. Its important to realize you will pay a minimum of $5 per book, or $10 per group, so don't send them books that will sell for $6.

 

Something to ponder. Does seem like a pretty crowded market over there though. I am really bad about scanning and am not a fast shipper, so eliminating that stress would be cool.

 

The most amazing thing about this post is that I believe, for the first time ever, I am witnessing you using the quote function properly.

 

I use it properly when what I am quoting is short and to the point.