That’s a pretty reasonable ‘devil’s advocate’ post.
I’d offer that a well run store should be trying to be organized and on top of price changes.
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Comic Shops have always been speculators.
Shops have been charging market prices on back issues for decades. This isnt something new.
It’s just now, customers get to ■■■■■ about it on social media sites/apps…
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As long as there are stores that do not price at the counter.
As long as there are stores that do not put limits on household orders
Then those are the stores I shall frequent.
Brick and Mortar stores can position themselves and create whatever policies they want to. The repercussions from any business’ decision are also theirs to own.
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I think because customers are then essentially doing the work for them by picking out the books that are hot recently. I don’t see anyone here complaining about wall books or anything that’s been out for a while.
I think if stores did this themselves more often, there wouldn’t be much to complain about, they would probably just have alot less business since people will know they are basically eBay.
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Then they’re in the wrong business. If you care that much, you have some other issues you need to take care of…
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If I ran a store, there would be one day that is closed to the public where I do “inventory” to do such tihngs. It’s not a hard concept. The shop owners who “price” at the counter are just lazy!
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My stance is, on week of release, it should be cover price. After that, it’s fair game for the shop to price accordingly if they have new releases available that are selling for more, etc.
As for back issues, that’s something any shop should be able to price accordingly to current market value but for me, they should be doing this before customers walk in, not after. It’s called, do your job and do inventory checks. If you can’t do that to run your business, then you’re just lazy!
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Most stores have significant quiet periods, IMO, based on times I’ve walked into empty shops midday, midweek. Those are the times research and pricing should be happening.
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Yup. I’ve visited shops where the shop owners are just sitting there picking their noses, likely for hours upon hours a week… don’t let them tell you they don’t have time to do inventory checks, that’s just nonsense!
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Absolutely agree with this. Back issues are a different animal than new stock, which I do believe should be priced at cover. But I do understand shops that limit sales to ‘one per’ on a hot book. The owner is serving a range of customers and might want to allow each of them to obtain a book, rather than a newbie hoovering them all up to flip on eBay.
Some flippers are greedy and selfish. Some owners are greedy too. Finding the right line on these things is easier said than done.
I use a three stores for most of my business. Two are super-flexible, friendly, helpful and the other is just OK. TBH, given the support I get from the first two, I would not want to walk up to the counter and buy a book at 5-10% of it’s current value from them because they hadn’t noticed it had spiked. Its about relationships and fairness in my eyes.
Limiting books per customer is fine with me, particularly if its a sought after hot book.
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I had an interesting debate with a guy on Facebook who was boast-posting about grabbing an expensive key for a few cents from a Charity Shop. We actually had a good discussion about the morals and ethics of doing so. A few others chimed-in abusing me, accusing me of lying when I said I wouldn’t have done so, or condemning me as a virtue-signaller.
We all have a different sense of what is right or wrong don’t we?
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I also hate shelf clearers myself. My local shop has a limit of 3 per customer on new releases. Even prior to that I would only grab 2-4 at most if there was plenty available. Anything on the back issue shelves is fair game though, if it’s sitting out for weeks or months, everyone had their chance!
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I fully agree with the limiting of books on the day of release as some customers really don’t care about the value and are just looking for the story. You can’t sell all your books to one speculator and then lose the 50 customers behind them that wanted that particular book regardless of the market value.
I do not agree with shops repricing at the counter, regardless of how hot the book is or whatever. There are multiple stores that keep up with their inventory daily to ensure they have the books priced correctly. This takes labor costs and time to manage…which I have never seen a shop go, “oh, thank you for finding that hot book, let me pay you for your time and knowledge”, and then proceed to reprice it.
Don’t be a lazy store owner, you have one job, manage a store…if you can’t do that, get out of the business or the industry will push you out.
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If I was buying a gallon of milk at the grocery store for $3.99 and upon checking out, the cashier looked at it and said, “yeah, this is now $12.99,” I’d walk my ass out of that store as quickly as possible.
I’m not sure of the legality of this here, but isn’t advertising a price of say $3.99 for a comic, only to be charged $12.99 at checkout technically a form of bait and switch? Whether it’s legal or not, it’s just such a terrible business practice.
My primary shop stays on top of everything. When a book gets hot, they immediately re-price it accordingly. And, they absolutely should. But, if they fail to do so, and I find that book for a good price, they will always honor that price. Some of these shops you all mention just do a horrendous job of building relationships with their best customers. I’m guessing they gripe about margins and how little profit they make, then do nothing to drive recurring, long-time revenue.
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Personally I think that that is the problem. They rely on the customers to let them know if a book is getting hot rather than do their own spec.
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Why I said they’re being “lazy”… get off your ass and get to work. We all know there’s down times in comic shops. If you sell nothing else but comics, the shops are not always crazy busy with lines…
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With the way inflation and food prices are going, this might start happening soon!
Gallon of milk heating up .net I guess is needed?
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I’ve always used the Footlocker analogy… imagine going to buy the latest new Nike’s at Footlocker and when you go to get rung up, they cashier says… well, these retail for $200 but they’re selling for $500 on eBay so these will now cost you $500. That’s exactly what comic shops are doing… price gouging… it’s not speculating, it’s price gouging and it’s immoral when you are the “retailer” buying these at “wholesale” prices.
Wait a week to jack the price up. Hold a few copies back you bought for yourself to jack the price up. But don’t punish all your customers. For every speculator buying, there’s likely a reader or just a collector buying as well.
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