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Do we give away too much valuable comic industry information on the boards?

Started by 1Cool,

93 posts in this topic

1Cool

1Cool

Posted
Posted

After paying good money to go attend a three day comic convention, I gathered some valuable information (to me at least) about pressing, hot books, working harder vs working smarter and plenty more tid bits. I could turn around and post all of this information on the boards in a Con report (which I love to do) but is there a point it does not make sense to give away all of this information?

 

We have the what is hot threads, and major dealers like Gator and Dale giving great market reports and Con set up tutorials but isn't that something that could be used by a start up dealer to get a leg up rather then learning the info the hard way? I love the open exchange of information on the boards but I can't think of another profession where people give away so much info (I'd love to get similar info from competitors in the Traffic Engineering field).

 

I'm a very small fish in the pond and even I get the occasional PM asking me where I got my latest batch of books for sale. If I'm getting these questions I can only imagine the questions other people get. How do you personally set what to keep close and what to post up to the public?

 

 

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Doktor

Doktor

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Posted

Burning the ladder behind you to prevent potential future competition is never the appropriate action.

 

In my daytime career, there's a number of trade groups that give away boatloads of information, because the "entry fee" into becoming potential future competition is pretty high to begin with. It's not that much different with comics. There's market reports in every industry. Comics don't have anything nearly as organized as stocks or commodities indexes, but market reporting is always important. Learning how to read them or teaching someone else how to do so is the way to grow the industry. Yes, it can create competition, but closing off & turning it into some secret society with Nobody Talks Bout Comic Selling Club type rules is a recipe for a closed system. And well, we all know about entropy and closed systems.

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1Cool

1Cool

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It's easy for me...no one asks me anything. :)

 

Glad to hear you're doing well, though! You're definitely someone who inspires me to keep at it so I can unlock the next level of my business. :foryou:

 

Very cool to hear! But since you responded I think you have "advanced" very quickly in the comic sales business which I assume has been helped quite a bit by these boards.

 

Be it grading, consignment options, books to look for in the wild you can get it all in one place and I don't remember all the info being available when I joined the boards 9 years ago. People seemed more tight lipped about stuff back then but maybe it the lack of my available time back then to read those types of threads.

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1Cool

1Cool

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Burning the ladder behind you to prevent potential future competition is never the appropriate action.

 

In my daytime career, there's a number of trade groups that give away boatloads of information, because the "entry fee" into becoming potential future competition is pretty high to begin with. It's not that much different with comics. There's market reports in every industry. Comics don't have anything nearly as organized as stocks or commodities indexes, but market reporting is always important. Learning how to read them or teaching someone else how to do so is the way to grow the industry. Yes, it can create competition, but closing off & turning it into some secret society with Nobody Talks Bout Comic Selling Club type rules is a recipe for a closed system. And well, we all know about entropy and closed systems.

 

Good point and I'm sure part of my question is related the influx in hot movie inspired books and people making lots of money on these books and not caused by the discussions being had on the message boards.

 

I'm definitely not suggesting the flow of info be eliminated or even cut back its just a question that popped into my head yesterday that I couldn't answer.

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youmechooz

youmechooz

Posted
Posted
After paying good money to go attend a three day comic convention, I gathered some valuable information (to me at least) about pressing, hot books, working harder vs working smarter and plenty more tid bits. I could turn around and post all of this information on the boards in a Con report (which I love to do) but is there a point it does not make sense to give away all of this information?

i would say don't post info.

that source of info might have given that info under the impression it wouldn't leave the area causing that source of info to maybe not be a source anymore.

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1Cool

1Cool

Posted
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Posted
After paying good money to go attend a three day comic convention, I gathered some valuable information (to me at least) about pressing, hot books, working harder vs working smarter and plenty more tid bits. I could turn around and post all of this information on the boards in a Con report (which I love to do) but is there a point it does not make sense to give away all of this information?

i would say don't post info.

that source of info might have given that info under the impression it wouldn't leave the area causing that source of info to maybe not be a source anymore.

 

Your info was crappy - Hector gave me the good info.

 

 

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youmechooz

youmechooz

Posted
Posted
After paying good money to go attend a three day comic convention, I gathered some valuable information (to me at least) about pressing, hot books, working harder vs working smarter and plenty more tid bits. I could turn around and post all of this information on the boards in a Con report (which I love to do) but is there a point it does not make sense to give away all of this information?

i would say don't post info.

that source of info might have given that info under the impression it wouldn't leave the area causing that source of info to maybe not be a source anymore.

 

Your info was crappy - Hector gave me the good info.

 

I was sort of talking about both but if mine was terrible ill keep my mouth shut when you ask me a question.

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Doktor

Doktor

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Posted
Burning the ladder behind you to prevent potential future competition is never the appropriate action.

 

In my daytime career, there's a number of trade groups that give away boatloads of information, because the "entry fee" into becoming potential future competition is pretty high to begin with. It's not that much different with comics. There's market reports in every industry. Comics don't have anything nearly as organized as stocks or commodities indexes, but market reporting is always important. Learning how to read them or teaching someone else how to do so is the way to grow the industry. Yes, it can create competition, but closing off & turning it into some secret society with Nobody Talks Bout Comic Selling Club type rules is a recipe for a closed system. And well, we all know about entropy and closed systems.

 

Good point and I'm sure part of my question is related the influx in hot movie inspired books and people making lots of money on these books and not caused by the discussions being had on the message boards.

 

I'm definitely not suggesting the flow of info be eliminated or even cut back its just a question that popped into my head yesterday that I couldn't answer.

 

I think most industries have that constant question that they have to ask themselves. The balance between allowing enough information that the industry doesn't die from entropy because nobody else can compete or the entry fee & learning curve is far too steep, and the other side of "protect your own business interests". I think most industry related information is fair game & should be.

 

Conversely tho, giving away your contact information for inventory or where you source your books? That's something wholly different. And should be kept private (unless you just don't like making money)

 

Now, if people want to give away their sources like "I manage to snag some good grabs out of HPB" or "Craigslist" or something... well... it's common sense that those are places you can get books for relatively cheap to restock, but you can play that as close to the vest as whatever other sources you have.

 

But industry information? Teaching people how to grade accurately? Telling people how to effectively price or what is hot at the moment? I think 99% of that is the type of stuff is fair game & prevents that closed system entropy from setting in.

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1Cool

1Cool

Posted
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Posted
After paying good money to go attend a three day comic convention, I gathered some valuable information (to me at least) about pressing, hot books, working harder vs working smarter and plenty more tid bits. I could turn around and post all of this information on the boards in a Con report (which I love to do) but is there a point it does not make sense to give away all of this information?

i would say don't post info.

that source of info might have given that info under the impression it wouldn't leave the area causing that source of info to maybe not be a source anymore.

 

Your info was crappy - Hector gave me the good info.

 

I was sort of talking about both but if mine was terrible ill keep my mouth shut when you ask me a question.

 

Your temper is why Hector loves Greggy more then you.

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youmechooz

youmechooz

Posted
Posted
After paying good money to go attend a three day comic convention, I gathered some valuable information (to me at least) about pressing, hot books, working harder vs working smarter and plenty more tid bits. I could turn around and post all of this information on the boards in a Con report (which I love to do) but is there a point it does not make sense to give away all of this information?

i would say don't post info.

that source of info might have given that info under the impression it wouldn't leave the area causing that source of info to maybe not be a source anymore.

 

Your info was crappy - Hector gave me the good info.

 

I was sort of talking about both but if mine was terrible ill keep my mouth shut when you ask me a question.

 

Your temper is why Hector loves Greggy more then you.

yet he still stays...

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rob_react

rob_react

Posted
Posted
After paying good money to go attend a three day comic convention, I gathered some valuable information (to me at least) about pressing, hot books, working harder vs working smarter and plenty more tid bits. I could turn around and post all of this information on the boards in a Con report (which I love to do) but is there a point it does not make sense to give away all of this information?

 

We have the what is hot threads, and major dealers like Gator and Dale giving great market reports and Con set up tutorials but isn't that something that could be used by a start up dealer to get a leg up rather then learning the info the hard way? I love the open exchange of information on the boards but I can't think of another profession where people give away so much info (I'd love to get similar info from competitors in the Traffic Engineering field).

 

I'm a very small fish in the pond and even I get the occasional PM asking me where I got my latest batch of books for sale. If I'm getting these questions I can only imagine the questions other people get. How do you personally set what to keep close and what to post up to the public?

 

 

I give away a ton of information (some of it with explicit open source or free licenses attached: https://github.com/roblarsen/Edgar-Church-Collection-Data + https://github.com/roblarsen/-100k-club) I look at it as ensuring that the hobby's foundation is solid. Markets where information, expertise and sales data are closely guarded secrets make me nervous.

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jsilverjanet

jsilverjanet

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I'm not sure what that means.

 

In other news, please don't mention my name in this thread as it relates to "information"

 

1 - If I shared anything it should be kept between you and I

 

2 - nothing I said was of any real value nor do I want the perception to be that I have a value to add. I don't want to be bothered with PMs etc, there was no gossip etc, nor do I want to be associated with anything like that

 

3 - please refrain from mentioning me and info or allude to anything such things.

 

thank you.

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