Genius Idea!

[ChrisInBaltimore]

I believe we discussed the below before, but I actually saw it in practice. In the kids section at 5 Below:

 

 

They were $4 for 4 comics if you can't tell.

 

The books were totally RANDOM. The Superman book had a Daredevil book in it. I wonder where the books came from. They had a first print sticker on them noting they were all first prints. I imagine if you dug, you might find some good dollar bin stuff.

 

The books were in pretty solid shape from what I could tell. They looked unread and untouched.

[telerites]

 

These look like what I found at a Dollar Tree store about 6 months ago. They had a lot of Valiant books and I bought all the ones they had at $1 a pack but I think the ones I found had 3 books though. I don't have them in front of me now.

 

 

[SkunkApe]

I saw something like this somewhere recently also, though I can't remember where.

[FineCollector]

As long as there's a big name character on the front, they should sell. Only problem is, how long before someone spoils the party and tears them open to peek?

[ChrisInBaltimore]

As long as there's a big name character on the front, they should sell. Only problem is, how long before someone spoils the party and tears them open to peek?

 

My bet is that whatever company sold them to Five Below made sure to put major characters on the outside. I bet the inside two books are complete garbage.

 

The Five Below was jumping too. There were tons of tween age kids running around and many of them were buying stuff.

[Davenport]

With the popularity of comic book movies and tv it would be surprising if entrepreneurs didn't make a play. The trick would be getting store space, but that looks like a very small end-cap, a tiny footprint. Plus all the Dollar/Lots/Close Out venues around to hit up.

 

A warehouse longbox of 300 is what?, $25/$30? So, say, $300 minus cost, bags/printing, display & distribution? Something like that?

 

That would work well at Half Price Books if they invested in a bag sealer. Move comics right upfront so they're impulse buys, instead of leaving everything to be dug through by collectors looking for hidden gems. Probably keep things moving along better.

 

[shadroch]

The sad thing is that the biggest cost of those bags is the bags themselves.I've looked into buying a bag sealer but they are not cheap when you add in the cost of the printed bags.

[Davenport]

The sad thing is that the biggest cost of those bags is the bags themselves.I've looked into buying a bag sealer but they are not cheap when you add in the cost of the printed bags.

Out of curiosity and being clueless, would something like this not work? Heat Sealer for 12" Wide Bags and Tubing

Or is another type needed for printed polybags?

[Senormac]

I've mentioned this before... but in the early to mid 80's I worked for a guy who supplied books just like that, in plastic bags to numerous small market chains like 7-11. He had a HUGE back stock and would just buy multiples of every new book that came out. Then whatever did not become a HOT book or a special appearance book.... he would flip them into these bags and distribute them There was enough business for me to have a 5 day a week driving route changing out and managing the spinner racks. It was a cool job.

 

Course books were only like 40 cents or something back then

[Buzzetta]

The sad thing is that the biggest cost of those bags is the bags themselves.I've looked into buying a bag sealer but they are not cheap when you add in the cost of the printed bags.

 

What about a basic bag sealer and a paper insert instead of printing the bag?

[Dr. Balls]

The sad thing is that the biggest cost of those bags is the bags themselves.I've looked into buying a bag sealer but they are not cheap when you add in the cost of the printed bags.

 

What about a basic bag sealer and a paper insert instead of printing the bag?

 

Shad is right, printed bags are expensive and the minimums are probably high - but Buzz has a great idea. I bought a 9x12 package of bags and a sealer for, like, $40 shipped last year on Black Friday via Amazon. A backer board, a paper insert at the bottom showing the price sealed up at the top is a super genius solution for a comic shop. It wouldn't have quite the same look as the picture above, but you could make a legitimate effort at mimicking it and pull it off.

 

I love how these are targeted to kids - pretty awesome.

[shadroch]

The sad thing is that the biggest cost of those bags is the bags themselves.I've looked into buying a bag sealer but they are not cheap when you add in the cost of the printed bags.

Out of curiosity and being clueless, would something like this not work? Heat Sealer for 12" Wide Bags and Tubing

Or is another type needed for printed polybags?

 

Yes, but how do you print the bags? Technology may have changed, but a local bag place( Uniflex) wanted almost a thousand dollars for the set up costs and had a 5,000 bag minimum.

At one point, I had a few hundred empty "Hey Kids Comics" bags with a $1.49 price point, but they got misplaced.

 

[Davenport]

For shops and Cons would Header cards & staples work? Custom Bag Toppers / Header Cards

Shows 8" X 5'" cards being $310 per 5000.

 

To routinely re-supply Dollar and close out stores would probably require a sizable operation to withstand sealed/printed bag costs. You know, like a warehouse operation. Just guessing

 

[Shrevvy]

Prior to selling our wholesale biz, we had discussions with more than one retailer about doing this. In none of those cases would we have supplied the bags. The retailers just wanted the comic books. They would have bagged them. Our biz was remainder trades. So, we never had a source of vast amounts of comic books to sell into the channel and the price was so cheap it did not make sense for us to develop such a channel.